Well, It's A Start- 98 Eagle Talon TSi/AWD

Basket Case, 1 Each

I finally got a chance to go outside and do a little more work on the 98 Talon TSi/AWD I picked up a few months ago.  Actual work, besides going out there to look at the car, wonder how I'm going to do this and then beating my head against a wall.

I'm still not 100% recovered from my shoulder surgery, so I can't really get after it like I want to.  However at this point any progress made towards getting the car going again, is a GOOD thing.

As mentioned before, it's a real "Basket Case" and if it wasn't a really rare 98 AWD Talon, I probably would have run screaming from it.  Maybe I should have.

"This Thing Needs A Lot Of Work."

The Day It Arrived

Interior Shenaningans

"I'm A Mechanic, Not An Electrician"  Well Actually...

How Does Something Like This Even Happen?

A Little Primer And A Little Paint...Make It What She Ain't"

Missing Side Strakes/Door Guard Pieces?  Figures.

The car is missing the engine, and as you can see the interior really needs some help.  

The engine bay has been partially disassembled and is pretty filthy. 

 A lot of parts were haphazardly removed and/or stored in one of the plastic tubs I got with the car.  Some stuff is flat out missing or unaccounted for.

It's also dinged, dented, missing some trim pieces and rusty in some spots.  It also looks like it's an AWD without Limited Slip.  Bummer.

Hey, let's find the shittiest 2Gb Talon AWD in Kansas and try to save it!

At Least It Was Cheap. Sorta...

Silver Lining?

While this thing is indeed a true "Basket Case", it did come with some stuff that kind of took the sting out a bit.

•  2G 7 Bolt 2.3l Longblock Assembly- with Eagle Rods, Wiseco Pistons, 100mm Factory Crank, Split Thrust Bearing Block (Assembled By The Previous Owner)
• Spare 2G 7 Bolt Split Thrust Bearing Block, Stock Crank, 7 Bolt Rods/Pistons
• 2 Black Box Flashable 2G ECU's
• 97 AWD Transmission/Transfer Case
• "Custom" FMIC Setup With Piping
• MAF Translator With 2 Spare 3in GM MAF's
• AEM 52mm Wideband Gauge/ProSport Boost Gauge
• Spare Parts To Include: Clutches, Flywheels, E-Bay Turbos, E-Bay Tubular Manifold, a Greddy Adjustable Cam Gear And Other Random BS.

Some of these items have already been sold or traded off.  I have a pretty clear idea of how I want this thing to be built.

First Things First

The easiest thing to tackle first would be the interior and the wiring,

I knew this car had probably passed through a lot of hands the chances for all sorts of wiring fuckery were high, and I was right. 

 I find it's often easier when dealing with a new to you project car, to just got through the wiring and remove any thing that looks sketchy or questionable.  Which in this case was pretty much..everything.

Gauges

The car came with two 52mm Gauges on the A-Pillar in a Gauge Pod.  The fact that the Gauge Pod was secured to the A-Pillar with two big Wood Screws should have been my first clue that maybe someone before me should have put down the tools and walked away.

You Gonna Learn...

The two gauges were a AEM Wideband Gauge, with a blue bezel?  Alright, I guess.  Also in the pod was a ProSport Mechanical Boost Gauge.

The wiring for the gauges was jammed between the dash and the A-Pillar and consisted of speaker wire in some places, with the bare wire ends twisted together.  At least they used electrical tape. 

The bezel on the AEM Wideband was painted with blue paint.  Well, that's one mystery solved.

Gauges were removed and the wiring that was still usable was also removed for possible future use in the car.  

Radio Ga Ga

The car came with a Factory Amplified Stereo System, that was bypassed by the previous owner.  I found the Factory Amp in one of the bins that came with the car, and plan on using it if possible.

The Factory Amp mounts underneath the passenger seat and is often bypassed when it stops working, "Becasue Racecar" or if the owner wants to put a better Amplifier and  Speaker setup in the car.

I found the remnants a of a Amplifer and Subwoofer install in the rear hatch, so I imagine the PO bypassed it for this reason.  Unfortunately, instead of using a Adapter Harness to wire his new Head Unit into the car, he cut the Factory Radio Plug off and hardwired his new harness in place.

"Way To Go, Genius..."

I wonder why he did this as the Adapter Harnesses to work with the Factory Amp or bypassing it isn't that expensive.  It was probably harder and more time consuming to figure out how to cludge his new plug into the factory wiring.   

Whatever.  I wasn't there, I just have to fix his "modification."

Using a plug from a junkyard car, I went ahead and resoldered the Factory Radio Plug back into place.  Luckily, the wiring for the Factory Amp  was still intact and hadn't been removed.  Hopefully the old Amp still works.  I plan on installing a Double DIN Touchscreen like the one in my old VW Golf TDI and utilizing the Factor Amp to power everything.

In Progress

Finished

 Turbo Time...Err, What's All This?

I saw that the HKS Turbo Timer on top of the steering column wasn't secured very well and I wanted to verify that someone hadn't hardwired the Turbo Timer into the Starter Circuit, so I dropped the Driver's Side Under Dash Panel.  

This revealed that not only was the Turbo Timer properly installed, but that something else was present.  A partially installed Matrix 10.5  Clifford Alarm System.

The Alarm Control Box had been removed previously, but all the wiring and relays from the previous install were still in place.

I carefully removed everything, and had to reconnect a lead on the Ignition Switch that had been split for the Starter Kill function.  I also removed a set of relays that had been spliced in to the Turbo Timer harness to allow the Turbo Timer to function with the Alarm.

At Least It Came Out Easily

I'm sure that the car started just fine with the Alarm Control Box removed, but I'd rather not deal with having to work around the wiring in the future.  There's still a Coaxial Cable of some kind that runs to the rear of the car.  I still need to trace that and see what it goes to.  

The HKS Turbo Timer has a some features that require additional wires to be run to it from the Parking Brake and the vehicle's ECU.  These wires were routed and installed, with the underdash cover reinstalled as well.

Translation...Not Needed

The car came with a MAF Translator, which I had never used before.  

I planned on using a 2G MAF on the car, so I started trying to figure out how to remove it from the car.

The install looked...ODD, because I thought these units were designed to be installed in the engine bay or relocated with a adapter harness inside the car. 

Mine was completely covered in electrical tape and went through a hole drilled through the firewall (Really?)

Turns out the previous owner extended the connectors with what looks like electrical cable for a house?

What. The. Actual. Fawk?

I went ahead and cut the wires off to remove the Translator from the car and carefully verified the wiring schematic and resoldered the connectors back onto the Translator.  Who knows?  I might actually need this someday.  Just wish there was some way to test it out.  Who knows what it's been through.

More To Come

The interior is still in need of work.  The Previous Owner liked to drill into panels and installed a small gauge in the Center Console, so there are several panels and components that need to be replaced.

The carpet needs to be replaced, and there's a large oil spill behind the Passenger Seat that needs to be cleaned up as well.  No idea how that happened.  The Driver's Seat is a power adjustable unit, so I have to disconnect the motor to pull the seat out without a battery in the car.  I already have a replacement carpet set, so once I can wrestle the seat out, that'll get done.

Not a lot done....but it's a start.

Until Then,

Alpha, Mike, Foxtrot....