Taillight Wiring

So I was actually smart about this. The stock harness for the taillights hadn't been butchered, so I save it and just cleaned it. I cut off the stock 5 (or 6?) pin connector and soldered on a new 6 pin connector I'd bought so I could connect the old harness to that section of my newly created harness. I waited to do this when the back body was back on so I could be sure all the wires were the correct lengths. This lead to some interesting soldering conditions....

Installing the taillights themselves is a very easy process, the frames actually have "R" or "L" on them to help you figure out which hole they go in, but even without them it's fairly easy to figure out what goes where. The extra beauty of them is that the lenses screw on after the frames are already bolted onto the car, so you can install the bulbs and test everything before you finish them off, not that taking back out those two screws would be  a huge deal.

After they were installed, with new bulbs, and the lenses were cleaned and installed I turned on the ignition and tried all the lights. Brakes lights: check, reverse lights: check, license plate & outer running lights: check. The left brake bulb didn't come on at first but it was simply due to a slightly bent contact on the socket, you can see the contacts on the back of the frame if you look from inside the trunk. Simply remove the bulb and gently push the contact forward, then when you install the bulb it'll push the contact but remain in contact, problem solved.

I repainted the trim pieces that go around the the lenses black because the silver on them was fading and frankly looked kind of silly with the white.

Last Few Electical Gremlins

Even after completely redoing the whole wiring harness for my car there were a few issues:

1. The "Charge" light on the combination gauge would come on the moment a battery was connected, it should only come on if the alternator stops producing the proper amount of voltage.
2. Brake Light sensor isn't transmitting signal properly when the brakes are on.
3. Tachometer isn't working at all and is missing all of it's internal light bulbs.
4. Fuel level sensor isn't properly sending signal
5. Oil Pressure sensor isn't properly sending signal
6. Water temperature isn't properly sending signal

So lets start delving into the issues and how I've gone about fixing them, those that are fixed.

#1 Upon further inspection of the wiring diagram wires got crossed and the wire to the light was not on the correct terminal, once it was moved and re spliced correctly battery is connected and the light doesn't come on.

#2 Brake light sensor assembly works by depressing a small diaphragm inside the screw in to transfer signal from the live wire that comes in to the wire that's attached to the brake lights. The multi-meter says it's not transferring that signal, so chances are that a new one will have to be sourced from the junkyard.

#3 I had to contact Ashcraft about this one because the previous owner had installed an MSD ignition control system, which obviously changes the way the primary circuit should be wired. According to the MSD documentation the lead to the Tachometer should come straight out of the MSD box, while the stock SAAB setup says it should go to the negative terminal of the ignition coil. Well the MSD box set-up wasn't working, and Ashcraft said that the way the VDO tach works is based off a deflection of the 12v signal coming in based off the grounding in the ignition coil. He went on to say that if the wire to terminal 1 of the tach was connected to a wire with a voltage it risks frying the tach PERMANENTLY. So with that concerning me greatly I switched back over to the stock setup. 

First impression was that the Tach isn't fried. It did react to reving and finally moved from 0 when the car started up. However the revs idle at 600, and never exceeded 2000, even when I revved the nuts off the thing. So something isn't reading correctly. So back to Ashcraft I crawled; he suggested switching to a stock style Bosch Blue Type 12 ignition coil (Most commonly know in old Volkswagens) as that's what the VDO gauge is calibrated for. German gauge only read German ignition coil, I could have probably guessed that.

#4 This is still an issue, but may be due to a broken bullet connector in the VDO specific connector, so I'll need to replace the whole thing since you can't get replacement connectors and mine is broken. It's on the list for the next trip to Nine's junkyard. If that isn't the issue the problem lays on the sender side, but I'm really only concerned with getting the electrical issues that are easiest to fix with the body off at this point.

#5 New sending unit was purchased and installed. Suspect gauge isn't working now

#6 New sending unit was purchased and installed. Gauge is suspect.

Speakers, Carpet, and Seatbelts

Like any 20 year old my car has to have a bangin' stereo right? Well sorta, dingus cut some half ass holes that either were going to have speakers in them or had speakers and he didn't want to sell em with the car. So I measured them and bought some speakers to fit in the holes, I went for cheap with good materials no paper. I ran all the wires for them, soldered the DIN1 connector through the appropriate hole in the dash. Slotted in the speakers and screwed em in.

