1999 1LE Camaro questions, Back to stock Options

[96Mike]

Hi everyone, I recently purchased a Hugger orange 1LE with 24,000 miles and a broken piston ! The car had been used in autocross, and the previous owner was moving on to new things. Well the car came with a lot of spares and I would like to return it to somewhat original condition, so I'd like a little help in determining exactly what was original. What I do know:
-non leather wrapped steering wheel
-manual drivers seat, windows, hatch release
-this car had ac
-DA Konis

my first few questions:
-rear sway bar, 19mm or 21 mm ? I've seen contradiction on this, though I read Strano stating the 21mm was '93 only
-which shifter, stock or Hurst derivitive ?
-front coil spring wire diameter ? rear as well

Also I heard from the previous owner that there was a pic on here of a functional tool to remove a ground control kit fron the front struts !

Thanks, and I'm looking forward to the responses !

Mike

This post has been edited by 96Mike: May 13 2010, 05:18 PM

[98_1LE]

All 96+ F-bodies have ac

Yes, manual seat, windows, no remote hatch release, Koni DA's with GM part numbers. The wheel is the same for all Camaro's that don't have fog lights or power windows, even V6 cars. Manual seat lowers are kinda hard to come by.

19mm bar for 94+ 1LE, except for '01-'02 SLP built cars.

I have ton of pictures of my old '98, which would be the same as your '99 except for the diff (Torsen in '99, Auburn in '98) and potentially the shifter. It could have either the GM shifter or the OEM Hurst (not the same as the aftermarket Hurst).

Not sure on coil diameters. I have some '01 1LE springs in the attic, but they are actually LT1 year 1LE front springs, and base LS1 Z28 rear springs. Your '99 had different part number springs.

The parts that you will have a hard time finding if missing are the front lower control arms, rear lower control arms, and panhard bar. The metal piece is the same for all of them, but the non-1LE parts used a star shaped bushing with air voids, and the 1LE parts were solid. I think I have 1LE LCA's & PHB in storage sold the last set of Blaine IIRC.

This post has been edited by 98_1LE: May 13 2010, 05:52 PM

[Blainefab]

Also I heard from the previous owner that there was a pic on here of a functional tool to remove a ground control kit fron the front struts !

Mike

My Koni hat tool will get the strut apart without messing anything up:
http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=8350
I have one in stock

[dailydriver]

All 96+ F-bodies have ac

You could order a '93-'95 1LE f body with ac & radio delete?? (Or did they not even offer a 4th gen 1LE until '96?)

[98_1LE]

88-95 1LE cars do not have air conditioning. Radio delete ended with the thirdgens.

[96Mike]

Thanks for the info, that'll help get things started. Fortunatly I have the manual seat lower, I'll have to check out the various LCA's that came with the car. By the sounds of it the hurst is similar/same as a '97 SS I had worked on, that was cut down to fit the strap type GM handle. It was different than the aftermarket one I had on my '93 Z/28. IIRC it was cut very close to the bolt holes to achieve this. So the front lower control arms would have the star shaped bushing if they are non-1LE ? The car came with a spare diff with a torsen and Motive 3.73's, as well as Motive 3.42's in a box. The diff in it is an auburn posi/strange axles, 4.10 with a T/A cover. But I also received a finned cover that I don't recognize. I'm sure the sets of front springs have tags on them, so I'll have to find out what the part numbers are. It won't be an exact resto, as I the car had an '04 LS6 in it, and I brought an '02 LS1 up from Texas (I'm in Canada btw) as it was the lowest mileage one I could find, but it doesn't have the EGR provisions of the '99 motor, though the EGR came with the car.

Thanks for the info Blaine, I'm still not sure how the tool works, is the nut under the hat ? I'll look at my new Koni SA's to get a better idea, as the other 2 sets have upper control arms attached. I did receive a cut offset boxed end wrench with the car, so that exlains what it's for, but whether it works is another story. I noticed some of your work while lurking before registering, beutiful craftsmanship ! I was picking up the Koni's for my '96 conv. when I was handed the ad for the '99, so now I'm neck deep in parts as well, lol.

Edit: here's the car for those who are interested.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Hugger1LE/HO%201LE/

This post has been edited by 96Mike: May 14 2010, 07:07 AM

[Blainefab]

Thanks for the info Blaine, I'm still not sure how the tool works, is the nut under the hat ?

Yes, under the hat, and the hat has to come off to get the c/o sleeves off. The nut can be on there mighty tight. The easiest way to crack it loose is to put both front corners on stands, back the c/o adjuster all the way down, dropping the spring so there's room for the tool to get under the hat, and crack the nut loose. Some penetrating oil won't hurt. If you pull the shock assembly off the car first you'll need a big vise to hold it.

[EchoMirage]

the hurst shifter was probably an option, with the standard GM being the base option. im sure you can find either/both on ebay, or look on the tech classifieds. i cant imagine anyone wanting to hang on to a base GM shifter after upgrading. i don't know if itll be there, but run the RPO codes or find a build sheet to see what shifter it had.

[96Mike]

Thanks for the info Blaine, I'm still not sure how the tool works, is the nut under the hat ?

