82 wagon possibility - not running

[rlaggren]

I'm corresponding w/a lady selling an 82 wagon that's been sitting in a field for several years (rainey winters, light snow) and is missing the fan. Might spend a day to look at it next week.

She bought it very recently and has no prior history; moved it with a flat bed to _her_ field(!) Says the cosemetics (exterior and interior) are good and the electrics seem to all work. A friend replaced the water pump (on general principle?) and pressure tested the system. She says it turns over (don't know if they trashed the starter and GP's...) but doesn't even hiccup. Pics are indeterinate but she will take a couple more - says there are small dents on RF fender and hood but all doors, gate and hood work properly. Says no rust....

From reading here looks like it could be fuel delivery and/or IP belt. Is it "easy" to loosen one of the injector lines somewhere and see if the IP is trying to work? Any easy way to supply the IP from a small bottle of fuel?

I'll try to look underneath, jack up wheels and see what moves and what it sounds like. Does the E-brake release operate manually or does this car use some kind of vacuum release?

How big a battery does the thing need to turn over well and how fast should it turn? Is it possible to jump start these cars or is the amp draw too large for any set of cables? Is it a big job and do I need any special sockets or other to do a compression test on all cylinders (assuming proper gauge)? I'd like to be thorough but I only have about 4 hours or so.

Any other things to look at?

Thanks, Rufus

[asavage]

[I may have broke my L thumb -- will have x-ray'd t'morrow. Can't type.]

From reading here looks like it could be fuel delivery and/or IP belt.

Good guesses.

Is it "easy" to loosen one of the injector lines somewhere and see if the IP is trying to work?

Yes, use two wrenches. At the injector. Pick one.

Any easy way to supply the IP from a small bottle of fuel?

NO! Only filtered fuel!

Could supply fuel to filter inlet. Use the filter head's hand primer to verify fuel presence.

Does the E-brake release operate manually or does this car use some kind of vacuum release?

Completely manual. Proper park brake functioning is necessary for the Wagon auto-adjusters to work at all.

How big a battery does the thing need to turn over well and how fast should it turn?

Large. Not an Exide or bargain battery. Search on "Interstate".

Is it possible to jump start these cars or is the amp draw too large for any set of cables?

My experience has been that you must have a good, not-fully-discharged battery installed, w/clean, good terminals, to jump-start an LD28 that has been run recently, and if it's been sitting, you'd better install a good battery. You cannot start it on jumper cables alone.

Is it a big job and do I need any special sockets or other to do a compression test on all cylinders (assuming proper gauge)?

Not a big job, but special tools, yes. Easiest w/my low-profile 90° adapter I made for my SD, but works on LD too -- I tried it out a couple of months ago on the '83 Wagon. Can be loaned (is in BC right now though).

Any other things to look at?

Make certain juice to IP solenoid wire w/key in ON. See this post and the IP solenoid wire pic it links to.

[rlaggren]

Al

Sorry to hear about your thumb. Had my own problem there 5-6 years ago - haven't worn a pony tail since!

Thanks for your comments, much appreciated. Buying over distance is something of a dance with one chance to look and decide, then move the vehicle out before (parts of) it gets sold again. <g>

How did you make the right angle adapter? Part of an air tool w/the connector brazed(?) on. Very pretty. Do you recall what the smallest clearance is for a GP? Maybe I can figure something out what will work; don't think I have time to borrow yours, but what a great offer.

Hope you get pretty nurses!

Rufus

[asavage]

Sorry to hear about your thumb. Had my own problem there 5-6 years ago - haven't worn a pony tail since!

Seems to be just tissue trauma. I can use the hand again, it's just a really ugly color and very sore, but I can type and I'm right handed anyway Not fun to wipe with the off hand -- I broke my right wrist (and other things) in a head-on collision at speed with a full-size Chev PU, me on a Honda motorcycle, in 2000, and it took some getting used to.

How did you make the right angle adapter? Part of an air tool w/the connector brazed(?) on. Very pretty.

I spec'd it, had a local machine shop do the work (took two tries to get it right though). As soon as I get it back from member after-oil, I'm going to have a second one made, since I'm renting/loaning it out so often these days.

It's a std Parker male hydraulic fitting (to mate to the hose) welded to some round bar, which is then threaded for the Parker female hydraulic fitting to accept the GP adapter. However, I did order the Parker fittings five at a time, from a liquidator, because I couldn't buy them locally or anywhere close, for love nor money. McMaster-Carr has them too, for a bit more money. I got a good deal on mine and probably paid less than $20 for five male and five female parts. I bought extras in case the machine shop had to wreck a few to get it put together; in the end, they only blew one of each.

Do you recall what the smallest clearance is for a GP?

