Recently picked up an 86 TA, and she's a complete mess.

Brakes are shot, cat's been removed and there's a 10 inch hole in the exhaust...on and on it goes. I got screwed on the deal, but that's another story.

One thing that I thought may be simple to correct, was the set of SES codes that I have, 34, 36, 44, and 54. Typical problem, wants to die at idle. Give it some gas, and it's fine. I'm guessing 44 is an o2, or the giant hole in the exhaust.

I've read plenty of posts on here about how it's most often bad relays, so I figured...$30 or so on a set of relays isn't bad, might as well give it a shot.

I made the mistake of taking it into a mechanic, and asking him to check my relays. His response was that my wiring was completely wrong, I had the wrong engine, etc and so forth. Then he charged me $90 to replace one wire. Needless to say, not going back.

Ordered a set of relays, decided to just go ahead and swap them and try to rule them out.

Here's the fun part. Why...oh why....do the connections get goo all over them? It's black like oil, but didn't smell like it. Consistency similar to peanutbutter, lol. Totally gunked up the whole inside of the connection part. All three of them. Is it melted plastic or something?

Tried cleaning them out the best I could, but I doubt I did a good enough job. A few of the wires looked pretty shoddy, but were still connected, so didn't dig into that.

Reset the ECM, fired up the car, no change at all. SES was off for a few seconds, then popped on, and the car immediately tried to die.

Any suggestions on how to really clean out the connections? I'm thinking that even with the new relays, they're so goo-ed up, that I'm not getting a proper connection or something.

Car runs great all the rest of the time. Perfect idle at a light, no stalling, no hesistation, etc.

 

I think you are talking about the three relays in front of the driver on the firewall. They are fairly high amperage relays, and G.M. changed the spec on them in later production. Don't bother cleaning them. Get new sockets, or pick up some good ones from a car at your local diy wrecking yard. Look for an 88 or 89 model or later, they may have been upgraded in 1987. The way you can tell the difference between new style and old style is the contact pins in the sockets are arranged in a linear format on the old style and more of a "square" format on the new style. If you get the new style relays first, you can tell right off if you have the correct sockets. You will also need to get the new style relays to fit the new plugs. Basically, the older style relays and plugs tended to overheat with age and some of the internal insulation would melt. When you install the new relay plugs, make sure you get the wires correct, the locations of the coil wires and contact wires were moved a bit. Also, don't use crimp connectors to make connections on the wires unless you are using uninsulated crimps for wire holder and then solder the connections and heat shrink everything. With the amperage loads they run you don't want corrosion or loose connections causing you even more problems.

 

Awesome, thanks for the advice! Looks like I've got a little work to do, but much better than trying to clean that junk out.

I'll hit the local Pull-A-part, but where would I find new plugs?

 

Look for a late model Third Gen, Firebird & Camaro are identicle and the six cylinders use the same set of three relays. There are only 2 types of relay/socket combinations, so look for the late style. You might go to your local parts store first and look at replacement relays to see what the base looks like sao you know what you are looking for in a socket. Just cut the wires about 6 inches back from the plugs and take them. You might find decent relays on the same car as the plugs. Unplug the relays first to make sure you don't get some that are already showing signs of overheating, corrosion, or bad connections. Then cut your old plugs off and solder/splice the new plugs in place. The color code on the wires did not change, so if you match colors you suhould have them wired right. Another thing to look for on your car is that when the plug overheated, the insulation probably burned or at least "cooked" to a hard, brittle, black or brown color at the plug. Whe you cut the plugs off your car, cut back far enough to get nice clean, soft, pliable insulation.

 

Oops, I think I wasn't quite clear, would I be able to buy brand new plugs? And if so, where?

Or is it really just a better effort to find used ones?

 

call a auto parts store up or Just go to an auto part store. That be a fast way to find out if they have them and get the price. good luck

 

If the plugs/wiring are good, you might clean with Quick Dry Electronic Cleaner from CarQuest, then dab on some dialectic grease. I've used that method without problems.

JamesC

 

When you say "dab on", how much is a dab? I got a set of other relays from a TGO member that look good, but are CAKED in dielectric grease. Or at least, that's what I'm assuming all this black/brown goo is.

 

Just coat the pins/prong a bit.

JamesC