danno

Mike, do you have a voltmeter? I would look to see if you have 12 volts on both ends of the #5 fuse when the lights are on and the dimmer is all the way to bright. When you say "all the lights through the light switch are working", are you talking about the exterior lights, or the dash lights? If you have lights for your instruments and not for the radio and fan, then your light switch and fuse are ok. You can use a short piece of wire to jump from one fuse that you know has voltage on it to the #5 fuse. See if your lights work when you do this. Try it on both sides of this fuse if it does work. If adding this jumper fixes it, then you either have a bad light switch or a broken wire.

I think that fuse is only about a half inch long, so it will be difficult to find. I know there are a lot of other problems that can occur with the dash lights, so be 100% sure the fuse is the problem. Take a small piece of wire and short across the fuse and see if the lights come on. You might also try cleaning the fuse contats and checking the spring contacts to make sure they are grabbing the fuse.

I think that fuse is only about a half inch long, so it will be difficult to find. I know there are a lot of other problems that can occur with the dash lights, so be 100% sure the fuse is the problem. Take a small piece of wire and short across the fuse and see if the lights come on. You might also try cleaning the fuse contats and checking the spring contacts to make sure they are grabbing the fuse.

No, don't replace the light switch. Your problem is with your front turn signal light. The front parking lights turn on with the headlight switch in the PARK position, but they turn OFF when the headlights are on. The are on the same time the ignition switch light is on and off when it is off. I will bet you a beer that if you disconnect the whole front light from the left side and right side, then temporarily swap the one on the right to be on the left, the problem goes away. before you swap them, though, check all the connections, bulb, anc ground of that front left light. If I am wrong, I will email you a beer!

The picture Tim attached has the information in it, do you need more?

I think I have information on it, I will need to check and get back to you on it.

Depending on how ambitious you are, you can make your own. It will not be authentic, but some do not care about that. I made one and it turned out quite nice. I might even have some of the gasket material left over. I used a neoprene type of rubber/elastomer from precisiongasket.com.

There used to be plenty of these in ebay. Are there not any more?

Are you going to go with a Deluxe or standard interior. That is one of the first questions you will need answered? Parts for deluxe are more difficult to get and more costly. Find out the original color of your interior also and if you want to stay with that. Mine was black, and parts for it are easy to get. I have not had to replace any parts for my 69 'vert, but all except for the rear side window panels are the same as a hardtop. The backrest of the rear seat is also different, but as long as you have the steel frame, that is all the upholstery shop should need. You also need to find out what your original seat covers were, and if you want to stay with that, or go with something else. I also have Randalls rack, it is based on the GM J car rack. It does require drilling a few holes to mount it. It also requires cutting a little off the bottom of the steering column shell under the hood. I am like you, I try to do very little to my car that cannot be reversed some day to return it to original. The small cut needed to install the rack was a compromise that I have never looked back on.

Etel's idea will work fine, I think. But be careful with the polarity. If you do not start to see the meter move right away, change the plus and minus wires around. Also, do not leave it on for more than a few seconds. Even though it is only 3 volts ( from 2 batteries) it still can ruin your gauge if left on for too long. And about the water and rain, I think you could be OK. It is all plastic, there is nothing to rust except a few pieces inside that should not matter. The odds are you will still need to take it all apart and clean the parts real good, but this can be done. You should be able to disassemble it all the way to the movement, it will take some patience and fine tweeking to do it. I have done it, I know it can be done. And do not test the ampmeter by the method mentioned. It does not work anyway, and this method could fry it. My experiences with my own gauges and helping friends is that problems are almost never with the gauges. It is always with the regulator, flextape, connectors, and wires.

Great, now on to your next task. It seems like you have so many issues, and you keep at it, one at at time. I can't wait to hear the next one!

Mike, the front bulbs could be a clue. Take out the yellow bulbs and put in clear ones so you can see the filaments. Are both filaments lighting up with the turn signals? If so, that is a problem. The LED flasher should work with the front bulbs removed completely, but I am not sure about that. My guess is the case of the LED flasher MUST be grounded. You can find out if the connections to the flasher are bad if you have a voltmeter. With the turn signals on, measure the voltage on the battery. Then put the voltmeter probe on the input wire to the flasher, it is the orange/yellow wire I think. It should have about the same voltage (maybe a little less) as the battery. If it does, your wires, fuse, and connections are ok. If it is 0.5 or more lower, that is a source of problem also.

Actually, the vacuum canister is inside the front right wheel well. It is connected to the inner fender, just under the battery. The link GT provided is quite good, but I also have one I attached. If you have the factory wire harness, it is pretty easy to follow. It has a starter safety switch that I bypassed on mine. It was an early attempt at "stupid protection". It would not allow the car to start if the wheel was tilted. I bypassed this on mine. I also added a switch so it only tilts when in Park or Neutral. The way it was from the factory, anytime the key is on and the door is opened, the wheel will break away. Reply back if you have any more questions.

I wonder a bit if some of the milage claims can be attributed to tire size and rear end ratio. I speedometer that is not correct can really have a huge effect on your mpg. It it tells you you are going further than you actually are, you get really good mpg. There is probably not one of us with the original tire size (because they are no longer made). Most new tires can be purchased as very close to correct for the speedo gears, but who does that when shopping? Also think about all of you who have modified the rear end gears and not adjusted speedometer gears. Another great way for you to think you have great mpg.

