kev

Unplug the two connections and remove the cluster..stow it away Ok, look down in the opening and you will see a large black connection. Unplug this. This is the joint between the main interior harness and the dash harness. Couple minor things left before we unbolt the dash. Pull the clock by prying with the nylon tool on the sides. Unplug it Reach back in the opening and find this white plug that goes to the temperature sensor in the dash. Unplug it Remove the defroster covers by prying with the nylon tool on the outside edge as shown. And remove the covers on the side of the dash accessible with the doors open.

With these four screws out, you can carefully pull the cluster hood away from the cluster. You will NOT be able to remove it at this point because the harnesses are blocked by the cluster itself. You want to manipulate it such that you can remove the two phillips head screws in the front securing the cluster and the rear 8mm head nuts in the back. Now you can pull the cluster itself out a bit and wiggle it to access the electrical connections going to the switches on the side of the cluster hood. Unplug these connections. Note; on early model cars, there are two plugs on the right side instead of that one large plug. Now the cluster hood can be finally removed and stowed Now pull the cluster out a bit more so you can get behind it and unplug it. There will be two connectors to unplug in addition to the speedometer cable. For the speed cable. Depress the blue tab and pull it away from the cluster

There are three electrical connectors to disconnect to remove the switch Carefully remove the turn-signal switch harness from its supports on the column and get it out of the car and stow Next up is the instrument cluster. There are two screws on the bottom of the cluster under the switches and two from the inside.

There are five long phillips screws securing the two halves of the steering console cover together. Follow along in the photos. These are easy to remove but a pain to reinstall, but we won’t worry about that now. Once these five screws are removed, the bottom cover can come off. Be careful removing it around the ignition switch, there is a grommet on there that sometimes catches and this console cover is very flimsy and cracks easily! We have to get the turn-signal controller out of there to get the top console cover out. Plus, it is best to remove the turnsignal assembly anyways to prevent damaging it as we pull the dash. There are two phillips head screws that need removed, as shown. Now you can pull the turn-signal switch towards you and off the column. This will let the upper console cover slide out. Note that my screws are still in the turn-signal switch assembly during this operation. You can grab them with a magnet but I just let them fall to the floor and then capture them upon removal As I mentioned earlier, I recommend removing the turn-signal switch in its entirety to prevent damaging it when the dash is removed. I haven’t always done this but with how brittle the switch arms are getting over the years, I don’t want to damage them further.

Repeat for the screw on the right side of the console that was under the cover. The knee panel can now be removed and stowed away. Once the knee panel is out, you can now access the two phillips head screws on the drivers side of the console, similar to what we removed on the passenger side earlier. Next, go to the fuse box and remove the four phillips screws in the corners. The fuse box assembly can then be pushed back away from the dash. Note; that red switch and extra wire is for some aftermarket gauges I have in this car, please ignore. Lets move to the steering console cover. Unthread the tilt wheel knob. Yes, mine is broken, it should look like a T that says tilt steering on it. If anyone wants to donate one of these to me, feel free haha.

Pry out the trim panel around the A/INT WIP CANCEL switch. Pop it out and unplug it. Stow it. For the hood release cable, there are two long phillips screws on the underside. It helps to hold the hood release lever open to access them. Remove these and then remove the lever assembly as shown. On the bottom of the knee panel, there are three phillips screws. Remove them and stow. Where the wiper cancel switch was, there is a screw deep down inside to remove. Unthread it with a screwdriver and use an extendable magnet to remove it.

