What did you do to your FB today?
08-02-13, 10:08 AM
#3451
Seriously jealous. Hunting hard core for a GSL or SE rear end right now and it appears that there are none in my state. Will need it going to 5 lug rear end.
I've been daily driving the Turbo FB lately and I really do enjoy it. Need to wire in the O2 sensor to see if that's why its running so pig rich and find if I have a vacuum leak somewhere. Ordered FMIC and all its components this week so should start rocking that out in the middle of next week.
I hear you guys on the having more time than money, it really bites. Ah well, makes you appreciate what you have and be grateful for it.
I've been daily driving the Turbo FB lately and I really do enjoy it. Need to wire in the O2 sensor to see if that's why its running so pig rich and find if I have a vacuum leak somewhere. Ordered FMIC and all its components this week so should start rocking that out in the middle of next week.
I hear you guys on the having more time than money, it really bites. Ah well, makes you appreciate what you have and be grateful for it.
08-02-13, 10:28 AM
#3452
GSL-EV: Ive got an EV car show coming up next week so for the last week I have been doing some of the things I had intended to do when I got back from the show last year. This last week it has been adding in the front battery box. The old rear battery box has 33 cells in it. This front one could hold 20 cells but if I put 20 in it attaching the power cables becomes problematic. So 18 it is. Each cell can give about 1.5 miles of range in an FB if you drive carefully and about .9 miles if you drive like a teenager on a cold winter day. I estimate about 2 hours of work to get back on the road at this point but that probably means 4-5 when things don't go as planned. Anyway thought people might like to see under the hood of an EV RX7.
It is still rotary, just magnetic instead of internal combustion drive.
EV stuff that you might not recognize:
Grey thing with the power cables attached and the blue thing on the top is the maintenance switch. Turn that off to remove high voltage. Underneath the maint switch is the throttle position sensor which you cant see although you can sort of see the throttle cable going into it in the right hand image.
The red motor in the middle is a Netgain Warp9 which can do around 500 ftlbs and a little over 500hp for around 10-15 seconds before something bad happens. I don't have a powerful enough controller and this is my daily driver so as installed and configured it can do around 200 ft lbs and 175 HP from 0 to about 4000 rpm with torque tapering off up to redline at 5500 rpm. The electric drag racers put two of these in their car on the same shaft. They call it a Siamese twin setup and in the past have seen 1/4 times in the low 9's and expect to get into the 8's this season (converted MR-2). The big problem is not power, it is mass. The batteries to put out these kinds of power levels are too heavy. But they improve every year.
The red box is the 12 v battery to keep the car systems operating. It is a LiFePO4 based battery that weighs about 2.5 lbs. It would probably work to start your regular car on a warm day. It can source 280 amps and would sag less than your lead acid battery. Basically it keeps the stereo presets and the clock operating and if there was a big failure of the DC-DC converter (think of this as an 80 amp alternator) it would continue to operate the car for about half an hour at night in the rain and operate the flashers for 10 hours. That is not its permanent spot. I had it plugged in so I could listen to the stereo while I worked. It can run that for about 8 hours before I have to recharge it.
The nickle plated device you can see in the front left of the right hand photo under the 12v battery is the motor controller. It can be equated to the fuel pump and carburetor or fuel injection system. Its max power rating is about 1/3 of a megawatt or a little over 400 hp. I only have enough batteries to get halfway there.
A sharp eyed observer will notice I don't have any vacuum for the brakes. I have an electric vac pump but I am used to not having it at this point so might choose to not do it. The only problem is when I drive the GSL-SE, the brakes seem touchy.
It is still rotary, just magnetic instead of internal combustion drive.
EV stuff that you might not recognize:
Grey thing with the power cables attached and the blue thing on the top is the maintenance switch. Turn that off to remove high voltage. Underneath the maint switch is the throttle position sensor which you cant see although you can sort of see the throttle cable going into it in the right hand image.
