Greeny

Recently baught a 5 speed vl that runs lovely and sounds like a race car the only thing that was missing was the interior. easy enought only had a little rust round the front windscreen to be cleared for roadworthy oh and a new boot lock as someone seemed to have want to get in. That and a new lock for the ignition the old one had to be removed cuz it was stuffed. However after getting it across the city (7 day cover note) the next day she just wouldn't start. Changed the battery and done all the obvios things like checking the starter moters still connected and what not but now i cant even get a kick out of it.

I'm certain that the problem has to be electrical but i was wondering if anyone knew of any universal problems which could be the cause which vl's may be known for. I've done all but get out the tester and started testing the circuts but I really thought it may be a good idea to send a shout out to anyone that may know what the problem is at the drop of a hat. She was running fine until she just refused to start and since then i've removed the dizzy for another vl which has got an interior but needs new suspension.

the body on it seems in decent knick especially for $600 and the tranny is A1 along with more power than i've ever felt from a non turbo vl so i'm keen to clean it up slap in an interior and get it on the road so i can do my VS up. Poor VS I dont know how long she will last lets just hope atleast long enough.

Any suggestions on problems sources would be greatly appreciated im just a little puzzled by this one thats all

Cheers

SLAPPA

Crank angle senser or does the car have a Kill swich you dont know about????
I found 1 on mine like that..

just look if the wires are on the starter the right way & see if you have blown a relay...

__________________
I'd love you like a snowstorm:
I'd give you 8 to 10 inches
and you wouldn't be able to leave
the house for 3 days.

vkdesire

the starter motor wouldnt be stuffed would it? swap the relays round and see what happens...

Greeny

Yeah i had a little gander at the fuse box and an entire section is fried so im gonna try replaceing it and see if that works. I hope theres no kill switch as far as the starter is concearnd the wires are all in the right spot but ill swap it out and see if that fixes the problem before i try the fuse box damn starters always seem to go on my cars

thanks for your help everybody i hope i can knock this nail on the head soon i really need to move that vl

Mike_M

Heres a little thing for yer fusebox, http://niche.iinet.net.au

The high end unit is as shown, pics of the low end drop in for electricians
and without lights etc might be up soon,

pumba

hhhmmmm... VL problems??? lets see... (ive had 4 of them and experianced just about every problem possible with a VL lol)

if it was the CAS, it would still wind over but would wind over faster then usual...

it wouldnt surprie me if its a blown relay or fuse... the VL's had a real bad problem with frying the whole fuse box... especially around the 'hi-beam' fuse.

as said, there could possibably be a kill switch... but if u drove it across town and it worked fine, then im sure it WOULDNT be that as it would have ran out alot sooner.

__________________
'55 OVP'... VP SS... 152rwkw unopened 304ci... 14.4 @ 94mph

Mike_M

On 'another forum' I heard of a VL n/a guy who went through 4 off CAS
units that just failed for no real reason and they didnt even get hot.

I ended up getting high temp infra diodes put in an RB20 version by skyline, ie Local guy did the mod.

The thing is thei other guy with the 4 failures in something like less than
4 years was in habit (as I found out later) of strapping the spark cables
together with the signal cables to the CAS.

So corona discharge was doing its thing, ie Even high voltage field
effect impressed on the high impedance CAS signal lines to destroy the
driver chips in the CAS.

Suffice it to say, one does not tie the lines together and maintains a
good 1.5 to 2" separation (at least) of any spark leads from any signal
or drive leads and that means the injector cables too... Its amazing how
a field effect with no actual spark can induce quite high voltages...!

__________________
Regards from

Mike
VK/VL & VN/VP/VR Fuserail that wont warp or melt
now with engine lighting kit and auto timer
http://niche.iinet.net.au

NOS440

and i think there is a lesson learnt in that.
i must be blessed then. since i bought my vlct 3 yrs ago i have never had a problem with it, even with melted fuse box.

__________________
I see stupid people everywhere. Some of them are so stupid, they don't even know they're stupid.

pumba

^^^ your one if the "lucky few" lol

__________________
'55 OVP'... VP SS... 152rwkw unopened 304ci... 14.4 @ 94mph

Mike_M

mmmm, You mean your fuse box is melted but has no electrical problem
or your fusebox is ok complete as new? If its the latter then yeah, you are
extremely lucky, if its the former then you never know when one of the
fuse contacts opens or fuse blows and you cant replace it without
digging out the plastic !

Although it doesnt sound related, I've heard more than a couple of times
of people who have bad fuel economy on cruise and others with occasional
engine hiccups when revving somewhere between 3500 and max when on
high load.

What seems to happen is that the copper spring tabs which sit inside
the plastic moulding get corroded or lose their spring constant, this can
cause the electrical connection to either open for a fraction of a second
(especially as the whole engine bay can vibrate at higher revs and if the
engine mounts are getting older and all sorts of sympathetic harmonics
makes things shake impercetibly)
or contacts have higher resistance - if this happens for the fuse to the
engine computer then it can cause the computer to reset. If this happens
when driving then the computer base reference for the Air Flow Sensor
can shift this causes extra fuel flow. ie. The computer checks its base
reference in those few milliseconds prior to engine start.

In fact the computer by Bosch/Hitachi used in all the standard VL series
will always overfuel if there is a fault and the dreaded black smoke puff
now and then is often signal this has happened. It will also overfuel and
retard timing if the detonation sensor is flakey and switching to PULP can
help that a bit but the engine should be usable fine on cheaper standard ULP.

I've put some considerable attention into my cars electrics (as you'd
guess since I designed the fuserail upgrade) and I'm sensitive to the sound
and feel the engine has if the computer were to over-fuel.

As a consequence I get really great economy. Country from Perth to
Esperance was 9.58L/100Kms and that included a few 'spirited' overtaking
and a few dirt road shortcuts. Its about 780Kms overall and also that was
during winter with head winds and rain storms. Got about the same
economy on the way back. Then again I also tweaked the AFM cal and
was testing a different driver transistor module...

My cars a VLCT, running max boost of 10.5 without intercooler but with
hi-flowed T3 and 3" exhaust.

Anyway the conclusion is the computer can do nutty things and even an
ok looking fuserail can hide flakey connections, check it with a good light
and magnifying glass after removing a fuse, especially as a precaution for
a long trip

__________________
Regards from

Mike
VK/VL & VN/VP/VR Fuserail that wont warp or melt
now with engine lighting kit and auto timer
http://niche.iinet.net.au