Radio Shack relay 275-005
approx $5.00
the relay
Escort CCRM ac fix.
When my friend’s 98 Escort lost AC, he found this and asked me to do the soldering. Great info on a really cheap alternative to replacing the whole expensive circuit board. All you really need to do is drill out the rivets to open the case, desolder the old relay, solder in the new one, and then close the case back up with (if I remember correctly) some 1/2″ 8-32 screws & nuts fitting perfectly. The only other thing we had to do is remove the intake tubing to get at the ccrm I believe. This was done at the beginning of summer 09 and I think lasted until he got rid of the car.
Posted in Tech
Leave a comment
Another bird, another headgasket…
Disappearing coolant, a worsening hesitation, and a little white smoke led to the realization that yet another head gasket swap was in order. This one just didn’t exit quite as fantastically as the last one. I left everything attached to the head that I could (intake, exhaust, injectors, coil pack, wires, etc.) and pulled it off Fri. after work, put it almost all back together the next day, and then polished it off Sun. morning. Unfortunately, after all that, all it would do is crank. It had spark, fuel, nothing was forgotten, and several days of head scratching and sensor testing turned up nothing. To make a long story short, apparently lining up the cam and crank sprockets was not good enough for this motor. In order for it to run, it had to be a half tooth off … the cam pointer has to point at the valley to the left of the marked tooth on the cam gear. Go figure. Anyway, the good news is it’s running again!
Please note irony of previous quote from two months earlier, “I didn’t feel like taking the head off since I just did that with the head gasket on the other sunbird…”
12/04/09 – teardown
12/11/09 – it finally lives
Headless bird.
Posted in 1993 Pontiac Sunbird coupe
1 Comment
AOD = DOA
Well, actually it didn’t arrive at all, it stranded me & my friend 45 minutes from home. We were headed to a junkyard, and I shifted from first to second – nothing. Not good, I thought. After leaving, it didn’t take long for it to die completely, after making some nice grinding noises in third. Hung out on the side of the road for a while cranking the ipod/road rage system until it was AAAd home and now it will probably be a while until I have the time to put in a spare AOD. Oh well, at least it lasted the summer.
Posted in 1985 Ford LTD LX
Leave a comment
Dash it.
It took lots of measuring, test fitting, and hacking of the plastic behind the dash, but the new aluminum dash is in … it needs a speedo cable, water temp sender, and wideband and then it’ll be totally done. But it’s close.
Dash version1.
Posted in 1986 Buick Grand National
3 Comments
Cammed if you don’t.
When I drove the 93 bird the first time, I knew it had less power than the 91 which is TBI and supposed to have 15 or so less horsepower. The body wasn’t rotten (just lots of dings, but that’s better than rust) so I decided to buy it anyway and if it needs a few things so be it.
Anyway, it turns out the cam and rockers were fried. Missing .100 off the tops of the lobes, scored, ugly.
After flipping through my manual, it said to swap the cam you pretty much have to tear off the whole top end unless you have the special GM tool which they make no other mention of and dive into the teardown instead.
I decided that for one I didn’t feel like taking the head off since I just did that with the head gasket on the other sunbird and for two the chances of finding said special tool were probably about zero… for three the tool would probably cost more than I want to spend anyway.
So I decided I was going to make my own tool. Anyway, it worked well and it’s back on the road and the valves are actually opening now! The trickiest part was probably sneaking the rockers in and out around the cam (the journals hit the rockers if you try to take the cam out with them installed.)
Posted in 1993 Pontiac Sunbird coupe
Leave a comment
Dash design.
The GN’s stock dash hasn’t really worked since we’ve had the car. The fuel gauge is way off, the speedo bounces everywhere, and the LED RPM and boost gauges are useless. So I’m designing a new dash/gauge panel to replace the stock dash with an aluminum panel housing an Autometer Z series tach and speedo, VDO fuel level, water temp, volt, boost, and knock, and a JAW wideband display. Oil pressure and a fuel pressure gauge are going in the console pod.
Posted in 1986 Buick Grand National
Leave a comment
Pass!
For the first time in 5 years, the LTD is legally back on the road!
Posted in 1985 Ford LTD LX
Leave a comment
Compound issues.
The issues that were causing my troubles:
* #1 plug arcing from cracked insulator, making weak spark for that cylinder
* neglected to wire up in tank fuel pump, so external pump was not being fed properly
* original distributor used incorrect stator wheel, creating a bad (uniform) PIP signal with no #1 indication
* stretched timing chain, which probably made the stator problem worse
Posted in 1985 Ford LTD LX
Leave a comment
Bad timing.
The gasket between the block and timing cover was missing up at the top, causing oil to spray up and make a sludgy mess on the top of the timing cover and everywhere else and also I was suspecting after lots of other tests that I could have a bad timing chain. So all that was left to do was tear into it. The timing chain ended up having a horrible 5/8″ of deflection and the max allowable is supposedly 1/2″ (even that seems excessive to me.) It even looked bad – really saggy. I slid on the new one and it doesn’t deflect at all. I am feeling pretty good that this will solve its poor running issues (hesitation, popping through intake,) but after it was all back together, the water pump gasket didn’t seal … so it has to come back off.
After removing the extra gasket (oops) the water pump sealed up nicely with no more leaking.
old sloppy chain
Posted in 1985 Ford LTD LX
Leave a comment
It takes more than a leak to sink the Bird.
After doing some errands and eating some food a half hour from home, the beautiful sight of steam billowing from beneath the hood of the bird appeared! Further investigation revealed a hole spraying coolant directly onto the hot exhaust manifold. Since this exact scenario happened a few years ago while driving the Mont, I was prepared. We grabbed the duct tape, hose clamps, screwdriver, and extra coolant to patch it up quick. Unfortunately, it was done spraying and dark out so my first patch attempt missed the hole, which then began spraying again several minutes later. We were quicker on the draw the second time and started patching the hole while still being able to see where it was leaking. The trick is to cover it in duct tape (the heat seems to melt it on and seal it up fairly decent) and then put a clamp [ideally] directly over the hole, or on either side to isolate it inside the duct tape, or just as good as you can get it. Ran it for a minute to check for leaks and we were off. It held up for the half hour ride home with no problems – sweet. A new hose and it’ll be good as new…
Update: after putting in the new hose, I tore the tape off the old one, and it turns out there was a deep, 3″ long crack in it! I’m not sure how it got there, but it was probably leaking in a couple places…
Posted in 1991 Pontiac Sunbird original
Leave a comment