I have had an 86 Calais Tech 4 since 1994 when it was purchased with 21,000 miles.
Alternators, electrical problems, body hardware and plastics as cheap and brittle as anything found on an early '70s AMC product.
Parts availability: anything more than service parts and commonly shared units with other GM cars are thin on the ground. The VIN for the Tech IV for used in N Bodies has a "U". So one unit from another GM 2.5 donor vehicle with a different VIN code will not fit. It was reworked for application in the N Bodies: narrower, for one thing.
From the link:
'Stay away from the oddball FWD only VIN U motor, too many parts are different compared to all other 2.5 motors. It was used only in FWD N-cars, Grand Am, Calais, etc. Crank thrust bearing and cylinder head bolt pattern are a few (see below). The VIN R (Fiero included) motors were used in both larger FWD cars (X and A body cars) and RWD applications with no special mods.'
I can find parts for the 63 Valiant easier.
Torque converter switch goes out and makes the car jerk, jolt and slam when coming to a stop as the car is still in a higher gear. Something shared with GM A and X bodies. I had this in an X and the Calais. It's not the transmission [I found out the expensive way] but the switch.
'Morning sickness(noisy) in the power steering.' That was on the Xs and As as they used the same system. Boost would disappear after sitting overnight until the hydraulics pumped up a protracted amount of time after start.
The Ns used the J body's rack as the Ns were heavily based on the Js. I had the morning sickness problem with the Citation I had. Never with the Calais.
I still love mine and lavish stupid amounts of money on it.
134,000 miles and 37 years and that velour is still holding up. Trimmed like a 98.... sounds like a tractor. It's still beautiful and I still like looking at it.
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My Fuelly numbers from the last few years are posted. I have to dig up the earliest ones from '94.
It ran from Tucson to Salt Lake City and back a couple of years ago on vacation and did it flawlessly [except for being absurdly underpowered.... shut the AC off if passing or attempting a hill climb].
Nice find. There's are N Body and GM FWD groups on Facebook that would love to see this car.
Congratulations.