clokker

iTrader: (2)

(Sigfrid was called away on a work emergency till Tuesday, so no pics till Wednesday or so...sorry)

Injector harness is complete. New injector connectors, wrapped and ready to install.

The other "half" of the engine harness is about 70% figured out, the MAF and TPS are wired, all that remains is the alternator, water/oil gauge sensors, ECU thermosensor and the distributor/coil.
Basically, I have to find about five more wires in this green/black morass and everything else gets pruned away.
This is proving surprisingly/disturbingly easy- there must be a catch.

It's weird...starting the car (or at least, attempting to) has gone from some hazy/far distant event to something that could happen in a matter of days.

So, today I'm stopping and making a junkyard/supply run.
The pigtail for the 240SX TPS has gone walkies, so I need to find that but mostly I just need to get away from the garage and gain some perspective on where we are.

Suddenly, little issues that we've been able to ignore have become rather important.
Like connecting the heater core, so the coolant loop is intact...that would be good.
And my personal crusade, the damn rattly wiper linkage (which I know is not mission-critical but still bugs me to death).

I also want to just wander around and begin gathering ideas for the front grill...whatever that is going to be like. Not sure we'll be able to adapt something or if a completely custom part is required but I want to get ideas percolating.

After this string of 10+ hour days I need a break and for some reason I find the junkyard quite relaxing.
Odd, but useful.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

It got weird quickly at the yard today.

Some days I search for hours and find nothing, other days I walk right up to what I'm looking for.
Today was one of the latter.

I found the TPS pigtail I needed on the first Nissan I saw, they might use the same part on a lot of cars, which makes life simpler.
Only a few cars away I spied a 626 which gave up it's wiper linkage (yup...still obsessed).

Then came the grill.

Most newer cars don't really have "grills" in the old fashioned sense, certainly nothing the size, shape and angles we need. I had taken some measurements and contemplated the nose to get some idea of what might be useful but held little hope of finding much to work with.

Then I walked up to a grill that was so close to what I'd measured that I couldn't believe it, it even fit the driving lights (maybe).

There were two problems though.
It's a three piece grill and one side was missing.
It's so iconic as to be immediately recognizable.
Boy, was I conflicted but ended up walking away.

On the way out of the yard (two hours later) I was drawn back to the car and approached from the rear this time, where purely by chance, I glanced in the trunk and saw the missing piece, perfectly intact, just laying there.
It was kismet and I bought the grill.

Tomorrow I'll see if this thing is as close as I think and if it looks totally stupid or what.

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

iconic ay? You have my curiosity.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Not trying to be coy, just cautious.
Wanted to see if I was crazy before revealing the source.

It's a BMW grill with the famous "twin kidney" center section and the ****** is amazingly close.
Keep in mind the variable definition of "close" as applied to junkyard finds.

In a normal replacement or OEM part, "close" means 'almost perfect", in a junkyard/swap part, "close" means "within a few inches".

From the front our grill opening is a simple rectangle with two driving lamps in the lower corners.
From the side however, it's kind of complex...like a very shallow prow of a boat.
It peaks in the center and angles in to the sides and its also angled in from top to bottom.

The BMW grill matches these angles to a tee.
The BMW has four 6" round headlights, our driving lights are 6" and spaced almost the same as the inner pair on the BMW.

All of the parts I've grafted on so far have been anonymous and it's not immediately apparent that they aren't specific to the Z but this grill is different and everyone will know what it was/is. Not sure if that's a problem or not.

Less thorny news...
The wiper linkage is going to be great, the pivots are the right height and much smoother than the originals. I have to make up the connecting rods and we'll be set.

The engine harness is substantially done and ready to be installed.
After the chassis harness struggle, the engine work has been a piece o'cake...there's really very little to it.
I'm still dumbfounded that the entire stock harness is green and black wires (each color randomly being power/ground/signal) but that wasn't as troublesome as it could have been and a few hours with the ohmmeter straightened that out.

The hardest part left will be squeezing the wiring through the new firewall grommet, that's going to be fun.

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

HA! I knew it. I was sitting hear thinking "I wonder if it is that one BMW grill... sure as aids.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

"Sure as aids" is a thing people actually say?

