Immortalizing My 1986 Maintenance History

F-Chatters,
I purchased my 1986 328 GTS on August 3rd of this year (2006). I plan on doing most, if not all of the maintenance. In my former years I was a jet engine mechanic in the USAF, so I'm not new to a wrench.
My goal for this thread is two fold. One, to keep an active record of maintenance to my car. Since a dealership won't be doing the service, I need a way to maintain a record of maintenance in case I decide to sell the car. The second reason for this thread is not only to document the maintenance, but document how I went about fixing each problem. There are many threads on almost every maintenance subject, but I want to consolidate some of that information.
In the interest of full disclosure, let's start with known problems found during the PPI.

- Minor radiator leak
- Front rotors worn beyond specs
- Front left motor mount has bolt broken off inside mount
- Rear left motor mount bad
- All suspension bushings could use replacing
- Rear window defroster will not turn off
- Cam belts need replacing due to time. Only 1500 miles on belts.
- 4 bad tires


Mileage - 36,500 Miles


Without further delay, let’s get to work!

Gene
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Gene,

I look forward to following this thread! You and bought 1986 328 GTS's within a week of each other. Similar mileage, too (mine reads 38k miles).

Unlike you, however, I don't even think about fixing things myself. Even if I had the time and the tools, I'd probably cause three new problems every time I fix one problem ;-)

Keep us posted on your efforts...


Werner

 

I'm in the middle of replacing my cam belts, tensioners, etc. However, I'm waiting on some parts and to gather a plan, so in the meantime, I did another project that I thought of a while back.

My rear defroster switch failed and the rear defroster was on all of the time. Luckily, it was not a short in the wiring.

Living in Arkansas I don't plan on using the rear defroster, so I thought of another use for the switch.

Garage Door Opener. (GDO)

First off, I removed the console. That was pretty straightforward.

- Remove the shift knob - There is a nut underneath, so loosen that first. If the knob is tight, you can take a 14mm wrench and hold the shifter from twisting while removing the knob.

- Remove the shift gate.
- I took out the seats. Four 6mm hex bolts each. Simple.
- Four screws hold in the console. Remove those.
- Remove ash tray. Two screws there.
- Remove left seatbelt. 19mm. Don't worry about removing the wire.

For me, the console lifted right out.

Ok, back to the original project. First off, I had to remove the defroster switch. I pushed from the back of the console and it came right out. Then I unplugged the wires.

My switch had problems internally, but I will skip that. I will assume that your switch is good. However, there is a modification you need to do. The current switch will stay on until you turn it off. The great thing is that you can make this into a momentary switch very easily without permanent damage.

In the second picture, you can see the little "rod" that I took out. This is what holds it on when you press it. This just slips out when you take the switch apart. Save that little part!

The next trick was a power source. I didn't want to take the console out every time my GDO battery goes bad. So, a power source. My GDO battery is a 9v. So, how to step down 12V to 9V? Off to Radio Shack. Radio Shack has a 12V to 9V transformer for cell phones. Bingo.

It is designed to plug into a cigarette lighter, but that is easily modified. Just unscrew the end that goes into the cig lighter and pull apart. Now, I soldered two wires, one to the negative wire and the other to the positive, where the center of the cig lighter would contact. This was pretty easy. Thread the screw tip of the adapter back down the wires and put it back together.

Now, I soldered a few wires to the defroster switch. See pictures for which connectors to use. There is no neg or pos here so don’t worry which is which.

Now you can put your switch back in the console. You should now have a few wires coming through. These two wires are going to go to your GDO switch. The GDO switch board with differ with brand. It should be fairly easy to trace down which spots on the board are for the switch.

Now, you need to power your power converter. I used the power from the rear defroster wires. You can see in the pictures that I used some vampire connectors to tap into the power. That way you don’t have to cut any wires, but it will leave a few slits in the wire itself. See where I circled in yellow. Note which Ferrari wires are negative and positive. I connected black and red respectively.

We have now tapped in power to our converter. Now, we have to power the GDO itself. Note, the output polarity of the converter is “white stripe is negative”. You can see this in the picture where both wires are black, but the one with the white stripe is negative.

So, here is how we should stand.

- The defroster switch has two wires coming off of it. Those two wires should go to the switch of the GDO.
- The power converter should have four wires coming off of it. Two of them you soldered on. This is the input power from the Ferrari.
- The second wires are the 9V coming out. These should be soldered to power the GDO.

Now, test it! If you wired it like I did, you will have to have the ignition on to power the GDO. Mine actually worked on the first try. Weird. Next, I tucked the converter and GDO next to the ashtray under the console. It fit in there perfectly.

Put it all back together and you are good to go! Enjoy your concealed GDO!


Gene
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THIS IS A great THREAD!!!


HATS OFF TO YOU!!!

i look forward to learning of your progress,


REAPER.

 

Interesting read. I spent one day last week installing Frazer's slow window fix gadget (works wonderfully by the way) and new door speakers. The original speakers were dry-rotted away.

Our '86's are sisters, my VIN ends in 61553.

 

Wow, great write up! Looking forward to seeing your future progress.

 

This is cool as I own a 3.2 mondial which is essentially the same mechanically. Get-r-dun!

 

Thanks for all of the nice replies. We'll see how this thread turns out. But for now, I have another addition.

Leather care. I will state up front that I don't claim to be an expert at leather care. I am sure that there are others on this forum that have more experience, so take this with that in mind.

First off, my seats are already out due to installing my concealed GDO. (See above). Anyway, my seats were in dire need of some attention. The seats are in great shape, but the leather was dry as a bone.

I went down to Auto Zone and got some cleaner and conditioner. First, clean the seats per the instructions. Make sure you get the crumbs out of the cracks with a detail brush.

Next, apply the conditioner. This is the reason I'm writing this thread. Apply the conditioner by hand. Don't use a rag. Apply it as if you are putting lotion on a baby, or, well, use your imagination. My first coat was fairly thick. I could visibly see a layer of conditioner on the seat. Now, the tough part. Leave it alone for about 10 minutes. My seats are black so it was easy to see, but after ten minutes the conditioner had almost disappeared. Repeat as necessary. I did this three times before I noticed that it wasn't soaking in as well as the first time.

My seats are so much nicer now. As a side note, there are quite a few threads about what to do with a car after it has sat for a long period of time. The leather and threads will be very brittle. Taking an extra hour to remove the seats and condition them prior to extended use.

Not the most Earth shattering informational post of all time, but hey, this is a documentary on 328 ownership after all.

Gene

 

Gene,

You have way too much time on your hands. Please have some children or buy a puppy. Or come work on MY car!

 

Jim,
I have two kids and some cats running around here somewhere. I have extra time because I don't have a real job.
Oh, I would be happy to work on your car, but I'm not a clutch expert.

Gene

 

Ba$tard!

Just wait, your moment is coming.