1984 Pininfarina restoration

[Twister]

Q #3: I've tried two different sets of injector seals, the outer seals just will not squeeze into the holes in the intake. I've got it all out on the bench and the outer seals seem to be at least 1/8" too large in outer diameter. Any suggestions?

[BEEK]

the outer seals are just vibration dampers. the lower seal is what does the job, did you get oem fiat seals?

[Twister]

I ordered a set of seals that were supposed to be for my car as the injectors were listed as not having seals. The set I ordered separately were distributed by Beck-Arnley, they are all about twice as thick as the originals, which were dried and cracked. The other set came with the GB rebuilt injectors (again supposedly for my car) and again twice as thick. The new seals will not compress enough when around the injector to fit inside the intake manifold rings, so they do not allow the injector to seat up against the inner seal. From what I've learned tonight, this is a fairly common complaint and I just need to get the much cheaper 30 piece seal kit from Auto Zone at 1/3 the price. Personally, I've had nothing but bad luck with Beck-Arnley parts, I plan to avoid them in the future.

On a more positive note, my ultrasonic cleaner came back from servicing the other day and I need to test it out, so I'll try cleaning the old injectors as Rock Auto does not seem to want to exchange my cores for the core charge. Sonic cleaning worked for my old VW injectors, so who knows...I may wind up with a good set of spares.

P.S. Beek- I finally got the sway bar out today, it should be there early next week.... I am very sorry it took so long, but I've been swamped.

[Twister]

Well, the "Help!" brand injector seal kit worked as advertised, the injectors went in fine and seal well. Now the car runs much better and gets more than 20 miles to a tank of gas. I did have to tweak the idle and timing a bit to compensate for the no longer rich mixture. I slowly drove it to the alignment shop and we got the toe-in set, they were unable to find shims to fit so caster and camber will be off a bit until I get some. The steering wheel is cocked a bit too, which will be fixed when it is re-aligned. I figure I should drive it a bit to allow the suspension to settle in before I get crazy with caster and camber adjustments. I also fitted a stereo into the console; but I still need to get better speakers. The Whoa breaks are a significant improvement. I did find that the brake pedal travel issue was correctable by adjusting the piston control rod. One final break line to swap out (the center one from the body to the axle in the rear), which I'll tackle Sunday. Hopefully I'll get the rear axle seals swapped out soon.

[Twister]

I wound up pulling the drivers side power window regulator and taking it apart to check it out on Monday. I uninstalled the motor and reconnected it to the wiring with no mechanical load, the motor turns well in one direction but not at all in the other. Reverse the wiring and it's the same story in the other direction. So I swapped out the window switch with one I ordered previously.

It was interesting figuring how to remove the power window switch as the connectors pulled out and stayed behind in the dash. I found out that if you pull the window switch and the outer two indicators/switches, the entire bezel slides out easily (at least on 84 Pininfarina's) I discovered that someone had disassembled the original window switch and made a mess of it. They also attempted to work on the dimmer switch. I'll pull it back out and rebuild the circuit board in the coming weeks (to be thoroughly documented).

The good news is the drivers window now goes up and down, but somehow it now goes down very slowly... I'm still thinking of swapping the power window set-up out for something more modern and replaceable. I need to check with Autoloc about their 55000 series unit to see how well it does with the rear guide ending at the door's top. I'll tackle the passengers side regulator one night this week, for now I'm enjoying driving the car now it has a tight suspension, steering and vastly improved braking.

Also, I learned that the drivers side A/C vents were barely connected to the dash. It's held in place by three screws at the top edge which fasten into the bottom of the dash pad. There is also one nut on the side that ties to the top of the kick panel. Anyhow the holes for the three screws were broken out of the thin plastic and the screws had nothing to grip. I removed the vent assembly and epoxied a very thin strip of carbon fiber on the top side (which is hidden when mounted). I've filled the missing plastic on the other side with epoxy and filed it back to the original profile. As soon as I get some dye on it the only tell will be the missing texture (which you'll have to crawl under the dash to see).

[Twister]

All I managed to get done this evening was to install new Hella H4 conversion headlights, what an enormous difference. This was made easy because the '84 Pininfarina already has relays in the headlight circuit. As with any bulb I replacement I gave the contacts a dab of dielectric grease. The screws that hold the retaining ring in place are in rough shape, salt corroded and most of the heads are partially stripped, probably from someone using a #2 phillips screwdriver instead of a #1. They will be replaced when I tear down for the paint job next winter. The headlights appear a bit different as the lens is not as convex as the old GE sealed beam, but at least they are glass and the reflector is much more effective. I'll update with reviews as I get some miles with them. I also installed new headlight rim retaining rings (black plastic ring between the chrome bezel and the body). Now I need the LEDs to come in for the dash so I can actually see the gauges at night.

[Twister]

Installed LEDs in the instruments. I used T10 Superstar w/heatsink LEDs from http://autolumination.com/194.htm (I am not affiliated with them, or any other supplier I have used to date). The heatsinks are supposed to increase bulb life in applications where the lamp is on a lot. Much brighter, another highly recommended mod.

