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To begin with, I've
got this pit in my stomach that I haven't felt since
hooking up the battery after installing Dan's wire
harness. Will there be smoke and fire? Will anything
work? Will the car ever run? Well that's how I'm
feeling once again. First thing I do is to double
check every connection, both fuel and electrical. I
tighten every clamp and screw a little more. Add
about 3 gallons of gas, open the gas shutoff valve
and watch the gas fill up the filter. No leaks on
the inlet side of the pump. Then I hook up the
battery...........so far nothing's burning. Always a
good sign!
Now here's the BIG
DISCLAIMER: To save yourself some "concern", follow
Rick's suggestion for setting the timing BEFORE
actually starting your car. Pull the cables off of
the injectors and have someone crank the engine
while you time it to 14 degrees BTDC or something
close to that for now. I didn't have anyone around
to crank the engine while I timed it, so I just
followed John's directions. The problem is that when
the initial timing is as far off as mine was, it can
lead to some interesting events.......read on.
I wish I could say the
first start up was uneventful. You know what I
mean....turn the key, fires up and purrs like a
newborn kitty. Didn't happen.....actually fire &
smoke is more of a better description! A little
dramatic perhaps but not entirely inaccurate......so
read on..... Keep in mind that the car hasn't been
run in about 2 full months and its been sitting in a
cold garage. Now the choke serves no purpose other
then as a high speed idle in cold weather. So you
use the choke as a way of setting your high speed
idle for cold starts.
John
provides the "first time startup" directions which I
follow to the letter. Step 1, turn key to run
position but don't crank engine and you should get a
glowing check engine light. Got it! Step 2, turn key
off, wait about 30 seconds, then on again and listen
for the hum of the fuel pump. Hummmmmmmmmmm....
along with the sound of gas splashing back in to the
tank via the return line. Step 3, start the
engine.... not happening. Crank it with foot off of
gas pedal like he says and it wants to run but
won't. Step 4, hold gas pedal half way down and
crank until it fires. Finally it starts stumbling
along but still won't run on its own. I turn it off,
check all the cables, the distributor, reset all the
plug cables, double check the firing order etc. etc.
Go in the house, kick the cat (well we don't
actually have a cat.....just a bunny but she's in
her cage), wonder if I know what I'm doing, knowing
that I really don't know what I'm doing for the most
part. I'm just following directions. Back out to the
garage and try Step 3 again and....Houston, we have
lift off! It fires right up and runs roughly, very
very roughly but that's OK. It needs to get up to
operating temperature so I can set the timing. I get
under the car to check the fuel pump area for any
leaks. There's a little wetness on one of the
fittings but a turn of the wrench fixes that. Now up
to the front of the car to check for leaks.......but
wait....what's all that smoke coming from under the
hood?! It looks like it's coming from the carbs but
on closer inspection it's from the exhaust
manifold......whew.....just left over penetrating
oil from soaking the bolts/nuts. Good news is there
are no gas leaks anywhere up front. I get back in
the car and check the temp gauge and goose the
throttle..............What the @#%@* was that.......
flames..... I just saw out of the corner of my eye?
I turn off the engine and check the
carbs.....nothing wrong there. Start the car back
up, get out and go over to the carbs and give the
throttle linkage a push. WHOOSH........flame thrower
out of the front carb. I run to drivers side and
shut off engine. Run back to the carbs and see
flames inside the carb body......grab the fire
extinguisher, which I had the foresight to put next
to the car but, thank god, the flames go out.
