Where does the sending unit plug into the digital dash? I'm retro-fitting the drive train and dash into an el camino and can't figure this part out.
I'm using the camino rear harness, so it's not just a plug in.
What year El Camino? Did it have Fuel injection originally? I have a little conversion experience myself. If it was originally fuel injected, then you should have the correct wiring already in the car. The sending unit wiring runs up the driver's side of the car on the inside. It plugs into the left side of the fuse box. I think the Turbo Regal ones have 6 wires, flat plug. Plugs in from the front/side.
When I did mine, my car wasn't originally FI, so I had to replace this wire with the 6 conductor one from a Turbo Regal, and add the fuel pump wire to the end of it in the back of the car. The wiring on the non FI cars has the same plug, but the wires are in a different location on the rear plug. I had to remove them from the plug, and move them to the right spot to match them up. If you need to know more, like wire colors and stuff, let me know, and I will dig up my notes. Good Luck.
Brian
Brian, the El-Camino is an 80. I opted to use the solid core rear light harness from the chev because of the different rear light configuration between the two cars - I thought it would save me troubles with things like the turn signals working properly. Anyway, the harness out of the cap in the fuel tank has red (I assume hot for pump), black (assuming ground), and brown (I'm thinking signal for guage) wires coming out of it. So I need to take the signal wire to some point in the instrument panel.
You could just use the existing wire from the ElCamino. Since it is an '80, it is carbed, so just find the original wire coming from the tank. This wire is the one that connects to the fuel gauge.(should be purple) If you haven't somehow eliminated the cars original wiring back there, then just use that wire, and splice it into the wiring for the tank unit. Speaking of which. What are you using for a tank? Did you switch to the later FI tank?
How are you doing the wiring for the car? I did a station wagon, and they have the same tail lights as the El Camino. If you are using a full parts car, then I can tell you which wires to pull out of the harness, and how to modify the existing El Camino tail light harness. What I did was take the Turbo Regal harness, and pulled the wires for the sending unit apart. I then pulled the necessary wires out of the harness plug, and installed the ones from the T Regal, and installed them into the waGoN harness. Looks completely stock, and I didn't have to cut and splice a single wire. That way I get no failure from bad splices.
Brian
P.S. I'll dig through my notes, and send you the exact colors, and what has to be done, if you are interested. Let me know.
Brian, I'm not sure if the sending unit wire is still back there, but i'm gonna check on that. I guess my big point of confusion is up front. Running the wire to the front is not that big a deal, however, once I get it up there, where should it plug in? I'm thinking it must plug into the harness at the fuse block, where the original does, but which posistion in the plug? Unfortunately, I no longer have the old parts to look at. By the way, do you know anything about bypassing the theft deterrent module? ANOTHER complication...
Yes
I'll have to check my notes on it though. My parts car had it also, but since I did not swap the doors, and it would have been a real pain in the a... I mean neck, I just found out which wire to disable it. Once I grounded it once, it hasn't reactivated itself. Eventually I will incorporate it into my waGoN, but I will make sure that it actually works correctly before going through the hassle. Once I find it in my notes, I will email it directly to you, since it is security related. If I get a chance, I will take pics of the wiring plugs too.
Brian
Brian, did your car get a little exposure in gmhtp? Seems I saw a little something about a gn wagon...nice idea!
Just a little history on the confusion on my part... started this swap 20 months ago, moved 16 months ago- now I can't find anything!
OK, here goes, from my notes, since my memory ain't what it used to be, and it never was that good anyways.
The wire from the fuse box is a flat plug that plugs in next to the fuse box, on the left side. It has a flat connector that is an 8 or 9 pin connector with 7 wires used, for the Turbo Regal. For my waGoN, there were only 5 used. A carbed El Camino should be the same. The two missing wires are for the Third Brake light, and the fuel pump. These wires run to the back of the car. On the Turbo Regal. 6 of these wires connect to a flat black plug that has 6 conductors. The fuel sending unit (for fuel gauge) is pink. The 7th wire is on a connector that is separate from the 6 conductor one, but plugs into the same one as the 6 cond. one. (Similar to front of wire. 8 or 9 conductor plug, with a 6 cond plug and a 3 cond. plug attached to it. This extra wire is the fuel pump wire. What I did, was to rip this out the rear harness of my parts car. I took out 3 wires. One was a ground, bolted to the frame, the other was the fuel pump that had it's own plug, and the third was the fuel level wire(pink). I had to remove this wire from the other 6 cond. plug, and insert it into the existing wagon tail light harness plug. You will have to do more than just add this one wire. GM did something wierd. Instead of putting the 3rd stop light in the vacant spot on the 6 conductor plug, they moved a couple of the other wires towards the middle, and put the new wire on the end. (I think that is what they did). At any rate, make sure that the colors line up. The colors match between two different connectors. In order to remove the wires, you push them ito the plug further, and you will have to push a stiff wire, or something to push down the part of the connector that has a tab, that holds it into the plug. Push this wire into the opposite end as the wire. I think there is a small slot that you can see, that the tab slides into. You could cut and splice, but that is where I usually run into problems, and this way looks factory.
Good Luck.
Oh, by the way, this is how it was on my 82 waGoN. I'm assuming that the El Camino will be the same, since they seem to share the same rear bumper and tail lights, but you never know. The General may have had other ideas when he designed the wiring for these two cars. So whatever you do, double check everything before you take my word for it.
I'll send you the disabling method for the Security System, once I find that in my notes.
Brian
P.S. Yes, that was me under the hood of my waGoN at Englishtown in the GMHTP mag. I am now running 12.9s with those same mud and snow 14 inchers.
My 81 elky had the pink wire in the back...I just found it and hooked it up a few weeks ago.
