New Guy

[GuyIII]

I also have a picture of the rear upright rod end. Can anyone tell me if these are the original or the replacements?
ThanksRear upright rod end.jpg

[silver]

I also have a picture of the rear upright rod end. Can anyone tell me if these are the original or the replacements?
ThanksRear upright rod end.jpg

rod ends pretty much look the same once it's been on there a month or 6 years.

I can tell you, there are no safety washers on there so if your rod end failed your car would experience a catastrophic failure....Terry or Bolus hopefully can get you information on safety wires...you'd replace that bolt with a longer one and add a washer so that if it let's go the washer is strong enough to carry the load.

[bolus]

Though this is not a completely reliable method, if the rod end is silver then it is probably fine. that looks like a silver one with some corrosion. If it is gold colored from zinc plating then it may need to be upgraded.

Here is one of mine that was failing. The internal race that is being pushed out is nylon I believe. The upgraded ones, this section is metal.



I believe those plugs do not connect to anything, just left over parts. This brass fitting looks custom though. where does that connect?

[GuyIII]

Bolus, the brass fitting is a hose plug and the hose is attached to the bottom of the super charger right at the air intake. I have not touched any of this area though and doubt it is the source of my problem. What I have determined is that I am not getting any spark. I pulled a plug and checked it, no spark. This is what I suspected. I have checked and rechecked all connections that I can see and they all look good. I never disconnected any plugs so there is no chance that some are switched. I have checked all of the fuses and they look good. I do not know how to check the relays but it could be one of those. I am still coming back to the "immobilizer". I never disconnected it but I did take the protective metal cover off and move it around as I was cleaning that area. As I stated earlier the light is blinking and when fobbed the light changes and the fuel pump kicks on and the starter turns over fast enough to start it if it was getting any fire. Is there anyway to re-boot this thing? I have removed the battery to have it checked to make sure it had enough cranking amps and it does but this was after the car would not start. I have looked at the Sterling Immobilizer web site but that is no help.Hose at bottom of super charger.jpg

[silver]

I had this happen several times and made more than one thread on the other forum but I don't recall the outcome. You may want to search the other forum for threads by me, like car won't start....I remember this happening 2 times at least. I'm gonna say its definitely the immobilizer which you could verify by testing voltage in and out of the harness....but no one knows the wiring. Terry did have a diagram but as usual Brammo changed the wiring colors between what his diagram said and my car

[bolus]

If the fuel pump starts up then the immobilizer isnt the problem. When you disconnected the ground lighting stuff, where was that connected?

When looking at the fuse boxes from the front of the car, the right sided one has the powerchain relay. Ignore all the extra wiring on mine. But this is it



The fuse for this is in the other fuse box on the left side, F6

Those are going to control spark I believe and where I would focus your investigation. If it were me, I'd try switching the 2 relays (they are the same relay in my car) and see what happens. This would rule out a bad relay. I'd triple check that F6 fuse in the other box as well.

[Terry Kennedy]

If the fuel pump starts up then the immobilizer isnt the problem.

Technically, it still could be. There are multiple things that the immobilizer cuts off, with the fuel pump being one of them. However, I don't know of any cases where the output side of the immobilizer was at fault - they've all been in the antenna section or not recognizing the fob at all.

Those are going to control spark I believe and where I would focus your investigation. If it were me, I'd try switching the 2 relays (they are the same relay in my car) and see what happens. This would rule out a bad relay. I'd triple check that F6 fuse in the other box as well.

I agree. This sounds like a powertrain control problem.

[Terry Kennedy]

I can tell you, there are no safety washers on there so if your rod end failed your car would experience a catastrophic failure....Terry or Bolus hopefully can get you information on safety wires...you'd replace that bolt with a longer one and add a washer so that if it let's go the washer is strong enough to carry the load.

Here's what I did (this is the front, the rear is similar and you don't need to do the bottom rod end on the rears):



The rod end on the left is a custom aurora part, used to keep the steering arm from binding - the early cars had collar stops under the steering gaiters, and I took mine off to get a greater turn at full lock.

The rod end on the right is a PRB, which is the upgraded version (called "Race" by Brammo and TMI). It is a yellow color, but has a smooth matte finish.

The "lawn mower" rod ends were SPB's, which have a much rougher surface and often a pronounced "waistline":





Standard rod end are AM/AB, which are silver in color. Your rod end looks "fishy" to me - it seems a lot thinner than I'd expect for a size 10.

If you install safety washers, try to find pre-drilled bolts - drilling through the heads of stainless bolts takes forever and you go through drill bits like crazy.

[GuyIII]

Hallelujah! The Atom lives!! I will talk you through what I did, the end result is great but I am not sure how I got there. First I pulled the relay out that Bolus is pointing to in the above post and replaced it with the relay in the last position in the second fuse buss. When I flipped the power switch I heard that "thunk" that I was missing and Silver you were right it is a "thunk". I fobbed the car and heard the fuel pump and hit the starter button and the car fired right up. Here is where it gets complicated. I turned the car off and after dancing around the garage I convinced myself that it was that simple, a bad relay. I went to start it again just to make sure it had all really happened and when I went to push the starter button nothing happened! WTF! So I pulled the #2 "new" relay out and replaced it with the second from the end relay out of the second box. Now I am getting confused.... This time it would turn over but the fuel pump never kicked in. By now I am considering running down the hill and throwing myself in the lake. But wait, one more try. I took the "bad" relay that I had originally pulled out of the second position and put it into the open space at the last position in the second fuse box and the car started right up! I just came home after being out for a while and thinking what will it be now but the Atom started right up and sounds great. Sorry for this poor explanation, I am trilled that at least it is running but I also have no confidence in it. I am baffled that it would not run without a relay in the last position in the second fuss box but would run with the relay that should be "bad" that was originally in the second position in the first fuse box. I will probably buy all new relays considering they are about $6 but none of this makes any sense.
Thanks so much for all of the help!
Guy

[silver]

Mine did that with the relays all the time when I had a new intercooler with 2 fans installed, it overloaded it. I put the fans on their own circuit and it never did it again. It was a problem for a long time until I figured that out. Is there any aftermarket items wired up in your car?