BUILD THREAD 1981 Camino 4 Speed Friday Night Build

[ssn696]

First, do you have power to the fuse panel? Obtain a light-up diagnostic probe looks like an awl with a clear body and bulb in it, plus a long ground wire out the back with an alligator clip (or something similar). Cheap from the Depot or Harbor Fright.

Put the ignition in the 'on' position (do your gauges and idiot lights come on?) and pull the fuses one by one and see if you have power on each one. Put the fuse back after checking for power.

If several of them are dead, you might have a blown or damaged fusible link. There are two loop terminals that bolt on the starter on top of the hot battery cable terminal. They have a short length of lighter gauge wire that act as a fuse if a big load shorts. Upstream of the fusible link, these hot wires (red, 10 gauge) go up to the firewall in the big corrugated plastic harness, then into the back of the fuse panel.

 

[JBsCamino]

That sounds like a great method to start. I'll try that in a day or two.

Been reading online a lot radiator options. F- body, vs champion, vs x. Will try to pick something soon so I can reinstall this Friday.

Its a 1981 so it should have an ECM, but where is it? It looks like a computer controlled dual jet, but I don't see the computer....

It did have an EGR, but there was no vacuum tube hooked to it so that might be a problem. I don't need to pass emmissions so I might just make a block off plate this week.

Is it me or is this a non-ECM distributor already installed?

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20160109_204859-1

• JBsCamino
• Jan 9, 2016

If this is a normal vacuum advance distributor, I already looked and have a non ECM dual jet from my 1980 229 Malibu that I saved 10 years ago when I switched it to a SBC.

 

[81Regal]

The ECM would be in the passenger side kick panel. It does look like a normal vac advance distributor, Is that a connector behind the vac advance that's not connected to anything?

 

[JBsCamino]

Yea I have a single round connector that isn't going to anything, and I have this dual connector that is slightly melted that is unplugged. Here is a closer pic.

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1

• JBsCamino
• Jan 9, 2016

If I swap on my non ECM dual jet and not reuse the vacuum temp control switch, air cleaner temp valve, etc.....do I just hook up the vaccum advance distributor to the back of the carb, hook up the PCV and charcoal canister to the big one on the front and then plug the rest?

Its a 1980 carb, but it looks like someone already converted it to electric choke.

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2

• JBsCamino
• Jan 9, 2016

 

[81Regal]

It's been a while since I've looked at a early V6 distributor but the 2 wire connector looks to have connected the distributor to the ECM for the advance. If there is a purple wire on the single connector that would have gone to the O2 sensor.
My 79 has a small 6 in it I can take a few pictures of how the vac lines are run.

 

[81Regal]

Not sure if this helps or not, this was when I brought the 79 home.

 

[JBsCamino]

Thanks. That does help a bit. I didn't get to work on it much yesterday other than to quick walk out and remove the kick panel to find the ECM. Going to try to remove the ECM wiring harness this week all together in an effort to clean up the wiring.

If I can this week I am going to scout a you pull it just to see what might be there in G bodies.

 

[JBsCamino]

Swapped on the old dual jet today. Figured out where the needed vacuum goes to for the distributor, pcv, and charcoal canister, and plugged the extra ports. Sprayed some ether in the carb and she fired up! Ran it for around only 30 seconds since I didn't have a radiator in there, but it ran none the less.

Pulled back the ECM wiring to the firewall, and now at some point just need to undo the inner fender to finish getting rid of it.

Settled on an F body radiator so off to Autozone to get that.

 

[JBsCamino]

Got some done on it before starting work this morning, mostly electrical. Pulled the fuses out of the fuse box 1 by 1 to check for voltage at the box and ohms across each fuse. Everything checked out fine. Just by doing that the wipers magically work now so maybe there was some contact corrosion. Same with the blower motor. The blower motor itself wont turn on, but when I move the blower speed control I hear clicks, and I checked and I have voltage at the blower so I guess I have a bad blower motor.

I checked and I have voltage up at the dome light. The bulb looks burned by has 1 ohm of resistance across it and looks to be attached by a thread of wire. I am guessing it is still bad and will pick one up when I go pick up my radiator today.

That basically solves all of my immediate wiring problems, except no dash lights which I haven't investigated yet.

Pulled out the inner fender to remove the ECM wiring but didn't get it finished. Started to pull the wires out of the conduit and found a bunch of electrical tape, wire splices, and stripped wiring. Some of it looks to be part of the ECM wiring, other might be going up to the header panel.

Pulled the battery to get the inner fender out and found the battery tray all rusted out so there's another thing to add to the junkyard shopping list.

 

[JBsCamino]

Visited my preferred junkyard today. It was as I feared and there was only 2 gbody cars in the whole yard. The good news is one of the two was a malibu. Was more of a scouting mission so I didn't have too many tools. Only was able get the windshield pillar trim. The door panels were too torn up. If some is looking for a set of seats, it is a bucket seat car. The seats need to be reupolstered but they are good cores. It was hit in the front, but it is a manual brake, non a\c car. Right now I have one lead on Craigslist for a non a\c set up, if it is incomplete or too expensive I will grab this one, and I will go back and get the manual brake master cylinder and plate.