Actual progress today:
So now the dash has taken the place of the bumper in my kitchen...
Time to dig into the wiring and remove anything that doesn't need to be here.
Actual progress today:
So now the dash has taken the place of the bumper in my kitchen...
Time to dig into the wiring and remove anything that doesn't need to be here.
I have been incredibly derelict with this thread. I hate that, and the worst part is that it's because I've kind of ignored the car for way too long--not just this thread itself.
I kind of lost steam on the car because during covid I got into remodeling my house and that sucked up a ton of my time. When I did have time, fighting with the SC's wiring harness didn't seem like a ton of fun. But I've been making some progress and it's time to get going again.
Then I got a Mark VIII as a new daily driver and I paid attention to the shiny new thing in my life.
Another part of the problem has been "shuffling deck chairs on the deck of the Titanic" syndrome. When I did finally find time to work on the SC, I worked on things that were way less important than getting the wiring all done and the interior back together.
With that in mind:
As I said, individual weight losses at this point are going to be small. But hwiere's a box of wiring I removed from the car.
And here's a more recent box of steel brackets I've eliminated or replaced with aluminum.
One day I was at the junkyard and saw a 97 T-Bird with cloth seats in amazing condition. They were so good I couldn't let them go to the dumpster, so I got them. Just for laughs, I weighed the rear seat and compared it to my stock cloth/leather rear seat. It weighed 3.2 pounds less, and was in nicer shape.
Stock seat:
97 LX seat:
But before installing it, I noticed the steel bracket for the fold-down armrest and decided to replicate it in aluminum. 1 lb 5.6 oz vs. 7.0 oz.
New seat, installed w/aluminum bracket. Total weight loss: 4.15 pounds.
Removed the center rear seatbelt while I was at it. I doubt I've ever had 5 people in this car, and I probably never will.
I'm going to try to be better about making updates. As Brittany Murphy said in Clueless, I hope not sporadically.
To further atone for my slacking, here are some teasers people might like.
Will said:Unless the aftermarket comes out with a tubular front k-member/control arms or a fiberglass decklid, I'm at the point of looking for very small amounts of weight in a lot of places rather than bigger chunks of weight in a few places.
Yeah, about that...AJE revised and re-released their MN12 K-member. Should be right around 30 pounds off the car's nose.
And here's something I picked up that will actually add weight, but it'll be worth it--a T56. And it even has the ultra-rare SBF-pattern aluminum bell housing.
It'll still weigh more overall than the M5R2, but not as much as it would if I had to use an SFI steel bell housing.
This is so cool, nice concept and execution. I love these cars. I worked for a Ford dealership when they first came out, and the boss was always sending me on errands in one, or the Cougar equivalent. I'd love to have one now!
Spent some time in the garage this week. Half of the fun under the hood was that the intercooler, intercooler tubing and PS pulley have to go back on in a certain order because there's so little room in the engine bay. And I had to remember what that order was. It's like PEMDAS.
Got the underhood wiring done--previously, I had the intercooler fan getting power from the daytime running light relay, but I eliminated the DRL wiring (which was a working feature on Canadian cars only). Tied the IC fan power into the ignition coil wire from the main power distribution box.
Got the A-pillar gauges wired back up.
Only things I didn't reinstall were various pieces of fragile interior trim that would just have to come back out if the car didn't fire...and the car isn't firing. Lights, gauges, IC fan, etc. seem to be working, but the starter isn't even clicking. The starter was sticky even before I took the car apart, so it could just be that. But I'm not going to be surprised at all if it's related to some of the wiring I removed. Will have to spend some time investigating, seeing what works and what doesn't.
Writing this down as much for my own reference as anything else. Stuff that works:
Things that are wonky:
Things that don't work at all:
Voltmeter drops appropriately when the key is turned to crank. IC fan slows, but absolutely nothing happens w/the starter.
Found one orphaned wiring connector in the driver's side footwell but this is almost certainly the parking brake switch for automatic cars. Irritated I didn't delete it.
I'll investigate more in the morning.
Parking light situation was a bad headlight switch. Had a spare. Problem fixed.
Nothing electrical in the doors works.
With all of the lights in the rear inop, I'd chase down a connector that is common to all of them, or check if they all share a ground.
In reply to jfryjfry :
Yes--I just tracked it down to the primary junction block. The two halves of the connector actually bolt together and the bolt wasn't even finger tight. Tightened it up and saw the kick panel light come on. Grabbed the keys and the car fired right up!
The interior is all back together except for the trim that goes around the instrument cluster and the knee panel. The gauge surround is incredibly fragile, so I'm going to make sure everything's working right before I attempt to reinstall it. And the knee panel has to go in after that piece.
I think it's time for a test drive.
Lol.
Just took the car for a drive around the block. It's a big block.
