Getting closer........

[Payton King]

My offer for you to drive a few laps around the autocross is still open.

[Jim Nilsen]

My offer for you to drive a few laps around the autocross is still open.

I will be there and ready. I won't be able to thank you enough for the opportunity. I am really excited to just be there and see everyone.

Anyone who loves cars and can make any of the events put on here will enjoy themselves and learn so much even if the car you have isn't done.

This is the greatest bunch of car people anywhere.

See you Friday.

[Jim Nilsen]

Yup...keep after it buddy! Wish I could help, but this is way out of my league. I'm still trying to learn to work with the old factory ECM on my car.

On the positive side: Just think of the help and advice you can offer to someone else struggling with the Accel stuff once you get all of this behind you.

You are so right about that !!!!!! Keeping things postitive is what is keeping me alive these days.

[Jim Nilsen]

The appraiser just left awhile ago and he was in total awe. He did a little research before he came about our cars and the market and has to go back and do more so he can get it right.

He gave me a low figure as to the value and it about floored me. He said it could even go higher but he will keep it realistic.

Anyone still willing to put out a guess?

I am getting so excited about all of this , it is making my imagination become a reality I never thought would be like it is 17 years ago when I started this car.

[John Wright]

Are you working with the adjuster to come up with an agreed upon value? I probably need to revisit this with my insurance agent when I get closer to getting it on the road.

[Jim Nilsen]

Are you working with the adjuster to come up with an agreed upon value? I probably need to revisit this with my insurance agent when I get closer to getting it on the road.

That is the next step from what was told to me an hour ago. I don't have the written appraisal back to me, I will have it tonight if they still aren't overwhelmed with it. They have never appraised a PT car before and they want to make sure they do enough research to get it right. It will be an appraisal that will reflect both the market value and the replacement cost to build it the way it is built if something happens. The two are very different prices. The cost to have it built the way it is he figured a minimum of................

$100,000.00

I asked him twice if he was serious and he said if he was to build a car like that for someone it would go over 150k.

He is more than confident that the insurance company would go no lower than 80k and thinks they will know what they are looking at and know it is higher.

Then it was also pointed out to him that I can insure it for less and lower my premium if I choose to so he has to get me prices for agreed value policy cost.

So far each side is understnding what is needed to come up with something we can all agree on. so if I am doing right I don't know but I am open to what has to be done to get to drive it for now and enjoy it.

It will be intersesting to see the cost of 100k worth of insurance.

It was also conveyed that I need more coverage on the cost of total replacement if it is stolen compared to damaged. I can fix damage but trying to replace it would take me another lifetime if you talked to my doctors last year. I really think he understood what I was getting at.

I have to go get ready to head for the hills and I am very excited.

May the horsepower be with us all !!!!!

[Motown 454]

Very nice Jim now go enjoy yourself. And have some fun for me.

[nvr2fst]

Jim out of curiousity what agency are you trying to go through. From your statements (agents havent dealt with a PT car) it seems that it may be a company like Allstate, Statefarm, etc.) Or is it a company like Grundy, Haggerty, etc. Which IMO dont have issues with agreed replacement or repairs.
Dave

[Jim Nilsen]

Jim out of curiousity what agency are you trying to go through. From your statements (agents havent dealt with a PT car) it seems that it may be a company like Allstate, Statefarm, etc.) Or is it a company like Grundy, Haggerty, etc. Which IMO dont have issues with agreed replacement or repairs.
Dave

Continental Western Ins. out of Minnesota. I have had them for years for my comprehensive policy while working on it. It had been insured for 25k with paint clause for the first 3k and they pay the rest. It also had a backup parts and uninstalled parts clause in case something got stolen but not the car. There have been a few people in my area who have made claims with no problems.
The policy I had is $161.00 a year. which was pretty good. If you multiply it by 4 and add the collision and liability it would be about $700 to $900 i am thinking for 100k worth. I will probably go with about 60k worth and call it good for the insurance.

As far as resale value it is anybody's guess as to what I would be able to get for it? I know that if the right person likes it as much the guys who appraised it did , it should get me some offers I might not be able to refuse.

We will find out what they think of the 75k to150k appraisal I just recieved. The agent is all excited about it and at least is showing a genuine interest in my car after all of these years of paying and never seeing him.

This is making life a bit more interesting for sure.

I still look at it sometimes and say :Did I do that? :

It has been a long road and I can see the next turn coming up and it actually has a speed limit sign on it instead of saying Gasoline Alley.

[K5Cruiser]

Congrats on the progress you've made thus far! It sounds like everything is going pretty well with your insurance company. I wish I could stop by and help you out with the Accel issues, but alas I'm in SoCal. Good luck and can't wait to see some pics of your car on the road!

[Van B]

Continental Western Ins. out of Minnesota. I have had them for years for my comprehensive policy while working on it. It had been insured for 25k with paint clause for the first 3k and they pay the rest. It also had a backup parts and uninstalled parts clause in case something got stolen but not the car. There have been a few people in my area who have made claims with no problems.
The policy I had is $161.00 a year. which was pretty good. If you multiply it by 4 and add the collision and liability it would be about $700 to $900 i am thinking for 100k worth. I will probably go with about 60k worth and call it good for the insurance.

As far as resale value it is anybody's guess as to what I would be able to get for it? I know that if the right person likes it as much the guys who appraised it did , it should get me some offers I might not be able to refuse.

We will find out what they think of the 75k to150k appraisal I just recieved. The agent is all excited about it and at least is showing a genuine interest in my car after all of these years of paying and never seeing him.

This is making life a bit more interesting for sure.

