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Corvette
C4 Forum
1988 Convertible for sunny day drives
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<blockquote data-quote="Tourmax" data-source="post: 171811" data-attributes="member: 5304"><p>So, car safely home in the garage:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]29842[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Time to get it "serviceable".</p><p></p><p>Immediate concern: Brakes.</p><p></p><p>Called around for a master cylinder and you either couldn't get it or no stock anywhere in Canada. Rockauto to the rescue. It's a Cardone repo, but it's a new one, not rebuilt. Rockauto also provides the muffler, since I was already shipping from the US. Turns out it's a walker quietflow, which is what someone replaced the LH side muffler with already. Was somewhere just over 300 bucks all in.</p><p></p><p>Muffler goes on easy, I cut the old one off to save the intermediate pipe. Master cylinder goes in almost as easy. A quick bench bleed and in she goes.</p><p></p><p>That solved, on to some of the "less critical" stuff.</p><p></p><p>First up: Wipers. Knowing GM had issues with their wiper systems in the 80's, I start "de-snagging" out at the motor. I pull the connector and find this:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]29843[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>What the f.......?</p><p></p><p>I pull the jumpered and spliced mess apart and repair the bodge back to original. Once that was done, there was no wiper action at all.</p><p></p><p>I've had experience with GM's sh**ty pulse wiper boards before. They suffer the same QA problems that most 1980's electronics do. Namely, "Hencho en Mexico". Built by some barely trained SOB on slave labor wages.....you get what you paid for......</p><p></p><p>I pull the wiper motor cover off and pull the wiper board out of the case. I can't see any cold solder joints under the 10X magnifier, but I re-flow all the joints anyways on spec. Put it back together and now the wipers work as they should. The only catch was now there was no washer function. Probably explains why that pink wire (washer motor power) was spliced into the control wire. I chase down the wiring diagram and can't figure out why the washer worked before and is now dead. After a bit of fooling around and just about read to give up, the washer motor gives a little rumble when I gave one last push on the switch. AH-HA! I pull the switch out of the door, open up the switch housing and there's corrosion/schmutz on the switch contacts. A quick buff and contact spray and the washer is working as per again. Wiper issues: solved! Cost; nada. </p><p></p><p>Amazing how proper troubleshooting can actually fix a system as opposed to a backyard "fix"........</p><p></p><p>Then there was this jumper:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]29844[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>It ran back to the firewall where it grabbed a ground off a fuse. Geez, who was messing with this car?</p><p>Turns out it's the "coolant low" circuit. It looks like someone changed the rad at some point (probably rotted out from sitting) and didn't transfer over the sensor. Rather than ordering a new one, they just jumped the circuit to ground so the dash light would go off. Called around and same story as the master cylinder: can't get it or no stock in Canada. Rockauto again, 10 bucks. Repaired the wiring, popped the new one in and all was good again.</p><p></p><p>Then there was a jumper from the relay on the LH fenderwell to the AC compressor clutch. I check the refrigerant level and the system is flat. Dead empty. I pull the jumper wire they had put on it and jump the low pressure cut out switch to test the system. The clutch engages and everything runs. Since the system was flat, I only ran it a couple seconds to make sure the clutch worked. Most likely, the compressor shaft seal is gone. Not uncommon on the 80's GM's. I used to rebuild compressors for that and the infamous "belly-leaker" issues. I will leave the AC for now (it's always big $$$$ to fix) and address it at a later date. For now, I'm just happy to get rid of that redneck "fix". Since they were probably "forcing" the compressor to run on low charge, I expect the compressor to be fully ruined and needing replacement. I will eventually fix it, but I've got better places to spend that money right now. Besides....it's a convertible! Who needs AC? lol!</p><p></p><p>Next, I hit upon this:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]29846[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>furtheluva......</p><p></p><p>I'm pretty sure "The General" never had a need to run a vacuum line to the bolt of an air tube clamp! After a good sleuthing, it appears the factory looking end on the tee'd line doesn't go anywhere. I have no idea what they were after, but I yank it off and replace the spliced vacuum line to the charcoal canister.</p><p></p><p>Then I pull out the RH headlight. I fully expect to pull open the motor and find the usual crushed and crumbled nylon bearings/bushings. What i find is mind boggling:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]29847[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>No, your eyes are not lying to you. That's 3 hex nuts! To make it worse, they had obviously jammed at some point and the nylon gear was split:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]29848[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Ugh. Seriously, if you're not going to do something <em>right</em>, then just leave it the bloody heck alone! At this point, I'm seriously wondering what else am I going to find boogered up on this car?