Electrical

40 year old wires become rather interesting. Most if not all of the wires become brittle, insulation breaks, and connections corrode. This is especially true for a car with interior leaks like mine.

The repo houses make factory-perfect replacements, but rewiring a car with those can easily cost $2,000! And those still use the old connections and include all the bits you don't use.

So, of course, I went custom.

I started with the Painless Wiring 18 circuit panel, but it's way too big.

Then I got the American Autowire Highway 15 panel and wire kit. Of course, this was after I got several of the special connectors, which the Autowire kit also includes. Oh well. It is a very nice piece, very small, and has good connectors. My only concern is the RUN position has only one small wire coming from the ignition switch, as they assume you'd only run the gauges off of it.

I'll be replacing most of the connectors with Weatherpacks, and doing some minimization and customization.

There are three panels: the normal passenger compartment panel will do most of what it usually does. There will also be an engine compartment panel - using a distribution box from a late model F150 - that will handle headlights, RUN power to the engine area (coil, choke, etc), and a few other small duties. The battery is relocated to the trunk with a few tricks back there, too. A small panel in the trunk handles interior lights, rear parking lights, rear window defroster and the fuel pump.

I'll post wiring diagrams and misc as they come along.

Modernization

Before the Cutlass, I drove a late 80's Cutlass, an 86 Accord, and a 99 Altima. So I thought the Cutlass had everything anyone could want. Then I got an '02 Lincoln LS to be my driver while working on the Cutlass.

Ooops.

So now I'm trying to figure out how to get some nice features, like relays, trunk battery, improved fuses, automatic headlights and wipers, auto-dimming mirrors, heated/cooled seats, etc etc. Just to make things difficult.

One issue with a new panel is that they don't have the huge bulkhead connector integrated into them. So I'm using the weatherpack 22pin bulkhead connector which is available pretty cheap at DIY Auto Tune. 22 wires is a severe limit though. This impacts things like the traditional blower control.

Microcontroller

You can only go so far with discreet components. So I settled on an Arduino Nano from Gravitech, then later switch to an Adruino Micro. This will currently do just a few basic functions - rad cooling fan control, and blower fan control. I went with Arduino because it generates true PWN signals. Some microcontrollers, like the BasicSTAMP, make a wave only good enough to use to make different voltages. They're nowhere near a true PWM. PICs can also be very good at this, but I liked the integrated IDE and library support for the Arduino. And the nano is a very nice little package.

Blower Control

Yeah, I'll agree this is a little nuts.

The stock setup has a separate harness for A/C cars that runs through the large firewall hole. This provides power for the A/C control and routes power from the blower switch back to the blower motor. Yes - in stock form, power goes from the battery, to the starter, up to the main lug, through the firewall to the panel, through the main panel connector to the engine compartment, then back through the firewall to the A/C controls then back out to the blower resistor. So there are multiple large gauge wires running all over the place.

Easy to assemble, but crazy.

Later model cars use a fan controller that uses a MOSFET setup to control motor speed. Basically give in a PWM, it amplifies that into a high current control for the motor, which the motor (thanks to its inertia and inductance) sees as a variant voltage.

I pulled fan controllers from Gen 1 (2000-2002) Lincoln LS's - of course - for this. I modified the outside A/C box to mount this where the freeze switch previously mounted and moved the freeze switch to where the fan speed resistor pack mounted. This controller switches ground, so power runs from the panel box to the motor, motor ground to the controller then the controller to true ground. This one doesn't care much about the details of the PWM. I made a resistor pack from the A/C blower switch to the computer so it gets different inputs for the three slower speeds and makes a corresponding PWM wave. High is a separate line to the motor controller that throws a relay.

Arduino notes from current switch setup:

charging 15.4v batt

reading volts reading volts

712 3.5 v 585 2.8v

280 1.38v 226 1.1v

190 0.95v 150 0.76v

Electric Fuel Pump

This one got its own page.

Cooling

The stock thermo-clutch fan was pretty cool in the 70's, but not so much now. I find it interesting that large trucks still use thermo fans. The biggest problem is summers in traffic with the A/C blower. Back with R12, the condenssor didn't need a whole lot of air to work well. Now with R143a everything needs to work really well. The thermo fan would lock eventually - when the car is getting close to overheating!

