I just bought my first vette ( 1985 tunedport, automatic) four months ago and the thing hates me! LOL. I need major advice. I have headlights that work whenever they feel like it. A drivers seat that vibrates, but won't function otherwise, a voltage gage that will read anywhere from 14.1 to 11.1, and gages that at night will "throb" like a heartbeat from normal brightness to VERY bright, and the breaker in the fusebox by the driverside door sometimes gets too hot to touch. Is there a common link that I can look for? I checked the light motors to see if they get power and they do. They make no noise when they don't go up, but they do get power. The driverside broke first, and for the most part stay broken, the passenger side died about two weeks later, but work about half the time. It's my only car and I don't get off of work till after dark. Please help.

 

Oh, forgot one thing, the a/c and heat work, but they blow out of all of the vents,(dash, defroster, and floor) at once. That is the only thing that was already broke when I bought the car.

 

Sorry if i cant help you on all of your problems. But first of all, as far as the voltage goes, check with a voltmeter to see what the alternator is actually putting out, and see if it corresponds to what your read out is saying. Sometimes the pulsing of the dash lights is a sign of your alternator going bad.

As far as the power seat goes, sometimes those things just go out, very expensive to replace. Maybe you could find a used one at a salvage yard.

For the headlights, this is a problem that i hope doesnt happen to me for a long long time. But there is a way that you can open the hood, and there is a screw on each headlight that allows you to manually crank them up so they can still be used, that way you can still drive at night. Ill have to check my manual and get back to you, but from what i remember i think there is a **** that you can turn, but i think you have to do something else first. Ill check and get back.

 

Raisin is right on the alternator. Probably has a rectifier going out and it is charging when it wants to. The vibrating you are feeling in the seat is probably one of the transmissions in the seat mechanisim, cable probably broke. Each headlight motor has a **** on it that you can turn and manually open headlights. After you open them, there are 2 connectors to each headlight, one for the light, the other for the motor. Disconnect the one for the motor so it won't run and try to close. Sounds like the plastic gears in each motor has stripped (very common problem), need to upgrade to the metal gears. Good luck![8D]

 

Corvettes in Wrecking Yards? What country are you living in? Corvettes seldom, if ever, end up in wrecking yards. They do get wrecked and totaled, but they are usually sold ASAP to dismatlers. I've never in 30 years of using wrecking yeards have ever seen a Corvette being picked apart by weekend hacks.

 

All2kool is right. Aint no vette gunna see the lights of a salvage yard unless that guy is dumb as ****

 

I thought there were specific corvette salvage yards. what were those places that corvetteking was always endorsing?

 

Hey guys, Thanks for the help. I don't think the gears are stripped though. They do work sometimes. When they won't I have gotten uner the hood to listen to the motors and they don't make a sound. They do get power though, I checked that. Is there something for each light that could be acting up, like a relay or something, that would let them work sometime and not the other time? They seam to be seperate. They won't both work at the same time. The driver's side stays broken most of the time but the right side works 50% or so.
Thanks for the info on manually opening them. That will at least get me driving legal. I tried every junk yard in town, and called every shop. No one has parts for it or will work on it. I don't want to order new light motors untill I am pretty certain that the are the problem.Both of the chevy dealers in town won't do any electrical work o the car, just mechanical. I live in Jackson Mississippi and old Vettes are pretty rare here. I see C4s ones every two or three weeks at most.

 

Check all of the electrical connection. sounds like maybe you have a loose connection or corrosion. I had a fuel pump problem like that on an old truck I have. couldn't figure it out. turned out to be the wire inside the conector was loose. the conector was hard on the wires insulation but not the wire and it eventually corroded. good luck

 

Raisinbran is correct; there are many Vette boneyards in the States. All one has to do is go on your Search Engine and type in "salvage yards" and voila, you have hundreds of them. I have bought many good used parts from these yards, and I have never received a bad part. My favourite bone yard is the following e-mail address: scarabexc@aol.com. These are parts that are like brand new. He only salvages very good C4 parts. Trying to help.....

mypetu39