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Archive for February, 2004

The Daytona: February 20, 2004

by on Feb.20, 2004, under Daytona

Well, the common problem theory is out.  The fuel guage had a cold solder joint, the tach had a bad tach module (the ’86 module works in the ’91 cluster, BTW), and the temp guage had a bad sender.  I had the meter connected across various grounding points relative to the battery and everything seems to be OK.  I also wedged a piece of plywood under the passenger side engine mount, which may have reduced the front-end shake even more.  I will probably swap the mount (it looks bad) and shim it up perminently to see if that helps.

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The Daytona: February 17, 2004

by on Feb.17, 2004, under Daytona

I’ve fiddled around some more, but can’t seem to get the last of the gremlins worked out.  The tach still likes to go wonky for no reason and the fuel and temp gauges read lower than they should.  All of this screams grounding problems, but I have been over them again and again.  Either both the fuel and temp senders are hosed and the tach board needs a going-over, or there is a single problem at the core of it all.  So far I haven’t been able to figure it out.  Aside from the exhaust clamps slipping and a few new squeaks added to the collection, the car seems to be working OK.  It is actually starting to run better, though the fuel mileage seems low (hard to say the the speed/distance sensor is intermittent).

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The Daytona: February 12, 2004

by on Feb.12, 2004, under Daytona

Well, it took far longer than I could have possibly imagined, but the Daytona is back on the road.  Updating all that wiring and getting the new interior installed turned into a complicated ordeal.  I installed the doors that I got with the ’91 interior, but they didn’t have power-anything, so I had to transfer the door lock motors and window tracks (plus the harnesses).  Everything was really dirty, so I spent a lot of time cleaning things up and sorting through the boxes of ’91 interior parts to try to figure out what goes where (I have never taken one apart before).  Unfortunately, a lot of pieces were broken or missing…the guy that removed them must have used a hammer.  There were plenty of other things that were broken that needed fixing, such as the steering column and various leaks in the trunk.  I also installed the front-end portion of the ’89 Daytona Shelby brake and suspension components.  This proved to be fatal:

I got it back on the road last week and took it straight to the alignment shop.  I noticed that one of the wheel studs on the right side was bent, but I figured it would be OK on 4 studs until I get a chance to replace it.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize the two of the other wheel studs on the passenger side were fractured.  On the way to the alignment shop, the combination of the excessive toe-in and missing/broken studs caused the remaining studs to sheer off.  I was only travelling about 20 MPH at the time, but it was enough to bend the hell out of the front fender.  Needless to say, I was pissed.  I got towed to the Bill Meisner’s Precision Alignment and we replaced the entire hub assembly and pulled-out the fender so that the door would open.  He also did do the alignment.

The car seems to handle fairly well and he was able to get the front end pretty straight.  There is a problem with uneven caster in the front, which makes the car want to drift slightly to the right.  It is possible to add caster by slotting the upper strut bolts and sliding the mount back a bit.  Bill can also compensate for the drift by tweaking the backend.  I plan to install the solid rear axle assembly from the ’89 Daytona Shelby this summer.  I will try to add some caster on the left side as well and then take the car back to him for a full 4-wheel alignment job.  For now, the car handles better than it ever did before, but it still runs kind of crappy.  Went over most of the wiring, cleaned and/or replaced the ground points and straps, and the ignition system has been swapped out.  It still has a miss at idle and hesitates between 0 and 5 psi of boost.  Now that I have the Cyberdyne on, I see that it goes way lean in that area, but comes on nice and rich above 5 psi.  There seems to be a problem with at least one of the fuel injectors, so that will be the next thing to check.  I don’t want to replace them, as I plan to pitch this motor in a few months.

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