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40 Man hours in 3 days....

BigRed

Well-known member
Joined
May 23, 2001
Messages
948
Location
Edmonton
Corvette
1985 Bright Red Rocket
Once upon a time...(3 days ago) I started my car to find that the singal lights and the Bright light (On the dash) were Solid on! Also the expensive 4 Halogen light were not on!......What now

SO I took apart the dash/Cluster/wiring harnesses/engine harnesess/stereo wiring/seats/antenna relays...(I figured Id do some other stuff while I was in there.

I then Dynomat'ed and Durasealed the Dash I fixed a Vaccum leak on my AC unit, fixed the cruise control, fixed the straightness of my steering wheel so forth

Heres a little funny thing I found in there<--The previous owner enjoyed this car I can tell He loved tearing it apart to fix things...GREAT JUST HAPPENS HE"S A FREAKING MORON!

1.) He has extension wires on the window switch controls that were tied together (Took that apart and repaired WHOOSH faster windows)

2.) He uses a POS RCA speaker wire to control my fan<Through the firewall around the BATT into the Fan relay....Lucky me it snaps of course and Im stuck splicing the smallest wire and rebuilding the shortest plug harness known to man..Grr

3.) Power Wires connected to RCA's then connected to old speakers...(Not on my stereo from before I just pulled out) WONDERED WHY I WAS BLOWING FUSES!

4.) This Guy is impressive, he Hack the wires for my cruise control to gain power or something fro the MSD..So I Undo his HACK JOB, Reconnect the Cruise, then REWIRE the MSD...All systems GO

After I was all done I did my test and it seemed the connection to my Cluster may not have been good because after my Interior tear down Its fine....Until I put the freaking last screw in the dash...Singal's Solid and Halogens OUT..


I scream LOUD

It go's away and hasent returned..(Not kidding It was ALMOST funny)

Oh and I replaced the Alternator and finally did the cut out on the Aluminum air filter surround..Looks good
 
Oh ya and I installed a new switch besides my mirror selector for the antenna to go up and down on MY command not the radio's (However if I turn off the ignition it go's off as well)
 
Hey - wanna come over and do some work on my Vette for me? :)

Fun work - takes a lot of time, but ultimately rewarding.
:beer

[RICHR]
 
Telling you man I could'nt believe this guy, ah well sipping some Corona chillin out now.
 
hehe, same here

the guy that owned my corvette before me did his own wiring i had to rewire alot of his stuff

my power antena isn't even hooked up, he disscounted it,, so i just figure its burnt out or something, the little motor

i plan to fix it,, its on the list
 
this guiy must have been a mechanic?, from how you described him, i think he worked on my car as well, same base scenario, behind the dash, it was amazing how many things started to work again, once it was all back togather. Then only to find out the VATS, and alarm are totally bypassed ( vats with the module) and alarm with the trace on the convience center cut. A real wizard thats for sure.
Aww well, i bought the car to tinker with anyway :) I got my wish
 
40 Man hours in 3 days

Hey BigRed, can you give me some pointers on the antenna up and down switch wiring.
At one time I bought one of those from Mid America for my '86 but it looked like it was more trouble then it was worth.
Having replaced one of those antennas, motor and all, I have an appreciation for them. My antenna spends a lot of unnecessary trips up and down. Most of the time I don't even use the radio I listen to CD's. My system (in my '85) was replaced with a Pioneer which has a CD within it plus a 12 disc changer. The previous owner had all of this installed. That may complicate the antenna up and down switch if very much was modified. It still sounds like a worth while project.

Any advice will be much appreciated. Glad to hear from someone who has actually done this...............Thanks.........
 
YOU THINK THATS BAD????

GO TO JAPAN,..BUY A "PRECIOUS" VETTE OVER THERE,...IN ONE DAY I PULLED OVER 6 LBS OF USELESS CRAP-WIRING ,... :j....THEN I BROUGHT IT TO AMERICA AND STARTED WITH THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT,...ANOTHER 3 LBS LATER I AM ALMOST COMPLETE,..THE ABUSE THIS CAR TOOK AT THE HANDS OF "EDWARD SISSORHANDS-SAN" WAS ENOUGH TO MAKE ME ILL :puke

BUT NOW ALL IS WELL :)
 
I feel your pain

Hey, that guy got to my 84 vette as well.


1. replaced the CF Intake with a caburator and Edlebrock intake.
(destroyed a holley when he forgot that the holley wouldn't handle the pressure from the fuel pump)
2. Disconnected or cut most of the engine compartment wiring harness.
3. Glued fabric on the door panels.
4. Painted the car a god awful purple color

Finding something new every day.

Ken
 
You guys make me appreciate the fact that the first owner of my '89 didn't know a thing about cars - or at least didn't like working on them!
When I got it, it was 2 years old, had 44,000 miles, and nothing under the hood nor under the dash had been touched. Except to change the oil, of course.
The worst P.O. is the guy who *thinks* he knows about cars...
 
Bigred - my 84 just started doing this too about two days ago. But it is periodic. Those blinkers and high beam will come on and then stay on for a few minutes then go off. Did you figure out exactly what was causing that?

Lets not even go there about wiring troubles. The guys I purched our 84 from had tried to wire up his own alarm system and used speaker wire EVERYWHERE to get it done. He spliced in wires here (you know, the easy way just cut and wrap around), spliced in wires there, disconnected stuff here - the usual. Thank goodness most everything works now except the hatch switch on the doors to release the back hatch. Whew!! You shoulda saw the massive amount of wiring I pulled out from there! Yikes!! :duh
 
" 1.) He has extension wires on the window switch controls that were tied together (Took that apart and repaired WHOOSH faster windows)"

My windows take forever to come up is that a function of dirty connectors or bad motor. Up to now I had thought that I would have to replace the motor. After reading this thread maybe there is hope that I all I have to do is clean the connectors. Any advice??????
 
Cleaning and lubing the window regulator might be more productive than re-wiring. Unless of course you've already gone the cleaning/lubing route.
You might want to check the voltage at the motor while the window is going up. If it's low, try using a jumper with good 12 ga. wires, see if that makes the window run fast. If so, then you need better wiring.

Or you could do like I do: plan ahead when you know you'll need a window open! :)
 
Cleaning and lubing the window regulator might be more productive than re-wiring. Unless of course you've already gone the cleaning/lubing route.

Hehehehe I'd normally agree cept the old wiring was already a speaker wire HACK job which I had to fix to go BACK to Original wiring (Now everything cool)

And ya your right my next step is White Lithium Grease on the poles after a EXTREME cleansing as I don't want to drop 500$ for the new 86 conversion kits just yet. I just need some time to get the door panels off (while Im in there Im Sound deadening insulating and sealing)
 

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