Nomad final assembly

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Finally got the dongle Monday along with the CAN connector. What a piece of shit for $90. The connector is made for tiny wires and my harness has 20 and 22 gauge wires in it. The terminals are only about 3/8" long and standard crimpers don't work well on them. It was a total pain in the ass putting it on my harness. I added power and ground connections in case I ever want to connect any CANbus devices to the ECU. The cable has tiny 30 gauge or smaller wires in the connector that I think are likely to break with much use. I'm wishing I'd just bought one of the Amazon knock-offs for $29 that appear to use 20 or 22 gauge wire. Even Holley shows larger wires in their pics. Once you plug the connector in, it's a pain in the ass getting them apart. The release tab is tiny and difficult to move. My friend Gary has a Sniper that uses the 3.5" handheld to program it and he says he has a hard time getting the connector apart. Whoever at Holley chose this junk connector for this application when there are so many good connectors out there should be fired along with the guy who sourced that cable. The wires are nowhere near as big as what's in the Holley picture below.

Anyhow, I got it done and I'm ready to plug in the laptop and drop the base map to the ECU. If all the sensors check out, I'll install the upper intake and get ready to go through the startup process first checking cranking timing and setting up the TPS. Then I should be able to try starting it. I have to run my 90 year old mom to the doctor today so I probably won't get to try until tomorrow.

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Looking at your nomad pictures, It looks great, only question is how long before drivable.

It's been "driveable" for some time. The engine has been running for years, until the fuel pressure regulator went out. I fought the glass installation and had to replace the fuel lines twice. I still have it up on the blocks and I'm glad it is after this fiasco. I've been trying to get my interior guy to install the headliner and padded leather dash for the past 14+ months so I can install the windshield. I told him the interior had to be done by June 1. I'm hoping to drive it this spring/summer.

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She runs!

I have had a lot of things come up that have limited my time on the car for a few days. Yesterday I finally hooked up the laptop, loaded the base map, checked out all the sensors, and calibrated the TPS. Then I installed the upper intake and hooked everything up. I changed the fuel filter today and checked the cranking timing which looked good at 15 degrees. Then I decided to try starting it and it fired right up. Oil pressure is 60+ psi and everything looks good as far as I can tell. I want to do a little idle tuning but first I'm going to work on the floor because Larry wants to install the carpet soon. If he starts next week he might finish it by June.

Here's the wires on that Holley cable.

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[WagonCrazy]

what are you showing us in that Holley cable/connector? Its 2 wires going into a 3 pole connector...why?

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It's a 4-wire connector and there are 4 wires on the harness side. There are two CAN signals, a power, and a ground. The laptop cable only needs two connections but other things you can plug into the harness need power and ground, hence the shitty little 4-terminal connector. It's a pain in the ass to disconnect without pulling on the tiny wires.

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My machinist friend came through with new CNC machined hood hinge levers. I polished and installed them. They look so much better than the water-jetted ones I had made several years ago.

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I also worked on getting the windshield ready to install when the dash is done. I bought a Soffseal windshield seal and it's a piece of crap. It's too small and I had to stretch the crap out of it to get it on the glass. Then the seam at the lower right corner started to tear. Once I got it on I discovered that it's made wrong and the stainless trim won't fit in the slot. The slot is 1/2" back from the front of the seal, and the tab on the stainless is 5/8" wide. So the stainless doesn't sit on the rubber. Now I have to fine a T&N seal or something else that works. I'm told Steele Rubber and Clesters Auto makes good ones.....but some guys claim the Soffseal one works too.

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[bigblock]

Well that sucks.

[Belair-o]

But the hood hinge levers look spiffy!

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But the hood hinge levers look spiffy!

One of a kind!!!

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I was just trying to come up with more stuff to do on my car while I figure out the interior, and I realized what caused me to replace my entire EFI system. I was going to start the engine and get the A/C charged.....LOL! So now that it runs again, I need to get that done and check out the heater and A/C. I've barely run it once since I installed the TerminatorX so i guess I need to get the wiring situated and turn power back on so I can run it a while.

I may set the Guiness world record for the longest time to build a car. Pretty sad actually.

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I got power turned back on to the car last week to start the engine so I could charge the A/C. I turned the key and immediately noticed the brake pump started running and never turned off. I checked the brake fluid and it was full. The brakes work but I wasn't getting any boost. This system worked not long ago and the pump turned off like it's supposed to.

I pulled off the high pressure line and turned the pump on, and nothing came out. It's weird because I would expect the fluid from the reservoir above to leak out, but it doesn't. So I pulled the pump and grabbed a spare I had from long ago. I disassembled the pump and removed the motor from it, and put that pump on the original motor. I did this because the motor seemed to work fine, and I figured the problem was in the pump head. I had also modified the wiring a little and didn't want to change it on the other motor, which was actually wired slightly differently from the factory. I installed the re-assembled pump and motor, filled the fluid, and the same thing happened. No pressure, but the motor was running.

