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My question is: Can I test the wiring while the clutch hose is off of the car??
Battery hooked up?
Key in off position?
Key in on position?
Even start the car? (in neutral and on jack stands)
While I have never done this exactly, I would think it should be okay Brian.
The clutch is completely hydraulic and separate. No electrical relationship.
So as long as the trans is in neutral, I think you should be able to start it.
The electrical system won't know or care that the clutch is disconnnected.
Thanks Mark. I have the entire day tomorrow to play with it.
1. I expect to get her running.
2. I hope to verify the new high output alternator is doing its job.
3. Either receive or fabricate a hard line for the clutch and test drive her in the neighborhood.
In that order.
The car started fine. I have two videos of the same thing. One from under the car looking at the starter and a longer one from the GoPro on the tri-pod.
At about 1:50 of the second video you can see a little smoke coming from the underside. I hope it just burning off some residue from the driver side exhaust manifold.
So, when you wired it the first time (after quitting on the road)...did you just miss "a different bad spot" farther up the wiring harness? Just wondering what you found...I seemed to have missed something about this repair, even though I've gone back and re-read a couple pages.
Deputy- I looked for some before pics but must have not taken any. I guess I knew that I was doing it half-assed and didn't need any reminders.
The original harness (preprerepair) had some of the insulation melted off. I trimmed only to the point that it was insulated and spliced in the old connectors and the 5" of wire that was attached to them. I used lots of electrical tape and hooked everything back up.
While exploring options I cut 26" off of the damaged harness and stripped the insulation from top to bottom. There were areas of corrosion (green) and damage (singed wires). So the repair was to replace the final 30" of existing wire on each of the four leads ( 2 8ga, 1 10ga, 1 12ga) and their connectors. I also scrubbed the starter and cleaned the posts, washers, nuts and contact points.
I may have other issues but I am glad to say they are not:
1.Fire
2.Smoke
3.no start
4.constant power
I have inspected the connectors for the clutch line and I chewed the upper connector pretty good in removing it. I will need to replace that one if I end up making a new hard line.
Good news, on the electrical issue. They sure can be a bugger sometimes...especially if you are chasing someone else’s prior repairs (or even your own...and I say this...because I've done it to myself from time to time).
There is only one true-way to repair a wire, besides replacement from end to end, and that is soldering the connection, accompanied by shrink-tube. Granted, a lot of these new shrink-tube type connectors have come a long way...however the wires inside can still work loose and lose connection over time...leaving you pulling your hair out.
Side note: I worked with a guy one time and we called him the "king of the blue-butt-connector". After he retired, I was repairing an electrical issue on a piece of equipment, that used to be in his fleet, and after removing the plastic conduit...I found seven butt-connectors within twenty inches of wire.
And no, I didn't add another one to make the repair...lol
Brian.
EDIT: And in no way was I trying to be critical of your repair...just wanted to mention that even the best repair can come back to haunt you sometimes. Apologies if it sounded that way.
Last edited by The Deputy; 01-02-2015 at 02:50 PM.
EDIT: And in no way was I trying to be critical of your repair...just wanted to mention that even the best repair can come back to haunt you sometimes. Apologies if it sounded that way.
I didn't take it that way at all. I learn a lot from this forum. The only mechanic work I have ever done is on these 928's. It is a hobby, a joy and sometimes very frustrating. If you look back at the first couple of pages of this thread you will see what a basket case this car was. It will be very satisfying once it is complete. It will never be finished but at some point I hope to call it complete.
I feel like I just scored, big time. The hydraulic hose did come in and it was much shorter than expected. The old line had been routed along the front of the oil pan towards the slave. When playing with the 82 Euro I noticed that the line was routed above the starter. When choosing the route for the 79, the new line came just over the starter and was only 4"-5" shy of reaching the clutch slave cylinder.
I had the old line and two old fittings. One of the fittings looked great and functions perfectly. The other fitting was VERY chewed up and could be reused but would look like crap and be a pain to install and remove in the future. So the last two days I have been carrying around a small section of the old line with the one good fitting while searching for a local supplier for a duplicate of the fitting.
Four stops yesterday and no love but I did get a referral for a shop near my factory. I made time to go over this morning before the work day really got cranked up and found the fitting(s) that I needed. I figured if it was this hard to track down the fittings I might as well buy two extra for future projects. I mentioned to the nice fellow that I now just needed to figure out how to flare the line for the new fitting. He grabbed it out of my hand and disappeared for a few minutes. When he came back he just thanked me and told me to have a good day. I told him I should probably pay somebody or something. He walked over to an old register and while keying said not to worry about the flaring. The grand total was.............. $4.95. .?.?.?.? I am not sure what I expected but paying with a $5 was not it.
It may be the weekend before I can crawl back under the car but I am thrilled that I can see the light at the end of this particular tunnel.
Last edited by medipedicman; 01-06-2015 at 11:13 AM.
Reason: added picture
I had some free time yesterday just after work and was able to get the new clutch hard line fitted. It took four times of on and off and bending the 5 inch homemade end before deciding to remove the clutch slave cylinder and attaching the tube to it while just hanging. The gave me a much better range of motion and access to the fittings and allowed very gentle manipulation of the shape when reinstalling the slave cylinder. After double checking brake fluid levels and topping off the reservoir, I hooked up the motive power bleeder for a pressure test and it help 10 #psi with no problems/issues or leaks.
I stopped there and will try to make time to bleed in the next couple of days. It was 8 degrees this morning so I don't see a test drive in the immediate future.
Well with the hard line installed yesterday, I bleed out the clutch today. I used the motive power bleeder up top to create pressure but I realized a was a little low on extra brake fluid so I decided to use the mighty vac on the bottom. It went quickly. I cleaned everything up and put all of the tools away after two months of projects and I think that she is good to go. I will wait until Saturday for the road test.
Big thanks to Rob Edwards. One of the many listers that are so helpful to those of us that need assistance. He was actually helping someone else and mentioned dropping the front sway bar to have better access to the starter and in my case the clutch hard line. I did it and I felt like I had so much more room to work with,never having to wrestle with the starter just to get it in place.