I soldered it, so I know that the repair isn't going to come loose or anything. I don't know about the resistance though, I'm hoping Pocket will chime in since he and I sent about 100 PM's back and forth when I was splicing his swap harness into the 3rd gen harness on my car. I'm sure he would know about the resistance issue you're talking about.

 

PM sent

The red wire with the black connector is the fuel pump prime connector and you described its function to a T with the short run intervals. Its purpose is to eliminate the ECM and other bits of wiring and test for a bad fuel pump. Add 12v to the prime at any time, ECM good/bad/running/broken down etc and the pump will prime if it can (not dead)

 

OK, just to be sure that I understand what you're saying -

The "fuel pump prime connector" is a separate (diagnostic) circuit/line to the fuel pump that allows you to test the pump? And if so, does it sound like Nick might've inadvertently hooked that up to 12v, rather than the intended circuit??

Thanks Jon, I'm just trying to get a handle on how this stuff works...

I can address this one - when I was a mere "punklet", I worked for a defense contractor doing military/space electronics work for a couple of years.

Just because two wires are soldered together doesn't mean that it's a good connection. For someone who doesn't know how to solder, sometimes crimping is better. But if you can avoid the two biggest enemies of a solder joint ('overheating the solder when making the connection' and 'flexing/movement of the soldered joint'), then soldering can be absolutely reliable.

Overheating is the most-common mistake, & it frequently results in crappy joints that don't have good electrical conductivity. If you think of current flow as being similar to water through pipes, then you can compare a high-resistance joint to a pipe that has corrosion or gunk blocking the flow. (That's not a perfect analogy, but close enough for this illustration.) The circuits "downstream" of the poor joint don't have all of the current that they should be working with, & thus aren't working the way that they're designed to.

If the connection you've soldered is a dull, ugly gray color, then it's probably overheated & you'd probably be best off to re-do that connection. If it's shiny (very much like chrome), and not globbed all over the wires, then you're probably in good shape.

Personally, I don't like the "gun" style soldering guns, I just haven't had good results with 'em. I've always been able to do a much better job with the "pencil-type" soldering irons, so if you're having a tough time with soldering, that might be worth considering.

Finally - it's probably a safe bet that a lot of people don't know to keep their tips clean while soldering (wipe it off on a wet sponge), & NEVER turn the soldering iron off without applying a bit of fresh solder to the tip to keep it from oxidizing when you're not using it. (Take care of your tools.)

OK, sorry for the big-time thread-jack, I'm off my soapbox now...

 

Gotcha, so I basically wired up the fuel pump to just prime when I did that solder tonight. I'll have to open up the loom I put on and double check the actual power wire for the pump and see where it broke since I'm assuming that is what my problem is. This thing is such a woman, I give it attention and it just nags and nags and nags, and whenever it feels being stubborn it won't put out

 

Yea this is the diagram he made, the red wire on the relay that I actually soldered to a 12v source tonight is the prime circuit. That means that the 12v wire I soldered to it is 99.9% positively the REAL power source for the green wire, I'm going to have to go hunting tomorrow night. At least it was parked in my parents' garage and not on the street haha

 

Oh, and here's what I was working on when I accidentally made the car stop running


I still am not 100% happy with it, but it looks better than it did. I still need to tuck away some of the a/c wiring until I end up getting a/c back on it. And I need to cut the connector off the blower motor wiring in the harness and put some kind of pin on the end of the positive and ground wires so I can re-wire it to work with this older style a/c delete box blower motor.

At least the driver side area looks a little better. I hate how the one piece of loom is huge and then I had to split it into smaller ones, but that's just the way it worked out.

 

Agreed. I use a 30A pencil iron for 98% of my work. Only the big stuff like 10-12ga will I break out the 120A gun

For your relay, my best bet is on the green PCM call wire. To enable the relay, the PCM sends 12v along that wire. The only other inputs are the ORG battery 12v wire which shares a fuse with your PCM. This wire was unmodified from the factory wiring and is substantially larger than the rest of the wiring. You would know very quickly if this was hooked up wrong. Ground must be intact because the car ran before, and when 12v was applied to the prime it enabled. Process of elimination suggests its the green PCM call wire

The downside is you may have to pull the loom back some for the repair

Harness is cleaning up nicely. Looks very tidy

One more point, is the clutch reservoir supposed to be on that side of the booster? Or does it matter since its remote

 

It's remote so you can put it wherever

 

Lookin good nick!