My initial plan was to get a Mark VIII two speed fan and do some simple "A/C or warm, use low speed. Overheat use high speed" switching.

Then it got complicated.

In working on my Lincoln LS, I hacked the variable speed electric fan. There's lots of info on my Lincoln vs Cadillac thread about the fan. My thoughts were to use a control method very similar to the LS: speed control is directly proportional to engine temp, with just turning on at the thermostat opening temp and hitting panic around 230, and having the A/C on adds 40%.

All of that will be controlled by the Arduino. It senses off the temp sender and has an input for the A/C switch. Turning on the A/C compressor adds 40% to the fan duty cycle. The fan stays off until about 170 degrees, runs at 40% at 180 degrees, and runs full blast at 230 degrees. The engine appears to run around 190 with this setup, which is OK.

Trunk Relocation

I went for an Optima red top 78. I still prefer the side post batteries. There's an ebay seller that has very trick aluminum mounting plates for these. I got the "slide-in" version and mounted it on the hump right behind the rear seat on the passenger side. Since the car may not be driven all that much, I added a high-amp cutoff switch.

--rant-- Disconnect switches are, generally, junk. The amperage rating is usually very low and the casings are cheap plastic. I wound up with the Flaming River Big Switch. The internals are very impressive - the switch is spring loaded and uses a large steel plate. Good stuff.

I added jumper terminals along the rear of the trunk lip for those just in case moments. For chassis ground, I went through the trunk floor with 2ga wire and tied into the spring tower. I'll also add a body ground back there. The ground wires are just 2ga battery cable from the parts store.

For positive cable, I went to the junkyards and pulled the trunk-to-starter runs from the Lincoln LS. It's easily 15' of high quality 2ga cable with a weatherproof firewall junction. So that runs from the disconnect, under the rear seat, along the passenger side of the tranny tunnel, then up and to the left of the transmission. From there, it's a 1' run to the starter.

I also grabbed the big engine bay distribution cable from the Town Car. More 2ga wire with three large terminals. That will run from the starter to the alternator and engine bay box.

Wipers

Never thought this would be interesting. The Cutlass Supreme has recessed-park wipers which is a really nice look. The motor only has two speeds - no intermittent - and the washer pump is a piece of junk. The cheap methods of doing intermittent end up going through the entire park cycle each time. Hah!

Detroit Speed and Engineering has a very trick Select-a-speed Wiper Motor kit. It's pretty expensive for what it is - the motor is a dead-stock late 90's early 00's GM unit, and the switch is a pretty basic multi-position switch. So for the standard wiper crowd, it'd be pretty easy to do this mod for far cheaper. The recessed park makes it difficult, though. DSE made a custom mounting bracket that has a cam to control the park function, which means the intermittent works properly.

And since it's the stock GM motor, it supports the rain sensor. This ClassicOldsmobile thread talks about this unit and has wiring diagrams for the rain sensor.

Only problem is I can't find the stupid sensor in the junkyards. Getting the part from the dealership may not work since I also need the wiring for it.

Now I also found the Rain Tracker unit which has its own sensor and can integrate with the DSE unit. Check out the integration info for early '00 GMs. It's not horribly priced, so that might be the best option..... Except....

Yeah, I went with the Rain Tracker and have it wired to do auto headlights.

Auto Headlights

Adding fancy features to old cars is dicey. New cars have everything integrated into the PCM, so it's very difficult to retrofit. The aftermarket has lots of stuff, but it's crazy expensive (example, the swank Painless Convenince Module). The late 80's are a good place to look because the computers weren't advanced (where there were any), so fancy features were stand-alone add-ons.

Enter the GM "Twilight Sentinel". A unit popped up on ROP and I nabbed it. It's just a sensor and a simple box that wires in with the headlight switch.

Awesome!

Except now I learn that the Rain Tracker can also do headlight control.

Augh.

And I paid nearly as much for the Sentinel as the Rain Tracker costs new.

Double Augh.

Rear Defrost

There was an option for rear defrost on these cars. A big switch on the A/C panel would supply power to a fan and heater coil located under the package tray that would blow warm air onto the rear window. I guess it worked.

