Saving Reattas from the crusher is a family project.

[DAVES89]

I went on line and looked up these ignition switches on both 1988 and 1989 Reattas. They are not the same. 1988 has one switch and 1989 a different one. I wonder what the difference is?

[2seater]

Slow day on Sunday. #2 son and wife came by to work on the passengers window regulator which after a few tries, figured out how to use improvised fasteners to get it transplanted from the donor. Works well and no bad noises. In the meantime I changed the O2 sensor and started on reassembly of the front of the engine. New timing chain, sprocket, damper and magnet installed. I hesitate to post this but I violated my personal rule to walk away from something that is giving trouble and come back to it later with fresh eyes. In any case, the front cover just refused to go on smoothly, but it kept hanging up, on the oil pump drive I believe. I did give up and intended to come back to it on Monday, but after the kids left, there was time before dinner so gave it another try and proceeded to crack the cover between the crank sensor mount and oil pump cavity. ? I guess I have been spoiled by doing most of my engine work on an engine stand. Oh well.

[2seater]

I couldn’t find a replacement timing cover online and all of mine are on engines so I used JBWeld on the inch long crack. Not ideal but no oil or water passages are involved so sort of a gamble. Today definitely went better in that department and once the cover was on the rest of the front of the engine went together just fine. The alternator is a bit of an oddball I have not seen before and I cannot find any rating numbers. I did pull the three through bolts and reclocked the case so the main plug is near the top but that placed the output stud low to the rear?? It worked fine and voltage output was stable so left it in place.

 

Grandson came over after class about 5pm and he installed the new trans cooling lines to the transaxle but the radiator is still out so it was a good way to ease him into learning the car repair world? He also also worked on a carpet stain behind the drivers side rear floor hatch which has defeated a shampoo machine and a steam cleaner. He found a combination of brake cleaner and a bit of water, brushed in and vacuumed out wet did the trick. Perseverance paid off. The whole rear area will likely be dyed but needs a reasonably even color to start with.

 

While he was stain removing, I worked on rerouting the wiring at the headlights correctly and found one broken wire at the drivers light, a green one, so as a temporary fix, I soldered the broken one to the remaining twin which works but as the light comes up, it starts out bright and dims at full open. The passengers light is nice and bright so must have a sketchy ground on drivers side.

[DAVES89]

You could go to Gibson's and remove a cover off a "bad" engine. They also have headlight connections. Otherwise I have extra connections.

 I just looked and Theimers a salvage yard in Kaukauna has one for $30.00

Edited August 25, 2020 by DAVES89

[2seater]

3 hours ago, DAVES89 said:

You could go to Gibson's and remove a cover off a "bad" engine. They also have headlight connections. Otherwise I have extra connections.

 I just looked and Theimers a salvage yard in Kaukauna has one for $30.00

Thanks Dave. I will see how it works out as there may be other issues to chase but getting closer. I may combine a repair with a headlight harness.

[Ronnie]

This is what I found on my headlight connector a few years ago. I just cleaned up the wires and the connector and soldered them back together.

[DAVES89]

I was over helping Bob with a project that finished early so I called 2seater to see if I might come over to see the progress on the Red Reatta he bought for his grandson. For those that don't remember 2seater also has a Maroon/Tan 89 that is pretty much a non runner with a nice interior. I must say I am impressed with what the Red/Tan looks like. The seats were removed and parts swapped around to make them complete with no rips. While they were out they cleaned the carpets, resprayed them with a tan mix for carpets and then replaced the inner door panels as well as the dash. The cruise didn't work so the columns were swapped as well. Also the nicer taillight from the Maroon/Tan was swapped.

 I believe the Maroon/tan will be junked after the last of the parts are swapped.

 I really think the car will be great after 2seater finishes with the eo41 issue and they get the car on the road and his grandson will have a real nice car to drive.

[2seater]

It was certainly good timing to have Dave stop by when the grandson was also working away. I cannot take any credit for the interior, that belongs to the kids and the kids, kids. I did get the car restarted this morning after the engine work, trans. cooler lines and replacement radiator. No leaks, the code 041 is gone, actually no codes and the check engine light is now out. The ever handy Dave whipped out his ready tool kit when we were attempting to remove the license plates and broken studs. All fixed in ten minutes. A junkyarder for sure?

