Spring road trip bringing the new Targa home

[spidklr]

Our new/old 1988 Targa overwintered in AL with my Dad, but this week was the trek home - 1060 ish miles from Sylvania AL to Saint Paul, MN over two days. Fun trip! The car pulls like a freight train. Some electrical gremlins - battery drains overnight, which left us asking our hotel for an outdoor outlet for the charger. Driver's window no longer works (main suspect for the battery issue) and the cruise died. But the car is so great a stranger came up to ask about it/compliment us on it even while we were so obviously stranded there waiting for the battery to charge :-).

It's so great to have it at the house at long last.







Home:

[Dr DIY]

Good to see you enjoyed your trip. My Targa sits in the garage waiting for the snow to to away.

[spidklr]

Soon!

[LakeCleElum]

Great looking car.........On my Targa, I put a marine type switch on the negative side of the Battery to shut it all down when sitting for any length of time...........

[rwest]

Another Targa in St. Paul- nice!

[Dpmulvan]

Nice find! Shouldn't take much to sort it out.

[Bob Kontak]

Beautiful car.

Below assumes you have little electrical fiddling experience. If you do then the only benefit is all the words I typed that help me reach my daily quota of wind I post here.

Your door, I betcha is not the problem. Check the fuse bank in the front trunk. You probably just have a fuse out. If you had no battery problems after it quit working then that is a fair assumption on your part.

Get the $25 multi-meter at Harbor Freight or get a $50 one at Lowe's/Home Depot. Watch a couple of youtube videos on how to use them. When the number drops you have found the circuit you need to focus on for the "leech".

Connect the multi meter into the battery circuit and measure the amperage draw. Leave the key out of the ignition.

Pull the front trunk fuses out one at a time and see when the amperage number drops. There are fuses in the engine bay as well.

Guessing you have a draw of about 3-6 amps to kill the battery. Something just a little less in power vs the fuel pump running which is around 8 amps.

Gain confidence by opening the doors and noting the amperage increase when interior lights come on.

When your hood is up, your trunk light is on. That draws amperage. Depress the button for the hood light and see the amperage drop. That remaining number should be your baseline that you want to whittle down to maybe a half an amp for the clock and security system (if equipped)

[Taxi!]

Glad you made it home safely.

[DRACO A5OG]

Welcome Targa

[universeman]

Another targa finds its way home...nice find!

[RSBob]

Thanks for sharing your trip and beautiful ride.

Everybody should buy a car out of state once to enjoy the thrill of flying to pickup a car, enjoying the drive back ans learning about the good and the bad. A bonus mine came with was dual waterfalls on each side of the dash when caught in a major rain storm. Cracked windshield and bad seal replaced...

Congrats on a beautiful car. Enjoy