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Project basket case 94 Z28, racing wheel/ 3rd brake light/ body/ audio/and lots more!
So I picked up a 94 Z28 and an 06 GTO last month, The Z28 I figured would be a bit of a project but I got it pretty damn cheap so it was hard to pass up. Whoever owned it previous to me did a combination of great work, and it seems like another PO did some horribly shoddy redneck type $***. So despite the fact that I'm not trying to make this into a show car, I'd like to bring it up to decent driver quality. I'm going to need your help with a few things because despite the fact that this is my 2nd LT1 f-body and 3rd total, some of these issues I've never had to deal with before. So lets begin!
First order of business, the car came with some JDM looking drivers seat installed and no seatbelt buckles or hardware. Thankfully the guy still had the OEM seat so I went about taking it out to see what I was dealing with and lets just say that I'm rarely surprised at people's stupidity, but it was held in like this:
Using a combo of 20c grade 5 home depot bolts with no pattern on the head, a motorcycle triple tree clamp, and plumbing hardware along with drilling holes through the body we have this right here.. I did a junkyard run and got all the seat belt hardware I needed and have since reinstalled the original seat with all belts/ buckles. Do the two wires going to the DS seat buckle do anything? As you can see they had been cut.
I have ABS, cruise control, and airbag inop lights on the dash. The airbag light I'll get to in the next post, thought I'm more than sure the ABS and cruise are a result of the 3rd brake light situation. Its got some LED lamp that has zero markings or stamping on it, this is what I saw when I pulled it from the spoiler:
The light appears to be on, but thats just sunlight reflecting off of it. It doesn't work so I placed something heavy on the brake pedal and checked voltage from the harness- its getting power. I'm assuming the light is no good? Unless there is something else I can try since I know there are issues using an LED light with regards to resistance and splicing in a relay. Any suggestions on how to proceed before getting a new light?
Now that we are taking care of the safety items, theres something else that would be convenient to have in a streetcar..... A working horn perhaps? As you saw in one of the previous pictures, it's got a Pilot aftermarket steering wheel. I removed the wheel and adapter to find this:
He gave me the OEM wheel and it doesn't have any steering wheel controls. Any guesses as to what the cut white and green wires are for? The pin for the horn with the wires is missing, is there anything else I'll need apart from that? Long shot but does anyone have those pieces by any chance? Looks like another junkyard run is in my future..
One thing that confuses me, take a look at the picture of the wheel in my lap. Its got two horn buttons on the actual wheel, and the center button. how do you wire up the center horn button? Oh, and anyone know what type of resistor I'll need to get the airbag light to turn off?
More basket case things to come... Thanks for any suggestions!
Now that we are taking care of the safety items, theres something else that would be convenient to have in a streetcar..... A working horn perhaps? As you saw in one of the previous pictures, it's got a Pilot aftermarket steering wheel. I removed the wheel and adapter to find this:
He gave me the OEM wheel and it doesn't have any steering wheel controls. Any guesses as to what the cut white and green wires are for? The pin for the horn with the wires is missing, is there anything else I'll need apart from that? Long shot but does anyone have those pieces by any chance? Looks like another junkyard run is in my future..
One thing that confuses me, take a look at the picture of the wheel in my lap. Its got two horn buttons on the actual wheel, and the center button. how do you wire up the center horn button? Oh, and anyone know what type of resistor I'll need to get the airbag light to turn off?
More basket case things to come... Thanks for any suggestions!
no steering wheel controls on the 93-96, just a horn wire is all it should be and air bag.
Can anyone tell me what the pin is called that goes into the round slot for the horn? I believe it slots into the turn signal cam, correct?
Okay so I see that its called a steering wheel horn button contact, but I can't find the right part number for anything f-body related. Are these all the same? I know some years like 03+ are different but trying to confirm. Edit: Found the part # 17999094 but it looks different from the connector I pulled from my 95 when I changed the turn signal cam and springs.
If anyone has thei piece laying around from a junk column I would LOVE you if I could take it off your hands.
Also: How the hell do I remove the steering wheel adapter short of fabbing up my own puller? The ones I see you can rent are only for 2 holes which wont work. I need to remove it to see whats going on with the airbag wires and something is rubbing on the column outside assembly causing the steering to be notchy.
Last edited by nitroheadz28; 02-26-2019 at 07:50 PM.
Thats some pretty sweet back woods bolt pile **** right there hahah, but otherwise looks like a pretty decent car! The wheel adapter, just get a smaller hub puller and put three bolts in it and pop it off. Or, bolt the wheel back on, no center nut and "rock" it back & fourth and it should pop off, sometimes placing the nut on a few turns and having some one tap it with a hammer will get it to let go. I've popped many a wheel that way. I'll dig through my pictures and see if I can see what you need from when I put a grant on my car. I know the aftermarket adapters will rub the outer housing on the column so they need to be trimmed.
The third brake light shoudln't have anything to do with the ABS and Cruise lights on. If you can get a hold of a scanner that can read ABS codes, that would help in narrowing down the diagnostic path. Check all your fuses too. There shouldn't be any need for anything extra on a LED 3rd brake light, the resistors and flashers are for LED turn signals as they don't create enough load for the flasher to operate correctly.
The third brake light shoudln't have anything to do with the ABS and Cruise lights on. If you can get a hold of a scanner that can read ABS codes, that would help in narrowing down the diagnostic path. Check all your fuses too. There shouldn't be any need for anything extra on a LED 3rd brake light, the resistors and flashers are for LED turn signals as they don't create enough load for the flasher to operate correctly.
