My car has finally arrived!

[rskdsk]

Thanks for the information ... I am now afraid to frive my car.  I will look at each of those on the list this weekend and see what needs to be done.  I did receive 2 bag of rod ends with my car ... silver ... the one on the car are a yellow color. 

[Terry Kennedy]

Thanks for the information ... I am now afraid to frive my car.

I have one of the earliest Brammo cars and have the US mileage record (30K+). So if it can happen, it probably did happen to me. Don't let it scare you out of the car - just approach things with a reasonable amount of common sense and look at these things and see if they need correcting on your car.

I will look at each of those on the list this weekend and see what needs to be done.  I did receive 2 bag of rod ends with my car ... silver ... the one on the car are a yellow color. 

Sounds like you have the SPM/SPB on the car. I believe the AM/AB (silver) ones are stamped with the part number on one of the flat faces.

It isn't hard to change the rod ends (the hardest part is getting the suspension / steering pushrod ones off, as there are no hex or flats on the tube to get a wrench onto). However, you will need a chassis alignment after changing them.

[rskdsk]

I am guessing I have car Number 10 ... RAM 286

[Terry Kennedy]

[quote="rskdsk"]
I am guessing I have car Number 10 ... RAM 286
[/quote]

That's one past mine (RAM285) Looks like yours was built as a "245HP" and not a "300HP". It was also listed as an owner installed engine (probably a registration requirement for the original owner). So, pretty much all of the items I listed above should be inspected on your Atom. In addition, those early cars came with some "interesting" chassis alignment setups. While everyone has different preferences, the Brammo alignment was "interesting" - one owner spun out after coming down the pit lane and onto the front straight at Hallett, for example.

[rskdsk]

I am gonna check out all the issues, and I just posted something else ... I am having issues with my gauges and wt reading.

[rskdsk]

Here are a few shots of what I have

[rskdsk]

Maybe you can see the gap I have in my blinker housing and I seem to have some strange belt wear around my alternator ... seen this before?

[rskdsk]

I attempted the fuse box ... I have a problem.  The jumper is there and it is pink.  The wire in A7 is also pink ... what up with that?  Also, when I turned over the fuse box I found a wire lose.  It is a red with white strip and I am assuming it goes into the first slot on AA ... the ecu?

[rskdsk]

Here are a couple of shots of under the fuse box ...

[rskdsk]

A7 wire is actually a pink with black strip, not red on my car.

[Terry Kennedy]

[quote="rskdsk"]
Here are a few shots of what I have
[/quote]

I have 2 problems - first, your images are really small and I can't make out a lot of detail in them. Second, my Atom is 3000 miles away from me right now, so I can't photograph mine to show you.

[rskdsk]

np, i did the change using the pink and black ... put the car together ... and it runs ... I will go for a test drive and turn on the lights to be sure everthing is good.

[rskdsk]

Well ir seems half fixed.  The dash no longer resets, but the wt temperature is still bouning a lot and the wt is flashing even at 100 ... not sure what up yet.

[Terry Kennedy]

[quote="rskdsk"]
Well ir seems half fixed.  The dash no longer resets, but the wt temperature is still bouning a lot and the wt is flashing even at 100 ... not sure what up yet.
[/quote]

Ok, at least things are getting better...

It seems to be safe to assume that there were two different problems.

Fortunately, the dash has absolutely nothing to do with the engine and ECU on these cars - the car will run fine without the dash and the dash will operate without an engine. That makes it an uncomplicated (though time-consuming) task to check wiring - no need to worry about the intricacies of the engine management computer.

Here is the pinout for the SPA dash. Looks like Pin 17 is the one you want. I'm not sure off the top of my head if that is a voltage or resistance sensor (I have the Microdash, which is a completely different kettle of fish ). As a first step, I'd suggest using a multimeter set to a 15V or higher scale to measure the voltage between pin 17 and chassis ground. You should see some sort of reasonable progression as the car warms up. Hopefully your dash will act up with the car standing still, or you'll need someone to watch the meter while you drive.

I expect you'll see some sort of out-of-range excursion on the meter at the point when the dash reports an odd temperature reading. If that's the case, it is almost certainly a problem in the car wiring or the actual water temperature sensor itself. There is a slight chance that a problem in the dash could cause odd multimeter readings, but it is unlikely.

If you don't see any odd readings on the multimeter, it could be that the meter doesn't react quickly enough (if it is an instantaneous short or open circuit, the meter may not react). You might need something like an oscilloscope.

If you were in my area I'd offer to help sort your car out in person. But you're on the other end of the east coast, I think.

TMI would be a lot closer to you than I am. They are the official support provider for all US Atoms, both the Brammo ones and the ones they built. Of course, there's no warranty on these cars and yours is quite a few years old anyway, so they'd most likely charge you to look at it and fix stuff. Of course, then you'd have the confidence of knowing your car got a thorough going-over at the factory. If that sounds like something you might want to do, I suggest you phone Mark at TMI and discuss the various issues with him.

[rskdsk]

OK, something happens at 105 ... the WT starts flashing and number starts jumping all around.  Before 105 the car temp wt slowly goes up with an occasional -57 flash.  This may be the grounding issue.  I'll start playing with the ground tomorrow.