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Looks like a ground issue to me in #593. Make sure you have sufficient grounds from the battery to the frame and to the body. You could have the body insulated by the body mounts or something to the effect.
That's a good thought, I did just replace all the body mounts so maybe that is a factor; if there is one good ground left that is loose enough to move when I open or close the door it would explain a lot of the randomness.
If nothing else it should be an easy thing to try.
After a little detective work this is what I found:
The short version is this - I have a test light grounded to the battery. When I connect the light + to the ground wire of my engine harness the light comes on. This means that there is power coming out of the harness ground, which seems odd to me. What I do not know is whether or not there should be power coming out of the harness ground. On the surface I would think not, but then again maybe it's akin to running lights in series. Any thoughts on the matter would be welcomed.
The long version is this- I figured that if indeed there was power coming from somewhere I could find it by putting a test light between the chassis ground and the batterynegative. By doing this and connecting various electrical things to the battery positive I could determine where the power might be coming from.
After some trial and error I ruled out a bad connection to the starter and alternator, which was both good and bad. Good because I don't want to get under the car again and bad because it would've been a fairly easy fix.
Eventually, I narrowed things down to a shared ground; every wire coming off it would turn the light on when connected to the light +. After disconnecting everything from the shared ground post I was left with only the ground coming out of the engine harness, and as mentioned, connecting the light + to this ground the light will come on.
Now I'm not sure what to make of this. A steady supply of power coming out of the harness ground is not what I would expect. When the main harness power wire is connected to the battery the light is bright; when only the orange wire to the ecm is connected the light is dim, but still on.
There is, sadly, clearly still a larger in-cabin ground issue that appears to be related to the lights and power things (seats, windows, etc), but that is of secondary concern. The problems change and come/go when I slam the door so I'm fairly certain it's a loose wire of a major ground (it is not a door switch problem) in the dash.
The rest of this is mostly because I feel obligated to put pictures in posts.
This is the harness ground in question:
And this is what I get when I connect that ground to the + on the light (courtesy of the local salvage yard)
This is just to jog my memory for later. I've started taking notes on fluorescent poster board, this is much harder to lose than regular paper.
I spoke to Speartech today and they said that voltage on the ground sufficient to turn a light on could be normal, as it is just completing the circuit. I redid all my chassis, engine and frame grounds and can find nothing loose under the dash when I play with or move wires. Hitting the dash, support or anything else still does nothing, but when I slam the door a few times power to the cabin will return, at least until I turn the key.
Not sure if it's related but my ignition tumbler kind of sticks and won't rotate back into the acc position, and as far as I know the ignition switch stuck to the column is as old as the car. Rather than waste time and money replacing these things I decided to just go ahead and order a rebuilt tilt column from stllobo. I was going to go with GMTilt / birdsandbowties but from reading over on Pro-touring it looks like he's taking a break for a while. I'm not under the impression this will solve my problems, but I've been wanting a tilt column anyway.
When I get back in town at the end of May I'll get this stuff sorted out.
On a semi-related note I got some GoJaks and they are great. Unlike the cheaper ones these have bearings in the casters so the car actually rolls when you push it.
Pretty useful.
So after almost a month in Guatemala I came back home last night and started working on the car. I had forgotten where I was with things so pretty much started from scratch and found that when the alternator was connected to the battery everything would short out as noted several times above. No other combination of connecting or disconnecting things would cause this, so I swapped my alternator out for one I had on the shelf. Same thing. It seemed unlikely two alternator would be faulty so I put the better one back in the car and started looking at grounds again. When I jiggled the battery negative to frame cable it felt loose and sparked; seemed shady so I got out the steel wool and drilled/tapped a hole in the frame and made a better one. I also redid all the console wiring and grounds for all the lights while the battery was charging. Putting everything back together and hoping for nothing I was surprised when the car fired right up. Good stuff.
The ACC fan controller that worked like **** before now works great and the power windows, doors, seats, map light, reverse lights all work reliably and predictably as they should and I was even able to make a couple loops around the block. The problem now is just with the trans, which I hope to have swapped out tomorrow. Going to try and replace the stock Fbody master with my Tick as well. After that I'll just need to get the new carpet in and this thing should be driveable.
Guess it's time to start thinking about getting the radio mounted somewhere.
Yeah, it's encouraging. Too bad 4th and reverse seem to come and go with the trans in teh car now, otherwise I'd be all set. No clue what is wrong with it but I know my spare T56 is good, at least temporarily, so at least I have a solid back up plan. Really hoping the local shop isn't too busy tomorrow.
