yellowlust

Last year I started to have overheating issues. Determined it was a failed water pump. On a 95 with nearly 130k miles it's not really surprising. So I get it into the garage, take off the water pump and expect it to be an easy swap. In getting the water pump off I hit the OptiSpark and break off the wiring connector. Now it's getting complicated and an afternoon job just went sideways.

I get around to ordering more parts and wisely order an ATI unit off Amazon. It's cheap and not ALL the reviews are bad. At this point I need to go back in and get the crank pulley off. Will not come loose. I'm trying every trick on the forum from a hammer, a bigger hammer and even a puller. Nothing. I only have jack stands so from under the car I can't get a good enough swing.

I give up.

Get it towed to the shop around the corner. Corvette place, well known. They can get it on a lift and probably have the official puller.

Initial rough quote is $600 to get the pulley off and put everything back together. No problem.

I get the email today, $1300 and it's not running. Must be the crappy OptiSpark I provided they say. Tech said the pulley was rusted on and took an act of God to get off (it wasn't just me!).

Not willing to throw more money at them to troubleshoot I have it towed back home because my time costs less than theirs. They did what they could.

They say the car turned over and ran on a couple cylinders and then stopped. No codes on the ODB. Pulled the spark plugs and said they were fouled. Replaced them and still no luck.

Options:

They replaced the wiring harness going to the OptiSpark, not sure if they spliced it in or it was plug in. Very small chance the splicing wasn't done right. If it's not what would it do?

Pull the OptiSpark and replace the optical sensor with the original one. Will this work? The car ran fine before I broke the plug off the original OptiSpark.

Get another OptiSpark and hope it works?

I've had this car for 13 years and don't really want to get rid of it but sometimes I wonder... I only put a few thousand miles on it a year nowadays, if that. Not sure if it's really worth restoring one day.

antfarmer2

I wish you would have asked first. Some of us have done the pulley and know some tricks. There is no way to tell what damage they have done except for your wallet.$1300 it should have been fixed with a good new opti.
Also it is very possible your still going to still be over heating and the problem was just crap inbetween the radiator and in the fins.
I would test the opti if bad return and try Sac City they have a two year warranty and pull and clean the radiator.

yellowlust

I used every trick I found on the forum on that pulley. 2 jaw puller, banging from the backside, hitting the starter. Would not budge. The tech ended up using a couple pry bars. It was on there solid. If it had been dripping from the WP for a while you can imagine that there could be some excessive rust.

What are the opti tests I can do?

antfarmer2

Mine was bad too just soaked it with pb blaster a few days loosened the bolts started it a few times then taped an turned from the underside on jackstands I though my arm would fall off. I would check for damage to the balancer.
Get a noid light and look for spark. Many threads on how to and look at youtube.
Put a nipple and a tube on the pump.

yellowlust

Sorry, it's been a long week. AIP

yellowlust

I seem to remember someone talking about swapping out the optical sensor with the original one. Does that sound familiar?

csthews

Wow!!! Are you sure that shop was a good corvette place? I can't imagine firing on only two cylinders and not throwing any codes. There may be issues with the Opti install itself:
Did they plug the plug wires out of order?
Did they plug seat the plug wires onto the opti correctly (2 clicks)?
Did they install the opti correctly?
You might want to start there. Also, I would wonder why they saw a need to replace the wiring harness and if they did splice it in, why? There are videos on youtube on testing the opti. Good luck.

yellowlust

Rumor is that the new readers aren't as reliable as the old ones. Perhaps the old ones are just a much higher quality.

yellowlust

The wiring harness was brittle. It's a plug in not a splice (I just confirmed that) so no way for it to go wrong.

I only spend $100 on the opti, I knew there was a chance it was crap. But I also by lottery tickets so I'm either an optimist or an idiot.

yellowlust

When I dropped it off he said $600. I figured for them to get the damn pulley off and button it back up wasn't bad.

csthews

From the many posts here on the opti, it seems to be a crap shoot no matter what you buy unless you can find a NOS unit. The good thing about the SAC City unit is the 2-year warranty.

