Reaper1

I've never had one affect only higher rpm operation. I've had one die on me during regular driving and I've had a few friends that has also happened to. Plus, a good part of the time the car will typically just die and not want to restart. This TC doesn't do that...just feels like it's missing pretty badly or like a soft rev limiter. I do have a few good HEP's I can swap. My next move is that I'm going to swap my good cap/rotor/wires onto it and replace the plugs (all looked good in my previous inspections, but that doesn't mean anything). I just replaced all of the soft fuel lines and the fuel filter, but the PO replaced at least the pump hanger and I'm wondering if it has the wrong pump on it. The thing is, the problem doesn't happen all the time. Most of the time, yes, but not all, so I'm hesitant to think it's the pump. I know that all this diagnosing seems strange considering I'm swapping the driveline, but I want to know that this one is OK before pulling it out in case I sell it or put it in another car, etc.

Due to the running issue the 8V has been giving me (it like to fall on its face above 3500-4000rpm randomly like it hits a soft limiter, and it was liking it run a little warmer than I like to see on the highway) I decided to try taking the cat off. Now, keep in mind that car was burning oil from leaking valve stem seals when I got it, so I was suspecting it being plugged (it wasn't rattling, so I didn't think the bricks were bad). Well, after fighting me and every cutting tool I had available I got the thing off...and immediately was kinda mad at myself because it wasn't plugged (actually looked new!) Of course I had to start the car with no exhaust...sounded AWESOME (just like I knew it would)! I also found out the TC's have 2 resonators that are 2.75" OD. One is directly after the cat and goes all the way to the first 90* turn, the other is in between the 90* turns and is about 4" long. I need to measure, but the over the axle pipe looks like it's about 2.25"OD instead of the typical 1.875". Well, I can hear the turbo easier now, and I noticed the engine seemed to keep a more constant temp when driving to work this morning. I haven't been able to do an acceleration test yet, but I have a feeling it didn't solve my issue. If my welder would have had gas, I probably would have put the thing back on. The car will be getting 3" exhaust in the near future anyway, so no biggie.

Well...I ordered an EVO 8 16g turbo with the 10.5cm^2 turbine housing last night. That *should* be able to meet my goal of 300-350whp fairly easily and still keep good response. This is the first time I've ever gone outside the stock realm for turbos, so this should prove to be interesting. I don't know of anyone else that has tried this, even on the 8V engines, so...I suppose we'll see!!

Well, I made more progress with the 16V chassis this weekend. I've got just over half of the interior out of it, so it's getting close to the time to try and decide what the fate of the chassis is going to be...chopped or crushed. It depends on how much I might get for the chassis versus what scrap steel is going for. Part of the rust issue was caused by the stainless kick strip as I'm sure it rubbed away some paint on its retaining rail which started the chain reaction of rust cancer that is consuming this car. I am going to start the wiring process of putting the PDC in the main engine harness this week. I ordered new bushings fro the new K-frame and the anti-roll bar as well.

Went to the junk yard yesterday and got a nice score. I found an '89 LeBaron Premium car that had the entire digital dash package. This also contains the digital automatic climate controls. Having heard that this system is basically a stand alone thing that can be easily adapted into other cars (the Vector super car from the '80's/'90's used it!), I figured "why not!". So, in under 2 hours with only hand tools I took the entire dash, steering column, under dash harness and heater box out of that car! I only broke 1 thing, and that was the driver's side sill cover because the phillips screw heads were too rusty to get out. As long as the electrics are basic to get it to work (I think it really just needs power and ground) I am going to put it in the TC! I don't know how many people have done this to their TC, but I figured that since it's a luxury car, and that is a pretty standard luxury car item...it is a natural fit. It's a shame the display is going to be green, but there's nothing that can be done about that. I am also tossing around the idea of putting the digital dash in it. I've always been back and forth on them (I loved it in my '84 Laser XE), especially the '87-'89 G/J-body style because they only show 2 of the peripheral gauges at once instead of all 4. Plus, again, the display is green. Not really that big a deal, but hey. The other thing I don't like is that the tach is a little "laggy" and it only goes to 7000rpm (I know stock rev limiter, blah blah...this won't be THAT stock!), plus in direct sunlight the display tends to "wash out", as is typical with almost ALL digital dashes. Today I am aiming for '91+ front spindles mainly. These help raise the roll center of the front suspension which helps handling and overall ride. I might also see about some speakers as the original ones in this car are SHOT! LOL

Nothing really new to report. Just been doing lots of cleaning of stuff. I did pick up an '89 double pivot K-frame and stamped A-arms to put under it because both have the old sub-strut style and the 16V one was all rusty and while the bushings were probably replaced a long time ago they were all dry rotted and cracked. So, I just need to cut the bobble strut bracket off that one and weld it to the new one. I'm going to use polyurethane bushings from Johnny in it.

