MR HYDE IS COMING TO LIFE

[Dr Jkel]

December 14, 2011 Wednesday

Idiot did not want to do the right thing...imagine that....he kept telling me he wanted the truck back...That is NOT an option.

I will be collecting all my evidence in the next few days, getting paint and body estimates and a few other things that my lawyer requested and we will move forward. So for now I will not talk about the legality of what we are going to do, just know that I am pushing forward.

The lawyer did tell me I could continue to work on it so that is a good thing.

Matt had an emergency repair of someone who ,I think, was from out of town and he didn't get finished until late so we did nothing on my truck mechanically.

So I deided to clean it...I know wasting time but in all honesty it was good I did. I didn't wash it rather I used alot of Adam's Polishes to kind of clean it. It had alot of dust on the truck and figured it can't hurt.

Well when things are clean areas really show up well....especially if they are goofed up. They whole truck feel like sand paper....I believe it is overspray.......I did clay one little section to see if it would come off and it did but is not worth claying at this point since it will have to be repainted.

Besided the chips, scratches, and different colors it looks pretty good.

I then started on the motor....boy this is going to be a challenge and I definitely will have to increase my detail tool variety.....There are alot of crevisis to get clean...They is one place on the intake that I could not clean...it kinda looks like the chrome was stained by either a leak or something....but again except for the scratches and dull places in the chrome the motor looks pretty good.

It is supposed to rain for the next few days but maybe Saturday will be clear and I will get to take it for the paint estimates....of course on a trailer.


I have also decided to fix everything I can mechanically, the way I want and then have it painted............

[Dr Jkel]

December 15, 2011 Thursday

The evening started with great promise...Weather was about 65*, very slight breeze...and all was right in the world........

Matt arrived and we installed the ground cables...didn't take too long....we checked everthing with the meter and wham....the truck started ran great

for about 45 seconds...........
So we hooked the scanner to see what was going on.........

A little background for those who do not know...if you have electronic fuel injection many things come into play...voltage, sensors performing correctly, grounds etc.........

Before we had a proper ground the scanner would only show a few parameters.....but now that the ground was installed we got to see all of the parameters.

Now I really don't know all there is to this but Matt does...something about an open loop and closed loop. So what he saw on the scanner was that the
O2 sensor was showing RICH when it hit a certain part of the loop. This cause the computer to lean the motor to correct the richness....thus causing the motor to die. Seems real simple right? WRONG.

So Matt unplugged the O2 sensor to see if it was working, rather disconnected the wires from it.........Guess what it still showed rich???:( How can something unplugged still show rich since there is no feedback to the computer?

The truck has a custom center console that was made out of metal.....Most all of the main wiring is behind it. We take out the glove box and instrument cluster so we can have a look.

The first thing we notice is that it looks like a rats nest behind the instrument cluster, secondly we see about 8 different wires that are just hanging....looks like the wires came out of their connectors

What we were trying to determine was to see if the wires were hooked up correctly from the computer to the O2 sensor........what we found was a mess.

So basically what we determined was that the shop had the same issues of running....pushed up the fuel pressure to 90psi so that it would run enough at idle to get by, thus causing the plugs to foul, run like crap and sound like it had a great big cam......

We decided to take a break from this part and did a couple of other things. We adjusted the rear suspension so that it would sit level...the rear has coilovers..........We finally got it level and something is wrong...the right coilover has about 2" of threads showing and the left has about 1/2" showing........so we will have to figure that out.

Then we decided to look at the fuel filler neck since it leaked like cheese cloth. After we removed the filler neck it was quite obvious why it leaked......the welds looked like bubble gum, and there were so may pin holes it wasn't even funny..... not to mention the angle of the neck wassuch that it just kept pushing fuel back out the filler instead of letting it go to the tank........We took lots of pictures.

So heres the deal....it must run correctly before anything else is done. It will not run correctly if it is wired wrong and it seems that we are chasing this from the wrong end.... So we have formed a plan

I am going to remove the complete interior, back down to the cab floor. I am going to get a wiring diagram from Street and Performance and we are going to chase wires

We will check to see if the computer is hooked up correctly which I am sure at this point it is not....Then we will make the proper connections. Once we get the motor running we are going to re-do the wiring under the dash.