Unplug and stow the HVAC controller away. OK, being that we are on the passenger side and have the glovebox down, reach in on the left side of the glovebox opening, you will see the light controller with a blue plug on it. Remove the plug. This has to be free to remove the dash. Now you can pop the glovebox back in position and close it. Before we leave this side of the car, there will be two Philips head screws holding the dash to the center dash supports. Remove these and stow the screws away. I had an issue with breaking them free and had to use a pair of small needle-nose vise grips to get them to crack (this was mentioned earlier in the process) OK, lets hop to the drivers side of the car. Remove the fuse panel cover and stow it away. Note that 83-84 cars will not have this under column knee panel, which makes it much easier. But the following steps are applicable to 85 on up cars. Next pry the cover on the right side of the knee panel. Stow it away

Remove the trim and stow Remove the two center phillips screws. This will allow you to pull the faceplate out and disconnect it from the HVAC control unit behind. As seen, my faceplate has some damaged mounting ears from someone digging around there before me. Unplug the faceplate from the HVAC controls. There are two plugs. Stow the faceplate away. Thread those center screws back in so that it keeps the little metal clips that hold the trim in place while we remove the HVAC controller itself. Now remove the other four phillips head screws in the corners. Unfortunately, there is one more hidden screw holding the HVAC controller in place. I will say that some of the cars I owned didn’t have it installed. Now this may be because someone before me removed it and didn’t reinstall or that maybe some cars came from the factory without this back screw…not sure really. I’ve been driving these cars since 1992 but, naturally, never owned a new one. To get to the hidden screw, we need to pop out the glovebox. Note that the glovebox itself doesn’t have to come out to remove the dash. It can remain in place but we need to pop it out and let it hang down to access components behind it. Squeeze the glove box from the left and right to dislodge the bumpers on the side and let the box rotate straight down. Here it is hanging down. That grey wire isn’t stock, it is a light that I leave in my glovebox for the ECU codes, please ignore it for this process. Now look up the opening to the left and you will see the back side of the HVAC controller. There is a flange and a screw connecting it to the dash support frame. In my case, it wasn’t installed, but you want to confirm this. Now we can pull out the HVAC controller. There are two connections to unplug on the back of it. Note the locations. There is actually a third slot on the back of the HVAC controller that is empty…but one of the connectors will fit in it! Just take note on how it should be when it comes for reassembly.

There is one last plug to disconnect and it is the one to the light in the rear ashtray. Now, what I did was simply rotate the rear console assembly back and leave it there out of the way. For I was only pulling my dash to fix a heater core issue. But if you were to remove the carpet, you want to pull the rear center console completely. There are two ways to do this. You can pop the trim pieces out of the side of the console to enable you to pull the seatbelts through the console assembly and then finally remove the console. That works but I don’t like messing with that brittle plastic. So I simply remove the four 14mm head bolts holding the seatbelt assembly to the bracket on the tunnel. Then I lift both the rear console and seatbelts out as one unit and stow. There is one additional electrical connector to unplug if you do this. Sorry, these two options are not shown in the photos, for I simply rotated it back out of the way and left it there. Once the rear console is removed, it will expose a single phillips head screw for the front console. On the passenger-side, there are two larger phillips head screws to remove..as shown. Sometimes these do not like to break free and start to strip out. Many recommend using JIS screwdrivers. I personally never bought those but I have used a small needle-nose vise grips to grab the outside of the screw and break it free. I show this in a photo later on in the process for a stubborn screw that I ran across. There is one phillips screw on the drivers side. Stow away these screws so that they don’t get lost or reinsert them back in their locations once the console is removed. Now the console can be pulled outwards and off the shifter assembly. On a manual car, it comes out with ease. Automatics are a little harder. You usually have to put the shifter down to first and carefully pull back the console, slide your hands behind it to unplug the radio, and then carefully rotate the console so that it can be pulled off the shifter without removing the automatic shifter assembly. Unplug your radio and antenna cable. Shown is an aftermarket DIN radio but it is the same for the stock radio, you will just have a couple more plugs to undo. OK, the console is out. Lets just stay focused on the center of the car and remove the HVAC controls. Use your nylon pry tool to pop out the trim from either side as shown.

