JessN16

That's what I intend to do but I can't get to the microswitch without getting the car up. If you jumper the rad switch, the fan will run on key ignition, which is my plan but you'll be surprised just how low a Jag saloon rides. I can't even get my gourd-sized head under the front of the car to see the microswitch, much less unplug and jumper it. Jess

As of Wednesday this week, my driveway contained one live car and three dead ones, including both StarQuests and my 88 Jag. So I took the day off from work to try to fix at least one of the dead ones so I could drive to see my Mom today and tomorrow for Mother's Day. My wife took our one good car up to north Alabama to see her Mom and to go visit her grandmother's grave. The Starion has been dead and continues to be dead with some mysterious ailment. Perhaps it contracted swine flu. I spent about an hour on it and then moved to the others. The Conquest needed new washers on the turbo water line banjo bolts. The only thing I had to do was find a wrench big enough for the job. I've never paid $22 for a single wrench before but hey, you can't get a 22-mm any other way, I suppose. Spent an hour on this project, fixed it. The 88 Jag was the mystery. No start, then when it did it ran like crap, smelled of burning sensors/catalytics and who knows what else. Jag forums suggested a list of $1,000 parts for me to try (the car itself cost $680, so that wasn't happening). Turns out it was a $4 coil wire that had burned somewhere inside the insulation. I felt pretty proud of myself for my Sherlock Holmes-ish investigation and fix. So now I had two running cars, but the Jag's front electrical fan has been acting up (suspect the temp switch on the radiator) and with it 92 degrees today, I decided to take the "reliable" car, the Conquest. About 100 miles from here and 20 from my Mom's house, the fuel pump expired. Thankfully, it did so just at a place I could pull over and wait for a tow. Mom had to come for me, and I had to call for AAA for a tow back to Prattville since I have to be at work. Thus, Mother's Day ended up being 35 minutes on the side of the road with my Mom while waiting on the tow truck. Thankfully, the 103-mile tow cost me all of $12 after my AAA discount clicked in. But Mom and I were both pretty disappointed at the turn of events. I would go back down tomorrow in the Jag, but the fan still isn't operative and I just realized I'm going to need help checking the temp switch (the car will have to go up on jacks for me to get access and I don't get under jacked cars without a buddy). I'm really pizzed right now, because I have now broken down on three out of my last five out-of-town trips. I know someone is going to suggest getting something more reliable, and I would if I had the means at the moment, which I don't. /vent. Jess

If I want to replace the cap and rotor on my car, do I have to remove the entire assembly from the car and have to worry about that damned vacuum advance? My car is dead again (update in the older thread below) but at the same time, I have the same problem going on with a Jaguar XJ40. The guys in my Jag forum say the rotor is a common failure point on the car; current will actually burn through the rotor and cause a short situation. I currently have one of the old red cap cap-and-rotor setups that is probably 5-6 years old. I figure replacing the cap and rotor would be a cheap way to eliminate some question marks. What do I have to do to replace just those two elements? Jess

Well, hell. I was planning on using this weekend to shakedown the car but the car had other ideas. This morning when I went out to look at it, it wouldn't start. So there goes the "check connections while it's running" test. Thursday and Friday, I drove it to work. Both times I had a near-stall thing pop up when I was approaching a stop light. Hit the clutch and the car nearly died, barely caught, then came back up. Also, it had been getting hard to start towards the end of the week like it was threatening to go dead again. Today, it went dead. So I worked over the grounds pretty good on the igniter, pulled all the screws, blasted with electrical contact cleaner and wire brushes, put it back together, nothing. Tach needle is dead on startup. (Tim, if you're still reading, the ISC on this car is disconnected.) Back to square zero. Jess

I'll be interested to see what Fiat does with them. When Fiat left the U.S., that company was basically a joke. Now Fiat has a handle on its quality and it makes a lot of interesting small cars that could be popular over here, especially if gas goes up again. Their small cars have some of the nicest interiors for their class that I've seen. They've raised the possibility of using existing Chrysler dealerships to move Fiats. The other interesting thing is that Fiat now has Alfa Romeo, and intends to bring Alfa back to the U.S. If Alfa comes back with a sedan, I would definitely sit up and take notice. When Alfa left the last time in the mid-90s, it killed off the 164 sedan in the process. Those cars are super-sharp and great performers. That's pretty much the last older car that's on my to-buy list that I haven't owned yet. Jess

GMC exists for one reason only: Trucks at non-Chevy dealerships. It was developed to give the Olds/Pontiac/Buick stand-alone dealerships a truck option way back when. What GM will have at the end of the day is the same competitive structure Ford has: Upper level (Lincoln/Cadillac), midlevel (Mercury/Buick), base level (Ford/Chevy). Saturn goes away as does Hummer. I'm pretty surprised none of the European makes have jumped in to save Saab. The Pontiac thing, though, bothers me. Chevy has the Corvette, and nothing else they sell is even remotely sports-oriented. Buick? Don't make me laugh. Buick is luxury for people who can't afford Cadillac. The only GMs I'd consider buying were the Pontiacs, specifically the G8, so my buying decisions just got a lot easier. I love the newer Cadillacs but can't afford them. If I buy new over the next year, I'll probably look at the Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan twins -- especially since you can get them in a 5-speed stick. Otherwise, I'll look at four-year-old cars like I did when I bought my wife's Jag. Jess

