This document has been prepared by the LTSA for the use of vehicle inspectors and inspecting organisations to aid in achieving correct and consistent standards of in service inspection and certification (WoF & CoF) http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/publications/vir-manual/#general

Basicaly this means that your car must comply with everything listed on this page to get a WOF, if this page says you need a LVV certification, try this link for more information:

http://www.lvvta.org.nz/newindex3.html

Hope this helps,

Si

admins any chance of stickying this thread or making a usefull links thread?

Do you have nerdy thoughts?

Nerdy thoughts that you're afraid to tell your freinds in regular spam, for fear of judgement?

Sometimes, do you just want to yell MATE YOU CANT USE GRADE 4.6 FOR THAT MATE! MAAAAATTTEEEE.

Welcome!
 

The jug has boiled, it's temperature is 338k which is still less than 0.2 standard deviations from ideal brewing temperature.

So feel free to make an optimal cup of tea within the next 65000 milliseconds.



 

I’m doing a trip to ChCh this weekend and picking up some Carry parts while I’m there.
One of the parts is a spare gearbox, so I can mate the Leaf motor to it on the bench before I start the conversion. 
Guy selling it doesn’t know if it’s a 4 or 5 speed, and there is no shifter. 
Is there an easy way to tell if it is 4 or 5 speed? They are remote cable shift I think, will check tonight when I’m at home. 5 speed isn’t exactly necessary because electric motor, but I don’t know if there are physical differences and my existing one is a 5 speed, so trying to make the swap as simple as I can.

Im helping an older gentleman clear out his garage and amongst his goodies he's got a box full of witchcraft devices (carbs) that are from the minis they have had over the years.

Because they don't have a USB port I have very little knowledge of them other than air and fuel goes in various places and hopefully the correct mixture comes out.

Im aiming to sell them for him but am unsure what they are worth - could anyone guide me on a realistic price?

I don't know if they are runners or not, but going by how good the condition of other items he has around Id say they were at least very well maintained.

Im aiming to list these eventually and help put some cash back in his pockets.

I will go through them individually and see if there are any markings etc to identify them but they look like SU's to me.

Thanks!

Rather than me starting a new thread for each question I come up with as my project progresses I will instead just keep coming back to this thread. In fact I think the answers to the questions I ask could be quite useful to others who might be keen on going the fuel injection way. Im asking on here as there seems to be plenty who have experience with this stuff going into old cars.

First question is,

What is phased ignition? I have been looking at various ECUs and some state this being included.

example from the Gotech website on the pro x ECU......

- 4, 6 and eight Cylinder, One coil and two injector outputs with trigger per event input

- 4 Cylinder, Two coil and Two injector outputs with crank trigger (60-2, 36-1, 12-1)

- 6 Cylinder, Three coil and three injector outputs with crank trigger (60-2)

- 4 Cylinder, Full sequential Four coil and four injector output (60 -2 plus hall effect TDC)

- 6 Cylinder, Full sequential fuelling and phased ignition (60 -2 plus hall effect TDC)

And the injector outputs- what does the number of outputs refer to?

Second question is,

When you get a aftermarket ECU and it comes with a base map for starting, how easy is it to then tune the ECU without the use of a rolling road?

What I'm picturing is Hannah driving the Viva while I sit in passenger seat and 'tune' things. I realise it will take a long time but is it easy enough to do with most of the supplies softwares if you understand the basics of car tuning. I can happily set carbs, go for a drive and know whats happening and if its running lean, rich, ignition timing is out etc. This stuff I know fairly well.

What I'm hoping is that I would be able to just sit there while the car is driving, open the appropriate software window and adjust the fuelling map, ignition map to suit. Is it that easy?

Third question,

What sort of airflow meters do most ECUs support?

I realise that a hotwire maf or a map sensor will offer far less restriction than my current 'sliding dutchcap' ( well it looks like a dutch cap) VAF but I have read that the VAF is much more accurate and better for fuel economy? If I go to a map sensor or hotwire sensor then is it just a case of getting a sensor and plumbing it in place then wiring it all up to the new ECU and starting on a base map? Or is there more involved with map sensors as they use some sort of logorithmiculculas table to work out airflow based on the pressure, air temp and TPS hence need rolling road time?

Fourth question,

Would aftermarket ECUs come with an option to control a step motor or some solenoids at certain preset rev points? I fancy making a inlet manifold with variable length velocity stacks inside the plenum ala F1 so I can maximise my torque etc.

Hard to see how fluid gets past the cup to the line.

Wanting a nice wrap that isn't that split corrugated junk. 

Wiring wise im open to some non mil spec connectors but reasonably priced and availability for less than a limb for my motorcycle looms and maybe ignition harness on the commy.

What have you found or recommend tools supplies consumables etc youtube videos even??

