Progress Thread HeHateMe gets bent

It's just about hot enough to start piddling with the 85 again. It's in the low 90's with 60%+ humidity and rain showers in the afternoon almost everyday, that take the humidity to the same as about 1000 feet below the surface of the South Pacific.

I have all kinds of big ideas for the 85. With my kid starting at the University of Tennessee in 6 short weeks, I see an epic drought of money for the next 4 years...or so. I told him finishing in less than 4 years would be looked upon more favorably than finishing in MORE than 4 years.

Of course, I still need to get his PHUKIN POS Volvo fixed. I should give credit where credit is due. The phuking POS control arm from Rock Auto. I know it was in the ECONOMY section. But the rubber bushing is so soft, I can deflect it with my hand. That's why it crabs. I had the kid drive at me and jam on the brakes. (had the wife online ready to take his name off the $200k life insurance policy if he didn't hit the brakes!!) I can see the passenger wheel tuck and turn left, even though he actually is turning the wheel right.

So who knew, Autozone (control arm on the driver's side) is better quality. So I'll get one from AZ for the passenger side. They should be better. You can get 2.5 of the POS ones from RockAuto for the price of one from AZ. I also bought new loaded front struts since it sounds like my knees and ankles when you turn the streering wheel. At that point the only things not replaced on the front end will be inner tied rods and sway bar frame bushings.

I did have a chance a few weeks ago to take all the wheels off and check the rear bushings and the brakes. The brakes ARE new. Back suspension is fine. Bled the brakes and got like 1 bubble out of the passenger front caliper, but the peddle is 50% firmer. Weird.

I was thinking about working on the 85 tomorrow. My problem is I can't decide if I want to leave the C950 in it and just get it running and sell it. OR put the HP in get it running and maybe sell it. I'll probably do the HP. Sell the C950 and if I ever get another project, go with a Sniper. Much easier to wire since the ECU is on the throttle body.

So I worked on the Swedish Fish again. Replaced the passenger side control arm, again. And replaced the struts. I bought loaded struts from1A Auto and they seem fine. It does seem to have almost completely solved the creaking and groaning when turning at slow speeds or just turning the wheel while stopped.

The control arm made a huge change to the steering angle, so it has to be aligned again. But now, instead of diving left under initial braking, it dives right, although not as bad. I am hoping it is just the toe is way out, hence the steering wheel turned about 1/4 to the right now.

Could be loose inner tie rods, although I can't feel slack, loose rack bushings or just a worn out rack.

Turns out you need to get the longest breaker bar you have and then stick a 4 ft long pipe on the end of that and tighten the dog phck outta the bolt going vertical thru the frame and lower control arm. They weren't tight enough and moving around under braking. After that it aligned perfectly and drives like a real car.

Now back to the 85. I am getting it in running condition to sell. Get busy living or get busy dying. My brother and I are going to build a Fox low buck drag car to play around with and hopefully in 4 years when kids are out of college and I buy my last house with a pool and a shop, we will finally build another hard core Buick 455 powered ride.

And if I can't sell the 85 in a timely fashion, I may just part out what won't be needed and go from there. Look for a lot of for sale ads. LOL

CarMichael Angelo said:

Then,.... I'll buy a Lexus.

Click to expand...

What, No Beemer??

I like piddling on cars, just wish I had enough space. My 2 car garage is extra small....what was I thinking when I bought this house 20 years ago!? I have 2 roll around tool boxes, side by side in front of the 85. And pretty much have to decide, to I want to be able to walk in front or behind the car, because there's not enough room to do both with the door down. My wife is grumping more and more that she would like to park inside the garage. So I am trying to get room for her. That will limit me further. However, she has said, when we by the next house (last house) if she gets a pool, even if it is above ground, I can build a 50x50 shop for all she cares! think 30x30 or maybe a tad bigger would be enough. With a high ceiling for a lift. I don't want to be Richard Rawlings, but told my brother we could buy old chit, clean it, put some wheels and mufflers on it and probably make some decent side money. People can't do chit themselves, but spend their money on 60's and 70's stuff all day.

I actually miss all the rednecks at the Saturday night bullrings. But you know the feeling of building and tuning something and taking it out and running it and winning. I miss that...a lot. We had so much fun when we had our Buick. We spent half the time drunk off our asses, but we're especially tight because of all the time we spent working on that hooptie. I wish my son had shown some kind of interest in it. But my brother's kid is all over it. Maybe in 3 years when he gets out of college, he will be the heir apparent to the driver's seat.

You know when you do something really good and it turns out as least as good as you thought? And then because it looks so good, you realize how nasty everything else around is?

Yeah, that's me. I took off the billet low mount alt bracket and sold it. I cleaned up and painted my stock bracket and alternator black. I also remembered in my stash is a polished tensioner. I put all that on and the rest of the crappy pulleys look 10x worse now. I have to move that big ass piece of ribbed tubing back over...I just now noticed how far out of place it is.