Twice refinished. I went from the smaller flywheel up to an 88 flywheel that had been recently resurfaced. But it was stored in an outside (enclosed, but not climate controlled) building, so to be safe, I had it resurfaced again. When we pulled the Spec out, we put the next clutch in right then, without resurfacing a third time. The latest clutch has had no problems. I'm getting PMs from another member who had a failure with a Spec clutch that was identical to mine. Jess

Thanks, guys. I'll follow the advice on gasket sealant. and cleaning. Jess

The two 22-mm bolts on the side of the turbo...one of them is leaking on my '88. I've got replacement washers ready to go in, but is there any specific process to replacing these? Just unscrew the bolt, replace washers, re-fit the bolt? Also, are there any torque specs I need to be aware of? I can't get a torque wrench on that bolt easily, so I'm looking for generalities (i.e., "don't tighten too much," "tighten it until you break a blood vessel in your head," etc.). Jess

I won't rule it out, no. I will say that my plug and the wires leading to it look very healthy. I'll tighten connections and give it a closer look just to be sure. Jess

That ground for the igniter is starting to become more and more believable to me because I switched igniter boxes and got the same result -- but didn't clean the ground in between tests. I also have some leaking around the primary injector but this doesn't feel like a fuel issue to me. The big break in this came when I was told to pay attention to the tach needle and noticed it was dead on zero when the car wouldn't start. Now that the car starts, the tach needle bounces during startup. Going off earlier posts, that points to an igniter issue. If the ground is bad, it's going to make every box that's installed there non-functional. Last time something like this happened? The shop that had the car took the igniter off, cleaned the grounds, and the problem was solved. Only that time, the car actually died while going up an exit ramp, and we thought it was a fuel pump gone south and chased that rabbit for a week before moving on to electrical issues. Jess

Thanks for those suggestions. One thing I didn't do is clean the actual ground for the igniter (the bolt itself plus the eyelet). I thought it grounded back through the igniter chassis, so I have some clean-up work to do there first, especially since I noticed corroding on the retainer bolt where the eyelet ground is. If I still keep having the problem, I'll go to the switch next. Jess

I don't have a turbo timer hooked up, but I will do a connector shakedown this weekend and see if I can make it stop. Right now, it's running, so now's the time to do it. Jess

Shelby, I'm not near the car right now but I think I know what you're talking about -- it's an eyelet that grounds to one of the two bolts that holds the igniter in. Well, when I unscrewed the igniter from the car a few days ago, I noticed that the bolt holding it in was badly corroded at and past the point it actually went through the inner fender well. It looked great from the top side but not once unscrewed. I think I'm going to remove those bolts and PB Blast the whole area, then go after it with a wire brush and put it back together with a little dielectric grease added. Hopefully that will do it. Drove the car to work today, no problems. Keeping fingers crossed. Jess

I know this is going to be hard to believe on an 87, but I have no real corrosion issues on this car. Fuse link box now has four new fuse links in it, and I looked at my connections and they're all clean -- it hasn't been that long ago that I cleaned up these areas. How does the igniter itself ground? Does it ground through its own chassis or the screws that hold it onto the fenderwell, by any chance? Jess

Too late -- the nest is now the approximate thickness of rice paper. Jess

Actually, no. Just really not a big fan of flying, stinging insects. Not afraid of spiders, I actually like most snakes, I can deal with the big ol' carpenter bees -- but can't deal with red wasps, hornets, etc. They've scared me since I was a kid. Last time I was stung by something was about 10 years ago, something that looked like an oversized red ant with wings. I've been hit by bees and ground yellow jackets before, but I was just a kid. I've never had any allergic reaction to any of it (I'm not even allergic to poison ivy). I'm ambivalent about honeybees, I guess because I know they get one sting at you and then they're done. But wasps' ability to sting multiple times is just not for me. Jess

Well, I got the car started (car is having trouble -- see updated post in the VM board) and took 'em for about a 10-mile ride. Highway speeds, in town driving, headlights on, the whole deal. Got up to 65 mph once. Got home........and the little buggers were STILL ON THE HEADLIGHT. So I broke out the PB Blaster and killed them. The end. Jess

UPDATE... Well, the new fusable links came today -- the problem isn't fixed, however. But I do have so new info to give you guys. Installed the links, got in, hit the switch, nothing. Car spun and spun as it had been. But this time, I paid attention to the tach needle. It was dead on zero. After about 15 seconds, the tach needle started to wiggle. It jumped twice and BAM, car fired right up. I took it for a test drive of about 10 miles. Some highway driving, some in-town driving. Once the car is running, there are no drivability issues. It accelerates strongly. It doesn't die at stop lights. So are we thinking dying igniter? And I guess my backup igniter is bad, too. This car did this once before about five years ago and then miraculously kept going. Would this fit the dying igniter profile? Jess

