69 GMC "Ol' Blue"

[mud.man.rj]

One snag at a time, your getting it done though, looks good.
Mudman.

[mjensen]

Originally Posted by mud.man.rj

One snag at a time, your getting it done though, looks good.
Mudman.

Thanks Mudman!

Got most of the power steering and hydroboost lines hooked up today. I'm not sure about my ends on the gear side. Newer style gears use an o-ring type fitting, and this gear is an inverted flare, so I modified the hose ends to work. I kind of expect them to fail. Now just waiting on the 3/8" t to arrive.

[7dee2]

Getting closer all the time Mike!

[mjensen]

Thanks Brett! I'm getting ever closer! I was able to run my alternator wires, hook up my O2 sensor, knock sensor, and loom up the crank signal wires. More parts should be here Wednesday so I can finish the power steering lines and heater hoses. All that's really left to fire this baby up after I complete that is hooking up all the power wires, ground wires, and fluids!

Wires aren't all tied down yet, but here's how it's looking.

[mjensen]

I know these last few updates don't seem to show a lot of progress, but there has been a lot of activity in trying to find all these stupid little parts lol. I was able to get the oil cooler hard lines in which I'm just going to bypass for the initial startup, wiring is down to hooking up the battery, starter, grounds, and power wires. I bought some temporary switches for the fire up. I need to go over all the fittings and double check that they are tight, and this bad boy will be ready for the initial fire!!!

[mjensen]

Well I was close to firing it up today, but kind of ran out of steam. I got the starter wired, the oil cooler lines capped, and the computer grounded. Also filled 'er full of oil, power steering fluid and started filling the coolant. It will need to be turned over to pump and fill the block, but it's getting closer every day!

[rgunlock]

Sounds like 1 more day in the garage should see you starting er up. Way to get after it Mike!

[mjensen]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

Sounds like 1 more day in the garage should see you starting er up. Way to get after it Mike!

Thanks Rick!

Worked on the temporary panel. Looks kind of like a first grader's science fair project, but it did the job. Flipped the switch, and what do you know? The FP fired up for the few seconds as it was supposed to! There's at least one circuit that's working. Tomorrow will be the moment of truth!!!!

[mjensen]

Well, good news is that it ran today! Bad news is that it wouldn't stay running. One of the injectors appears to be stuck open, and the other one is stuck closed . Also battled a bunch of fuel line fittings that apparently I didn't tighten so well. Oh, and I stabbed the distributor in 180 degrees out. Got all but the injectors and one last fuel leak fixed. Hopefully I can get those issues resolved next weekend

[7dee2]

Good job Mike!

You'll get it dialed in, in no time!

[rgunlock]

Sounds a lot like my first startup Mike, except your issues are with FI and mine were/are carb related. On the bright side, you got it running well enough to find those issues

[mjensen]

Originally Posted by 7dee2

Good job Mike!

You'll get it dialed in, in no time!

Originally Posted by rgunlock

Sounds a lot like my first startup Mike, except your issues are with FI and mine were/are carb related. On the bright side, you got it running well enough to find those issues

Thanks guys!

Today was short lived working on the truck. Earlier this week, I tested the injector harness with a noid light, only to find that the injectors aren't actually firing. According to some research, the ECM actually needs a connection to the starter to know when it's cranking. So, I hooked up that wire only to find that my brand new battery is dead. Apparently there must be some kind of draw on the system. Now there isn't enough voltage to test my theory, so I have to wait until it's charged up. I'm leaving town tomorrow, so it looks as if this is not the weekend to hear it run either. Time to walk away for a bit :\

[rgunlock]

__it happens. You'll get it worked out Mike.

[mjensen]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

__it happens. You'll get it worked out Mike.

Thank you for the words of encouragement Rick! I appreciate it!