Still have some hanging wires at this point but they didn't stay that way for long. You can see I did make a surround for the speaker out of scrap galvanized steel so it actually fit in the hole right.

After all this work the stereo fired right to life and pumped for a while. I left it for the week to go to school and when I came back the next weekend and turned on the car *POOF* big puff of electrical smoke from the radio and it wouldn't turn on. The radio I got was in some way defective because the 10 amp fuse in the back of it should have blown before the radio went. Glad I bought a warranty with it.

With the speakers in I could start working on the carpet. I cut based on the old carpets, trace old onto new with chalk, cut about an inch outside that chalk and test fit, adjust, repeat until it fits.

It's not a fast process but if you're careful you get a good fit and it looks good, something you can save a lot of time and money doing yourself. To stick it on I just used carpet contact cement. I bought a gallon but only used about 3 quarts, and that's really applying it heavy (which is recommended). Just be careful that the cement only gets where you want carpet cause it's a bitch to get off (which is kinda the point isn't it?).

Seats in to see how they look. Looking good. It kind of looks like car! If you squint

Wiring: FINISHED

After god knows how many hours and how many feet of new wire, rebuild kits, the electrical system is finished! I finally got the wiper motor fixed after a $40 new brush plate, hours of modifying said brush plate, and more struggle it finally works. The heater fan works, the radiator fan works, the lights work, the back up switch work. If I'm honest I'm not 100% sure all the stuff in the gauges work but that will be an issue with the gauge not the wiring.

I've added an aftermarket radio to go in the hole the previous owner chopped through the dash. Wired up the spots for the speakers. So pictures of the beauty of my wiring to follow.

Wiper Motor Rebuild:

old plate on the table (top mounted brushes)

new brush plate installed, had to use longer screws than stock due to spacers

So the issue as it turns out with the wiper motor was with the old brush plate. Finding a new replacement was a pain in the ass because while Lucas (Lord of Darkness) put similar wiper motors in just about every single European developed car of the late 60's and 70's. Emphasize on "similar" as in not the same. So I bought a $40 new brush-plate for a Hillman Avenger. Which of course didn't fit right out of the box, so I spent close to 2 hours hacking it up with a Dremel tool. It then fit but the new plate has the brushes mounted in the middle instead of the top. So the new brushes were grounding out on the case, so after I added 2 nylon spacing washers to each screw, add power and the motor worked like a dream... or whatever it is Lucas parts work like.

Washer Motor Rebuild

The wiper motor doesn't work. So apart it comes.

Taken all apart

Base magnets are rusty as can be

Rotor is OK but the brass contact plates at the top are corroded. Common known problem so 600 grit sandpaper is the solution.

Cleaned out the old grease and the rust from the body

all the washers, C clips, and screws from the assembly

The brush plate. The #1 problem with these old Lucas motors. I'm going to get a new brush plate cause the springs have nearly rusted in half.

Here are where the studs for the plug pop in

Putting things back

Washers and clips almost all go here on the outside

All put back together. Even with the relay isn't working properly. Brush plate still needs replacement so it may be the issue.

EDIT: Relay wasn't working, so I got a new one, this didn't fix the problem. I could hear the relay energizing (clicking) but the motor wouldn't come on. So I replaced the brush-plate, that's in a later post.

Wiring

What with the whole wiring harness ripped out of the car it was time to put all new wires in. That's been the current undertaking for the past month or so.

Everything that was in the car electronically that I've replaced.

Spark plugs, ignition coil, distributor cap, distributor rotor, and spark plugs leads.

Random transformer that was wired in parallel with the distributor. It seems dingus was 

trying to use it as a ballast resistor, which of course isn't needed with the aftermarket ignition system. 

One of dingus' quality splicing jobs, this one was next to the starter 

 It looks like one of these wires burned up, and then instead of replacing it he just spliced in a new one.

The set of  headlight relays, working on the inter-relay connections. 

Soldered on the quick disconnect trailer connector

Labeled and finished connector

Set of relays installed

From further out

All the wires are in heat shrink, makes it look better. 

See? You can barely see the wires.

Update 10/26

It's been ages since I've updated, don't know if anyone is a "regular" but I now have enough page views for me to feel slightly bad about it.

SO! What's new on the Sonett?

I caved in and removed the entire dashboard so I could refinish it. Originally I was worried about messing up the wiring arrangement but after assessing how totally screwed the whole system was I said "F**k it" and took the dash off. A little online research found me a pretty easy technique to sand, clean and repaint the dash.

