Where we are currently at: The engine sounds very rough. its running on 3 of 4 pistons. cyl1 is not firing. ran a compression test and came back with cyl1 has 150psi, cyl2 has 90psi, cyl3 has 60psi, and cyl4 has 95psi. getting ready to check the pulse on the fuel injectors and probably the fuel injectors themselves.

 

The interior is in very nice shape. This is much like my project. My Laser sat for 32 years, I've put over 5000 miles on it since August when I got it on the road. Can't wait to see your progress!

 

Looks like the fuel injector for cylinder 1 is bad, im looking standard motors fj11 and seeing as cylinder 3 has some low compression im gonna wait on replacing all of them and ill just replace the one and go from there.

 

I've always liked the the red interior and your's looks great. The Mopar/Bosch injectors are all garbage now after 30+ years. They all leak from the inside and outside. Don't buy any remanufactured or cleaned originals injectors as they all leak at the inside nipple and outside casing. Someone on here tested some and has a warning about the Mopar injectors. Getting a brand new (new stock) Standard Motors, like you did, is the way to go. If you get all 4 new injectors the engine will run even smoother. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

I am only buying one fuel injector at the moment, I do plan to replace all of them. This engine has been running rough ever since it was swapped 20 something years ago. The techs said they checked everything and said theres nothing mechanically wrong with the engine but it is running on 3 cylinders. All i did was go in with a dvom to check the injector and it is 7x the resistance the rest of them are. Im not sure if 1.8-2.2 ohms is the correct resistance for these but that one had 13.7 ohms. After i get that cylinder running i will see whats going on with the compression. Cyl3 jumps back up to like 80 when i added oil in there, so the piston rings are probably really tired. Makes me question if those guys messed anything up when they swapped it.

 

All right, a little update. We actually ended up performing some tests on the injectors and I will hopefully be able to attach a couple videos and an image of the test results. After using an injector tester on all of the injectors I learned two things, that first injector works, amazing, and the injector for cylinder 4 works too well. so, if the injector works why isn't the cylinder firing? I was going to test the connectors to see if the car is giving them power and sure enough, I looked at that first connector and one of the crimps had been pushed back, I did test with a DVOM that I'm getting voltage from both it and the one for the second, but clearly this connector needed to be replaced. I went ahead and replaced the connector, and nothing has changed. At this point I'm getting ready to test with a Noid light as I did not have one at the time. What I'm thinking is, maybe 14 ohms is too much for the car to pulse the injector but not enough to make our tester fail to power the injector? that is a hard maybe. This one I don't think is true but at this point any crazy idea is at least something, maybe injector 4 is taking all the fuel away from injector 1, but they work in pairs so I'm not sure that makes sense unless it somehow is taking enough fuel that there isn't enough time for the fuel pump to complete pressurize the rail and 2 is getting fuel but 1 is getting not much. again, I think that idea is way out there. actually, I think those far-fetched ideas are all I have right now until I perform some more tests. Looks like I can't upload a video so I will see if I can get a link for them for those who want to hear the engine and see that cylinder 1 is in fact the problem here.

Results image translation:
Injector test: 3 tests performed (test 1: 100 PULSE @ 5MS, test 2: 50 PULSE @ 10MS, test 3: 1 PULSE @ 500MS), each test performed at a starting fuel pressure of 53psi. (Cylinder #: {test 1 resulting psi, test 2 resulting psi, test 3 resulting psi}: CYL1: {26, 28, 30} CYL2: {31, 33, 39} CYL3: {30, 33, 38} CYL4: {9, 14, 20}.
resistance test: using a DVOM to test the resistance of the contacts on each injector: {CYL1: 13.7Ohms}, {CYL2: 1.8-2.1Ohmns}, {CYL3: 1.8-2.1Ohms}, {CYL4: DNT}.
Compression test: standard compression test 5 cranks per cylinder: {CYL1: 130PSI}, {CYL2: 90PSI}, {CYL3: 60PSI}, {CYL4: 95PSI} NOTE: CYL3 increases to 80PSI when oil is added into the cylinder.
Cylinder Dismissal Test: I'm not sure what you would actually call this action but dismissing the cylinder sounds pretty accurate to me. Simple test: Engine running, safely pulling spark wires from each spark plug and seeing if the rpm drops. rpm drop would be good it means the engine is using that cylinder. {CYL1: NO DROP}, {CYL2: DROP}, {CYL3: DROP}, {CYL4: DROP}