The gauges themselves are almost bulletproof. I have never heard of one going bad, it is always the wires, circuit board, or something else. First of all, the speedometer has nothing to do with the gauges. If it does not work, it is a mechanical issue and is completely unrelated to the gauges. Second, do NOT expect the ampmeter to work. They never worked, even when brand new from the factory. If you fuel gauge works, your voltage regulator on the circuit card is ok. You can test the gauges when they are out of the car. Follow the trace on the circuit card from where it goes from the voltage regulator to the 16 pin connector. Connect +12 volts up to this with a jumper wire. Connect the negative part of the screw that mounts the regulator. Then follow the trace that goes from the temp gauge to the 16 pin connector. Connect a jumper wire between this trace and the minus of the 12 volt supply, and you should see the meter start moving up right away. It will only take a second or so to go to maximum. DO NOT leave this jumper connected for more than 2 or 3 seconds. After you do the temp gauge, do the oil pressure gauge the same way. Follow the trace from the gauge to the connector, and jumper the trace connection at the connector to minus 12 volts. You will see the oil gauge move immediately. Again, do not make this connection for more than 2 oo3 seconds!!!!

Wow, this is an interesting read. The numbers are all over the place. I have the 302 with stock carb also, and get around 12mpg in town. I never take it on the road to know what it would do, but maybe 15 mpg driving it like my turtle's grandmother. I installed the AOD, but they will not help much in town. I have tried everything to fix the problem. Everything is new or double checked. Nothing works. My car starts and runs perfect. I just figured it would never do better, then I read these posts. I had even thought of switching to a 5.0L from a 1992 car, they got federal rating mpg of 23. Maybe there is hope afterall for my 302? There should be an article written about the steps someone should go through to troubleshoot these issues. Thousands of articles about how to get more power, I have never seen one on how to get more mpg. What does testing with a vacuum gauge tell you? Is there a way to find out if it is running rich?

When I buy a new battery for one of my cars, I take the old one and drain the battery (sulfuric) acid out and into a glass jar. Then I use that to clean contacts. You have to be real careful when you use it, though. My grandfather used to use Coke. Coke had a mild acid in it that Pepsi did not have, but I am sure they have changed their formula so it would no longer work.

A second bad switch is suspicious. I would contact the manufacturer and see if they can do anything, if it is the switch they have had other problems with this probably. Maybe a google search in other high performance forums would show others have had the same problem with this product? It sounds like you are on top of the problem, good luck.

I am not sure if this has been discussed, but does the pressure switch only have one place to connect a wire? If that is the case, it needs to be screwed to a gound connection. Does the pump turn on and stay on when you connect the wire that goes from the relay to the switch? It should, and should give you plenty of vacuum. It is also possible you have the switch supplying the ground to the motor, not the ground on the relay. Try what I suggested above; connect the wire from the relay to the switch to ground so the pump is on all the time. Then disconnect the wire from the relay to ground. If your motor keeps running, you have the relay wired wrong. It is possible the switch was wired wrong at first, and that might have damaged it.

I measured from the back side panel in the rear wheel well. The panel on the front edge to that has a panel that is perpendicular to the length of the car. From this I measured to the forward panel that also is perpendicular to the length of the car. This front panel is an edge of a piece that looks like a rock shield. The distance I get is 65 3/16 inch. I am not sure I am measuring from the correct forward point, though. It is exactly 2.62 inches forward from the center of a bolt that bolts into the bottom of the front fender. So the distance from the rear edge to the bolt hole is 62 9/16 inches. From this bolt, it is 12.25 inches to the front end of the lip that I think you are asking about. The inner lip that I am talking about is behind the inner rocker, it runs from almost the front wheel well to the rear wheel well. This inner lip is an easy thing to get a tape measure on, it is 73.5 inches. It is what you put the jack on to lift the car up when you have a flat tire. It does not go all the way to the back panel by the rear wheel, it stops about 0.6 inches before that panel. Also, about 0.7 inches back from the forward end of this lip is a second fender bolt. I hope this helps. I made all measurements on the passenger's side.

I think I know what you want. I will see if I can do it tonight or tomorrow, and get you photos of how I do it. I will try to get you accurate numbers.

I am not sure if this is an effective way to measure bump steer issuses, but you turn the wheel all the way in one direction and somehow mark the angle the wheel is with respect to the car. Then put some weight on your front bumper on one side ( to lower that side) and see if the angle of the tire with respect to the car changes. Then as an additional test, put a jack under that corner of the car and take weight off that wheel. Again, watch for the angle of the wheel to change as weight is removed from the wheel.

I need a bit more info on where A is. Is this under the leading edge of the door?

That idea should work, but you will be turning on the pump whenever the key is in the RUN or ACCY position. I like to turn on my car radio when I am working in the garage, so I put turn the key to the ACCY position to do this. If you do this, you will be running the vacuum pump. If you are not driving the car, then it will not be running much. Just something to consider; do you want the pump on whenever the key is in the ACCY position?

The moving it to the side is not a problem, that can be fixed by changing the length of the inner tie rods (maybe). You might have enough adjustment in them to make it work, but you also might need to make the make the drivers side tie rod shorter and the passengers side longer. I know with Randall's Rack ( which I have) it could be done. You might also be able to fi this by changing the mounting holes of the center linkage. Moving the driver's side forward 3/8 inch should not make any difference. I would find an alignment shop to ask about it. 90% of the places that do alignments will either not do it, or will tell you they can do it when they really cannot. I found a shop in Minneapolis that was very willing to work with me on making sure it was done right. They work with a lot of hot rods and customs, and the wait to get an alignment is several days. Find the right shop, with an older guy who really understands alignment (without the use of a computer) and you should be good to go!