'95 Formula M6

[willismoons]

you got a deal man, clean looking ride

[97firehawk]

What a deal that is a nice looking car

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[Bull]

Thanks, guys.

The car has just been sitting in front of my barn all this time. I don 't get much opportunity to work on cars unless I am on vacation. The good news is that I have a two-week vacation that begins this coming weekend. I am going to put a battery in the car, look at the FSM, and start troubleshooting. Hopefully it is something straightforward to fix so that I can put the car on the road in time for spring weather.

I don't tend to have much luck with car projects being simple or straightforward, though!

[Bull]

Today is the first day of my vacation, so instead of spending any spare moment doing schoolwork, I am able to peck away at some projects.


I got a new Exide battery for the car. After installing it, the car wouldn't even try to turn over and there was no solenoid click at the starter. I tried a few times with no luck. The voltmeter read only 8 or so volts, but the battery is fresh and I even put it on a trickle charger overnight. I started testing some other electrical things, like the headlights, and tried to start it again. Remarkably, it actually did start.


It ran for about a minute. It smelled like it was running rich and perhaps vibrating. Then, it died. Subsequent attempts to restart it failed at first, but after a period of perhaps ten minutes it did start again, but only ran for a second before dying.


The SES light is on, as is the "Check Gauges" light. The airbag light came on a few times.


In poking around the engine bay I began to see that perhaps the car has a divided history. It might have been owned and cared for by someone who was careful at one point, and then at another point by someone less careful. The #5 plug boot was not on the plug at all. There is something like sticky blue gum or putty mushed onto newish looking Delco plug wires to keep them together. One end of the negative battery cable has frayed, broken strands and lots of green corrosion on the exposed copper, more than the below pic shows. There is electrical tape on a couple rubber hoses. Unwrapping one, I found a large split, so the tape was obviously to combat that. There is a vacuum line on the PS of the intake that is plugged by a screw, and one on the DS that I think goes to the Optispark that is plugged with a bolt. The plastic battery cable junction is not attached to the fender well. These point to a history, perhaps a recent one, of less than careful maintenance.


I have an OBD 2 scanner, but this car has an OBD 2 port w/OBD1 computer. My scanner will plug into it, but can't communicate with the vehicle. I know there are workarounds to this, but don't yet know the best solution. I would like to see what codes it is throwing.


The guy I bought it from did not tell me it would start and die, just that it wouldn't start/run at all, so I am glad to have heard the engine run. Why it runs as described above, I don't know. I have a full set of FSMs for the car that I will start going through. If you guys have ideas, I'm all ears.


























This is the harness that the vac line on the DS that is plugged with a bolt goes to; I believe if I follow it it will go to the PS of the Opti.

[95albinobird]

i got this it works to get the codes and has a cool dash screen when you use your laptop
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111122693329...84.m1439.l2649

[Bull]

i got this it works to get the codes and has a cool dash screen when you use your laptop
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111122693329...84.m1439.l2649

Other than that disc and cable, what software did you need to download? My laptop is too old, but I do have an Android tablet.

[95albinobird]

Other than that disc and cable, what software did you need to download? My laptop is too old, but I do have an Android tablet.

no software just a laptop if you look at the disc it works with from with every thing from xp thru win 8.the android app is not free i think it's like 29.99 and you still need that cable.1 thing for sure is is prolly the cheapest and most readily available way to scan a obd1 car with the obd2 ALDL.

[Bull]

Oh, that's pretty cool. So if I borrow my wife's laptop and have that cable and disc, I should be good to go?

[Injuneer]

There is a link on this site to a free download of software written specifically for 94/95 LT1 OBD-1 scanning. It was written by a member here (GaryDoug) who can help you with any download/install problems. The thread with the link also has info on cables, as low as $20.

[95albinobird]

There is a link on this site to a free download of software written specifically for 94/95 LT1 OBD-1 scanning. It was written by a member here (GaryDoug) who can help you with any download/install problems. The thread with the link also has info on cables, as low as $20.

can you put a link up to that thread?