Need help with formy...

[Mulletbird]

Okay, I've been working on this F-body long enough on my own, trying to guess-and-check my way into fixing 'er. Basic carb'd 350 with a heads/cam setup and other various mods. Just needs cleaning up, and more than a little work here and there.

What I need help with:
a) diagnosing the cause of my short circuit.
b) checking vacuum lines. They're a mess, gotta figure out if I have a vacuum leak before delving into other problems.
c) Removing excess. Keep in mind, this car had at least 3 different motors with various wiring harnesses in it, and the various harnesses are still in there (all 3!)
d) Draining out the fuel tank. That fuel is now over a year old, and really should go before it causes me any more problems.

If all those things are done, I might try starting the car up and tuning her up somewhat, otherwise, I'll leave it until Winter, if not Spring or Summer when I have more time and money to delve in deeper, but at those are the minimum objectives for this coming week.

Plan is to do this sometime next week (this Sunday if necessary I'll call my friend and tell him I can't run his car for him at Atco, but I'd prefer another day) between Sunday the 22 and the 29th. Car is outside, but with a few people and a little cleaning up, I could get it in the garage. Beer, pizza, sodas, etc. in it for all involved (beer after we finish the work ideally ... last thing I need is a drunken build, then go "wait, what's that fluid leaking out of that line going from the fuel tank?"). Or, if just one or two people show up and we get everything done, I might just throw in the wheels I was trying to sell for free, as well as other things (I do have a lot of F-body stuff sitting around).

Thanks all!
- Jacob R.

[Mulletbird]

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[BonzoHansen]

1. what is shorting out?
2. what's so hard?
*PCV to manifold or carb
*booster to carb or manifold
*dist advance to carb
*vapor canister (assuming one is still there) to carb or manifold
3.hard to address.
4. in tank pump? pul a front fuel line, turn it on, catch the gas in a cpontainer. No electric pump? Go buy a siphon kit.

[Mulletbird]

Helps out some ...

Planning on pulling out all the excess wires (gonna take a while ... as I said, this car has separate wires, full harnesses and everything, for three different engines and ecus), A/C Evaporator and lines (GM installed that on non-A/C cars ... I guess it's cheap enough to be worth it, but this car never had A/C in it), and anything else that is in there that doesn't need to be there.

Also, I've called a friend of mine from back home to loan me a timing light so I can now adjust the ign. timing so it'll (hopefully) idle. Mech. pump, I've been considering putting in an electronic pump. Also, I'm not sure if the starter's even working anymore (might be dead, or it might just be not enough juice ... gotta find out). Once again, though, I have an unknown source of a short-circuit; even with three chargers (150A each) plus my neighbor's 2008 Cummins 1-ton HD wired up, it still didn't have enough juice to do much more than turn on a few lights for a second, and you could hear, quite clearly, electrical arcing. Basically, with more wire in this car than in the entire space shuttle (okay, slight exaggeration, but there's thousands of feet of cable in here) and most of it not connected, and the rest is rigged beyond belief (okay, when you have a quadruple-bypass from where a wire was cut, and not long enough, so they just added another piece rather than cutting to the right length, and after cutting it several times had to add another piece twice more, that's a sign that some mechanic just didn't know wtf they were doing). I've been slowly fixing stuff as it broke, but now I'm planning to fix it right, and once, and get it done so I don't have to deal with the same thing again the next week.

So, if you don't wanna come, don't. But, yeah, this car is in REALLY bad shape, and considering how little $ I have, I really want to just replace what needs replacing, and nothing else. And without the money for diagnostic equip, it'd help if someone would bring some out here (I bought a timing light and had my own multimeter, but when my dad saw it, he stole it from me, so now I'm without even basic diagnostics besides putting salt-water on my hand, touching a wire lead, and seeing if I get electricuted or not to test for continuity).

[Mike]

17 views ... 0 replies?

people click thread, people read thread, people either don't know how to help, don't want to drive across the state, or aren't available on the days you want help, so people don't bugger the thread by posting.


mystery solved

now we can go back to the mystery of how you used to race at the track near the corvette factory in Michigan.

[BonzoHansen]

sounds like you need to completely start over. wow.

[Mike]

i would pull everything out, buy an uncut harness, and start over. wires arent fun

[WildBillyT]

i would pull everything out, buy an uncut harness, and start over. wires arent fun

This is exactly what you should do. Zero base your electrical system.

[andy78TA]

Did you decide to go with the advice already given or are you still thinking about trying to tackle your problems? I am pretty good with automotive wiring and am only about 20-25 minutes from you if you were still thinking of working on it.