They did not put a connector on the instrument cluster so we can't full remove it without cutting wires.......so we will do that as well. We also noticed that the speedometer is not electronic and has nothing to do with the transmission...so we will adjust the speedomter settings so that will work but I have to get an instruction manual from classic instruments........


So it seems that I truly am going to really take this thing back a part because at this point it seems that nothing is done correctly and when it comes to wiring it is better to be safe than sorry.

[PeeBee]

Well... definitely wouldn't take it back to the shop then, proceed with legal actions, and once that's done: name and shame the shop. They don't deserve any better.

[Dr Jkel]

Originally Posted by PeeBee

Well... definitely wouldn't take it back to the shop then, proceed with legal actions, and once that's done: name and shame the shop. They don't deserve any better.

No he will never get his hands on this thing again And that is the good part.

I am in the process of getting all the onformation I need to process this.

I have to get estimates and Professional opinions on the status of the truck.....The only problem is that since the vehicle is not drivable it is really hard to get estimates on paint and body work...most shop owers will not come to my house and give me an estimate. So I have to kinda wait till I can at least get it running to get paint estimates.

[Scrappy Doo]

Everyday I read the new posts here and hope that your updates will have some ray of good news....

It just sickens me to know that the guy that did this runs a business.....

At least you have your truck back and can start making progress in the right direction.

[Dr Jkel]

Originally Posted by Scrappy Doo

Everyday I read the new posts here and hope that your updates will have some ray of good news....

It just sickens me to know that the guy that did this runs a business.....

At least you have your truck back and can start making progress in the right direction.

Scrap...you are so right....it makes me sick, I get mad etc......everytime I work on it and find new things.

Except that the truck has 2 different colors and has a tone of chips and scratches, the motor won't run properly, the electrical is jacked up, the tranny doesn't work and the thing vibrates like a tank it's all good

Yes I am kidding about it being good. BUT I have resigned myself to the fact that I have to fix it, with the help of Matt, and it will have to be repainted. If there is a good thing about it is that I will know exactly what is in the truck, I won't have to worry about it leaving me stranded or catching fire, losing a wheel at 70 mph or something falling off the truck and it ending up hurting someone. AND at least I know for a fact that everything that is getting done now is done correctly.

It could be a simple as one of the eight wires that were dangling behind the dash will make it run right....but based on the looks of what I am seeing I will check all the wires.

[PQ]

Originally Posted by Dr Jkel

.......the thing vibrates like a tank ......

I can't believe you put those Savinis on the truck.

[572HP]

NOBODY cares about making your truck right like you do. I don't always know how to do something, or am the fastest at it, or am the best at it, but I know that I can figure it out. In the end, you will be more knowledgeable about your truck, and you KNOW it is right. It may take you longer, but who cares? The satisfaction in the end will be worth it. I have a big issue with trusting anyone, which is why I would rather do it myself if I can.

I can't wait to see this thing when it is all done, and done right! I've always wanted an old truck like this.

[Dr Jkel]

Originally Posted by PQ

I can't believe you put those Savinis on the truck.

Ya think? Funny thing is they made the paint 2 tone and the mechanical stuff not work

Originally Posted by 572HP

NOBODY cares about making your truck right like you do. I don't always know how to do something, or am the fastest at it, or am the best at it, but I know that I can figure it out. In the end, you will be more knowledgeable about your truck, and you KNOW it is right. It may take you longer, but who cares? The satisfaction in the end will be worth it. I have a big issue with trusting anyone, which is why I would rather do it myself if I can.

I can't wait to see this thing when it is all done, and done right! I've always wanted an old truck like this.

You are so correct...the only issue I have with the whole thing is I paid a shop to do this......from the vehicles I saw before he started I know he can do quality work...he just didn't for some reason and he tried to throw something together in the end to make a showing.

But it will work out....my HOPES are that by my Birthday 3/22 or my Uncle birthday 4/22 that I will have it finished......irregardless of the legal system.