Sigfrid stopped by on his way from the airport to work and deigned to get a few pics:


This is the main panel (V.3!) for the dash.
From the left:
-TNS/panel lighting relay (Toyota)
-Electronic T/S/Hazard flasher (Mazda/Honda)
-Blade fuses (VW)
- Power distribution/fusible link block (VW/Audi)

On the back are four Volvo relays for starter, heater, main ACC and RUN (ECU, ignition).

The beginnings of the engine harness:


And a quick look at the grill:


It is only loosely and precariously sitting there but it does give an idea of what's possible.

The engine harness will be finished tomorrow and we plan a first start attempt on Saturday.

Made another junkyard run, got two passenger side wiper arms from VW Jettas.
I hope they'll fit better than the Miata units.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

of course! BMW! BMW probably used the same wiper linkage as Datsun did, in 2004! shoot the E46 practically IS a 240Z, mechanically anyways.

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2005-2009-FORD-MUSTANG-V6-BLACK-FRONT-HOOD-GRILLE-CHROME-HALO-FOG-LIGHT-HARNESS-/151394120034?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3AMustang&hash=item233fcaf162&vxp=mtr
A tad newer then you are likely to find in the yard however... but I stumbled onto it and thought it seemed close wit the bend and all

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Sigfrid suggested that very grill last week but you're right...not in my yard.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

As I await the end of rush hour, let's talk about wipers.
Because I know y'all are as fascinated as I by the complexities of the linkage and the subtle shaping of the arms.

Wait, what's that?
I'm being told that nobody cares and to just get on with it and start the damn car.

Well, had I not been an idiot and forgotten to loom in the +5v power feed to the ECU water thermosensor, it'd be a whole lot closer to starting. Frustration at my stupidity drove me from the garage and into the comforting arms of the junkyard, where I scored a pair of passenger side wiper arms from two VW Jettas.
They will require significant fiddling to work (surprise!) and there is probably some nuance I've overlooked, but I'm hopeful our long preoccupation with this subsystem will soon be over.

If not, everything comes out and we invest heavily in RainX.

As for the missing power feed wire...I was particularly enraged because I actually/literally made a list of required wires and that particular one was on it. It's even coiled up by the ECU connector, ready to go and I still omitted it when I gathered up everything and wrapped it.

Derp.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

if it makes you feel better, every engine harness i've made, i've forgotten the water temp sender wire. its double stupid because its usually the stock Mazda wire reused...

one of the reasons i don't wrap the harness for a while, easy to fix mistakes!

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Thanks, j9, I DO feel better, primarily because I don't need that wire at all, as it turns out.

I had assumed that the sensor would take +12v and had provisioned for that in the harness.
Then, looking at the Datsun schematic, it appeared to get power through the ECU, which is why I then figured it must be a 5v feed.
But a second (wider field) schematic shows the whole circuit is fed directly from the battery, so I think I'm still good.
Find out tomorrow.

Wipers will be done today and I'll finish terminating the engine harness in prep for the big day.

I'm a wee bit excited.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Well, today is theoretically the big day...first attempt at a start.

There are fifteen connections left to make in the bay, it's all prepared but it was easier to wait for Sigfrid's help to ohm them out before connecting.

We decided to start off with the original AFM- just to make life simpler- but of course, that's not as easily done as you'd imagine. The stock unit is very similar to a S4 AFM and there is a gigantic bracket welded on the bay wall that I assumed the AFM bolted to...but, no.
Apparently, in true Datsun fashion, the AFM bolts to a bracket which in turn bolts to the bracket we have saved all this time.

I'm really wanting to try the S5 AFM, which is far superior from a packaging perspective and now that the stock unit is being cranky, may just do so.

Of course, all this talk of starting is probably wildly optimistic.
We've never run fuel through the new system, no telling how many leaks we could have.
Who knows if the new distributor/ignition/TPS/alternator will work or if the ECU will know what to do?

I guess even a total failure will tell us something and give us a place to start.

Fingers crossed.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

the big plus to old ecu's like this, is that they don't know anything. they just take the inputs and then output accordingly.

with the Rx8, you have to set the CAS and the ECU up on an internet dating service...

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, no ****, Sherlock.

It was a long day and we got much done but starting the engine was not happening.

Sigfrid was rarin' to go, pent up energy and excitement from a month away from the car were bubbling over. As I finished off the harness he decided to finish off the wiper linkage.

