irony of daily driver

jvandyke

jvandyke

True Classic
I almost took the X into work for the first time but chickened out, there's a few issues I'm not entirely comfortable with yet, don't want to be stranded.
Would you believe my normal daily driver stranded me? My '98 Dodge wouldn't fire after lunch at the park, had to walk back to work, then during a break I walked back and it started, drove back to work and am now crossing fingers I can limp it home.
My daughter drove it Saturday and left the lights on for 4 hours, even though it was run several times since, I think the battery is baked.
Irony.
The battery on a Fiat is accessible, this Dodge....NOT. And they say foreign cars are tough to work on!
 
The one thing I will argue many times with non-X owners is the misconception that the cars are simply hard to work on or you can't get to the parts etc. For the most common stuff like battery, brake/clutch fluids, etc its all right there. I think also that its the "visual" that throws people; anything under the hood that looks crampt and most folks will say "ugh...too difficult". Not that X's are perfectly easy to work on, but they are not as hard as most folks think. Now, compare them to a more modern car like your 98 Dodge or even 90's Honda's and the X doesn't seem nearly as hard to work on.

I will take changing a waterpump on an X over a Honda Civic ANY DAY!:lol:
 
Ya know Jeff...

I guess you can go ahead and change the diodes out... but testing them first might be easier.

But first try the following:

I've seen faulty GROUND BLOSSUMS cause the same problem. You might try adding a "test lead" to the BLACK wire going to the motor and tie it to a good ground source... and see if the motor works then. I might be easier to trace the black lead to the ground blossum, lift it and tie a grounded test lead to the female terminal clip.

If that fails, then test the diodes against ONE new one using an OHMMETER and noting the resistence values first one way, then reversing the leads and noting them the other way. One way should be read near zero, the other some high value equal to the new one and to the other one in the circuit.

HTH...
 
I did pull off and clean connections at the ground blossoms. Test or replace diodes.....I might as well replace 'em, looks easy enough, I have them in hand (RadioShack $2 for 4).

I'm still reeling from my ride into town in the X!
All was well, goes down the highway well. There is some issues with the ride but the tires are crap (down right dangerous to be honest)
I took it easy of course but I made it. It got me here after the Dodge was left hanging in the air...(battery terminal clamp was destroyed....can't get another at midnight).
 
Welp... its the BLOSSUMS themselves...

... that are sometimes NOT grounded anymore due to corrosion.

It'll only take a minute... and if he grounds are OK... then ya KNOW that is NOT an issue.

As for tires... IMHO, ya just can't beat a set of Sumitumos for the price and for what ya get. For daily drivers, 185HR60x13s fit and wear nicely with a great ride and handling. Go to tirerack.com and tell them I sent ya! (HA!)
 
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