1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
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Just an FYI for any who opt to take the path of auto ->manual transmission swap. I'm thinking of writing a travelogue of the entire journey at some point (to me it was truly epic) but will settle for the moment to relate notable findings.
Background: 93 900S NA rust-free chassis as recipient. 230k miles on the motor and recent head gasket repair by yours truly but busted autobox. I had on-hand the motor (and likewise trashed autobox) that I had salvaged from another 93 that passed through my life too briefly several years back with a mere 125k miles on the clock. The final piece of the puzzle is the 5 speed tranny from my recently deceased 88. Granted, the 88 had 392k miles on it (my driving accounted for the last 170k mi or so) and as far as I know the tranny has not been rebuilt or even given any special attention, but it seems pretty strong.
I mated the tranny from the 88 to the spare young motor of the 93, pulled the drivetrain from the rust-free 93 and bolted the hybrid unit into its place. If you search the board you can find various calls for help along the way or rants about the process, but it seems that I "got 'er done"... except the details continue to haunt me.
First, I had no speedometer. The chassis had been in storage for a couple of years and to be honest I can't recall if that was a previously-existing condition or not, but I had to get it fixed. I found that the white collar that connects the cable to the dash had broken at the narrow collar. No amount of creative duct taping would make it better so I traveled north of Madison to visit the other 93 (stored conveniently at Rocky's Salvage Yard) to harvest the speedo cable that I had neglected to save before Rocky took the car away (I had to pay $20 for it which kinda sucked, but he had taken it off my hands with no tow charges and 'stored' it for ~5 years, so who am I to bitch?). Got the cable installed last night and was pleased as punch to know how fast I am going and especially to be able to get reliable mpg measurements. Even better was the fact that upon reinstallation near the inner driver I took the opportunity to apply some thread sealer to the bracket bolt and my new old car piddles oil considerably less than before.
Next problem: high idle-- like 17-1800 rpm when warm. Found that the vacuum line from the intake manifold to the white pleated canister on the PS wheel well near the PS reservoir was FUBAR so pulled it, plugged the nipple, and went to the parts store about 1/2 hr before close to get a replacement... and that's when things really got bad.
With 6' of vacuum hose in hand I went out to my new old car to drive home and it barely turned over. OK, I thought, I had my doubts about that battery before and this was the first extended period of lights-on night driving I had done since putting it back into service, so maybe it's shot. A guy leaving the parts store gave me a jump, she started right up and I thought I would be able to get home and do the diagnostics there, except that it wouldn't make it. 1 block from the parts store, first in line at the left turn lane my radio cut out and the engine started stumbling. I got the green arrow but there was no go in the car. She had fallen and couldn't get up. Fortunately there was enough battery left to power the hazard lights and I trotted back to the parts store and bought a new battery. I had hoped to make that purchase off of next month's check, but so be it-- I felt pretty sure that that would get me the 7 miles home.
So I trot/plod back to the car with battery in hand, grab the pliers I keep in the trunk, detach the cables in near total darkness, swap in the new battery, batten down the hatches, start her up and go-- all without Officer Friendly stopping by to offer assistance, for which I am glad.
Once home I (and belatedly) checked to see if the charging light came on with key in "on" position-- it didn't. I checked continuity of the alternator ground wire-- first using the meter to check for continuty of the wire per se (that is, from terminal to terminal), all good. But then I checked for continuity between the alternator stud holding the grounding wire and the bolt that I thought had secured the ground wire to the body-- nada. I had moved the grounding point in the course of the engine/tranny swap to a place that I thought seemed reasonable but, of course, it was not. I re-grounded the wire from the alternator to a bolt into the (now departed) AC compressor mounting position on the head, checked for bolt-to-bolt continuity (present) and then checked for the charging light when ignition is turned to "on"-- also now present.
Assuming that I had that gremlin licked, I then turned to the high idle issue. I replaced the defective vacuum line, but it didn't make much difference-- still idled at ~1700 rpm. I pulled the AIC and attendant vacuum lines. The latter were intact and I sprayed down the AIC with carb cleaner and then WD40 and reinstalled all parts.
Bottom line: She idles a little high, ~1k rpm, but cpu may just need a little time to relearn its settings, it's far better than before and I'll know better tomorrow when I drive to work and then to the alignment shop to check my toe-in setting.
Sorry this is so long and perhaps pointless, but given the investment of time and effort this project has consumed, I thought I would share my experience with the few others in this world who could possibly relate.
Scott
posted by 24.183.35...
, Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:50:03
, Wed, 15 Sep 2010 07:19:31
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