Reviving one that's been sitting 20+ years

[General karthief]

What is the alternator out put with the fan on?

 

[BestGuess]

What is the alternator out put with the fan on?

14v

 

[BestGuess]

This is with no fan during a period of steady throttle. RPM is fairly smooth.

This is a period of steady throttle with the fan connected and running and you can see the RPM all over the place.

 

[vristang]

Might be worth just wiring the fan from scratch, direct to the battery. Especially if you can’t tell where the wires are run.
Or start opening up the wire bundles and tracing all wires to the fan and it’s relay.

Might be a silly question, but could an intermittent short, internal to the fan, be causing signal noise?

 

[BestGuess]

Borrowed an original Motorcraft distributor and slapped it in there. Drove it several miles with the fan going and it ran like a champ. Looks like the distributor I have, or at least the PIP sensor is garbage.

 

[BestGuess]

Slapped a couple headights in there and some side marker lights. Got some parking lights for down in the bumper, the plug has power where the bulb would go in, but they will not illuminate once installed.

Also, put a new oil pressure sender in there. Hooked up a test lead from the sender over to the wire I found in the engine bay that goes back to the gauge. Key on the gauge goes full high, fire up the engine and the gauge drops to zero. Same with the water temp gauge. I have a gauge in a T down at the port on the block, but I’d like to have something else in the car that is showing me a little something.

 

[vristang]

Any chance the oil sending unit is just faulty?
But, if coolant gauge does same thing, might more likely be engine grounds?

You have a strong ground battery to block, block to chassis?

 

[General karthief]

I believe the ground wire from the back of drivers side head to the fire wall is for the instrument cluster.

 

[BestGuess]

I believe the ground wire from the back of drivers side head to the fire wall is for the I’ll try to ground the driver side head.

Any chance the oil sending unit is just faulty?
But, if coolant gauge does same thing, might more likely be engine grounds?

You have a strong ground battery to block, block to chassis?

Oil sending unit seems to ohm out like it should work and is providing a ground of some sort because the gauge will go full tilt with out the engine running.

Grounds seems to be good. I can try another though.

 

[BestGuess]

I’ve not done a whole lot lately with this thing. Cleaned up a few things and drove it around some at night working on the tune. Seems to run pretty decent for me tuning it. Seems slow, but I guess I can’t expect but so much out of it.

 

[BestGuess]

I learned that cheap head gaskets and stock 1987 reused head bolts don’t like 3-4 pulls in a row at 13-14psi. Installed some new felpros and arp bolts. Doing fine so far but haven’t really beat on it.

This alternator is about to piss me off though. It’ll sit there and vibrate once it gets warm and make it sound like the engine is knocking. I can take a pry bar and pull back on the alt while the engine is running and make the knock go away. I’m trying to figure out some sort of brace from the alt to something behind it to put just a little tension on it to align the belt better.

 

[Cheapskate207]

Nice work! I love that you’ve built this car low budget and probably have just as much fun as the rest of us! What alternator bracket are you using? I had one like that and I had to trim all the spacers or get it to align properly. I ended up switching to a breeze automotive drivers side mount when I installed the blower. (Same accessories as you)

 

[90sickfox]

I had to trim spacers and add washers behind them on my on3 alternator bracket. I forgot all about that.

 

[BestGuess]

Nice work! I love that you’ve built this car low budget and probably have just as much fun as the rest of us! What alternator bracket are you using? I had one like that and I had to trim all the spacers or get it to align properly. I ended up switching to a breeze automotive drivers side mount when I installed the blower. (Same accessories as you)

It’s some cheap bracket I got off amazon I think. It just doesn’t seem sturdy enough. Me and a buddy went in halves and bought a laser belt alignment tool. With no belt the alt is sitting aligned as it should. I did have to trim the spacers and add washers. When I start to put just the slightest bit of tension on the belt you can see the alternator start to lean over and misalign. If I can make some sort of brace behind the alternator to pull it back just a little I think I’ll be good.

 

[BestGuess]

SBF's make me mad!!!! Tried to take the long scenic way home and have a little fun with the car. Make it home and give it a once over before I park it only to find that half the coolant is in the oil pan. Compression is decent on all 8 cylinders and the plugs look fine. Don't know if it's a headgasket or intake manifold gasket or what the deal is. It was running fine and I really didn't beat on it because I'm still walking on eggshells because this SBF isn't treating me so nice.

I've got a buddy interested in the engine, turbo kit, and trans. Might be selling it and devising another plan for a drivetrain in this POS. I've also had a couple people try to buy the whole car from me over the past month.

 

[BestGuess]

Haven't updated this in a while, not like many care. Haven't touched it since the end of April. But, I have plans for it. Got a new engine and trans that I've been working on a little. Maybe I'll post some pics.