On the reservoir mounting location... I was tempted to put mine over there since it was a more direct shot down to the master cylinder. However...I didnt like how the heat from the headers was rising up towards the puny rubber line and was also afraid of heating the actual reservoir.

Chances are it'll be ok...just after all my clutch troubles I go to extremes to make sure all the hydraulic stuff is nice and cool haha.

For your wire looms...can you run them under the booster and up along the chassis rail? Thats where all my wires run. I have to deal with my pop-up module, which Im thinking about re-locating somehow. Also, Im not sure exactly how your harness is built...so you might have needed to retain more wires from your bulkhead connector.



I would sort out your electrical gremlins, then you can sorta look at things and see where you can tuck some of the stuff away better if you want. I think it looks fine the way it is though...its certainly not bad. When people are poking around under your hood they are gonna be focusing on the motor in the middle...trust me haha. They'll hardly notice some looms off to the side.

J.

 

Under the booster should reach. It just gets semi close to the #7 primary. He also has a relay center in the stock location. It can be moved but requires more wire lengthening/shortening

The headlight door module is easy to relocate. I put it behind the fender near the drivers headlight before deleting it on the GTA. Lengthen 4-6 wires, shorten the rest. I moved the bracket with the module to speed mounting it. Its nearly identical to the Fiero location

 

I have all my wiring going under the brake booster and behind the windshield wiper motor.

I didn't have time to fix my car last night, hopefully I can tonight or tomorrow and be able to post up some good news.

Justin: What kind of clutch issues were you having?

 

Pocket...You deleted the module on your GTA..? You have me curious. As to not hijack...can you PM me with what you did there? Did you still retain the pop-ups as well?

Nick...Ive been fighting with clutch issues since day one. The pedal constantly changes feel, and has only recently become consistent with the Tick master cylinder. But I still fight with notchy shifting (could be internal trans issue)... It'll shift notchy all day, Ill get in it at lunch time and it will shift like butter on ice, then on my way back from lunch it'll be crappy again. And when it shifts nice, the pedal is light as a feather. When its notchy, the pedal firms up. I just dont get it. Ive power bled, manual bled, put 3 quarts of fluid through it...tried it all. This last swap I put the hydr. line inside the car to avoid boiling the fluid. Just a royal pain.

The next round, Im going through the trans completely and doing a stage 2 kit from Tick...even though most of those parts are supposedly in there, I want to rebuild it to be sure.

J.

 

Thanks to Jon's help (Pocket), I fixed it tonight. It was so simple I should have seen it the other night, but I missed it because I was so flippin' frustrated.

It was the green wire that feeds power to the fuel pump relay, it broke right at the solder. So it's running again, Melvin actually came over to check the car out tonight. He lives on the other side of Missouri but was working here and his hotel is a mile from my house, so he came over for a bit.

 

I couldnt let go of the opertunity to be "inspired".,,,,,,lol

It does sound mean very mean , the install looks great and like its meant to be there.

Forgot to compliment on the paint and how the car sits.

He let me ride shot gun around the neighborhood....and it was a treat. Handles real good, lots of Tq .........nicely done in record time.......

need to get back on my car again

 

Thanks Melvin . I don't know about record time though haha! It took me from May to December, basically... Not too bad though

 

when you gonna throw up some dyno numbers loli havent posted on this thread yet but i have been following awesome man awesom

 

Be looking for that very soon, hopefully around march or april. The roads are too salty right now to make the 45 minute drive to the shop.

I picked up a new hypertech t-stat (160*) and I'm gonna get a new lower radiator hose, that gates 21505 or whatever the number was...mine rubs on the suspension bad. I want to try and clean that up, install the front sway bar, wonder bar, and strut tower brace, then put the kick panels back in the car and it will be done for now. It has been really cold lately which has hurt my motivation to work on it further lol

 

I didn't get to finish what I started today because I ran out of daylight and the tendon in my left arm randomly started giving me a shooting pain. I don't know what that's all about, but I can barely turn the door ***** in my house right now.