At this point I called ABS Power Brake and talked to the guys there. I was told the pump was a "ball bearing pump" and the balls were probably stuck and I could send it in for a rebuild. I asked if it was something I could fix myself and they sent me instructions to disassemble and clean the pump. It was pretty straightforward.

So I disassembled both pumps and sure enough the ball bearings were stuck in both of them....I have no idea why, probably from sitting for so many years. I cleaned both pumps out and made sure the bearings moved freely in the rotor bores. Then I put the original pump back on the original motor, and figured I had it fixed. I reinstalled the assembly in the car, filled the reservoir with fluid, and it STILL DIDN'T WORK!!!! The motor runs, but no pressure.

I have no idea what's going on at this point, but I'm starting to suspect that the motor shaft isn't turning the pump for some reason. But it looks like the pump shaft is just the armature shaft of the motor. I put power to the spare pump and motor, and I got a little fluid bubbling out of the pressure port so that pump seems to be working.

Now, after draining fluid twice I have to do it all again. This time I'm going to check the motor and make sure it's actually turning the pump drive shaft and that it's not broken or something. If it is, I need to check the pump again. But I think I may just re-wire the other pump and install it to see if it works. Better yet, I may just set up something to bench-test these things so I don't have to clean up all the fluid again.

It's just one problem after another. I'm not expecting the A/C charging to go well either for some reason or other. That's the way it's been all along. With these issues and the interior crap, I'm actually starting to believe I'll never finish this car.

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I pulled the brake pump again and disassembled it, carefully checking out all the ports and passages inside. I re-assembled it and put some brake fluid in the inlet port and ran it off of the car. It started spitting a little fluid out the pressure port so I kept adding fluid until it seemed like the pump was full. I reinstalled it in the car and put some fluid into the reservoir. It acted like it wanted to pressurize, but just wouldn't do it. I then cracked the pressure line open a little and got some air out of the pump, and added some more fluid to the reservoir. After running it a while it finally started pumping and the pump shut off when it reached around 2200PSI like it's supposed to. Apparently the air is very difficult to get out of these pumps. You would think it would just bubble up into the reservoir and the pump would fill up, but it doesn't. It's now working the same as it did before it mysteriously stopped pumping. I have no idea how that happened.

One less headache to deal with. Now back to firing up the engine and doing some tuning and charge the A/C. Not sure I'll get to that before I leave for Montana. We're selling my wife's Colorado condo and I've had to help her get it ready to put on the market. I've spent most of the past 3 days there changing light fixtures and fixing stuff.

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Time is flying by and I need to get stuff moving. This spring/summer I was gone for 3 weeks to Montana, then 2 weeks in Italy, then 5 weeks in Montana again, and heading back up in a couple more weeks. I finally got the lead weight off by firing Larry so now I need to figure out what to do. I decided there's really nothing keeping me from installing the fenders on the car. I was waiting for Larry to install my dash so I could install the windshield and that would be easier without the fenders on. Also, I wanted to drive the car around the block a few times to make sure everything works before I put them on.

The engine hasn't been started since just after I installed the TerminatorX so I fired it up with no problem and let it run a little. I still need to check the timing.

I put the stainless trim on the fenders so they're now ready to install. Yesterday I decided to put the car back on the ground. It's been sitting on blocks for a long time as I was working on stuff underneath it. The car seems so small now.

My plan is to try to drive the car. I need to put another seat in it since my front seats are at the upholstery shop. I have to get the tailgate latches adjusted so I can latch it, and do some final adjustments on the doors now that weatherstrip is installed. I also want to install the console again so my electronics are supported and not dangling. Brake reservoir is full, clutch is adjusted, and I nothing else that I know of is keeping me from driving it.

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[WagonCrazy]

Its almost there Laszlo. Looking good!
Put some more air in those tires before you hit the road.

strap a milk crate in there for a seat and go for a spin.

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Its almost there Laszlo. Looking good!
Put some more air in those tires before you hit the road.

Thanks man!! I need to get past this roadblock that Larry created. The wheels are 17s in front with 245/45-17 tires and 18s in the rear with 295/35-18 tires. I do think they're a little low on air so I'll check. I wonder what the factory spec is.

strap a milk crate in there for a seat and go for a spin.

I'd do that if it was an automatic but it's hard to push a clutch without a seat back. I do have another Eldorado seat I can bolt in it.

I'm going to work on the tailgate latch adjustment today and try to get the console back together, then I can install the seat.