In reply to wvumtnbkr :
Thanks!
The tach hasn't worked during my ownership of Guac and the PO who flipped it says that it worked beforehand. These cars have their BCM in the passenger footwell and another big connector down low in the driver's footwell. From my internet research, it seems common for these areas to get wet, corrode and cause all types of issues. Considering Guac was less than water-tight and sitting outside for quite a while when I bought her, I started down this path. What I think is called the X15 connector on the driver's side had a bit of corrosion so I soaked it down with WD40, plugged, unplugged, soaked more and left it sit while we were out of town. No change. No more visible corrosion in the plug itself but I need to actually take the plug apart and examine better. Today I took a look at the BCM plugs. They all look clean so I removed it and checked inside to find...
I have no idea the flow of things on this board but that's some good corrosion. I soaked it down and encouraged it to come off gently with a brush but I'm not holding my breath. That one component on the left-hand side that looks burned up still looks a bit burned after cleaning. A new BCM is hundreds of dollars and I gather than even if I buy a good used one it has to be re-programmed at a dealer.
So I'll go down this route for a bit and see what I find but I don't have high hopes. The next option may be an after market tach if I can figure out which pin provides the tach signal.
Separately, I got half of the windshield trim back on. I need to get replacement clips for the driver's side and, yes, I totally think that's worth the budget hit.
Just popping in to say this car is berkeleying cool and you're doing good work.
Thanks guys, much appreciated! I was traveling for work much of last week and it's been berkeleying cold so not much has been done. That said, I spent some quality time freezing my ass off this afternoon. The missing clips came in so now all of the windshield trim is in.
I then spent some time digging through the wiring on this poor car and realized I forgot to mention this.
What you're looking at is a splice that runs from the BCM over to...somewhere... on the driver's side. I haven't yet tracked where it's going exactly but needless to say this car has had electrical issues in the past.
I also realized this afternoon that a friend of mine has access to just about any wiring diagram there is so hopefully I'll have it in hand tomorrow afternoon and I can troubleshoot with actual information, not just Googled information.
In reply to AxeHealey :
I'd google "wiring TSB" for whatever year and model that thing started out as. That could be an authorized repair.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to AxeHealey :
I'd google "wiring TSB" for whatever year and model that thing started out as. That could be an authorized repair.
Considering they used the correct wire color/stripe you could be right. Good thinking. Lots of looping of the wire and zip ties were involved I'm guessing as a way to minimize stress on the wire although it looks ridiculous.
I've been crazy busy and my friend hasn't been able to get me the wiring diagram but I've been picking away at the tach issue here and there.
I have now confirmed that there is continuity across all six wires that run from the speedo to the tach.
Confirmed speedo ground.
There is 6v at the power wire for the tach with the key on. This may be an issue - not sure at this point if I need 12v there or if 6v is expected.
What I cannot get is a ground from the ground pin in at the tach. Although I don't know what wizardry goes on inside the speedo computer, that seems odd to me.
I'd also like to take this plug apart but can't figure out how. It looks like there's some corrosion inside and I want to clean it out. Anyone know how? I'm guessing it's simple and I'm an idiot but that larger piece that the female side clips to seems to need to pull off to let the wires and pins slide out.
My internet research has told me that fuse 21 in the main fuse block is what provides the speedometer with power. Fuse 21 has 12V on both sides of the fuse 99% of the time. That fuse dings continuity every single time. A couple times I've been not totally still and have seen 6V there - not sure if that's me or a wiggly wire. Again, from internet research, the RD/YW wire from that connector runs up to the speedometer (PIN15) which is where I found 6v yesterday.
Interestingly, I still get a 6v reading there but there is no continuity between the RD/YW wire at the fuse block and the speedo plug... This is assuming the plug at the fuse block I'm working with is the correct one.
Potentially related but also potentially unrelated, there is 12v power at the green wire in PIN16 of the speedo plug.
I write all this out so a) if I lose the piece of paper I've been writing my notes on, it's still here and b) in case someone in the GRMiverse knows exactly what I should be looking for. I'm not sure if I have any scotch locks because I really don't like them but I'm considering just sending 12v directly to PIN 7 of the tachometer to see what that does.
Edit: More findings. There IS continuity between the RD/YW wire at the fuse block and the green wire that has 12v at the speedo plug. There is also continuity from the RD/YW wire at the fuse block all the way up to the power wire at the speedo that is showing 6v.
So, either something in line is messed up causing a voltage drop from 12v to 6v or the tach is supposed to run off 6v and is toast.
Anyone?
Fresh post because Pete confirmed the obvious that no, the tach isn't supposed to run on 6v. I ran a wire directly from the positive post of the battery, jammed it into the tach plug aaaaannnnndddd
Success! I don't have any of the connectors needed to actually run power but that's the plan.