Wipers are much more difficult and nuanced than I'd believed/expected, I'd gotten it 90% finished but the linkage still needed tweaking to be right. Two and a half hours later, we have wipers.
The linkage rods I'd made ended up looking like spaghetti but there are no clearance issues, the wipers move strongly, smoothly and quietly and are a decided upgrade from stock.
To reiterate: the system is made up of a Lexus wiper motor, Mazda 626 pivot spindles, custom linkage rods and VW Jetta wiper arms.
It works well, looks good and was an unbelievable nightmare to assemble.





As Sigfrid bled and cursed floridly in French, I soldiered through the remaining engine bay connections and it ended up like this:


At 4pm we were ready to try her out.
By 5:30pm we had chased down all the leaks (4 in the fuel system, 1 in the water loop) and had good solid fuel pressure (factory spec 36psi static pressure) and spark.

But no clicky-clacky from the injectors.
All the plugs were bone dry, the ECU is not firing off the injectors.

As I built the harness, every connection was ohmed out to confirm correct pin placement and we rechecked it again yesterday. I'm confident that what is there is correct. So obviously, something isn't there that's supposed to be.
In fact, I can find no connection from the ignition to the ECU, so I wonder how the computer is supposed to know when the plugs are firing.

The Datsun schematics from that era are just crap (seriously, our FC schematics are magnificent in comparison) and it doesn't help that the entire engine harness is green or black wires- no color coding.
That is still a mystery to me, but oh well.

At this point I need more information...I don't think I've made a mistake, I just haven't finished connecting something but have no idea what.
My schematic shows 11 unpopulated pins on the ECU connector but the harness/connector actually has wires there and I haven't a clue what they are or where they go. And they're all green, of course.

The good news is that the engine spins over nicely, we (probably) have no leaks and it didn't make any funny/terrible noises (remember that we found a rocker laying in the valley under the valve cover, so the valve train was/is suspect).

I think we're only a wire or two away from starting.

I'm taking the next two days off and hope to resolve this on Tuesday.
Assuming I can come up with some idea of what to do.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Well, that was easier than expected.
Found the schematic for a '76 (we have a '77) and for some reason, the diagram layout is completely different and much more informative.
The system now makes sense and we're only a few wires away.

Hope springs eternal.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i was going to say there is probably just a wire on the - side of the coil... and or it runs off the tach.

my old mercedes had an extra set of points to run the injectors.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Well, confusion still reigns.

Comparing the pinouts from my blurred '77 diagram with the (much) better '76 schematic shows they are identical for the AFM, TPS, injectors and thermosensor, so all that is good.
The '76 schematic clearly shows a connection from the coil to pin #1 at the ECU, and our '77 does not and that pin is currently empty.
So far, so good.

As previously mentioned, the entire engine harness is black or green wires, with one exception.
There are three heavy gauge blue wires also and in our car they were connected to a large white wire that spanned the firewall and connected to battery + through a fusible link. This was all pulled intact by me and is untouched factory wiring.

In the cleaner '76 diagram, these three wires are very clearly grounds, which makes absolutely no sense. Why would the three biggest wires in the loom be grounds and why are they obviously power in our car?
And where are the grounds in my loom?

Aaargh.

I guess my safest move is to leave the harness intact as is (after all, nothing burned up or smelled funny when connected) and just hook the "tach output" (from the coil negative and already bundled in the harness) to pin #1 and see what happens.

That will happen tomorrow after a quick junkyard run.
Unnoticed by me when I pulled the parts, the two pivot spindles from the 626 are different heights, I looked at the driver side and it was perfect and never noticed the passenger side was shorter, which has led to clearance problems with the arm and the valence panel (that's why you don't see the passenger wiper in the above pic). It's very minor and could be ground away but I'll try to find another tall spindle first, which is the more elegant fix.

I'll be working away on the starting problem all week and should have her going by Saturday (the Pollyanna in me thinks the tach wire will solve the issue in 10 minutes...), which is our next "together" workday.
On Saturday we should begin prepping the body for it's beauty coat of dip, a full body respray.
We'll need the rockers fully fitted and the mudflaps (if we decide to use them) as both will get sprayed in situ.
We don't have a fixed date to paint but I want to avoid the issues we had last year, waiting too long and getting screwed by cold weather.
It would also be good to lay in the Dynomat and carpet while it's warm and the materials are flexible.
I figure we can count on maybe six more weeks before weather becomes a serious issue, so haste is called for.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

What a day.

