Benno

Tried pulling the wire at the tank end? Should drop down to below empty when completely disconnected. If so, it's the sender - new one would be easy to fit with the tank emptied. If that doesn't make a difference there is a fault in the sender wire or the gauge. Edit: I'm assuming that the fuel gauge works the same as the temp one at least, have never had any issues so no experience with fuel gauge issues

There are a few oldschoolers in Christchurch. If you're down in these parts maybe we could organize something similar to that one on Wellington where a few people meet up somewhere?

Yeah as above bike is definitely 12v. Making that into an electronic version would be the best solution. Sadly not particularly easy at the current rating necessary

Whoever is organising this obviously hasn't driven those roads, even in a 4wd spec KP it's not going to be a great time

Looking awesome man! No help with the wiring though sorry, I had all sorts of problems with it. Those generic scooter/motorbike 12V regulator units are regulator/rectifier so require an AC supply and don't work with the DC feed. Went to jaycar, turns out it's not all that easy to get a roughly 13V regulator at the right wattage. You will probably need to either fix/replace the existing solid state regulator unit or get something custom to replace it. Someone else might have some better advice though!

Looks like a pretty good system, not on the cheap side though. How is your current dizzy? Not too worn out? I've got a kit similar to this for my escort, http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-parts-accessories/ford/electrics/auction-838909952.htm which seems to go great. It essentially just converts the points and condensor to electronic. Might be worth considering something along those lines, a fair bit cheaper. Otherwise, yes it is negative earth and I wouldn't bother with advance.

Also, my car is currently registered as an "Escort 1.3". I am wanting to change it to that standard just "Escort". Other cars aren't like that, eg it's honda "civic" instead of "civic 1.5" etc. Rang the NZTA, was emailed a MR16 form. However, I require "supporting documentation" to prove that is the case. Just showing evidence that other escorts are just as "escort" isn't good enough. I would even be happy if it was changed to "Escort MK2". Any suggestions or ideas? I don't have an original manual so can't just scan that and Avon City Ford were no help at all.

Been continuing getting some work done on this. Got pretty much everything bolted on and was doing well when I managed to snap off an inlet stud in the head. Bit of a pain in the arse, but hopefully my mate can give me a hand to sort it with an easy out. Did a round headlight conversion on it today, pretty stoked with the outcome! Managed to get a grill pretty cheap off trademe, the buckets are universal between square and round headlight then just needed to get some retainers. BNT couldn't get anything, so went to palmside. They didn't have any new ones in stock so got some 2nd hand ones cheap from them instead which worked out well for me. Got some new crystal headlights off trademe. Pretty stoked with the outcome. One of the existing headlights had had moisture in it, so needed re-silvering or replaced anyway. The whole conversion round worked out to be pretty cheap too, very happy with it.

A few of us were a little busy at goon haha http://youtu.be/1pHHjcqKaBc

Good point. I was more coming from the angle that if the car is low and there are stock looking springs they might look a bit more carefully, wheras if the car is lowered and the springs are red/blue/yellow or whatever they wouldn't look twice at them. In saying that though, I've never had cut springs in my car so may be a complete idiot here.

If you can find a PW80 engine or similar cheap they are a bolt in swap, 4 stroke 80cc

That's what I was meaning, get it sitting nicely then just roll cutties for a while until he gets around to coilovers. Obviously not an ideal long term solution, but would be sweet for a while until he gets round to getting his coilovers sorted. Can't get much cheaper then free and cutties would be alright for a while at least.

Also, my cobra super low springs (40-50mm shorter then standard) are just captive. I had some issues with a strict WOF inspector once where he claimed they were too loose as you could move them a few mm by pulling hard on them when car was on hoist. I fixed it by sleeving the bottom coil with some vacuum hose. In my opinion they were fine though, weren't loose or moving easily.

Frankly, I'd advise cutting the springs. Perhaps get a spare set first in case you stuff it up. If nothing else, you can figure out exactly what height you want/need and then get some proper lowering springs, or switch to coil overs. Cheap, fast and easy. I would start by cutting half (or less once it gets close) a coil off at a time until you get the height you want. Make sure that each time there is enough spring left to stay captive. If you want/need to go lower yet, you can do so then look into either getting the existing shocks shortened or replacing them with some new shorter ones at the length necessary to keep the spring captive. I have proper cobra super low lowering springs in mine, and regret it. They have a higher spring rate then I want/need, so the car rides a lot rougher then it needs to. I have a mate who has literally cut one stock spring in half, then put half in either side of his mk1 and it rides nicer then mine does and sits at a nicer height. Depending on how low you end up going with the cutties I might suggest painting them a similar colour to legit lowering springs, then if you ever have any issues "No sir, they are legitimate king springs". Just a suggestion at least

Sure do! So will also probably be busy Sunday at Rangiora

Cheers. Not entirely sure about the full specs of the engine, know it has been fully rebuilt (top and bottom end) with a port and polish job, oversize valves and a bit of a cam. Yeah, haven't ruled them out at all for the future. Will get everything running sweet on the 32/36 to start with, then look into my options after my finances have recovered a bit. I got some stainless fittings from Hydralink in the end. They are a tiny bit small on the output end, but might be able to take up the slack with a hose clamp though. Won't really know until my hoses get here. Thanks though man!

