DeLorean Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Hey Leon, nice shot of our cars at C&C. That S2 looks good, I like that color on those cars. There is some big Z drive tomorrow, did you hear about it? I found out about it on NICO, might check it out...mostly Z32s though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted April 28, 2012 Author Share Posted April 28, 2012 Hey Leon, nice shot of our cars at C&C. That S2 looks good, I like that color on those cars. There is some big Z drive tomorrow, did you hear about it? I found out about it on NICO, might check it out...mostly Z32s though. Thanks! You're car is very nice example, and it was nice meeting you. I didn't hear about the drive, but I'll be working on projects tomorrow. Might take the S up to Skyline if I get a chance, though. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted May 11, 2012 Author Share Posted May 11, 2012 This week has been good to the Z! Last Saturday, I removed the driver's door panel and went to town on adjusting the window frame, outer and inner door handles, and greasing everything up that needed greasing. I reassembled and then adjusted the door striker. Result? A smooth-moving and properly sealing window, less play in the handles and it takes just a slight push of the door to latch it. Awesome! The Z had always had a vibration that got worse at higher speed. I first attributed this to the 9-year-old tires (I think it's time for some R-S3s), but recently it's been getting worse. Even more recently, I started hearing clicking from my transmission tunnel as I slowed down, and sometimes when accelerating from a stop. It was noticeable at low speed and could happen whether the clutch was in or out, or the transmission in or out of gear. The frequency of the clicking was tied to road speed. This led me to investigate underneath the car. As I made my way to the driveshaft, I found that the nuts were loose! 3 of 4 were so loose I could spin them by hand. Good thing I checked it out now, before tossing a driveshaft on the freeway. I must've not tightened them enough initially and/or didn't tighten one of them at all. I got them as tight as I could, this time having my brother hold the passenger side wheel while I used the driver's side as leverage. I tightened by going under the car from the driver's side, putting a wrench on the nut, and using the wheel to tighten the nut. Turning the wheel will spin the driveshaft, as long as my brother was holding the other side (LSD still not installed...). Holy crap, what a difference! Much less driveline lash, vibration was gone (wooooo!), and the driving experience was totally changed! It reaffirmed me as to how one stupid thing can screw everything up. I didn't realize how much vibration I had before, but it's smooth on the freeway now. Take-offs are smoother as are shifts, I get much less clunking. As a side-effect, the interior makes way less noise and the tach bounces less (maybe coincidence?). I'm a happy camper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luseboy Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 Wow haha that could've been bad if you didn't catch it in time... Glad to hear it was something so simple, that makes it easier. Although I'm not sure how you'd have noticed any clicking with that exhaust of yours, must have been some really loud clicking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted May 11, 2012 Author Share Posted May 11, 2012 Wow haha that could've been bad if you didn't catch it in time... Glad to hear it was something so simple, that makes it easier. Although I'm not sure how you'd have noticed any clicking with that exhaust of yours, must have been some really loud clicking! No kidding! Yeah, I noticed it when coming to a stop and accelerating from a stop. It was loud enough to present itself! Once I have my garage back, I can install new diff and tranny mounts along with my RT diff mount. That should get rid of most if not all driveline lash and make it even tighter. I'm really wanting to put in that ZX 5-speed and CLSD, but I'm hoping to go to the dyno first. Need to button up that Megajolt system, too. I've lost the nice wiring I purchased to wire it up during the house remodeling, so I'll have to go to the local electronics supply store and get some more shielded wiring and connectors. First order of business is to install that ZX fan already so that I can fit the VR sensor in there. Then I need to find a spot to mount the controller, make a relay bracket and mount the EDIS unit somewhere. After that, it's all wiring. There are always things to be done... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted July 21, 2012 Author Share Posted July 21, 2012 Took the car off the road for a few weeks and have been taking my time getting it back. Finally put some work in the past few days. I removed the carbs in order to replace a leaky intake/exhaust gasket. In my haste to install the header last September, I didn't replace the gasket. It was very fresh and I thought, "why the hell not". The picture shows why the hell not: Yes, leaks from every port! So I decided to do a mild refresh, since I can't go too crazy with the ZONC show coming up on the 28th. The Z needs to run in order to make it there! I cleaned up what I removed and painted the intake and air filter covers. New soft mounts and bottom gaskets (not pictured) from Pierce Manifolds. Great prices and shipping was quick since they're only 70 miles away. And I installed Dave's billet linkage arms (mock-up photo). One issue I ran into was the middle heim joint caused misalignment of the throttle rod. I "solved" this by removing the middle joint. This will be temporary and I'll get new joints eventually. I'll