Started at the junkyard, found the wiper spindle we needed (626's have different length spindles for driver and passenger sides...we needed two driver side (tall) ones) and a much nicer "kidney" center section for our grill.
Speaking of grills, I was able to measure one of those Mustang grills (parked in the lot at the yard) and it could be a real candidate.

I also found two tools I'd left behind last week.
Fortune was smiling upon me.

Motored over to Sigfrid's and remade the engine harness to the new spec...I had made four errors of omission and one of commission. This took about an hour.

At 12:30 pm...she STARTED!

Pretty much fired right up, actually.

Ran pretty raggedy, no doubt the timing and TPS are out of whack but wasn't all that bad and probably driveable. Lots of smoke from the MMO poured into the cylinders but I expect that to go away eventually.
Exhaust seems very loud.

Have a water leak at the thermostat housing that must be addressed but she seems tight otherwise.

Should get a drive around the block this weekend.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Puttered around a bit today, disassembled/cleaned/sealed the thermostat housing.
Don't know how it got back on the engine without being gone over but apparently it did, so sue me.
All better now.

Removed the 240SX throttle body and repaired a broken off screw that happened when we converted back to the Z TPS. Unfortunately, the 240SX TPS will not work with our ECU (it's a potentiometer style and would work swimmingly with a Megasquirt but our computer wants to see a "switch" instead) and I hate the way the original must be mounted, so I want to look into that more closely. That whole throttle body setup may require a smidge of tweakage to mitigate clearance issues with the larger Z TPS and the distributor.
Irritating but expected in a Frankenstein build like this.

Although the TPS was a bust, I still have hope for the S5 AFM.

I think we have ignition issues- plug wires crossed, wrong coil, bad igniter...something like that.
When running (albeit roughly), there is no change when you rotate the dizzy from full advance to full retard. Adjusting the TPS does nothing.

We'll be back on it Saturday and I hope we can make some progress.

pzr2

iTrader: (3)

really random interjection, but clokker, what tap/die set do you use? i thought any old one would work but this crappy pittsburgh one i have is cutting the threads so shallow that the nut always wobbles on the threads.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Thirty years ago I bought a fully loaded Gerstner machinists toolbox, in it were little plastic boxes with a tap, pilot and clearance drills for all sorts of metric sizes.
No idea who made them.

Sigfrid has a HF set that I've used for some of the oddball sizes (like the fine thread 10mm seat mounts) and that's been OK but I generally use mine on the normal 6 & 8 mm stuff.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Well, finally some substantive news, no vague rants about wipers.

Although, speaking of wipers...installed the new spindle, adjusted the link arm and they are now finished. Far superior coverage than the originals and very smooth.
Moving on...

Our mission for the day was to get the car to drive and we almost/kinda made it.
It took about two hours to get her to start the first time and we're still not sure what we did, but that was fixed and with some coaxing, she'd start but not idle.
Ran very rough.

Unsure where to go, we decided to start from the basics and work up, so we disconnected the harness and ohmed all the connectors to the ECU plug. The harness is correct and good.

The Z's TPS is not a potentiometer, it's two contact switches. One is closed at idle and opens at 1400 rpm, the other closes at 3500 rpm. Because we have no tach yet, we just approximated the opening of the throttle plate to RPM (a wild guess at best) and checked the switches...they work as described.

We had decided to begin with the original AFM (just to make life simpler by removing a variable), and close inspection reveals that someone has been in there before (mismatched screws and grey sealer slopped about), but we tried it anyway.
The car would start but that's about it.

The Z AFM is strikingly similar to the flapper door metal S4 unit. They might even be the same thing but ours is at least the close predecessor. I had a diagram showing how to adapt a S5 AFM to a S4 harness and used it to plug the S5 AFM to the Z harness.
She fired right up, ran much more smoothly and would hold idle.
That was rather amazing.

But deceptive.
She'd probably idle all day but any throttle input and baawaaah, falls flat and stalls.
The distributor can be spun from full advance to full retard with no apparent effect.
Unplugging the AFM doesn't change anything, runs just the same.

She is running pig rich, the smell and black sooty smoke are obvious.

Nothing we do seems to make a repeatable, discernible change...it's hard to figure where to go with the problem.
Then she refused to start again.
Then she would.

We pulled the plugs ( black and sooty) and did a compression check...it sucks.
We'd like to see 160-170 psi, we have a best of 145 and the worst is 110 psi...but she should still run.
We kept coming up with ideas and tried the ones we could but nothing seemed to help.

