Larry Bialecki1
New Member
I have a 93 ATX with 164K on it. It has been acting up lately. It has a problem downshifting from 3 to 2 which gets worst with heat. I have had no power steering or cruise control problems. Per the forum I took the advice and changed the VSS. So far there does not seam to be an improvement. More testing is underway.
I though I would give this forum the benefit of what I learned changing the VSS. I did it, starting yesterday with completion today. I had no help form anyone else. It took 6 hours to remove the VSS and 4 hours to get it back on. Who ever said that you could get it out from the top or from the passenger side-wheel side must be a super mechanic or knows a lot tricks I did not know. Take the Y pipe out!!!! I had the car jacked up about 18” off the ground from the ATX pan.
To make things easier I pressured washed the underside and engine first, but there was still grease.
Remove the Y pipe. Remove the Ox sensors, the rear from the top by laying on the engine and the front from underneath. The electrical connections are a bit of a bitch. I used an adjustable to loosen the sensors. Now take off the Y pipe. There are 6-15 mm nuts holding on the flanges, one 13 mm bolt holding up the assembly, and a 15 mm nut that only has to be loosened. The two nuts on the ****** to the tail pipe are hard and may need a lot of torque. A suggestion is to use liquid wrench several hours before you try to take these nuts. Also use the liquid wrench on all the other nuts. A deep socket 15 mm on a long extension works well for three of the exhaust flanges. A wrench will have to be used for one nut on front ******. With all the nuts off the Y pipe will drop out easily.
Now is the fun part. From underneath the VSS heat shield will have to be removed. It took two hours to figure out how to get it out. It is NOT bolted on. It is held on by spring clips which are part of the shield. You simply pull the shield toward the driver’s side wheel. Simply may be an understatement. Next from the top of the car driver’s side increase slack in the speedometer cable by taking the cable out of the strain relief clip which is just below the top connection in the cable. The cable does not have to be separated. Now the next fun part. Use a 10mm box wrench to take off the bolt holding in the VSS. It is hard to see and requires patients only getting about 1/8 of a turn at a time. With it out the VSS will come out using the slack in the speedometer cable. Getting the cable passed the exhaust ****** bolt will allow the VSS to hang down and make it easy to unclip the cable and the electrical connection. At this time clean the 10 mm bolt to make it easier to put it back in. I got my VSS from Auto Zone for $16. Change the gear from the old VSS to the new VSS and reverse the removal process. It may be difficult to get the 10 mm bolt back on unless you have very smalls hands. But after some tries you can get it.
The hardest part was putting the Y pipe back on. For some reason the rear ****** bolts were tilted out making it very difficult to get the ****** back on. I had to take the Y pipe off several times to get the bolts lined up properly. This took me two hours of reassembly time. Also the Y pipe is heavy and hard to move around for alignment when under the car. A second pair of hands would really have helped.
With a second person and what I know now I think the job should only take 5 hours.
Good Luck.
One question for the forum. On the ATX pan cover there is a sticker. It is orange and saids: Do Not Service.”E” AX4S SHO MTC See TSB #92-?? (the sticker was ripped and I could not tell the ?? numbers) Call 1-800-821-5046 Void After June 30 1993
What does the sticker mean?
Larry Bialecki Normally [email protected]
I though I would give this forum the benefit of what I learned changing the VSS. I did it, starting yesterday with completion today. I had no help form anyone else. It took 6 hours to remove the VSS and 4 hours to get it back on. Who ever said that you could get it out from the top or from the passenger side-wheel side must be a super mechanic or knows a lot tricks I did not know. Take the Y pipe out!!!! I had the car jacked up about 18” off the ground from the ATX pan.
To make things easier I pressured washed the underside and engine first, but there was still grease.
Remove the Y pipe. Remove the Ox sensors, the rear from the top by laying on the engine and the front from underneath. The electrical connections are a bit of a bitch. I used an adjustable to loosen the sensors. Now take off the Y pipe. There are 6-15 mm nuts holding on the flanges, one 13 mm bolt holding up the assembly, and a 15 mm nut that only has to be loosened. The two nuts on the ****** to the tail pipe are hard and may need a lot of torque. A suggestion is to use liquid wrench several hours before you try to take these nuts. Also use the liquid wrench on all the other nuts. A deep socket 15 mm on a long extension works well for three of the exhaust flanges. A wrench will have to be used for one nut on front ******. With all the nuts off the Y pipe will drop out easily.
Now is the fun part. From underneath the VSS heat shield will have to be removed. It took two hours to figure out how to get it out. It is NOT bolted on. It is held on by spring clips which are part of the shield. You simply pull the shield toward the driver’s side wheel. Simply may be an understatement. Next from the top of the car driver’s side increase slack in the speedometer cable by taking the cable out of the strain relief clip which is just below the top connection in the cable. The cable does not have to be separated. Now the next fun part. Use a 10mm box wrench to take off the bolt holding in the VSS. It is hard to see and requires patients only getting about 1/8 of a turn at a time. With it out the VSS will come out using the slack in the speedometer cable. Getting the cable passed the exhaust ****** bolt will allow the VSS to hang down and make it easy to unclip the cable and the electrical connection. At this time clean the 10 mm bolt to make it easier to put it back in. I got my VSS from Auto Zone for $16. Change the gear from the old VSS to the new VSS and reverse the removal process. It may be difficult to get the 10 mm bolt back on unless you have very smalls hands. But after some tries you can get it.
The hardest part was putting the Y pipe back on. For some reason the rear ****** bolts were tilted out making it very difficult to get the ****** back on. I had to take the Y pipe off several times to get the bolts lined up properly. This took me two hours of reassembly time. Also the Y pipe is heavy and hard to move around for alignment when under the car. A second pair of hands would really have helped.
With a second person and what I know now I think the job should only take 5 hours.
Good Luck.
One question for the forum. On the ATX pan cover there is a sticker. It is orange and saids: Do Not Service.”E” AX4S SHO MTC See TSB #92-?? (the sticker was ripped and I could not tell the ?? numbers) Call 1-800-821-5046 Void After June 30 1993
What does the sticker mean?
Larry Bialecki Normally [email protected]
