192 replies to this topic

[76lxhatch]

Now just pretend you never read it at all and there will be no problem...

[Heath]

The world doesn't work that way.

 

Argh I've got enough stuff to dooooooooooo. Hahahaha.

 

$*&%

[76lxhatch]

Made a few tweaks to the VN under-bonnet relay/fuse holder, bent the tabs for the main fuse/breaker box over to the opposite side and trimmed off the original mounting pieces. Made a couple of standoffs for mounting it along the driver side edge in the Torana engine bay.

 

Installed and showing where the wiring enters from under the guard.

 

With base plastic parts

 

Full covers

 

Still have plenty of work to tidy up wiring but everything here is connected, should all but disappear once wrapped but still leaves all the relays and fuses easily accessible and exactly as per VN/VP wiring for easy maintenance.

[76lxhatch]

The VN/VP looms have earth wiring for almost everything instead of having to rely on sheet metal screws and the like, so may as well take advantage of it. Front indicator housings are not big enough to take the later model bulb holder complete, so I decided to add provision for the earth wire.

 

Started by milling a 3mm slot in the housing for the wire itself (top of photo)

 

This goes through the back but stays inside the rubber boot area and doesn't impede on the bulb or contacts

 

Soldered the end to the back of the earth contact

 

Holden was good enough to use a rubber boot designed for two wires so just had to make the second hole. Dug around in the wiring bin and found a suitable plug to match the standard one on the Commodore loom, also turns out this uses the exact same style connectors as the original so the blue wire just had to be swapped from the single-pin to the two-pin. Add the new earth wire and ready to go.

 

Slowly working away on the wiring in general, front end is starting to take shape. Torana headlight connectors are in place and everything along the top here is done, the wires hanging down in front of the wheel go to the engine and main power feed from battery and will be clamped underneath (in front of the wheel well) with protection.

[76lxhatch]

Dismantled the Torana light switch, replaced the 45-year-old grease, and confirmed that the headlight and park/tail light circuits are completely separate. This allows tying directly into the VN loom which has relays for the headlights and switches the ground rather than positive (but still switches the positive for park/tail lights). So that made it simple, only change was to cut the dimmer output into the positive side of the instrument illumination (VN dimmer works on the ground, but the Torana dimmer feeds from the positive park/tail circuit). The dome light output is ground for both so no issues there.

 

Also swapped over the ignition switch connector, added a larger wire for the crank feed (yellow) and tied it to the normal ignition feed (pink) so we have power to everything required during cranking.

[76lxhatch]

Slowly working away at the wiring stuff while I have the under-dash area exposed. Going to use a combination stalk (HZ/UC/early Commodore) which makes wiring it to the VN loom easy, and no issues with current capacity since all the big stuff uses relays.

 

Also had a closer look at some indicator switch mechanisms to see whether I could add hazard lights - the early Commodore switch has this built in to the indicator switch, but the Torana switch also has a trick in that it allows to override the rear indicators for reverse lights. Turns out they are exactly the same, just with different parts used - Commodore on left, Torana on right:

 

The three wires at right are the rear indicators (Commodore just deleted these and tied front and rear together), the brown wire is the input from the hazard flasher (uses a separate flasher so it can be battery instead of ignition only).

 

So I built one with all the wires:

 

The hazard switch mechanism is just part of the wire cover plate, and joins all the required circuits together. Works a treat according to the multimeter.

[axistr]

Was the reason for going the complete commodore harness for upgrading of modern features or ease of wiring the engine in. I also used the commodore blink combo switch, might be getting old but when my kids drove the LH they could never find the dipper switch or use it properly. I wired most things into the original LH harness, added a few extra circuits then wired the lot into a VZ commodore fuse/relay box. Saved me lots of room as it uses mini fuses and relays. You would have had the same problem with adding all the added extras for EFI, fans, pumps, headlights ect.   

[76lxhatch]

Haha yeah "ease of wiring" doesn't really come into it, would be much simpler to just set the EFI up without all this. It does give some added features with minimal expense and I like the novelty of being all factory parts - everything is from existing donors so nothing to buy, and although the "new" loom is 20 years old its still 25 years newer than the original! The additional relays for headlights etc and integrated earth wiring always seem to make an improvement in performance and reliability too.

