Progress Thread The next "big" project for my Cobra - T-top conversion coming soon!

Tomorrow's the day! Doublechecked my fuel pressure and confirmed and reset my IAC and TPS to make sure that that's been taken care of before I'm online with him. Then I moved my laptop out to the garage and got it set up. I'm sure I'll need something more, but at least that stuff is done and out of the way.

Well.....

So we were just getting started and Bryant was working on whatever he was working on on my laptop and asked me to start the car. So I reach in, hit the key, the car cranked for a second or so, then stopped. So I released and hit the key again - nothing but a click. Long story short, I checked and found a couple loose connections and corrected them, brought the Scion in and ran jumper cables to ensure the battery was giving enough juice, checked the wire connections and cleaned the battery terminals, swapped the solenoid, checked for power at the ignition trigger wire, checked continuity for the jumper and 12V cable going from the solenoid to the starter, and I'm sure more that I'm forgetting at the moment. I pulled the starter and bench tested it with the Cobra's battery and some jumper cables, the starter spun like it should, so I hooked it back up to the car's wiring and none of that did anything. I checked the Megafuse from the starter to the battery, it gave 0 ohms, but I wasn't getting power to the starter side cable so I bridged the fuse with a 4 gage cable and still got nothing but a click. I may have some of this out of chronological order, but in the end I believe that one or all of my battery cables have gone bad. I don't think there's anything else left to check. I mean it just cranked, then stopped.

So I believe I'll go ahead and spend some money on new cables and a new Megafuse, and probably a new solenoid as well since the one that was in the car to begin with ended up having a loose terminal. After all of that, though, I'll have to reschedule with him. I couldn't keep him on the phone while I chased this down - it wouldn't be fair to him as I'm sure he could get to someone else. So we ended the call after about an hour total and I'll have to get ahold of him when I get the car back up and running again..... Tell me again why we mess with these things?!

I'm still waiting on the new Megafuses I ordered, but everything else arrived today. I installed rivnuts in place of the self tapping screws for the starter solenoid and made new 2 gauge battery cables. The ground side is installed and the alternator side is hooked up, otherwise everything else is mocked in place until the fuses arrive. I would like to think that this would eliminate any voltage problems I may have....

New fuses with new holders have arrived, but I'm not home to install them. Look for that update on Sunday!

I got home earlier this evening, took a nap for a few hours, then out to the garage to get the wiring buttoned up. The starter is still just hooked up without being bolted in. But once I finished connecting everything back up the starter engaged like it's supposed to. So, later today, I'll reinstall the starter, bolt the rack and pinion back up and give it a whirl. It had better start this time! I'm sure it will - after that I'll be sending an email off to Bryant at Nomadic Dyno to get that remote tune taken care of.




My wiring isn't the prettiest - I don't think it ever was - but I'm thinking that I'll be doing something with that over the winter, as well as a few other things. I'm probably being overly optimistic about what I'll get done as the list just seems to keep growing.

Starter's reinstalled and it wants to start but won't. I sent that email off, we'll see when we can get this done!

extra_stout said:

Do you have still the plastic cover that guides air to the battery? Thats how I have hidden additional wiring for a "clean" look.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately I do not. I'm honestly not sure this car had it when I bought it back in the early 1990s.