hgeranium

My truck has factory AC and at some point in the past was converted to 134A. It’s leaked Freon since I’ve had it. From what it looks like it’s just the service ports. I can fill it up and it seems like the majority of it will be gone in a week. When it’s full for those first few days the truck will cool but it really isn’t the most effective. I have no idea how old the expansion valve and accumulator are. The compressor is dated 2008. I wanted to hear about how cold I should be expecting a converted system to be. I understand it won’t be as effective as R12 but I’m assuming something has to be wrong. The compressor itself doesn’t make any noises in the clutch engages just fine. Can anyone with a thermometer or thermal/temp gun and good working 134a AC tell me what degrees they’re getting from the vents? I will have to get a little thermometer to check on my own but just so I have a baseline

This is the CTS for the gauge on the dash specifically. It doesn't provide any information to the ECU IIRC; that's what the CTS on the block is for

Are you going to paint the doors, the rest of the truck, or leave it as is?

Probably an AW4

For what it's worth... This DIY solution worked beautifully. I had tons of water leak in from the tops of both door seals when it rained or when I washed the truck. Sticking that poly rope in between the metal and the weather stripping fully eliminated that leak source and also cut down a ton of the wind noise. This is a great solution if you don't want to potentially change the strength at which you have to close your door with new WS. 5 minute job with ~$2 of poly rope from Wally World. Also, for leaky vent windows I stick two quarters in between the window and the latch to hold it a little extra shut and it works great. The bottom swiveling rivet thing broke on both of mine so mine need a little extra help staying fully shut.

That looks great!

That makes a lot of sense. I'm sure my new head unit sounds so good because of the amplifier. I'll pick up an amp and give it a try on this 173

This has been invaluable information, thanks so much! Now you have me really excited to have a period correct head unit in the truck again

I would message Minuit personally, but he seems to have been inactive for the past 6 months so I will ask here. In 2022 I installed a Pioneer DEH-S4220BT in place of some old crappy 2004 aftermarket radio. I have zero complaints; it works great. However, a few years ago I pulled a relatively nice RX-173 from an XJ in a pick-n-pull. I love how it looks and I love the idea of being able to play my cassettes in the truck. I know it's gimmicky and bluetooth/streaming will always be convenient, but nothing else about daily driving my truck is convenient so it will make it a little more fun popping tapes in there. I could always swap back if I don't like it as well. For those running stock radios, how is the sound quality compared to a modern unit? I understand it will be worse but how much worse are we talking? Is it worth the look to revert to a stock stereo if it means downgrading in sound? I also just hate the bright blue LED that my new radio has. The old radio that was in there had some terrible compression issues too. Just switching the radios made the audio sound like I swapped the speakers. The sound was way more crisp and waaaay louder. With the old radio, I could barely hear it on the highway at max volume. I'm worried that the RX-173 will bring me back to that but worse considering it's about a decade older than the other unit.

First things first, great cupholder Pete lol. Do you have a writeup on doing this? How big of a difference does putting the tweeters on the door make compared to the factory location?

Not sure how many parallels to the subsequent Rocky movies there are with Hard Times, but I loved them so this movie sounds right up my alley

After deleting social media again, I've been watching more movies. I've been on an 80s and 90s classics run lately. What are some of y'alls favorite movies?

Yes. I always have it on comfort. I did switch it to power for a bit and it definitely down shifts more aggressively, so the switch is still definitely working. It’s not super serious it’s just annoying how long it takes for it to upshift now when I never had issues with it before

For the past few days the battery hasn’t been hooked up while I diagnosed and fixed my starter issues. Now that I’m driving it the shifting patterns are very different. It’s up shifting much slower or not at all in times where it always would in the past. I know this is an old transmission but it’s still pretty advanced for its time, does it have a working memory that gets wiped like many newer transmissions do with the battery unhooked? Instead of shifting to fourth gear it will just stay in third at about 2000rpm a lot of times. It’s not a big deal but with how gas prices are makes me cringe when I see that

Fixed! I was really expecting this truck to make me go down a rabbit hole of following and fixing wires and grounds, but thank the Lord it was just the starter. The starter I pulled off had a Mitsubishi made in Japan sticker, so I bet it was the original. It starts like a completely different vehicle now. Perfect timing too because this is officially my only vehicle again for the next month.