Rather than repeat for the fifth time things we'd already tried, we stopped and moved to the body for a while.
Specifically, the grill.
This is the first, cobbled together, attempt:






These pics over accentuate the color differences (the center "kidneys" are from a different donor than the side pieces and it's all dirty and will be repainted) but the basic unit is amazingly perfect in our opening. The angles and shapes are very consistent with the Z body (the kidney center flows perfectly with the hood bulge when viewed from the right angles) and overall, I couldn't be happier.

And every single person who saw it ( we got lots of visits from neighbors as we were in the driveway making a hell of a racket...our headers and exhaust are LOUD) commented on "our BMW grill".
****.
Not sure we can overcome that, we're looking into that Mustang grill as an option.

Personally, I love it...if Datsun had designed/installed it on the original Z nobody would blink twice, it's actually much nicer than the grill they came up with.
I'm just not sure we can get around the instant recognition factor.





We had a lovely day to work in, fluffy clouds and 75° and for the first time in a while she could escape the garage as the damn camper is finally put away for the season.

I got off my *** and finally connected the alternator.
We now have a nice stable 14.5v at the battery terminals, dropping to 14.45v with headlights, driving lights and wipers on. It's a new Maxima 90a unit and should easily handle our projected loads, so that's good and that's done now, too.
The entire electrical system seems to operating perfectly, I'm quite pleased.

About 4pm- for some unknown reason- she decided to pretend she'd actually run.
Still had to gently tip in off idle but she didn't stall anymore.

And so she got her first run up and down the block.
It was glorious.

Sigfrid drove as I stood in the driveway with the hose and fire extinguisher...who knew what could happen?
She didn't explode into a fireball. In fact, she seems completely oil/water/fuel tight...no drips or leaks anywhere.

Sigfrid's impressions from the drivers seat:
- car is tight with no clunks or rattles.
- shifts very nicely, our reshaped shift lever is great.
- clutch takeup is fine.
- brakes need a rebleed (no surprise there)
- steering is tight and responsive (at low speeds, at least)
- seems like she'd be quite quick if you could actually goose the throttle.

My impressions as a bystander:
- stance is almost perfect, could be a bit lower in the rear but it's OK as is.
- brake/running/TS lights are very bright and attention grabbing, so my taillight mods were worth it.
- it looks great (I'm probably biased...)
- I still hate the wheels (everyone else seems to think they're fine, so...)

She'll now fire right up (hot or cold) every time and idle all day long.
She is running pig rich and we don't know why.

Every branch of our diagnostic tree broke under our weight and we can't get any results that make sense.
We're researching and assembling a list of things to try, ranging from the cheap (if time consuming) to the expensive (replacing parts) and will go from there.
First thing we need to do is set a cap on how much time and money we're willing to invest in this engine (my time, Sigfrid's money).

Before things get dire though, I think we can eliminate a lot by doing some deeper looking into the motor. We know the compression is low- strike one.
My sense is that this was never actually a running engine as such, but rather a hastily assembled bunch of parts (remember, when we first got her the spark plugs (and pretty much everything else) were only finger tight and a rocker was laying loose in the valley)...so for all we know, the cam timing is off a tooth (or three).
Maybe Sigfrid screwed up and ordered turbo injectors instead of NAs...the list of possibilities is quite long.

We've always been aware that this engine might be total junk and a swap was a possibility, now we just need to decide at what point we cut bait and make the plunge.
We only paid $1500 for what was in essence a perfect shell and that alone was a good deal, the drivetrain was just an added bonus if it worked.

Sigfrid and family are on another trip next weekend, so I'll be spending three days in the garage as I housesit. That should give me time to do some of the more laborious checking (like the cam timing) and we have a few new parts coming (primarily the ECU thermosensor) which might help.

Now that she's run up to temp a few times, it's time to dump the water and see what it looks like.
Might have to flush some more or maybe she's ready for coolant...we'll see.

All things considered, I'm cautiously optimistic.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

And the battery is dead.
I've built in a current drain, probably the alternator since that's the only electrical change made last weekend.
I'll fix it Wednesday.

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

That front end.... For what it is, it is pulled off well. However, it does not quite seem at home with the kidney break in the middle. I always find the Z's to need the mesh to go all the way across.

But, the car is looking nice, and I agree that it would be awesome if the engine would run for you guys.