06-09-2009, 12:36 PM
toward the beginning of the 6th annual paso robles socal/norcal fun run i developed a few odd symptoms:
sudden addition of severe vibration in shifter
loss of power, but not severe
rough take off from a light with some slight surging
stalling coming to a stop
oil temp gauge pegged most of the time
i pulled over to inspect - i pulled the front cover off of the belts to find the balance shaft belt sliced in half longitudinally - i cut that, removed the pieces, and buttoned it back up - ok - that explains the vibrations, power loss, stalling, and all that
the temp gauge though still had me perplexed - it is an electrical gauge, and nowhere near the belts - why was it pegged? water gauge was fine - engine seemed cool - the natural thing to do is assume the failure of the belt and the gauge were connected somehow, right?
wrong!
finally yesterday i got the car in the air to start preparing for new belts and resetting the cams - i yanked the lower pans off to get to everything and poked around to start to figure out what was going on with the gauge - wire looked intact
i yanked the gauge and checked power and ground - perfect - that left the signal wire - visual inspection showed nothing, but it was still pegging as soon as i turned on the key - back under the car i go - this time i pulled the wire through the clamp i had down there to hold it still - i found a crimp in the wire - AHA!
sure enough, as soon as i straightened out the crimp, and got it away from the clamp, it went back to normal - it was grounding out on the clamp, even though the clamp was rubberized - i will install an insulator and guide tube there to prevent that
so, even though the symptoms developed simultaneously, they had nothing whatsoever to do with each other - no belt bits made it there - there was nothing that happened that got to that spot - it just chose that particular time to short out
moral of the story: sometimes things just happen - never assume that 2 things are related - just because your car was fine before it went into the shop, and now it does something weird, does NOT mean the shop had anything at all to do with it
sometimes 2 + 2 = a duck
sudden addition of severe vibration in shifter
loss of power, but not severe
rough take off from a light with some slight surging
stalling coming to a stop
oil temp gauge pegged most of the time
i pulled over to inspect - i pulled the front cover off of the belts to find the balance shaft belt sliced in half longitudinally - i cut that, removed the pieces, and buttoned it back up - ok - that explains the vibrations, power loss, stalling, and all that
the temp gauge though still had me perplexed - it is an electrical gauge, and nowhere near the belts - why was it pegged? water gauge was fine - engine seemed cool - the natural thing to do is assume the failure of the belt and the gauge were connected somehow, right?
wrong!
finally yesterday i got the car in the air to start preparing for new belts and resetting the cams - i yanked the lower pans off to get to everything and poked around to start to figure out what was going on with the gauge - wire looked intact
i yanked the gauge and checked power and ground - perfect - that left the signal wire - visual inspection showed nothing, but it was still pegging as soon as i turned on the key - back under the car i go - this time i pulled the wire through the clamp i had down there to hold it still - i found a crimp in the wire - AHA!
sure enough, as soon as i straightened out the crimp, and got it away from the clamp, it went back to normal - it was grounding out on the clamp, even though the clamp was rubberized - i will install an insulator and guide tube there to prevent that
so, even though the symptoms developed simultaneously, they had nothing whatsoever to do with each other - no belt bits made it there - there was nothing that happened that got to that spot - it just chose that particular time to short out
moral of the story: sometimes things just happen - never assume that 2 things are related - just because your car was fine before it went into the shop, and now it does something weird, does NOT mean the shop had anything at all to do with it
sometimes 2 + 2 = a duck