1979 Colt Sigma from the cold north

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Giert
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 5:49 am

1979 Colt Sigma from the cold north

Post by Giert »

Recently bought this old Colt Sigma from 1979. Never heard of Sigmas before, but it really caught my eye. Gotta love the cool, but still classy design on these things. Got it fairly cheap, it runs well and there's not much rust (that I have found yet, at least). Another important thing is the awesome reliablility; it starts easily even when the temperature creeps below -40. On several occations I've even had to kickstart "cold resistant" military vehicles with it. Currently it resides in a military compound in Norway, near the city Tromsø (that's 350 km north of the polar circle), doing mostly short trips inside the camp until I can get EU-certified. Wich is a big hassle every other year. And that's really what this post is all about; fixing the issues at hand so I can get it out on the open roads again.

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As you can see here, the previous ower thougt orange lights are really cool. Personally I don't really agree, but fortunately the paint is falling off by itself when there's really cold outside. And those lights near the ground there are acting as parking lights instead of the original ones in the corners. God knows why...

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Notice here that I hve not turned off the lights, yet nothing back here is lit - and that's a case. When I'm hitting the breakes, however, the entire red part of the tail lights light up - in addition to two barely visible breaklights in the rear windshield. And now I ask you; how are the lights supposed to be back here? What's supposed to be breake lights and what's supposed to be regular lights?

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The interior is suprisingly clean, although there are a lot of poorly executed modifications here as well. Most noticeable are the colorful switches on both sides of the steeringwheel. And guess what; they're not connected to ANYTHING! Again, a question to the community; what switches am I lacking in that black area to the left, seeing as the colorful ones are useless? And also; instrument lights not working. The're on the same circuit as parking lights, right?

PS - I'm new here, so "hi everybody!"
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ddt
Posts: 669
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Location: Perth

Re: 1979 Colt Sigma from the cold north

Post by ddt »

Hi Giert,

Cool sigma, good to see another one of these surviving on the other side of the world.

Are you sure your parklights were rewired and you don't just have a blown fuse or faulty column switch?

Here's some wiring diagrams i've just scanned. There's a pre mid-1978 and after mid-1978 version so check differences carefully. In Australia our early sigmas were imported from japan and later were assembled locally. Though your sigma is 1979, it could have either wiring -or something completely different! Goodluck -let us know how you go.

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81GL
Sigma-Galant Police (Global Mod)
Posts: 912
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:27 am
Location: Mildura Sunraysia Vic

Re: 1979 Colt Sigma from the cold north

Post by 81GL »

Neat looking GE.

As you have no tail lights or dash lights; get someone to switch the head lights on and off for you, while they are doing that have a look and listen in the engine bay for the headlight relay that should be clicking on and off.
-The relay has 2 poles, one circuit switches head lights, the other does the tail & dash lights. I've seen a few of them fail in GE's & GH's
Doing a continuity check of the contacts :thumpsup:

As for your tail/brake lights. they use a dual element globe, lower wattage for tail lights and a higher one for brakes. More or less, the ones that light up for the brakes should also be on for tail lights, just not as bright (note, the two elements are not allowed to be on at the same time.)

Good luck with it.

Nick.
Old school Mitsu's, its not a hobby; it's a life style.
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BlueThunder
Posts: 338
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Location: Antwerp

Re: 1979 Colt Sigma from the cold north

Post by BlueThunder »

Hi Giert

I found already a German workshop manual. It has in the back the wiring schematics but of course the text is in german...
Someone scanned it in black and white so I don't know if it's clear enough for you to work with...

here it is: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/901 ... sserie.pdf

When I find some time I'll try to scan a dutch one in colour for you.

