No real progress yet. I jacket the rig back up, pulled the tire off for access and got side tracker with other issues. The temp sensor that feeds the ECU had one of the wires broken right at the pigtail, and the other wire was barely connected. This was probably my fault from bumping them while changing the knock sensors. The other temp sensor that feeds the dash guage wasn’t connected and the pigtail connector was not on the end of the wire, I guess the PO just stripped the wire and pushed it into the connector. Also started thinking about the brittle cracked vacuum lines that go to the charcoal canister and that I might have bumped them replacing the knock sensors.
I figured while I’m here I might as well address all of this. My thoughts were to hook everything back up to make sure it all works right and order what’s needed to make the proper repairs.
1) For the temp sensor that feeds the dash gauge, I crimped on a small connector and pushed it back in the back of the sensor.
2). For the temp sensor that feeds the ECU, I cut the old pigtail off and crimped a really small connector on each wire and plugged them back into the sensor. This was a super pain as I had to do this by feel, couldn’t see what I was doing. My method was feel the sensor and push the connectors on, then take a picture with my phone held under the intake to verify I did right.
3). For the knock sensors, I pulled the number one sensor and replaced it with the original one that wasn’t originally throwing a code.
4). Installed new vacuum lines on the charcoal canister just in case I bumped one of those and opened up a crack.
After getting all this done I put the wheel back on and fired it up. It started perfectly and idled perfectly. I cleared the codes and took it for a drive. The dash temp gauge is working and my scan gauge temp is working good again. It drive good but still feels like I’m down on power.
I did finally get a code of PO330 which is the number 2 knock sensor, but no other problems. What this tells me is I need to get knock sensors that work and new connectors for the two temp sensors. I went ahead and ordered the 2 new pigtail connectors, OEM knock sensors and a vacuum line kit.
As of now I’m in stand by waiting on parts. I’ll probably put a few miles on it while I’m waiting, but don’t feel real comfortable with it until I get real connectors on the sensors. Also I’m hoping that when I change out those old vacuum lines with new ones I’ll get some of the performance back. I’m hoping some are cracked that’s part of the problem.
