Digger914

It seams that every print artcile and every internet posting I read about the TC, all say that there were only about 7,300 made. Maybe it's the way I learned to do math, but this recent question of the oldest surving TC had me looking at numbers and guessing that production would have started with 200001, so I'm looking at the last vin off the line 208543 and thinking that 7,300 is someones bad math that hasn't ever been questioned. Is it the way I do math or has someone else come up with the same number?

This will help

Interior is bordeaux, black plastic was upgraded to woodgrain by present owner.

Hey Greg; Bucky didn't mention if the air was hot with the vent on cool and the AC off, but he has mentioned in other postings that he's had the 5 door turbo and a Lebaron convertible, so I assumed [and we all know what that means] that he knows how the heater controll works and would have checked this first. Good catch on my oversight.

Hey Ghosty, is this a question or a statement? and if it's a statement is 126 still running and on the road?

Start looking for things that are cracked, broken or missing and if everything looks right start the engine, pull the main vacuum line and check for vacuum. Don't forget to check the check valve, then log onto rockauto.com and get yourself a new blue shop manual, sounds like you need one and it will be $47 well spent. They also sell hood struts $22 and sometimes the storage lid strut $17. Don't forget to shop partsgeek.com they sometimes have what others doon't.

No part number for my struts. I bought my $18.95ea replacement hood stuts off the rack at Fleet Farm where they sell farm, implement and gardening stuff. Strength, length and fittings, mine aren't what you will get if you order for the car.

That sounds like the universal, all makes, all models, classic air box damper problem. If you're lucky its a vacuum connection to, or the heater controll, if not, you're in for a close up view of the underside of your dash.

If you have the origional R12 charge you can still get recovered R12 and all systems eventually leak a little, so if you only need a small amouint, a few ounces to a pound of R12 will cost less than converting the system. If you need more than a pound convert to 134a. You can get a conversion kit on-line for a fairly reasonable price. If you mechanic is checking your freon and finds it needs half a charge, don't just dump your charge to the open air. Have your mechanic do your prep for the remaining R12. He will suck your system down from pressure to vacuum and save your R12 to a big can and someone else who needs a few ounces can put it to good use. With that done all you need to do is screw down the adaptor ends, follow the conversion kit instructions and start making ice cubes. Of course if your system has sprung a real leak and not just oozed out as they do with use and time, you will need parts.

I think this one is a little bit older

Of course you can stuff one in there. If you can dream it you can do it. A few years ago I helped stuff a 350 into a Chevy S10 pickup, a couple of weeks ago I opened the hood of a 99 plain jane, 14in wheels, Am FM only radio, Plymouth mini van to find a 16 valve Turbo with auto tranny and AC and the way it fit it might have come that way from the factory??? The kid bought it used and came that way, he didn't know what a special motor he had and when the he finally brings it back to get his rusty strut towers repaired; I'm taking pictures.

Sometimes a flakey tach is just a flakey tach, sometimes it's a flakey signal to the tach and while you're cleaning things under the hood check inside the conector plugs to the distributor, a corroded connection here can do some really strange stuff, even make a perfectly good and clean IAM act like a sticking idle air motor.

Check your TPS [Throtle Position Sensor] keep an eye to your tach as you slowly step on the gas and listen for good smooth engine operation. Give your throtle body a good spray cleaning, sounds like you have a sticky idle air motor, but you wouldn't believe the riipple affect of a flaky TPS. Don't forget to check for engine codes.

Hemi asked me if I could take a look and see what I could do to get the oldest surviving TC back into good running condition and while I was under the hood to take some pictures. The 89 Maroon is the oldest surviving, the 90 White one is mine.