Anyways, I got a 160* thermostat installed from Hypertech, and I swapped out the lower radiator hose from the Silverado hose that hits the suspension to the Ford F350 hose (gates # 21505), and it's definitely bigger in diamater, hopefully I don't have any issues with it leaking. I'm just glad that it's not touching the suspension anymore.

I took the dash apart because I had to get rid of my white face gauge cluster overlay; they stopped working randomly, plus they were causing my speedo to stick at 60mph. So I got those out and changed out some bulbs in the cluster that I knew were burnt out, and when I got it back together (minus the dash pad), turns out the new bulbs don't work either. I think the plastic recepticals that the bulbs snap into are actually damaged because there isn't any contact made inside them. So I'm gonna have to snag two of them off my dad's parts car...

And I decided that since I no longer have an automatic, I'm ditching the trans temp gauge in my dual pillar pod, might even ditch the a/f one too. I've got my eyes on the AeroForce Interceptor Gen II scan gauge, and will get something like a wideband or something to fill the other spot. I gotta wait till my birthday next month to get those though, because I'm dry out of money right now.

Here's the interceptor that I really want! It shows all the parameters that you can see with a tuning software like HP Tuners, because it hooks up to the OBDII port.

 

1) Sounds like Carpal Tunnel. Get a wrist brace, wear it at night for a while, and try to type in a more natural position (also avoid doing what caused you pain - like turning wrenches/screwdrivers at odd angles). Do not wear it while continuing to do what is causing you pain...found that out the hard way.

2) Did you trim it up like my pics showed? It's a massive hose otherwise.

 

I've actually thought about getting that as well, but I'd want to tee off of the ALDL data line so that I could still use a scanner at the same time, & I'm not entirely sure that it's possible...

 

You should be able to tap off the data line and run both with no problems. I would suggest being able to power off the gauge. That way if you slow it down too much, you can take the gauge out of the equation temporarily.

Keep it going Blue, you have an awesome project.

 

The speedo signal is tapped to multiple functions, and the serial data stream goes to the cluster, BCM, ALDL and i think the ABS module. I doubt one extra gauge will affect much of anything since his current setup has the signal from the PCM to ALDL only. Regardless, an inline toggle switch would solve any issue he might run into

 

I LOVE my interceptor gauge. Those things are great. I got the first design when they came out, so I actually have to power my gauge separately. Kind of a pain, but no biggie.

The newer gauges are much better in my opinion. The only reason I havent upgraded, is when mine turns on it displays the pontiac logo, and I dont think the newer ones do that...which sucks, because that was a selling point for me haha.

Here's what mine looks like during start up...in the old crappy location.



Lookin good nick! Hope your arm troubles clear up quick. Ive dealt with CT and its not fun...especially when its in your strong arm. Im useless with my left hand.

J.

 

My tuner finished the tune today, well as finished as it will be until I decide to change the MAF and TB to better equipment. But I'm satisfied right now, it runs awesome.


Here's a few vids to share with you all.

*Disclaimer: My brother is not the world's best video taker, so the fly by video kind of sucks. He didn't realize it was me coming down the road until the last second and the car went off screen, and he's bad at panning in and out.


I get kind of nasty at the end of the first video.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBJVi_5U2gA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ExOTr3J7zI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTyddWHDnrw

 

dude sounds so nasty.

When can I stop by and take a look? Good weather coming up.

I still cant figure out where in st. charles ur at, but some the area in the vids look fimilar.

I'm probably going to redline as well for exhaust, PM me ur # or something bro.

I'll bring my camera as well perhaps we can get some better footage for you.

 

I hate convertibles, but you did everything right to make me like yours man, great job.

 

I'll shoot you a PM. Just give me a shout whenever, I'm always up for taking people for rides in the car


Thanks, there's only a few types of cars that I like as convertibles. 3rd gens are one of them.

