Welcome back...I remember when you found that car sitting out back of whatever garage that was a few years ago.

 

That was 2005, and it looked like this:

Got a multimeter? They are indispensable when it comes to finding things like battery draining accessories.

I do. I'm going to start with that monkey business when the battery is fully charged, and the grounds are clean.

The dash clock stopped working a while ago, I hope it's not something dumb like that sucking the battery down.

 

Got a multimeter? They are indispensable when it comes to finding things like battery draining accessories.

 

time to pull fuses an put an ammeter see where the current draw is. I know ours had some freaky issues from a bad headlight relay. Let us know what it ends up being.

 

Nice, I have a 2 powdercoated valve covers in the garage for my car. One you might like though!

 

Is it pink?

 

Always loved that car - I still would love to buy it - but alas myself and c900's get along much better when I don't own any... Glad to see she's getting another go around! Electrical problems suck donkey ass - they waste so much time for the dumbest things usually. Good Luck!

 

Looks nice, connect an amp meter between the battery terminals and the + cable, then you will see draw, hopefully only a few MV's. Start removing fuses till you see the draw go away. Then you know what's drinking your electricity when you are away, and can replace that component. Should in theory only take a few minutes to diagnose the issue. If you pull all the fuses, but still see draw you could have some sort of alternator issue, you would be able to see that go away on the meter too by disconnecting the power lead to the alternator.

 

GENIUS. I need to do this on mine

 

Nice to see you are keeping it!

 

Sub'd. Best of luck to you Andy.


I've got a ton of work to do on mine but realistically it'll have to wait until next year.

 

Thanks!

Tonight, the hood goes up on the roof so I can get up in it's guts easier.

We all know that's not a good sign.

 

Tonight, the hood goes up on the roof so I can get up in it's guts easier.

We all know that's not a good sign.

This.

Sweet car Palmer, loved it since i first saw it, and as everyone else has said glad to see you're keeping it.

 

Glad you kept it. Seems like a good decision from here. That blue with all the fixins make for a stealthy-looking c900.

Get at 'er, get 'er fixed!

 

Thanks!

It's only going to get more stealthy pretty soon here. SPG kit is coming off, and it's getting a proper re-paint.

 

good luck palmer; this has always been of my top 5 favorite c900's

 

ya good luck glad your keeping it

 

Poooo.

I have had so many opportunities to buy this. Why, oh why?

Lemme know when you move to MA*

 

always luved this car.
consider smoked side markers and clear turn signals?

 

I like the orange. It "pops". One color is going away soon. All will make sense.

How about that alternator ground? Is it even there? Just put a new ground wire on the alt, The alt is isolated by the bushings. Even if the gound looks fine it might not be carying the load it needs to anymore.

Good call, I'll check that. I do have a digital dash gauge thing with a volt meter on it, and it's showing 13.6 or so when I'm driving around...

 

How about that alternator ground? Is it even there? Just put a new ground wire on the alt, The alt is isolated by the bushings. Even if the ground looks fine it might not be carying the load it needs to anymore.

 

This was my exact problem, and it drove me f**king crazy. Ran a haevy gauge lead from the alt. to a ground bolt on teh engine. Solved EVERYTHING.

Glad to see you have this back out. :saab

 

Check carefully the electric locks, seen them not shut off when locking or unlocking. Other than that not many thing to drain on thoese.

 

X2 Had this problem as well.

 

Good tip, thanks.

One of the window switches is sticky too, but that would not matter when the car is off...

 

That was a great car. The SPG kit on the notch looks awesome.

MIne will be "meaner" soon.

 

I Picked up the 86 from storage last weekend. We broke up for a while last summer, but now we had a talk and things are looking better.

I stored this car last summer in a rage, after not being able to track down a random charging/no start/battery drain thing.

I still don't know what it is, but I'm going to figure it out if it kills me. The tested the battery tonight, and it's fine, it just needs a charge. This weekend I hope to pull the alternator and get it tested as well.

Here is how it looks now:

Try replacing the battery to starter cable to see if that's where your particular gremlin lies. Nice looking C900 BTW! I'm scoping that front end IC install modification.

 

I'm scoping that front end IC install modification.

Should make a big difference on one of your n/a monsters.

 

Good to see you aren't giving up.

Don't be so hard on its condition. I thought it looked good when I saw it in person in '09.

 

Love this car! Glad to see you giving it another whirl.

If you're going to wrinkle finish the valve cover, use an aircraft stripper on the old coating and then have the thing lightly sandblasted. The reason that the old finish cracks off is that there is no tooth on the aluminum. Smooth aluminum doesn't hold paint worth shit. You can try to use a bonding agent, but I've never gone that route because I don't know how it holds up under heat or how it may effect the wrinkle paint. When doing wrinkle finish, heat is your friend. Do it on a sunny day and let the sun cook it. I did one last fall and stuck it on top of my boiler when it was drying and I got a nice even tight wrinkle finish.

 

Good info!

I did the valve gover on my Miata with the same stuff, and it came out pretty well...however, now that I think about it, it had the casting texture still showing. I also used a torpedo heater to wrinkle the paint. It was kinda funny.

I'm going to grab a heat gun on the way hom tonight to "help" things along on the support.

 

I'll check those out today.

Got a little bit done last night:

Found this too:

Good thing I have a couple of them, I have no idea how that would get all corroded like that. Weird.

It's too humid and shitty out to do any more painting, so I'm going to work on the battery tray today, and get that all fit up hopefully. Then I can get the intake mounted more securely, and tie up a few other loose ends.

 

Well, that was a fun day, I Got quite a bit done. Updated the first post.

I also found 3 vac leaks. It idles great now, and the random stalling issue is gone...hopefully. I feel like such a n00b. All the issues were super obvious once I dug into it a little. Ugh.

Next up is messing with the exhaust, and the wheel bearing. I'm shooting to drive it to work one day a week as well, so focus is on all the stupid little BS that makes it stop running.

I used the battery tray out of a 9000, and cut the sides off. Here is the test fit:

It fits pretty well in there!

Ignore the grime, and brown, oily dirt. It's gone now.
I degreased and scrubbed everything in the vicinity, painted the battery tray, sanded, primed, and touched up the few rusty spots I found.

To mount it, I drilled holes in the tray, positioned it where I wanted it, then used self-tapping screws. To prevent rust, I took the screws back out, and put a nice big gob of silicone caulk in the holes, and on the screws, then put it together. It looks ok, and the battery is secure.