Well this past weekend was a weekend of first for us. It was the first time I
washed and vacuumed the Midget. My focus has been on mechanical versus
appearance so far and have either been fixing things or driving it. Haven't
been too worried about cleaning it. The reason for giving it a good cleaning
was another first and that was entering it into it's first car show on
Saturday. Now some of you have seen my car and know it's not "show" worthy,
but the Bellevue ABFM is a "bring 'um if you've got 'um" type of thing. Since
we got our car running last spring for the first time since 1986 I thought it
would be fun. It was. The last first for the weekend and one that almost
kept us out of the show was having the car leave us stranded for the first
time at 10:30 Friday night.
Susan told me when we first got the car running that she would never be mad if
the car left us stranded as long as I kept a pair of walking shoes for her in
the trunk. I had my tools with me, so while I fiddled with the car she
slipped on her walking shoes. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Well she
was right in that I wasn't able to figure out the short that was blowing the
fuse so off we walked so I could consult the manual and wiring diagram. I
need to make a copy of that to keep in the car.
The problem was a combination of things. First was that somewhere in the cars
past an electronic fuel pump was add to replace the mechanical pump. When
they wired it in they pirated the green lead to the reverse lights switch for
power instead of running power from the white side as it is on the cars that
came equipped with electric fuel pumps. By moving the power take off to the
white circuit the I was able to get it back home, but still had a problem. If
I had a fuse in the green circuit the car would start when the key was turned
to the on position and the starter would not disengage. Mind you I didn't
turn the key to the start position, just to the on position. So the next
morning I spent a few more hours of consulting the wirering diagram and
systematically eliminating branches of the green circuit I traced the problem
down to the branch that carries the diodes for the warning lights.
Specifically the one for the catalytic converter I believe. One end of the
diode is connected to the same ignition switch lead the runs up to the
starter solenoid. When the key was turned to the on position and the green
circuit was energized, power was moving through the diode and energizing the
solenoid and thus the starter. I need to test the diode to be sure, but with
the problem isolated we headed of to the ABFM
A weekend of firsts.
Rich Ball
'76 Midget
Everett, Wa
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