633 replies to this topic

[76lxhatch]

Have been working on the wiring but it doesn't make for very exciting photos. Here are some bits and pieces from the last few weeks.

 

Made a bracket to mount the interior fuse box in approximately the standard spot under the dash.

 

3D printed a connector housing (just uses a captive nut with machine screw and 1/4" ring terminals) for the main coil feed which I feel needs a bit higher current rating than the standard connectors.

 

Bent up a hard line for the windscreen washer so it can be tucked away a bit neater.

 

Intermittent wipers using a basic timer. I set it to a fixed 1 second 'on' period (self-parking) and wired up a 6-position 2-pole rotary switch instead of the 'off' period to give off/3/4/5/7/9 second options (the second pole is used to switch the unit off and on in all timer positions). The rotary switch will fit neatly in the dash beside the standard wiper switch where the choke was originally, will have to make a knob for it to match.

And brackets to mount it in the dash.

 

I discovered the release rod bushing had fallen out of the park brake mechanism and it had worn the hole out.

Was going to just swap it for the previously-reconditioned one off the taxi and re-do this one later, but discovered this one has the twin pawl and extra bracing where the other one doesn't. So that got rebuilt and ready to go back in.

 

Splashed out on a decent battery - at least I hope it is! People seem to rate them pretty highly.

 

Today I finally got to the point that I could connect it up and start testing my new wiring looms.

• Stop/tail/park/headlights, reverse lights, indicators, hazards, interior lights - check.
• Windscreen wipers and washers (excluding the intermittent setup, but that's an add-on), horns - check.
• Alternator excite and voltage sense, stereo feed, cigarette lighter, heater blower - check.

Got the instruments in and the ECU connected, set up the laptop to test a few more things.

• Neutral switch, anti-theft, ignition inputs - check.
• Fuel pump, cooling fans, check engine light outputs - check.
• Speedo and tacho outputs (the ECU can send PWM test signals at whatever frequency which is quite handy) - check.
• Calibrated the accelerator position sensor (pedal) and the throttle position sensor, e throttle seems to work - check.
• Detected and assigned CAN based lambda controllers - check.
• All 8 injectors are triggering (and in the correct position) - check.
• All 8 coils will fire a plug (and in the correct position) - check.

Even turned it over to check the crank and cam triggers - I think it should work fine. 36-2 reluctor crank trigger top, hall effect cam level bottom.

 

A few more little things to tidy up then I have to remove most of the wiring loom... again. But hopefully for the last time, will get it all wrapped then back in for good.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 January 2024 - 05:05 PM.

[axistr]

Well done, now the fun really begins, the tuning phase. I really enjoyed the tuning phase looking through all the data finding tiny areas to improve. However my EFI system was probably a whole lot easier and dummy proof tuning compared to what your doing, a monumental job well done.

 

The first thing I noticed in you update was the battery. I have the same PC1200 Oddessey battery in both Torana's, been using them for years in cars and trucks. Unfortunately I had to replace the battery in the Hatch last year. I was almost going to send it back for warranty but didn't think there would be any warrant on a 21 year old battery. Yep not a typo purchased it back in 2002 for my boat. Sold the boat in 2005 and swapped the batteries to the hatch before the sale. The Oddessey battery in my SLR is now over 10 years old and still holds 12.5v after three months. Bloody expensive but outlast every other battery I have tried by a country mile.    

[RallyRed]

Some great work there, Love that custom 3D fuse carrier too.

The Odessey batteries are pretty good in my experience. We run the PC680 ( 1/2 physical size package of your 1200 ) in the LJ track cars.  No dramas.

[SmacT]

Awesome work as usual - all that electrical work can be a headache, but you're nailing it. Good stuff.

[76lxhatch]

Thanks guys, good to hear more positive experiences with these batteries. I did discover one minor flaw - a cheap hold-down doesn't fit due to the top design. No big deal, made a new cross bar out of some old aluminium box section for now. Trying to avoid scope creep for the moment!

 

Well... as of a couple hours ago, it runs! Not particularly well just yet but everything engine control-related is functioning as it should. Not so much the leaky rocker cover gaskets, looks like my experiment was a failure.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 29 January 2024 - 02:24 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Quick catch up on a few previous items. All new wiring is now wrapped and installed - not super tidy but happy enough with it, and everything can be removed without cutting if need be.

 

Engine bay has a bit more exposed wiring than before in the name of serviceability, but generally pretty good.

 

Temporary battery hold down until I make a better one, after discovering the plastic piece doesn't work at all.

 

Somehow I've made access to the distributor lock bolt even worse than before. Luckily the cam sensor no longer requires fine-tuning as it only needs to tell the ECU which stroke and the initial position was just fine as shown in the scope output above. Enter special tool #3-8 (the bolt is a 12 point reduced head).

 

Managed to drill a neat hole in the correct location in the coffee pot for the hazard switch knob.

 

The mess on the floor after a few minutes running.

