Author: hamilton.mm

Saturdays tasks on the TI were all small and in most cases challenging.  The first thing I did is plug the battery in again and check everything again, just for grins.  The picture below tells a good story.  I decided I could call it a day after I installed the radiator and radiator hoses, mounted the front grill and removed the front license plate and baby turbo mirrors.

High beams are nice and bright as are the markers.  Note the Baby Tornado mirrors in this picture.  Okay on a GTV6 or something but lame on a 64 TI.

Continue reading “TI Tidy Nineteen: death from a thousand pin pricks”

It’s 8:40 am on Saturday, I have an HOA meeting in 20 minutes but I think I can squeeze an update in here. Thursday I installed and wired the under dash switches and decided the wiring job was done from a point to point perspective. Yeah, reverse lights, under-hood light, horn relay and a few other odds and ends needed sorting but the wires were identified and ready for hook up so I am not concerned about any unknowns from them. At this point I rounded up some jumper cables and a battery and got to it trouble-shooting.

Fuse box is mounted as Satta intended. I’m using a late internally regulated alternator so no control box or regulator required. The horn relay is now where the regulator would go. If only I could get it to work… Fuses seen here are correct except the blue one and possibly the red one at the number three starting from the right position. The 10 fuse box has 2 8 amp circuits that are combined into one fused circuit on this 8 fuse box, so I decided it should be a 16 amp.

Continue reading “Ti Tidy 18: The light at the end of the wire”

Last Saturday I spent 8 hours at the shop working on the wiring harness of the TI.  Yesterday I spent 2 more.  This afternoon I will probably spend another 2 and this coming Saturday another 5 or so.  That’s a lot of time.  More than some people I know, with more cars, tools, and free time than me spend in a season on their cars.  I could have probably made do with about 4 hours of wiring but I wanted it to be somewhat right, as in colors matching the diagrams, connectors insulated and of the original type and splices accomplished with soldering or butt connectors and heat shrink.   It went something like this:

This is a TI diagram for my car that I colored in with pens etc.  Jim Neill (papajam for you BB’ers) sent me PDF’s of this diagram in black and white and a Super diagram in color.  It would have been great if I had thought to ask before I did the first 8 hour stint, but I didn’t.  The first 8 hours I used a diagram in the back of an ‘all 4 cylinder models’ type manual that had a font size of about 2 and was in Italian to boot.  I needed both diagrams because I am converting to Super dash and switches, not because it’s cool, I just don’t have a TI dash. Anyone have a 64 TI dash to donate or sell?

Continue reading “TI tidy seventeen: lots and lots of wires”

Sunday sunday. I ate two poached eggs on sourdough toast, sipped my coffee over the news of the day and made my way down to the shop before 10 am. I had a full day planned and getting right to it seemed the best approach.

Prologue: Saturday was slightly trying along the lines of receiving a call from Mrs. Giuliettas thus: “the Sprint wont start.” She was at the grocery getting snacks for friends who were coming over with their kids to take pictures in her children’s clothing line (ajang ajang handmade) and of course the Sprint waited for her to be driving to cause problems. I picked her up, dropped her off at home and drove down to the store in Brian’s Volvo to jump start the Sprint. The Sprint was illegally parked on private property so I had a small sense of urgency but for all my pensiveness and jump starting efforts the Sprint just wouldn’t turn over fast enough to start. I thought: “catastrophic battery failure” and went to the local chain auto parts store and bought an appropriate battery. Still no start, just a slow RRR RRR RRR. I go back to the Volvo, having decided I needed a break (beer) and THE VOLVO WONT START. I have one of those ‘run off to Mexico’ moments but decide I should walk the two blocks to Duff’s place and get some help. We bump start the Sprint in front of Longs without much fuss then I decide we should check the Volvo for spark etc while I have capable help. At the last possible moment after trying everything, when we give up and I say ‘one more for princess Di’ and it starts, sweet. We drop the Sprint off on a hill by my house and I put the Volvo where I can leave it for a while. I think the Volvo was flooded as it requires the polar opposite starting approach to the Sprint. So Sunday morning I am thinking: I drive the Sprint EVERY DAY so I better fix that starting problem. Off I go.

Excusing above cathartic diatribe, here is the TI after wiring the water temp sender, solenoid, and coil. That’s big. I spent $30 at a local chain auto parts store and bought + and – battery leads along with a $10 basic ignition switch. I wired it all up, installed a battery and RRR, RRR, RRR it turned over!

Continue reading “TI Tidy 15: More songs about electrons”