1st Problem with the RB Swap.....

[Ramius83]

Application: R32 RB26 into 1995 S14

Everything has gone pretty smooth so far. I am just finishing up the intercooler piping and the gauges.

Everything ignition wise has worked fine since day one. McKinney did the wiring, so yeah. My radio has always worked, windows work, motor would turn when the starter was engaged, etc.

So today, I bought a 12 foot 4-an stainless steel braided line to run from the oil pressure port on the RB26 to the oil pressure gauge inside the car. I had previously run that stupid arse little nylon line to the gauge, but I was not comfortable with those stupid little compression fittings one bit.

So, I removed the nylon line and fed the new 4-an s/s braided line in through the firewall grommet on the driver's side of the car in behind the front fender, which is exactly where the other line had been going previously.

I finished everything up, and now I have a HUGE problem. When I turn the ignition to run, I have no power windows, no radio, no A/C blower, nothing. And when I turn the ignition all the way to engage the starter, it does nothing. All I have are lights and poor door locks. I checked all the fuses on the interior fuse block. And I did the same for the fuse block in the engine bay. I didn't find a single burnt fuse.

Looking closer at the interior fuse block, I found a grey plug in behind the fuse block that was disconnected, is has about 4-5 green wires and 1 black wire. What is this plug for? If I remember correctly, I have seen this plug before in the past, and it has always been unplugged. Anyone have any insight into this?

Tomorrow, I am going to test to see if the fuse block itself has any power to it. I do know that all the ignition wires were intact, and the ignition module itself does not feel broken or different than usual.

Thanks guys.
Modified by Ramius83 at 4:03 AM 5/10/2005

[biglipzit]

wow now that seems to be a big prob. Have you checked any of the relays? One of those could have burnt or gotten stuck. You did nothing else other than run this braided steel line? You should get a meter to check for voltages through the battery, fuse boxes wtc. That loost plug was probrbaly always loose. I have a million and one of those plugs unplugged all over my car.

[gawdzilla]

sounds like you lost the ground for the battery or something. its gotta be something huge for all those things to suddenly stop working. check your battery, make sure it is still cool. maybe it drained overnight cuz something is drawing current from it.

mck's wiring job should not have affected the radio/pws/door locks. if those things worked before you gutted the car, they should still work.

good luck w/ it, we have the same swap

[Ramius83]

Thanks guys so far for your posts....

Well, first off, up until last night, I have had the Mckinney wiring in the car. The windows, radio, ignition, everything ignition related have always worked since I got it back from McKinney. Just for some odd reason last night, I put the windows down, ran the new line for the oil pressure gauge in place of the old one, and tried to turn the motor, but I have NO power to the ignition stuff. The lights still work, door chime, etc, but nothing ignition works. Maybe the battery is drained, which I hope to god lol. I will swap the battery with my new Frontier battery and see if anything changes.

Gawdzilla: The only difference between you and I is that you have built the motor, correct? I cheaped out on that so far. Later on, whenever this engine fails for any reason, I will dismantle it and then build it later.

[gawdzilla]

Gawdzilla: The only difference between you and I is that you have built the motor, correct? I cheaped out on that so far. Later on, whenever this engine fails for any reason, I will dismantle it and then build it later.

yup, forged pistons w/ shot peened oem rods. good luck w/ the wiring problem, my guess is the battery is drained. i just finished my wiring harness yesterday and tested the powerfc on it.

[FAST-DATSUN]

check fuses under the hood and dash....

[AmoebAssassin]

Is anything grounding across your stainless steel line? Make sure no exposed metal is touching your wires. However if this was the case, you'd probably have blown a fuse already...but it cant hurt to check

[Ramius83]

Problem found.

There is a green fuse in the engine bay fuse block. It is the Ignition fuse. The gap that was missing in between the two points was no more than 1/64 of an inch. Taht is why we did not catch it the first time around. Thanks all for your help.

The battery ended up being just fine. But, we charged it anyways just to knock that one off the list of possible problems.

[totoro001]

i've had that happen to me on a number of occasions. In the occurance that you lose a ton of electrical stuff at once, check your FSM first and see what their common denominator is. Normally it'll all go back to a single fuse, and when it's a ton of stuff like that, it's normally a fuse right off the battery (i'm not sure about the rb25, but on many motors there are 2 fuses right off the battery, one for 90% of the electrical stuff, and then one for the other 10%). glad you got it working wish i would have checked the thread sooner and saved you a bit of looking