Back in November 2020 I wrote I was taking the car apart because the odometer wasn't working. Guess what's still not working? The odometer.
Made it through all the gears but didn't push hard because the gas in the tank is old, the car is low on methanol boost juice, and the knock sensor on these cars is somewhere between primitive and useless. Don't think I got above maybe 1-2 pounds boost. I was being gentle. But everything seems to be working.
Then the car died the second I pulled back into the driveway. I'm 99% sure the alternator is bad. I wasn't keeping an eye on the voltmeter during the drive, but it sure acted as if the battery was dead, and it fired right up from a jump box.
But hey, I drove the car for the first time in 2.5 years. It's a win.
And I've got a new-in-box alternator on the shelf. Hope it's still good.
Lol.
That car looks great on the Enkeis, somehow they make the car's lines look faster..
After spending some time on the trickle charger it fired right up, so I'm pretty confident the alternator is the issue. The tiny battery I use probably doesn't have a whole lot more capacity than the jump box I used after it died.
Just weighed the car, and it was 3380. Which is more than it's weighed in the past, so it just has a bit more fuel on board than usual. I'll swap out the alternator, and if that fixes the issue, I'll burn off the old gas and weigh it again before I get a refill.
Very cool.
This car is great, glad to see it make a comeback.
I let the car idle for a bit and the voltage dropped from 13.5 volts when I took it off the charger to around 11.8. Decided to replace the alternator and it's reading around 12.4. Will let it charge overnight and try again, but I'm not sure I trust the replacement alternator yet.
Just went for the same test drive loop I took two nights ago. I pulled the car off the trickle charger right before I left and tested the battery terminals at 13.5 volts. I made it back into my garage, but barely. The battery light was on and the battery read 10.7 volts after the drive.
If the old alternator was bad, the new one is too. That wouldn't surprise me a ton--it's "new" but has been in a drawer in my garage since 2008-ish. I need to test one or both to see if that's what's going on.
Also possible the aluminum alternator pulley is slipping. Not sure how likely that is, but putting the steel pulley back on is an easy enough test.
The battery seems to hold a charge from the battery tender fine, so a bad battery isn't my first guess. But maybe. Possible I've got one of those bad-battery -ills-alternator death loops.
Or I could have done something to the wiring that's causing the problem.
Open to other suggestions.
Did you accidentally trim out the alternator turn on wire? If you didn't, is it in line with the battery light circuit?
In reply to Ranger50 :
Not on purpose, but I'll check to see if I cut it on accident. Don't think I touched that part of the harness, but it's possible.
But I'm going on vacation for about 2 weeks starting Friday, so diagnosis/repair may have to wait.
Tonight was the first time I had the time and ambition to investigate the charging problem since I got back from vacation. I checked the 175 amp fuse between the alternator and battery and it's blown. I remember at some point during the rewiring project breaking or losing or something the car's original fuse, so I stole the one from my 95 LX. And once I got to thinking about it, the reason I parked that car years back is it would kill an alternator, then a battery, then an alternator, and so on. So this fuse was almost certainly bad when I installed it.
Anyway, I'm hoping it's that and not something else I did during all the wiring work. Should be able to get a new one and test it tomorrow.
The car seems to be fixed. The instrument cluster voltmeter reads dead in the middle and a hand-held voltmeter showed 14.4 volts across the battery terminals when running. Took it for the same short test drive loop as before and all seems well. Got into the boost enough to verify the methanol system is activating as it should. Think the only problem at this point is the odometer gears.
Edit: wanted to say that maybe the fuse should have been the super obvious culprit, but I had made a bad assumption that this fuse basically controlled power distribution to the whole car. I didn't think the car would even run without it. Honestly, I'm not really that smart at electrical stuff. Fact is I probably should have never attempted messing with the wiring harness given my knowledge base, but hey...somehow it worked out.
Drove the SC to breakfast this morning, changed the oil, mixed up some new methanol and put the car on my scales: new weight is 3,358. That more or less tracks with where it should be based on what I removed, but I'd sure love to see it under 3,350.
Swapped in the speedometer from my non-running 95 LX and the odometer works. Guess it's possible I just forgot about repairing the SC's odometer when the project scope creep kicked in.
With that, I reinstalled the dash trim and kick panel, and the car is now 100% complete.
Proof of life: took the SC to cars and coffee today.
Had this conversation today at a light with a guy in an S10:
HEY MAN I LIKE YOUR T-BIRD WHAT YOU GOT IN THAT THING A 5-OH?
No, supercharged 4.3 V-6.
VEE 6 I THOUGHT IT WAS A 5-OH IT SOUNDS GOOD THOUGH
Oh, and my odometer quit working again, so at some point I need to find the ambition to tear the dash apart again.
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