Scorpion #621 resurrection

Ug.. these vacuum heating-cooling-vent controls. They are used in the later 80's exxe, and a long list of other brands. It was a design fashion that should have never happened.

Vacuum heating-cooling-vent controls are used on the Porsche 928... nightmare to fix.

Bernice
 
I'm not convinced my fix to that part made any difference. I'm getting air from my def vents and a little from the other vents, but I don't feel a change when pressing the buttons.

tJ
 
This evening I got a bunch of little things done. Put the dash vents in. Pretty uneventful except I had to remove the glove box to get the passenger side vent in. I put the bottom door weather stripping back on. Got the horn working on the Momo wheel by grounding it with a ring terminal between the steering wheel and the boss. I was glad to hear that Italian sportscar horn sound again. Then wiped down the interior. While I still have the passenger seat and the shifter/parking brake console to put in, I will do that after I've sorted out my escaped parking brake cable. I got my friend to commit to letting me use his lift on Sunday, so I will take a break until then.

Oh, and I started her up for grins. She fired up immediately. No drama. Gotta love that! 😃

tJ
 
Today I drove her to my friend's shop to get her on a lift.

atshop.jpg

This allowed me easy access to:

  • the parking brake union. In our last installment I DFO'd and lost the parking brake cable under the car. I was able to easily loosen the union enough to get the rod back up through the hole in the cabin and install my new-to-me parking brake handle.
  • the fuel pump. When I got the car back from the shop after a 2+ year hiatus, the fuel pump had quit working. I had the factory fuel pump from my 1st gen Mazda RX-7 on the bench and it pumped the amount of fuel Sofia needs soo.... I installed it. The problem was that it was only held on with one bolt on one side of the pump. Not secure enough for me. Now that I had the car up on a lift, I could work out what sort of bracket I needed to make to mount the Mazda pump properly. After puzzling it out for a couple of minutes, I went to work with a scrap piece of sheet metal, bending it here and there, making the shape I needed to adapt the Mazda bracket to the Scorpion mounts. Now the pump is nice and secure and works like a champ. The car starts immediately upon firing the ignition.
fuelpump.jpg


  • easy access to swap the ANSA exhaust for the factory exhaust. I know what you are all saying. "You're removing the ANSA exhaust for the factory exhaust? Have you lost your mind?" Well, no, because I need to get Sofia to pass smog and that isn't going to happen with a catless exhaust on the car. This was the most time consuming part of the day. Getting the hangers mounted properly was tricky, but the transmission jack made things a lot easier.
stockmuffler.jpg


Not as sexy as the ANSA, I admit, but I'll keep the ANSA around.

The one thing that concerns me now is that the Midwest-Bayless Monte-style rear bumper doesn't have slots like the factory bumpers do...only indentations. I'm assuming those are there for cooling. I noticed after a 5 mile drive that the aluminum heat shield was HOT HOT HOT. Like you could easily fry an egg on it. Is this normal? Or am I going to have to cut out all those slots to keep it cooler back there? FWIW, the engine temps never reached 190 on the way there or back.

Also, I noticed there are 3 hoses just under that part of the car where the driver's and passenger footwells are. The middle one was draining liquid when I arrived at the shop. My friend said that's coming from the heater core. The left and right hoses had nothing coming out of them. But I THINK those left/right are the drains from the cowl vents, right? So maybe that middle hose is from the no longer present A/C? I saw that some of the disconnected plumbing is still there in the engine compartment.

tJ
 
I have been spending much time on thoughts of radiant exhaust heat mitigation. Using modern heat shielding products may help with that. I also have more open area with thicker structure but that doesn't help you here. Internal/external ceramic coating the system would be expensive and fiberglass wrapping can trap/hold moisture. But perhaps coating the system in several coats of good quality high heat paint with the wrapping might work?

The drains are exactly what you suspect they are, I believe. Do you have AC? If not you may have a coolant leak.

Regardless your car is looking awesome!
 
The AC hoses are still in the engine compartment, but no compressor is there. The weird thing is that I drove it back home from the shop and when I got home there was nothing leaking out of that middle hose? And if that middle hose is for the AC, why would coolant be leaking from it?

tJ
 
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The HVAC box has a drain for the evaporator. The heater core is in there as well, so that may be you source of leakage.