Weather sucked too much to really mess with the car this weekend. I did get a bunch of pressure washing done, though!

I am totally confused as to what isn't working. You have the tonneau cover latches on both sides that also have manual releases. I found that with mine they needed to be adjusted a little to get positive latching and release all the time. I also found that the manual release cables can cause a non-latch situation by having a little tension on them and causing the mechanism to not latch. A little lube and some manual attitude adjustment (gingerly) and no more issue! The soft top/hard top pull-down mechanism has a manual actuation that can be accessed in the trunk. Once you mess with this, I HIGHLY recommend taking the whole unit out and going through it...cleaning, lubing, repair/replace stuff as needed. This also required an adjustment so that I could latch the tops and pull them down with a good seal without doing CPR to the back of the car to try and get them to latch! LOL Lastly there's the trunk release. It's super basic and others have covered it in this thread already. So, which is the problem? LOL

I keep having to remind myself this is a European car, hence the lighting is a little "strange" because at least the old Euro standard was that basically all the different lights operated mostly separate from each other. In the good ole USA we multi-purpose them...maybe that's some of the confusion in the manuals, too?

Make sure the bulb is actually bad. Something I've been having some "fun" with recently is that my front bumper bulb sockets don't make good contact with the bulb, so sometimes they work, other times they don't. Last night I took them out again (probably the 4th or 5th time now) and used a small flathead screwdriver to pry the contacts so they WILL make contact with the bulb. I'm not ready to call success yet, but so far, so good! I also found that the rear bulb sockets also are kind of strange in the fact that it seems they are designed to dig into the contacts of the bulb. Eventually this seems like vibration causes intermittent contact, so I "scraped" some metal from the untouched part of the bulb contact into the groove made by the connector. Again, so far, so good. Eventually I intend to replace all of this stuff with LED's...

Well, I took a look at m brackets last night and there are no signs of any part numbers on either. I will compare them this weekend...

Well...I have both my early '89 bracket from the 16Vcar and I have the one that I am questioning. If the PN's are on them I can certainly check that way. Sure, I suppose I could have done that right from the beginning, but that wouldn't have been as much fun and it wouldn't have helped out the community as much!

THAT makes sense!! Thank you, Hemi!

Last night I was out adjusting my headlights because the left one was WAY off. It had been bugging me for a long time and I never got to it because the adjuster screw was stuck (I got it loose). Anyway, there were always some things about the left headlight on this car that bugged me. #1 being that the "eyebrow" cover was missing. I figured it had been broken a long time ago by a PO and never replaced, hence why the headlight bracket is a bit more weathered than the other side. Now, keep in mind, this car is CLEAN! So, the fact that this bracket looks the way it does just simply stands out. Not to mention the headlight was WAY out of alignment. Well, I thought maybe the bracket got out of adjustment somehow, so I loosened the bolts and tried moving it...no go. Then I started to really look at the brackets themselves. They are NOT the same! So, I am suspecting that at least the bracket on this car was replaced at some point for some reason. I would like to know if the headlight brackets changed at some point? I know that in '90 the core supports of almost all EEK's were changed due to crash standards and the addition of the airbags. Was this something that also happened to the TC's? If so, that would explain the different brackets. Also, I do have a left "eyebrow" cover from the other TC I have, which is even earlier than this one and it doesn't fit. The distance between the core support and the back of the headlight where the retainer clip snaps into is also less.

