How I got it

I got this car last year in trade for an old Dell laptop. The guy I got it from had sold it to another person for $100. This person had the car for like 2 months and had yet to pay for it. So we went over to repo the car from this person. He was given 24 hours to come up with the money or we were taking the car away. We went to there house 24 hours latter, person wasn't even there. We pushed it out into the street, hooked up some chains and pulled it to my house. That is how I got the car. I was given the title, went down to our DMV to pay the fees. It hadn't been registered for about a year and so I ended up paying like $200 something on the fees.

Shape it was in

Now this car needs work as I plan to post it here. To start with the car has no keys, they were lost a long time ago. The engine has been replaced with one from a wrecking yard and was never hooked up. The passenger side window was I guess broken out to get into the car and then the window replaced. It is not on its track as it is currently at the time of this posting held up by pieces of wood. The trunks latch has been removed so to be able to open it, unfortunately it also doesn't latch at this time.

The car is real clean, as the previous owner had spent some time cleaning it up. Of course thanks to the sprinklers at my place the drive side is now spotted up. This car is pretty much fully loaded. This being a notchback version it did not get the Turbo motor, instead it has to 2 liter Ca20e motor. It has A/C, power locks, power windows, Digital Dash, Cruise, Automatic, AM/FM stereo with tape deck and Equalizer, sunroof, factory alarm system, 4 wheel disc brakes, IRS and that voice warning system.

The engine was just dropped in and bolted up and nothing more. All the wiring and connectors were off to the side. And as I looked it over I discovered that I am missing some pieces to make it complete. First off its missing the exhaust manifold and the dist cap. There's no dipstick and the fan was missing. I manage to get the fan from the previous owner as it was still in his yard as to was the air intake tubing, but no exhaust manifold. I do though have both the original belt driven fan and an electric fan off a Ford Taurus that I may install later down the road.

What I have done so far

I haven't done to much to this car. I have hooked up all the electronics under the hood. I have installed the starter in the car in an attempt to crank it over. I got the missing dipstick and decided to put some oil into the car just to find out that its missing the drain plug. So, made a nice little mess in the car port. I snagged the battery out of my other car just to see what works on the car. The lights work, and the dash all seems to work ok to, radio sounds like crap but that's not to much a surprise as its been sitting for a while. Only one speaker was working. I have heard the fuel pump come on and I didn't notice any leaks so that's one less thing to worry about. I do need to have the alternator checked out as after I hooked it up the battery light stays on on the dash. I may also need a new starter as well, or it could be a bad ground (it Just clicks when engaged).

This is were my car is right now. Lack of money has made it a little difficult to get the remaining parts I need just to have everything there. Then comes the fun part of getting it running. With lots of help from www.club-s12.org, I have found lots of info on my car and several ideas for later projects on the car.

Update April 28th 2004

I went to the local pick your part here in town. I got my missing manifold and some more fasteners. Got new exhaust manifold gaskets as well. Think I figured out the starter problem, apparently you need to connect the positive cable to the starter not the negative cable. It must have been late or something and didn't notice the positive cable sitting down there, and at the time there was no battery in the car. I was looking to make sure everything is hooked up and I found the + cable and I was like WTF!!, no wonder it wouldn't work.

Speaking of the starter, the bolts I found for it were to long. When I was at the yard I noticed that the starter bolts for a manual trans and the ones for the Auto Trans are different, somehow I ended up with the manual trans bolts. Now I should have the right ones and I can get my starter in snug instead of having a little gap.

Installed fan, radiator, radiator hoses and air intake hoses and tubes etc. Hooked up power steering lines to reservoir. Purchased new radiator cap and installed (was missing).

After three different trips to Autozone, I finally got the right cap and rotor for my distributor. There were 2 different numbers for 86. Neither worked, then I remembered that this engine was from the wrecking yard and was a different year. I looked up for an 87 and it used the same number as the late 86. So I looked up an 85, it was different from the first 2 I got, and guess what, it fit. The 84 and 85 use the same rotor, but for some reason it got changed in early 86 and then again in late 86. The cap is the same for 84,85 and early 86. My car is an early 86 built in Dec of 85.

Edit on the missing drain plug, as it is there, just I have a hole in the oil pan from were the wrecking yard drained the oil at, punched a nice 1/2 inch hole in the pan. Now I either have to replace the pan or try to repair it. I was thinking of trying to find the proper size bolt that fits the hole and JB weld it into place.

So now I have it almost back together, I will be reinstalling the starter with the correct bolts and reconnecting the heater hose lines and bolting the support bracket under the intake manifold back in place. Once I get that hole fixed the the oil pan, I can throw some oil in her and crank her over. I will check the engine compression before I go any further. Next I will get some fresh gas and fire her up. Its getting so close to where I can finally drive my 200.

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