RG's Goblin #455 ('06 manual donor)

RGSkid70

RGSkid70

Active Member
I am a retiree with time on his hands. I was looking for a project to keep me busy, and I had narrowed it down to either an ultralight aircraft, a gyrocopter, or a dune buggy. My wife made it very clear that whatever project I started, under no circumstances could it involve flying. So, a dune buggy then. Looking around online I came across the Goblin. Seemed to me it had a lot of advantages over the old VW-based dune buggies. It seemed superior to the Manx in almost every way. Unfortunately, that's about when I learned that DF discontinued the Goblin-AT. I decided that I could actually be happy with a vehicle that looked sort of like a dune buggy without actually being one. The Goblin is certainly very cool, and will really scoot around town. In southwest Ohio, I need to drive about 5 hours to get anywhere with actual sand dunes anyway. So, here we go with RG's Goblin AT Lite.
 
Desert Sasqwatch

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Welcome to the forum. See from the title you have a '06 donor, good start. This is a great retirement project, I'm on year #3 of my build - no big hurry because it IS a retirement project. Let us know about your kit order and don't forget to keep in contact with the forum - it's a great place to get the information you may need to get your build completed.
 
RGSkid70

RGSkid70

Active Member
Bought a 2006 manual LS donor with 168k miles from the IAAI auction. It had a minor front-end collision, but I was actually able to drive it into the garage. Discovered later there was no water in the radiator, but no additional damage done. Had the same problems with rust and frozen nuts & bolts that other builders have reported. No insurmountable problems with the teardown. I had a local scrapyard come pick up the carcass with no problems. They gave me $85 bucks for it!
Early Teardown 01.jpg Finished teardown.jpg Scrapyard Tow Away.jpg
 
RGSkid70

RGSkid70

Active Member
Finished the harness (I think) just after Christmas. There's still one mystery connector I need to chase down. Not sure I can add much to the body of knowledge on this forum, but I will offer the following comments:
- a subscription to ALLDATA is well worth the investment. Even they do not have definitive information on all the connectors.
- I absolutely agree with other builders that you should not tape up the harness until everything checks out
- I also like the Tesa tape instead of vinyl
- I kept all of the wires associated with the windshield wipers because wipers are required in Ohio. I may not use them, but then again I might
- When the videos have you cut out all of the wires attached to the ABS connector, you end up cutting out this connector
Data wire connector.jpg
but this is the pathway for a basic LS manual to get the data wires from the BCM to the engine bay, and then into the ECM. It's also the pathway from the reverse sensor to the backup lights. There's a 4th brown wire that has no mate on the mating connector in the engine bay, at least on my donor.
 
RGSkid70

RGSkid70

Active Member
Putting the project on hold for a couple of months while my wife and I are snowbirds in Alabama and Florida. When I return, I plan to rebuild the clutch and engine, then start assembly.
 
Vwsaabvt

Vwsaabvt

Goblin Guru
RGSkid70 said:
- I kept all of the wires associated with the windshield wipers because wipers are required in Ohio. I may not use them, but then again I might
Click to expand...
one wiper is required but depending on the inspector they may or may not care. I failed my first inspection without it and threw on a cheap manual wiper and it was good enough to pass inspection the second time around. My inspector also required a rear bumper but I don't think anyone else who has titled one in Ohio was required.
 
Joebob

Joebob

Goblin Guru
Read the rules carefully. In Texas, if one has a windshield, you need a wiper system. IF you DON'T have a windshield, you magically do not need a wiper. A car does NOT HAVE to have a windshield (in Texas). Had mine inspected without the windshield to get around the wiper.

Joe
 
RGSkid70

RGSkid70

Active Member
Spent most of April rebuilding the engine. New rings, main and rod bearings, valve job, clutch and flywheel, and new timing chain kit. I was surprised how little wear there was with 190k miles. Biggest ugly surprise was how much all of the torque -to-yield bolts ended up costing. Still looking for the flywheel bolts.

.IMG_20230424_144854582.jpg IMG_20230424_144841685.jpg IMG_20230424_144807829.jpg

Hope to pick up my kit next week. Planning to weld in a diamond plate floor before going any further.
 
A

ah.b.normal

Goblin Guru
RGSkid70 said:
Great advice! One car fire in the garage is enough for a lifetime. (the voice of experience)
Click to expand...
I lit a car on fire in a basement garage in a commercial space. There were probably 12 other cars in there and this car was trapped. I think I did 2 laps around the garage before I saw the fire extinguisher strapped to a pole support about 10’ from the front of the car! A couple of dustings and it was out! That was 1992, my heart beat returned to normal in time for the Olympics in 1996.
 
RGSkid70

RGSkid70

Active Member
Caught my wife's AMC Pacer on fire in the garage while rebuilding the carburetor. That's when I learned a car could actually start and run with no carburetor on the intake manifold. That was in 1982, and I'm not sure my heart ever was the same since.
 
A

ah.b.normal

Goblin Guru
RGSkid70 said:
Finished the harness (I think) just after Christmas. There's still one mystery connector I need to chase down. Not sure I can add much to the body of knowledge on this forum, but I will offer the following comments:
- a subscription to ALLDATA is well worth the investment. Even they do not have definitive information on all the connectors.
- I absolutely agree with other builders that you should not tape up the harness until everything checks out
- I also like the Tesa tape instead of vinyl
- I kept all of the wires associated with the windshield wipers because wipers are required in Ohio. I may not use them, but then again I might
- When the videos have you cut out all of the wires attached to the ABS connector, you end up cutting out this connector
View attachment 37764
but this is the pathway for a basic LS manual to get the data wires from the BCM to the engine bay, and then into the ECM. It's also the pathway from the reverse sensor to the backup lights. There's a 4th brown wire that has no mate on the mating connector in the engine bay, at least on my donor.
Click to expand...
That other brown wire is used on Automatic cars. This is where the body harness begins to be universal, to a certain/minor extent. They are somewhat universal within a specific year. They may be different for the SS cars, but for the base and the LT I've not noted any differences yet.
 
A

ah.b.normal

Goblin Guru
RGSkid70 said:
Spent most of April rebuilding the engine. New rings, main and rod bearings, valve job, clutch and flywheel, and new timing chain kit. I was surprised how little wear there was with 190k miles. Biggest ugly surprise was how much all of the torque -to-yield bolts ended up costing. Still looking for the flywheel bolts.

.View attachment 39934View attachment 39935View attachment 39936

Hope to pick up my kit next week. Planning to weld in a diamond plate floor before going any further.
Click to expand...
I read somewhere that "TTY are very similar to Ti Tty, they're both gonna cost ya!" I hope that's not too racy for this forum?
 
RGSkid70

RGSkid70

Active Member
First start attempted today. All seemed good, but the engine would not crank. Voltages at the ignition switch check out,(specifically , pin 6 shows 5 volts), throttle body cycles, fuel pump "primes", instrument cluster lights up, just no crank.
I had to replace my ignition switch because the anti theft coil got destroyed when I removed the steering wheel. The cluster is showing this symbol:
IMG_20231006_130945680.jpg
Which I think relates to the anti theft system. How do I convince the BCM that my new switch and key are OK?
It's also possible my starter is bad; it's also a replacement.
 
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