 

Sounds good, didn't get a pm, just send me it whenever.

Just layed a coat of wax on the 02 ws6, cant wait to take it out some more!

 

NICK!!! That car is gorgeous!!! It sounds great too. That is going to be pure pleasure with the top down! One thing I love about my car is having the tops out and just listening to the noises it makes now! haha.

You've really got me itching to uncover mine. Its still sitting under a foot of snow, blocked by a 6' high snow pile

Good luck with her! Enjoy!

J.

 

hey nick, i've got the interceptor gauge as well. it's a super kick *** gauge. i love being able to scroll through and check out all the stuff. mine is a black face, silver bezel and blue screen. matches my cobalt gauges perfectly.

 

Thanks Justin! One of my friends is probably going to come over and take a better video for me this weekend, and the weather is supposed to be in the mid 50's, so I just may have to drop the top haha

Matt, I ordered the blue font on black screen with white face and black bezel, to match my Phantom series gauge


Tim, sorry I forgot to send the PM. I will right now haha




Oh ya. I had the appraisal redone last night for insurance purposes. It WAS appraised at $12,000 and now it is $17,500. Not too shabby!

 

Sounds pretty damn fine dude! I can see your big fat smile through the glass too hahaha!!

Going to sidetrack here just ever so slightly and address a couple issues the way i see it. Probably add some details to the sticky about this later but for now its for y'alls viewing pleasure only.

1. Soldering. The trick to soldering electrical is not so much the heat as to how its heated. For instance I use a Wall Lenk 400W soldering gun thats MAJOR HOT and very fast hence why I like it. One of my pops best friends was an electrical tec then engineer for GE here in Canada for 50 years and his instruction to me on soldering when I was 16 is ironically similar to my instruction on welding. You need the right preparation of the metals and the proper filler for the job PERIOD! In order for any electrical soldering to be of good quality and lossless in transmission its absolutely CRITICAL to make sure the wires are clean clean clean CLEAN! If they are corroded from years of road use some liquid soldering acid can be used but it takes great care as this is acid and will burn you, your clothes, and harden the plastic sheathing on the wire so its crucial to only dip the stripped wires in. Its also very important to use wiring grade solder designed for electrical wiring soldering NOT PLUMBING SOLDER NO NO NO!!! To give you guys an idea I have a bunch of rosin core lead electrical solder ( the best stuff and very hard to find because of the high lead content ) I have two large spools of it so keep your eyes open at garage sales and the like. But on crucial small wire soldering ( like all my connections to the PCM wires ) I used electrical grade silver solder ( this is the stuff audiophiles use for pure sound transmission ) its pricey as hell but for the very few critical joints I use it on its piece of mind for me that it will perform perfectly. Now to add on how to heat it? I was taught of course to keep the soldering iron tinned ( which means keep the tip covered in a coating of solder ) at all times thats a must do but as for making a connection? Its best to heat the wire with the gun and place a small blob on the tip right where it touches the wire to aid in thermal conductivity and then place the the solder on the wire only away from the tip. When the wire is hot enough to take the solder it flows in very smooth and as soon as it starts flowing you simply remove the iron and let the wire draw it in. Never had a single solder problem in 20 yrs of this method. A little practice makes perfect here and you want the solder to penetrate completely all through both wires you are trying to fuse so you may have to walk the solder around the connection a little. Try and practice with some scrap on the bench before you go for a real connection.


