"Shadowfax" - Jeremy's 15th Anv. Trans Am

[Darren]

Jeremy, seriously strip the harness down or whats left of it to the bare bones, hook up what you need and see how that thing runs! The fans and accessories are easily. It takes just a handful of wires to get the car to run. That is the single best mod I did to my car, I am glad bigjon [MENTION=2135]bigjon88[/MENTION] just cut the harness apart when I was terrified!

[Jdseibe]

Easy solution if your just going to rip the motor out. Tear the wiring down to the BARE bones... add a MSD setup wire that in, wire your fans to a stand alone system (like a painless kit) and boom running driving car... then rip it out when ready for the LS. I mean you wouldnt have heat/AC (if the car has it) or anything else like that but you could very easily get the car running.

Well the ignition system right now is an HEI distributor.. seems like a pretty stand alone system the way it is haha! I mean I have an MSD HEI distributor that I could swap it.. but don't think it would make much of a difference.. the fans I haven't even considered yet.. ugh.. just like I haven't figured out yet what I want to do with the trans lockup situation.. the car doesn't have heat or AC the way it is.. so not a huge concern there haha!

I think that's a smart move Jeremy. Do what you need to to get the car running, but then focus more on converting it to an LSx.

I can appreciate wanting to keep things original but the time, energy, and $$ spent doing that will become overwhelming.

yea I was thinking about going original on it.. but I think it would be more effort than it would be worth (not saying I still won't hold onto the original drivetrain though)

[92conv]

I think that's a smart move Jeremy. Do what you need to to get the car running, but then focus more on converting it to an LSx.

I can appreciate wanting to keep things original but the time, energy, and $$ spent doing that will become overwhelming.

[Darren]

Easy solution if your just going to rip the motor out. Tear the wiring down to the BARE bones... add a MSD setup wire that in, wire your fans to a stand alone system (like a painless kit) and boom running driving car... then rip it out when ready for the LS. I mean you wouldnt have heat/AC (if the car has it) or anything else like that but you could very easily get the car running.

[Jdseibe]

Does this car start and run? Turn over? Anything?

The car turns over, and with a little help from mr. gas can.. it will start. I have another carb (more suited for this car) that I am going to rebuild.. just have to do it.. figured I would tackle the wiring first.. since its a mess.. and there is something grounding or shorting somewhere that is killing the battery like crazy.

[Darren]

Does this car start and run? Turn over? Anything?

[Jdseibe]

so I started digging into my wiring some yesterday.. and boy is it a mess!

half of the wire loom is just taped together with electrical tape into a big blog of a mess.. I started untangling everything and taking the loom and tape off.. to find MULTIPLE wires that are just bare and laying inside of the loom connected to NOTHING!

So since ultimately my plan is to probably go LSx in the future.. I am not going to invest a ton of time into getting this engine back to stock.. since the air injection stuff is missing, it being converted to a non computer controlled carb, AC is compressor and hoses gone, wiring botched, and who knows what else yet..

so I think what I am going to do is remove all the wiring, and anything related to the ECM since it looks like the ECM only controlled the carb, timing, and TCC anyways.. and with it being converted to a non computer controlled carb/distributor the TCC no longer works right anyways. in the future if/when I go lsX the wiring harness will have to be completely replaced anyways.. so I think it just makes sense to at least get the car on the road.

1) remove ECM and related wiring
2) inspect and replace/fix any other wiring issues (broken plus, clips, wires)
3) inspect and replace any worn out fuses or relays
4) cleanup and organize loom
5) clean all plugs/contacts

if all the wires are inspected and cleaned and gone through.. hopefully I should find the cause of my battery draining issues.

[92conv]

You'll see the relays in the upper right hand corner of this pic. I'm not certain which one is for the "helper pump" but I'm sure you could find that info on early third gen.com.

[Jdseibe]

awesome thanks! I heard it was to help with vapor lock.. but wasn't sure if it would just starve if it didn't work at all.

[92conv]

I believe they had a "helper pump" just to help in feeding the mechanical pump. The fuel pump relay should be on the firewall. I don't have a picture of the engine compartment here at work, but I'll try to post some from home tonight.

[Jdseibe]

LS...do it...DO IT, contract me to do the parts and wiring for you

I'm really thinking this will be the way I go, I very well may get ahold of you on some questions!


[MENTION=1515]92conv[/MENTION] I have a quick question for you on the 84. now I have been doing a little reading.. and it appears that some of the H.O's had an electric in tank fuel pump? now I finally have a working battery in the car. when I put the ignition in the run position. I don't hear any fuel pump kicking on. so my question is.. 1) where are the fuel pump relays located on these? (when I search online.. it shows up for later year, fuel injected cars) and 2) if the in-tank fuel pump is not working.. I'm assuming the mechanical pump won't be able to pull in gas from the tank.. correct?

[Gregs_gsxr]

LS...do it...DO IT, contract me to do the parts and wiring for you

[92conv]

Interesting. Thank you for that clarification.

[ktl711]

What's interesting about this car is that it was built after my Van Nuys car (also a 15th Annv), but has an earlier sequence numbered VIN .

I'm arriving late to the party, as usual...

Van Nuys and Norwood did not share VIN serial ranges -- each had their own range starting at 100001. This is true for all GM assembly plants. So, if Van Nuys started building the 1984s earlier than Norwood, then they would therefore produce their respective VIN Serial numbers earlier than Norwood.

[Jdseibe]

well.. the short term plan is to get the 305 on the road. just haven't had a ton of time to look at it yet.. I bought a rebuild kit for the q-jet that tyler gave me.. bought some solution to soak it in and am going to get that rebuilt. have the oil, filter, and plugs/wires here for it too.. I'm hoping the transmission problem with it was because the TV cable wasn't adjusted properly because the linkage on the current q-jet is actually not setup for a 700r4.. BUT if there IS an issue with that transmission.. then I am going to swap in my 700r4 from my Camaro an go from there. I will be slowly getting the interior back together as well.. but plan on.. for right now.. just get it on the road.. new tires etc..

long term plan is to get a new engine/trans setup for the car and swap them in, something performance related.. which is why I asked the question above.. regardless of what is swapped in.. I am planning on crating up the 5.0/700r4 that came with the car and hold on to them and go from there.. what is more economical of a swap/build really? a mildly built 5.3 that can be had for pretty cheap? or a full overhaul of my current sbc? idk.. will probably end up costing about the same.. but will probably be more reliable with an LS swap.. like I said.. this is a long term goal..

The T/A WILL be on the road this summer.. garauntee that! it will be with the 5.0 and 700r4.. will it be finished? no.. but at least I will get to enjoy it