Paradise by the Dashboard Light
I don’t have good pictures of Pandora’s interior. It has never occurred to me to take pictures there. All that I have are incidental – a picture with a pizza in the seat after her first pizza run, a bit of the dash from a shot of her first drive into town, but nothing that really shows much. Not that the interior is nice or anything. Thirty years of actual use and 20 of baking in the heat haven’t done it any favors. Still, it would be nice to be able to get a visual comparison.
I chose the name Pandora mostly because it seemed like every time I opened something up for repairs, more horrors would come out. But generally speaking, everything could be far, far worse. Which is basically how everything in my life works. I try to fix one thing, which turns into a week of fixing all the stuff required to get the initial thing working again. When I’m pressed for time, this makes me insane. When not, it is always a learning experience and sometimes even fun.
For example, I installed my new horn relay expecting my horn issues to be over. I plugged it in and the horns immediately went off, but it is more of a buzz than a solid horn sound. Great, one of the horn buttons must be stuck and the horn must be bad. After messing with the horn buttons for a bit, I decided the problem must be somewhere deeper, so the wheel had to come off. The trim that encloses the buttons came off in two large pieces and only one of the retained nuts it was held on with survived the process.
At least now I can fix the switch, though, right? Wrong! The switch is fine! Well, not fine – it fell apart enough that it was actually non-functional, but wasn’t causing the horn to go off continuously. Of course, I won’t have any horn buttons at all like this, so the rest of the evening is trying to get that trim stuck back together with a fiberglass repair kit and some epoxy. It just has to last until I figure out what I’m doing with the interior.
The horn still goes off when I hook up the battery. I’ve verified the switch is working at the horn relay. There is one more wire that goes to the key minder system. This has never worked and I’ve just kind of dismissed it. But when I pull that wire, the buzzing stops! I check and yes, I’ve left the key in the ignition. I plug the wire back in, pull the key and silence! I put the key in and noise! Nice, and an unexpected upgrade – I thought key reminders were a “modern” 80’s thing. Leaving the key in, I close the door and… the noise continues. That doesn’t make sense – it shouldn’t sound while the door is closed as though I’m actually driving. I’m sure there isn’t a pressure switch in the seat (though I do check the wiring diagram just to confirm). I open the door back up and manually press the door jamb switch and silence! Ah, the switch is just dirty. I rotate it a bit, press it a few times to verify it is working consistently, get out and close the door to… noise! I open the door and press the button again and the horn stops. I wad up some electrical tape, stick it on the end of that switch plunger, close the door and… silence! That’s it! Over time, the switch must have dented the door enough it doesn’t push it in far enough anymore. Except the door looks fine. Comparing to the passenger side, it is really short though. I don’t see how that is possible and I don’t see a way to adjust it, so I hop on camaros.net and there it is. These switches self adjust. New, they stick out pretty far. When the door is closed the first time, it presses a sleeve in. It is a press fit thing, so it should just stay there. Except mine is corroded solid. I spray it down with penetrating oil, let it sit overnight and I find I can tap that sleeve back out. I put the switch back in, gently close the door and now the key minder works properly! Of course, I finally remember I was troubleshooting the horn originally, but it only takes a moment to short the horn contacts on the steering column to get a relatively pure horn sound.
This all happened over the course of a week. I was working on other stuff, but I still kept coming back to that stupid buzzing sound. But I now have a horn AND the key reminder buzzer thingy! At least I should have a horn. I’ll replace the steering wheel once the dash is back together, but it should work. Therefore it will, right?
The more exciting progress has been the successful test of my electrical changes and a start on the dash re-installation. I tried like crazy to get the wiring behind the dash in nice bundles, but it didn’t work out as nicely as I had hoped. The AC ductwork takes up a lot more space than I thought it would. Still, it is good enough I have the instrument cluster reinstalled. I also set the center console back in just to test everything I could.
The dash lights all work and dim properly, the radio works and the blower motor on my AC unit works. Previously, I tested the fuel gauge with a potentiometer to simulate a full vs empty tank. The needle might be a tick off to the left, but it is close. This also verified my low fuel warning light works. When the gauge reads a little under a quarter of a tank, the FUEL light comes on! Of the console gauges, the voltmeter (where the gas gauge usually goes) reads as I’d expect. The ammeter (not really an ammeter) deflects to the negative side when I have the radio, lights and AC fan on, indicating a battery drain.
Of course, nothing can be pure win. Much like my steering wheel, when I took the dash pad off, it was pretty crumbly. The heat has already caused the glue to fail, so it curls up on the edges. The center AC vents are supposed to mount to it, but I don’t think it can structurally support that now. I’m not even sure the pad can go back in and stay attached. I’m still working on that, but worst case, I’ll mount the vents to the metal dash and go without the pad. Another few hours on that and some cleanup, and I’ll finally be able to start on the parts that make the car go!