The red motor in the middle is a Netgain Warp9 which can do around 500 ftlbs and a little over 500hp for around 10-15 seconds before something bad happens. I don't have a powerful enough controller and this is my daily driver so as installed and configured it can do around 200 ft lbs and 175 HP from 0 to about 4000 rpm with torque tapering off up to redline at 5500 rpm. The electric drag racers put two of these in their car on the same shaft. They call it a Siamese twin setup and in the past have seen 1/4 times in the low 9's and expect to get into the 8's this season (converted MR-2). The big problem is not power, it is mass. The batteries to put out these kinds of power levels are too heavy. But they improve every year.
The red box is the 12 v battery to keep the car systems operating. It is a LiFePO4 based battery that weighs about 2.5 lbs. It would probably work to start your regular car on a warm day. It can source 280 amps and would sag less than your lead acid battery. Basically it keeps the stereo presets and the clock operating and if there was a big failure of the DC-DC converter (think of this as an 80 amp alternator) it would continue to operate the car for about half an hour at night in the rain and operate the flashers for 10 hours. That is not its permanent spot. I had it plugged in so I could listen to the stereo while I worked. It can run that for about 8 hours before I have to recharge it.
The nickle plated device you can see in the front left of the right hand photo under the 12v battery is the motor controller. It can be equated to the fuel pump and carburetor or fuel injection system. Its max power rating is about 1/3 of a megawatt or a little over 400 hp. I only have enough batteries to get halfway there.
A sharp eyed observer will notice I don't have any vacuum for the brakes. I have an electric vac pump but I am used to not having it at this point so might choose to not do it. The only problem is when I drive the GSL-SE, the brakes seem touchy.
08-02-13, 06:39 PM
#3454
Sin City Rotary
GSL-EV: Ive got an EV car show coming up next week so for the last week I have been doing some of the things I had intended to do when I got back from the show last year. This last week it has been adding in the front battery box. The old rear battery box has 33 cells in it. This front one could hold 20 cells but if I put 20 in it attaching the power cables becomes problematic. So 18 it is. Each cell can give about 1.5 miles of range in an FB if you drive carefully and about .9 miles if you drive like a teenager on a cold winter day. I estimate about 2 hours of work to get back on the road at this point but that probably means 4-5 when things don't go as planned. Anyway thought people might like to see under the hood of an EV RX7.
It is still rotary, just magnetic instead of internal combustion drive.
EV stuff that you might not recognize:
Grey thing with the power cables attached and the blue thing on the top is the maintenance switch. Turn that off to remove high voltage. Underneath the maint switch is the throttle position sensor which you cant see although you can sort of see the throttle cable going into it in the right hand image.
The red motor in the middle is a Netgain Warp9 which can do around 500 ftlbs and a little over 500hp for around 10-15 seconds before something bad happens. I don't have a powerful enough controller and this is my daily driver so as installed and configured it can do around 200 ft lbs and 175 HP from 0 to about 4000 rpm with torque tapering off up to redline at 5500 rpm. The electric drag racers put two of these in their car on the same shaft. They call it a Siamese twin setup and in the past have seen 1/4 times in the low 9's and expect to get into the 8's this season (converted MR-2). The big problem is not power, it is mass. The batteries to put out these kinds of power levels are too heavy. But they improve every year.
The red box is the 12 v battery to keep the car systems operating. It is a LiFePO4 based battery that weighs about 2.5 lbs. It would probably work to start your regular car on a warm day. It can source 280 amps and would sag less than your lead acid battery. Basically it keeps the stereo presets and the clock operating and if there was a big failure of the DC-DC converter (think of this as an 80 amp alternator) it would continue to operate the car for about half an hour at night in the rain and operate the flashers for 10 hours. That is not its permanent spot. I had it plugged in so I could listen to the stereo while I worked. It can run that for about 8 hours before I have to recharge it.
The nickle plated device you can see in the front left of the right hand photo under the 12v battery is the motor controller. It can be equated to the fuel pump and carburetor or fuel injection system. Its max power rating is about 1/3 of a megawatt or a little over 400 hp. I only have enough batteries to get halfway there.
A sharp eyed observer will notice I don't have any vacuum for the brakes. I have an electric vac pump but I am used to not having it at this point so might choose to not do it. The only problem is when I drive the GSL-SE, the brakes seem touchy.