I figured I might as well post a video so yall know what I’m dealing with. With the fact that I’m back to square one in terms of it just slow cranking again, I guess all I can do is wait for the relay and starter to come in and just install them for peace of mind at the very least. With how the starter sounds, it sounds less like that’s the problem more like a relay or ground but we will see. I tried the relay testing in that PDF and I couldn’t get anything to work. I’m not sure if it’s my crappy multimeter, I’m doing something wrong, or the relay is so far gone I can’t get any solid readings. side note: silver lining of all of this is finding that damaged C105 connector and fixing it plus my quartz clock suddenly works again! There was some ground cable that went to the firewall that lost contact with the negative battery terminal. Once I fixed that up I noticed the clock is back.

Wow that PDF was a wealth of info. In testing the headlights dimming upon turning the key, the truck suddenly started to crank! It took forever but I actually got it to fire off. At this point I feel pretty confident that it has to be the starter with that slow crank.

C105 wires are fixed. Starter relay was cleaned. The soonest I’ll be able to get a new starter relay in from anywhere is on Friday. I tried shifting into gears back-and-forth to see if it was the NSS. I also hit the starter with a hammer. Still no luck. My only possible lead other than potentially wasting $150 on a starter is that one of the terminals on the relay seemed more burnt/corroded than the rest. They really can’t be that much more causing a no crank, right? It either has to be the starter, starter relay, the neutral safety switch, or the wiring somewhere within all of those. does anyone have a good writeup on jumping the starter on a renix 4.0? I would like to try that before I buy a starter to make sure it actually starts. At least that way I can get around in the truck as I try to fix it.

Quick update. I found a nick in time video looking at the starter relay and I think I might have a very solid lead. One of the wires is supposed to send a signal from the relay to the starter. Specifically the green one first column second row. Testing voltage on the terminal should net 12v upon turning the key. I’m getting a cool 0.4 volts! I suppose there’s a very good chance the relay just went bad and I just had very unfortunate timing with everything else. I’m going to try to source one today but I may have to order it online

It looks like my mystery connector is C105. Page 90 of the harness views in the electrical manual states it's "engine to alternator". I don't think this alone would cause a no-crank, but will certainly cause charging issues so I must fix this anyways. I don't even hear the relay clicking when I turn the key. After I cleaned the grounds but before I messed with that connector, the truck still cranked and started but still was as slow as before. It was only after tracing the solenoid ground up to this connector that my jostling of it broke 2 of the wires and it stopped starting entirely. Since C105 seems unrelated to the starting procedure, I'm worried that I broke an important wire SOMEWHERE in the harness which means I'm in for hell in trying to find it. I'm not even sure where to start looking for relevant wiring. I suppose I just need to cut the loom open and look at all the wires for a break. I hope I'm totally wrong and this connector is indeed related to starting and it will at least return to slow crank after I patch it up.

New toy acquired. This should make the wiring process much easier. One of my biggest pet peeves with wiring is using the crimpers that are in the handle of wire strippers. It was always so awkward and half the time I never got a thorough enough crimp to hold the wires. I know soldering is better but I don’t have the skills nor time to learn right now. I at least got heat shrink butt connectors which is better than just a crimp by itself

Woah good pickup! That definitely inspires me to fix that connector right. I just hope it’s those 2-3 exposed wires that are the problem and I don’t need to open the loop up for the remainders. That would explain why there’s not even so much as a click when I turn the key.

Alright I’ve calmed down. Being n the sun and having that happen right before I had to go to work really put me in panic mode lol. I have my plan of attack for sure. Remove and test starter. Buy wires, heat shrink connectors, and a good crimpers. Properly rewire the connector regardless if it’s even related to the starter. I pray that the starter is just bad because if it’s good and that connector is not related to the starter, then I have no idea where to go from there.

Welp. I found what was causing the slow crank but it is now unfortunately evolved into the starter not cranking at all. I cleaned the grounds on the starter. Then I traced the ground wire up to the battery and I saw it go to this flat five wire connector. Once I unplugged it and messed with it, the truck did not even crank. I noticed there were a few broken wires. I’m not sure if this is even related to the starter, but it’s definitely not good. I tried Jerry rigging them because I don’t have the tools or wiring equipment to do it right now, but I had no luck. I’m worried that there’s also a break somewhere in the harness. It’s also worth mentioning that when I first started, I accidentally arced my wrench on the starter ground because I stupidly forgot to disconnect the negative terminal. It could very well be that I fried the starter and I just happen to notice the broken wires now.