Thats what I thought initially but ABS is definitely on the same circuit and it appears cruise is too. I ordered a new brake light and will update when I hook it up, the light I tested on the car is getting power and from my research there shouldn't be anything stopping it from lighting up. Just not sure how the housing got all melted.
Regarding the wheel adapter, you're right. After more research I realized thats what was causing my steering to be notchy with added effort. Continuing with the backwoods theme of the car, I spaced out the shroud with 2 washers on each bolt and now the car can be steered with your pinky. I also bought an LS1 steering shaft since the rag joint results in about 1.5" of play so I'm really excited to transform the handling with that
I'm currently focusing on the emissions situation with this thing as I need to get it to pass California smog to register it, but have slowly been fixing odds & ends.
Thats what I thought initially but ABS is definitely on the same circuit and it appears cruise is too. I ordered a new brake light and will update when I hook it up, the light I tested on the car is getting power and from my research there shouldn't be anything stopping it from lighting up. Just not sure how the housing got all melted.
Regarding the wheel adapter, you're right. After more research I realized thats what was causing my steering to be notchy with added effort. Continuing with the backwoods theme of the car, I spaced out the shroud with 2 washers on each bolt and now the car can be steered with your pinky. I also bought an LS1 steering shaft since the rag joint results in about 1.5" of play so I'm really excited to transform the handling with that
I'm currently focusing on the emissions situation with this thing as I need to get it to pass California smog to register it, but have slowly been fixing odds & ends.
Remember you need to "re-clcok" the ls1 joint. I did a ls1 shaft in my car when I had everything apart to make header clearance better. Just picked up another one as I found out one of the u joint's is failing and has a bunch of slop in it.
Remember you need to "re-clcok" the ls1 joint. I did a ls1 shaft in my car when I had everything apart to make header clearance better. Just picked up another one as I found out one of the u joint's is failing and has a bunch of slop in it.
Yep, I've done this mod on my 95 LT1 and it transformed the car. More excited for this one because it has some suspension on it already.
What I'm not sure of is the steering wheel is off by 10* or so, the car tracks perfectly straight. So I'm not exactly sure where to make an adjustment. I suppose I'll just make sure the wheels are as straight as possible and index the steering shaft accordingly with the wheel locked on center.
Last edited by nitroheadz28; 07-16-2019 at 07:30 PM.
UPDATE:
Decent bit of progress...... and setbacks. I had the throw out bearing let go a month ago leaving me stranded and a host of other issues, also suffered a hit & run while I was out of town. I'd like to get your advice on what to do. I managed to track down the driver with some serious detective work (Dominos driver hit it after a delivery to a neighbor, thankfully a few neighbors saw bits and pieces of the accident and him mulling around. After staking out Dominos, finding the car/ driver and putting the pressure on a bunch of different people up the chain of command we have success! Waiting on the adjuster to get back to me. Take a look at the damage and let me know your thoughts on if you think it will be salvaged/ if I should bother fixing/ if a paintless dent guy can pop out the damage.
Last edited by nitroheadz28; 07-16-2019 at 07:04 PM.
Also, here is a copy of what I've done with the car and plans for it. It had the Hotchkis and Bilstein gear on, intake/exhaust, LEDs, and sound system in when I bought it. The rest I've been going through slowly. Goal is to have a very well rounded street car with a focus on handling and decent power. Anything you'd change? Remember I'm in California so smog is an issue, and getting over 400whp would probably be a struggle since it still needs to pass smog on shorties and reasonable cam.
-LED interior/ exterior minus rear tails/ rear markers
-C6 17" rep wheels
-Sun visors out of non fbody remounted
-Alpine type S all around, stealthbox, MTX sub, BT DVD head unit
-Dynamat back half of car
-Seatbelts/ anchor bolts/ buckles added
-Pilot leather racing wheel
-Horn wired up
-Wheel adapter spaced out rubbing on column
-LED 3rd brake light replaced, ABS/ cruise inop fixed with relay
-Outer tail light bulb replaced
-Electro mechanical flasher installed
-Turn signal cam replaced
-Airbag light delete with resistor in circuit
-Rear wheel studs changed
-160* to 180* tstat changed
-EGR valve changed
-Edelbrock shortie headers
-3" hooker catback w/ high flow cat
-K&N intake
-Mail order tune
-LS1 steering shaft installed
-Hotchkis strut bar
-Hotchkis weld in sub frame connectors
-Hotchkis springs
-Hotchkis rear control arms
-Hotchkis adj panhard bar
-Bilstein HD shocks
-Founders adj tq arm installed
-Poly bushings/ endlinks all around
-Poly trans mount
-LUK clutch installed, flywheel resurfaced, pilot bearing replaced
-TOB welded
-Delco clutch hydraulics
-Trans fluid changed
-Rear main seal replaced
-Pro 5.0 w/ Lou's short stick, Hurst 8 ball ****
-LS1 driveshaft
To do:
-Intake mani gasket
-Oil pressure sender
-Oil level sensor (W/ harness)?
-AC diagnose/ repair
-Lube/ adjust windows
-Install t-top locks
-Replace bump stops
-Strano hollow sway bars
-Fix gauge cluster (Repaint needles, LED backlighting)
-Tint 3rd brake light/ rear markers, windows
-Hook up sub w/ amps, run new wiring
-Change muffler (Louder)
-SS brake lines
-Koni or coilover shocks
-E brake cable replacement
-HID/ LED headlights
-Ported heads/ cam/ intake
-R/R dash pad
-SS hood/ spoiler conversion
-Change adj panhard bar for Watts link
Last edited by nitroheadz28; 07-16-2019 at 07:18 PM.
02-16-2019, 07:57 PM
Project basket case 94 Z28, racing wheel/ 3rd brake light/ body/ audio/and lots more! 