Congrats on the car and a few helpfull hints. rockauto.com sells reprints of the factory service manual, very handy to have. They also sell the parts book and for your year it's now on CD rom, very well priced and comes in handy as it shows parts in expanded view. Some numbers have been discontinued, others superceeded and you always need to check before you buy, but it's a great help when you start wondering how to take something apart. For your stalling, like anyother used car, clean the throtle body, grease every zirk, change the oil, replace belts, hoses and give it a full tune-up. If you don't know for sure when it was done last; best to assume that it's way past due for normal maintenance. Also test your accumulator, no special tools needed for this simple test; don't start the engine but do turn the key to on position and listen for the brake pump. Red brake light goes out first, yellow ABS out next and the pump stops running, when the pump stops running gently and quickly tap the break pedal and count the number of taps before the ABS light comes on, less than 10 taps and it's time think accumulator, keep tapping and if the red brake light comes on in less than 15, order the accumulator, it's time.

That is a heck of a tool find and it will be a God send if you have to fight an oddball ABS problem, after you get your brakes working again. First things first, brakes can work without the ABS, the ABS can't work without good brakes and if you don't have power to the pump, your brakes are broke. Do you have power to the pump? If you have power to the pump do you have a good Gnd.? If you have good pwr. & Gnd. you have bad connection to the pump, or you have a bad pump and these pumps very seldom go bad. Take the average toaster, it has a heating element that is made to get hot and when the unattended toaster starts a fire in the kitchen, it's not the protected heating element that burns the house to the ground, the fire always starts at the weakest cord connection. The heating element is designed to get hot and get hot alot. The cord is made to support the current load of heavy toaster use. The cord is not made to carry heating element current through a heating cycle that never ends and if the heating element doesn't shut off when it should, bad things happen to the cord. What's a toaster got to do with brakes? The physics take a bit of explaining, but the logic is streight forward simple. As the accumulator ages it looses the nitrogyn that makes the bladder, help make the pressure, that makes the brakes work. When this happens the pump runs longer and longer and longer than it should to do the job it needs to do. The cables to the pump are like the toaster cord and the longer the pump runs, the warmer they get and eventually they go the way of the toaster cord and that's why we melt at the fuse. We also heat those spade lug and crimp connects and the weakest connection in the line breaks first. Under the hood we have bare copper crimped to tinned copper and bare copper, like the shinny penny that turns brown, or the roof that turns green, corrodes when exposed to the elements. Heat it up, splash on a little road slop and you've got the beginning of a bad connection. Here is the real tickler when it comes to automotive electric, the more advanced our test equipment, the harder it is to find a problem caused by a corroded connection. Stranded wire has lots of strands and as the outer strands corrode and break away the ability to carry a current load goes with. A volt meter looking for power on a line with a badly corroded connection will show power on the line as long as one strand of wire remains connected. Get a little more advanced and the scan tool can send you off to never never land. Back when the volt meter cost a small fortune mechanics used a simple light tester to check for power and if you don't have enough power to light a small bulb, it doesn't matter if the volt meter says you have 12 volts. It aint enough to get the job done. Check every wire and plug, and give each wire a little tug to make sure it's really connected to the plug. Start simple, nothing beats a good visual and physical inspection.

Yes you can use this goo, or you can use a jellied super glue. Not the free flowing glue your fingers together liquid that will be all over everything when you tilt the mounting surface to meet the glass, use the jellied like model airplane cement super glue. The goo made for bonding with glass and fabric will do this job, the goo made for this job does it better and super glue will do it good enough to get it done, but you might have to do it again in a year or two. Why would you use a glue that you know won't last forever? You can't buy the good stuff by the teaspoon, you get the whole tube to do a job that takes less goo than you scrape off the nail you used to break the seal on the tube. Super glue is sold by the teaspoon and for what this stuff costs; even if you have to redoo this every year, it will take ten years to break even.

Hey Bob, I did an edit and replaced with this page http://www.amazon.com/3M-08609-Window-Weld-Urethane-Cartridge/dp/B000FW61EW and it worked Try it now Larry

Could be flaky pump or pressure switch, most likely burnt contacts, corroded or loose wire connection anywhere in the line.