Pull the panel towards you to get it to pop out. You can see the two clips in the photo below that need to be pulled free to remove it. Unplug the interior temperature sensor on the panel, as shown. Stow the panel and thread the two screws back into their original spots for safe keeping. Remove the philips head screws on the side carpeted panels. There is one in the vent and one hidden up in the back. Note that my panels were not secured on this car, but I show where the screws are. The back one is kind of tucked up there a bit. Note that my screwdriver isn’t in the right spot in this photo, it is slightly up from where the screw should be. Pull the panel down and out and stow it away. Repeat for the drivers side. There is room to access the screws on that side at this stage. If it is a manual car, unthread and remove the shift knob. For automatics, shifting it down to first will give you the most clearance to remove the console…although it is a bit tight to get it out without taking a part the automatic shifter assembly but it is fully feasible. Next, pop up the two seatbelt release levers on 87-89 cars. Unscrew the phillips screw holding them to the arms. Remove and stow the levers. Put the screws back in the arms. It doesn’t matter if you thread them from the left or the right, both work. I was on the passenger side, so I threaded them in from the right. The important part is not to lose these screws. Now, you can pop up the trim around the levers. There are two plugs to disconnect and the trim/mirror switch assembly can be removed and stowed. For 86 and earlier cars, it is mostly the same process but without the seatbelt levers. You pry up the mirror switch first, unplug and remove it and then pop out either the tray on 85-86 cars or the window switches with trim and unplug/stow on 83-84 cars. Pop out the center console box by opening up the lid and using the nylon pry tool to pop it free. Pull out and stow accordingly. Look down the inside of the rear console towards the back, you will see two phillips screws securing the console to a bracket on the trans tunnel. Remove these. Go to the front of the rear console and remove the two phillips screws shown.

The following thread contains step by step instructions on how to remove and reinstall a starquest dashboard. This process was performed on an 88 conquest tsi, although it is compatible for 86-89 cars. It can also be used on 83-85 models with a few minor variations, particularly the lack of a knee panel under the steering console on the earlier model cars. I do explain the differences noted between the years within the write-up. This process is pretty simple and straightforward and doesn’t require any specialty tooling with exception to a steering wheel puller. It is somewhat time-consuming but the operation dictated in this thread took 4.5 hours from start to finish and that included diagnosing and repairing an issue that I was having with the heater core, hence the reason why this particular dash was removed/reinstalled. The time may be greater for someone performing this task for the first time but I was also taking my time to document the process along the way, which does add time. I apologize that some photos are cloudy or blurred. It was a hot day at the time and some of the areas were dark and cramped and difficult to get a clear focused picture but they should all be sufficient to show the process. Tools required: · Phillips screwdrivers, various sizes · 8mm, 10mm, & 17mm sockets with various length extensions and ratchet · Steering wheel puller or harmonic balancer puller with M8-1.25 bolts · Nylon trim removal tool (optional – could use a screwdriver carefully) · Telescopic magnet · Needle-nose vise grips, as applicable (see write-up) · Factory supplied torx socket Dash Removal: The following order of operations is just a suggestion. You may deviate, as required, but I tried to focus on removing the largest obstructions first following by focusing on one side of the dash and then to the opposite. The first step is to unplug the battery. I didn’t have a photo of this but at a minimum, remove the negative battery cable because we will be unplugging many electrical connections as part of the operation. The next thing I like to do is to get the automatic seat belts out of our way (applicable only to 87-89 cars). Locate the torx socket in the glovebox. Pop the rubber cap off the inside of the seatbelt where it connects to lever on the A-pillar (assuming that the seatbelts are in the open condition) Use the torx socket to remove the bolt. Put the bolt back in the bracket so it doesn’t get lost and re-insert the rubber plug in the seatbelt. Repeat for the other side. The seatbelts will retract to the center console area. Note: we will be removing many items as part of this process. Try to either thread the fasteners back in their respective places upon removal or appropriately store and label them such that they do not get lost or mixed up. Next is to get that steering wheel out of the way. For 85-89s, simply pop the steering wheel center off. For 83-84 cars, there will be four phillips head screws on the back side of the steering wheel that require removal to get the center pad off. Using a 17mm socket, extension, and ratchet, remove the nut holding the steering wheel to the column. You may have to hold the steering wheel to achieve the force required to break free the nut. Install your steering wheel puller with the M8-1.25 threaded bolts into the two holes in the steering wheel (next to the center nut). Pop the steering wheel carefully. You may want to leave the 17mm nut on there loose to prevent the puller bolt from slipping off the column and damaging the threads. Just get it to pop free..don’t pull the steering wheel off yet! Now, make sure the steering wheel is nice and straight. If you don’t have to turn the wheels or touch the column as part of your repair, this will let you simply pop the steering wheel back on in the end without worrying about clocking its position. Once it is nice and straight, remove it from the column. Remove your puller from the wheel. Stow away the nut and lock-washer. Isn’t it so much better now that the seatbelts and steering wheel are out of the way? Now we have room to work. Next step is to get the center console out of the way, but in order to do that, we have to pull off the lower kick panel under the glovebox on the passenger side. There are two Philips head screws securing the panel to the dash