[garcmol]

Well, on a good note, don't worry about your coilovers. That's not uncommon that one side is higher that the other or shows more threads on one side than the other. Measure from the bottom lip of the wheelwell down to the bottom of the rim (wheel). If that's the same and the truck is level you're good to go! Your travel in the coilover will stay the same regardless of the difference in the ride height. Gotta love coilovers!!

When you say rat's nest, was there literally a rat's nest there, or just a mess of wires?

[Dr Jkel]

Originally Posted by garcmol

Well, on a good note, don't worry about your coilovers. That's not uncommon that one side is higher that the other or shows more threads on one side than the other. Measure from the bottom lip of the wheelwell down to the bottom of the rim (wheel). If that's the same and the truck is level you're good to go! Your travel in the coilover will stay the same regardless of the difference in the ride height. Gotta love coilovers!!

When you say rat's nest, was there literally a rat's nest there, or just a mess of wires?

No it is not actually a RAT's nest but the wires look like a rat made them...it is a jumbled mess to say the least.

[Dr Jkel]

Saturday December 17, 2011 " The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"

Today started with great promise.....I had talked with the maker of the fuel injection system and the tech rep was working this weekend and we had him on speed dial.

Matt brought every known tool to man to get this thing running and diagnosed right and we figured with the tech rep we could diagnose everything over the phone. Fix any little issues and we would be set.

Thats what we figured.....we were right and wrong at the same time...........

When we talke with the Street and Performance tech rep he had us do several little things like checking voltage at different areas of the truck, check ground at different points and THEN we started checking vacuum at different points.

It became quite evident that something was wrong because we were not getting the readings we needed.

A little information......... The truck had a custom center console made and it was made out of metal and painted, behind the console speaker enclosures were made for the rear of the truck.

The tech rep wanted some information about the MAP sensor and the computer...Well first we had to find it........Guess where it all was? Yep, under the console and the only way to get to it was take the console out of the truck.

So we hung up and told him we would call him back.....2 hours later we had the console out and what a mess were we looking at. I just thought that the under the dash wires were a mess....not a chance......This was even worse. More on that later..

So we find the computer and Map sensor and call the tech rep back of course we had to do the silly ground and vacuum test.....The computer was not properly grounded and the vaccum hose to the MAP was a 3/8" hose...Problem is that it needed a 1/4" hose so it was kinda getting a half reading since it was leaking.....So we get a new hose, ground the computer properly and call the tech rep back........We could get it to stay idleing put the numbers from the scanner was not correct.....( I have no clue about all that but I am learning)

The tech rep put us on hold for a few minutes and pulled the order from when this sytem was bought ( 3/25/10 more on this later) When he returned he told us that we had the wrong tune for the truck and no matter what we did it would not run correctly.....The truck was tuned for a 350 and not a ZZ383/425 and this was the reason all the reading were off so bad... How can you not order the proper tune?.......

So the tech rep tells us to look inside of the computer and the plug in chip should have some writing on it and it will be labeled........and it certainly is but it has a label of 5/10/10 ( More on this later.)

We do a few more things to check the tune and WHAM the bendix in the starter goes out..so no more crankining now until THAT is fixed...At this point we are dead in the water until the starter gets fixed.

We talk with the tech rep a little while longer identifying wires that were not hooked up and Matt found out all he needed to know. The tech rep said the tuner would be back Monday and he would send us and updated tune to re-load in the computer.


Now to the wiring, computer, MAP, Tune and a variety of other things.......

The computer and MAP sensor was placed in such a manner that you basically have to diassemble the whole interior just to get access to it, it was also placed within inches of the coil that was mounted inside the cab.....Right in front of the computer and coil was a hole in the firewall that was 2 1/2" and another hole above it that was 1 1/2"..........The big problem with this is if I had ever been caught in a rain storm, ran through a mud puddle or really washed my truck and tried to clean the engine compartment I would have flooded the computer and coil since it was not sealed off.

We traced wires and realized that nothing was really hooked up like it should be.

