[V8] Re: The saga of The Black Mariah continues

[Buchholz, Steven]

> Oh, and now the water pump is leaking.  Damn!  I hate it when that happens
> especially since we were "in there" during the initial refurbishing of the
> car year before last after I brought it up here.  We did the belt, but the
> water pump looked new, so we didn't just do it...we did a LOT of other stuff
> instead.  So, the Mariah will go back in to have a water pump next week.

... *ALWAYS* replace the water pump when you do the timing belt on an I-5 ... it really isn't that expensive ...
> 
> Then there will have to be some effort expended to figure out why I get no
> reception on the radio.  I have replaced an incredibly grottie looking
> antenna, but still no signal at the radio head.  The head unit, a Nakamichi,
> plays cds incredibly well, and it is obvious that someone replaced all the
> speakers with something pretty good.  AND the radio head plays AM and FM
> really well when pulled out of the dashboard and an antenna is plugged
> directly into the back.  I suspect that the antenna that runs from the rear
> to the front is gonzo and I will have to go through the pain and suffering
> of trying to put another one in, but it really does need to get done.

... far and away the most common problem here is that the person who replaced the head unit forgot to provide power for the antenna amp ... the reception really sucks when it has no power!  If that is not the problem ... the other issue I had is that the center conductor in the lead to the deck is *very* small gauge and can be easily broken.  You can test for this one by pulling the cable at the antenna end and touch the center conductor with a length of wire.  If the reception picks up the cable is OK and the problem is the antenna itself, if there's no change the cable is bad.  I plan to poke a length of bare copper small gauge wire down my antenna lead when I have time ... got more pressing fish to fry ...
> 
> 
> 2.  Still a gremlin or two in the instrument cluster.  No cruise control and
> bouncing speedo syndrome intermittently.
> 
... the instrument cluster PC Board issues on this car are common and the fix well documented ... this is another one that you should just do ...

Steve B
San José, CA (USA)