[Twister]

I stumbled across Keys4Classics.com the other week and ordered up a new set of keys cut to the factory code. My old door/trunk key was worn and a bit iffy at times. There are some seriously small cuts in the keys that were worn smooth. Anyway the new keys arrived today from Australia and they work perfectly, all it took was a little PayPal, the code off the old keys, the vehicle model/year and a photo of the old keys. All for just a few dollars more than what the blanks would have cost.

[Twister]

Also, the a couple of days ago the car died while driving down the road... distressing. A few days previously it had lost power and sputtered a bit before picking up again (at about the same time/distance); later the same day the car ran fine. Anyway, this time it died right out and when I tried cranking it over, the car sounded like it wanted to run but died as soon as the starter stopped. Eventually, I must have jiggled the right wire (or enough time passed for something to cool off), because it started right up and ran fine once the excess fuel was burned out of the cylinders. I'm currently leaning towards a failure of the ignition system, probably the pickup if all the other posts are correct. I've got one on order along with a new heater fan and an Accel control module just for giggles; more to follow... I am just a bit disgruntled that this would pop up when everything seemed to be going so well .

[Twister]

Sure enough, replacing the pickup seems to have fixed the stalling issue. I also had a local shop drain and replace the transmission lube. I went with the Red Line for now. The old fluid was nasty, no telling when it was replaced last (the car was parked for nearly 10 years though). The transmission is now making a lot less noise when in neutral, so it was probably a bit low on oil as well. I'm thinking I'll need to crack it open for a through inspection once it gets colder outside.

[Twister]

Because I was asked:

I tried several ways to remove the window switch. Because the connectors do not line up well with the plastic bezel the switches mount in it is difficult to pull the switch from the front unless you are able to pull hard enough to pull the switch off the connectors. What worked for me:
1. Drop the A/C unit to the passenger floor by loosening the nuts on the post and sliding the unit toward the firewall until it drops clear.
2. Remove the two screws on the side cover of the center console and lift the cover up as far as it will go and tip it out.
3. Reach up into the mess of wire and push out the window switch as far as you can (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch) then push out the far left warning lamp and the hazard switch on the right.
4. The plastic bezel should now pry out without too much damage to the wood veneer. The damage visible in the photo was done before I bought the car. The switches actually press against the tabs that hold the bezel in the dash. If you can manage to get the connectors off the window switch or get the switch to pull out further this will alleviate even more pressure and make the bezel come out easier.

5. Remove connectors and pull switch out. You can swap the connectors on the back of the switch to test the motor of the non-functioning window, just be sure to have them in the proper place before you put everything back together.

6. Reassemble in the reverse manner. It helps to leave the power window switch out and reconnect it to the connectors after the bezel is back in the dash.

[wikkid]

Nice work, and inspiring for fellow '84 owners.
Twister, I can't see headlight relays on my '84 anywhere. Where are yours mounted, and could you possibly send or post a copy of the wiring diagram manual insert that shows the setup? I would love to know they are already there, instead of having to set them up from scratch.

On your old Clarion radio, was it hooked up to a big chunk of silver-colored power-amp type of thing, attached under the dash up with relays, ECU, etc, and above the A/C? I have this setup, I know nothing about car stereos - just wonder if that was a standard type of radio back then. The big power amp thing kind of seems to be in the way of the relays and such.

-Chris

[alfadude1]

I was the one who asked...

Twister, thank you very much for the instructions and the pictures. It helped a lot. Once I removed and reinstalled the window switch, everything worked fine. I will order a new switch though because they get "stuck" sometimes and I don't want to burn out the motors.

By the way, have you found the matching carpet for your car? I have the same color and would like to replace them.

[Twister]

Chris -
Yes that sounds similar to my stereo. I believe the Clarion was the original radio for the car, but I am unsure. Somehow I doubt this will ever be a concourse car, but I'm probably going to hold onto the stereo for a while anyway. My amp is silver and black and was sandwiched between the relay tray and the A/C, I'll post pictures tomorrow as I'm about to get started on a road trip. The relays are there, they are mounted with the others, I'll draw a picture and post that as well. I found that mine were not in the exact location the book cited (I've since rearranged them to match the book) I had to identify them by touch. Put your fingers on a couple, turn the lights on and the low beam relay will click, you ought to be able to feel it. Then move the switch to high and the high beam relay will click. According to the manual the Low beam circuit starts at the switch with a gray/red wire that ties to a gray/white wire to the Low beam relay and the High beam circuit has a blue/red that ties to a white wire which goes to the High beam relay. The relay output leads are: Low beam gray/red and the High beam light blue/yellow wire. These wires run back through the fuse block (positions 3&5) with two 8 amp fuses each (left & right low and left & right high) and then to the headlights.

As a side note the new headlights were within the operating range for the relays and fuses, but the relays were old and tired and got rather hot and I started to smell burning electrons, I've since replaced the relays, but the wiring and connectors are all original. I always drive with my lights on and I've logged about 350 miles since installing the new lights with no further problems.

alfadude1- Thanks, glad it worked for you; and no not yet, still searching for the carpet. I've recently learned of a company in K.C., KS that might have it though, I'll keep folks posted.

[Twister]

Not sure about other folks but I figure that it's about right to donate funds whenever I find a solution here, so I'm going to start putting $10 into the kitty for each headache I've resolved with help from this board.