1/2/18
I had high hopes over the holiday break to get the car running. Unfortunately it was just not meant to be. My primary focus was to get everything electrically working on the car because we knew there were problems. Replacing the engine harness was the first step but other issues had to be resolved as well.
During one of the attempts to steal the car, the ignition switch got damaged. The vehicle would actually power up with the key out of the ignition which was not good. I dropped the column in order to get access and replaced the switch. Once replaced, the ignition started functioning as expected so I was able to move onto checking everything else.
The hardest problem to find is the one that is comes and goes for no apparent reason. This was the case for the first issue I had to resolve. As I was verifying each of the accessories worked, the power would randomly shut off. I would wiggle connections, turn the ignition on and off, disconnect the battery, reconnect the battery, check fuses... nothing seemed to have an impact on the problem. Magically, at some random time, everything would start to work again. This went on and on for a couple hours until I finally figured it out. Some how, one of the main body fuses got damaged. It had a small crack through the fuse itself. The fuse was not blown - it was broke. Once replaced, the random power problem went away. You can see the crack below in the B/W photo.
Next issue I needed to deal with was the instrument cluster. When the ignition was turned on, the temp gauge would peg and multiple idiot lights would turn on. After referencing the FSM, I traced the problem to a I/P (instrument panel) circuit which seems to touch almost everything attached to the cluster and the cluster itself. After some research on the ImpalaSS forum, I read a post about the temp gauge being problematic in the 1994-1995 clusters. Dan had purchased a Z28 cluster so I swapped it in. This appeared to fix the cluster problems so time to move onto the headlights.
Dan had installed some T84 headlights. They are supposed to be much better than stock and look pretty cool as well. I found two bad bulbs, one broke bulb and a broken ground tab on the marker light. I also diagnosed a stripped ground bolt on the drivers side core support. The drivers side had at one point had most of the connectors replaced (likely due to an accident) and they used butt connectors. I will at a later time replace those using soldered connections for the sake of reliability.
Turning out the garage light later that evening knowing the car was once again electrically working felt awesome. This was the most difficult hurdle in my mind to resolve because it was "unknown". Now I can move on to some of the easier tasks!!
I had high hopes over the holiday break to get the car running. Unfortunately it was just not meant to be. My primary focus was to get everything electrically working on the car because we knew there were problems. Replacing the engine harness was the first step but other issues had to be resolved as well.
During one of the attempts to steal the car, the ignition switch got damaged. The vehicle would actually power up with the key out of the ignition which was not good. I dropped the column in order to get access and replaced the switch. Once replaced, the ignition started functioning as expected so I was able to move onto checking everything else.
The hardest problem to find is the one that is comes and goes for no apparent reason. This was the case for the first issue I had to resolve. As I was verifying each of the accessories worked, the power would randomly shut off. I would wiggle connections, turn the ignition on and off, disconnect the battery, reconnect the battery, check fuses... nothing seemed to have an impact on the problem. Magically, at some random time, everything would start to work again. This went on and on for a couple hours until I finally figured it out. Some how, one of the main body fuses got damaged. It had a small crack through the fuse itself. The fuse was not blown - it was broke. Once replaced, the random power problem went away. You can see the crack below in the B/W photo.
Next issue I needed to deal with was the instrument cluster. When the ignition was turned on, the temp gauge would peg and multiple idiot lights would turn on. After referencing the FSM, I traced the problem to a I/P (instrument panel) circuit which seems to touch almost everything attached to the cluster and the cluster itself. After some research on the ImpalaSS forum, I read a post about the temp gauge being problematic in the 1994-1995 clusters. Dan had purchased a Z28 cluster so I swapped it in. This appeared to fix the cluster problems so time to move onto the headlights.
Dan had installed some T84 headlights. They are supposed to be much better than stock and look pretty cool as well. I found two bad bulbs, one broke bulb and a broken ground tab on the marker light. I also diagnosed a stripped ground bolt on the drivers side core support. The drivers side had at one point had most of the connectors replaced (likely due to an accident) and they used butt connectors. I will at a later time replace those using soldered connections for the sake of reliability.
Turning out the garage light later that evening knowing the car was once again electrically working felt awesome. This was the most difficult hurdle in my mind to resolve because it was "unknown". Now I can move on to some of the easier tasks!!
AWESOME! Those electrical bugs drove me crazy and without enough time to ever spend on it I was frustrated to the point I walked away. So glad you figured it out. Broken fuse. Geez.
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