electrical troubleshooting
I took the seat and carpet back out to finish up wire removal in that area, so I've got more room to work in the foot well now as a result. It sure is a head scratcher when you follow along wires that do nothing at one end, only to get to the other end and have them be the only wires on a connector. There must have been a lot of non-US options that these cars were wired for.
A) The smushed grommet (from where the car was hit previously) was putting extra pressure on the main wiring bundle. That would be worth trying to get straightened out.
B) There's a little black lever on that big white connector to the right of the fuse box. When you press down on the lever, the connector pops out. I had to free up the firewall grommet first to relieve pressure on the wires, however. With the connector out, you can see it's definitely a stock mount on the side of the fuse box.
C) With all that extra stuff cleared out of the way, I found what looks to be the source of the clutch pedal rubbing issues: the fuse box wasn't pushed in all the way. The bottom is sticking out ~1" from where it's supposed to be bolted down. Hopefully, I can undo whatever the P.O.'s did that made them unable to push it back in; might take some finessing. Then I can clean up some wiring and, fingers crossed, have no more interference with the pedal.
Last edited by t2d2; Oct 29, 2016 at 04:17 AM.
I felt like I had a small amount of parasitic drain still, so I ordered a battery terminal disconnect switch that arrived today for properly testing the sneaky draws. I haven't installed it yet, but after cleaning the grounds, adding fresh dialectric grease, and securing the majorly loose one, it's a big improvement in how much more eager the car is to start up. It went from mildly lagging to instantaneous. If that holds true after sitting for a day or two, I'll be ready to call the parasitic drain solved.
I didn't really get anywhere definitive with the clutch pedal / wire rubbing. The two smaller harness bundles I was able to tuck up and over, and tie wrap to the pedal stop. The biggest of the three bundles (that go through the wheel well) with the big white connector discussed previously, is a real bugger. Its wires have to be directed down otherwise they hit on the pedal arm. But, directing them down, there's nothing to wrap them to. So, I massaged them in a downward direction as much as possible and have pedal clearance now, but I'm not overly confident they'll stay in that position permanently.