Someone asked about fuel tanks the other day. I am using the stock tank as it has a side mounted filler tube. I guess a good shop could modify a GN tank but I have not worried about that yet. The Elky sending unit mounts at an angle rather than vertically. I intalled a 307 pump and just tried to measure the distance from the tank opening to the bottom and space the pump accordingly. The tank is not baffled like a GN tank but does have a "surge" wall in it just behind the pick up.
I have a Regal dash in mine so everything works.
My waGoN has the surge wall too, but I had to baffle it myself, since the wagons never came fuel injected. The El Caminos on the other hand were FI in the later years. All you have to do is get one of the later baffled tanks, and install it. There should be no modifications needed. Unfortunatley, they don't fit the wagons, or else I would've bought one of those. You should be able to use the same tank unit found in the FI caminos. I would think you may have to modify it a little to get in a high pressure pump. The FI El Caminos had the throttle body injection, which uses the low pressure pumps, I think.
Brian
actually, I do have a spare '87 Elky but I did not rob it because I will sell it one of these days....thanks for the tip. I will get a new tank the next pass thru the thing. The current tank is in good conditon and will work as long as I don't corner too hard with a low tank...
I did a little cutting and tie wrapping to fit the new pump to the '81 hanger.
I enjoyed watching you run at Bristol....kinda made me want a station wagon project instead of an elky....
Why not have both? If I find a decent/cheap elky, I will have both. I know, decent and cheap don't go together when you are talking El Caminos, but I'm still looking. Actually I have a line on one, but it has no title. If I can get a title, I may pick it up. That is if I don't find another wagon before then. If I do, then I am going to do something totally different with that one. Or...I have another idea for a Turbo 6 Buick, but that is a secret to most. Actually, I am just looking for anything that will make for a different, and I mean different, Turbo Buick. Whatever I find first gets the attention.
Brian
At the moment, I have 2 1/2 Regals (Gary owns the other half), two Elkys, a 69 Camaro SS 396 convertible, a 9c1, and an Explorer. The last thing I need is something else to dilute my already short attention span further....
On the other hand, I do have desires.....
I'm running a new tank in mine. The pump fits fairly well, not perfect, but the o-ring appears to be sealing, and the tank is baffled from the factory. In the El -Camino there is a choice of tank sizes, 17 or 22 gallon, I went for the big one, the only problem was the straps were not available, longer bolts made the stock ones work.
Brian, very cool conversion...
Thanks for the info on the tank wires, got that part of the job done. Someone gave me a couple of tips an the theft det. mod. Had to do with grounding one of the wires... did that, now I get the pump to prime, but still no hot at the starter, so now I'm scratchin my head and wondering what to look at next. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Next project is already cooking...LS1 Malibu wagon with s-10 4wd subframe
Do you mean the wire that triggers the solenoid is not hot at the solenoid end when you turn the key to the start position?
I think that is whats happening, I had the key wedged into position so not sure if it was all the way into start pos... got a buddy coming over tonight, I'll be able to be sure about it then.
I spent a long time trouble shooting mine and then discovered the key was not quite pulling the rod far enough to activate the starter.
I could drop the column and barely pull on the rod and it would fire right up. I thought the alarm was screwed up originally. As the original elky column did not have the wipers on the column, I am currently swapping columns.
I'll be looking at that tonight!
Thanks
That wasnt it. Still scratchin my head! Help!!!
Did you get my email on the Factory Sec. Sys.? That is how I disabled mine. You say you grounded one of the wires. Did you ground it and leave it grounded, or just ground it and disconnect from ground? I just grounded mine once, and disconnected, and that is all I have ever had to do. You didn't by any chance remove the module when you had the dash out did you? It is mounted to the backside of the dash, although I can't remember exactly where right now. If you still have problems, drop me a line, and I'll see what I can figure out, using my car as the test bed.
Brian
Brian, I got your E-mail and followed those instructions. After I did that, the fuel pump
would prime, it was'nt doing that before, so that part of the problem has been resolved. After I got that done I dropped the steering column and checked the ignition activator rod, it had full travel so that is not the problem. This weekend I'm gonna get under the dash and check for bad or loose connections, I can't think of anything else that might cause this problem, any suggestions?
Rob
Brian, I grounded the disconnected and left the unit in the dash.
Right now the only thing I can think of is that maybe your P-N switch isn't adjusted right. Try turning the key and shifting through the gears. With your foot on the brake of course. If this is out of adjustment, you won't get any juice to the starter. You may be looking for something more complicated, and it's not. You may have to adjust the linkage, or the switch itself. The switch is white, I think, and on top of the column near the firewall. It is on detents, so if the linkage is set right, but the switch isn't, you can just move it a couple of clicks. I think the wires coming out of the switch are purple. In fact, I'm almost positive. Also, make sure they are actually plugged in. Good Luck.
Brian
Brian, While I was checking the actuator rod I pulled the neutral safety switch right off the column and made sure it was in the correct position, then just left it hanging by it's wires... still no luck. I'm sure it's something stupid simple and I'll probably be smackin my forehead when I figure it out...
I'm running out of ideas, but here goes. Do you have power at either side of this switch when you turn the key to start? I'm not sure , but I would assume that the Sec Sys would disconnect after this. So, using that logic, you should have power to at least one wire when you turn the key to start. If not then it would probably be the ign. switch. If so, then see if you have power on both sides. If not, then it is either out of adjustment, or broken. I'm not sure where the wires go after that.
If this doesn't help, then here is another atempt at solving this. Are you sure that you are not getting power to the starter? Could it be just the starter? Good luck.
Brian
I'll be checking that stuff out on the next thrash on the car... I sure appreciate the ideas, thanks to all...
problem = fusible link