</p><p></p><p>So I order up replacement gears and bushings for both headlight motors. I'll just rebuild them both rather than risk some fool having gotten their hands on them and waiting for it to fail. In the meantime, I needed the light to work for an inspection. I could have just put them up and left them, but that seemed kind of jacked up to me. So I epoxied the gear back together and cut some wood dowels for the bushings. I was going to turn out some delrin bushings on the lathe, but wood dowels were quick, they work and they're not intended to be a permanent fix. The headlight works and got through vehicle inspection. They'll be fine until I get my new parts, especially since this is only a "fair weather" car for day trips at best.</p><p></p><p>On to the interior. The sport seats were a mess. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't and sometimes they just made grinding noises. I pulled the drivers seat out and went through it. The pump motor was frozen and the diaphragm had left this world a long time ago. A little cleaning and the motor ran fine again. Just frozen in place from lack of use. The diaphram I made from a little bit of rubber sheet I had lying around. Now press the switch and it pumps. Unfortunately, it seems the bladders are ruptured. No biggie, I'll address that later down the road. The seatbolsters and seat back sides don't move at all. Turns out the power wire to the switch was broken off. The rest of the control wires were chaffed through to bare wires and you could see where some of them had been arcing! Not a good thing buried in a seat made of flammable foam! The power wire breaking off was probably a good thing and it broke off clean with the insulation and cut the power to the arcing wires. More wiring repair and it was all responding again. For good measure, I re-route the wiring to a clearer path and fix them to the seat pan to make sure they can't get caught in the mechanisms. A good lubricating and cleaning gets all the motors/tracks/gearboxes working again. The seat track motors and gear boxes just needed a good cleaning, lubricating and run through thier range of travel a couple times.</p><p></p><p>After that it was a vehicle inspection and off to the DMV for plates. Only thing that went sideways there was the DMV tried to say the car was worth 58 grand for tax purposes! I had a laugh, the girl behind the counter had a laugh and then everyone behind the counter had a laugh. I had expected some "stupidness" from the province regarding taxes, but nothing like this! Luckily, since I've done this dance with them before, I had an appraisal ready to go. They accepted the 5 grand appraisal and I paid taxes on that. They were so floored, they took a screen capture to show the supervisor on Monday, figuring it had to be a mistake in the system. A mistake? I'll say! I could almost buy a 2019 for that much! lol!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tourmax, post: 171811, member: 5304"] So, car safely home in the garage: [ATTACH type="full" alt="fr_4050_size880.jpg"]29842[/ATTACH] Time to get it "serviceable". Immediate concern: Brakes. Called around for a master cylinder and you either couldn't get it or no stock anywhere in Canada. Rockauto to the rescue. It's a Cardone repo, but it's a new one, not rebuilt. Rockauto also provides the muffler, since I was already shipping from the US. Turns out it's a walker quietflow, which is what someone replaced the LH side muffler with already. Was somewhere just over 300 bucks all in. Muffler goes on easy, I cut the old one off to save the intermediate pipe. Master cylinder goes in almost as easy. A quick bench bleed and in she goes. That solved, on to some of the "less critical" stuff. First up: Wipers. Knowing GM had issues with their wiper systems in the 80's, I start "de-snagging" out at the motor. I pull the connector and find this: [ATTACH type="full" alt="fr_4045_size880.jpg"]29843[/ATTACH] What the f.......? I pull the jumpered and spliced mess apart and repair the bodge back to original. Once that was done, there was no wiper action at all. I've had experience with GM's sh**ty pulse wiper boards before. They suffer the same QA problems that most 1980's electronics do. Namely, "Hencho en Mexico". Built by some barely trained SOB on slave labor wages.....you get what you paid for...... I pull the wiper motor cover off and pull the wiper board out of the case. I can't see any cold solder joints under the 10X magnifier, but I re-flow all the joints anyways on spec. Put it back together and now the wipers work as they should. The only catch was now there was no washer function. Probably explains why that pink wire (washer motor power) was spliced into the control wire. I chase down the wiring diagram and can't figure out why the washer worked before and is now dead. After a bit of fooling around and just about read to give up, the washer motor gives a little rumble when I gave one last push on the switch. AH-HA! I pull the switch out of the door, open up the switch housing and there's corrosion/schmutz on the switch contacts. A quick buff and contact spray and the washer is working as per again. Wiper issues: solved! Cost; nada. Amazing how proper troubleshooting can actually fix a system as opposed to a backyard "fix"........ Then there was this jumper: [ATTACH type="full" alt="fr_4046_size880.jpg"]29844[/ATTACH] It ran back to the firewall where it grabbed a ground off a fuse. Geez, who was messing with this car? Turns out it's the "coolant low" circuit. It looks like someone changed the rad at some point (probably rotted out from sitting) and didn't transfer over the sensor. Rather than ordering a new one, they just jumped the circuit to ground so the dash light would go off. Called around and same story as the master cylinder: can't get it or no stock in Canada. Rockauto again, 10 bucks. Repaired the wiring, popped the new one in and all was good again. Then there was a jumper from the relay on the LH fenderwell to the AC compressor clutch. I check the refrigerant level and the system is flat. Dead empty. I pull the jumper wire they had put on it and jump the low pressure cut out switch to test the system. The clutch engages and everything runs. Since the system was flat, I only ran it a couple seconds to make sure the clutch worked. Most likely, the compressor shaft seal is gone. Not uncommon on the 80's GM's. I used to rebuild compressors for that and the infamous "belly-leaker" issues. I will leave the AC for now (it's always big $$$$ to fix) and address it at a later date. For now, I'm just happy to get rid of that redneck "fix". Since they were probably "forcing" the compressor to run on low charge, I expect the compressor to be fully ruined and needing replacement. I will eventually fix it, but I've got better places to spend that money right now. Besides....it's a convertible! Who needs AC? lol! Next, I hit upon this: [ATTACH type="full" alt="fr_4054_size880.jpg"]29846[/ATTACH] furtheluva...... I'm pretty sure "The General" never had a need to run a vacuum line to the bolt of an air tube clamp! After a good sleuthing, it appears the factory looking end on the tee'd line doesn't go anywhere. I have no idea what they were after, but I yank it off and replace the spliced vacuum line to the charcoal canister. Then I pull out the RH headlight. I fully expect to pull open the motor and find the usual crushed and crumbled nylon bearings/bushings. What i find is mind boggling: [ATTACH type="full" alt="fr_4051_size880.jpg"]29847[/ATTACH] No, your eyes are not lying to you. That's 3 hex nuts! To make it worse, they had obviously jammed at some point and the nylon gear was split: [ATTACH type="full" alt="fr_4049_size880.jpg"]29848[/ATTACH] Ugh. Seriously, if you're not going to do something [I]right[/I], then just leave it the bloody heck alone! At this point, I'm seriously wondering what else am I going to find boogered up on this car? So I order up replacement gears and bushings for both headlight motors. I'll just rebuild them both rather than risk some fool having gotten their hands on them and waiting for it to fail. In the meantime, I needed the light to work for an inspection. I could have just put them up and left them, but that seemed kind of jacked up to me. So I epoxied the gear back together and cut some wood dowels for the bushings. I was going to turn out some delrin bushings on the lathe, but wood dowels were quick, they work and they're not intended to be a permanent fix. The headlight works and got through vehicle inspection. They'll be fine until I get my new parts, especially since this is only a "fair weather" car for day trips at best. On to the interior. The sport seats were a mess. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't and sometimes they just made grinding noises. I pulled the drivers seat out and went through it. The pump motor was frozen and the diaphragm had left this world a long time ago. A little cleaning and the motor ran fine again. Just frozen in place from lack of use. The diaphram I made from a little bit of rubber sheet I had lying around. Now press the switch and it pumps. Unfortunately, it seems the bladders are ruptured. No biggie, I'll address that later down the road. The seatbolsters and seat back sides don't move at all. Turns out the power wire to the switch was broken off. The rest of the control wires were chaffed through to bare wires and you could see where some of them had been arcing! Not a good thing buried in a seat made of flammable foam! The power wire breaking off was probably a good thing and it broke off clean with the insulation and cut the power to the arcing wires. More wiring repair and it was all responding again. For good measure, I re-route the wiring to a clearer path and fix them to the seat pan to make sure they can't get caught in the mechanisms. A good lubricating and cleaning gets all the motors/tracks/gearboxes working again. The seat track motors and gear boxes just needed a good cleaning, lubricating and run through thier range of travel a couple times. After that it was a vehicle inspection and off to the DMV for plates. Only thing that went sideways there was the DMV tried to say the car was worth 58 grand for tax purposes! I had a laugh, the girl behind the counter had a laugh and then everyone behind the counter had a laugh. I had expected some "stupidness" from the province regarding taxes, but nothing like this! Luckily, since I've done this dance with them before, I had an appraisal ready to go. They accepted the 5 grand appraisal and I paid taxes on that. They were so floored, they took a screen capture to show the supervisor on Monday, figuring it had to be a mistake in the system. A mistake? I'll say! I could almost buy a 2019 for that much! lol! [/QUOTE]
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