On that note, I was able to get it worked out! Quite honestly I rather enjoyed tracing everything down and troubleshooting the root cause. So the issue was that the computer was not grounding out the injectors. I started checking the high side of the harness. 12v on both sides, so that was fine. Checked continuity of the ground wires to the computer next, also checked out good. Measured resistance of the injectors, check. Measured the resistance in the wiring, good there too. Checked the voltage coming out of the TPS, that was good as well. So I started to think that the computer was not receiving the proper signals to fire. It would run when spraying carb cleaner, so I knew I had spark, but the GM Ignition modules can fail on the signal side so I replaced that as well. Turns out, that wasn't the issue either. By this point, I'm getting very frustrated thinking that maybe it's a ground issue. I mean, I did completely gut and rebuild the harness. So, after some searching on the old interweb, something caught my attention. The computer not only sends a signal to power the fuel relay on pin A1 (which was working because the FP was powering up for the 2 seconds upon key-on), but it also needs to receive a signal from the FP circuit to know if it's actually on. I looked at my diagrams again, and saw that pin B2 is where this signal should be coming from. So, I leaped off the couch and went back out in the garage. Wouldn't you know it? No wire hooked up to it!!! So, today's task before I leave town is to tie B2 into the FP circuit and see if that is in fact my issue. Maybe today is the day to hear this baby run without the need of carb cleaner

[mud.man.rj]

Good detective skills.
Mudman.

[mjensen]

Originally Posted by mud.man.rj

Good detective skills.
Mudman.

Thanks Mudman! Unfortunately I still have no injector pulse. Either I have a grounding issue, or the ECM is kaput. I'm going to order up some tuning/diagnostic software to try and pinpoint exactly what I'm missing so that I don't keep throwing money away on this nightmare.

[mud.man.rj]

Well all you can do is keep at it, one thing at a time right, head scratcher's are no fun especially electronics.
Mudman.

[7dee2]

You can do it Mike! And once you do it'll run like a dream, not a nightmare!

[mjensen]

Originally Posted by mud.man.rj

Well all you can do is keep at it, one thing at a time right, head scratcher's are no fun especially electronics.
Mudman.

Originally Posted by 7dee2

You can do it Mike! And once you do it'll run like a dream, not a nightmare!

Thanks guys! Today was the day! I went to the local wrecking yard and picked up a "new" computer and wiring harness. After installing it, I still had issues with no injector pulses. Well, after tracing the wires today, I found that I had neglected to hook up the 12v supply to them. It ran!!!

[mud.man.rj]

Glad your getting it sorted out.

[americanmusc1e]

Originally Posted by mjensen

Thanks guys! Today was the day! I went to the local wrecking yard and picked up a "new" computer and wiring harness. After installing it, I still had issues with no injector pulses. Well, after tracing the wires today, I found that I had neglected to hook up the 12v supply to them. It ran!!!

Having wired a couple ECMs from scratch (both megasquirt) and fighting my new mopar project's ECM I was reading closely hoping I could help. I just about spit my drink on my keyboard

Glad you got it fixed. Usually with EFI it's simple human error. Like me missing the ground to my 02 sensor heater and the sensor always reading rich at idle because it's not hot enough to read correctly.

[rgunlock]

Congrats on this milestone Mike! Now you've got it running, I bet you have a fresh rush of motivation to get it drivable.

[7dee2]

Way to go! So does she purrrr?

[mjensen]

Originally Posted by americanmusc1e

Having wired a couple ECMs from scratch (both megasquirt) and fighting my new mopar project's ECM I was reading closely hoping I could help. I just about spit my drink on my keyboard

Glad you got it fixed. Usually with EFI it's simple human error. Like me missing the ground to my 02 sensor heater and the sensor always reading rich at idle because it's not hot enough to read correctly.

Originally Posted by rgunlock

Congrats on this milestone Mike! Now you've got it running, I bet you have a fresh rush of motivation to get it drivable.

Originally Posted by 7dee2

Way to go! So does she purrrr?

Hey all! Thank you for the kind words! Yes, it runs great, but unfortunately the project stalled again. I am now on the lookout for someone to work on it. I just don't have time and I need it done 😔

[7dee2]

Busy is good, bad for your project though!

If your having trouble finding a shop I can recommend a one stop shop up north in Sunset that can finish the build, Chad Bangerter Restoration CBR let him know I sent you. He and his crew are busy so the sooner you get on his list the better.

https://www.facebook.com/chad.bangerterrestoration


Chad's going to do some work for us on the Camaro project later this year. I've been pleased with his work over the years.