SVX Fixin's

 I've read on the forums and Facebook that to get parts for your SVX, you buy another SVX. Thus far, I haven't had to do that. *knocks on wood*

Tonight I decided to tackle the driver's side door lock. I picked up a new security system a couple of months back because the OEM one just wasn't working. Not to mention it was draining the battery - something I only found out after I replaced it. However while it would lock/unlock the passenger door just fine, it wouldn't lock the driver door. I figured the solenoid was bad, so off came the door card.

Turns out the solenoid was NOT bad, it was disconnected. And not only disconnected electrically, but also mechanically. It looked like someone replaced it and didn't hook up the mechanical end right, and so they disconnected it from power so it wouldn't make noise. The mechanical end was flipped 180 and the solenoid itself doesn't actually rotate, so whomever was in there before just didn't do it right.

While I was putzing around in the car, also decided to fix the interior footwell lights. This car is from 1992 and it is VERY advanced for it's time. The passenger side light I found the bulb was out a while ago, but the driver's side was missing the whole assembly. Luckily I had some 12v red LED strips that I was going to use for a similar project in another car that I never got around to installing, so I installed the passenger side after lopping off the connector and installing my own. The connectors are oem-ish and the strips will likely not fail for the rest of the life of the car, so now all I have to do is 3D-print up some brackets that work with the oem mounting points. Driver's side connector is annoyingly short and will take some gymnastics to install, so that I'll leave for another day.

I've still got to reinstall the driver side door card anyway, as the speaker in that door was totally destroyed. I've got some replacements saved in my buy later amazon list, so maybe I'll pick those up sooner rather than later so I can button this thing up.

Also, one of these days I'll take some pictures to document such activities. I thought about it while I was finalizing the door actuator reinstall, but today has been a busy day and I just wanted to finish it and get back inside. Mission Accompished.

No Moar Volvos

 It's actually been a while since I've owned a Volvo. My son Julian had a 2005 V70 that was here at the house for a while, but since he's off doing Marine things, I sold that for him last year. I've got a couple of Subarus now. I might repurpose this blog for Subaru things, but we shall see.

Since I re-started blogging on my Drunken Ramblings page, I thought I should likely refresh this as well.  We shall see what I'll end up doing here.

Transmission Swap Success!

I attempted, and completed, the transmission swap I'd been dreading these past months. It only took about 7 hours, and I did it solo. Luckily the clutch, flywheel and pressure plate were all interchangeable, so there were no issues there. I got to pick and choose from the best of the lot, and since the clutch and PP from the maroon car were newer, I used those with the original flywheel (less scoring/stress cracks).

I didn't get around to wiring up the speedo before the swap however, so I drove around for a couple of days without any kind of speed indicator. When I finally got around to putting the new cluster in, nothing worked. AT ALL. I tracked down a couple of wiring diagrams and after tracing out every pin on each cluster, I found that they were the same. So why wasn't I getting power? Well, turns out the +12 on the electric (86+) speedometer supplies power to the cluster, and the original +12 from the other connectors only provide illumination. Fabulous. But I got that all sorted out and now all that is left is to hook up the wires to the rear end speed sensor and it'll be done.

I did notice last night that the car is spewing oil onto the exhaust, however. I replaced the RMS while I was in there, so I don't think that's where it's coming from. I'm really hoping it's just the oil pan gasket, because I've got one of those and I was planning on doing that anyway when I replaced the engine mounts. Crossing fingers!