[Han Solo]

Here's what I brought back to the garage apartment today. A one owner '88 that had really good maintenance until about four years ago. The owner lost resources to repair a non-start condition and the car was parked outside. I found the ad on FB market and made an offer after looking it over. Known issues at this time. Non-start but the crank turns when pushed in gear. Battery missing. Some rust on the hoods and right rear wheel arch. Passenger window regulator non-functional. Roof and c-pillar trim missing. Dash has some cracks. Shifter boot completely toast. The good stuff. Motor oil looks really good. Tires are holding air but will need replaced. E-brake works. Interior is not wet. Plan of action. Continue cleaning and drying. Install a battery and energize the electrical. Put on lift and inspect the underside. Drain the fuel tank. Put in fresh fuel and try to start. Photos 1 thru 4 are from Marketplace ad. The next three are after cleaning today.

 

[Marcus Davies]

It seems like you have a lot of work to do. Good luck with this build, hopefully, it will turn out well.

 

[Han Solo]

I was able to spend the day working on this project. Went to hook up a test battery and found why there was no electrical. The white wire on the positive battery terminal was bad. Someone spliced in a smaller gauge wire that failed. I corrected that with the proper size wire, butt splice with solder and new terminal. Bingo! The instrument panel lights up and it will crank. A couple shots of ether and it's catching. Add some fresh fuel to the tank and it's running. High idle initially then it settles when coming up in temp. The headlights turn on, lower and raise. Most all the marker lights work. Flasher is non-functional. Fan motor works and there's cabin heat. AC compressor kicks in but probably need refrigerant. Exterior mirrors pan and tilt. Even the OE radio turns on and gets reception (marginal as the antenna is broke off). So I'm feeling really good about this and go to the auto parts store for a correct battery, wiper blades and a fuel hose (mice chewed one from the hard line to filter). After installing those, I decide to degrease the engine. When done, the car starts running rough. I give it a little throttle and it dies. Crap! No restart and I suspect no spark. Lots of water in the plug valley and I dry that up. Dry up the distributor as well. I'll let it sit over night and see if it catches tomorrow.

 

[rmeller]

That wire you replaced is called the main fusible link. It is actually an inline fuse that provides the last-ditch protection against a hard wiring short. It didn't necessarily blow out. It is common for it to corrode through. It is a good idea to replace it with spec if you want full electrical protection.

 

[Han Solo]

Okay, disaster averted. There was still moisture in the plug valley this morning so I pulled the center cover off and really dried the plugs and wires. Put the wires back on and it fires right up. That's a relief as I really didn't want to start throwing ignition parts at it. The distributor, rotor, wires and plugs were replaced about 15,000 miles ago.

 

[Han Solo]

Cold morning last Thursday and the MR2 was not wanting to start. I figured it was a cold start issue but I was able to diagnose no little or no fuel getting to the rail. Replaced the fuel filter but still dry. I did find a 15A fuse blown in the engine bay. I suspect the fuel pump locked up. I'll confirm that by applying 12VDC directly to the fuel pump plug in the console. I found a very helpful video here

 

[Han Solo]

Confirmed the fuel pump was toast today. Pulled the console, took loose all the fuel hoses and dropped the tank. The pump is covered with gunk and corrosion. Same with the sender. The good news is the tank is almost completely rust free! I'll replace the pump and screen. The sender is NLA so I'll try to clean that up and get it functional. I also cleaned up the intake hoses, resonator and AFM.

 

[Han Solo]

Replaced the FP, gasket, screen and all the associated hoses. Cleaned the sender up but I'm not sure it's functioning. The worst part of putting the tank back in was getting the fill hose lined up and clamped down. The car started right up after putting in a few gallons of fuel. Got all the under panels, e-brake brackets and interior back on. Next up is getting the PS window regulator repaired.