Picked up a new addition to the family yesterday. 88 Vert. Not perfect, but pretty clean! Now I still have a 7 to drive, while I fix up the SE (body work/paint/etc).



The twins...

Both 88's

 

Nice. Looks just like mine. How much did you pay? How many miles?

 

$2300. 178k miles. Engine was supposedly rebuilt 40k ago. Dealer I bought it from took it on a trade. Said the owner got it from a "restorer" that fixed it up a while back (probably at the same time of rebuild). Top seems to be new (or newer). Interior is in great shape. It has S5 tail lights, the newer rubberized radio surround, and some other "non original" things.

Engine bay is extremely clean and many of the under hood parts seem new. Has a bit of a rough idle until warmed up, so need to inspect the TPS, idle adjustment, and I wonder if the thermowax is bad. New plugs probably wouldn't hurt.

Electrically, the only things I can find wrong so far are the passenger window switch and the headreast speaker controls seem to be dead. It also has a bit of a shimmy at 65+ mph, so need to look into that. Feels like right front. The front tires are pretty worn, so I may just slap new rubber on, see if a re-balance will solve it. If not, then check alignment I guess.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased. I think the 178k miles scared folks off, but I've got 251 on my SE

I'll take some more pics when I get a chance. The pic above was literally 5 min after I pulled up to the house from getting it.

 

I'll probably end up posting a new thread on this, but if anyone has any tips on troubleshooting this, please share. I've searched, and as usual, I get nothing or everything under the sun on my search results. I'll search some more before begging for help

There simply seems to be no power to the panel (at least no lights indicating "power on"). My elec mirrors were dead too, but a new fuse for the cigarette lighter fixed that. Haven't checked the rest of the fuses, but there doesn't seem to be one specifically for the headreast speaker controls.

 

I have 2 extra window switches. I thought my pass side was dead but it was the lock on the drivers side not unlocking the pass side. I can send you a pass switch if you'd like?

 

Ha. I owe you a beer! Read your post and thought to myself... "I wonder if..."

So I went out to the car, rocked the lock switch back and forth a few times, and bingo! now my passengers can play with the window

Thanks!

 

Cool. Glad it worked out for you.

 

yeah the fuse for the headrest speakers is behind the drivers seat under the wind panel. You have to unscrew the whole piece back and lift it out and you should see the small amp and a fuse mounted under there.

Nice vert though looks good and clean,

 

Thanks for the comment

On the fuse, man not sure if I'd have found that right away. I skimmed the FSM and don't recall ever seeing that. Although how many times have we looked for something in the FSM and found it the 2nd or 3rd time through

Thanks, I'll check that out when I get to it. Need to get my idle right first.

 

Very nice vert. Enjoy the wind in your hair. Get that SE going. Two is always better than one.

 

SE is running great. Just needs dings fixed and paint. Actually, right now, it runs better than the vert. vert has idle issue. Not looking forward to diagnosing that. Hopefully, it'll be easy to find. I think it's air starved (running pretty rich at idle).

 

Think I found the root cause. Amp seems to be AWOL. Looks like someone tried to remove/bypass it. Speaker wires twisted together w/Black tape where the AMP used to be

The thought of having speakers there appeals to me, but prolly a lot of hassle now.

 

Thats weird, it really is a cool option you never see in too many cars. Shouldn't be too crazy to rewire it, there are a lot of good wiring diagrams in the FSM that should help you get it up and running.

 

maybe the amp blew and the guy tried to wire the speakers direct? prolly never know. think it would be worth trying to round up an OEM amp, or try to figure out a way to wire up an aftermarket amp? may install an aftermarket head unit, so I'll have to explore my options. I agree with you... don't see speakers there very often. I've seen a few threads on wiring aftermarket head units/amps in verts, so must not be straightfoward. Guess I'll put that on my "to figure it out" list