In a past life, I made the Montecarlo bumpers and those rear bumper openings had to be cut out after the part was popped from the mold. A real PITA but I always did it to save the buyer from dealing with the mess, and to ensure it was done properly.
 
Mark said:
The HVAC box has a drain for the evaporator. The heater core is in there as well, so that may be you source of leakage.

In a past life, I made the Montecarlo bumpers and those rear bumper openings had to be cut out after the part was popped from the mold. A real PITA but I always did it to save the buyer from dealing with the mess, and to ensure it was done properly.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mark. The interesting thing is now there is no leak at all. I drove it from the shop back home and checked. Nothing dripping. I took it out today, filled her up, took her to another friend's shop and back home again. No leak. Car was up to temp to...about 185 degrees. So I dunno.
🤷‍♂️

I was afraid you were going to say that about the bumper. Now that it's been painted, this will be no fun. Not even sure what to use to cut those slots out cleanly.

tJ
 
Probably best to remove the "bumper" off the car and work on a bench covered with old towels to protect the paint.

For carefully going through plastics or fiberglass or thin sheet metal, stepdrills are fantastic. They don't bite and tear and if you are a bit off center of where you want to be early on you can put some directional pressure on the bit and it will sort of "mill" in the direction you want to go then you can continue down to the size you desire. Then it's probably dremel cut-off wheel time with a constant vaccum running while wearing a filter mask. Or a hand held scroll saw and time. Then fun with files and sand paper and some white spray paint if you make a few boo boos.

 
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motoTrooper said:
Probably best to remove the "bumper" off the car and work on a bench covered with old towels to protect the paint.

For carefully going through plastics or fiberglass or thin sheet metal, stepdrills are fantastic. They don't bite and tear and if you are a bit off center of where you want to be early on you can put some directional pressure on the bit and it will sort of "mill" in the direction you want to go then you can continue down to the size you desire. Then it's probably dremel cut-off wheel time with a constant vaccum running while wearing a filter mask. Or a hand held scroll saw and time. Then fun with files and sand paper and some white spray paint if you make a few boo boos.

Click to expand...
Thanks moto...I'll probably do that. Like the idea of the step drill. Although if I have the bumper off, I could try doing it from behind the bumper, so I might be fine with a dremel with a flex head. The last time I did cutting on the bumpers (for the turn signals) it was messy messy messy. Ugh.

tJ
 
think jedi said:
Thanks moto...I'll probably do that. Like the idea of the step drill. Although if I have the bumper off, I could try doing it from behind the bumper, so I might be fine with a dremel with a flex head. The last time I did cutting on the bumpers (for the turn signals) it was messy messy messy. Ugh.

tJ
Click to expand...

Depending on how deep and consistent the indentations are, you could just work from the back and shave off the back surface until the openings are ‘clear’ and clean. You would just need to feel your way to getting to each opening’s level.

This could be done with a grinder that has a sanding disk on it, all from the back side

The dust will be hellacious.
 
That’s the process. You’ll be itching for days.


kmead said:
Depending on how deep and consistent the indentations are, you could just work from the back and shave off the back surface until the openings are ‘clear’ and clean. You would just need to feel your way to getting to each opening’s level.

This could be done with a grinder that has a sanding disk on it, all from the back side

The dust will be hellacious.
Click to expand...
 
So when I took her out for a meal and let her have her fill of 89 octane, I noted with dismay (but not surprise) that the needle on the gas gauge didn't budge. Guess it's time to troubleshoot a fuel sender. :p

There are a couple for sale on eBay, but I want to at least try and see if I can figure out what's wrong with mine first.

tJ
 
think jedi said:
So when I took her out for a meal and let her have her fill of 89 octane, I noted with dismay (but not surprise) that the needle on the gas gauge didn't budge. Guess it's time to troubleshoot a fuel sender. :p

There are a couple for sale on eBay, but I want to at least try and see if I can figure out what's wrong with mine first.

tJ
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It was discovered that my sender float was full of old fuel and no good when we stripped and recoated the fuel tank. Decided just to buy new from MWB, cost wasn't too bad I don't think. Under $100 if I recall correctly. Honestly, I was just happy to find a new one at all.

