Second-time owner with a new rescue mission

Kamikaizen

New Member
Mar 17, 2018
1
0
1
Longmont, CO
Hey everyone! A long while ago I used to have a pretty simple MA70; n/a hard top sport package. Never was a performer but I absolutely loved her and it broke my heart when I had to give her up after suffering a BHG and not having any means to repair it at the time.

Fast forward to now-ish and I was presented with another one as an xmas gift for cheap. This time an 88 turbo targa automatic, non-ABS. She's completely stock and largely unmolested, save for some ancient wiring fuckery. The body is nice and straight but she couldn't move under her own power and was in terrible form, mechanically speaking. I figured it wasn't anything I couldn't handle: the trans was hemorrhaging ATF, there was no overdrive, and an awful misfire to boot. So, I did the reasonable thing to start and hunted down TSRM and EWD hard copies and set to work!

Long story short, the lack of overdrive was diagnosed pretty easily, but the transmission and torque converter were both pretty bad off. The misfire though was a haunting issue that persisted no matter what I did; every time I found an issue that could have created that problem, I would fix it but the main issue of misfiring around 3500RPM along with extreme enrichment would persist. I ultimately did find the root cause; the CPS was beyond trashed. After fixing that she purrs beautifully and is currently undergoing a gearbox rebuild.

I'm hoping to continue sprucing her up over time getting the body cleaned up, and eventually rebuilding the very tired engine so she can be a fun cruiser. No pictures just yet but I'ma working on it!