New 2 L - a host of issues, a new one every day!

[Gypsie]

Mitch,

Sorry you are being swamped with this stuff. Step back have a cool beverage of your choice.

find which wires are toast. Maybe they have been the culprit the whole time.

In any case, breathing room is needed for a few.

Ohhhhmmmm....

[Amskeptic]

The hits just keep coming.
I cleaned up the trans-ground strap. I had Melissa turn the key on and tried to jump the starter. Melissa hollered that she had a lot of smoke coming from under the dash. I took a look and sure enough a couple wires melted under there.

I'm at my wit's f*cking end with this thing.

We normally don't have anyone at the ignition key when testing the starter because we don't want the engine to fire.

87A we can ignore.

30 power supply to the fuel pump is spliced in downstream of the fuse to give the pump fused protection. That means that the side of the fuse that leads directly to the heater blower is the protected side, because the other side of the fuse has a wire that is coming directly from the starter solenoid Sandwich Of Wires under the 13mm nut, which is not fused.

[BellePlaine]

I'm at my wit's f*cking end with this thing.

I'm sure that it's just growing pains as your new engine and Ludwig get acquainted. They'll soon realize that they need each other. We’re pulling for you.

[whc03grady]

Spanning the bolt to the spade on the starter did nothing more than melt some wires under the dash. I am completely over my head.

Heck, Mitch, that sucks and makes no sense. When we pull the wire from the ignition switch off the spade so we can get the wrench to span the nut on the solenoid to the spade, the entire front of the car is out of the loop. Burning up wires under the dash sounds like some hideous grounding issue. Yikes.

Uh, I didn't pull the wire from the ignition off the spade.

[Lanval]

Spanning the bolt to the spade on the starter did nothing more than melt some wires under the dash. I am completely over my head.

Heck, Mitch, that sucks and makes no sense. When we pull the wire from the ignition switch off the spade so we can get the wrench to span the nut on the solenoid to the spade, the entire front of the car is out of the loop. Burning up wires under the dash sounds like some hideous grounding issue. Yikes.

Uh, I didn't pull the wire from the ignition off the spade.

At least you know the wiring was carrying the load! Now fix/replace the wires, and the next time you try it, take the spade off so the start switch is out of the loop.

Best,

Mike

[whc03grady]

Colin walked me through this and we seem to have found the culprit: the wires at the chokes had gotten hot, and the right one came off altogether. So, if I understand it correctly, the short caused by the wire burning off at the right choke overloaded the wire up at the front of the bus. The non-working choke was probably also the cause of the stumbling experienced when the bus did run. Wire replacement will commence no later than Friday. I'll also splice in a relay for the fuel pump at that time.
Question: why would those wires at the chokes gotten hot to begin with?

[Amskeptic]

why would those wires at the chokes gotten hot to begin with?

Any time you have a resistance circuit like a heater element, the wire connections must be tight and clean. If the crimp connector got yanked or loosened, heat gets generated due to unwanted resistance at the crimp. I like a little solder and heat-shrink when doing a Premium Deluxe Engine Wiring Job.
Colin

[whc03grady]

I replaced all the wires and connectors between the chokes, mixture box [sic?], and coil. Of course it started right up and so I took it for a little run. It ran pretty well. There were a few backfires, not your stereotypical gunshots but muffled "thamp"s. These would occur more predictably when letting off the accelerator (between gears, for instance) but I swear I heard a few while just tooling along at 62 on the highway.
I randomly felt the wires going into the steering "column" and while there was definite warmth, I could've held onto them as long as you'd like. The other day, when they would get hot, I couldn't've done this. The new wires back at the carbs looked exactly as I'd installed them.
After I got home and shut it off, it did seem very hot. Like, the engine lid was hot, the bumper was hot, the air coming out of the passenger side air intake smelled hot. Just hot, like hot metal, not particularly oily smelling or anything. When I opened the lid, there was some wispy light smoke issuing from an indeterminate location (I wonder if I'm still burning off some oil from when it was hemorrhaging oil at the pass. side valve cover during run-in; or, maybe some of the "high-heat" paint is curing (or burning off)). Ambient temperatures during the drive was just under 90F.
So, there's my report.