Not an exciting vid but the NSS and reverse lockout buttons work too.
I think this one will be okay, it's just been sitting forever in the car. It started easier today, not sure how much learning, if any, the pcm has to do or if that matters.
This morning I got around to mundane things like replacing a power window motor, doing some sound and heat proofing and cleaning up some wiring. After that I took the car over to the trans shop so they could start on it tomorrow, with the goal being to have it back by Friday.
Having not driven a stick in years I was sort of worried I might not like it, but based on my first drive with a bum trans I don't think that'll be an issue. It's so much faster and more fun than the auto that it's like a whole new car (which at this much it pretty much is). Hauls *** without even trying. Good stuff.
The car came back from the shop and I put 400 miles on it in the last two days. 23.X MPG in 80/20 interstate/ city driving. The trans makes the noises that I knew about but functionally it seems fine and I feel good about it for the limited driving I'm doing. Still, if anyone wants two T-56s (one core and the one in the car) let me know, I'd be fine selling both and putting that money toward a magnum. If I had time to learn how to rebuild these things I'd keep them, but I don't, so...
A while back I posted about a front frame brace I asked a guy over on P-T to make for me and I spent the last couple hours putting it and my UMI driveshaft loop in. It wouldn't have taken that long to do but I took breaks to weld my exhaust back together and wrap one side of my headers. The powder coat came out looking good and I'm satisfied with the parts so far.
Now I just have to finish some wiring and go about securing things like that PS fluid cooler. Zip ties won't cut it anymore.
As a side note I've had zero issues with either my power steering or my brakes using the pump with the reservoir built onto the back of it. I still plan to swap it out for a setup with the elevated reservoir next time I pull the motor, but for now it appears to function properly with no groans, whines or hesitations.
Yeah, definitely. Now I just need to nail down the trans problems.
I took the ends off the T56 that's out of the car, and while I'm no expert it looks okay to me in terms of gears and things. The only problems that jump out at me are a ring of some sort that came loose and some small metal thing that got chewed up. How and why those two things happened I have no idea. More on that here https://ls1tech.com/forums/manual-tr...pics-vids.html
Not really sure what to do with it at this point. A $1,300 rebuild from Tick seems excessive but then again I dunno.
Got more work on the interior done before I had to head back to Georgia, the main power window switches are now mounted, the CD player in and the backup camera hooked to a switch so I can also turn it on manually and all the various computer, relay and fuse boxes are tucked away. Will have to do carpet when I get back in a few days.
Here are a couple shots from right before I did that stuff. It looks better now but I don't have pics yet, I'm just posting these to show how the console fits under a stock dash. The radio hanging down mostly fills the gap so I thought I'd show it both ways.
This one is just because I like the bokeh and colors from this camera.
I also bit the bullet and decided to just go ahead and get a new trans. The one in the car now works and I'm totally comfortable driving it on a day to day basis or to and from KY where I have family. When thinking about the 9 hour drive to NC, however, I'm not so sure. The same could be said for the entire car though, as it's entirely possible that I've built a rolling death trap. The trans would probably be fine but I used this uncertainty to convince myself it was time to upgrade. It was going to happen eventually so why not now? At least that's what I tell myself.
This is the build, putting specs here in case I wreck the car and need to sell trans later.
Stg.3 T56 originally from 04 Z06 with 2.97 1st gear ratio with the triple/double syncro system. SSR 32 spline output built in an f-body case.
Trans has zero miles on it since the build.
New Timken Bearing kit
Carbon fiber Syncro ring kit
Brass reverse ring
Billet 1/2 Keys
Billet 3/4 Keys
Bronze 1/2 fork Pads
Bronze 3/4 fork pads
Bronze 5/6 fork pads
Bronze Reverse fork Pads
New "Viper" Steel 3/4 Fork
New Timken input Seal
New 32 spline output seal
Extension housing bored for 32 spline bushing & seal
1st gear machined for 3 piece lock ring
F-body speedo machined for 32 spline journal
DG customz is going to swap in TDP's newer legit billet keys and bronze pads then send it my way. I can't imagine how I would ever break this thing on street tires. Sucks I had to sell the camera to buy it, but I can only justify so many toys.
I spent most of the last few days finishing random things and getting things ready to install the new trans. Yesterday some guy came down and bought both my old ones and today I sat around waiting for the UPS truck to swing by. As luck would have it the truck came around as soon as I left to go eat dinner with some friends.
