Acclaim:: The Rebirth ::
On July 30, 2005, the Acclaim was towed the 28 miles back home to begin its long recovery. In my friend's stepdad's garage, over four days long, we replaced :
Every gasket from the head up, the water pump, timing and serpentine belts, ALTERNATOR, thermostat, cap and rotor, Bosch platinum plugs, Autolite wires, PCV valve, upper and lower radiator hoses, rad. cap, air and breather filters, tapped the valve guides back out on the end cylinders closest to the exhaust crossover, HEATER CORE, and fuel filter.
Before he even thought about letting me drive it, the Driver's side Drive shaft, tie rod end, ball joint, and wheel bearing were replaced!!!
The moment we were all waiting for, key two clicks forward, fuel pump on, start it up, the engine fires, shakes, ticks and is making the same noise it was making before... blown heads...
Now after another 2 weeks of waiting, my friend's mom bought a swap sheet, and struck gold!! a 1993 Plymouth Acclaim v6 for sale, $200, no title. The car was bluish green, grey interior, 14 inch styled rims, luggage rack, barely any rust, and one dent. It was sitting for two years, and no owner around. $125 later and this ClaimClaim was mine. of course, someone set the e-brake and the rear brakes were locked tight. We had to drag it for a while before they let go. I have always liked the "regular" Acclaims without foglights...don't know why, they are so sensible and simple, a perfect car for anyone... This one had a 3 speed auto and ran excellant, and drove too!
The 1993 motor has the snap rings on the valve guides to prevent massive oil burning, and it does, one quart over 1950 miles instead of 650, it also has some odd vacuum solenoids attached to it that 1992 and earliers don't have. This motor had 119500 miles on it, nice and young, virgin, if you will. The block and heads went into my Acclaim, in one unseparated piece, and everything else was originally on my 91. Of course the water pump and everything ne transferred to the newer engine. We put it all back together, started it up and a rod blew through the oil pan! JUST KIDDING!! Runs excellant, I've put 500o miles on it in 7 weeks and have had no problems, I just notice that in stop and go traffic it runs warm enough for the fan to kick on. It runs so well that I have pegged the speedometer three times since then...
Two weeks later, the passenger side driveshaft, ball joint, tie rod end, and wheel bearing were replaced also, and the noise of growling bearings was gone and it was so quiet and smooth like silk, like it did not have 185000 miles on it. The car still shakes a little because of a bad tire, the second bad tire I've had on it!! Both of the bad ones were bought at PEP BOYS! don't know if there is something wrong there or not... Now all that is needed is to regrease the rear wheel bearins, do the rear brake shoes, the inner tie rods, and some good tires that aren't shitty and the car will be like brand new, and the next things to worry about are going to be the Hazard Light Relay and the Turn Signal Relay because the signals are way too slow and the hazards are way too fast. The white partsclaim has the sam proble, the hazards are turned on and the right arrow lights up permanently and the signals don't work.
EVERYONE TAKE MY ADVICE AND REPLACE YOUR WATER PUMP RIGHT NOW, BUY A NEW RADIATOR CAP AND PUT IN A NEW THERMOSTAT AND YOUR HEADS WILL LAST A VERY EXCITINGLY LONG TIME!!!