Greetz
Sven
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Giert
Posts: 17
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Re: 1979 Colt Sigma from the cold north

Post by Giert »

It's been a few weeks now, military took most of my time, but progress was made nonetheless

Thanks to all your help, and wiring diagrams form "ddt", I was able to find the error. Turned out someone had been fiddling with the connections on the backside of the fusebox. More spesifically that someone connected the relay for those extra lights directly to the parking light fuses. Meaning those lights had a the original relay switching on another relay. Meanwhile the parking lights consequently had no relay, and the loose cable by the fusebox was "hidden" by connecting it to a dead end wire. Seems someone went through a lot of trouble to cover up their bad wiring.

Solution: Reconnected the park lights to the fusebox, and connecting the extra lights to one of the horrible, colorful switches. Gotta buy some chrome-ish ones soon.
Result: Park lights working, tail/license/boot lights working and instrument lights working. (Why green intrument lights?)

So next week is EU safety control. That control will decide wether I can keep the car or not. If it has too many expensive errors I just don't have the economy to fix it, unfortunately. But I think it should be good enough to pass, as long as they don't mind the leaking exaust or shabby wiring....

Thanks again for your help, would never have sorted out that "creative" handywork on my own. Was looking at the complete wrong place (dual element globes are obvious once you know that is a thing).

As for the workshop manual, BlueThunder, I'm sure it will come in handy soon enough. Thanks a lot! And reading german is not really a problem, as it is very close to norwegian.
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ddt
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Re: 1979 Colt Sigma from the cold north

Post by ddt »

That's great news, Giert.
I hope your Galant passes the EU safety control check next week.
Good luck!
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'Member's Rides' Link for LIL RED WGN: http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=4742
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Giert
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Re: 1979 Colt Sigma from the cold north

Post by Giert »

Hello again! So, it's been a while, sorry for that

Anyway - safety control went better than expected!
- Had to do some exhaust welding
- Remove those additional lights and the orange paint on the headlights
- And some riddicolous, home-made modification to the rear suspension that made absolutley no differece at all. Good riddance!

So everything checked out on the second test, I was done in the military by the end of june, and decided to take the lovely Sigma with me to the univeristy at the very sout end of Norway. That's a 2000 kilometers roadtrip on shitty roads winding between the mountains, surrounded by german campervans and RVs (yeah, houndreds of germans swarming all over the country every summer, clogging up everything). Still it was no match for this trusty veteran! Three days of continuous driving without a hitch. Some pictures while wating for a ferry:

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SO, now I've joined a student club that has it's own workshop with lifts and all, and finally getting time on my hands between studies to continue restorations. Some rust has been found, water leaks through a door, paintwork full of stripes n scratches, interior needs patching and so on. All of that are simple fixes when I have the time for it. Stuff I will figure out how to fix. Might even decide to have it repainted. Possibly red.

However, I am fresh to engine mechanics, so I will leave the major repairs to the local repairshop, but they are having trouble finding engine part numbers. Official Mitsubishi dealers are trying to help but they cant seem to find anything in the archives.

So - anyone here that can help me with som engine parts, or how to find them? Especially the timing belt (if that is the correct translation?) worries me, as I have no clue as to when it was last changed. It could snap at any moment, breaking the engine. I'm also looking to replace all wear-and-tear parts of the ignition system, besides any other potential troublemakers. (oil and oilfilters already replaced).

Also, would it be possible to replace the entire engine? Either something more powerful, or simply to have an addtional to fully overhaul while keeping the old one running for daily errands. In that case - what engines from wich models would fit?

Sorry for asking so many questions, but that's the best way to learn, right? So any help is greatly appreciated!
And have a good day to ya all! :)
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Giert
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Re: 1979 Colt Sigma from the cold north

Post by Giert »

Update:

Some previous owner has had their fun with removing all numbers and stickers, except the chassisnumber
Have done my research and found that I have the usual 4G32 engine.
Also found that there are no engines for sale that would be a bolt on swap, so I'll be keeping the one I have.
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barana
Posts: 109
Joined: Sun May 08, 2011 10:16 am

Re: 1979 Colt Sigma from the cold north

Post by barana »

Interesting.. A 4g32 saturn engine in a sigma! The saturn engine was often turbocharged in the 80s and 90s. It would not be hard to do this with forum help
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