Moved to a new place where I finally actually have some garage space and can do some decent work. The starter motor on this crapped out about a month ago, sadly the one on my new engine is a honda one and requires bellhousing modifications so wasn't an easy swap. I got an average starter off a mate which lasted me a month or so, but once again it died. Decided replacing it again it was too much effort to fix so just pulled the engine out haha. Got Scott (brdflu) and Hogan (427carguy) to help, they stood on the strut towers with a strop and sway bar and just yanked it out haha. Bit of a mission, but got there in the end. Cheers guys. Then did a bit of work cleaning up and painting the engine bay. Just degreased, waterblasted and sanded it quite thoroughly. Then did a rattle can paintjob on it. Not perfect at all, but got it done in a day and looks a lot better then it did at least and should be easy to touch up if necessary. Decided pulling the old engine was a bit much effort, so got an engine crane to put the new one in. Thanks heaps i500gt. Cheers again to Scott (brdflu), Jonny and James for helping me get the new engine in. Still got heaps of stuff that needs done before I can attempt startup. Waiting for a heap of stuff to come from burton power, radiator hoses, gaskets, studs etc so will need to wait a couple of weeks for it to arrive. Pretty happy with progress though!

So I need a new one of these for the new inlet manifold. Is for the water jacket. Small end is roughly 13mm, big one 16mm. Ideally a bit longer at the hose connector end. Any suggestions for where to look for one? Haven't looked hard yet, had nothing at the local repco.

I've never painted a car using plasti-dip, but would not recommend it for anything further then some racing stripes or something. Firstly, it needs a decent base paint and once applied it really isn't that durable - a small scratch or scuff and it starts peeling off

Finally got around to fitting up the carbs. Fucking stoked with how they run! Feels like a whole new bike! Currently running the standard jetting, which I am pretty sure is a little rich. When I pull the plugs they are a tad black and sooty, not excessively so though. At least it isn't lean, so will leave as-is for a while at least, may not be getting perfect performance out of them but they feel 100x better then the old ones did! I'm sure there will be a heap of small things that crop up, but now I have it running nicely I've got all the major jobs I wanted to do done on it.

Should be able to ditch the battery easily enough, might just have to deal with the light being really dim unless you are revving it. Alternatively, keep an eye out for something like this http://www.jpcycles.com/product/381-043?utm_source=googleproducts&utm_medium=cse Would be able to tuck up under seat easily and not like you need a grunty battery for starting or anything

Is there a specific requirement that dohc needs cert? Looking here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_G_engine#1G-EU it looks like it might just scrape into the 20% threshold (125hp to 150ph)

Yeah that is my thoughts at the moment, just basically thin down the existing seat style. Keen to keep the existing seat pan if I can, quite like the system it has to hold the tank in and easily unclip. Sadly the design of the seat pan is basically the same as the photo below, so might end up being difficult. Will look into that in more detail soon.

Not sure if PW50 stuff would work or not sorry man. You need to be sure that the specs are identical for port timing etc for 2 strokes though. What condition is the bore in? Judging by the state of the piston I would assume it's looking a bit scratched and damaged? If so, go for an oversize piston (1mm or so) and get it bored out. Having a scratched bore will never run perfectly, it isn't that expensive to get it professionally bored out

Slowly been chipping away at this thing. My indicators and tail light arrived from aliexpress so set about installing those today. I converted my plate to a black plate with some paint and a file. Chopped, raised and painted the guard then installed the lights so that tail light just about tucks under the seat. Went from looking like this, quite cluttered to this Pretty happy with how it looks. Also started to paint the wheels black, will do the other one later. Currently having dilemmas about the tank. I quite like the overall shape, but not so stoked about the silly cover thing. I am currently debating bare metalling and clear coating the tank, doesn't need heaps of bog like my other one did to get it smooth. Still can't decide what sort of style seat I want either. Pretty stoked with the one on my Kawasaki but kind of keen to do something different on this. Currently considering a flatish bratstyle seat or maybe making a metal cafe racer rear tail peice. Any suggestions?