I know from watching "The Exterminators" on A&E that you can kill wasps using a solution of oils (eugenyl, if I'm spelling it correctly) and water. It's extracted from certain crushed flower blooms. It removes the wax coating and then the wasps quickly dehydrate and die. No chemicals needed. You can also kill them by getting a bunch of silica gel, crushing it into a powder, and throwing that on them. It dries them out through the holes in their shells and then they die. Jess

I had to refit the airdam on my 87. I've found 3-inch drywall screws strategically placed will do the trick nicely. I'm under the right side of the car for about 30 minutes, drilling, screwdriving, backing screws out, checking fit, banging on the car a little, had my head resting on the bumper for awhile -- finally got the job done. So I decide to double check that I didn't hit any wiring to the lights during this, hit the headlight switch, and as the headlights come up ------------ there's a wasp nest attached to my right headlight. Not wasps. A wasp nest. The family was home. So I hit the headlight switch, and the lights (and nest) slowly disappeared again under the header panel. How I didn't get stung a million times, I don't know. They're still there. I figure I'll take her out for a drive later tonight (if it will crank), turn the headlights on and most of them will blow off at that point. After I finish with that, I'll head on over to the emergency room and get this heart attack seen about. Jess

I've probably waited too long, though, right? The screwing happened back in June. Jess

...absolutely screwed me in a bad way back in June. The clutch finally went out in the Starion. Crappy factory clutch only lasted 206K. So I call Clutch City Online and get a SPEC Stage I clutch. Costs $319. They send me the clutch, my local shop installs it and I think the labor bill was around $200-$250. Immediately, the car starts bucking away from stops. Clutch won't engage smoothly -- or at all, depending on the situation (i.e., backing up a steep incline). I call them several times, and they keep telling me it's our fault. It was installed improperly. It wasn't broken in properly (you guys who have seen me drive know I don't punish my stuff -- example A is the fact the factory clutch lasted 206K). The break-in period hasn't been long enough, etc., etc. So it takes me about a month to put 500 miles on the clutch, as they suggest, and it's no better. In fact, it's getting worse. So I take it back to my shop, they pull the clutch, and sure enough, it's defective. The disc showed bad scorching and may have actually been warped in production. The only thing to do at that point was put in a generic clutch kit from a local AutoZone/Advance/etc. The car ran fine after that. But as for Clutch City's clutch? Well, they wouldn't take it back. They kept giving me and my shop the runaround on the phone. They wouldn't return messages. They wouldn't send me a return order or anything of the sort. They dodged phone calls, wouldn't answer emails. I'm still out $336 ($319 for the clutch plus shipping) and the first labor charge, and all I have to show for it is a nice clutch-shaped paperweight. If Clutch City is already persona non grata around here, sorry for cluttering up the board. But if it isn't, I wanted to warn you guys first before you deal with them. Jess

The rest is debatable based on personal viewpoint but I need to call you out on this because it's factually incorrect -- at least where I live. Perhaps it is not where you live, but it is here. Of the dozen or so people I personally know that I'd consider "gun enthusiasts," about half of them have never seen the inside of a church. For that matter, I only know one guy who is both an enthusiastic gun fan and devout, both. Something else about the gun guys around here -- even though many are suspicious of the government, most of them would jump right to the front of the line if the country were ever threatened from the outside. They may not trust their government but they love their country. The ones that don't have any locus beyond the guns, I tend not to associate with if I can help it -- i.e., the guys that despise the government, don't really like the country either, distrust their neighbors, but yet have 300 guns at home and enough ammo where if their house caught fire, it would blow high enough to punch a hole in Mars, etc. Jess

The issue may have to do with religion/society/etc. for some, but for others, it comes down to this: 1) The argument "if you're a law-abiding citizen, you won't have a problem with registration" extends logically to include that I shouldn't mind searches of my car for drugs, I shouldn't care if the government listens in on my phone calls or emails (Patriot Act), I shouldn't care if there's a camera peering into my house, etc. I have nothing to worry about, so why object? Because it's just not the American way to live like that. 2) There are a great many people who believe that an armed populace is the best way to avert any attempt in the future at a police or military state. As unlikely as it is to convince police/soldiers/etc. to turn against their own people anyway, it becomes even less likely if there's a threat of the common man wiping you out. Whether the 2nd Amendment specifies this thought process or not, this (and the prohibition of forced housing of soldiers by the citizenry) goes all the way back to Revolutionary War times when such things were a common occurrence. Those two things above have more to do with this issue than religion ever did or ever will. It's not that gun enthusiasts are afraid of the world around them; they are afraid of the world around them encroaching on their civil liberties. They would rather live in a world where they themselves are responsible for a significant portion of their own safety and well-being rather than leaving it up to a central authority. Now, I'm not a hunter, nor really a gun enthusiast. There is not a gun in my home at this time. But I am strongly in favor of individual 2nd Amendment rights and it has zero to do with faith. It has to do with the fact that government as a whole will revert to a control stance whenever it can, and I believe government should actually have control over very little. Jess