[Amskeptic]

I replaced all the wires and connectors between the chokes, mixture box [sic?], and coil. Of course it started right up and so I took it for a little run. It ran pretty well. There were a few backfires, not your stereotypical gunshots but muffled "thamp"s. These would occur more predictably when letting off the accelerator (between gears, for instance) but I swear I heard a few while just tooling along at 62 on the highway.
I randomly felt the wires going into the steering "column" and while there was definite warmth, I could've held onto them as long as you'd like. The other day, when they would get hot, I couldn't've done this. The new wires back at the carbs looked exactly as I'd installed them.
After I got home and shut it off, it did seem very hot. Like, the engine lid was hot, the bumper was hot, the air coming out of the passenger side air intake smelled hot. Just hot, like hot metal, not particularly oily smelling or anything. When I opened the lid, there was some wispy light smoke issuing from an indeterminate location (I wonder if I'm still burning off some oil from when it was hemorrhaging oil at the pass. side valve cover during run-in; or, maybe some of the "high-heat" paint is curing (or burning off)). Ambient temperatures during the drive was just under 90F.
So, there's my report.

I can't remember any more ... ... did we put in a new thermostat? Have you determined that it opens all the way when warm? Was it over 90* today? New pistons and rings?
ColinItIS100*Here

[whc03grady]

Did we put in a new thermostat?

It's a new Type I thermostat.

Have you determined that it opens all the way when warm?

No--I just get the engine nice and warm and go back and see if the flaps have any more open up in them right? If yes, then the thermostat isn't opening up, if no, then it is. Oui?

Was it over 90* today?

It was 90 +/- 4 today.

New pistons and rings?

Yes, yes.

We took it the four blocks to enter him in the weekly car show downtown (didn't win) and he was a hard start, lots of cranking.

[whc03grady]

We took a longer drive today, over 50 miles all told. Except for the issues below, it seemingly ran fine; no lack of power or anything. It was hot (ca. 90F), vehicle was lightly loaded, 91 octane gas, lots of hills, lots of wind, but 60 mph was no problem except on the steepest hill, going into the wind.

Issues:
1.0 strange starter noise, like some sort of prairie bird calling for a mate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb_Iiy4DGgU
It does start though.
2.0 oil light really likes to come on at idle, especially after highway running but anytime really
2.1 the oil is overfull, if anything
2.2 once, it came on and didn't go away right away when I blipped the accelerator; it went off after maybe ten seconds of my holding the rpms up.
3.0 vehicle likes to die, or try to die, when you let off the gas after being at speed for a time
4.0 poppety pop pop poppety pop like crazy at idle, occasionally when you let off the gas, very rarely at speed for no good reason at all

[airkooledchris]

that's a really odd starter noise. hopefully someone who's heard it before can chime in and point out something obvious....
and I don't know carbs, so im not sure about 3 or 4 either.

for the oil light, it sounds like the sender could be faulty if you know the pressure *should* be fine and it isn't low on oil.
at any rate it's probably easier (and cheaper) to rule out that the alternatives with a swapped in used/new one.

if you can replicate the behavior with a new sender, then move on to more complicated issues

[whc03grady]

5.0 thermostat doesn't fully collapse, even after being in the freezer overnight
I wonder if I strrrretched it out and subsequently broke it when I installed it? Is such a thing possible?

[chachi]

...

[whc03grady]

I never liked that fuel pump wiring. I don't like running fuel pump off of coils, not only because of the safety issues, but you are running the pump through the ignition switch.

I like our little relay deal.
30= nicely spliced power lead from heater blower wire after its fuse
87= wire to (+) pump
86= wire from blue wire connector at regulator
85= ground to relay mount on firewall

sorry, this seems newb-esque, but are these numbers the electrical diagram numbers? are they the same for all years? i am also trying to solve a similar problem and would like to get this fuel pump safe, as it too is running off the coil as of now.

They are the numbers appearing on many more or less generic relays that you can find at your FLAPS. It seems that about a third of the relays in existence--ACVW or no--have those numbers on them.