progress... my car = a big WTF???!!

[AeroSS_87]

I didn't get around to much of even scraping the surface of the electrical issues, but the p/s adjuster is done. That took far much longer than it should have, but it was done "right".
Refer to pictures below.

So I guess here is the list of 'WTF?'s':

1.) The upper p/s mount was all f'd up. Not knowing what it was suppose to be like from factory, we did what we could... and probably even more effective than o.e. Apparantly, the back bolt had either broken off or backed out from vibration. With that, the front eyelet mount had been notched as well. Assuming that's not a factory deal... I have no clue. The inner bore was all chaffed up and gouged to ****. As it seems, 80's turbo dodge parts seem to be 75% interchangable with 944's. lol.. Sifting through old bolts and ****, we found the correct back side bolt and 2 nuts. We decided to take a pair of radiator supports from a 2.2L turbo charger and trim a couple parts of the rubber bushings down to use as absorbers in the mounts. The O.D. of the bushings were just a very slight to large, but rather a tight fit than loose, and only with having to notch one end out, and the other we had to cut in half. With a washer behind each nut and the pump, we got it nice and snug in there. The finished product was fairly impressive, just given what we had to work with, the lack of knowledge of factory setup, and how clean it came out.. as if it matters really.

I know, it's a stupid deal to be proud of, but I guess you had to be here sharing the laughs through the process.

2.) While I'm under there, I check out the starter condition and connections to eliminate ramping it up again tomorrow. It really seems okay. A bit of blue and white corrosion, original starter, but still not as bad as expected.

3.) Here it starts getting good. Upon looking underneath, I notice the 'tunnel brace', as my fellow f-body guys would call it, is M.I.A. The bolts are still there, but nothing.

4.) I notice a lot of the under side sound/heat shielding is banged up all over in wierd areas... that just makes me wonder... but there is a few small studs around there with nothing attached to them. Maybe that's just other **** the factory didn't use with my car's options.. not too worrysome.

5.) So then the O2 sensor wire is just cut. Cut at the base of the sensor.... WTF!?? The check engine light never comes on!?? It runs fine??! okay, let's move on..

6.) Peak around under the hood a bit and notice a newer add-on power and ground wire straight off the battery. My immediate thought: "there's probably my drain". Not sure yet, but those wires run under the cowl and into a hole drilled to the fuse box, then exits underneath inside the box. No idea..

7.) Where those are going OUT, a blue wire and white wire are coming IN. WTF??! K, I'm really starting to question this.

8.) I scan the pictures, only to notice #2 and #5 fuses missing. Well, that's a GOOD sign actually. The front end is wrecked a little and the headlights are propped up with wood blocks. The fog lights are cracked as well, so it's good to know the guy has the brains to pull those fuses.

9.) When we were doing the pump adjuster, I happen to focus out further towards my oil filter. "Oh, there's my leaky pressure switch, I wonder where these wires trace to.." *look an inch away* "Why the hell are these CUT?!?!??" Seriously.. WHO THE HELL JUST CUTS THOSE WIRES?!?!?? A few inches back from the cuts, they were even previously spliced!!? I'm done..

10.) Whilst being in an overwhelming state of mind, I take a picture of the defrost wires that are both cut as well, right at the base of both hatch struts. No idea why...

11.) So I fire the ***** up and take my helper of the night to McDonald's at 3:30am... sideways, at most chances I get, of course... lol. Strange **** there, though, too. Now ALL the gauges are acting up. The voltage of course, oil pressure, (I wonder why ) speedo kind of stubles and catches up from a dead stop, mpg didn't work for 5 minutes, then was inaccurate as hell, and my fuel gauge seemed to read 3/4 for a long while, then jumped a bit down to 2/3, where it should be.

I'm not too scared of that, because someone told me they had almost the exact problem, turning out to just be a bad ground. I'm REALLY REALLY leaning to that side with all my problems combined with what I've found tonight. STill, this voltage regulator is going on at some point,regardless. I didn't buy it for nothing. I want to get a quote for rebuilding the whole alternator while I'm at it.

There's even more and more stuff I found, but I can't recall exactly what they are at this point. The next few days are going to be very interesting with my electrical diagnosing.



I stretched the O2 wire up to the box for the picture -->

[Steve Schubert]

The wires going through the fuse box I think are for a after market alarm system. My car had the same thing.

[ae1969]

1. Powersteering bolts love to come loose on these cars. Sometimes its just from excessive vibration (bad mounts) or just cause they like to come loose.............. I check them periodically.

2. Clean the leads forom that starter.

3. You should be able to pick up the 'tunnel brace' from any parts car. Not so much a brace but a support if the torque tube would like to fall. Similar to what you would find in mustangs as f-bodies to keep the driveshafts from falling if you snapped them.

4. IF yours is an 85/2 (updated dash). The studs underneath the car are for the underbody skirts found on the turbo. So you should have quite a few empty studs.

5. It will run fine without the o2 sensor......... so its up to you if you want to replace it.

6. Extra wires can be yanked. They are either after market stereo, alarm, whatever......... follow them and remove them.

7. see 6

8. Ouch ...car seems well taken cared of.

9. Cut oil pressure sender wires.... nice. Should be an easy fix.

10. Uhmmm not sure why anyone would..... Unless they were trying to troubleshooting a battery draw.

11. You are driving this car sideways......... in the condition that it is............ ???

Go through all your grounds.... and clean them up.

[Slam]

This may be redundant, but I'd be chasing all those leaks too. In fact, I'd probably do them first. You can lose the power steering completely and be prefectly happy. The PS system seeems to leak habitually.

[Razorback1980]

Whew, that's quite a list. Looks like you are going to be busy for a while.

[AeroSS_87]

Originally posted by ae1969

11. You are driving this car sideways......... in the condition that it is............ ???

hahah.. I'm not exactly throwing it around hard, but there's like 2 turns between here and mcd's that I just 3/4 throttled it around the turns is all..


Thanks guys.