Im not going into business im just sick of ugly wiring on my projects, i do have kids coming into building projects so might as well teach them to do shit nicely.

Some 20 years ago my brother bought a 1973 DeTomaso Pantera as a large pile of parts from Turners Car Auctions. The car had been in parts for a number of years (and owners) and had originally been owned and registered to a well-known NZ motorsport Personality and politician. The car has had a no expenses spared restomod restoration from one of the top builders in the country and is nothing short of a work of art.

The modifications have been approved by our certifier but we are running into issues with establishing that it has been previously registered in NZ. We have no registration number (long story!) but we do have the chassis number. We have established beyond any doubt that it is an original Pantera and consensus of opinion (including our certifier) is that when originally registered, 2 of the digits in the chassis number were misread or incorrectly entered into the system; a search on the NZTA database seems to confirm this.  The number stamped into the chassis (874*THPNNA#####) has been confirmed as a correct Pantera number,

·        The 874 is the model number.

·        T – De Tomaso

·        H - Assembled at Modena, Italy

·        PN – Pantera

·        N - Year 1973

·        A - Month- July

·        ##### – #####^th unit built

·         

Problem is we're sure the number was originally entered into the system as 874*THPVVA#####, which is a nonsensical Pantera number!

All the inspections and paperwork for the Low Volume cert is done but we have no proof of its original registration, Attempts to contact the original owner have been unsuccessful, he would be in his late 80’s by now. The irony of the situation is that it can’t be a scratch built because it’s a 1973 Pantera!

So @Ned and others- what have ya done/ what reading material do you think I should first start with.

Edit.. also, back in the day I did a course on c++ and Delphi (it was 16 years ago) so maybe that will help (I can't remember a single thing about it all)

This thread is basically aimed at KPR as he's been playing around with mufflers a lot lately, but I'm keen for everyone's input. 

I'm about to fit a new muffler to the race car and am looking for something that will sound good - unlike the flowmaster copy that is on there currently. At the moment is sounds cackly/raspy and I'd like to to have a more pure 4cyl tone. My aim isn't quietness, but flow and tone is important. 

The Flowmaster copy is something like this: 

So far the only option I've looked at in person is a Coby stainless straight through, fibre packed muffler (full muffler, not just a resonator) that measures 320L x 265W x 140H with an offset inlet and centre exit. It's a similar style to this: 

Or possibly more like this: 

Now there are a few key factors that will effect the outcomes: 

Muffler placement

Pipe Size

Muffler size? 

Muffler/baffle style

Fluted pipes

Resonance chambers

Material (steel/stainless/aluminium) 

etc

My current setup has the muffler in the belly of the car - just in front of the diff - with a ~1m stainless pipe out to the back. It'll be 3" inlet and outlet with no other mufflers or resonators. 

What have people found when using different mufflers in different locations? How does the pipe length before and after the muffler change the sound or effectiveness of the muffler? What type of muffler saps the most horsepower? 

I've also considered going to a side pipe, but it'll be a challenge to fit a decent muffler if I do. Funnily enough, I've always preferred the sound of the car with no muffler at all (there have been 3 occasions... One was open headers after bellying a ripple strip and losing the whole system on the last lap of a race   ). 

I realise there aren't any definitive answers to this question, so share the results you've found with different cars and arrangements. Any input appreciated and other people's questions are also welcome here. 

Share away. 

This may be a stupid question, but at the risk of appearing moronic I shall ask....

Removing the EGR pipe from the exhaust manifold is proving a bit of a twat and I reckon despite much heating, quenching & oiling I'm about to snap the lower bolt off. The three nuts  came loose fine.

Rather than having to the take off the exhaust manifold (and the possibility of that turning to dog shit) is there any mileage in just blocking up the vacuum pipe that goes to the valve but leave all the wiring in place ?

This may appear to be massively lazy and you'd be right.  Would it confuse the ECU & throw up errors, etc ?

Youtube has managed to cancel its usefulness out with opposing opinions.

The car's a '97 Surf if that helps

Chur

Curious what everyone else does. Spreadsheet? Notebook? App? Or just wing it?

Would be keen to hear how you guys keep on top of it

Share them here 

1. Vacuum is a definite must have to suck the dust out and take it outside the environment. My next mod will be a 20l container to help separate the dust before it gets into the vac, as you have to stop and clean the filter regularly 

2. I put a water trap on the cabinet, this stops 90% of the water getting blown onto your blasted part . This worked much better at the cabinet end of the air hose 

3. The lamp they come with sucks and any lamp you put inside gets munted from the sand quickly so I just got a $20 bunnings led work lamp and put it on the outside of the window

4. Dust sticks to the window pretty quickly so you have to stop and clean it all the time. I started to use meguiars quick detailer spray wax stuff and that stops the shit sticking to the window, I hardly have to clean it any more  

5. You need a decent compressor,  I got a twin cyl belt drive one that is 190lpm and it keeps up fine  

Wondering if anyone on here could shed some light on my situation.