It is still rotary, just magnetic instead of internal combustion drive.
EV stuff that you might not recognize:
Grey thing with the power cables attached and the blue thing on the top is the maintenance switch. Turn that off to remove high voltage. Underneath the maint switch is the throttle position sensor which you cant see although you can sort of see the throttle cable going into it in the right hand image.
The red motor in the middle is a Netgain Warp9 which can do around 500 ftlbs and a little over 500hp for around 10-15 seconds before something bad happens. I don't have a powerful enough controller and this is my daily driver so as installed and configured it can do around 200 ft lbs and 175 HP from 0 to about 4000 rpm with torque tapering off up to redline at 5500 rpm. The electric drag racers put two of these in their car on the same shaft. They call it a Siamese twin setup and in the past have seen 1/4 times in the low 9's and expect to get into the 8's this season (converted MR-2). The big problem is not power, it is mass. The batteries to put out these kinds of power levels are too heavy. But they improve every year.
The red box is the 12 v battery to keep the car systems operating. It is a LiFePO4 based battery that weighs about 2.5 lbs. It would probably work to start your regular car on a warm day. It can source 280 amps and would sag less than your lead acid battery. Basically it keeps the stereo presets and the clock operating and if there was a big failure of the DC-DC converter (think of this as an 80 amp alternator) it would continue to operate the car for about half an hour at night in the rain and operate the flashers for 10 hours. That is not its permanent spot. I had it plugged in so I could listen to the stereo while I worked. It can run that for about 8 hours before I have to recharge it.
The nickle plated device you can see in the front left of the right hand photo under the 12v battery is the motor controller. It can be equated to the fuel pump and carburetor or fuel injection system. Its max power rating is about 1/3 of a megawatt or a little over 400 hp. I only have enough batteries to get halfway there.
A sharp eyed observer will notice I don't have any vacuum for the brakes. I have an electric vac pump but I am used to not having it at this point so might choose to not do it. The only problem is when I drive the GSL-SE, the brakes seem touchy.
Ok I'll ask like a teenager .... how quick is this setup??
08-02-13, 07:14 PM
#3455
Ready or not...
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Taos, NM
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08-02-13, 07:45 PM
#3456
Today, the intake manifold was un-f*#ked.
Turns out it was in fact the ceramic coating that was clogging the oil injector threads.
I had honestly given up on life at this point. There was no purpose - there was no order.
I walked around empty - unable to feel or relate to anything. But i kept going, one step at a time...
... to the fabrication shop. Where they did an amazing piece of work
Today I breathe in and feel the joy and exuberance of life.
I had honestly given up on life at this point. There was no purpose - there was no order.
I walked around empty - unable to feel or relate to anything. But i kept going, one step at a time...
... to the fabrication shop. Where they did an amazing piece of work
Today I breathe in and feel the joy and exuberance of life.
08-02-13, 08:07 PM
#3457
Sin City Rotary
well after looking at DD's waffles again during WHiV I decided I was going to refurb a set .... other factors pushed my time table ... but finished the bulk of the work Wednesday night and put them on 
.... I would so love to find some RWL tires sigh
.... I would so love to find some RWL tires sigh
Last edited by 13x; 08-02-13 at 08:09 PM.
08-02-13, 08:49 PM
#3458
Glad you got it figured out bud!
I started getting FMIC parts at the house, will hopefully have them all by next week sometime.
08-03-13, 12:02 AM
#3463
Finally got a chance to work further on my front alignment issues.
Background: Back in 2009, I replaced the ball joint on the right hand Lower Control Arm (LCA). At the same time, I had a new pivot bushing pressed in by the local NAPA machine shop, as the old one was looking pretty chewed. I'd replaced the left LCA with an OEM replacement some years previous, and it was at the time (and still is) looking fine. I had the car aligned afterward, and things seemed fine.
