DeTomaso Mailing List: May 2001, Message #91

Greetings Goosers and all!

I no longer have the capacity to generate a "mailing 
list" so you Goose people will need to keep an eye on 
this forum and save/print my postings from here. Until I 
find a better mail program anyway....

Updates on my problems with the Goose, on the way home 
from Vegas.

Oil pan is still history, but it's not leaking at the 
moment.....

Tech issue!
Fan problem: Fans (heater and radiator) would operate 
with the ign. switch off. This should not be so.  There 
are two grey Carello relays adjacent to the fuse panel, 
located under the carpet in the auxilliary trunk area 
behind the driver. Inside relay is for the fans, outside 
is presumably for the headlites. Neither relay appears in 
factory wiring diagrams!
My fan relay had ejected it's contents and had jambed the 
contacts closed, causing my problem. Case is plastic and 
had heated up and warped, tiny screws pulled out and the 
problem happened, perhaps due to stuff in the luggage 
well pushing against it.....

Put contents back in relay housing and installed two ty-
wraps around the outside to keep this from happening 
again in the future.  After jostling this around, I found 
the relays inoperable again! Strange, as I had just bench 
tested the one and it was fine.... had 12V..... no 
ground!!!

DeT made a serious mistake here!!! You will all want to 
check this out and make recommended changes.  DeT 
installed relays right over insulation padding. Middle 
screw holds a wire eyelet on the white wire with black 
stripes. This is the ground wire.  Problem is that after 
30+ years, the insulation compresses, screw rusts.. no 
longer do you have a good ground connection!!!

I recommend installing a couple of star or toothed 
washers on both sides of the eyelet and then install the 
screw and tighten it down good. Rattle both of the other 
mounting screws by loosening and tightening them several 
times to gain new connections to ground as well. Doing 
this should dislodge any rust and hopefully create good 
paths to ground at these points should the center one 
ever go bad again.  You'll have three points of ground vs 
one shaky one!

Last but not least, I believe my hard starting problem is 
due to incorrect coil voltage in the "run" position.  I 
think I have 12V there, when it should be more like 8V. 
(I need to investigate a bit more.) My coil had 
apparently boiled out some of it's internal cooling 
oil..... and was very hot to the touch when I was working 
on it the other nite.  I have replaced the coil as a 
precaution, but now need to recheck the wiring.

The plus terminal of the coil should have 8V in the run 
position via a resistor wire, or an external bypass 
resistor.  During start, this wire or resistor should be 
bypassed and the coil supplied with a full 12V (or at 
least battery voltage) during cranking for a good strong 
spark.

My symptom was continuous cranking with no fire..... 
until I let off the key. (plus the spooged out oil...)  
It's possible that the wires on the starter solenoid are 
reversed somehow, and I will go back to the wiring 
diagrams to see if I can figure it all out, and report 
back to youse all on what I find!   I've heard Pantera's 
with this problem too!  

It was hot in Vegas, and the heat took it's toll!!!! But 
I still had a blast and would do it again in a 
heartbeat!!!

Regards,
Steve