Its a Lucas E3L dynamo from 1949. At some point in its life its been uprated to 12v with a new field coil and a new armature. Both look pretty ham. Bike is -ve Earth.

The problem i'm having is that it only makes around 1.5v at idle (and only climbs as high as 2 volts as revs increase). This is measuring voltage between D and ground.
If i connect the F (field) and D (Dynamo output) together and measure the voltage between these and ground its around 0.5v.

If I put 12v on the F terminal, I get 20v output. This is to be expected as its got a good magnetic charge to generate against.

So it looks like it's not making enough juice to self excite. Connecting F and D is meant to feed output into the field coil making more magnetic field thus increasing output. So this is how you test them.

What i've checked:

• Stripped and cleaned. Sanded commutator, tidied up brushes etc.
• Runs as a DC motor when connected to battery F & D to 12v. Ground to body. (runs in correct direction too - clockwise)
• Field coil is about 5.5 ohms. So that seems fine.
• Putting 12v on field coil makes a real strong electro magnet!
• Armature seems to be between 26 and 160 odd ohms across the windings (each pair on the commutator). This seems high compared to internet literature, i should be seeing about 0.6ohm. Nothing is open and nothing is direct short... so it seems all good asides from high resistance values.
• Seems to be about about 26 ohms between ANY sections of the commutator (are these meant to be isolated from eachother except for the opposite side??)

So yeah, not sure whats going on. Could be the armature? Has anyone had any dabblings with dynamos/generators.?

INB4 its lucas so replace it with modern stuff etc. I'd like to keep it OG as she's 70 years old this year!

Chair

Im currently using a cressida rx60 drive shaft in my mk3 cortina with a w50.

The front section is perfect fit but the rear section is a little short so im using a spacer I made 

My rear section is 750mm and im looking for something around 770mm - 785mm

Pics of dimensions of mine below 

Anyone know of what makes models use the same bolt patter .

Thanks in advance 

I'm certainly no mechanic, this Plymouth has been sitting since around 1991 we believe, and I want to see if the engine runs. What should I be doing with the car before I try and turn it over having been so long? Thinking some sort of lubrication down the spark plugs, run a fuel line straight off the pump in case there's shit in any of the lines, new oil and water - anything else I should look at doing first?

Thanks in advance for any help!

First the back story,

On 5/29/2018 at 23:27, kws said:

As someone that is new to welding, I want to buy a welder. I can get both of these at a similar price, does anyone have an opinion of which one would be the better option? I have heard inverter is a good thing?

https://www.cigweld.com.au/product/weldskill-135-multi-process-welding-inverter/

https://www.cigweld.com.au/product/weldskill-135-mig-portable-welding-machine/

Alternatively, anyone have any better option under the $500 mark?

On 5/29/2018 at 23:43, peteretep said:

First one looks like what you want. Second one looks to be slightly more specialized as a higher use mig, although has smaller max wire size. Unless you are doing lots of continuous welding, you dont need to worry about that duty cycle, and if it is a problem, just wait 5 minutes before continuing welding/blow on it

 

Bit of a pain they dont seem to have specs to properly compare models, although I suspect they have done that on purpose

 

And you don't want to go near flux cored welding, its the devils poos. And some manufacturers have something called 'live wire technology' or something similar, which means that when used as a mig, the wire is always live, which you super dont want

 

Best deal you will be able to find will be something second hand. And factor in the price of a decent helmet, gloves and a bottle

On 5/30/2018 at 00:05, Raizer said:

I looked at the first one, was a really decent price in the SCA trade mailer, was thinking I could flick my BOC tig off and just have the one machine.

Decided I want something a little bit gruntier with Euro torch though.

Looking at one of these ATM, they have smaller/cheaper options too and I've been hearing good things

http://www.weldtech.net.nz/shop/Mig+Welders/WT200MP.html

Which left me with the question, MIG or TIG?

On 6/1/2018 at 17:29, kws said:

Looking around, im now a little conflicted. I just want to be able to do some basic welding on rust repairs and the usual Oldschool stuff; is it best to go for a cheap MIG (with gas), or get a semi-decent ARC that can do lift-TIG? @Raizer you clearly have a TIG, whats your opinion on your machine and your welding? Do you wish you had MIG instead?

I have done some gas welding before, but never electric. I know the basics behind them, but will have to learn from scratch.

On 6/1/2018 at 17:34, mjrstar said:

Unless you are keen on welding aluminum I would suggest getting an inverter mig which will do mig,  lift arc tig and stick. The only complication will be needing different bottles for mig and tig.

 I have a excel arc mig/tig/stick machine and a weld well AC / DC tig too.

