sprale

The entire car is done in black matte chalkboard paint. It gets covered with graffiti daily, washed away when the rain comes. Austin is a fairly creative city, lots of art cars here.

I'll snap a photo pf my buddy's GL. He painted it with black matte paint, plates read "CHALK" and he leaves a bucket of chalk on the hood in the parking lot at work.

GD, everything else seems to work properly; lights, radio, starter, windows, mirrors, horn. The fan controls don't seem to work, but I'm not sure if it did originally. I'll take a handful of photos and post them in a bit. Bill, I appreciate it. PM on the way.

The fusible links display zero at 2K ohms. All interior fuses are okay.

Dude, happy birthday, get out and enjoy it. The Soob will be around to keep me busy. I'll try your suggestions and post back. Until then, enjoy it old man!

GD, I get nothing testing between the coil and the battery. Testing the coil I get: @ 20k ohms ~12.50, nothing at 2k ohms I appreciate you helping out on this. Funny thing, it's raining for days solid after almost 2 months of drought in central TX, radar looks clear up in the NW :/ So I'm working on the Soob instead of riding the motorbike today... -Levon

Here's the vacuum advance unit ports. I'll follow your tips, GD, but I need to pick up a few feet of vacuum line first. I appreciate it! I'm not extremely experienced with electricals (my strengths lie elsewhere), but I can follow directions well. I borrowed a volt meter, what am I looking for?

Great idea! Anyone wanting to donate to the GL fund, send me a PM! I may actually swap out the carb later. For now, I'm not getting spark at the coil, so I'm going to swap it out for a spare and see if that works. I also see two vacuum ports on the disty vacuum advance unit, but they weren't connected when I got the car. I can't tell where they should go from the manual, I'll add a photo later. I think one port may go to the intake manifold. Also, where does the EGR vacuum line end up?

I'd love to have the extra cash to throw at it, but don't right now. I've seen Webers on eBay and heard lots of good things about them. The carb is finally back to where it should be, now I need to work on getting spark. I have a spare coil, I may also need a disty cap. It's rainy this weekend, so I'll probably spend some time in the garage with some Shiners.

Nice one GD. I have a 2000 Infiniti i30t (Maxima sibling) and love it.

I recently tore the engine down and replaced all the gaskets and a few other parts. Actually, it's been a project with little time dedicated until recently. It's back together now. I'm just sorting out some electrical issues.

Here's the carb from below showing the modified base to fit the manifold. Maybe this will give some indication of it's origin. Here's the holes for the two plugs I forgot to reinstall, done now. Next it's on to the electrical to see why it's getting no spark.

I've finally sorted out what I did wrong, minor goof. I forgot to put the plugs back on the bottom of the carb, hence the fuel dump... I'm more excited at the ability to crank it over again after being in parts for so long. I've been feeding fresh fuel into the carb this afternoon with no results, yet. Still no fire (no spark), but I'm working backwards now. Got it on the charger to make up for it when resting. I'll post some pics of the base of the carb and the intake. The carb is modified to fit. Thanks again for everyone's input and guidance. I really appreciate it! A second baby (son) due in November means little money or time for the Soob, but I refuse to scrap it. With proper funds, I'd love to turn it into a GL-10, but nothing other than practical work is going to be able to be done to it for a while...

Reminds me of an article at Jalopnik about a turbo Colt that overpowers its own transmission. The video shows it's clutch making better time than the car!

I had loaned my ramps out that weekend. It's in my garage now, just took it off the jack stands. Hopefully it'll be sorted out enough in the near future to be moved under it's own power again. I'll take the carb off and check to see what I missed. This is the first full carb rebuild I've done on a car, I'm generally working on bikes. I don't think it can be mounted 180°, as the alternator is too close. It may be an EA81 intake and carb, but I wouldn't know the difference, this is my first Soob. I'm just happy to have it back together and able to crank over again. Sorting out carb and fuel issues is nothing compared to the work done already.

This is how I got the car, none of the original FI parts came with it. I have a buddy with a proper FI '88 and know what it should be like, but don't have the money to fit the FI again right now. It's an extra car, so I'm not relying on it either.

I posted some videos and photos to my site. For the fuel issue, it's leaking out of the two holes under the glass port. There's also an odd sound coming from maybe the fuel pump?

It's been a while, but I finally found time between two jobs and family time to put the Soob back together. The engine went back together well, but the carb took a while to rebuild. There are quite a few wire connectors going nowhere, mostly from the original FI and AC systems. I'm really happy with how it turned out so far. This is the most intensive tear-down and rebuild I've done on a car. I'm usually working on motorbikes, two wheels is more fun for me. I'm currently not getting spark, I'll run through the ignition/coil/distributor later. The first issue is that the Hitachi is dumping fuel out the underside. I'll post a photo of that shortly, I can barely see where it's dumping.

Full disclosure: I don't lift weights. I'm a tech guy. I don't work out at all. I tried to pull the short block by myself, that hurt a bit. I was able to rotate the block in the engine bay, allowing access to the oil pan. That ended up being the primary source of the oil leak. The old cork gasket had broken down over time. I guess 20 years is not bad. All the bolts felt barely hand-tight. Having managed to re-mount the engine to the tranny and motor mounts (that's fun! ), I lightly mounted the cylinder heads, I need to find a torque wrench to borrow or rent for tightening the heads down. I keep looking at the various hoses and wires strewn about the engine bay, wondering if I'll remember where they all went before I tore it all apart...

I dig some of your fixes, made me jump a bit when I realized what I was looking at. Reminds me of my old Tercel in school. I've been spoiled by vehicles that start, run, AND stop for too many years and am looking forward to getting my '88 GL on the road.

Anyone around here done any EA to EJ engine swaps? I have an '88 GL with a carb'd EA82 that I'm putting back together. The body is in great shape for its age, so I'll keep it either way. If the engine ends up being less than reliable, I'll probably look at a FI EJ-series engine. I've heard that there's an adapter plate to mount to the EA tranny. Any other major issues to consider? Any completed swaps with long-term impressions?

Maybe with the heads off I'll try muscling the block out and on to my work bench. It'd be easier to get to there anyway... I'll let ya'll know if I pull my back instead of the engine! :eek:

The Soobie does sit much higher in front after some of its bigger bits have fallen out in the garage!

I'm not sure I understand... I have a come-along, but how did you set up the rigging?

I don't have a hoist... Thanks for the tip!