I got a defroster kit from Frost King. Installation was easy because I put it on a new window before it was installed! Their control unit comes with a small 1" by 1/2" control panel with just a momentary switch and an LED. I used the stock switch but had to modify it to turn it into a momentary, use a transistor so the defrost controller still only gets 5V (instead of V+ coming from the A/C panel), and drove the A/C panel indicator directly from the defroster power line. So the A/C panel looks dead stock but controls a fancy new defroster.

Weatherpack, Crimps and Rants

In some ways, this project just seems to be a way to buy more tools.

Most basic crimpers are junk. I've been luck enough to use propper CAT5 crimpers at work, and the difference between a good and a cheap crimp is amazing. And when we're talking automotive requirements, good crimps are essential.

There's lots of arguments about whether connections should be crimped, soldered, crimped then soldered, soldered then crimped, etc etc. Soldering really is just conductive glue and has relatively high resistance. Don't expect much from it. It does seal the connection from the elements, which is a good thing. Crimps actually make a mechanical connection that has far lower resistance than solder. Good crimps require lots of pressure, which forces a very solid connection. Cheap crimpers can't do that.

So, my take is always crimp with the best crimper you can afford. If the joint is going to be exposed, then also solder.

On to weatherpack. The crimp pattern for each type of connector is different. However, some are "close enough" that a generic crimp "works". That's fine and all, but I don't want to rewire this thing in 10 years. So be wary of something that says it can crimp multiple types of connectors in one set of jaws. This is a big problem with weatherpack, because it is very close to a few different patterns.

And where you do find high quality weatherpack crimpers, you find incredible price tags.

Here's a good dissertation on crimp connectors.

I found one of the very high quality sets that are just sold under a generic name. Once I dig up the receipts, I'll post that info here.

For the actual connectors, I grabbed a kit from DIY Auto Tune.

Alternator Excite

Just in case I need a LED for the new gauges.

from http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/topic/192742-alternator-excite-light-repacement/

I defer to Roy on the ACR model alternators. However, to be SAFE, you should include a warning light for any alternator you use if the car it came from used a warning light.

The lamp does not "draw" current as such in this installation. The way the light works is current flows from the ignition switch, through the lamp, through the field coils in the alternator and to earth. When you turn the key to start the engine, current flows through the lamp and alternator field coils which both powers the light and charges up the alternator field coils. Once the alternator starts producing electricity, it self-energizes its field coils. This brings the "small terminal" on the alternator up to charging system potential. Since both sides of the lamp are now at charge system potential the warning lamp goes out. (No voltage difference across the bulb).

Can you use an LED? Generally "no", at least not by itself. LEDs do not allow sufficient current to flow through themselves for the alternator field coils to charge up. HOWEVER, there is an easy work around. Start with the "normal" warning lamp configuration where a white wire goes from the ignition switch, to the lamp, out the lamp via a brown/yellow wire and finally off to the alternator. Replace the warning lamp with a 40 Ohm power resistor (something rated for at least 1 Watt). NOW get your LED lamp assembly. A plain LED will need a "dropping resistor", typically 1000 Ohms. A pre-configured LED warning lamp will already have this resistor inside. Take your LED lamp (or LED with dropping resistor) and wire it in PARALLEL with the 40 Ohm power resistor. Pay attention to the polarity or the LED will not light. With the LED wired in parallel to the 40 Ohm resistor... the LED will turn on and off just like a normal incandescent light. However, the current required to power the alternator field coils on startup will pass through the 40 Ohm resistor.

Alternator

Currently running a Powermaster 140A 12SI Smooth Look black case and it's maxed out at idle, reading 85A on a clamp meter with fan on max, A/C on, etc, with voltage sagging. Here are some alternatives:

http://www.qualitypowerauto.com/item_122/Special-CS130D-Direct-Fit-High-Output-Alternator.htm

http://www.qualitypowerauto.com/item_551/GM-Mega-Amp--Most-Common-Straight-Across-Ear--6.6-Mount.htm

http://www.mechman.com/alternators/buick/pre-1979/all-engines/s-series-240-amp-racing-alternator-for-63-85-gm-1-wire/

http://www.tuffstuffperformance.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=8334/category_id=274/mode=prod/prd8334.htm

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pwm-57806/overview/