| Re: Progress on the 79 project car |
Subject: Re: Progress on the 79 project car by Matatk on 2009/10/5 2:29:05 Started today at around 8 am. I already removed the old alpine that was damaged and started the wiring. Old alpine was never hooked up to the antenna for some reason and I couldn't find the trigger wire.  Had to do a little surgery and open up the entire console to find it. For future reference, anyone looking it is a yellow wire and you can trace it back to the antenna relay under the parking brake.  Glad I opened up the center console. I found several wiring harnesses not even attached. WTF? Bubba was here.... Turns out this one is related to the anti-theft system....which has been disabled in this car in multiple places   The black one on the left I disconnected - that goes to the gauge cluster. The black one on the right is for the hvac controls....now they work properly:  Once I got the trigger wire hooked up (and knocked the relay a couple times to loosen up the oxidation inside) I could hear the relay trigger from the stereo turning on. Still no antenna, so onto that. Here's what I found:  Hmmmmm....cut wires with no factory connections and a bubbafied mounting bracket. This looks interesting. Turns out the antenna is an aftermarket universal replacement with a two wire hookup as opposed to the factory three wire. From playing with it I determined the antenna works off of one constant hot wire with a trigger wire and has internal limits for up and down. One more thing to add to the list since the factory wiring won't work now.... On top of that, there is horrible reception (with both radios). Antenna is hooked up and wire is connected. I have no idea why. I might have to put a signal booster on it. Do all C3s have poor reception? Add it to the list. Decided to move onto wiring in the engine. There is a CTS in the block, but it has the wrong connection terminal. Should be a flat male blade. So I tried to hook it up to see if it will work:  Good news is that the gauge starting working once hooked up. Bad news is that the CTS is the wrong one and the reading is completely wrong. Unfortunately GM discontinued the correct sensor so I have to find an after market one. That and remove the headers to get it out. This should be a fun job....add it to the list. How about a quick job I couldn't screw up? Starter blanket. Went on in about 30 seconds. Awesome. After the test drive I tried to restart again. Did better than before but looks like the starter is shot. Add it to the list.    Next on the agenda was brakes. The "check brakes" light was illuminated on the dashboard at all times. I checked the front brakes and the p/s caliper was replaced recently before the car was parked. D/S appeared to have uneven pad taped from the pistons so I decided to replace it. Remaned caliper at AZ is $63, so I picked that up with some new pads from carquest. Old:  New:   I also bled the front and rears. Rear p/s might have a seal leak, not sure. Rear d/s was replaced at some point in the last 10 years or so and seems to be fine. No leaks in the lines that I could tell, but when underneath the car I noticed the front seal for the diff has a small leak that is covering the bottom of the car. Add it to the list. From the FSM found out the brake light on the dash is related to the parking brake or the brake pressure switch mounted in a junction box under the m/c. Disconnected it and determined the light is a faulty switch or ground in the line (per FSM). No parts store had it, probably discontinued and it'll stay unhooked. After I was all done I took it for a test drive. Rolled the windows down, but couldn't get the p/s back up. Pulled the console again, the wire for the up control had broken out of the connector. Add it to the list. As you can see, for every job I finish, two more go on the list. Oh well, they don't call it a project for nothin'! Matthew |
