bavarian06

thx! trip out, the spring actually mounts against the steering wheel? wouldve never guessed that. i thought it was pressed against the padded horn button.

Does anyone know how to put back the horn button? I took it apart in haste and now can't remember how to put it back together. Does the spring go between the two metal rings or is it flush against the actual rubber circular horn.

that's what i shouldve done, bought a beater and modify and drive it to my hearts content. speaking of the Boss, the new ones are out. Drool.... tempted to trade in my M3 for one. get some proper torques

I think I put 2500 annual miles as well. I'm thinking of picking up a '87 widebody 911 as my other DD. I have more fun driving old cars than my newer cars ('06 530i and '08 M3).

I'm torn if I should keep racking up the miles on my Z. I have a late '70 with just 108K miles, everything original (clutch and engine). A clean non-rusted car with zero accident history. I recently installed BRIDE bucket seats and boy does the car come alive. I had a hard time cornering cause I would slide around in the seat. Now with the proper seating position, spirited driving is so much more rewarding. Regardless, wanted forum members view on this subject. Do you drive it or is it a garage queen? What's everyone est annual avg miles? I plan to drive it to the MSA meet in April, I better lay off the miles until then.

phew, crisis diverted. i'm happy to report back the car starts out without an issue now. been driving it daily for a week now, trying to gain my confidence back in the car. nxt maintenance task is all the ignition wires, distribution cap and rotor, spark plugs.

im looking at the photo and its between 14 and 15, say a 14.4? good thing i took photos. i can upload it if needed. i never pulled it to be tested, want to avoid the work.

here are my readings: 1) 12 volts 2) 13 volts (my engine idles really low, near 600rpm) 3) 15 volts so this means my alternator is ok yah?

hi everyone. after a long hiatus, i finally got to work on the car this weekend. i di-electric all the terminals and replaced some of the wiring. when i first reconnected the battery i noticed none of the dome lights were on. i tried to crank the engine and absolutely nothing happened (thinking my battery drained some how). but sure enough, after leaving the key in the ON position for about 5mins, the engine finally started (what's the EE definition of this?). i was so happy to hear to her fire up. i didnt get a chance to test the volts with the meter but i'll do that soon enough and report back. dave, is that the gauge thickness of the wires? 9.5mm? i used 8 gauge monster speaker wires as replacement (not sure if that was ok). the largest spade connectors i've located were 6.3mm.

i have those brass and copper metal brushes. is it better i clean it up or just replace them entirely? i noticed the wire itself started to turn green a little towards the end, like what happens to copper when its exposed to water or oxidized.

the two white wires are pretty burnt and corroded. is it ok to just cut off an inch off the ends and re-clamp new female connectors to it? i really want to work on the car now but i have an upcoming race this sunday i have to prepare for and then the following weekend i have surgery. i'll keep everyone posted on the voltage meter readings.

front of fuse box: rear of fuse box: spade terminal: turn signal: headlight switch:

i appreciate the help steve. but you dont have to trouble yourself to great lengths, though i appreciate it. issues like these puzzles me and i always like to find out why (i'm very curious in nature). this is exactly what happened last friday night: i had parked the car at 2pm and didnt drive it again until 6pm (dinner plans). i guess the car had cooled down too much and was struggling to fire up. instead of using the choke cable to feed her more gas, i blipped the throttle instead. what happened after that seemed be the sound of the car back-firing and the engine cuts off. i restart the car and but notice a more apparent noise from the accessory relay in the process of cranking the ignition switch. the car re-starts, i turn on the headlight switch to first level, engine stays on, switch it to second level (headlights on), engine cut outs. i repeat the process over again and sure enough, everytime i switch the headlight stalk to second level, engine cuts out. i was tempted to drive without the headlights but i figure i better not risk it (friends were calling me from the restaurant telling me to hurry at this point). i started to poke around the wires. since the accessory relay was making a lot of noise, that's where i first started. i found the female spade connector on the verge of snapping off on one of the thick gauged white colored wires. without much force, the spade connector snapped off from the wire while i was checking for its integrity. i tried to mend the connection with what i had in my garage at the time (hence the mickey mouse job). i was so confident that would fix it but the engine still wouldnt stay on with the headlights on. i canceled my dinner plans and ended up tinkering with the fuse box (none of the fuses were blown or distorted) wires cause i was trying to see where the bundle of wires from the firewall were leading to. after the tinkering, the engine wouldnt start period. out of frustration, i banged on the dash, and sure enough the headlights came on and i was able to start the car. :stupid:

good observation. you are correct, initially the engine will cut out once i flicked on the headlights. after doing a quick splice and connect with what i had (reconnected the wire near firewall), the engine would only turn on when i was able to turn the headlights on.

Next baffling thing is: being able to turn on headlights = being able to start the engine. Why? The car died numerous times while I was tinkering around with it last Friday. Everytime I was able to get my headlights to turn on, I knew I was able to start the car.