The engine runs very well and it did seem to make a noticeable smoothness change with a working cam sensor. Note to self on that. It still suffers from extended cranking randomly while fuel pressure and spark are good. I added an led to one injector to see if it gets the priming signal and for some reason the indicator stayed lit with the key on rather than coming on for a moment and then off??? With the engine running, it flashes as it should as the injector fires. We are thinking it may benefit from cleaning the injectors and I brought stuff along to do that as it was in the plan.

Still no closed loop or working O2 sensor? All readings in diagnostics look fine except the O2 reading, cross counts and the fueling items stuck at 128. Ironically the fsm went home with #1 son and the black car. I noticed the O2 sensor was changed numerous times in the little notebook record in the glovebox. Seems someone has been chasing this issue for some time. The other persistent item is the parking brake shows as not released. There is slack in the cable below the car, the pedal snaps back fine but I cannot see where the indicator switch might be located near the parking brake assembly. I know the levers on the rear brakes return as they should but it only requires about one and a half pumps to set the parking brake so it is possible the forward cable isn't released all the way causing the small amount of slack. Where is the switch for the indicator located?

Between my grandson and me, we removed both front parking light assemblies to check out the myriad bulbs that will be replaced so it will be off to the store in the morning for bulbs and new sockets for the headlights. The green wire was broken exactly as Ronnies photo showed and since the splice and solder repair I have what looks like a bad ground, so rather than chase the issue, I will splice in new sockets. 

Does anyone know what bulb is in the high mounted stop light, a 1003??

[DAVES89]

There is a light bulb chart in the "How To" section. It is a #1141.

 If you are coming to town I have a bunch of bulbs as well as the bulb chart and headlight connections[plugs]. Let me know if you are interested.

Edited August 26, 2020 by DAVES89

[Ronnie]

41 minutes ago, 2seater said:

The other persistent item is the parking brake shows as not released. There is slack in the cable below the car, the pedal snaps back fine but I cannot see where the indicator switch might be located near the parking brake assembly. I know the levers on the rear brakes return as they should but it only requires about one and a half pumps to set the parking brake so it is possible the forward cable isn't released all the way causing the small amount of slack. Where is the switch for the indicator located?

The switch should be at the top of the parking brake assembly. Probably hard to get to. I think the low fluid switch might turn on the same light.

 

[Ronnie]

46 minutes ago, 2seater said:

Still no closed loop or working O2 sensor?

I think the first question that needs to be answered here

Is the O2 sensor what is keeping the ECM from going into closed loop OR Is something else keeping the ECM from going into closed loop and that is what is preventing the O2 sensor from operating.

[DAVES89]

7 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

The switch should be at the top of the parking brake assembly. Probably hard to get to. I think the low fluid switch might turn on the same light.

 

That's true and I think I saw when we were talking about a 1988 Teves unit in the 1989 that the fluid was low.

[Ronnie]

My engine temp has to be above 158 degrees before the ECM will go in to closed loop. Something you should check.

[2seater]

 

Thanks guys. I think I will need to pull the drivers seat my grandson just so diligently installed. My flexibility is poor. At least I know where to look for the switch. The crt is what is telling me the parking brake is on. Pretty sure the brake fluid is okay but will double check.

 

The O2 vs closed loop, which is the chicken or egg? I remember a post a short time ago about weird behavior because a harness fell down at rear or O2 vs spark plug. When I replaced the O2 I noticed it is almost hard against the #6 spark plug wire at the boot. Not the best situation but pretty sure that’s not the problem. 
 

 

[2seater]

3 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

My engine temp has to be above 158 degrees before the ECM will go in to closed loop. Something you should check.

It was up to an indicated 112*C and the fans came on, so should have been hot enough. I remember a Saturn I had that had two temp. sensors, one for the dash and one for the ecm which was prone to failure which had far reaching performance issues but pretty sure that isn’t the case here.

[Ronnie]

37 minutes ago, 2seater said:

Thanks guys. I think I will need to pull the drivers seat my grandson just so diligently installed.

You should be able to go into diagnostics -> BCM-> Inputs and watch BI22 as you press and release the parking brake to see if the switch is functioning. I think it should go from Hi to Low when you actuate the parking brake pedal (or vice versa)

[2seater]

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

You should be able to go into diagnostics -> BCM-> Inputs and watch BI22 as you press and release the parking brake to see if the switch is functioning. I think it should go from Hi to Low when you actuate the parking brake pedal (or vice versa)

Sheeesh, I should know things like that but always look for the hard way?