He is a member here; tham

I'm keeping the thread up to date in my status. I do have a plan, yes, it is not acting, but I do consider suggestions from others while I execute that plan. But I'm also trying to illustrate my goals with this car...to keep it as close to stock as possible. So if I don't take suggestions involving modifications, you know why. Yes it may take me more time, and time is indeed valuable, but it's generally enjoyable time. It's just putting off the bodywork I need to do on it but I've already made my decision to wait until the spring to paint this car, it's too late in the year to worry about it now. I haven't worked on this issue for a week or so because life has been very hectic but both my son and I have been driving this car regularly. The problem is there consistently but it is much more subdued since the distributer swap. Although it does appear to be more exasperated after getting on it a bit. My son doesn't even notice it and thinks I'm crazy for being so fixated, but that is me, I know it is not running as good as it could be and I'll continue diagnosing it. New vacuum lines are on my list, just haven't bought them yet. I do have another set of injectors on my bench to package up for sending out to be cleaned but I'm holding off until I try a few more things. I also want to look at the EGR some.

I used an Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists (AWRS). They have many locations across the country but I went to the Balitmore, MD location which may be an option depending on where you are at in New Jersey. I'm sure prices have increased over the past few years but I had all four wheels refinished for under $700. Obviously it will cost more for specific repairs but the quoted price seems very high. There is a guy on FB who just had his redone at an AWRS centerand they were about the price that I paid. I think his name is James Kane. He is the one that found a red 87 in a scrapyard and has been working non-stop over the past few months to rebuild it. He's been posting like mad, so he shouldn't be hard to find.

Yes, you want to try to slide the key away from the installed bearing (in the direction of the ebrake lever arm. What you are trying to do is gain enough clearance and 'give' to get that lever arm started in that upper installed bearing. As obsolete says, you use the ebrake arm as a lever to push the washers a bit as well, but it shouldn't take too much force. You just need to get it started into the bearing and then get it into the vise and slowly drive it in. The vise will hold the lever firm and as you spin the vise handle and drive it in, you can wiggle the caliper assembly slightly so that it starts pushing in. It shouldn't be too difficult if you line it up like the photos show. Make sure the screw, key, and lever are in the proper direction as shown in the photos. Also make sure you didn't inadvertently switch parts from the other caliper. Meaning, make sure you have the correct lever arm going into the correct caliper. Also, techboy just recently rebuild both of his rear calipers per this technique. This was just a few weeks back because we talked it over on the phone before he started. So if you run into more issues, you should try to hit him up for advise too...for he has very recent experience. Best of luck. If you still have issues, snap a few photos and post them here...or on facebook. kev

Yes, everything will swap over fine without any modifications.

I wouldn't say that. It is better than nothing, it tells me the story. I'm not buying a wideband for this car. I'd spend $250 for a diagnostic tool that I could use any any car but to toss that in this particular vehicle just doesn't make sense to me. I don't plan on doing any type of performance enhancements to this particular car. What will it do for me? Prove that it is missing? I already know that. Point me to injectors that I already suspect? The narrowband already did that. I'd rather spend the money on a heated 02 sensor and a set of new injectors.

I'm getting about two bars rich on the narrowband when I'm WOT...seems normal compared to past cars that I had with this same gauge on it. I still am not ruling out a leaking injector. Even though I've tried two sets and had this set cleaned/tested, they are still 35 years old.