be on the road and (hopefully) running better than ever next week! There is plenty of work to be done in the meantime and I'm trying to get a few big things done before JCCS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted August 10, 2012 Author Share Posted August 10, 2012 (edited) The car is back on the road as of a couple of weeks ago! Time flies... I had a bit of an issue installing Dave's billet linkage, the arms did not clamp tightly on the main throttle rod. I "solved" this by clamping them in my bench vice and going at it with a hacksaw that I had lying around. The blade was thick enough to cut a wider slot in the clamps so that they actually stay in place when pushed. I went to the Brisbane ZONC show on 7/28, which was a great time. I loved ZCG's black Hakosuka, I need to get me one of those some day. We won some delicious home-made jam at the raffle, too. Still have some left in the fridge, better make some more biscuits this weekend. Mmmm, biscuits... Ok, on to current Z-stuff. I picked up a Dapper Lighting Classic HID kit yesterday, thanks Ben! Fantastic customer service by the way, and it's great that they're local. I want to get some big things done before driving down to JCCS in September: (1) Install late ZX 5-speed, Fidanza flywheel and new clutch, along with new shifter bushings (2) Install R200 CLSD (need new gear oil) (3) Install EDIS along with the ZX clutch fan, get it working and tune with my laptop (which I'm in the middle of "fixing", needs a new battery too) (4) Install HIDs (5) New carb jetting - custom jets from Keith Franck And then there are little things, like: (6) Buy and install new door and hatch weatherstripping (7) Fix interior vents (8) Wrap fuel rail in a nicer way (9) Get Nissan thermostat and fill up with new coolant (10) Plug extra thermostat housing outlet (11) Re-sync carbs and install new filters (12) New floor carpet (13) Bleed clutch and brakes, re-adjust rears (14) Polish up paint and windows Jeebus, so much to do, so little time. I feel like taking a week off from work. Time to start crossing things off of the to-do list, one-by-one... 29 days to go, hopefully a lot of new updates to come! Edited August 10, 2012 by Leon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted August 12, 2012 Author Share Posted August 12, 2012 A few updates... While prepping the ZX 5-speed to go in, I installed the new speedo gear I got to match the 4.375 rear diff. In doing so, I did a comparison of speedo gear housings since I had both on hand and was curious. Old gear (blue, 18T for 3.7 diff) vs. new (purple, 21T for 4.38 diff) Here is the slot, which must be indexed correctly in order to be able to tighten down the housing to the tranny. It will not index correctly if the wrong housing is used (will be 180 degrees out). Here are the two speedo housings, the one holding the blue gear works with gears up to 19 teeth (3.9 diff) while the one with the orange gear is for 20 teeth (4.11) and above. The slots are on the left side, as pictured, thus the right side of the gears (as pictured) mesh with the worm gear in the trans. The gears will not mesh well if installed in the incorrect housing. As you can see, the purple pinion is installed incorrectly, in the housing from the blue gear. The right (meshing) side sticks out way too far and will not fit properly into the transmission since it's offset to the opposite side. New gear going in... The slot is indexed correctly Done! Finally got to work on wiring up EDIS. Before any wiring work though, I finally installed the ZX fan to make sure it worked. I had a thread about it a while a go, which I'll update as well. I got a little cheap-o fusebox from amazon.com to power the EDIS module, coil packs, Megajolt and the WBO2. Added jumpers, probably not a great idea but works for now. More to come, hopefully tomorrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted August 12, 2012 Author Share Posted August 12, 2012 Oh, and Alex731 stopped by today. Good meeting you, Alex! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perfect240z Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Oh, and Alex731 stopped by today. Good meeting you, Alex! Good meeting you too! It was a treat seeing your car and going for a ride. I'll be working more again today and posting a update, unlike the peninsula it is very hot over here about 100 deg right now, so im hiding inside for the whole day till a little later. I was going to ask what size were your panasports? I want to look into rota rkr's but i have nothing to compare it too. I'll get my car finished up soon and i'll drive on over in that next rather then the crappy work van Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perfect240z Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 I almost forgot to look into the speedo gear for my zx 5 speed and what diff I have. Good reminder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 unlike the peninsula it is very hot over here about 100 deg right now, HA! It was 103 here today and I was only home from a wedding 3 hours away for about 30 minutes before fiddling with the Z in my HOT HOT HOT garage! No fun, but it least I'm making progress. Hope to see both of ya on the 8th! Keep up the stellar work Leon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted August 13, 2012 Author Share Posted August 13, 2012 (edited) Good meeting you too! It was a treat seeing your car and going for a ride. I'll be working more again today and posting a update, unlike the peninsula it is very hot over here about 100 deg right now, so im hiding inside for the whole day till a little later. I was going to ask what size were your panasports? I want to look into rota rkr's but i have nothing