 

Not sure if you can see this properly but it's definitely coming from the rocker covers.

 

Not sure if its just age but the used Speco gaskets are too hard, and the built-in steel shim is crooked and just generally a pain in the neck. So they're going in the bin. At $75-$95 _each_ I won't be buying new ones purely on principal, but not giving up on the crush spacer idea just yet, I have a (cunning?) plan.

[Rockoz]

Love the hand slicers under the dash. lol

Great progress.

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[Shiney005]

That is a lot of oil for a few minutes running. It must have been fairly pouring out of there.

[76lxhatch]

Found some 4.5mm nitrile rubber strip, and carefully made a cardboard template that makes maximum use of the rocker covers I'm using. It took some time and careful cutting, but wasn't actually too bad. I've cut them out of cork in a pinch before and I think the rubber was easier.

 

I saw this idea on the web somewhere, worked well. The centres of the holes were transfer punched into the template using the cover, then transferred to the rubber. Made a little piece that fits snugly in the hole punch to locate it, which gives me the desired size holes accurately on centre.

 

Machined some new crush spacers, these are slightly bigger at 9mm OD and a loose but not sloppy fit on the 1/4" fasteners. The actual thickness of the rubber is more like 4.25mm, I settled on 3.0mm for the spacers to allow a reasonable amount of gasket compression now they are just plain rubber with no steel insert.

 

Definitely got some compression out of them so fairly hopeful that this version should work a lot better. The cap screws do up tight with the spacers so shouldn't back out by themselves.

 

A few other learnings with the wiring:

• Had a brain-fade with the intermittent wiper setup, it needs to disconnect the park wire when applying power rather than just tee into it (otherwise it pops the fuse when it connects power to ground via the motor park mechanism, duh). Luckily the timer relay has both NO and NC terminals so that was simple enough.
• Also discovered the intermittent wiper timer won't change delay period if you just switch it while powered up. There's a separate reset button option but I think that would be a bit clunky, so just disconnected a couple of the delay options at the rotary switch. So now it's off-on-off-on-off-on and only three delay options, oh well.
• The park/brake fail LED in the dash kept dying on me. I bought a couple of packs of yellow and red LEDs with the resistors pre-wired ready for 12V and the yellow check engine light worked fine. But that is powered high-side by the ECU which is probably regulated where the brake one is ground-switched, and apparently yellow typically runs at higher voltage than red too? Doubled up on the resistor and it seems to work now.

 

Instruments are in for the final time (hopefully), steering intermediate shaft is reinstalled, brakes are bled, and the car is now back on its wheels. Not there yet but getting closer...

[Bruiser]

These problems don’t look like much when there’s a master problem solver on the job

[76lxhatch]

Tidying up some scope creep items this week.

 

Prepped and painted the scuttle panel. It did need doing and I didn't have much choice since I'd already stripped the old paint several months ago.

 

In the interest of time I cheated and just used a spray can, came out OK (definitely better than the big chunks missing before!). A few layers of wax should help.

 

Since the check engine light is now in the instrument surround this was also an opportunity to re-create the stereo surround that previously house it. I was never overly satisfied with the MDF and exposed screws so the new one is 3D printed ABS plastic painted with wrinkle black. It now houses the hands-free mic for the stereo and an anti-theft LED.

 

The poor old console has been well butchered in this area over the years, so there isn't really much to attach it to. Made a stainless backing plate with a full complement of machine screws that thread through into the surround plastic.

 

Nice snug fit on the stereo, just have to tidy up the edge of the cover underneath which I managed to scratch in the process.

 

And... I drove it today! Well, moved it out of the shed and allowed it to warm up, then back in. Small steps. Fixed a minor coolant leak in the bypass hose with different clamps, and its running better already with a few tweaks to the tune.

[Heath]

Nicely done mate. Console re-work is tidy (but please sand out the 3DP path on that edge trim haha)

 

I think you made the right choice with the battery. I use a smaller PC925 Odyssey in my hatch (also mounted in the rear floor rather than the front) and it cranks okay but the voltage drop during cranking is a problem for driving the injectors. :(

[76lxhatch]

please sand out the 3DP path on that edge trim

I left it as its closer to matching the texture than a flat surface would be, I guess it does look a bit out of place in the photos

[SmacT]

So awesome. That first "drive" must have been fun.

[76lxhatch]

Have been driving it a little and tweaking the tune to be close before turning on all of the closed loop settings. Most of it was adapted from what I had on the Delco which seems to have been a reasonable starting point. I kind of miss having the tablet to display some ECU info but figured out how to program the check engine light to come on momentarily under lean conditions for safety. Also having onboard logging is great, thinking I might add a switch so I can turn it on and off on demand.

 

A minor annoyance was the throttle pedal being a bit too light, made a little spacer that adds some tension to the springs which made quite a difference.

 

Even drove it to work a couple of times this week.