I messed around with this a bit more. I bypassed the brake booster and took it for a drive, no change. I swapped the resistor for the injectors, no change. Swapped the ECU with a good spare, no change. So those are off the plate. I noticed that with the old plugs, it ran much worse and the issue was so much more amplified. It's also worse in open loop (engine still cold) This led me back to ignition. Put the new plugs back in and it made it much more driveable again. I then focused on the distributer. I tossed in an old spare with just swapping out the vacuum advance and an oil seal. Took it for a drive and it originally was great. The AFRs still bounced around a bit but stayed in the stoich band. I didn't feel the cutting out like I did before. Even idle was better. I was feeling really good until I decided to wind out a few gears. After returning back to normal cruising, I feel the miss again. Although it seems to dissipate or simply get a little 'better' with time. This was with a 15 minute drive, so I'll be driving it some more to see if this trend holds. Interesting... Next up are the vacuum lines, I still haven't messed with them.

I only had a chance to work on it for about an hour this past weekend. I checked the resistance of the coil and it was good. Even tried swapping it with a spare and no luck. So it's not the coil. I swapped the plugs with an older set I had, no change. Although I did find something of interest; the #4 plug looked brand new. The other three had minor carbon, as expected, but this last one was clean. Forgot to snap a picture but I can because the plugs are sitting on my bench (the old set is currently in the car). I definitely think this is a big clue to my problem. It's not leaking water, I did a thorough leakdown test before firing it up and was very focused on the status of the coolant system during it. Although I didn't check specifically for spark (was working by myself), I put the timing light on the wire and it was reading a consistent rpms. So I'm fairly confident I have spark to this cylinder. My mind is going to the jet valve again (it could be sticking) or possibly a vacuum leak. The brake booster taps into the #4 runner...it's a possibility. And yes, I capped the vacuum nipple for the automatic trans when I did the swap. More to follow. I'm going to look into the vacuum situation first before I jump into the jet valve possibility. I'll do a compression test as well.

Thanks for the offer but I do have spare 87 computers. It's 88/89 computers that I'm not sure I have. I know I have a few 88/89 cases but they most likely have the guts of an 87 inside them (for I simply swapped the guts on my former 87s). I really haven't had the chance to dive into this issue yet. I'll keep everyone informed.

The bushing or the fulcrum? The bushing is pretty easy to find via Mookeh or other sources, for it is shared with many different automative applications. The fulcrum is a little harder because it is for Mitsubishi applications only. But, last I looked, they are still around via ebay. Original part numbers are in this thread:

I'm sure I do but I need to dig. James didn't publish many specs about his turbos, it was mostly a sales pitch.

I have had the timing light on all four cylinders and simply monitored the flashing. Nothing out of the ordinary noticed but I like the idea of marking the balancer every 90 degrees. For the distributer; I was contemplating tossing in the old original pickup to see if there is any change. I can definitely check the air gaps. I have tried swapping 02 sensors. I had a 2.5" downpipe on it with a single wire new Bosch O2. I swapped it back to the original downpipe and O2 and I haven't had any changes with exception to getting rid of the issue of the aftermarket downpipe slightly contacting the bell housing and rattling. I have thought about injector wiring but I'm not sure where to start with it. I took my time soldering in the new injector clips and used proper water resistent heat shrink tubing. I even did it when the engine was out of the car and I had all the room in the world to work in. I guess I could try swapping in another ECU. Not sure if I have any more spare 88/89 ECUs, I've had several 87s over the years and I believe all of my 88/89 ECU boxes now have the 87 guts inside them but I'll still check them. This all makes me absolutely love the MPI and SDS EMS in my other conquest, haha. Thanks for everyone's help! I'll update this as I learn more and hopefully figure it out.

It bumps slightly in the rich band and then bounces to mid lean band...back and forth. If I let off the gas in the slightest bit, it goes lean/off. If I press on the gas in the slightest, it is about mid to upper stoich. It's just right on that line where you hold the pedal still when cruising under 40mph. Anything faster, it is fine because it is over 2500rpms.