When I got home I opened it up to take a look only to find that it had been beat to hell during transport. Such a disappointment; I have no time to mess with this stuff and now I don't know what I'm going to do with the car.
DGcustomz has been fantastic with helping get it sorted out though, stand up guy for sure.
I splurged on this trans because I thought it would be the best solution to my problems and now I have a 130 lb paperweight occupying space in the garage. Thankfully it was shipped insured.
If there was one upside to the trans issue it's that it gave me time to address a couple other nagging issues - a hood lock and a random power drain that kills my battery every two days.
For the first problem I used a Lokar billet hood release (that happens to match my shifter and door handles) as a lever to push and pull an old pushrod through a bracket I made and welded just above the horn. When the latch is closed it prevents the hook from moving, and it's solid enough that it prevents both pops of the hood latch. Hardly perfect in terms of security, but Joe Average dipshit won't be opening my hood without physically getting in the car. A more stealthy approach would be to disguise it as a vent **** or something.
Not the best picture but I'm sure any interested party could use his or her imagination to figure out the rest.
To fix the parasitic drain I decided to go with a continuous duty, latching, 12V 200 amp Cole Hersee solenoid. I originally wanted a 24200 since it's operated with a momentary switch (which flips back and forth from open to closed with each press of the button), but after thinking about it I instead opted for a 24213, which handles more power and is normally open (meaning to keep it closed you need to have a latching switch). This works better for my purposes, as I wired up a switch with an LED that is on only when the solenoid is engaged, this way I won't forget to turn it off. The solenoid controls the power to almost everything in the cabin, and I have it wired so that even if it fails the important things needed to keep the car moving will still be working. Reversing the whole setup and bypassing the solenoid if necessary is simple as well.
Since I was messing around there anyway I figured I'd clean up the wiring a bit. Like everything else in the car, this is only temporary so it isn't perfect, but it works pretty well. I had a liscence plate holder from a Honda Odyssey sitting around and found that with very little effort it fit on the fender and gave me a place to mount the fan controller, the relay and a power distribution block. Compared to the mess before this is borderline presentable and a stepped drill bit makes quick work of the plastic. It has two legs on the back, one of which lines up perfectly with a square hole that was in the fender so it's actually really secure.
And finally, this is how the solenoid is wired. Not my diagram but the basics apply to both solenoids mentioned earlier. I ordered it from these guys and they shipped it really quickly. http://www.ebay.com/itm/302265578437...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Edit: Found a better way to wire the solenoid, this way eliminates having to mess with a constant hot wire in the cabin. I'll already have one for the clock, radio and pcm but all things being equal I'd rather use a switched ground.
What a bummer on the transmission shipment. Looks like United Package Smashers struck again. Luckily, all you need is a new tailshaft housing, which you can swap yourself. It's a R&R procedure.
The UPS guy was supposed to pick it up today but he just parked in front of my house, got out then turned around, got back in his truck and drove away just as I was walking outside. Perhaps he'll come back. I put off going downtown for the Preds game for this so it would be nice if he did sooner than later. Edit - Of course he never came back.
While I waited I got the ground switch hooked up, a constant hot distribution block set up then installed an Avital 5303L alarm to use to control power doors and trunk release. The unit itself doesn't have enough juice to power the solenoids but wiring up some relays was pretty easy. This video explains the whole process. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyc2aTEuDM4&t
I also got the cigarette lighters in the console wired up so now I'll be able to charge my phone while driving (if it ever drives again). Not a huge accomplishment but a worthwhile addition all the same.
I'm not sure how widespread this is, but since the Amazon warehouse opened just outside of town I've been getting more and more things delivered by people in Amazon shirts/cars. While the UPS guy was out twiddling his thumbs the Amazon people brought me a 1/8 to 3/4 npt plug to use with my trans temp sender as well as some Pypes exhaust cutouts, HVE10K. I'm not sure if I'll use them or not, but it looks like a simple enough install if I do.
The kit came with everything except the turndowns, which I haven't been able to find separately. Might have to buy some flanges and just make some crappy ones myself.
Not a real update to the build exactly but I wanted to say that a while back I was told that the replacement trans had come in, shipped ground, secured on a pallet of some sort and presumably all in one piece (it went to my mom's while I'm gone, she didn't open it but said the box looks good).
After all the fighting with UPS got us nowhere DGCustomz went above and beyond here. Too bad people like him don't work at UPS.
04-21-2017, 08:49 PM