We have a couple of soft top window repair questions that are better answered by seeing than reading. I have looked at a dozen of how to u-tubes and selected my favorites. Not one pro gave up the secret of attaching the window to the canvas, one amature did a rough looking job with a good and proper seal, another used silicone. Our TC tops are different but the basic part names and principles are the same. To replace a rear window you have to pull the apron, that our rear rail pops up makes this a failry easy job compaired to most other rag tops. Here is 25 minutes of a guy doing a Miata rear window that knows what he's doing, he shares step by step and starts out by saying we are going to REMOVE THE APRON AND TAKE IT TO THE UPHOLSTRY SHOP . Here's a few minutes of Miata rear window how not to replace, doing it this way adds to the cost of having it done right later Here is someone who knows how to repair a convertible top rear window, notice that he doesn't give up the secret of fitting the canvas to the glass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvDZBu14Hqsricks Here is someone who figured out how to re attach a loose window in a top very much like the one on our TC's. He might not know the secret of getting canvas back to it's origional position but he figured out a one man way that we can use to hold a loose one in position while it is done. Don't use what he used to attach, use http://www.amazon.com/3M-08609-Window-Weld-Urethane-Cartridge/dp/B000FW61EW if you like your top, don't over goo and don't risk doing what he did with the blade. This is something that can be done at home without expensive tools and with the low, low internet price of glue plus shipping it might be worth doing. Personally I'll still go to the top shop for a window seam seal, when they're not to busy I can have the upholstry shop up the road do the same repair this guy did for $20 and when you use the right stuff you don't have to wait a day for it to dry.Getting the window apron out and in is the labor expensive part of window replacement.

Replacing the glass can de done by one, but should be a two man job with one that knows what to do and the helping hand when needed makes it an easy job. Writing out instructions to do this would take a couple of pages and the best thing you could find is a how to on u-tube. Not to sure what to say about plexiglass; Plexiglass is like the Crescent Wrench, we all know what it is from the name, but quality is not the same. Can't say that I've ever even seen a soft top window replaced with hard plastic, if I have, it was done so well that I couldn't tell from a distance and I don't know if 3M window weld will attach to, or eat through and you will want to test this on piece that doesn't matter before you get to carried away. Something to keep in mind is that this stuff is icky, sticky, messy and for you're first time doing this you might want to be the helping hand for someone that has done this before.

Personally I won't do this myself, not that I couldn't as it's a pretty simple job. You can't buy 3M seam sealer by the tablespoon and that's what I would use. If you're only going to do it once, and you don't already have what you need to do it, it it will probably cost you less to have it done, than it does to go out and buy what you need to do it yourself. If you can find a how to u-tube, you will know what you need to do the job and about how much it will cost to do it yourself, if you can get it done for less than $50 bucks difference; have it done. The way the TC top lays on the tauno, water in the trunk isn't going to be a problem unless you are putting the top down wet and you really shouldn't put the top down wet.

You seam to be missing a seam seal. Easy to take care of, or you can can have it done for not to much money. A picture is worth a thousand words and it's time to search u-tube for how to fix pics, or you could visit your local upholstry and top shop.

Sounds like something isn't flat where it should be, usually the thermostat housing, Heli Coil should hold torque to spec. Lay some medium to fine sandpaper on a very flat hard surface and scuff the mating surface of the thermostat housing, that will tell you if it's the problem. Every now and then even a brand new one will come out of the box with a bad mating surface. I don't know how available this piece is, but if it's not to bad you can continue to sand by hand, or very carefully touch it with a belt sander. If it's the motor side; a good old fashioned thick cork gasket and indian head gasket goo, sometimes even a double gasket and goo might be all you can do to stop the ooze. After that you need real machine shop tools or new parts.

Heli coil, check out this u-tube http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CDcQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DRFYa6sjhh_E&ei=CLibU_7VEMetyAT6sIKwDA&usg=AFQjCNGV5J-rke6mmPS3WhySJ8Mu6AuljQ&bvm=bv.68911936,d.aWw if your odd screw was longer and not wider this is the first best way to repair,