Almost all the dash electronics done

The parts I ordered for my car came in this week; a new wiper/washer motor/pump (I was told it'd be new but it was in fact remanufactured), a relay for the fan motor and light bulbs for the dash lights.

First up was the fan relay as this was the easiest one. It's not ideally located but I've got long arms so I got it back in there. Only problem was that when I went to test it all out the fan only worked at the Low setting. Sigh.

I took out the voltmeter and checked all the connections and they all had proper voltage. I followed the wiring, testing bit by bit, until I got to the fan resistor. After jostling that about the fan worked as it should so I'll take a closer look at it later on.

Next up was the wiper motor. As I mentioned above I was expecting a new unit but got a remanufactured one. There's still warranty on it and it's not extremely difficult to replace but it'd be nice to have a new one in there.

The mechanical installation wasn't all too difficult. I had to widen the gap in the plate that connects directly to the motor shaft as it was 0.1 mm to narrow. The real worries began when I hooked up the electronics.

At first it all seemed fine; the wipers and the washer pump all operated as they should but when I tried to turn the wipers off - they just kept going up and down in very small movements just at the lower turning point.

I was stumped and had no idea what it could be. I started measuring voltages just about everywhere but it all looked just fine. I finally realised that I should probably check the Fisher Body manual and after about 10 minutes of reading I located this exact problem and how to troubleshoot it.

It turned out to be the ground to the dash controls for the wiper/washer. When testing I just hooked the control switch on to the connector so there was no ground what so ever. After temporarily screwing it to the dash sheet metal the wipers worked as they should.

Rejoice!

Reijo was going to help me listen for unwanted engine sounds but he was away on an errand so I started removing old tape residue from the vinyl roof while I waited for him. As to why there's tape residue to begin with I have only myself to blame.

When the car started to take in water during the autumn rains that plagued Sweden for the better part of three months I taped over every trimming on the roof, hoping that It'd keep tight(er). It didn't help at all.

All that it did was cling to the chrome and vinyl making it almost impossible to remove. First I tried with paint thinner but it seemed a bit too aggressive against the vinyl so I bought another solvent, designed to remove old glue. I got most of it off but I'll need to go over it again later on.

After Reijo got back he brought out the stethoscope and listened to the engine for 5-10 minutes while I took it from idle to about 1500 RPMs. The good news is that he couldn't hear any actual noise coming from within the engine besides some very minor rattling from the valves but not enough to worry about.

There still was a sharp, clonking noise coming in relatively regular intervals. I've always attributed that to a header hitting the frame as it goes away as soon as you rev the engine past idle but Reijo wanted to listen to the oil pan with the stethoscope as well before dismissing internal problems. To do that we need to lift the car off the ground which we didn't have time for yesterday.

Still, here's hoping that all I have to do is upgrade the oil system and not replace the main and rod bearings.