 

All right, a little update. We actually ended up performing some tests on the injectors and I will hopefully be able to attach a couple videos and an image of the test results. After using an injector tester on all of the injectors I learned two things, that first injector works, amazing, and the injector for cylinder 4 works too well. so, if the injector works why isn't the cylinder firing? I was going to test the connectors to see if the car is giving them power and sure enough, I looked at that first connector and one of the crimps had been pushed back, I did test with a DVOM that I'm getting voltage from both it and the one for the second, but clearly this connector needed to be replaced. I went ahead and replaced the connector, and nothing has changed. At this point I'm getting ready to test with a Noid light as I did not have one at the time. What I'm thinking is, maybe 14 ohms is too much for the car to pulse the injector but not enough to make our tester fail to power the injector? that is a hard maybe. This one I don't think is true but at this point any crazy idea is at least something, maybe injector 4 is taking all the fuel away from injector 1, but they work in pairs so I'm not sure that makes sense unless it somehow is taking enough fuel that there isn't enough time for the fuel pump to complete pressurize the rail and 2 is getting fuel but 1 is getting not much. again, I think that idea is way out there. actually, I think those far-fetched ideas are all I have right now until I perform some more tests. Looks like I can't upload a video so I will see if I can get a link for them for those who want to hear the engine and see that cylinder 1 is in fact the problem here.
View attachment 288249

cylinder 1 not firing.
engine sound and knock.

 

Do this

If u have a spare intake or trust the clips do this to check for spray pattern and leaky injectors...

 

I will definitely think about that if it comes to that.

 

Great to see that you saved it and always love seeing another 84'. Bought one brand new almost exactly like it except it was silver with the red interior. The interior looks in remarkably good shape, especially the seats, considering it was sitting outside for 20 years. I'll look forward to seeing your progress on it.

 

So after replacing the fuel injector it runs on all 4 cylinders but it has a nasty knock and the radiator fan doesnt spin even at above operating temperature, according to the not so believable gauge. Im gonna sum the knock up to my rusty camshaft in the cylinder 2 area which is where the knock sounds like it is coming from.

 

So, when they swapped the engine, they swapped the radiator, except the radiator didn't have a drain plug so they used a pipe end cap instead of the correct plug and it is leaking. Will be finding a replacement and seeing if that fixes the coolant leak.

 

So I got my radio to turn on but all of the buttons wont work because all of the rubber domes in the switches dry rotted. Does anyone know where I can get replacement domes? I'd like to avoid replacing the switches.

 

Those little buttons on the radio are notorious for failing. I found a factory brand new NOS radio for my Daytona on Ebay and within a short time the eject button for the tape stopped working. Were you looking for new replacements? I'm not sure if those were ever available as a serviceable part from Chrysler.

 

I just need something, it doesnt have to be spec but just a something to make the switch return to its original position and still make contact.

 

I've never really dissected one of those radios to see how the buttons are actually designed. If the rubber is just behind the button perhaps you could find a stock piece of rubber of the same thickness and just custom cut it to fit each button? If you could luck out and find another radio where the buttons were still working and transfer them but those can be pretty hard to come by.

 

Unfortunately the shape is a little more complicated than that.

 

I take it the black piece on the bottom of the white plastic mount is the part that pushes the button back out? Does the white plastic button just sit in that square base or does it clip in some how?

 

it clicks in, you can kind of see at the top of the base there is a little overhang. the black piece is the rubber bit that returns the button yea.

 

Is it a conductive rubber button? Maybe you could repurposed a button from something else.

