I’ve always been a stickler for having the proper documentation while trying to troubleshoot vehicle issues. It doesn’t matter what year the ride is having the factory issued service manuals are a must.

With the latest offerings from YouTube most folks don’t even bother using a service manual. I think this limits the additional knowledge you gain by perusing through the different chapters of information.

This particular 2 part set cost around $100 on the average. I was able to find these for $70. The “Book 1” has a discolored front cover, it’s obvious when placed right next to the 2nd book. The inside pages of both books are in excellent condition. I’ve had the misfortune in the past purchasing this service manuals that had a split seam which mean your nice book became a series of books. Each section broken off at a meaningless stop point.

Wifey and I went for our first top down ride to debug 1992 Corvette Convertible. We took off over Pardee Lake and hit some roads we’ve never been through before.

After awhile we stopped over at Buena Vista market and picked up treats for the road. We then headed out through Jackson and over to Moke Hill where we found a cool place to check out the flowing river.

We had no car issues at all. Everything operated as expected. The test that concerned me the most was the digital display repair I just completed. That took me damn near two days to complete.

I spoke to a family carrying fishing poles and gear. They were heading down stream to their luck catching trout.

We arrived back home safely and still enough time to chill out the rest of the day.

Today I continued working on the cluster gauge repair. More specifically the center digital display is all wonky. I can drive for a few miles and the digits and will become garbled and not readable. It also at times would not display digits at all. Sometimes “tapping” the upper bezel area near the plexiglass covering restored functionality but only for a few minutes at a time.

Removing the entire gauge cluster is not an easy task but dropping the steering column down makes the task much easier and less chance of breaking any plastic tabs or cracking other weak pieces.

I removed the existing solder from every pin that was associated with a harness connection. I then soldered each connection, checking to make sure the fillet was correct and no fractures occurred during handling.

My initial test drive after working on the cluster gauge is promising. I would normally drive for a few miles before the center digital display would start acting wonky. It seemed to be more shock and vibration prone than heat related.

I didn’t experience any loss of display measurements during my short 20 minute ride around the neighboring hillsides. I plan on testing it further tomorrow.

The passenger side rag top latch was toast. The pins that supposed to be inside the receiver were all but gone. You can see the indentations protruding from the sides, that about it.

I was able to pickup a really great condition replacement piece through a contact I met on Facebook. The company name is Mirrock Corvette, there website is https://mirrockcorvette.com/

I highly recommend these guys. My part took 2 days from order to my home. That is freakishly fast service.

The latch locks down like it is supposed. So much that it takes a considerable amount of effort to unlatch it once it is engaged.

I removed the gauge cluster tonight. It wasn’t too bad of a task. Lowering the steering column makes the job much easier than trying finagle the cluster and bezel pieces out without cracking anything.

Working under the dash of a C4 is no picnic. I remember the miserable times I used to have working under my 1989 C4 Corvette years ago. I was a lot younger and skinnier too!

I’ll be taking apart the actual housing assembly and removing the PCB so can redo all the harness and cable connections to the printed circuit board.

Since I have other things to look at I’ll be taking my time with the repairs. The weather has turned full on Winter so the rain is going to prevent me from road testing other fixes I’ve been working on.

I need to remind myself to replace the negative battery terminal bolt. The head has been used so much it no longer provides a snug fit when using a socket or open end wrench.

I have the OBD1 scanner / monitor setup all configured. I needed a 10′ long USB extension cable that allows the computer hardware to be outside of the vehicle. When I need to to perform realtime acquisition data while driving around I have the smaller footprint laptop to take along with me.

I’m ready to troubleshoot the right side bank rich fuel mixture issue I discovered when I removed the passenger side O2 sensor. It was covered in black soot.

I pulled out the passenger side O2 sensor and it was covered in black soot. This is an obvious sign the right bank is running rich. The old saying if it’s running rich at the exhaust, it’s running lean at the motor.

There is some monitor sensor that is reading “lean” and commanding the closed loop to increase the fuel mixture.

These are the actual O2 sensors that I removed from the exhaust manifold. Only two sensors are being used, none at the output of the catalytic converter.

The right sensor (passenger side) is completely covered in black soot while the left side has the normal wear characteristics.

I found out that not all O2 sensors replacements are physically the same. Even though each may be 22mm or 7/8″ size, the body style of the nut and threads may differ. This makes a big difference when removing or installing the left side sensor (drivers-side).

Trying to gain access to the nut is damn near impossible without the use of a special O2 sensor removal tool with the extended length. See my other blog post for more information.

I worked on my OBD1 and ALDL cable connections to the 1992 Corvette C4 interface connector. Everything seems to be working correctly and able to establish two-way communications between the car and software.

I’m using TunePro RT as the software for monitoring and reading codes. I need to get a longer USB extension cable so I can run the car and monitor the engine vitals from a distance.