Someone please post pic of VSS location

Part arrived. I opted for the one with the pigtail already attached. It was pricier but I wanted quality doggone it. Finished my third cup of coffee and just stared at the gizmo. Lucky for me, my girls asked me, "what is Meatheads?" Well, any proud father will tell you that when his daughters ask about a hamburger joint and want to try it out...one goes. Quickly. So we did. And burned up most of the day. I put the job off until later. Besides, it would be just a 5" job.


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After a day of fun and game-playing, I decided to do the job tonight. I figured it was a 5" job which really meant 1 hour, max. First, I had to get set up. I had to move the part and a bag of pistachios to the work site, my garage.

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Then, I needed to prep the car. So, out came the floorjack. And, then a jackstand. Now, I had to chock the front wheel. I found my trusty coal shovel, turned it over and wedged it up there. No way the car was moving.

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A little music...pretty loud in the garage.



Now, where do I start looking...no idea. Oh, and by the way...I am going to need to remove the airbox since I cannot get in from the bottom or side. Oh no.



Well, maybe oh-yeah. I found out my throttle body was gunked up. Like black soot. Blech.



Oh, and the VSS? Easy peasy to put back. New widget in the center, slicked up with some grease, popped the 7.5amp clock fuse and voila! Speedometer is working as designed and no more TCS/check engine light.

I am energized to take on some more projects. Now, onto the ABS pump.

Nicely done, now Clean that throttle body..

BTL3.0 said:

Nicely done, now Clean that throttle body..

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Recommendation beside the intake cleaner in a can? I don't want to tear into my IM just yet. First, I want to do injectors.

I normally unbolt the tb and hose it down with throttle body cleaner. Especially when its THAT dirty. .small coolant will come out but not enough to cause air in the system. I find it easier and you can be very thorough when its off the car.. This way nothing will drain back into the manifold.
Just lay it on a rag, hose it down. Open the tb and hose it more.. Use clean paper towel and gently clean inside, spray and clean..

Larry Bastanza said:

Disconnect the wire harness, then remove the one bolt that allows you to remove the entire assy from the trans. Then out on the bench you can change the sensor. You can get to the bolt from underneath, above the axle shaft on the engine block side.

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Larry .. I just changed my VSS and was desperately hoping to use your suggestion but couldn't find the bolt that you were referring to for the life of me. I jacked the car up and couldn't see anything from below .. nor from the top side. I have a '91 so don't know if it's different but I have a '91 shop manual and the picture is pretty much the same as the one above .. although the mounting plate that the VSS sits on has a bolt which holds it to the trans. But even I took that one out, but the two VSS bolts were still snugly holding everything in.

And what a miserable place to work. I ended up doing everything from above and used every socket extension (hard and bendable) I had. I eventually had to squeeze my arm down there but tore it up a bit on some exposed hose clamps. For future reference for anyone trying this, the two smaller VSS bolts are 10 mm and the larger bolt I referenced and the one holding the electrical plug were 12 mm. I couldn't get the damn plug disconnected without removing the bolt so I could get two hands on it to pull it apart.

The original had about 190k miles on it so I expect I won't have to go through this again. But the speedo would occasionally just suddenly decide to drop to zero for an indeterminent amount of time so I hope its fixed.