My dad came over Saturday to help me with some stuff on the Ghia. On the list was: Figuring out why it wasn’t starting, fixing the automatic choke, checking the idle, and some other minor things.
I had replaced the solenoid a night or two ago, but she still wouldn’t start. I had been told that the solenoid could be disassembled and cleaned, but guess what: it can’t.
I checked a few things, and it seemed like the battery wasn’t putting out enough juice to crank her over; only 10 volts when the key was turned to the “on” position. I dug out a rusty old battery charger (and cleaned out my porch closet in the process – anyone need a pair of ‘88-’91 CRX doors?) and hooked it up. After charging a few hours, she fired right up.
We ran up the street to get a battery for the dwell tach and see how things were faring. She was running strong, and the idle was fine when the tach finally decided to turn on.
So, the first step in figuring out what was going on was fixing the generator light. We fiddled with the bulbs and sockets, but with no known quantities, it was hard. So we wheeled up to the good people at Oval’s Motorsport in Federal Way to pick up some bulbs and parts. I got some aluminum tubing for the heater channels and air filter, a quick shift kit, and… oh yeah, the bulbs.
So, we tore apart the gauge cluster and got one more of the speedo lights working- prior to this, the only lights which worked were one speedo light and the oil warning light. We got the generator light working, and to our dismay, it stayed on when the generator was turned on.
We checked the wiring diagram. A previous owner had mixed up the wires from the regulator/coil to the generator and autochoke, wiring them backwards.
Unfortunately, this fixed neither the choke nor the generator. But the generator is the last piece in the puzzle of “why doesn’t my car start?” I’m getting a temporary replacement tomorrow, which I’ll use while I rebuild mine. And a new element for the autochoke, which should take care of that problem. In the meantime, I can get around town during the day without trouble.
