Farrar's car blog

I have one of those exactly. It is too long and flexible. I would need something at a fixed angle, but I don't feel like buying a Skewdriver set right now.

Farrar

Something about the door pin switches kind of bugs me. On my car at least, the pin switches are held into place with a screw, and on the back side of the switch the screw is held on with a nut, and instead of a washer there's a 90-degree piece of metal which one one end is designed to have the screw go through it and on the other end is a male spade terminal. Although I don't doubt the design works, I am wondering why they didn't just use a ring terminal and get rid of that little 90-degree piece of metal. It would certainly make it easier to install, remove, and reinstall the switch. I have seen ring terminals small enough. I dunno, just a thought.

Farrar

I guess I will have to stop making multiple posts in a row -- consolidation makes things look weird.

Oh, well, too late now...

Today, I decided to troubleshoot the courtesy light circuit. I'm dumbstruck -- current shows up on the driver's door switch when I put my volt meter between the two purple/blue wires, and also when I put my volt meter between the purple/blue wire and the black wire, but nothing happens when I put the volt meter between the purple/white wire and the black wire, or between the purple/white wire and purple/blue wire.

Thinking that something had gone wrong back in the relay/fuse compartment (who knows? something could have shaken loose...) I decided to go back there and have a look. I looked at the chaos back there and decided that I should simply pull everything up out of there and re-wire the whole damn mess.

First, I checked the fuse box. Surprisingly, all connections there were tight and clean. So I opted not to replace the fuse terminals.

Then I pulled up the bottom row of relays. What a rats' nest -- I saw ground terminals barely hanging on, bits of melted insulation stuck to other wires from who knows how many years ago, and a mixing and matching of relay sockets with some short and some long wires. I decided it was time to clean this up.

Three and a half hours later now, it's too dark for me to see outside, but I did make the following progress:

I have re-wired, and replaced, the following sockets:

- low-beam headlights
- high-beam headlights
- blower motor speed 4
- blower motor speed 3
- courtesy light delay module (Dave McKeen's new one installed)

All of the new sockets are labelled.

I have removed the original fan relay socket and replaced it with two fan relay sockets at the left end of the socket row. These have been partially wired -- terminal number 85, ground (black) -- and terminal number 87, current to fans (green/black) -- but my daylight ran out before I could finish these two sockets, and thus the row.

Here's my plan for tomorrow:

1. Finish wiring the fan relay sockets. This will consist of installing the two circuit breakers between the battery current (brown) and the two new relay sockets (terminal number 30); and wiring the remaining terminal in both sockets (number 86) with the trigger wire (black/orange, from the Otterstat and/or compressor).

2. Do the top row of sockets. This will include removing the sockets for the HVAC panel resistor, HVAC panel relay, Lambda relay, and Rear Defrost Timer. I will re-wire and replace every remaining socket with a new (and labelled!) one.

3. If time allows, install new sockets for the following:

- fan fail relay 1
- fan fail relay 2
- power window relay
- power window delay module

4. Watch the Saints game. :)

Farrar

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Farrar

4. Watch the Saints game. :)

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Might want to plan a 4B, Saints will end them in the first quarter then it probably won't be fun to watch.

All done...

Attachment 6263

The above photo was taken in total darkness -- I used a small flashlight to focus the camera, then turned the flashlight off and used the camera flash for the picture, so I apologize for the weird coloring.

What you can't see in the photo is that every single socket has now been labelled. It's not easily visible from a distance but as soon as you stick your head in there you can see what's what.

The two circuit breakers you see (where in a stock DeLorean the door lock module would be mounted) are for the new cooling fan setup. They lie in between constant voltage and pin 30 of the new cooling fan relays.

The two new cooling fan relays are at bottom left. Next to that is all stock stuff -- courtesy light module, blower speed relays, and headlight relays. Nothing new there.

The top row starts with the two "cooling fan fail" relays, and after that is the starter relay. That's it -- no Lambda, no Rear Defog Timer, no HVAC panel relay or resistor.

I tested the "cooling fan fail" function. When I pull one fan relay, one fan remains on and the bulb lights. Same with the other relay pulled. The light also comes on when both relays are pulled. The "cooling fan fail" light also comes on if one or both fan circuit breakers are removed. Of course, the light will NOT tell me if there is a problem forward of the electrical compartment (for example one of the fans loses its connection to current or ground), but at least it will let me know to check the relays and circuit breakers if the light comes on. (It's better than the previous setup, which did absolutely nothing in case of fan relay or circuit breaker failure -- the previous owner had disconnected the bulb's "hot" wire.)

I had a few wires left over, as you could imagine -- I taped up the "always hot" (brown) wires with red electrical tape so that they couldn't touch anything by accident. Just for good measure I also taped up the black ground wires I had left over (black tape) and all of the other stuff (from the lambda and rear defog timer sockets) I taped up with blue tape. This will make it easier to identify connections should I ever wire anything else up in the future.

As for the courtesy lights, I am damned if I know what to try next. I checked all of the black ground wires and they ring out fine. But there's no current at the fuse, and the fuse terminals have been double-checked for good contact. I have never had a problem like that before! I thought about simply hard-wiring the circuit with a switch, but I spent $75 on Dave's nice dimming/delay module and I want to get my money's worth out of it. I am open to suggestions on what to try next on this problem.

Now it's time for kickoff!

Farrar

So your fuse does not have 12 volts (reading to ground)? It should be connected to a brown (always hot) group of brown wires.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sean

Might want to plan a 4B, Saints will end them in the first quarter then it probably won't be fun to watch.

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Nailed it.:race:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bitsyncmaster

So your fuse does not have 12 volts (reading to ground)? It should be connected to a brown (always hot) group of brown wires.

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I put the fuse box back into place for the picture and right now I can't remember what the color of the wire on the other terminal was. I may have a chance to check on Tuesday.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sean

Nailed it.:race:

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Good call. One of the commentators on the radio said he thinks some folks might end up watching "Real Housewives of New Jersey" after a little while. :lol:

Farrar

I believe the French call it "l'esprit de la scale" -- the brilliant thought you have when you're halfway down the staircase:

It just occurred to me that while I was in the fuse/relay compartment I could have wired in another accessory circuit, perhaps for cruise control. I have two unused relay sockets and space to install them... I have an unused fuse terminal... I have two unused "always hot" wires... I have two unused "always ground" wires.

Oh, well. I will surely dive back into that area again as I find out why the courtesy light fuse has no voltage. I can always tidy things up again.

Farrar

Did you ever sort out what appeared to be a leaking Carb? You posted a pic a month ago or so but I didnt see a resolution.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sean

Did you ever sort out what appeared to be a leaking Carb? You posted a pic a month ago or so but I didnt see a resolution.

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Nope.

I haven't fixed the oil leak, either.

I figure I will just have a car that drools on itself. Seems appropriate.

Farrar

By the way, about that oil leak: at the moment the oil seems to be leaking into the engine valley, instead of in the other direction down on the belts, so at least that's something.

I have valve cover gaskets and timing cover gaskets standing by, but no chance to do the work any time soon. My best hope to be able to drive the car is to fix what electrical problems I can, and then just sop up the oil which leaks along the way...

Farrar