DAVES89 Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 I'm starting to think I got rid of it at just the right time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted September 27, 2020 Topic Author Share Posted September 27, 2020 9 hours ago, DAVES89 said: I'm starting to think I got rid of it at just the right time... Probably true but it went to the right person ? He also replaced the left outside tie rod end last week but I figure that as normal maintenance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted October 3, 2020 Topic Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 Black car back today for headlight harness installation. This was always intended but the failure of the headlight switch last week moved this ahead in the priorities. The red car will get one too which was purchased via Amazon after talking with Dave. The install is pretty staightforward but does take a little bit of time to figure out wire routing so no splices or harness modifications are needed. As mentioned before, when turned off, the headlights close immediately but takes another ten seconds for lights to extinguish. A good upgrade, especially for the price. He also showed me the 3D printed ends for the door pull straps. I had suggested the pieces be made from a semi flexible material, maybe a nylon and a thicker bottom for the bolt. What he brought are made from black plastic and indeed the parts have a bit of flex. The two piece finished product looks great but forgot to take a pic. Only time will tell on durability especially in below zero conditions. I did take a pic of the new shifter backlighting I mentioned a while ago. No joy on the same technology for the two console switches. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 That is a better mod then the one I did all those years ago. You should do a "How to" so I can do that to either one of my cars when I get a failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 Also forgot to ask, which harness did you go with? The one that I bought years ago or the one I just found that was about$20.00? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted October 4, 2020 Topic Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 I don’t know how to make a link on my phone but the brand is “rickyzhu” and is just under $20. Even where total ratings were similar it seemed to have less negative comments than others? Tons of offerings out there but the majority are negative trigger and appreciated your advice on the type that worked? The only change we are considering is replacing the inline fuse with a circuit breaker, but works well as is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted October 8, 2020 Topic Author Share Posted October 8, 2020 It looks like the red car may have suffered a starter failure. Got the call last night, in the parking lot of school. Looked at it this morning with grandson doing the things that verify the dash and steering column changing didn't leave a loose end somewhere. Dropped the column, verified the yellow wire from the ignition switch appears to send power out when the key is in start, so the key lock and ignition switch are communicating through the connecting link. Replaced the starter interrupt relay because it was easy but didn't help. The car will not crank at all. There is no sound at all from under the hood when the key is turned to start. The relays on the firewall all click when the key is turned on as well as the brake booster pump runs. The only peculiar sound is from the IAC when the key is released from the start position. It is a sort of squeak or cheep so disconnected that for now. Everything inside the car works, no codes. The headlights do not dim at all when engaging start position of the switch, so definitely no draw from the starter at all. Verified 12.2v at the battery. Will be back at it tomorrow morning after looking for a starter today. If there are any thoughts short of replacing the starter, would be happy to investigate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 Don't overlook the Park/Neutral switch. The P/N switch is a good place to do some testing to see if power is going to the starter. The photos below might help. The one with the red lines will show you how to bypass the starter interrupt relay if you suspect that might be the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 Ronnies idea is a good one and believe it or not this is what happened on the Black that your son now has. Just look along the steering column/Teves unit and you should see a soldered connection. There is a long series of posts between mostly "Snowdrift" and Ronnie on it "over there". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 48 minutes ago, Ronnie said: The one with the red lines will show you how to bypass the starter interrupt relay if you suspect that might be the problem. I should have said you could jumper the starter interrupt relay as shown in the photo as a test if you suspect it might be a problem. The guy Dave was referring to did have a problem with the security system and he bypassed the relay. That is were the photos I posted came from. Dave ended up buying the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted October 9, 2020 Topic Author Share Posted October 9, 2020 (edited) Thanks for the input fellas. #2 son convinced me we should all see if we could get the car going tonight, so we all met in the parking lot where the car lay. The three grandkids were all present which was sort of appropriate as they helped get it where it is today. I did pick up a reman starter from the local rebuilder so I was prepared. We managed to push the car over to the side of the parking lot so we could spread out without being in the way. Trolley jack and ramps provided enough clearance to get to the starter and after a bit of colorful language, the starter was out. We did a jumper cable starter test and of course there is nothing wrong with the starter. We would have tried a hotwire in place but the terminal seemed inaccessible without removal. This at least gave us the opportunity to put a meter on the starter engagement terminal and got a whopping 0.48v with the key in start, a pretty good reason it doesn't engage. With darkness coming on, we thought the car would likely start if we hotwired the start terminal to the battery and with the ignition key in run, just a touch to the start terminal and the engine started instantly. There is no doubt the problem lies in one or both of the suggested spots for a bypass. The ignition switch terminal with the yellow wire output battery voltage in the start position, so both ends of the start system are working, but not in between. This at least allowed us to