 

Being an LX it already had the dip switch on the stalk but with the latching relay setup whereas the combination wiper/washer version latches by itself. If it was the floor mounted dip switch I'd be more tempted to keep it that way, much better setup.

[axistr]

Ha Ha, back in the day my HJ sandman had the dipper on the floor and I thought it was the best spot for them, at times it could be a challenge with a manual transmission as on coming traffic seem to quickly appear when you were on high beam and doing a gear change. When I got my LX with the column stork dipper I hated it. Every car I have had since has had the column stork dipping. Owning BMW's for the past 25 years the buggers stick them all on the left of the column. At first I wiped the windscreen every turn for the first month (slow learner). But now I hate going back to the floor dippers and wonder why the hell would you want them there. How many times have you been caught out franticly treading on the dipper switch because it stuck on either beam, or went out completely. They were very prone to moisture and dirt getting into the contacts mounted on dirty and often leaking floors. Now the only cars I own that don't do the dipping automatically are the Toranas, and think wow its a bit primitive having to flick the switch by hand. How things have changed.      

[Heath]

lol when I first drove a car with a dipper on the floor it was an auto and I thought that feature was amazing.

 

Racing through the hills at night with heel & toe and double clutching efforts my feet are busy as hell... I have certainly changed my mind on that one! Might seem plain jane but dipper on the column stalk is the go I reckon.

[76lxhatch]

I probably agree when there's already three pedals (or four if you include the park brake), but sadly this one is staying auto. The stalk will be fine, although if I can ever come up with a way of fitting a later model one that's a little more robust and has the push/pull action (rather than latching pull/pull) I think the hatch might get an upgrade.

[axistr]

Ha Ha 76lxhatch, get a late model BMW stork and make it fit, that will keep you busy for a few months. I have never seen so many buttons to activate so many features on one stork before. Its got me buggered how they get them all to fit in, let alone getting them all to work.

[Rockoz]

If you think a manual with a dip switch on the floor is bad, should have tried old Fords in the rain with the washer pump on the floor.

 

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[ls2lxhatch]

I read this yesterday and didn't understand it.

Now I've slept on it.

 

The different sweep for the driver and passenger side wipers is handled by the different length of the arms/levers on the wiper posts. The passenger side wiper post has a shorter arm/lever (~ 65mm) than the drivers side wiper post (~ 75mm) resulting in the drivers side wiper blade with moving less than the passenger side wiper blade for the same input from the wiper motor.

 

It looks like you have swapped the drivers and passenger side wiper posts which would cause the drivers side wiper to move further than the passenger side wiper.

 

 

If you keep the wiper posts in the original positions the wiper blade sweep ratio will not be changed.

 

[Heath]

Yes, that is precisely correct. I understand the problem and am yet to try and address it.

[76lxhatch]

A couple of minor updates. I needed one more relay on the cabin fuse box than originally catered for, so 3D printed a little piece that screws on to the end

 

 

Also been mucking around with trying to package everything into the dash around the instrument cluster. The heater control needed some minor mutilation so cleaned it up after

 

 

Then decided to switch to the exhaust, some assembly required.

 

[76lxhatch]

The exhaust necessitated working with other items that want to occupy the same space. Front sway bar, park brake cable (also changed to the VN unit), and the driveshaft safety loop required for certification.

 

I started with a universal loop but didn't stay that way.

 

 

Made a small pulley that spins on one of the loop doubler plate bolts and moves the park brake cables inboard. This helps with the shorter cable, and provides a spot to hold it away from the floor and exhaust with minimal clearance.

 

 

 

I'm a little obsessed with getting the exhaust tucked up as high as possible for maximum ground clearance, so far so good.

 

 

Used v-bands behind the mufflers and the factory VN ball and socket setup at the headers. I had factory V8 mounts for the mufflers ready to go but didn't like how they got in the way so spent far too long making custom mounts with old sway bar links and rod ends.

 

 

I've actually finished the exhaust provided there are no issues when I bolt the tail pipes up (which I can't right now due to other things being in the way). Also spent far too long making custom mounting hardware for the tail pipes, no pics of that as yet.

[Heath]

The 3D printed extra relay bracket is very neat.

 

Nicely done.