 

Almost time to run into town to get bulbs and misc stuff. #2 son will be here mid morning and I am sure he will want to take it out and try cruise control?

[2seater]

#2 son came over this morning and we installed the new bulbs in the front light assemblies. A small aside here: I went to the closest auto parts store, an O'Reilly's about 11 miles away. They had the headlight sockets, but no 890 bulb and only four of the amber 194's. The 194's are about $7 a two pack and are the extended life. I asked at the counter if they had more to which she said no, but would look in the back. Bless her heart, she came back with a ten pack of 194A she said they sell to repair places, grand total of $8.50 for ten, which replaced all of them in the front light assemblies, and worked just fine.

 

I reported a screeching sound from the left front that went away in a right turn. This turned out to be the sheet metal brake shield/backing plate was bent in at the top and contacted the rotor intermittently. Easy Peasy thank you very much.

 

Investigated the parking brake indicator as suggested through the BCM input, which showed no change if applied or released. Found the light could be made to go out if the sector gear was pushed all the way to the off stop but even one notch from that and the light comes on. There is slack in the cable under the door but it appears the cable needs to be shortened to put a little pull on the pedal sector gear when off. The levers at the brakes on the rear are back against the stops but there must be something that has collapsed in the mechanism where the cables cross at the rear under the crossmember because there doesn't appear to be enough adjustment to take out the slack. More investigation required but may remain as operable but the light will come on and stay on if used. The indicator switch doesn't appear adjustable but does anyone know?

 

The inoperative O2 sensor was next on the list and figured this would be the worst to figure out. At a very basic level, sans manual, we disconnected the plugs at the ECM and O2 sensor and checked for continuity between the O2 plug and any of the three fine purple wires going to the ECM plug. We found one wire that showed continuity so made the leap of faith that the wiring was good so there had to be a fault in the ECM. #2 pulled the ECM from the donor which was covered with mouse pollution but looked okay inside. A quick try was to simply plug the donor ECM in and take it for a drive. It took a bit but shortly the loop light came on and the O2 started to blink, followed by the fueling starting to move around in response. The ECM appeared to be original with no other notes on it but the one from the donor was labeled as a Delco remanufactured. The PROM in the donor was the earliest version for an 89, thanks to that ECM listing. That seemed about right as the last four of the vin was over 4000 units earlier than the red car. To double check we swapped the red cars prom into the donor ECM and it came to life as normal as well, so the ECM appears to have a fault. To get rid of the mouse pollution we removed the case and swapped the circuit board into the original case. Problem solved fairly easily.

 

Cruise control works, just as Dave predicted with the column swap. We gave it a tough task by getting to 35mph and engaging cruise to climb the steep hill right outside my area on the paved road. It only lost four mph which was impressive and did so without downshifting. Dave can attest to the slope of this climb. It is about 400 vertical ft. in <1/2 mile.

 

A couple things left for sure. The two rear subframe bushings need to be replaced and the HVAC fan and fan controller need to be removed to investigate the strange sound and mediocre air flow from the vents. We have been through the entire car but have not happened upon the source of the six small mice I ejected from the spare tire well as the first thing done. I discovered that access to the rear of the engine compartment is vastly easier with the rear wheels on ramps. The nose down attitude makes laying over the engine much more comfortable for a short guy like me? Something in the fuel system seems to be improving its pressure retention. After the new fuel pump, pressure would bleed down to zero in about four hours, not terrible, but now it will hold over 20psi overnight, actually more than 12 hours.

[Ronnie]

O'Reilly's is the highest place to buy parts around here but you got a good deal on the bulbs. If the image below is correct for the parking brake switch looks really simple in the way it is made. You should be able to bend the tang so it will engage with the brake pedal better if you can get to it. I'm glad to hear the problem with closed loop was as simple as swapping out the ECM.

 

[2seater]

Man, you have some of the best photos!
It is fairly easy to see, not so easy to touch. It is up high and almost hard against the firewall, but with the provided detail, there might be a chance.

There was one other thing to share that I have rarely seen. The grandson got the owners manual out of the car looking up bulbs and he left it on the cottage. I looked through the contents and some loose papers this morning. I found the original window sticker and two copies of the line broadcast sheet, the actual build sheet, in the folder. I collected the loose papers and put them in a ziplock bag with the owners manual. A nice and unusual find for me. Incidentally, the original list was $27,250, or $56k today. Cupholders not included ?