Remember the dates I gave you of 3/25/10 on the order and 5/10/10 on the computer well this is really interesting since I bought ( Paid for ) this in 2003....Wonder what he was doing with the money I paid him for this 7 years ago....not to mention that when the system was bought all the dates should be the same.....order date and computer date should be the same so either I got the wrong computer or the something fishy is going on here.

After talking with the rep from Street and Performance about this I asked him several question about how all this could happen and he informs me that every order that leaves Street and Performance is saved WITH PICTURES so that a customer can not say that they did not receive something...Very interesting.......SO they have a picture of everything that was sent to the shop alog with an invoice.......You wanna guess what I am getting sent to me?

So realizing that the wires were a complete mess, and the complete mess this whole thing has been I lit it on Fire...........No not really but I wanted to. Then the process started of un-doing the entire wiring harness and starting over.....Oh it gets better.

[PeeBee]

I can only hope you'll wake up from this nightmare soon...

[Dr Jkel]

Sunday December 18, 2011 " The Good"

Upon realizing what I was looking at, and talking with Matt, my uncle, and another friend I realized that this whole thing needed to come apart.....I base this on not really knowing what has been done, no way to really tell how it was wired, the fuse box not coressponding to where it actually went, the wrong gauge of wires...etc.... you name it and it was wrong.

So we started tearing out , disconnecting what we could and trying to comb the wiring harness so that you could install it in a neat manner.......The first thing I really noticed was that the power windows were wired with a trailer harness.....What is that you might ask...Well if you have ever towed a trailer it is the pigtail at the back of the vehicle that hooks up to the trailer to give it lights, brakes, turn signals etc......I knew right then that I had made the right decision to re-do all of this......

There was not one single connection that was to the correct location, the hot radio wire was going to the coil, the coil hot wire was going to the A/C and the list goes on and on. We spent the better part of the day tearing everything out.

At this point my stomach is in knots just looking at wires strung everywhere, not connected to anything and I guess Matt can tell by the look on my face that I am kinda overwhelmed.......Of course he reassured me everything was going to be OK but I have heard this before.....So then he started showing me how this would go.....Luckily I bought a Painless Wiring Harness and ALL the wires are marked so now we know what wires need to go where. So as he cut wires I untangled them......and this took quite awhile. Finally we have it to where we can operate a little bit but is looks like a spaghetti mess to me.

The Real Good......

Late yesterday afternoon we started putting back.......We got the computer, MAP sensor, the diagnostic port and the check engine light mounted in an accessable place. Yes I had a check engine light under the console...too bad my x-ray vision was not working.

Basically we have started on the passenger side of the truck and we will run everything towards the fuse box and then tie it in.

While doing this Matt asked if there were things I wanted done because now was the time to do it.....So off to the parts store we go......

The truck was not set up for the dome lights to come on when the door was opened, we are fixing that......It was also set up with a center switch for the power windows instead of a switch at the doors...we are fixing that.....There are a lot of little thing we are doing now that I would want to do later like installing foot well lighting ( Thanks Dr Jkel) I 'll have to get him some later.

We moved the check engine light to the dash panel and really placed everything I wanted to the place it would go and we started wiring.

We have the main computer harness, MAP, Diagnostic port, Check engine light, and passenger side power window roughly ran. We ran the new vacuum hose from the MAP to the intake and once we figured out that we had all the correct wires ran into the cab from the engine compartment we sealed the two holes in the firewall so that they are waterproof......

We have to get more wires and correct gauge wires to finish running what needs to be ran.......

Luckily the starter was newer and Matt can have it warrantied for me and it will be changed. The new tune will be coming tomorrow.

So basically we have started over and are moving forward....I feel better now that I know I will not be stranded, or that the truck will catch fire because of the wiring, or that an accessory will burn up because of incorrect wires gauge was ran plus I will know exactly what is in the truck and how it was done in case there is a problem in the future.

We are putting disconnects where needed, re-doing the instrument cluster and adding a disconnect etc... pretty much making it like it should have been. We are also going to do body connections so that the truck can be diassembled when it goes to the paint shop.

So the good news is that we are now moving forward....bad news is we have to do it at all but at least we are going forward.......AND that is a good thing.