I assume you are referring to code readers. You don't really need a code reader to pull codes. The 95 has an OBD2 plug, but it is still OBD1 compatible. So if they tried to use a newer reader (or any OBD2 reader), it just won't work. You may already know this, but I thought I'd throw it in just in case.

I still think it will be worth your while to make sure all wires are routed correctly, (including the coil wire) and plugged all the way in before you remove the opti. And if everything checks out, make sure the Opti was installed correctly. It is difficult, actually almost impossible to install it incorrectly, but I have read where people were able to force it in.

Once again, good luck.

mtwoolford

let me see if I understand this, you did or didn't replace the spark plug wires ?

Dad3Sons

Hey Guys- must be the season for this. I have a 96 coupe. I had a slow oil weep in the front cover area that over a few months turned into a big oil weep. Then I had a coolant leak. Decided I needed to bear down and fix it this week. Probably because of the oil leak, my balancer came off easily with the small 2-jaw pulley from the HFT set, part #40966. 10 minute job really. The stem of the puller went right under the hook in the power power steering rack fluid line.

Just tonight I am to the point that I need to buy parts. Will get the water pump at the local NAPA dealer. I only live about 1 hr from Sacramento, so I may go there for the new Opti. Hoping the Opti seal is the oil leak problem, as that has been the prevailing cause in a lot of these threads. Will post progress and results...

dizwiz24

gawd. you likely damaged An unobtanium oem optispark.

im really sorry.

is there anyway you can repair the oem optispark?

i believe the delphi gen 2 optispark is your best choice given th unfortunate circumstances.

sometimes you can get lucky and find an oem optispark on ebay (crate motor take off) or some hobbyist had a spare but now doesnt need it.

you have to ask the right questions, expect to see a tattered box as evidence that its been sitting around for years.

good luck!

dizwiz24

sac city's warranty is useless to me.

it doesnt cover your labor or the tow bill when it goes bad. this isnt an easy part to replace.

they need to get their act together and get their chinese supplier to make a better part.

if this part goes out, it can cause your death (ie. stranding you on a busy highway or in a highway construction zone). good luck for the texting and crappy drivers seeing a low profile car out there stopped dead in the road. theres not always a shouldr to pull onto (ex. nighttime, or construction zone).

if i was sac city it would be a liability for me to import and sell a replacement part with such a poor quality record when i know that the parts i am buying are subpar quality and have a record of failure....

yellowlust

I replaced the spark plugs and wires several years ago, but I doubt they have 10k miles on them.

The shop replaced the plugs (said they were fouled) and made no difference to the running.

They said they've seen this before from the cheap optis. I can't really dispute that as they don't have a stellar reputation.

yellowlust

I see plenty of mention to check out YouTube videos but does anyone have a favorite?

Dad3Sons

I subscribe to "TheCorvetteBen" and "Ozzstar" as they have posted several C4 repair videos. I mostly search just on the topic I need help on...

Joe C.
from NoCal

yellowlust

At this point I'm tempted to take the old opti apart and see if swapping the optical sensor into the new opti will work.

After sitting through most of that Buick YouTube video they don't seem that complicated inside.

I did get the Torx sockets from HF this weekend. Now if I would just take the time to take the old opti apart.

Dad3Sons

Today I finished the Opti-spark tune up and water pump replacement. It was not as difficult as I thought it would be, but I did a lot of research in the forums and on YouTube. My HB came right off with a 2-jaw puller. The only other hiccup was I did not have a water pump drive seal tool. With a little head scratching and my calipers, I found out I could do an initial stretch of the seal with an 11 mm craftsman 3/8 drive socket, and a Harbor Freight 3/8" drive 13mm deep socket was almost exactly the same diameter as the drive spindle, and it fits over the spindle. The seal slid right on!



Also, I read so many horror stories about replacement optisparks, that I decided to just replace the cap and rotor. I got the parts at a local APS. Don't know the brand. I figures since the car ran before I took it apart, and it was pretty clean inside the old Opti, I'd reuse it and take my chances.

Anyway, the job is done - all I have to do is drive it and keep an eye on it for a few days. Wish me luck!

Joe C.
NorCal