I swear, Creig Houghtaling is a genius…or at least, as an engineer, he’s more capable of logical thought when it comes to understanding automotive electrical systems than yours truly.  It took three sessions totaling about nine hours (plus a couple of attempts by myself, which totaled maybe two hours), but as of 1945L this day, the HSD is running again.  And doggone, that gear reduction starter really spins up…

In the end, it wasn’t the Prince of Darkness who had cursed my vehicle; it was a previous owner, who at some point rewired the starting circuit to bypass the starter relay behind the glove box. Creig figured this out (while giving me an education in reading TR electrical diagrams), did the repairs/corrections with my assistance and now the car runs again, for the first time in about five months.

It’s still not road-ready; looks like Sunday afternoon before I’ll be able to get under it again to re-attach the right cat converter, plus I have to clean up some things but with any luck, I’ll be back on patrol by next week AND should be able to jump into the autocross season, yee-haw!

I think I need to put Creig in for an SLTOA Lifetime Achievement Award or something similar…