Ok, so the engine just turned over for the first time in what, 3 years. The Holley computer and ignition aren't wired up though. BUT, I need an Ed U Ma Ca Shun. Educate me.

I am tucking the wires and doing a lot of cleaning up and removing wires I don't need. I've wired in headlight relays. I am getting ready to wire in the TFI coil (I have TFI with the Holley C950). The underhood connector that the factory coil connections come out of, along with the oil and temp sending and some other stuff, is roasted, so I am going thru all of that. Red/Light green is coil +. But if you trace it back, it goes to a splice and connects the Red/Light green wire to a brown/pink wire. I thought, cool I can get rid of the splice and have 2 wires hot in start and run.

WRONG!

I tested each wire. It's hot in key on/run position. Dead in crank. Each one individually.

BUT if you hook them together, it has battery voltage in crank. Obviously, this is the way it was and it worked, but I am CORNfused!



I've got a EVTM and the wiring schematics. Both the R/LG and B/PK wires go back to the ignition switch.

What am I missing here? :lcoff:


Any who, I am rewiring the connectors for my digital cluster and I am pushing forward. I'm sure the gas in this thing is sludge...maybe just maybe I'll need to go get some fresh gasoline tomorrow and try to crank it.

@jrichker Thanks for replying! I already googled and found several other of your posts with these links. But my car is an 85 that was originally carb'd. Like I mentioned the red/green wire worked fine for coil power before, I just never peeled back the onion and found that two wires were spliced together for it. I still can't figure out how neither has power in crank, but BOTH together do. I have my cluster out. It still has the turn signals and a few other factory lights working, so it has some grounds going to it. I can't find anything though, that shows the cluster (stock) completes any of the ignition circuits. Best I can tell is a stock 85 would run with the cluster removed.

This isn't a roadblock, but rather an educational exercise. I tied these two wires back into one to feed the coil. Tomorrow I have to route and solder up the negative coil/tach lead. Then reconnect the ecu to the battery and see if it still works and if the program is still on board. We shall see.

Oh, one other weird, or maybe AHA thing. There is no voltage on either of those wires whether you push the clutch in and actually engage the starter, or just turn the key to crank, without actually engaging the starter. I always thought the voltage drop off was due to the starter, but I guess the ignition switch is wired that way to prioritize power to the ignition and starter when cranking.

Earlier today I really thought I would have a chance to start it today, but it wouldn't and I would spend a day or two running down some random screwup. NO, that was NOT the case. It took a second to prime and it smells like ASS, but it runs. The gauge on my LC-1 says 22.1 like it's not hooked up, but the Holley reads 17.1 and it idles ok....I just remembered...I have a vacuum line off. I use an output off the LC-1 to feed wideband info to the Holley. I need to hook up the oil pressure gauge to see if it works. I have oil pressure because there's no lifter clatter. Then I need to let it get hot and see if the fans come on. I might call it a day. It's 92 in the garage.

The best thing this means, is as you can see in my Avatar, I have a sloped driveway. If it will run, I can get this beotch out and clean all the that's collected under it over the last 4 years. ANd maybe wash this nasty POS.

85 Lives Again!

And I think this bitch is out of gas. It won't start any more...it will try but dies. I guess next weekend I'll go get 4 or 5 gallons of fresh gas. But it ran long enough for me to see that the alternator is working. I'll let it get hot and test the fans then.

Now the DAUNTING part starts. Tidying all that wiring up into nice bundles and putting this hooptie back together. One thing I noticed, my nordskog temp gauge still messes up. If you turn the key right to crank and crank it up, it works fine. If you turn the key on for a second or any longer, then crank, the temp gets brighter and stuck on one digit, like 0 or 9. Oh well. It works...I don't care about that right now!

jrichker said:

@droopie85gt
There are 3 separate circuits inside the ignition switch.
1.) ACC or Accessory that provides power to the turn signals, radio, windshield wipers, A/C & heater blower motor, etc.
2.) Ignition that provides power for the ignition and computer. When the Ignition is on, so is the ACC.
3.) Starter provides power for the starter relay. When the starter is on, the Ignition is also on. The ACC is off and things that the ACC provides power to like the turn signals, radio, windshield wipers, A/C & heater blower motor do not have power. That's why the OEM radio shuts off when you crank the engine with the ignition switch.

It takes a drawing of the ignition switch to see the arrangement of the separate switch contacts inside the switch to make this really understandable.
Unfortunately, I am too busy at this time with honey-do projects to try and draw one...

Click to expand...

If you have the time, I am still trying to figure out how 2 wires have power in RUN, but not crank, but if you twist them together, they have power in RUN AND CRANK. Of course this is in an 85, with no computer to power up.

So a little progress tonight. Rerouted most of the wires that run to the passenger side, including the alt. harness. Looks like a TINY harness. I got them all in the fender well and will put some braided wrap on them. Just have to put the A/C wiring in there, in case I want to make it work.



The driver's side, however, will require some astro lube.

This is what is going to cause the fire!