Ok...what now? There's no gas leaks anywhere so I
decide to chalk it up to real bad engine timing. I
fire it up once more, grab my timing light,
disconnect the timing plug at the ignition module
and take aim at the timing mark...............holy
@&*#.... it's at 8 degrees ATDC when it's supposed
to be at 14 degrees BTDC. Gee, that might explain
the rough running and backfires. I get the timing to
8 degrees BTDC, but every time I try to go past 8
degrees, the timing mark jumps to 20 degrees and
then back to 8 degrees. So I lock it down at 8
degrees and decide to adjust the idle. Once I get
the idle down to 800 RPM, I'm able to get the timing
to 14 degrees. Then back to adjusting the idle once
again. OK.... it's running real smooth, nice idle,
good throttle response, nothing on fire...life is
good. Except....the check engine light is on. So I
turn the car off, only it keeps running for a few
seconds before turning off...that's strange. Start
it back up and let it idle for a while but the check
engine light is still on. Shut the car
off........except it keeps running.....and
running.....and running....nice and smooth too. All
the gauges indicate that the car is off, the keys
are in my hand, but the ignition light is on and the
car is running. So I pull the inline fuse for the
ECM harness and it shuts off. Hmmmmmm, time to call
John. He's seen this problem once before but wants
me to pull the trouble code from the ECM which is
easy enough to do. There's an ALDL cable that lets
you plug your laptop into the ECM for diagnostics
and chip flashing, but for the trouble codes you
just jump two of the plug terminals and the check
engine light flashes in a Morse Code-like fashion
all the troubles stored in the ECM. I jump the
terminals, turn the key to the run position and 1
blink, pause, 2 blinks ..3 times in a row and then
nothing else. Well, that's the normal code for no
RPMs being seen by the ECM and is normal seeing as
the engine isn't running. So I remove the jumpers,
start the engine and the light still stays on. Turn
off the key and the car keeps running. Nothing left
to do but pull the fuse again to turn the car off. I
check the trouble codes again and I get the same
"normal" code. What the heck is going on?!? Then the
big "DUH" hits and I read through the trouble
shooting section again to confirm what I'm
thinking......yup......the way to clear trouble
codes is to pull the main harness fuse! So here I am
in the classic Catch-22 scenario. The ECM has a
problem identified and the code stored for
retrieval, but I can't shut the car off without
pulling the main fuse which wipes out all the
trouble codes!
So the first problem to
fix is this running on issue. When I previously
called John, I told him I had emailed him the link
to my wiring diagram on Dan Masters' web site. This
was the first TBI conversion on a car with Dan's
wire harness....just my luck. After reading the
diagram he immediately knew what the problem was.
Here's his explanation:
"Its due to
the alternator back feeding the fuse panel while
its turning. The alternator idiot light normally
stays off because the alternator output is the
same as the battery voltage. When the alternator
output starts to drop a small voltage difference
is produced between the fuse panel (powered by
the battery) and the alternator output. This is
what makes the lamp begin to glow faintly as
alternator output drops gradually. But when the
ignition is cut off there is still a circuit
from the alt. lamp output going thru the master
relay I use and then to ground. There is enough
current to keep the relay energized and make the
alt. lamp glow dimly.
In your case I looked at the Dan Masters diagram
and I see exactly what's happening. If you go to
page 8 of the manual and turn it clockwise so
that the writing is right side up, you will see
an ignition indicator lamp in a circuit coming
off the alternator and going to a fuse panel.
The fuse panel is normally powered by the power
relay but the power relay is open when the
ignition is turned off. But the alternator puts
out a voltage on the lamp wire that back feeds
the fuse panel. And it also back feeds the
ignition coil too. Since I used the ignition
coil wire as a trigger for the master relay the
back voltage is keeping the EFI master relay on.
The fix is to install a diode in the alternator
lamp wire so that current is blocked from
flowing from the alt to the fuse panel. This
means when installing an diode the black bar
goes towards the alternator."
So that's
where I stand as I write this. I got back to John
with some very specific questions about how to do
what he's asking and as soon as I hear back, I'll be
moving forward once again.
Frustrated......nah....I knew there would be some
bugs to iron out but I also knew that Rick and John
stand behind their product and would walk me through
any problems. BTW... the car has been sitting in a
25 degree garage and I just went out and it started
right up without even pulling the choke (now known
as the High Speed Idle Control or HSIC) out. Try
that with regular old ZS carbs!
OK...
John got back to me and after reviewing the wiring
schematic for my wire harness from Dan Masters' web
site, it's an easy fix. I made the change this
morning (in the teens overnight) and the car started
right up and, more importantly, turned off! Now I
can run the "check engine" trouble codes which show
that it's a TPS "broken/burned" wire problem.
Well.....I run a continuity test on each wire from
the TPS plug back to the ECM plug and they all check
out OK. Could it be an ECM issue? I toss the ball
back to John in an email and hope for an answer
overnight. Stay tuned!
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