2. Clutch Hydraulics. I know some of us have had issues with this and there has been some back and forth in opinions about what causes it etc but when it comes to keeping them functioning well and without glitch there is only one method that works flawlessly.The Ranger Protocol of swapping out the clutch fluid on the regular. His advice is to change out the fluid in the reservoir every time you fill up with gas. I was staying on top of mine the first season and my trans shifted flawlessly as a result 7K RPM shifts without one blip. Then the second season rolled around and the car was functioning so well and I was frequenting the track less just driving it on the street and overall enjoying the car more. I became complacent and stopped changing the fluid on the regular and guess what? Clutch shifting problems... Ironically very similar to Ghettocruisers issues. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, no rhyme no reason to why. I changed the Master cyl and it was immediately better BUT... the issues came back within a couple weeks. I have chatted with Ranger about this and unfortunately I am now faced with having to replace MY ENTIRE clutch hydraulics with new stuff. The hydraulics in my car now are too far contaminated and onesy twosy part changes is pouring good money after bad on a plague that wont go away. The issue really and truly is caused by clutch dust getting into the hydraulics and clogging things up. I know some of you ( and many others on other boards ) claim its impossible for the dust to get in yet the fluid doesnt get out but the proof is in the pudding and Rangers chemical analysis test shows that there is indeed clutch dust particles in the hydraulics of LSx cars when the fluid starts to turn dark. See for yourself I have attached a link here that shows video and the analysis sheet from the fluid and will answer and detailed questions or doubts you may have about this. It sucks to have to swap out my hydraulics again but I am going to start clean and fresh and STAY THAT WAY and if there is ever an issue with it after doing this believe me I will post about... but I seriously doubt that is going to happen as I will stick to the clean fluid regimen.


http://www.rangeracceleration.com/Clutch_Care.html


So if your having issues its important to replace everything and start fresh to be certain of no more problems. This is the key.

Anyways back on point here BlueZee bitchen car man congrats!

 

Good post Cam... Im too lazy to change my clutch fluid haha. Started using the racing blue stuff. It works good, but it needs to be flushed again. Probably going to flush with standard fluid til it runs clear, then re-add the blue stuff.

I have a brand new GM slave cylinder ready to go when my motor comes out again. I just hope the TICK master cylinder isnt busted up. I guess I can rebuild that one though since its a Tilton cylinder.

Good advice though! Swap that fluid constantly!

J.

 

Fortunatly, I installed the Tick one-way check valve for the clutch hydrolic system, so changing the fluid is super easy.

 

Ya indeed. Oh well we both learned the hard way so others can benefit from our experience. Cest la vies. I'm sure the tick piece will be okay so long as you clean it out thoroughly but your slave is not serviceable so that has to go and neither are stock masters serviceable so Im screwed but you should be ok with the Tick piece.


Indeed this would make life easier. If only we knew then what we know now, plus these parts weren't available when us LSx swap dinosaurs were cutting our teeth LOL. Heck i dont think Tick was even a company when some of use started our swaps. Its odd really how soooooo many shops have arrived, became king, then dissolved, all soooo rapidly too.

Wheel to wheel, Sixspeedsinc. Thunder Racing to name a few. FWIW TR is still in biz but its not the same folks there who made the place what it once was. Not saying anything bad against them either Im sure they're still effective hp LSx supporters but things have changed is all. Lots more shops too. Oh well good to see Hawks is still moving and shaking eh boys? Go third gens!!!!

 

Yea that's true. I'm glad there's such a big lot of shops that support this swap.


I edited the link to the first vid, it should work now. Sorry!

 

Yes the remote bleeder is a true blessing to the T56 community. Luckily, I installed one before I even got my tick. It was from the other supplier that was sending them out. I never even touched my TICK line...figured Ide sell it.

I also have a motive power bleeder that I use for the brakes and the clutch. Boy does that work well for flushing. Just fill it with some fluid, pump it up, crack open the bleeder line and let her flow. When it comes out clear, your fluid is nice and fresh for the most part. Its great when you are installing new calipers and lines or have a dry system.

Im going to replace the fluids once spring hits, and see if the trans will start working again. As of now, I suspect it needs freshening, so we'll see.

/hi-jack

More pics and vids Nick!

J.

 

Interestingly enough I was involved in some discussion on this method as well. The thinking was that this is a great start to ensure clean fluid but then to follow it up with a bunch of the foot pump evacuation technique from the reservoir after. Reason why is to dislodge any of the gunk trapped in and under the o-rings which wont move during a pressure bleed. By pumping the snot out of it fifty times or so it will get ALL the clutch fluid moving and help shake up and hopefully out the crap in the system. Cant hurt either is how I see it its just more effort. If you do this Id be curious to see if you actually do dislodge anymore stuff by doing this a few times after the mitey vac method.