I still look at it sometimes and say :Did I do that? :

It has been a long road and I can see the next turn coming up and it actually has a speed limit sign on it instead of saying Gasoline Alley.

I think Grundy is charging me $460 a year for $65,000 agreed value policy. Just for comparison.

[Jim Nilsen]

I think Grundy is charging me $460 a year for $65,000 agreed value policy. Just for comparison.

Thanks for the heads up. I might have to go with them if Continental has a problem with track days and autocrossing. The agent seemed like it would be no problem but he has never insured a PT car before and he is learning what he needs to know as he goes along. So far it has been one for myself too.

They do know you track day and autocross with it right? How many miles do you get to drive?

Then the next big question? How long did the process take them?

Thanks again.

[nvr2fst]

Jim
your previous policy was pretty decent. And for the intentions you have for your car your new policy doesnt seem all that bad. I may have to contact them in the future if it works out right for you. The options are limited for what we want to cover and considering only a handfull of companies will do speciality policies there competition is scarce and charge accordingly.

Jeff
I to was with Grundy prior to teardown for years. I was paying 385.00 for a 50 grand agreed value. Non installed products were and still are insured with my bus. policy under an unbrellar coverage of parts stored at our const. warehouse.
On my sons car I pay 153.00 for an unassembled product through Farmers ins. My bro just became my agent.

[Motown 454]

I don't think Grundy covers timed event in my policy.

[Jim Nilsen]

I don't think Grundy covers timed event in my policy.

I don't think I will get coverage for when I am on the track or the autocross while competing but we will see what they say. If they cover me right up to the parking lot for everything and stop there I will be happy.


I have talked to a guy that thought he saw a competiton policy available but hat would be more than I could probably afford.

This is going to be an intersting learning experience for my agent for sure.

[Van B]

I don't think I will get coverage for when I am on the track or the autocross while competing but we will see what they say. If they cover me right up to the parking lot for everything and stop there I will be happy.


I have talked to a guy that thought he saw a competiton policy available but hat would be more than I could probably afford.

This is going to be an intersting learning experience for my agent for sure.

Knowing that most insurance companies will not cover you while you are on the track has always made me think twice before running track events with the car. Ethically, if I ever had an on track incident I would not try to claim it. Someone once said not to track anything you could not afford to walk away from. While I could afford a total loss, it is not my ideal situation.

This is why I have a lot more fun racing the Spec Miata. $12,000 is much easier to swallow than $60,000+.

[Jim Nilsen]

I am now rested up from the RTTH event and have lined up a tuner to come on the 5th of oct. He is bringing with him a harness and distributor to make sure that they are not the problem. He thinks that the distributor might have gotten damaged from having the polarity wrong on the dual sync wiring harness. It will be an interesting day when he gets here.

I have a new Braille battery to make sure I have enough voltage, these batteries charge up to 13.8 at full charge which is a full volt over the other battery.

Haven't heard from the insurance man with prices yet but the rush isn't on until the 1st of oct. Then I will be all over it and who ever gets to me with the right numbers wins. I might have to get Frank to get me a quote from Heacock ?

I really wanted to get the car running before I put the front clip on. It shouldn't be too bad to just change out the distributor and the harness section with the front end on, but if there are other problems it will be more of a pain. I hope I have covered everything that could get in the way.

Now back to it!!!!

[Motown 454]

Keep at it Jim you'll get it.

[Jim Nilsen]

I started out today tracing down wires on the harness. checking for voltage where it is supposed to be and checking for continuity from pin to pin to see if the wires are in the correct places.

While looking at the relay plug I noticed that the pink and black are reversed. I don't think it matters since it just powers the magnet for the solenoid but it is still bugging me.

Is it wrong or am I looking at it backwards?



Heres the pics

[Bow Tie 67]

I started out today tracing down wires on the harness. checking for voltage where it is supposed to be and checking for continuity from pin to pin to see if the wires are in the correct places.

I have found I have no power or continuity to the pink wire for the igniton to the #30 pin on the ignition harness. I do get continuity to the MIL, the o2 sensor gets hot but no continuity to the ignition. when looking at the plug to the relay I look at the angle to the corner so you don't wire it wrong and then follow the wires and colors to the schematic and find that the black and pink wires look to be in the wrong place. Am I reading it wrong/inverted?

Here is a pic of the schematic which can also be found at Accel site and a physical pic of the plug and where the wires are. They are not correct according to the way I see it in the drawing.

I get no power to the pink wire A at the plub that is supposed to go to the red/white stripe wire to the 6a ignition box. It is supposed to go to the wire after you get done with the distributor setup. It also says ,"DO NOT ATTACH ANOTHER SWITCHED 12 VOLT SUPPLY TO THE BOX"
The red/white stripe wire from the 6a is labeled to go to a switched 12v source. The pink wire is supposed to attach to it. The distributor doesn't even light up unless I hook the pink wire to a 12v source. It appears that it should have its own power coming from the relay.

This could be why I am not getting anything to fire thru the ecu and am just firing the distributor at random from the 12v switch source I have to attach it to to get it to light up.

Look at it and tell me if I am seeing it backwards.

Heres the pics

Mother @#$#$!%$% I just lost all I typed. Here it is again

Call Accel and ask if the CD ignition box should have its own seperate ignition source ( red / white wire ) or if it should tie in on the print at the ignition plug pin " A " for the DFI system.

Either way you will have to connect Pin " A " in parallel with contact #30 on the #1 relay to get the 12v you need for the distributor. ( once its in parallel you will have continuity between IGN pin A, HEGO pin D, MIL pin A, and Relay #1 pin 30 ( red / white wire according to the print )