Da' further adventures of da' trusty billy-goat wagon!

[elagache]

Dear 65GS.com fans of a certain rascally wagon,

I filled up my wagon last Monday and realized to my horror that I had only covered 100 miles in the past 3 months.  So yesterday I decided to get on the freeway to put some miles on the car.  I had barely gotten on when I realized that the coolant temperature gauge was reading an unusual 220? F.  I watched it a bit and it wasn't going down.  At this point I suspected that the electrical radiator fans had stopped working and I made a run for home.  Just as I started to pull onto the driveway one of the hoses blew off from the boiling coolant.  I stopped the engine immediately and rolled onto the driveway:



Here is the hose that gave way:



I called Orinda Classic Car to confirm that they could take Biquette and then called Hagerty's roadside assistance.  Eventually Biquette found her way to Orinda Classic Car:



On Monday I hope they will be able to figure out why the electric fans stopped working.

Just another "fun episode" in owning a classic car!

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. Still, Biquette did manage to come home.  This car has never left me stranded by the side of the road.  Quite an achievement for a 53+ year old car!

[WkillGS]

Hagerty's towed your car from your driveway? That's service!
Electric fans don't do much at highway speeds. I suspect you may have had a stuck or faulty thermostat.

[GS66]

Hope it?s nothing serious. Good to see cars out!

[Super65lark]

Yikes Edouard. Kitty litter for you!

And what about the radiator cap?

[elagache]

Dear Walt, Jim, Iain, and mid-60s Buick caregivers,

Hagerty's towed your car from your driveway? That's service!

Well Hagerty's Driver's club insists that either they will get your car operational again or they will tow the car to the repair facility of your choice.  As to the "service," let me state it as "I was anything but impressed."

Electric fans don't do much at highway speeds. I suspect you may have had a stuck or faulty thermostat.

I'll certainly report on the diagnosis.

Hope it?s nothing serious. Good to see cars out!

Uh, that was the plan!

Yikes Edouard. Kitty litter for you!

And what about the radiator cap?

It didn't occur to me to check the radiator cap.  It "appeared" Biquette would be quickly towed to Orinda Motors, so I tried to indeed clean up as fast as I could.  The engine bay didn't end up as awful as I feared considering the shower of coolant it was exposed to.  I still have some residue to clean on the driveway.  That's one of the projects for today.

I'll keep everybody posted as details develop!

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear 65GS.com fans of a certain rascally wagon,

Greg and da' gang at Orinda Classic Car were on the case and they quickly confirmed my initial hypothesis.  It turned out the electric fans weren't working.  The reason is somewhat odd.  The fuse protecting the fans got displaced and warped.  As a result, the fuse wasn't making good contact and couldn't supply sufficient current.  I checked the situation out this afternoon.  Unfortunately that fuse is jammed in between the battery and the inner fender on the lip of the outer fender sheet metal as it bends around.  The electric fans weren't the original plan.  I was hoping to go with a mechanical fan, but the original shroud had to be trimmed so much that it lost all rigidity, so the electric fans became plan-B and the electrical had to be back-fitted at the last minute.  I tried to take photo, but there just wasn't enough space.

The plan is to replace this fuse holder with a beefier one that shouldn't be vulnerable to wrapping.  Of course it is on order and won't show up for at least a day.  However, if you are a classic car that has to be laid up somewhere, at least at Orinda Classic Car there is plenty of "mature cars" to keep you company!



Cheers, Edouard 

[GS66]

Glad to hear a solution in imminent. I like the 64 GTO too.

[Brian]

Have you considered a self-resetting circuit breaker instead of a fuse?

[elagache]

Dear Jim, Brian, and mid-60s Buick caregivers,

Glad to hear a solution in imminent. I like the 64 GTO too.

I should be able to bring her home soon.  However, then I need to carefully clean everything!

Have you considered a self-resetting circuit breaker instead of a fuse?

I see your point and I'll think about it.  Still, while some sort of a safety device is necessary, the expectation is that you'll never need it except in some sort of a catastrophic situation.  Certainly in a serious front end collision a fuse might be safer. 

Cheers, Edouard 

[Super65lark]

Any word on a remedy, Edouard?

[elagache]

Dear Iain and 65GS.com fans of a certain certain rascally wagon,

Any word on a remedy, Edouard?

Sorry, yes I have been remiss in keeping everybody up to date.  The plot has definitely taken a few more twists.  The fans was reconnected to the power and I brought Biquette home on Wednesday the 20th.  The next day I had about an hour and hoped to clean the engine bay from all the remaining coolant residue. I got all my tools ready - tried to start Biquette - NOTHING!   She just kept cranking and cranking.  I tried several times and went as far to hook up my laptop and log the failed start.  The electronic fuel injection system didn't report any faults - just my luck! 

We've had a lot of rain this past week so I really couldn't do much of anything.  Finally I managed to locate the diagnostic info for the FAST E6 ignition box and found that there is an LED status light.  This past Wednesday I had 20 minutes and I checked to see if the E6 box was dead.  However, the LED give the "OK" signal after the startup check.  So I decided to try starting the car - what did I have to lose?  The engine roared back to life!

