Kind of a boring update, because I've been doing nothing but drive this car, and I still love it
.
Even when it breaks down, it has the good grace to do it in my driveway... But more on this in a moment.
To make these:
fit properly, I had to do some of this:
Which was a bit of a learning experience. The guard roller from trademe seems pretty cheap and nasty, but it got the job done. However, not suitable for vehicle with coil-overs and reduced suspension droop. I had to wind the coil-overs to max+ extension to get enough of a gap between the hub and the guard lip to get the roller in there. Will probably cut and shorten the roller for future use I think, as you can extend it while your using it, but its just a tad too long for older cars with smaller arches.
Reading through the factory service manual for an american 2.6 1983 starion, there is mention of a spare terminal being put in the loom for fog-lights. I thought I'd have a hunt for it on my japper, just to see if it was the same. I found one end of it by the parklight/indicator plug on the drivers side. Its a lone, unconnected bullet terminal on the end of a red wire with white trace.
While hunting under the dash, I found this plug:
It seemed to have never been plugged into anything. Testing revealed that the red wire with white trace coming front it was the same as the one found by the parklight/indicator plug, score! There is also a ground wire, a constant hot 12v wire, and a wire that supplies 12v only when the lights are turned on. The manual says these wires can support up to 10A, so will be fine for powering the later model fog-lights my car has without a relay. Ahhhhh, I love it when the factory does most of the work for me! Thankyou for your foresight, Mitsubishi! No ugly added wiring for me! Its even the same plug style as commonly available Narva stuff, so all I have to do it make up a loom, put a switch on the end of it, and I have factory wiring goodness. Will try to find a factory fog light switch, probably from the US, because I like shit like that.
Now, the breaking down... Car made a funny smell the other night (I checked, it was definitely the car, not me). As nothing was smoking/hot/funny on gauges, I kept driving as I was close to home. Once home I shut the car off. I then tried to turn the car back on, and naada, zip, nothing, no dash lights, door lights, or anything.
Had a good chance to have a gander today, and spotted this:
I'm pretty sure they don't look like that from the factory. Must have had a corrosion problem, high resistance = heat, heat = melted plug, plus now and open circuit. When and bought the same style of 'fusible link connector', put a new one in, and its now good as gold. Do love an easy fix
(edited because half of what I wrote made no sense)