So today, I'm crawling around under the car looking at the tension rods (see prev. post a few days ago) and they seem to be in spec, but then I'm looking at the LCAs and I noticed something off. Check out these two pix (front of car is top of pic):
Right LCA pivot bushing area:
Left LCA pivot:
Look at the distances I labelled A and B on the second pic:
On the left side, distance A is ~9.96mm
On the right side, distance A is ~6.08mm
In other words, the vertical pivot point at the root of the control arm on the right side is nearly 4mm further to the front or the car than is the one on the left.
Because the bottom point of the steering axis for the wheel (the ball joint/steering knuckle) is on the other end of the LCA, on the far side of the tension rod (which would act as a fixed-length front/rear fulcrum), moving the root end of the LCA forward would move the tip of it rearward, like a seesaw.
Moving the bottom of the steering axis rearward decreases the caster.
Cars with inequal caster will pull to the side with the least caster based on my reading, and my car is pulling right.
I can't tell if the arm actually shifted on the bushing, or if maybe the bushing wasn't pressed fully and has slowly creeped the arm; you can see that it doesn't look "even" where the rubber comes out of the arm on the front side.
With a little trig and some measuring of control arm lengths either side of the tension rod attachment, I should be able to work out how much change in tension rod length would cancel out that 4mm inner-end shift, but ultimately it looks to me like I should either get another bushing pressed, or (at 10x $) just get a new right LCA.
I don't know for sure that this is the issue, but considering the specs involved are small (the tension rod spec is +/-1mm, and alignment specs are in the 1/2 degree range) it seems to me like a 4mm placement error on the control arm pivot could be significant.
Background: Back in 2009, I replaced the ball joint on the right hand Lower Control Arm (LCA). At the same time, I had a new pivot bushing pressed in by the local NAPA machine shop, as the old one was looking pretty chewed. I'd replaced the left LCA with an OEM replacement some years previous, and it was at the time (and still is) looking fine. I had the car aligned afterward, and things seemed fine.
So today, I'm crawling around under the car looking at the tension rods (see prev. post a few days ago) and they seem to be in spec, but then I'm looking at the LCAs and I noticed something off. Check out these two pix (front of car is top of pic):
Right LCA pivot bushing area:
Left LCA pivot:
Look at the distances I labelled A and B on the second pic:
On the left side, distance A is ~9.96mm
On the right side, distance A is ~6.08mm
In other words, the vertical pivot point at the root of the control arm on the right side is nearly 4mm further to the front or the car than is the one on the left.
Because the bottom point of the steering axis for the wheel (the ball joint/steering knuckle) is on the other end of the LCA, on the far side of the tension rod (which would act as a fixed-length front/rear fulcrum), moving the root end of the LCA forward would move the tip of it rearward, like a seesaw.
Moving the bottom of the steering axis rearward decreases the caster.
Cars with inequal caster will pull to the side with the least caster based on my reading, and my car is pulling right.
I can't tell if the arm actually shifted on the bushing, or if maybe the bushing wasn't pressed fully and has slowly creeped the arm; you can see that it doesn't look "even" where the rubber comes out of the arm on the front side.
With a little trig and some measuring of control arm lengths either side of the tension rod attachment, I should be able to work out how much change in tension rod length would cancel out that 4mm inner-end shift, but ultimately it looks to me like I should either get another bushing pressed, or (at 10x $) just get a new right LCA.
I don't know for sure that this is the issue, but considering the specs involved are small (the tension rod spec is +/-1mm, and alignment specs are in the 1/2 degree range) it seems to me like a 4mm placement error on the control arm pivot could be significant.
08-03-13, 10:38 AM
#3465
There are 33 cells in the area where the gas tank/spare tire/muffler used to be. The number of cells and placement of everything was calculated to keep the weight about the same. It is about 20 lbs heavy on the rear tires and about 15 lbs heavy on the front. The stuff you take out is pretty heavy. An example would be the exhaust system including the header and heat shield weighs 90 lbs. The gas tank plus a full tank of gas is almost 100 lbs and if I remember correctly the spare tire is 26. All of that adds up to the weight of 31 cells. Radiator+ coolant, 12A, Lead Acid battery are around 300 lbs. Warp 9 motor + transmission and flywheel adaptors are 180, motor controller is 30 + 18 cells is 136. When you run the numbers is it just a little overweight. Until I put these cells in the front I was light there and you could see it in the stance.