I was merely addressing a common misconception that replacing the shock absorbers (dampers, as in spring oscillation dampers) somehow have an affect on ride height. I wasn't trying to suggest that our stock replacements did anything more than that. (not be be confusing, but you can get air shocks from Gabriel that will fit...I don't suggest it for these cars). You would be surprised at how many track bars I've seen kinked or bent under other "pedestrian" versions of FWD Chryslers. They aren't very solid and only takes a little bit to tweak it. I would agree that trying to jack the car up from that part would be one of the common things that causes this situation. I believe there is actually an aftermarket factory style replacement available. The spring isolators *might* increase some NVH due to a higher durometer, but the factory parts have steel inserts in them, so it's hard to say how that type of performance would be affected. I was simply trying to offer another option for replacement parts that also supports one of our niche market vendors. The polyurethane isolators really aren't a "performance" part so much as a replacement part made out of a different material. I actually have run 2 factory isolators in the rear on my '88 Shelby Z. It works nicely when you want to make up some ride height. I used this trick when I drove up to SDAC18.

Replacing the shocks (dampers) shouldn't really have an effect on the ride height. Only the springs will. It seems that the rear of most 80's Chrysler FWD cars have a "saggy bottom" look. I would suggest checking out the spring isolators before replacing the springs themselves. The isolators break down over time and "lower" the car. Johnny at polybushings.com sells replacement isolators made out of polyurethane. The stock parts are rubber with a steel core that rusts and disintegrates over the years. As for the rubbing, is it only happening on one side? If so, check the panhard bar (aka track bar). Sometimes they get a kink in them for some reason or another and can cause the rear axle to be out of alignment.

Do NOT use quick struts or Sensa-Trac struts...neither are correct or good replacements for our cars.

I was FINALLY able to drop the engine out of the 16V car last night. I had to cut that exhaust bolt off (that took longer than expected), but after that, it was just making sure I covered all my bases. Figuring out where to pick it up from on the engine side was "interesting". I finally decided on removing the car side of the engine mount and using chains and bolts through the engine side of the mount where the 18mm bolt goes.

Oh, I do understand and know all of that. I refer to them as "K-based" because they are, at the core, based on the K platform (plus it makes it easier to describe the car to laymen). However it is very clear working on them that they are FAR removed from that original design. I've owned several Daytona's, a '84 Laser, '89 LeBaron...the list goes on. I've also stripped and cut up quite a few as well, so I have a pretty good feel for how they are made. I will say again that based on my experiences the TC is a MUCH nicer vehicle! Last night I got the K-frame out. I had to break the driver's side captured nut because it sheared off and was locked on the bolt, even with copious amounts of PB Blaster. I found rust working its way up from the floor pan next to the frame rail up the fire wall to the brake booster area. I was able to get the outside exhaust bolt off with little issue, but the inside one...ugghh. I can't get a wrench on the nut to hold it, so, I'm cutting that thing tonight! Shift cables, fuel lines, and mounts...the engine/tranny can drop out!

I didn't quite meet my goal of having the engine out this weekend, but that was because timing just didn't line up to borrow an engine lift. That will happen this afternoon. I did get the entire front of the car apart. What a pain! You have to take the front bumper off to take the fenders off, but you can't do that until you take the trim piece that goes under the headlights off that is screwed to the bottom of both fenders! LOL It didn't help that there were quite a few rusty screws I had to drill out. The rest came apart fairly easily. I was surprised to see the anti-corrosion that was sprayed on the chassis under the fenders (cosmoline sp?). I am also impressed by the amount of body shims there are from the factory...meaning they actually tried to get the body panels to line up! LOL Overall, taking this car apart has shown me how much nicer these cars are put together compared to any other K-based car I've ever messed with. I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan as I'm working on it...even though there are some major pains to get over.

I will say that the cruise on my 8V car doesn't work right now, but I haven't done any trouble shooting to find out why simply because it's not that important to me at this moment.

I have 2, plus the 16V car from Rick. So, the first one I got was from Tom K. The second one I got was from Cindy. Then I was able to buy the car from Rick with a running engine that I'm swapping into my 8V TC because the chassis is so much nicer (like brackets aren't rusted to dust! LOL) I might just have to take a road trip to SoCal! I have a few friends I can visit, too!

You only need 3-5 threads or I think it's 1.5x the diameter of the fastener for safe engagement, typically.

Thank you, Hemi!

I was looking at my car in the parking lot the other day while eating at Wendy's and with the RPF1's and the 225/50/16 tires it actually sits fairly nicely. I even thought to myself...maybe I don't need to lower it! Those wheels make the car look MEAN!! LOL