relocate the car to a more hospitable location for detective work. More on that later. I will add the human side of this story: #2 son burns the candle at both ends and in the middle, a definite type A, and he didn't get that from his dad. Always short of time, he was scheduled to drop the 8yr old grandson at his former wife's house, about 30 miles away on his way back home, another 15 miles further. With the Reatta running, he decided to use it to drop his son off and drive home, or possibly continue on to my cottage, another 13 miles further yet. The car #2 son brought to the party is his do everything hooptie mobile, a '03 Honda Civic hybrid with over 300k miles on the original drivetrain. This left the Reatta driving grandson with the hooptie Honda to take his sister home, where they both live and is in the same city as the school. I did offer to let one of them take my Subaru but mercifully they refused? I haven't heard if he made it home or if he went to the cottage. I had suggested if he would drop the Reatta at the cottage to take the Ford Ranger that spends its summer in storage so he would have wheels. That needs to be pulled out anyway as my four post lift goes in on Saturday.? Edit: just got word the Reatta went to the cottage and he did take the Ranger so everyone is safe, although grandson driving the hooptie Honda might disagree Edited October 9, 2020 by 2seater 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted October 11, 2020 Topic Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 Got back to the red car today to look into the no start condition which after we thought had been cured with a anti theft bypass it turned out the neutral safety plug connection was apparently poor and proved to be pretty ugly on the inside. Cleaned it several times and the car now starts without fail. Fingers sort of crossed on this since we initially thought the anti theft bypass cured the problem but we were wrong. We installed the headlight harness on the red car as well which took maybe a half hour working alone. Much quicker than the first one. My new lift went in this morning and the red car got the first ride. This allowed us to look over the work done flat on our back and marvel at the decent and neat job, but wondering why we didn’t have the lift sooner? While underneath it looks like the possible source of an occasional clunk under the right front is a broken end link on the anti sway bar, easy fix but also found the power steering hose from the pump to the rack is leaking where the flex line connects to the steel tubing. Darn it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 Good to hear the starting issue was an easy fix. I'm envious of you having a lift in your garage. It would make life so much easier. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 2seater you are the man. And trying to keep 2 "older" Reattas on the road is going to keep that lift busy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted October 11, 2020 Topic Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 (edited) I forgot one oddity that may have been covered before. On the red car the panel dimmer slide doesn’t work as well as the switch backlighting, but if the fog lights are turned on, all functions operate. We replaced the photocell with one from the donor and at that time it appeared to cure the dimmer issue but of course now we wonder if we were running the fogs too? When we did the replacement the original sensor was definitely out of range and the replacement was almost spot on, but I suppose it could have failed?? Edit: I was just informed the backlighting goes out as soon as high beams engaged, which I believe disengage the fogs, so there does seem to be some interaction there Edited October 11, 2020 by 2seater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 I drive with my fog lights on all the time. In the evening when it starts getting dark, if I have the fog lights on I have to start sliding back on the dimmer to keep the dash lights from glaring in my eyes. The dash light won't automatically dim. If I go ahead and turn on the headlights the dash lights dim on their own. I don't know if that is the way they are supposed to dim (because I have added a resistor to my photocell circuit to keep it in range) but that is the way my dash lights work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVES89 Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 I never touch the dimmer slide switch on any of my cars. I leave them on full strength. I have also seen that the contacts in the Headlight Swich slowly go bad so that when you flash on the brights the backlighting goes out. I have found that by turning the Fog Light button [on the '88/89] on/off a few times "restores" the backlight staying on. So maybe after saying this the issue is in the remote fog light button? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 36 minutes ago, DAVES89 said: So maybe after saying this the issue is in the remote fog light button? Could be. Mine stays pushed in all the time. Or maybe it is a problem with the fog light relay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted October 15, 2020 Topic Author Share Posted October 15, 2020 Grandson reports the red car is starting and running perfectly. Fingers still crossed. On the black car I posted a few weeks ago the brake pump needed to be replaced after the pressure switch had failed. After replacing the pressure switch, the pump sounded poor and was erratic in operation. We opted to replace the pump assembly as well. Subsequent to this, I took the pump apart and found nothing wrong with it, nor the motor. I setup my test rig today and the pump would not prime since it was totally dry inside from the disassembly. I tried applying vacuum to the pump outlet and the pump primed almost instantly. After running fluid through until clear, I closed the drain valve and allowed the pump to build pressure, which it did, all the way to 3500psi. Once primed the pump appears to work normally over and over, so the only inference I can make is the leaking pressure switch apparently allowed air in and caused the failure to prime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 29 minutes ago, 2seater said: the only inference I can make is the leaking pressure switch apparently allowed air in and caused the failure to prime. I'll bet you are right. It's great that you are able to test the pumps this way. I learn a lot from what you are finding out about these pumps with your testing. Just knowing that a vacuum needs to be pulled on the pump to prime it is very helpful information. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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