camerons_dad

Hi, just picked up a nice 88 Turbo II as a project car for my son and I to work on (he's 14 but a gearhead at heart). I’ve owned two rotaries in the past, a 73 RX-3 and a 04 RX-8 always loved the smooth revving power and sound.

This car has been parked for 4 years, wiring & electric issues caused the PO to put the car in storage. 137k miles, virtually no rust, all stock except complete Racing Beat exhaust, air-pump removal, and cone intake filter.

So the ignition switch failed (cold solder joints) and in an effort to get the car home the PO installed an on-off switch and a momentary start switch the day before he parked it forever. Problem is he grabbed power from the wrong leads of the ignition switch bundle and overloaded (melted) the harness wiring. It’s not entirely clear to me if his temporary “fix” actually got the car to run or not but in either case we were able to remove the stock ignition switch and fix that pretty easily. The harness will be a different story.

I’ve got the Hayes manual and also found this link http://www.nopistons.com/fsm/s4wiring.pdf . It’s a little difficult to see but still the best I’ve found.



Thanks for the awesome site, the info here is unbelievable…

Donald Cox

would like to know how it runs after sitting once you get electrical fixed..Donald

camerons_dad

Ok so red and black wires in connector F-21 on pages 50-71, 50-75 and also on page 50-115. Does anyone know where the other end of these wires go?

They disappear into the front harness and I have no idea from the service manual where they come out the other end?? Maybe it's because it's hard to read or maybe I'm not seeing the harness schematic like I see in other manuals?

Thanks!!

satch

iTrader: (1)

The Black wire runs to ground point #11 which is located behind the instrument cluster along w/other grounds. The Red wire runs to connector FI-02 which mates the front harness w/the instrument harness and the connector is located close to the interior fuse box in a plug w/many wires and the connector is side by side w/another connector of equal size.

camerons_dad

Satch,
That's awesome, will let you know what we find tomorrow.
Were you able to figure that out from the info in the nopistons.com link or do you have a different wiring diagram?
THANK YOU!!

satch

iTrader: (1)

Same diagram. The Black wire drops to the bottom of the diagram to a horizontal line. To the far left of the line is an illustration of a car. This represents a ground. The line also has an 11 in a circle which tells you what ground point it is. There is a diagram of all the ground points at the very top of your link. The Red wire shows to be tied in with two other Red wires related to the Brake light. The Red wire runs upward in the diagram to a connector labeled FI-02 which mates the Front and Instrument harness together.

camerons_dad

Good news, the red wire seems to still be intact and not shorted to the surrounding wires only the ground is toast. Easy enough-to by pass that by just disconnecting and running a new wire to the chassis ground under the cluster.

camerons_dad

Quick update, got the ignition switch & wiring working, tried to crank engine with dash still removed. The car dam-near started! Fired several times but never caught and idled. Didn't like the 4 year old gas though, smelled like varnish. Need to drain tank and clean out pick-up sock.

Since then Cam put all gauges back in and dash back together without my help and now we're back to a no crank situation. I can still hear the fuel pump and get slight fuel smell even with no crank. So I pulled the EGI fuse to try to diagnose the no crank situation and the AC condenser fan now runs whenever the ignition is on and the EGI fuse removed!

Pretty sure the fan running only with the fuse removed indicates something under the dash is either not hooked up or connectors are in the wrong spot...

satch

iTrader: (1)

Go to the Starter Cut Relay located next to the Main Relay. This relay has 1 plug w/4 wires. W/key to start and clutch depressed the thicker Black/Green wire must have voltage ( relay has two B/G wires where one is quite thin while the other is a thicker gauge). Does it?

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

One thing to check since your son put the dash in.
There is a Relay under the steering column that has a yellow connector,That is Fuel Relay.Make sure it is plugged in.

camerons_dad

satch,
Yes, Starter cut relay has voltage while trying to crank on both the black / green and the black/ white so apparently it's not cutting the start circuit.

Just to be sure I also tried temporally bypassing the relay by jumpering across the black / green and the black / white.

Still no crank.

satch

iTrader: (1)

Between the relay where the B/W wire has voltage and the starter there is an intermediate connector between the two. If you check for voltage where the B/W wire connects to the starter and there isn't voltage when there should be then the problem lies within the intermediate connector or the voltage which runs from the battery to the starter is problematic.

camerons_dad

As usual it's the simple things get you. Loose & corroded battery cable at the starter. Cranks now! Thanks for the trouble shooting help.

Draining full tank of vintage gasoline now....

Lots of oil leaks under this thing entire underside of car is dripping.

camerons_dad

It Runs!!

Really reluctant to start at first, starter fluid got it going. Once kicked off it ran pretty decent, wouldn't idle till warmed up but happy just to hear it running smoothly.

camerons_dad

Starts right up warm or cold now. Took it for a short ride around the block a few times last night. Seems to run and drive good brakes are extremely spongy though so never got out of 2nd gear.

We did a warm compression test after the test drive. Rear Rotor 80 - 80 - 85 psi Front Rotor 90 - 90 - 95 psi. Seems marginal to me. Do the turbo motors have less compression than NA?

More concerning is the disappearing coolant. Exhaust doesn't smoke except the occasional puff after revving, and doesn't' smell like antifreeze. Any easy test to see if coolant seals are blown?

Car does have 137,000 miles on it prior owner seem to thing the motor has never been rebuilt.