Uhhhh - how did this car run?

[spidernut]

I was working on my project car this evening and was astonished at what I found. It is a miracle that the car ran at all.

- Power valve cover installed upside down (obvious vacuum leak)
- Multiple vacuum lines broken and cracked
- Vacuum lines leaking at the manifold
- Vacuum advance had an added T going to a normally plugged vacuum port which had been opened
- Misrouted vacuum lines
- Missing electrovalve with the most bizaare vacuum line routing I've seen
- Fuel mixture 5 turns too rich

Then there was this at the ignition switch which I replaced tonight. Here is what I found and why I say that it was a miracle that it ran (or at least hadn't caught fire) given all of the other issues.

Look at the first photo carefully...you can see that the ground to the starter was completely burned off. I could not see any electrical connector inside the junction.

....and this is why painting a car and cleaning it up is not called restoring a car. This is the kind of stuff you have to inspect to ensure your car is save to drive.

[bradartigue]

The air leaks were overcome by the mixture being set super rich, at least that would make it idle correctly. It probably ran pretty lean under load. As for the rest of it, some cars just want to run despite their (prior) owners!

[wizard124]

John,

Your shorted out connector, i found something similar when i was first tracing wires in my new purchase. Ill have to check my notes to see if it is the same as yours.

One of my plugs was pushed back with evidence that it had been shorting, burns on the connector. Wondering if this connector may be prone to this due to its location.

I just copied this off an earlier post of mine : Took a good look at the connectors......I discovered one of the connectors in that last connector going into the ignition switch was not seated and had been arching and smoking the connector itself. I took this opportunity to wire tie each wire bundle near its connector so to try to prevent any single plug from backing out again..

[spidernut]

This is very common and a weak spot in the Spider wiring. I found Autoricambi's description of the connector interesting.
"Plastic female wire connector (6 prong) - FIAT all - a common use for this connector is on the 1978-1985 ignition switch connector which has a tendency to overheat and melt"

http://www.autoricambi.us/product/EL0-0 ... e-6-Prong/

[wizard124]

This is very common and a weak spot in the Spider wiring. I found Autoricambi's description of the connector interesting.
"Plastic female wire connector (6 prong) - FIAT all - a common use for this connector is on the 1978-1985 ignition switch connector which has a tendency to overheat and melt"

http://www.autoricambi.us/product/EL0-0 ... e-6-Prong/

Is there a fix or work- around

[spidernut]

It is called "the brown wire fix". Basically, you can run another wire from the starter to the back of the ignition switch in parallel. The new wire anchors to a specific spade on the back of the ignition. It takes a significant amount of the load off of the wire and connector. The Search feature will give you the instructions...it is pretty easy to do and will help immensely.

[azruss]

The other part of the fix is to "relay" all your high amp items. starter, fan, headlights, wipers. Depending on the year of the car, some of these relays may already be in place. This allows the key and associated wire to just trigger the relays, and they actually carry the heavy loads.