 

Sounds awesome Nick, make an in car video of you honkin' on it lol.

 

Great vid! Haha I like how shocked your passenger is with the power I know that feeling oh too well. I seriously can never get enough of how effortless LS1's sound. They sound nasty and bark like hell but it all sounds as if its really no big deal for the engine.. Just another day cruising around. Almost like "Go ahead... I've got plenty..." hahaha thanks for the vids. Made my day especially the last one ( first link )

 

I used to love how mine sounded with the aluminum flywheel. It would rev and snap so fast, it almost sounded like a cup car motor. You could almost make it bark. Next clutch I get...Im losing some weight over the LS7.

As for my bleeding method... I usually do the pump with the remote bleeder open method. Its a one man bleeder screw. Seems to work pretty good. I only use the Motive for swapping the fluid, as it pushes the old fluid out with the new fluid.

I dont use the mighty vac. Never had good luck with it at all. Always felt worse after doing it...Im sure it was due to me not doing it properly. But Ive had good luck with the pump method. Pump 5 times, refil the res, pump 5 times, refill the res...etc.

Haha...Didnt see that in car vid nick! That one is great. Car sounds great, looks like it has nice low end manners, and sounds like it will scoot just fine!

J.

 

Yahaaa I see. I just thought vac/pump etc. Sometimes its hard to make sense of what written right in front of my eyes

 

Whoa I guess I missed your guys posts lately...lol

Ya that was my 15 year old brother riding shotgun.

I've noticed this thing revs so much easier than the stock motor did. I'm sure the light weight Spec flywheel has something to do with that.

On another note, some of you may have noticed my thread about the alternator having issues and not charging. I sorted that out today with a new exiter wire and a brand new alternator. It runs great now.

Oh and I got my interceptor gauge hooked up and it is soooo awesome! I also FINALLY put all the interior parts back in, so I can now take her out for a photoshoot and get more vids

Before it left me stranded with a dead alternator on saturday, I was racing around with my friend's '02 SS with a heads/cam 408 and he was suprised how well my car kept up with his.

 

Here is my new AeroForce Interceptor II scan gauge. This thing is wicked cool. I can pick from tons of different parameters to show, two at a time, but right now I just have it set to coolant temp and wideband A/F (my temp gauge in the stock cluster doesn't read correctly)


This weekend should be nice, I'm going to take it out and get some really nice photos for y'all. And hopefully some better videos too, my dad is going to drive it for the first time. He actually hasn't even ridden in it yet either because he had been recovering from a surgery that was back in January

 

Were you able to just buy a wideband O2 and hook it to the Interceptor? What are the details on that?

Are you going to ditch your NB gauge now?

J.

 

The gauge gets the a/f reading from the computer. The only thing that is hooked up to the gauge is the main cable that hooks up to the OBDII port

And I don't know what I'm going to do with the narrow band gauge now. It's not hooked up at the moment, I actually don't know how to hook it up. I'm either going to work on getting it to read, or sell it and buy ? gauge to take its place. I really don't need any other gauge because the Interceptor is an all-in-one package kind of thing....but I can't have an empty hole in the pod either

 

You should replace it with a fuel pressure gauge, they make a sensor kit that plugs into the gauge

http://www.aeroforcetech.com/products_sensors_oil.html

 

Do you have a shift light? You could get a pillar pod blank, and install the shift light in there. Or get a blank and put a switch or two...

Or just get a vac gauge...or a clock even haha. Lots of stuff to stick in there.

Ditch that narrowband though..they are worthless IMO. If my interceptor read the O2 I wouldnt have gotten a WB gauge. But the original ones done. Im ready to just buy a newer one... Not sure how accurate the stock O2 sensors are...but I guess they'd work pretty good. Better than narrowband anyway.

J.

 

is that a relatively new function on the interceptor? i have had mine for six months, but only about 3 weeks with a running engine. i'll have to play with that some...would save me some $$$ from having to buy a controller!

 

I'm not surf this is a new function/version of the gauge, but I was pleased that it is on mine haha! Wideband gauges alone are as costly if not more than the $210 I paid for this thing!