• Sand the dash to the the rough shape you want, the Sonett's fiberglass/plastic dashboard has a fake vinyl texture to it that in places looked really rough from sun exposure so I sanded all that texture smooth. Don't worry about surface scratches right now so any grit finer than 50 should be fine, the primer should fill any scratches in.
• Use TSP (Trisodium Phosphate) to clean the surface when you're done sanding, you can get TSP from just about any paint or hardware store. Just follow the mixing directions on the box.
• Then use a degreaser to get anything else that might keep the paint from adhering off the paint-surface, the stronger the better. I used Greased Lightning.

•  *IMPORTANT* make sure you let the surface dry ENTIRELY before moving on. I made this mistake on the center-console in thankfully a spot that would be covered by carpet. If any degreaser or TSP is left on the surface it will crack and bubble under the primer and ruin the smooth finish. Patience is super important for this whole process.

• Next is to use your primer. Make sure you get an appropriate primer for the material it's going onto, in this case plastic primer. READ THE LABEL you don't want to misuse the primer, and make sure to follow the directions for the time to wait for top-coat. For the primer I used it required I wait 6 days for top-coat.

Coat 1

Coat 2

Coat 3

• Spray on the top-coat, I used Dupli-Color vinyl paint because from all the accounts I could find it's the best. Be sure to read the label and follow the directions as always. The best application technique with any spray-paint applies here as well. 3+ coats for best even application with 20 minutes or so between coats. First coat get about 40-50% coverage of the surface, you should see primer underneath still in most places, you're not trying to fully coat the surface. Second coat get about 100% coverage no primer visible, but it's better to air on the side of less coverage to avoid applying too thick. Third coat should be patch-up and cover any spots you missed and finish evening out the coats. Any subsequent coats should be the same rule of thumb, it's better to have less coverage for a more even application.

 After testing my refinishing techniques on the center console I was really happy with the way it turned out, so I moved on to the dashboard. Now it looks amazing. I'm gonna try and go back and find some pictures of the dashboard before so you can see it's transformation.

Dashboard still bolted in, before I was gonna remove it (hence everything is taped off)

Looking real rough

Rust along the metal latch, paint flaking off the wooden glove-box cover

Thankfully the knobs look decent, and they pop right off. Ashtray looks equally rough

Knobs, handles, covers, vents. All looking kinda beat and flaky.

I got pretty caught up in actually fixing and cleaning the dash that I didn't take any pictures of the process, but here's what it looks like after all that meticulous work.

Dashboard off. Underneath all cleaned up

Repainted, I'm going to put the gauge cluster surround as bare metal

glove-box is rimmed with a small metal hinge. I left it chrome to match the gauge-cluster

Beautiful repainted, hanging up waiting to be put back. The red tint is reflection off the car in the driveway, the vinyl paint has a bit of sheen to it, much like Armor All 

Center console was my guinea pig for the cleaning and painting process. It came out really well

repainted some struts, the glove-box cover, speaker mesh, and shined up the chrome on an ashtray.

Today I finished the arduous and lengthy process of removing the wiring harness and ignition system from the car. At first I had hoped the dingus who restored the car before me hadn't touched the wiring but once I started to cut back the heat wrapping I found sign after sign of his tardism everywhere. There were connectors with 4 wires spliced in, instead of using a connector he TIED TOGETHER a pair of wires and wrapped them in duct-tape. There was a non-automobile transformer wired in PARALLEL with wires from the distributor cap. Things grounded to painted surfaces. So I've opted to remove the whole thing and bench test individual systems.

One half out!

Everything out! That's the look of "I'm so done with this sh*t"

The pile ready for debug.

I pulled out all of the electrical devices as well, the horn, knobs, relays, intake, and wiper motor. I repainted the covers for the intake, pulled apart the wiper motor and tried to troubleshoot it. It came entirely apart, re-greased it, and put it back together, now if only it would actually turn. Lucas Electrics, it's always a crapshoot - just this: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~mtmorris/index3.html.

The "squirrel box" as my father named it. The intake housing by a more technical name.

And that's what's on the inside of your Lucas Electric's Windsheild Wiper Motor

One clean spindle.

One dirty spindle

Cleaning the inside of the wiper motor. The observant will notice that's my friend Chris, not me.

I've done other stuff but it all starts to melt together. As I find pictures I'll add them to this post and try to do a better job of posting as I do things.