08-03-13, 10:49 AM
#3466
I don't really know. Guessing around 7 sec 0-60. The computer model says it should be under 6 seconds but the shift to third is what probably kills it. I get to drive it on a 1/8 drag strip next Friday so I will know more then. I can tell you that in second it gets to 25 in less than a second and then there is the clumsy shift into third. First gear is too low as the motor never gets loaded up. I need about a 3.6 rear end ratio to make 1st usable. I built it as a daily driver, not a drag racer. Lots of things I would do differently if that was my interest.
08-03-13, 10:50 AM
#3467
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agreed.
08-03-13, 04:59 PM
#3468
Well, my issue is now clear; I put a small prybar between the crossmember and the control arm, and with moderate to heavy effort I'm able to actually shift it about 5mm front/rear along the bushing. With a little effort I was able to re-center it.
That's not supposed to be possible. The bushing should not be able to be slid in the bore without tons of pressure, but it is.
The left side one cannot be budged at all, even with heavy effort.
Clearly, time for a new LCA. Not sure I could trust a new bushing in the same bore.
Explains why the problem appeared over time with no relevant changes taking place, too. Everything felt plenty tight until I used the prybar.
That's not supposed to be possible. The bushing should not be able to be slid in the bore without tons of pressure, but it is.
The left side one cannot be budged at all, even with heavy effort.
Clearly, time for a new LCA. Not sure I could trust a new bushing in the same bore.
Explains why the problem appeared over time with no relevant changes taking place, too. Everything felt plenty tight until I used the prybar.
08-03-13, 07:24 PM
#3469
Seriously jealous. Hunting hard core for a GSL or SE rear end right now and it appears that there are none in my state. Will need it going to 5 lug rear end.
I've been daily driving the Turbo FB lately and I really do enjoy it. Need to wire in the O2 sensor to see if that's why its running so pig rich and find if I have a vacuum leak somewhere. Ordered FMIC and all its components this week so should start rocking that out in the middle of next week.
I hear you guys on the having more time than money, it really bites. Ah well, makes you appreciate what you have and be grateful for it.
I've been daily driving the Turbo FB lately and I really do enjoy it. Need to wire in the O2 sensor to see if that's why its running so pig rich and find if I have a vacuum leak somewhere. Ordered FMIC and all its components this week so should start rocking that out in the middle of next week.
I hear you guys on the having more time than money, it really bites. Ah well, makes you appreciate what you have and be grateful for it.
08-03-13, 08:31 PM
#3470
So I will not be running the car on the 1/8 mile next Friday. Darn it that is depressing! I have been looking forward to this for months!
08-03-13, 10:48 PM
#3472
Test drive confirms the diagnosis; even with the arm just pried back into proper position, handling is dramatically improved.
Pull is gone, steering now returns to center properly, there's no 'hump' in the turn rate, and the steering feel is light and agile once again.
Makes me sad that I drove all the way to Vegas and back with the problem - - would have been ever so much more fun with the front end set up properly.
Now, I must secure a replacement and get it in before JCCS/SS.
Pull is gone, steering now returns to center properly, there's no 'hump' in the turn rate, and the steering feel is light and agile once again.
Makes me sad that I drove all the way to Vegas and back with the problem - - would have been ever so much more fun with the front end set up properly.
Now, I must secure a replacement and get it in before JCCS/SS.
08-04-13, 11:53 AM
#3473
Ready or not...
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Taos, NM
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08-04-13, 10:45 PM
#3474
This particular one is about $3k. I think they will repair it under warranty. But that doesn't help me this week. I will not put things off until the last minute ever again. When you do the least little thing blows the whole deal and this was not a least little thing.
It will still be a good show to attend. I will have to take my EV FB to a 7 show somewhere once I get it better sorted out.
It will still be a good show to attend. I will have to take my EV FB to a 7 show somewhere once I get it better sorted out.
08-04-13, 10:49 PM
#3475
I will watch it when I change it out.