Yes, under the hat, and the hat has to come off to get the c/o sleeves off. The nut can be on there mighty tight. The easiest way to crack it loose is to put both front corners on stands, back the c/o adjuster all the way down, dropping the spring so there's room for the tool to get under the hat, and crack the nut loose. Some penetrating oil won't hurt. If you pull the shock assembly off the car first you'll need a big vise to hold it.

Thanks for all the info Blaine, it's much appreciated. I'll give it a shot this weekend, and if not I'll grab that tool you have in stock !

[dailydriver]

That finned (alloy?) diff cover might be an AAM/SLP deal.
I'm not sure if they all had the AAM logo cast into them?

[TOO Z MAXX]

I was looking at my friends 99 1le and i noticed it did not have any undercoating on the front of the car. Is this normal? Did the earlier 4th gen 1le's have no insulation in the carpeting too?

[98_1LE]

Undercoating is dealer installed. My '98 1LE, nor my '01 T/A had it.

I don't think any 1LE cars came from the factory with lightweight carpet or lacking firewall insulation.

[96Mike]

Thanks dailydriver, I'll pull it from the oily bag it is in and check it out. I believe I read at another site that the diff cooler was optional. Unless I find the build sheet, I'll never know if it was added later. But if that is the optional one it will go on.

There is no undercoating whatsoever on this '99 either. The bottom is body color, but they didn't make much effort at it, as there is grey (primer?) showing in a lot of areas. It doesn't look like normal grey primer either, more like a semigloss grey ?

This car was originaly delivered to Florida

This post has been edited by 96Mike: May 18 2010, 07:09 AM

[96Mike]

Undercoating is dealer installed. My '98 1LE, nor my '01 T/A had it.

I don't think any 1LE cars came from the factory with lightweight carpet or lacking firewall insulation.

I meant to ask, do you have the pics hosted online ? I would love to see an original !

[98_1LE]

Not currently. I have tons on an old PC in the closet, and a copy on a pen drive I cannot locate at them moment.

[96Mike]

For the sake of thoroughness this is from a thread at LS1.com

1LE specific part numbers

1998-1999
(2) Front springs (LS1, 360 lbs/in): 22132887
(2) Rear springs (LS1, 130-170 lbs/in): 22132889
Transmission Mount: 22146231
(2) Front shock absorber - Koni yellow: 22140240
(2) Rear shock absorber - Koni yellow: 22140228
Rear shock insulator retainer: 22166910
Rear shock lower insulator: 10009135
Rear shock upper insulator: 22166909

Left upper control arm: 22145653 or 22156461
Right upper control arm: 22145654 or 22156462
Left lower control arm: 22156435 or 52367658
Right lower control arm: 22156436 or 52367659
Transmission Mount: 22146231
Front sway bar (32 mm): 26032907
Front sway bar bushing (32 mm): 26039956
(2) Rear lower control arm: 10164151
Rear panhard bar: 10262147

[96Mike]

So the wheels are the standard 16x8 Z/28 style ? Rather than the ZR-1 SS style for the 1 LE ?

For those interested, here are the 1 LE spring dimensions (found on Z28.com)

GM 1LE springs are black.

P/N Wire Diameter Number of Coils Outside Dia. Free Length

(Stock) 22077195 .570" 9 4.59" 15.5"

(NOS) 22197228 .565" 9 4.56" 15.5"

(NOS) 22077196 .570" 10 4.58" 15.5"

(1LE) 22132561 .580" 9 4.52" 13.75"

To identify the rear 1LE springs look for a plastic spacer on a tightly wound spring coil near the top. This coil must be the progressive part of the 130-170 lb/in. It has the partnumber 22132889 it is also a good discontinued 1LE number.

To identify the 1LE front spring. Look for a spring that is shorter than stock by 1.75" and has .580 wire. I have not had my hands on the 22132887 1LE spring so I can't give you a way to identify it, but it should be similar to the 22132561.

[pkincy]

The diff was added later.

The shifter was not an option, but it came with the package. It is very little different than the stock. In fact I added the aftermarket Hurst to get the stiffer bushing and springs. Didn't help much as it is still way to easy to hit first when trying for third in a hurry.

I still have a set of the original 1LE springs from my 98 in the garage somewhere but for obvious reasons probably won't let them go although my car is likely to far gone to ever move back to "stock" unless someone would want to cut out a lot of Alan Blaine's beautiful welds.

I also have some extra Koni DAs. One thought is that the Koni's and the 1LE springs were not the greatest combination as the 1LE springs really were not stiff enough to control the shocks well.

I presume I have my window sticker somewhere, but figure that 1LE means 1 "less options". There were no options available that I can recall....well I suppose it was possible (but unlikely) to order an auto with the car.

I recall I paid $20,060 for mine which was invoice at the time (late 97 for a very early delivery 98).

It is still pretty annoying to pull up next to someone you know on the right side of the car and not be able to lower the window to talk with them...unless you have a passenger with you.

Pretty nice car on a track however. But pretty worthless other places.

Perry

[CrashTestDummy]

88-95 1LE cars do not have air conditioning. Radio delete ended with the thirdgens.

Unless they are Police 1LEs, but that may be part of the B4C package.

[marka]

Howdy,

I'd be interested in learning about the non-A/C parts on the 4th-gen cars. Anyone have any pictures or references or whatever?

Particularly interested in the heater box.

Mark