Here's A "Better Than NOS" Part You Don't See Every Day

Supercharged111 said:

One thing I know it's good for is to hide the rot that's still happening underneath. Hopefully not the case for you.

You sure they didn't tack the cost of the undercoating back in somewhere else? I hate dealers with a passion, them and their super obvious BS games they play.

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No. They didn't. They tried the "2nd window sticker" trick, so it was MSRP + the crap they added up for all those "protection" services. Now, I did have to pay GM's MSRP price for it. They weren't budging on that. It was a hard to get car and I got their allotment of 1 car. They honored the same trade-in price, plus only had to pay the obligatory title/tax/tag fees. They didn't have those mysterious "documentation" fees back then, either.

Hehehehe.

Another successful decal repro. Just going to wonder how long it will be before someone steals this design as well? Originally, this was a coated paper decal (like several were). Very short-lived product in the big scheme of things. Not good substrate for longevity. Of course, they didn't care once a car got built.

A word about 800 series pitman arms...

78-88 G-body (with RPO NY8, the 800 series box) use the same p/n pitman arm, GM p/n 7837648 (was p/n 7829470). The engineering/casting number is 7828464. Now, I've seen these cast numbers followed up with another number as well. Anyone know what this number is for? Glancing at it, it looks like a + symbol in between, but close inspection shows these are 4 directional arrows. WTF? The number I have as far as NOS part is 6. I've seen 5 and 6 so far. The factory setup I haven't checked as there's blue paint on the arm, plus I haven't crawled under the car to even check that. I wonder if it's a foundry mold number or something.??.

Interestingly, I've had this pitman arm (and the entire piece by piece steering linkage setup) for about 312 years. It's lived in the closet and under climate controlled conditions all these years I've had it. Interestingly, I got it from ebay, and the bag-o-nuts that came with it were a tad rusty INSIDE the package when I got it. But the arm itself barely has any discoloration on it. Easy cleanup for sure. I can't imagine what it would look like if it were in a damp basement for the last 25 years or so.



Always be on the look out for this casting number 7828464 when trying to find an 800 series arm for most of your G-body needs.


And the underside. It's about 1.5" drop, and approximately 6.25" center to center.

Ugly1 said:

Most likely date of manufacture. The arrow pointing at months,days, year. I’ve seen my brother read them off on Mopar parts. Some will have a circle with in facing lines.

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Hmm. Could be. But it's not making sense. It's like a 4 way pointer, each pointing N, E, S, W. At first glance I thought it was a plus sign, TBH. I just put a magnifying glass to it and it looks like a small circle with 4 diamond shapes around it. Weird.

Hard to decipher in this pic, but it doesn't appear to be any sort of date stamping I'm used to seeing. Might be a manufacturer's mark? Unsure.

This is interesting. The Monte SS uses an FD coded steering rod assembly, with an ESTIMATED part number of 7838627 (my best guess, last 2 numbers are suspect). The question is...what's different between the PC and FD? Anyone with access to one of these labels to check for sure what the number is? Fat chance, but gotta ask. AFAIK, there's only one difference, besides the decal and the orange vs. blue paint stripe. I'm guessing the paint stripe delineates something as well. The SS paint mark matches the decal color, but the 442 light blue mark doesn't match the white decal. Ironically, the 86-88 blue stripe would be the same as the light blue PC decal in Pontiac plant. Odd.




Here's another one. Note also the nut on the center link to pitman arm.

No cotter pin!


Apparently, the factory did not use castle nuts with cotter pins. I believe these are supposed to be single use nuts as the new over the counter GM tie rods and center links, etc., come with castle nuts and crimp flanged style nuts for replacements. Note too that the MCSS used orange paint codes on the frame motor mounts.



What I know so far...

Steering gear between SS and Hurst/442, Pontiac GP with F41- Same p/n 7843135. Interestingly, Buick GN did NOT come with the 7843135 box best I can tell. Touring and Sport Suspension only.
Inner tie rods- Same as PC parts.
outer tie rods- Same as PC parts.
Tie Rod/Center Link seals- Same as PC parts.
Tie Rod clamps- Same as PC parts.
Pitman arm- Same as PC parts.
Idler arm- Same as PC parts.
Center link. Cutlass with any/all suspension options uses p/n 7835787. Monte Carlo OTHER than F41 suspension uses the same. Monte/Elky/Cabby with F41 uses p/n 7837638.

Center link is the ONLY difference between the FD and PC front end steering components. Exactly how it differs I do not know. But I imagine it is that difference that changes the letter/part number codes and component ID colors.

Conveniently, the aftermarket, like Moog, consolidated ALL those part numbers into DS909, and the like.

And Buick GN's used the PC stuff all the way up to the end as well, apparently.

From Kirban's Buick website below, here's a pic of a PC label on a Pontiac-built GN. I also had someone who kept theirs from their 87 442 send a pic of theirs. This is how I know the fonts are different.



Here's a pic of the VERY LAST Buick GN with some of the build information. Never have seen a Pontiac (or lansing) build sheet like we're used to seeing. But they had what they called broadcast sheets. One sheet had more info on it than others. Note the one on the left, next to last line on the right. You'll see the code "PC" under the steering linkage. They used the light blue tags up in there from 86-88 AFAIK.

88hurstolds said:

I have a few of these, there's a guy with a gaylord of them selling them on eBay...

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Linky? I’ve searched every which way and it’s not coming up. I’d like to see those.