 

Might be a crazy idea, but do you think putting a small amount of RTV adhesive just around and on the bottom of the black rubber piece, letting it dry then putting it back in, might thicken it enough and give you the cushion to have it pop out again?

 

Unfortunately all of the conductive bits fell off.

 

Are the conductive parts all attached to that black part on the bottom of the button, or is it the brass colored parts on the inside of the base?

 

So on the cone there is a little conductive nub that when pushed all the way down makes a connection between the brass, completing the circuit and well you know the rest, that nub has fallen off and the buttons dont return back to home

 

I see what you're saying. Those buttons really were such a piss poor design. As I mentioned, the NOS factory radio I have in my car has already had the tape eject and 3 of the 6 station preset buttons fail. Even if you were able to find anything in a salvage yard the odds of the buttons still working would be pretty slim. I don't know what that little nub is made of or if it would be possible to fabricate another one if you could find out what the conductive material is.

 

It's definitely possible but difficult, its the same design used for membrane keyboards: 2 contacts and a raised conductive rubber bit to make a connection. I can find similar stuff but not with walls, and ive only found one that i can order, but i think it might be too big. Im thinking combine one with a small spring or but the old rubber on top but im not sure.

 

I have repaired many radios and factory driving computers. Sometimes the buttons have problems from skin oil and "crud", sometimes the rubbers have gone bad and break, and sometimes they just won't conduct electricity anymore but look OK. The ones that have not rotted or broken can sometimes be repaired with some conductive carbon paint for electronic repairs. I have also very carefully made tiny metal rings to superglue to the contact surface of the rubbers, but often the little rubber tip in the center of the rubber then fails and they make TOO MUCH electrical connection and it's like the button is stuck "ON". I have also found replacement switches on Ebay that I have taken the rubber diaphragms out of and put into the factory-soldered housings. The tops just pop off of some of them, but some have a metal case with crimped "ears" to hold the switch housings together. They are harder to do, but possible. I hope that helps. The factory radios are nice when they work, much better than replacement ones. I suspect that by now the belts in many are also rotten. That is also repairable, but they are hard to find now.

 

Do you think you could point me in the right direction when looking for a replacement switch on ebay?

 

Your switches should look something like this:

If the link doesn't work, just look up "
SMD Verical Tactile Mini Micro Momentary Push Button Switch Tact Assortment"

or

6x6x5mm 2 Pin PCB Momentary Tactile Tact Push Button Switch DIP Micro
You may have surface mounted or DIP, "pins through the pc board mount"

30+ SMD Verical Tactile Mini Micro Momentary Push Button Switch Tact Assortment | eBay

Mounting: 4 pin through hole. - Pin spacing(mm): 6.5x4.5. You will be pleasantly surprised by our service. This can only delay our service.

www.ebay.com

 

Those do not look like the switches i have, there is an image of mine in a previous reply. Thats not to say the insert is not the same, do you think it will work?

 

Yes, I believe the inside rubber part is the same or close enough to do the job. This style is pretty much all that is available now. Your earlier pictures would not open, but now I can see them.

 

Nice that someone with more experience in this area could offer up some good suggestions. Hope they work out for you.

 

All right, setting aside the button issue for the moment, as I have something on order to try out and so it will have to wait. Did some diagnosis on why my radiator fan was not spinning at operating temp+ which I figured out its definitely not just my gauge reading bad as while I was filling it with coolant, it got too hot and spilled everywhere... I got distracted figuring out that my dimmer switch was grounding too many things on my dash and manually turning it made the temp gauge go up and down along with oil pressure and my left signal and high beam dash lights were also affected by this. I'm going to have to clean up the board. setting that mishap aside, I discovered the wire running from the cooling fan switch to the cooling fan relay is severed. I used a power probe to confirm the relay works, and the fan motor works. I will be fixing that wire here shortly. I have also discovered that the loader in my cassette player does not lower the cassette onto the reels. Did some talking in a forum for cassette players, but I also want to know if anyone here knows anything about it.