'fraid not. I've used it on two SDs and one LD. I took notes on which adapter to use on which GP hole on the LD, but I don't have them handy. AIR, it required three different adapters to cover the whole engine without disconnecting anything except the GP bus and the GPs themselves. Fortunately, I have all the adapters

Hope you get pretty nurses!

In my case, wish for handsome docs, but I appreciate the sentiment anyway Since I don't have health insurance, I am very reluctant to hit the ER for something as minor as a broken finger or thumb, because they can't really do anything for it anyway: reduce swelling, immobilize; that's the std procedure for those kinds of injuries. In this case, I got off lightly. I flattened (and I do mean flattened, not merely squished) my left hand a few years back by getting it caught between the top of a trans crossmember and the bottom of the top section of a cee-channel Buick frame whilst the car was on a giant forklift at a JY (the forks weren't under the frame entirely, one was actually supporting the car by the engine pan, so when I removed the trans crossmember fastener, the engine/trans/crossmember went up -- or the car came down, whichever you prefer -- and my hand was on top of the crossmember!) -- unless you've seen it, you have no idea how flat a hand can be, when you squeeze it hard enough I thought I was going to lose half my hand, and it all healed up perfectly within a month, no x-rays, no ER. I did YELL quite a bit at the time, I'm not ashamed at all to say.

[rlaggren]

> ... three adapters to cover whole engine...

Well, looks like no compression check. Can't figure it all out in one week already scheduled 24/7.

> ... doctors...

To each his own. <g> The kids I saw handling patients while I sat around for 2 hours made me decide beauty = competence!

I ripped the fleshy ball off my left thumb trying to push a 12,000# sailboat off a concrete break water. Damn lucky that was the only damage. Plastic surgeon cost me $3000 at the pauper's rate. I ended up with a piece of my palm on the end of the thumb; took 3 weeks to feel human, 6 months to get some use back and year to get back to more or less normal. What really annoyed me was the paramedic (big guy in blue uniform) backing off and telling me "DONT unwrap that and spray blood all over ME!" Sheesh. We got a problem needing attention here - what the heck do you get PAID for?

Bet the JY dropped a big brown one when you started yelling. <g> Bet they don't let people work on a car on a fork lift any more. <G>

Cheers, Rufus

[asavage]

. . . beauty = competence!

Agreed -- when it's your blood leaking out, priorities shift!

Bet the JY dropped a big brown one when you started yelling. <g> Bet they don't let people work on a car on a fork lift any more. <G>

Literally a Ma & Pa operation. She's since died and I think they folded, but nobody seemed all that concerned. Ferndale, Wash. is not that large of a town and small-town operations tend to take these things in a less litigous frame of mind.

I could have just as well have dropped the whole thing on my foot, so the danger was the same, IMO. I was grateful that they brought the whole thing up to standing height, rather than making me grovel under it. And it was very cheap -- right up until I dropped everything on my hand!

[HowlerMonkey]

My last injury was a maxima manual tranny landing on my hand.

At the U-pulls, I usually bench press the tranny and slide my body out while holding it against the tunnel.

Then I usually get it low and yank my hands out to let it fall a foot to the dirt at the junk yard.

All was fine until it came time to yank my hands out of the way and I got my skin caught on a heat shroud which kept one of my hands under the tranny where it got thumped but didn't break.....luckily.

Yes....stupid but a lot easier than lugging a jack around a junkyard.

[asavage]

A few of the JYs here actually furnish contractor wheelbarrows (you trade your car keys for the use of them; they want them back), which you can use to bring a jack in, though I think they frown on jacks.

When I was 20, I was pulling a muffler off an Olds, and it came off the pipe while I was pulling on it at arm's length over my head while on my back. I had no leverage, and the thing dropped to the pavement with my hand around the seam bead. Broke the end of a finger beyond the last joint. Had to immobilize it for weeks. Hurt like hell.

[rlaggren]

Just to finish this up.

I looked at the car but had to pass - the day before I wnt to look, I was notified the garage I'd set up was still full of junk for at least aother month. I was on my way to Chicago for a couple months and couldn't work around it. I think it got a good home and somebody made out good. Car was staight except for a couple very small bender dents, no rust, interior intact except for dash (deep slash), glass good, electrics good, all chassis parts complete, engine complete (I'd misunderstood about the fan - it was just not installed when I first asked), etc. The car was completely restoreable. Engine was indeterminate - I had very limited time to do any checking. The local white hat said he cracked an injector line and got no pulse; I checked voltage to the IP, and on a discharged battery it was still 9 volts when cranking. The guy said he'd felt the IP belt throught the inspection cover and it was still on, but he hadn't tried to check it further.

I heard the lady who bought it had a boy friend with the same car so maybe somebody here already knows all this. <g>

Cheers, Rufus

[odie]

you should buy it anyway just to save it from crank pirates....

well, I guess it depends on how cheap you can get it too.....