to compare it too. I'll get my car finished up soon and i'll drive on over in that next rather then the crappy work van Ouch, I love working in the garage when the sun is actually out! We usually get fog and wind. I hate wind. The Panas are 16X7. RKR's would look nice too, they look similar to the Type R Wats which look fantastic on Z's. Heck, pretty much any banana-spoke wheels just look great on Z-cars! I look forward to seeing your Z mobile, keep it up man! HA! It was 103 here today and I was only home from a wedding 3 hours away for about 30 minutes before fiddling with the Z in my HOT HOT HOT garage! No fun, but it least I'm making progress. Hope to see both of ya on the 8th! Keep up the stellar work Leon. Thanks! I hope I can make it, but I heard rumors of a family function on that day while at dinner yesterday. Fingers crossed... Edited August 13, 2012 by Leon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 "Finished" the bracket tonight, bear with me, I'm no master fabricator. It's not pretty but it works. I used existing holes in the body for bracket mounting. I fab'd the coil bracket a while ago. It's ugly but fairly thick steel. Dangit! Looking at the pictures, I just realized I need to file down those sharp corners on the coil bracket... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perfect240z Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Lookin good. Let me know how it works out when you finish it up. What was the total cost for all parts again? Would be nice to have way better spark and timing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 Lookin good. Let me know how it works out when you finish it up. What was the total cost for all parts again? Would be nice to have way better spark and timing. Let's see, it was about $150 for the trigger wheel and sensor mount, $50 for EDIS hardware, and $180 for MJLJ. After adding in assorted relays, wiring, fusebox, etc. it's probably closer to $475-$500 but well worth it, IMO. It can be done for less with some time and ingenuity by making/adapting a trigger wheel and sensor mount. I bought Derek's kit, secondhand, because I didn't have the time to mess around with custom triggers and mounts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 (edited) Well, I guess no matter how good of a job you think you did, there are bound to be issues with things such as an EDIS install... I got the urge to work in the garage around 10pm last night. I was overjoyed upon realizing that my EDIS, VR and coil pack harnesses had enough wire to hook most of them up without additional wire in between. It helps that all the EDIS hardware is clustered together. Luckily enough, I didn't design it this way, it just happened! I connected the VR and coil pack to EDIS and ran power and ground wires. This is all that is necessary to have EDIS run an engine. It should go into "limp-home" mode and default to 10deg BTDC without the presence of PIP/SAW signals. 1st attempt: Re-connected the battery. Turned the key, heard the accessory relay click and saw the brake light flash on in the speedo, turn to START and nothing. Couple more tries. Nada. I had to think for a second, but then realized my mistake. To trigger the new fusebox relay, I needed a switched +12V source. After reviewing the wiring diagram, I went with the Neutral Safety Switch (see snippet of diagram below). It gets power at ON and START and is located right by all the EDIS stuff! I used the BW wire for the relay signal but what I forgot to do was send +12V through to the BY wire. Therefore, the car was acting as if the NSS was open and not letting me crank it over. Connected the BY to switched +12V at the (new) fusebox and boom, done. 2nd attempt: Re-connected the battery. Turned the key, got accessories, turned to START and she cranks. And cranks and cranks and cranks... damnit. Hook up the timing gun, crank, no flashie. Damnit. From reading many threads and articles on the topic of EDIS, the first thing I think is incorrect VR sensor polarity. I connected Blue-to-Blue and Grey-to-Grey, but what the hell, let's switch them around. It was probably around 1230am by then, and I was making more mistakes. I decided to put spade connectors on the VR sensor wire so I can switch them around more easily. Should have done this in the first place, but what's done is done. I then go on to put a male and female on one end of the VR sensor wire. CRAP, you idiot, you still wouldn't be able to switch them around wired that way... 3rd attempt (3rd try's a charm right?): Got the VR sensor rewired. Connect battery. Turn key. Crank. Check the timing gun. The light blinks!!! Praise the gods, we are making fire! Not quite. I confirmed spark with the gun, but the engine still cranks and cranks with no signs of life. What else could be wrong? Only thing I thought of was firing order/timing. I went to work moving plug wires around on the coil pack. 4th, 5th, 6th... attempt: When using wasted-spark, two plugs fire at once. One on the compression stroke and the other on the exhaust. That means that on the coil, you pair up 1-6, 2-5, and 3-4. It was past 1am by that point, and I tried all 3 combos (I think, things are getting fuzzy at this point). Hell, I'm pretty sure I tried more than 3 combos, but nothing worked. No signs of life. At this point, I'm thinking that I set up the wheel wrong. However, in reviewing my wheel install photos, I'm pretty sure it should be close enough to start the car. Maybe not... At 2am, I finally gave up and went to bed. Gotta be positive, at least I have spark! This morning, I decided to start it on the dizzy and check where the timing mark was at. Started, ran it for a minute and shut it down to switch over to the EDIS plug wires. As a