On 6/1/2018 at 17:38, Transom said:

I have the cigweld 135 mig - was very cheap from supercheap and they stock tips and other bits 

fits a larger wire roll than the small crap flux core roll it comes with 

seems to do what I need as I only have single phase power anyway and have only hit thermal cutout a few times while really blasting on 5mm plate 

if / when the torch liner dies I will probably just buy an aliex euro torch conversion for it 

On 6/1/2018 at 17:54, Raizer said:

I've always failed at MIG, but have managed to hot glue a few different metals together successfully with my TIG.

Not saying I'm a good welder by any means, but I find TIG fun and fairly easy to get results that I am happy with and are functional at least.

My machine is just a little BOC 130amp inverter, ARC/Lift TIG, gives a really nice arc and is easy to set up (a pro welder gave me a couple lessons when I got it and he was impressed by it for a cheap machine)

 

But as I want to start doing a bit more fab work it looks like a MIG is going to be something that will be an asset to have, hopefully now I have a bit more confidence I'll be able to manage to actually do it haha.

 

@Truenotch was telling me last night about a couple different welders he reps, I can't remember the models but one has caught my interest.

On 6/1/2018 at 17:56, Transom said:

Think I paid 399 for mine not 529 but 

and 80 $ for a reg from tardme for big co2 bottles 

at that price it was easy and cheap to get started and learning mig after only using arc before - 

keen to try alloy with tig but to me it seems easier to have a machine setup for each rather than one that does all if you have the space for them 

 

On 6/1/2018 at 19:35, cletus said:

I have both mig and tig

 

I use my mig more,

if I have fiddly stuff that I want to look pretty I use the tig, I still have a lot to learn about it though.

mig is good if you just want to blaze stuff together or do rust patches on slightly questionable panels/things that are not perfect/gaps not 100%

also mig seems a lot more economical on gas

On 6/1/2018 at 20:28, Nominal said:

I'm pretty much where Cletus is.

I find the mig easier in rust repair as it is easier to fill in gaps and deals better with less than perfect prep.

On 6/1/2018 at 20:33, peteretep said:

If I were to only have one, it would be Mig, then tig. Mig is just a good all round solution, its not the best for everything, but easy enough to become reasonable at it, and it can weld 90% of stuff. I have a 180a mig, and while i have used it at max settings for welding 5mm to 5mm plate, I mostly use it in the middle/lower settings

On 6/1/2018 at 20:52, fletch said:

As above, mig for general glueing of all things.

I have a 3 in 1. Worst part is changing bottles to change welding type. 

A couple of fabricators at work run hugong welders from duroweld. They are pretty cheap and have 3 year warranty and have been absolutely flogged with no failures.

14 hours ago, Spencer said:

OS goes through the welder yarn a lot. 

MIG is 100% the way to start out for fucking around on cars it’s easy and cheap to get going. You can start with a cheaper unit if that is your price point, but IMO just jump to around the $1000 mark and you can get a inverter MIG which are super lush to use. Yes you get the extra TIG functionality but most likely you will never be bothered to have two gas bottles to fuck around with it. The actual bonus is how lush these cheap inverter units lay down weld, it’s just better than a sub $1000 traditional setup. Usually you get finer control also.

There is nothing extra to fuck out, there is no extra complexity to add the TIG and ARC functionally it’s just a bonus due to having the inverter deliver the juice. It’s literally a extra plug on the front and the torches will sit in the draw gathering dust while you MIG shit together all day.

14 hours ago, Spencer said:

Oh and a inverter MIG of a decentish brand will hold its value if you need to get rid of it. The reason they never are for sale second hand is they move fast, usually your friend will want to buy it before you can list it.

I just had my fiat 128 revinned on Wednesday. It had no papers and I kept the black plates.

 

If you have no papers you need to pick up a statutory declaration form from VTNZ or here

http://www.justice.govt.nz/tribunals/trans-tasman-occupations-tribunal/documents/TTO%200609%202.pdf

 

you take it to the citizens advice and get a JP to witness you signing it- I took a copy of the trademe add and a note from the seller stating there were no papers and the chassis number and old plate number. Cost Free

 

to keep the black plates Email Tania.Taite@nzta.govt.nz

she is the one that handles the black plate issues. You need to supply a pic of both the plates to show they are in good condition. She searches the data base to make sure the plates are on it and sends you a email with a reference number and a phone number that you hand over at the testing station.

The Black plate issue seems to be a well hidden secret because the testing station had never had anyone or heard of anyone keeping their plates.

But once they called Tania instant approval - and remember that keeping ya black plates knocks $19.95 off the revinning price

 

I hope this helps some one

 

P.S> stay away from Sylvia park VTNZ for revinning I have a 1 inch dent in my front valance and had to get a cert for it. The Cert inspector called the VTNZ guy a total F#%kwit .