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RichBall
Jedi Trainee
Offline
Well this past weekend was a weekend of first for us. It was the first time I washed and vacuumed the Midget. My focus has been on mechanical versus appearance so far and have either been fixing things or driving it. Haven't been too worried about cleaning it. The reason for giving it a good cleaning was another first and that was entering it into it's first car show on Saturday. Now some of you have seen my car and know it's not "show" worthy, but the Bellevue ABFM is a "bring 'um if you've got 'um" type of thing. Since we got our car running last spring for the first time since 1986 I thought it would be fun. It was. The last first for the weekend and one that almost kept us out of the show was having the car leave us stranded for the first time at 10:30 Friday night.
Susan told me when we first got the car running that she would never be mad if the car left us stranded as long as I kept a pair of walking shoes for her in the trunk. I had my tools with me, so while I fiddled with the car she slipped on her walking shoes. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Well she was right in that I wasn't able to figure out the short that was blowing the fuse so off we walked so I could consult the manual and wiring diagram. I need to make a copy of that to keep in the car.
The problem was a combination of things. First was that somewhere in the cars past an electronic fuel pump was add to replace the mechanical pump. When they wired it in they pirated the green lead to the reverse lights switch for power instead of running power from the white side as it is on the cars that came equipped with electric fuel pumps. By moving the power take off to the white circuit the I was able to get it back home, but still had a problem. If I had a fuse in the green circuit the car would start when the key was turned to the on position and the starter would not disengage. Mind you I didn't turn the key to the start position, just to the on position. So the next morning I spent a few more hours of consulting the wirering diagram and systematically eliminating branches of the green circuit I traced the problem down to the branch that carries the diodes for the warning lights. Specifically the one for the catalytic converter I believe. One end of the diode is connected to the same ignition switch lead the runs up to the starter solenoid. When the key was turned to the on position and the green circuit was energized, power was moving through the diode and energizing the solenoid and thus the starter. I need to test the diode to be sure, but with the problem isolated we headed of to the ABFM
A weekend of firsts.
Susan told me when we first got the car running that she would never be mad if the car left us stranded as long as I kept a pair of walking shoes for her in the trunk. I had my tools with me, so while I fiddled with the car she slipped on her walking shoes. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Well she was right in that I wasn't able to figure out the short that was blowing the fuse so off we walked so I could consult the manual and wiring diagram. I need to make a copy of that to keep in the car.
The problem was a combination of things. First was that somewhere in the cars past an electronic fuel pump was add to replace the mechanical pump. When they wired it in they pirated the green lead to the reverse lights switch for power instead of running power from the white side as it is on the cars that came equipped with electric fuel pumps. By moving the power take off to the white circuit the I was able to get it back home, but still had a problem. If I had a fuse in the green circuit the car would start when the key was turned to the on position and the starter would not disengage. Mind you I didn't turn the key to the start position, just to the on position. So the next morning I spent a few more hours of consulting the wirering diagram and systematically eliminating branches of the green circuit I traced the problem down to the branch that carries the diodes for the warning lights. Specifically the one for the catalytic converter I believe. One end of the diode is connected to the same ignition switch lead the runs up to the starter solenoid. When the key was turned to the on position and the green circuit was energized, power was moving through the diode and energizing the solenoid and thus the starter. I need to test the diode to be sure, but with the problem isolated we headed of to the ABFM
A weekend of firsts.
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