side-note, I'm going to love having a completely independent backup ignition system! After switching wires back to EDIS, I decided to crank her over since the engine was a bit warmed up. Crank, crank, pop, crank, pop. Alright, making progress! We're popping out the carbs. Looks like the spark just isn't at the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, I had to go to work and didn't have much time to do more troubleshooting. Hopefully, I'll have some time this evening to hook up the timing gun and get some readings. To be continued... Edited August 15, 2012 by Leon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perfect240z Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Well, I guess no matter how good of a job you think you did, there are bound to be issues with things such as an EDIS install... I got the urge to work in the garage around 10pm last night. I was overjoyed upon realizing that my EDIS, VR and coil pack harnesses had enough wire to hook most of them up without additional wire in between. It helps that all the EDIS hardware is clustered together. Luckily enough, I didn't design it this way, it just happened! I connected the VR and coil pack to EDIS and ran power and ground wires. This is all that is necessary to have EDIS run an engine. It should go into "limp-home" mode and default to 10deg BTDC without the presence of PIP/SAW signals. 1st attempt: Re-connected the battery. Turned the key, heard the accessory relay click and saw the brake light flash on in the speedo, turn to START and nothing. Couple more tries. Nada. I had to think for a second, but then realized my mistake. To trigger the new fusebox relay, I needed a switched +12V source. After reviewing the wiring diagram, I went with the Neutral Safety Switch (see snippet of diagram below). It gets power at ON and START and is located right by all the EDIS stuff! I used the BW wire for the relay signal but what I forgot to do was send +12V through to the BY wire. Therefore, the car was acting as if the NSS was open and not letting me crank it over. Connected the BY to switched +12V at the (new) fusebox and boom, done. 2nd attempt: Re-connected the battery. Turned the key, got accessories, turned to START and she cranks. And cranks and cranks and cranks... damnit. Hook up the timing gun, crank, no flashie. Damnit. From reading many threads and articles on the topic of EDIS, the first thing I think is incorrect VR sensor polarity. I connected Blue-to-Blue and Grey-to-Grey, but what the hell, let's switch them around. It was probably around 1230am by then, and I was making more mistakes. I decided to put spade connectors on the VR sensor wire so I can switch them around more easily. Should have done this in the first place, but what's done is done. I then go on to put a male and female on one end of the VR sensor wire. CRAP, you idiot, you still wouldn't be able to switch them around wired that way... 3rd attempt (3rd try's a charm right?): Got the VR sensor rewired. Connect battery. Turn key. Crank. Check the timing gun. The light blinks!!! Praise the gods, we are making fire! Not quite. I confirmed spark with the gun, but the engine still cranks and cranks with no signs of life. What else could be wrong? Only thing I thought of was firing order/timing. I went to work moving plug wires around on the coil pack. 4th, 5th, 6th... attempt: When using wasted-spark, two plugs fire at once. One on the compression stroke and the other on the exhaust. That means that on the coil, you pair up 1-6, 2-5, and 3-4. It was past 1am by that point, and I tried all 3 combos (I think, things are getting fuzzy at this point). Hell, I'm pretty sure I tried more than 3 combos, but nothing worked. No signs of life. At this point, I'm thinking that I set up the wheel wrong. However, in reviewing my wheel install photos, I'm pretty sure it should be close enough to start the car. Maybe not... At 2am, I finally gave up and went to bed. Gotta be positive, at least I have spark! This morning, I decided to start it on the dizzy and check where the timing mark was at. Started, ran it for a minute and shut it down to switch over to the EDIS plug wires. As a side-note, I'm going to love having a completely independent backup ignition system! After switching wires back to EDIS, I decided to crank her over since the engine was a bit warmed up. Crank, crank, pop, crank, pop. Alright, making progress! We're popping out the carbs. Looks like the spark just isn't at the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, I had to go to work and didn't have much time to do more troubleshooting. Hopefully, I'll have some time this evening to hook up the timing gun and get some readings. To be continued... Nice, you almost got it. Im sure you'll have it done before you go to JCCS. Having a backup dizzy is a sweet Idea if anything goes sour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 Nice, you almost got it. Im sure you'll have it done before you go to JCCS. Having a backup dizzy is a sweet Idea if anything goes sour. I suppose I can leave it as is, park it at JCCS and pretend it works. Besides, I need to complete a tranny and diff swap, and HIDs at the very least before the show. I need to invent a time-stopping device. It'll get done, I'll troubleshoot more tonight. My goal is to have EDIS installed and working by Friday since I'm going camping and won't have the weekend to work on the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perfect240z Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 they have a device like that. Its called the "cough cough" I can't come in to work device lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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