We bypassed my heater core and left the A/C disconnected for the time being. My cooling system was full of corrosion and muck and we didn't want to gum up the new system with remnants of whatever was in the heater core. It's all a project for next year when I tear into the interior.
 
RJ80 said:
It was discovered that my sender float was full of old fuel and no good when we stripped and recoated the fuel tank. Decided just to buy new from MWB, cost wasn't too bad I don't think. Under $100 if I recall correctly. Honestly, I was just happy to find a new one at all.

We bypassed my heater core and left the A/C disconnected for the time being. My cooling system was full of corrosion and muck and we didn't want to gum up the new system with remnants of whatever was in the heater core. It's all a project for next year when I tear into the interior.
Click to expand...

Yeah, if the leak comes back, I'll bypass the heater core. I really don't want to tear all that out now.

tJ
 
RJ80 said:
It was discovered that my sender float was full of old fuel and no good when we stripped and recoated the fuel tank. Decided just to buy new from MWB, cost wasn't too bad I don't think. Under $100 if I recall correctly. Honestly, I was just happy to find a new one at all.

We bypassed my heater core and left the A/C disconnected for the time being. My cooling system was full of corrosion and muck and we didn't want to gum up the new system with remnants of whatever was in the heater core. It's all a project for next year when I tear into the interior.
Click to expand...
I have several available Rory.
 
I pumped out 5 gallons of fuel from the tank this evening in preparation for pulling my fuel sender to see what's up with it. I'll pull the sender tomorrow... right now I reek of gas and I'm cranky.

The other evening I had a go at figuring out why my turn signal dash indicator didn't work. I pulled the cluster off, which was easy enough. I noted that the PO has been in there as the left screw wasn't actually holding onto anything...that piece was broken off years ago. Not surprising. :/ I look behind the cluster and found the turn signal indicator bulb and pulled it out. It looked OK, but I decided to put the bulb (still in it's carrier) on my ohm tester, but got nothing. I pulled the bulb out of the carrier and pulled the two wires away from the glass and touched off on those. I got some readings, so I thought it might be OK. I tested a couple of other bulbs, including one known good bulb, and got similar readings.

Leaving the wires spread out away from the bulb, I put it back in the carrier in order to insure it would make good contact with the copper tangs in the carrier. I tested it in the carrier again and got the same readings as I did when the bulb was out. So I put all the bulbs I removed from the cluster back in and tried the turn signals. No joy. BUT, the hazard indicator (which also wasn't working) started working. Okay...

So I try touching off the multimeter on the trace on the circuit board on the cluster that goes to the flasher while the flasher is on. I had a hard time finding a ground, but noted a screw that holds the dash backer onto the car was loose and I could stick the probe in there. Still no readings. Hmmm.

I decided I wanted to really test the bulbs using my battery, so I dug around for my alligator clips and stumbled onto a little key lamp that I tried and failed to retrofit into my FC daily (my car didn't have the required wiring for it) That key lamp was exactly the same bulb, and it had a pigtail that allowed me to connect two mail spade connectors to it. I fashioned a test wire setup with my crimpers and I was now able to test every bulb in the cluster to see if it would illuminate. Every bulb illuminated. Hmmm....

So I decide to put the cluster back in and think on it some more, but as I was doing that, I looked at the loose screw that holds the dash backer on. Well, may as well tighten that thing. So I did. Then plugged my cluster back in and, unbelievably, my turn signal indicator AND another back light bulb started working.

So I hit the sack happy with the knowledge I solved that little issue.

I'm still bothered by the fact I'm only getting 10.6 volts to the rear tail lamps. There has to be a bad ground somewhere, but I have no idea where. I tried re-grounding the negative battery cable. The ground at the rear left tailight area is good. Not sure where else to look, but I'm sure there are places.

One other thing I still haven't solved is the high beams not working.

BTW, I noticed that the dash lights are quite dim until I rev the car, and then they brighten up. Is this typical of these cars? Or is this the bad ground that I know I have lurking somewhere?

tJ
 
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