Keyless Entry Powers ACTIVATE!

I installed keyless entry on Roon tonight.  Did a bunch of other stuff too, but that was the high point of the evening.  And while I was typing this, decided to make a tutorial/guide on turbobricks to make it easier for others to do the same, right here. (you will probably have to have an account and be logged in to view it)  Short version in the pic to the right.
I found out that I have to do some rewiring as well.  Turns out that the wires from the old harness aren't supplying 12v switched like I thought they would be, so now I don't have a power source for my fuel pumps nor knocksense.  Also the switched power that I THOUGHT I would have for Megasquirt, wasn't.  Thus is the problem with adapting a prior harness to work with your new shit.  I've got to rewire power down the main harness anyway, so while I'm in there I think I'll fix a couple of things that came out wrong the first time around.  This is a learning experience, folks.  Next time will go much smoother, I'm sure.

AND IT RUNS!

But I'm SUCH an idiot.  Turns out it wasn't the ECU after all.  There was a fuse that I had checked, and checked again, that wasn't fully connecting and so thus it wasn't giving the ECU a full 12v.  Thing is, when I checked the pin on the ECU that this fuse supplies, it WAS giving 12v.  The only time it wasn't, was when I was trying to start the damned car.  After I got that going I almost immediately pulled the car out of the garage and put it in the side yard so I can pressure wash the engine bay again.  But first - I needed to replace the transmission mount on Betty.  So I did that.  And DAMN did that make a difference in the way Betty drives.  I can't even begin to tell you how much better it is now.

Then I cleaned up the garage and folded up the ginormous tarp that I'd laid out on the floor to keep things from messing up my parents' garage, and headed out back to work on Roon a bit.  Now that the walbro is installed and the fuel fumes are gone, I could grind off the old wastegate arm on the turbo and reweld it to where I needed it to be.  So I did that.  I'll go back tomorrow and take some pics.  I DO need to pick up a circlip or some manner of restraining device for the gate though.  Bad thing is that my braided drain hose decided it didn't want to be married to the -AN ends any longer, so now I think I'll just find some high-temp hose that will work in that location.  Fitting braided lines together without the proper tools is a HUGE pain in the ass.

And that was it for my car work today.  Accomplished a fair amount, and that makes me happy.

Bah, humbug!

Figured out today that Yellow Box, does, in fact, need a new ECU.  Apparently the fuel circuit has a tendency to blow up, especially if you aren't extraordinarily careful how you unplug the ECU.  My bad.

So I posted about needing a new ECU, then went to go work on Roon.  I got the exhaust manifold bolted up, with new studs on the T3 flange, fixed a bent stud on the turbo wastegate, and at some point decided to swap in the walbro 255lph fuel pump.  That was probably the worst idea I'd had all day.  I got the old pump out of the tank okay, and attached the walbro to the brackets all nice, but the sock and isolator on the bottom of the pump weren't staying on very well.  Anyone who has done this job knows that it takes some contorting of the pump assembly to get it back into the car, so the fact that those were kinda loose needed to be rectified.  I attempted to glue the isolator down (it goes over the sock) but I was impatient and didn't let it set long enough, so my first attempt ended with both the sock and isolator in the bottom of the tank.  After fishing those out, I decided a zip-tie lengthwise around the pump would hold things together a little better.  Well, it did...but while pushing the assembly down into the tank the fuel level sender ball popped off into the tank.

I eventually got the ball back, and tried again.  THIS time the isolator and sock came off again, only the sock didn't fall into the swirl tank area, but rather decided to float (thank god for that) off into the recesses of the tank.  I FINALLY got the fuel swished around enough (after about a half-hour or so) to bring the sock back to where I could see it - and thus grab it with my improvised tongs.  At that point I decided the isolator was the root of all evil, and tossed it aside.  I got the resulting assembly into the tank without fuss and called it a night.

I tell you though, I was ->THIS<- close to lighting a flare and tossing it into the tank a couple of times.  Now I've got to delete the main pump, replace the filter and the fuel system will be done.  It's gonna be fun to get this car complete and tuned.  I'm hoping for an honest 300hp/tq, but I'll have to be careful in 3rd gear else I'll have a transmission swap to do (and I have a stronger spare in the garage!)

More Yellow Box

Yellow box got put back together today.  Harness was reinstalled, timing was set, and it still failed to start.  I traced it down to the ecu not seeing that the engine was cranking, and found that the ecu itself might be bad.  Probably my fault since it WAS working before I started fucking with the harness.  Looking for a replacement ecu now.

Then there are a few other issues that need attention, main one being a bad heater blower motor.  I REALLY should have asked/checked this before buying it, but I figured that it was a minor corrosion issue with the fuses and/or ground.  Son of a bitch.  Anyway, I suppose it's time for me to swap one out, since I haven't EVER had to do it in nearly 20 years of Volvo ownership.  After that it needs a few minor interior pieces and some speakers.

It's a good little car, I like it.

Fixing a Yellow Box

So Yellow Box had a small engine fire.  Not my car, but now my problem to fix because I caused it.  Posted on OVT about getting a new harness, and got a hit - but when I picked up the harness it wasn't the right one.  Looks like it was for a k-jet car, not LH.  However, the ignition harness that came with it was for a bosch distributor instead of the chrysler piece of crap, so I grabbed one of my spare distributors out of my stash and installed that.  Then I went about fixing the old harness, because I looked through the records that came with the car and the harness in the car was only about 5 years old - which for a 27 year old car was FABULOUS.

While the pic of the harness LOOKS bad, it was really only singed in a few places, and only one connector was unusable (which was on the ignition harness, which I swapped).  When I cut off the sheathing the wires underneath were absolutely perfect.  Some of the insulation was slightly bonded to the sheathing, but I was able to cut it all off and make it perfect.  And then I reinstalled it.

An upside to taking the intake manifold off to get to the harness was that it revealed that the car DID, IN FACT have a vacuum leak.  The intake manifold gasket at #1 was nastified and broken (nowhere near where the fire was worst, so that wasn't the cause).  The intake tube was also melted, but I'm pretty sure THAT was due to the fire...luckily I have a spare from my maroon 245.  I picked up the parts for that today, and I should have it back together and running this weekend.

THEN I can start on the other 3 cars I have to fix...  Betty needs a transmission mount, the 850 needs a valve replacement, and Roon needs to be finished.  Sheesh.

More and more

No pics again today, I know I'm a slacker.  Not really, since I DID get a LOT done with Roon today, but I forgot my camera at home.

I got a solenoid installed into the drivers' door, so keyless entry WILL work when I get the alarm installed.  Did a little more wiring on the engine harness, still need to look up a couple of things but nothing major.  Got the exhaust nearly completed, and in fact tacked up another downpipe just to see if a different one would be any better.  It wasn't...quite, but mainly because of how I had the rest of the exhaust already completed.  I may weld it up and sell it when I get better at welding.  And I completed my fuel rail welding as well.  Finally got one that I'm not ashamed of, but now I'm worried that my welds may have gotten to hot and compromised the aluminum underneath.  I'll hook it up to air and pump ~40psi into it to make sure everything is kosher before I run fuel through it.

So that was my today, fairly productive and tomorrow I shall bring my camera along so I can document more fully my progress.