I suppose I don't know whether or not it'll actually tach but the needle jumped as I would expect it to and I would think all other inputs from the speedo would be good.
The tach tachs!
It's interesting having a thermometer in the garage. That's about 10 degrees warmer than the outside temp. Now, is it accurate?
The BCM (or whatever BMW calls it) in Colin is labeled "BLUE MINI" with Sharpie so clearly one of the previous owners was playing musical parts.
It still seems silly to me to have the control module on the right, the fuse box on the left, and a wrist thick rope of wiring across the firewall to connect the two.
On the other hand, like 75% of the wires in the car could have been eliminated if BMW had embraced CAN communications, like almost everyone else had by MY2000. Even the window switches use discrete heavy gauge wires to go to and fro. Madness. And this in a vehicle that NEEDS computer control of the windows for the doors to open and close! Were it not for that, everything would have been E36 M3canned.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:
The BCM (or whatever BMW calls it) in Colin is labeled "BLUE MINI" with Sharpie so clearly one of the previous owners was playing musical parts.
It still seems silly to me to have the control module on the right, the fuse box on the left, and a wrist thick rope of wiring across the firewall to connect the two.
Yeah I've found that this generation Mini almost literally cannot escape finicky electronics mostly due to water intrusion.
The only thing I can figure about the BCM on one side and fuse block on the other is packaging. Still, that "rope" of wire, as you say, is totally ridiculous.
It has a week in the Axe household. Various people sick, many work obligations, etc. etc. but as I always try to, I've been picking away.
Guac now has fresh rotors and Hawk HPS pads all the way around. The brakes looked to be pretty fresh EBC reds but I figured, why not.
Remember how I said these cantilever slicks were closer enough that tire deflection would be an issue?
That's the passenger side. The driver's side just has a few scrub marks.
This afternoon I pulled some green off the shelf and sprayed the lower wing mounts/tow hooks.
I'm really not a fan of this color - it's one I bought to respray the E21 valance at one point. I may re-spray with a different green.
My 5 year old and I have been working on the livery which is not quite ready for prime time yet but it'll be very cool.
Idk what bolt pattern this is but i picked up a set of the "universal" slip on 3/8"ish wheel spacers at the bin store for 3 bucks last week if you need them
In reply to Patrick :
The SM tires will fit with no issue but thanks, man.
While I think through what, if any, additional aero stuff I'm going to do, it's just plugging away on things I know I want to get done. An hour yesterday and a 5 min work break this morning meant getting the wiring behind the dash tidied up. From the factory, it seems, some of the wiring is wrapped above the dash support. With no dash board that looked messy. There's also a ton of now unused wiring back there that I'm definitely not going through the process of removing. It's now all behind the dash support and secured.
Another job checked off the list - an actual mount for the kill switch. I'm not sure where the switch was originally mounted but the three cables that connect to it are wildly varying in length so it's always felt messy. I re-ran two of the wires and actually looped them under the dash because there's no way I'm shortening them and putting on new ends but it turned out neat enough. I don't love the one wire coming straight down from the dash support but I don't know if it's worth my time to totally re-run it. We'll see if it bugs me enough.
The mount itself is made from part of the old hood hinges. There's still some cleanup to do and I'll paint it but, not bad for $0 budget hit.
The washers, nuts and bolts also came off of the car somewhere.
The top of the battery box is broken so I need a battery hold down. Re-enter the old sway bar end links and some washers that came off the car.
I initially made it with the intention of sandwiching some sort of rubber between the hold down and the battery but getting the gap even across the top wasn't going to happen which meant to me it wouldn't really be strong enough. I chopped a vertical section out of the left side (in the first picture) and tacked it back together. It now tightens down directly to the battery.
Should have time to finish weld and clean up tomorrow.
dude i can't wait to see this car in person
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
I can assure you Guac is blushing out in the garage right now.
AxeHealey said:
While I think through what, if any, additional aero stuff I'm going to do, it's just plugging away on things I know I want to get done.
There's a good argument to be made to leave the aero "as is" for now... until you can get it out to test it. then make some changes if necessary.
In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
I think I'll run with that argument aside from maybe end plates for the wing. With 44 days until I hit the road and more things added to my calendar on a daily basis, I'd like to keep the to-do list from growing as much as possible.
Not pictured - I bought brand new pneumatic rams for the tailgate since the ones off the car don't ram under about 40 degrees. The ends are larger than the OEM ones so they were getting knocked out of place as the tailgate rotated. A hole cut on the inside of the tailgate gave them room to pivot. Now the tailgate shoots up like it wants to go to the moon. I may put a limiting strap on it.
AxeHealey said:
In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
I think I'll run with that argument aside from maybe end plates for the wing.
I've had success with "double thickness" luan ply end plates that have survived to 130+mph. what's the chord on that wing again?
