Radiator came in- Installed and slightly modded to work with turbo II fan assembly. Lower hose will be in tomorrow. Cleaned up the rear rotors and reinstalled. Finished pulling of the sweeps and prepped them with Mr. Beltsander. Should be a bunch of stuff in tomorrow.
Gary D.
Working on clearing the decks.
Productive night!
Installed lower radiator hose and filled system, burped.
Cleaned the rear rotors, packed the bearings and installed new pads.
Reassembled the fronts (so I can get to body shop, new rotors not in till next week)
Pulled the rims and tires from Spirit R/T out of storage and tossed them on.
Found the source of oil leak (corner of oil pan not sealed)
Replaced the speedo cable and tested on jackstands.
Working on clearing the decks.
Carpet came in a week early! WOO! Going to be busy this weekend!
Working on clearing the decks.
Are those new tires Nitto Neo Gens?
Kumho Ecsta ASTOriginally Posted by going4speed
Working on clearing the decks.
A productive day- My buddy stopped by and re-keyed the locks and I installed the trunk lock. The door locks will wait till after paint of course and I'll do the steering column tomorrow.
The carpet I'll give a 90% score. Plenty to work with the the fit was generally good with one spot near the gas pedal/hump hanging up. I have some bricks on it and figure a day or in the sun will get everything to settle pretty quick. The charcoal carpet is a touch darker than the OEM unit, I posted a picture comparing the two.
Tomorrow the boys will sand down the handles, cowl cover and mirrors and hit them with trim black while I'm working on the steering column and some minor electrical issues.
Oh and I found ANOTHER water leak. For some reason the bulkhead grommet was not in place.
And I just noticed the door gasket is tough up top on the drivers side, will have to find one of them too. At least that is easy to change.
Gary D.
Working on clearing the decks.
I swear to god I'm going to set this car on fire yet.
Working on clearing the decks.
This does not bode well for the timeline.
Spent the morning chasing down a few remaining electrical issues. The parking brake light did not come on which turned out to be corrosion on a pin and an odd problem with the turn signals not working right which I deduced had to be a problem in the dash harness.
I was all too correct! I did a "harness shake" as mandated by Chrysler training and the was a loud noise and smoke and fire started billowing out of the dash!I cut the power ASAP and yanked the dash to find the edge of the column support had been chafing on the harness.
A dozen wires to be repaired, perhaps we will be back on track by Monday.
Working on clearing the decks.
Wow! Yeah having to randomly pull the dash is a kink in the plan. On the bright side at least you caught it now!
I'd like to hear more details on this harness shake.
That mess does suck but as stated earlier this car is in the right hands.
I have door seals if you need them.
When dealing with an intermittant issue; pull, twist and shake the harness to see if you can replicate the problem. Did I and how! Problem I was having was when I turned on the turn signals the thrid brake light would flash. I removed the bulbs and checked the grounds with no sucess. Tried a known good turn signal switch, still no dice. I knew it wasn't the switch as when you hit the brakes the FRONT turn signals would stop flashing and go solid on. The only thing left had to be the dash area harness so I started tugging on it and the sparks started to fly (mind you I have NOT road tested the car once yet) the Mrs. was a touch concerned when the flames popped up behind the dash cluster but that was just the insulation on fire. I killed the battery, blew out the flames and started jerking the dash out. Not my first rodeo.
14 wires were damaged in the blaze, already been repaired and the car has been "fired back up" and the turn signal problem is now fixed. Sometimes you have to set the car on fire to save it I guess.
Tomorrow I'll get the ductwork back in place, neaten up the wiring with tape and tie wraps and put a nice chuck of foam on that sharp edge. If I'm lucky we will have the front seats in place, the boys painted the tracks this afternoon.
Gary
Cliff Ramsdale opined that Satan was calling and wanted his car back, no way pal its mine now.
Last edited by mopar-tech; 05-23-2015 at 08:51 PM.
Working on clearing the decks.
Really got to hand it to you Gary, lesser men would have given up quite a while ago.
I wish i could make a tenth of the progress you have made on that car with my own list of to-do on Mini.
Wayne H.
'91 Dodge Spirit ES 2.5L turbo 5spd
'05 PT GT 2.4T HO autostick (RIP)
'89 Plymouth Acclaim 2.5L turbo auto, "Slugmobile" yes, THE Slugmobile!
'89 Dodge Caravan SE 2.5L turbo auto, "Mean Mini" yes, Gus' Mean Mini! (Current best 11.699 @ 114.43 mph! - Oct 15th, 2022 Cecil County Dragway, MD)
MeanMini dragracing videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...URZLB1RxGYF6vw
and other cars, trucks and motorcycles
https://www.youtube.com/user/SlugmobileMeanMini
I hate dash fires, but so glad you found it now, that would have been ugly driving down the road on holidays.
1989 FWD Turbo Caravan-2.5 TIII, GT35R, auto, a/c, cruise, pwr windows/locks, fully loaded with interior and ran with full exhaust. RETIRED FOR A FEW YEARS!12.57@104 :O)
1984 Chev Getaway van, 6.2 Diesel with a remote mounted turbo setup burning WMO-For sale.
2003 GSW 2.0L TDI, auto, fully loaded, modified, 360K-wife's.
2004 GSW TDI, 5 speed, fully loaded, modified.
Aurora ignition wires for sale. Link to info
Super60 roller cams or custom/billet cams. Link to info
I'm rather stubborn once I have something in mind, the "this is a waste of time and its time to cut losses" light hasn't come on just yet. Good progress has been made, just need to keep slogging forward.
Working on clearing the decks.
Well, at the end of it all you can say that it challenged you every step of the way, but you didn't loose heart.
And you'll have saved and end up with one nice CSX.
Wayne H.
'91 Dodge Spirit ES 2.5L turbo 5spd
'05 PT GT 2.4T HO autostick (RIP)
'89 Plymouth Acclaim 2.5L turbo auto, "Slugmobile" yes, THE Slugmobile!
'89 Dodge Caravan SE 2.5L turbo auto, "Mean Mini" yes, Gus' Mean Mini! (Current best 11.699 @ 114.43 mph! - Oct 15th, 2022 Cecil County Dragway, MD)
MeanMini dragracing videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...URZLB1RxGYF6vw
and other cars, trucks and motorcycles
https://www.youtube.com/user/SlugmobileMeanMini
Been considering a name for the car- "The basket case" is the leading contender.
Working on clearing the decks.
Extremely fitting. With all this work your doing when do you find time to sleep.
Attachment 54842
Attachment 54844
It isn't so much I don't sleep, when I work I'm very focused and work in a no nonsense fashion. Habit from being a line tech.
1) Wiring is fixed with some foam around it for good measure, everything checks out!
2) Interior going back together.
3) Could someone check seat tracks for me? I suspect the car has the wrong ones as the seats sits up VERY high. I can't even see the top of the speedo and tach. Out of a 4-door perhaps? If the tracks are wrong I'll have to get the right ones or cut these down.
Last edited by mopar-tech; 05-30-2016 at 11:20 AM.
Working on clearing the decks.
Do you know if there is a difference between the seat tracks on the 87 and 89 cars? I'll go check mine now.
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