[76lxhatch]

The Speedhut fuel gauge doesn't really like the original Torana sender, it works but the reading can vary a lot. I suspect the old sender just can't hold consistent resistance any more (if it ever could), the original gauges would have smoothed that out a lot more. I've also never gotten around to altering the float arm for the taller drop tank, so it seemed like a good excuse to make some modifications.

 

Started by removing the sender unit and straightening out the pickup tube for more depth.

 

 

I'd kept the remains of an old VT setup after pilfering several bits from it, never throw anything away. These are the key pieces of the sender, needs a new mount because it was originally all part of the plastic pot.

 

Needed a small chunk of aluminium, but didn't have anything suitable. Fired up the furnace to solve that problem, then squared it up on the mill.

 

Machined the pivot on the lathe, there is a 2 degree taper to the main section of the hole and there's a threaded hole in the base.

 

The brass piece on the left is new, this also has a small taper in the opposite direction. The piece on the right is the original that now has a thread.

 

This was the best way I could think to reproduce the shape that the plastic arm rides on, trepanning it on the lathe wasn't an option given the size.

 

Back to the mill to create a slot for the little board.

 

Also a round slot on the back for mounting to the pickup tube.

 

Drill and tap some holes, add a stainless clamp. Removed some of the excess material so it's as easy as possible to get into the tank.

 

Made a new threaded electrical terminal.

 

The board is retained by the screws at top left and bottom right. The brass washer is soldered to the left terminal so that one is now earthed through the tube, I think I'll probably solder a terminal onto the tube on the outside of the tank to get a clean connection.

 

Tweaked the float arm to suit (I hope, final fine tuning probably required). Pressed on a fitting for a new filter sock.

[axistr]

Have been driving it a little and tweaking the tune to be close before turning on all of the closed loop settings. Most of it was adapted from what I had on the Delco which seems to have been a reasonable starting point. I kind of miss having the tablet to display some ECU info but figured out how to program the check engine light to come on momentarily under lean conditions for safety. Also having onboard logging is great, thinking I might add a switch so I can turn it on and off on demand.

 

A minor annoyance was the throttle pedal being a bit too light, made a little spacer that adds some tension to the springs which made quite a difference.

 

Even drove it to work a couple of times this week.

 

 

Good work, that's one thing that annoys me since they introduced electronic throttle pedals. Evey car or truck I get into these days gives me an aching foot after twenty minutes having to try and keep the right throttle position. I tend to use cruse control even in the burbes these days, Its not as easy as adding an extra throttle return spring on a carby linkage anymore. I wish manufactures would make a quick adjustable return tension system.     

[SmacT]

Nice work - worth the effort for an accurate fuel gauge. 

Edited by SmacT, 27 May 2024 - 09:53 AM.

[Shiney005]

Now knock up a couple of hundred and get 'em on Ebay!

[hanra]

I wonder how the insulation on that wiring will go with long term exposure to petrol? 

[claysummers]

Very clever mate


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[76lxhatch]

I wish manufactures would make a quick adjustable return tension system.     

Probably not too difficult, just add a screw. Can't imagine any OEM manufacturers incurring the additional expense though, maybe aftermarket.

 

 

Now knock up a couple of hundred and get 'em on Ebay!

I'm way too slow to make any money from that...
 

Nice work - worth the effort for an accurate fuel gauge. 

I was really surprised by how much an unreliable gauge stopped me from driving, must be getting old.

[SmacT]

 

I was really surprised by how much an unreliable gauge stopped me from driving, must be getting old.

I agree - not on the old bit. Ha ha. I ran out of fuel on a motorcycle half way across the Harbour Bridge once, it was terrifying, there is no where to stop. I kept just enough speed to be able to roll down to the first exit before North Sydney without getting squashed. Until now, I have never had an accurate Torana gauge, it feels much better having one.

[yel327]

I ran out of fuel in my LX once, in the 80 zone just past Brunker road heading into Newcastle along City Road (Pacific Highway). Had enough speed to crest the hill at the gun club road and kept rolling down into Merewether where there was a servo at the bottom of the hill, now it's a car wash and cafe. That was scary enough with trucks and other cars behind whilst you Flintstoning it down the hill. Can't imagine similar on a bike on the Harbour Bridge!

[SmacT]

I ran out of fuel in my LX once, in the 80 zone just past Brunker road heading into Newcastle along City Road (Pacific Highway). Had enough speed to crest the hill at the gun club road and kept rolling down into Merewether where there was a servo at the bottom of the hill, now it's a car wash and cafe. That was scary enough with trucks and other cars behind whilst you Flintstoning it down the hill. Can't imagine similar on a bike on the Harbour Bridge!

 

Yeah right - running out of fuel isn't something you imagine is high risk, but it is. My episode was back when i was a bike journo and we all rode something different home each night, and most lower end buikes back then didn't have fuel gauges, so you had to trust the rider before you. This particular rider found himself heading back to North Sydney with an orchy bottle of fuel in his backpack after a fairly grumpy phone call. 

 

So yeah, tops effort 76lxHatch - and worth it!