A little progress on Festus.

[BigElCat]

In the past three weeks I've gutted the interior, changed the rotors and pads, washed the engine, changed the oil and transmission fluid, relocated the battery to the back, put on a Grant GT steering wheel, and started a gauge collection on the dash.

I changed over to a 'clear-view' style fuel filter, because the old filter showed rust. No rust in the new filter yet.

I learned to use the OBD because Festus started stalling, and the check engine light came on. The voltmeter 'wagged' out a code. It brought to mind the old Lassie TV shows; What is it boy, what's it trying to say? 1 long wag, 5 short wags, pause. 1 long, 5 short. THE JAIL'S ON FIRE! No, it's the oxygen sensor.
$19.00 at O'reilly and Festus runs again.

Here's some pics. I'd like to do a thumbnail grid, but I don't know how.

[BigElCat]

The battery relocation.

Battery box was under $7.00 at Walmart. The 4 gauge welding cable was under $2 a foot. All together about $70 excluding the battery.

[BigElCat]

The Grant GT, tach, and voltmeter.

The junkyard guy gave me the steering wheel. The adapter was $20 from O'Reilly.

Tach and voltmeter are Equus. They work fine, but the tach makes a resonating sound from the dash vibration. It's sorta annoying.

I hooked their lights up to the original dimmer circuit that ran to the radio. The dash light circuit is beyond my comprehension, and I'm sorta like an electrician. The Festiva dash light bulbs don't go directly to a ground. One wire is constant system voltage when the headlight switch is on. The other wire is a voltage that drops when the dimmer is turned to bright! The voltage differential between the wires gives the brightness. More difference, more light. So I guess the ground is at the dimmer switch.

I'll have to change the wiring to the after market gauges. I used the variable voltage only to a ground. So now my lights go dim when the one's in the cluster go bright. I'm a goof ball.