Now this wasn't the good thing it would appear to be.  I wasn't expecting the engine to work.  The garage door was closed and a big-block does produce copious exhaust.  I shut the engine down and dropped the matter until I could scare up some more free time.  Today I managed to give myself about 1/2 hour and looked over the electrical in the location of the E6 box.  I did find two broken wires.  However, one had a label that indicated it was part of the headlight upgrade project I haven't gotten very far on.  Those wires shouldn't be live.  Just in case, I wrapped them carefully in electrical tape.  Some of the wire looms were loose, so I cleaned that up.  I also cleaned up the area around the radiator of whatever coolant residue might have remained.

After finishing all that, I once more tried to start the engine and - success!   However, that doesn't explain why the engine didn't work on the 21st.  Tomorrow I thought I would drive Biquette over to Orinda Motors and ask them if they see something.  In this crafty scheme is my worry that the engine might not start after being warmed up.  So I if go to Orinda Motors and then the engine fails - at least I save myself another tow!  If the engine continues to run properly I'll cautiously put Biquette back into service.  I still have to finish cleaning up the engine bay, so I have some work to do!

As usual . . . . . da' plot thickens! . . . .

Cheers, Edouard 

[TrunkMonkey]

When you deal with all things electrical, keep these things in mind.

The body/frame/chassis is the ground.

Over time, many areas that serve as ground path can deteriorate, create a high resistance and all sorts of intermittent and troublesome electrical issues.   Add to that, the "new" electronics that are incorporated to 50+ years technology in the manner of EFI, ignition, electric cooling fans, lighting and other sundry items, and the variables increase (as do the points of failure).

So, back to basics.  Good and proper grounds are your best friend. Second, is using relays wherever possible/practical.

And with all things, "change one thing at a time and thourlly test".

Last, but not least. Document, document, document.

While you mat think your memory is a faultless checkpoint, you will be surprised at the most simple, obvious thing you overlook because you based your work on your memory, rather than your notes...

But, the upside is that you will never forget the thing you missed, when it laughs in your face.

[elagache]

Dear Michael and mid-60s Buick electricians,

Thanks for the advice, I still haven't had a chance to get back to this project.

Add to that, the "new" electronics that are incorporated to 50+ years technology in the manner of EFI, ignition, electric cooling fans, lighting and other sundry items, and the variables increase (as do the points of failure).

There is one additional twist to the plot.  All the electronics of the electronic fuel injection is wired directly to the battery bypassing the traditional vehicle ground.  The reason is that these electronics are sensitive to any sort of radio frequency interference.  Effectively the manufacturers direct you to use the battery as a "quench" for any interference that might be generated by other devices on the car.  So the *hope* is that problems with that electronics can only be loose wires.  I didn't see anything loose yesterday.  I'll look again today.

Thanks again,

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. It just started to rain so on second thought, I think I put off this troubleshooting exercise until we get some drier weather.

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick caregivers,

We have had an usually wet Spring until this past week.  When the weather cleared I brought Biquette over to Orinda Classic Car Center to have them double-check the EFI wiring.  They didn't see anything out of place either so I have to blame the starting problems of March 21st on gremlins! . . . .

With all obstacles finally out of my way, I was able to clean up the engine bay as best I could of the remaining coolant residue.  It was no engine detailing, but it was nice to have clean engine once more:



Not as exciting as all the work the rest of you are doing, but at least Biquette can go back to her domestic chores.  Now I need to find the time to give all cars in the motor-pool their Spring wash and wax.

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick caregivers,

Bill asked how I managed to cut the steel part of the dash to make room for the outer A/C vents.  It was quite an ordeal.  Since it was involved, I'll write it up here.  I bought some OEM vents on eBay.  I then spent a very long period of time trying to come up with paper templates that would follow the contours of the vents.  I then used the templates to figure out where on the dash they would have to fit in order to be flush.  These are 3 dimensional shapes and I was counting on the fact that the paper would fit "flat" on a curved surface.  I was off on the passenger side by about 1/2".  That had to be repaired by welding.  On the driver's side I was able to make the hole close enough to target.

Here is the template taped onto the dash ready for the cutting to begin:



I started by drilling a few holes and then switched to a Dremel tool that appears to be no longer produced - the Trio:

https://www.dremel.com/en_US/dremel-press-releases/-/asset_publisher/rSeHpKK9sJI4/content/new-dremel-trio-makes-do-it-yourself-projects-easy-and-efficient

I worked my way toward the edge of the template like this:



Finally, I got close enough that I would start test fitting the vent housing to see how I was doing:



Here is en example of test fitting the vent:



Finally, the vent fit snugly as it was supposed to:



Here is the resulting finished hole:


I have the templates still on my computer if anybody is bold enough to try this conversion.  I think I could fix up the passenger side template to get close to the ball-park.  Still, the process does require a lot of careful test fitting.

Cheers, Edouard