Help-Oil leak '90 Spider and other probs

**CarPoor** · #1 (**permalink**) 08-14-2004, 11:04 PM

Hey, all...
I finally got my '90 Motronic Spider back on the road today after a slowish clutch replacement and tranny rebuild. Before I took the trans out, I made a list of several problems to address while it was down. They were:
1)Transmission shifted badly, clutch engagement erratic, noisy throwout bearing.
2) No oil pressure gauge reading
3) No electric fans on radiators
4) Major oil leak from the front of the engine.
5) Noisy valves
6) Erratic idle. Idle would sometimes float up 500-600 rpm and pulsate.

Well, I'm pretty happy with the trans/clutch aspect of the car now. No 2nd gear synchro graunch at all, clutch seems smooth and consistent, all quiet.
The oil leak, however is better, but still present. I replaced the front seal while I had things down. The oil seems to be coming from the front seal, but it's being thrown around so much, it's really hard to be sure...it gets tossed up under surfaces, then makes it's way down pretty much all over. It really seems to still be the front seal. Most of the oil is concentrated in a line even with the fan belt, especially on the left side, cause that's the way the belt throws it. Is there any way oil can be leaking from the sensor that reads the toothed pulley? I've been told it's not tapped into the oil pan, but it seems like it's about the right place.
I also failed to get the fans fixed, so far. Honestly, I can't remember which slot the new relay goes into. I have 4 or 5 identical relay sockets, I put the new relay in the top row, second one in from the left. Fans work fine when powered directly, jumper the wires from the tstat together, no fans. Ideas?
We cleaned the Idle air controller and reassembled that- it seems to be perfect so far. Admittedly I haven't driven the car more tha a mile or so.
As far as the noisy valves, they are set to factory spec, but I think consensus of opinion is that they need to be tighter than spec, and can be set a bit more snug without hurting anything, so I'll try that this week.
Any ideas to fix what still ain't working would be welcomed. The car is nice to drive...but I need to sell it, so I gotta get these problems squared away.
Thanks,
CarPoor Pat

**papajam** · #2 (**permalink**) 08-15-2004, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarPoor

I also failed to get the fans fixed, so far. Honestly, I can't remember which slot the new relay goes into. I have 4 or 5 identical relay sockets, I put the new relay in the top row, second one in from the left. Fans work fine when powered directly, jumper the wires from the tstat together, no fans. Ideas?

**CarPoor** · #3 (**permalink**) 08-15-2004, 12:44 PM

Jim-
Thanks for the post/help. I see that I have the relay in the correct location...it's a new unit directly from the dealership, so I trust that it is the correct one...it has a fuse plugged directly into the relay, which is rather unique. I will have to get the volt/ohm meter out today and do some diagnostics. Honestly, I drove it for such a short while yesterday, the rad temp may not have reached the temp where it should have turned on.
So, you're saying to take both wire that go to the temp switch and touch them to ground? Shouldn't one of them be hot, which would blow a fuse?
Thanks,
Pat

**papajam** · #4 (**permalink**) 08-15-2004, 01:44 PM

The fan relay is triggered to turn on the fans when the fan relay coil is grounded. This happens when the temp switch closes; it connects the negative side of the relay coil to ground. By grounding both wires at the temp switch, it simply saves the time trying to figure out which wire goes to the relay and which one is ground.