mikey

Yeah, I think it maybe as simple as this. I mixed some new fuel in with it, but this could be my fail. I'll get a new plug and check the spark. If I have spark put new fuel in it.

That's what the DVA is for - it will hold the peak voltage long enough to measure it on the meter. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I've tested the test-plug on my car and get a yellow spark across it. I would've thought I should get a bright blue spark on my car - so maybe the test plug isn't so great... I should grab a new plug for testing. The plugs in the engine are around 4 years old and look a bit manky. Could also be they're all wet from trying to start with old fuel...

Not exactly car - but it is old school! I've got a 1984 Johnson V4 2-stroke outboard with no sparks anywhere. If I hook up a timing light it gets triggered okay. I've followed the tests in the manual and these all checked out: Jumpered the Powerpack connectors excluding the kill switch Sensor Coil Resistance Sensor Coil Short Charge Coil Resistance Charge Coil Short These next tests are supposed to be done by measuring peak voltage which my meter doesn't have so I measured AC instead. Charge Coil output should be 150V - I got 95VAC Sensor Coil output should be 3V - I got 0.1VAC Power Pack output should be 170V - I got 84VAC I'm assuming that if I could measure peak voltage these numbers would be roughly correct. I'm gonna build a DVA to test them properly today. Anyone else got any ideas? It could be that all four coils have died at the same time, but that sounds unlikely.

I've never loved the factory rear drum brakes; I could never adjust them properly so the handbrake would work, but not drag. So I decided to do something about and do it for basically nothing. I was given some EL Falcon single-piston callipers, rotors and backing plates years ago. The backing plates were drilled out to the 240z bolt pattern, but I still had the rotors to drill. I didn't want to drive all around the place looking for a friendly engineer so I cad'd up a template with the Ford and Datsun stud pattern, taped it to the rotor, centre punched and drilled. Came out radical. Started bolting everything up. The EL Falcon backing plate & rotor work perfectly with the backspacing from the 240z hub face, so the calliper simply bolts to the Falcon backing plate as normal. Then I pinched some longer flexible brake lines from Pick-a-part and made a bracket for the line. Neat! The handbrake bracket required some fiddle to bring it closer to the drum lever. Piece of piss.

Such purdy weldings!

Dat bay. Oh my... Edit: accidental double post but yeah, tres bon innit

Dat bay. Oh my...

Heyo Fred, it is quite good fun scaring the bejezus out of people in the car. Glad you enjoyed it! I've not had any more thoughts re DIYEFI; life has been getting in the way of projects. And now we're moving house and I have no garage! Also you can get the relevant part of the 350z manual here: https://files.ignitiondigital.co.nz/owncloud/index.php/s/3sJVnH7GynHomRH The password is your OS username.

Well that worked out well! I've just been for the first ever hoon in this car with NO driveline vibration. 240z's are renowned for vibrations as the diff is set too far forward in the car so the axles have to bend in two axes; up-down and front-back. Datsun fixed this in the 260z by moving the diff farther back. So no amount of replacing UJs or making new diff mounts ever seemed to help. Until now! And I hate replacing UJs anyhow so it's great to get rid of them, and get a much stronger axle. There's a couple of little niggles; one of the old Commie CV's is leaking and a steel band popped off another. Also hard on the gas in tight left-handers I think something is interfering with the axle.

I've been researching a new axle conversion, and have been collecting some parts. I've heard of people using these axles but not this combination before. This is where I'm at: On the right is the stock 240z axle with the twisted Wolf Creek R180 side axles. And on the left is the 4 cylinder D21 axle with factory inner CV and a VX Holden Commodore outer CV. The side axle is from an S14 I think and plugs straight into my R180 diff. If I measure the length from the side axle circlip groove to the outer face of the CV/UJ flange the stock axle is 489mm and the Terrano one is 458mm which means I have 31mm to play with without being any worse off. I had no binding issues in the past - i think, guys running R200 diffs might struggle thou. The Commodore CV is a knock off of a 108mm Porsche 930 CV, and they use it on the big heavy V8s so it must be solid. So now all I need to do is mate the Commodore CV to the 240z companion flange. There're two options: These adapters which are a measly $92USD Or these replacement companion flanges which are a whopping $700USD I'm trying to do this on the cheap so I'm going to order the adapters. I have the 240z 25-spline stub axles anyhow so the companion flange wont work, but if in future I upgrade to the 280z stub axles then it's an option. If this works out I've managed to convert to CVs for really cheaps: D21 Axles: $200 Commodore CVs: $60 Adapters: $200-ish YAY

After swapping in my new axle I was getting hella shakes around 70kph, so on Sunday I went in search of the cause and found I had two twisted side axles Butts. I'm not 100% sure if it's the cause but it can't be good and I'm not gonna piss about with it. So now I'm gonna convert to CVs and rear disc brakes while I'm at it. I have a plan for the discs but not so much for the CVs, I'm gonna track down some OEM side axles that're compatible with my diff and then some short axles and will have to make an adapter for my companion flanges. Here's a few radical photos MichaelJFox took from the drag day:

So yeah, the Oldschool drag day today was dope! I didn't do great times; worse than last year. But the LSD was sweet and I did 2nd gear skidz up the strip which was awesome. I was having so much fun I monged out and snapped an axle during my staging skid trying to grab 2nd gear. But as luck would have it I had some similar Datsun axles in my shed and managed to cobble together a complete axle, so I'm back up and running, JEAH! The one in the middle is the one I made out of the broken one and one similar to the bottom one.

I AM JUST SO PUMPED. GIZ

Super excited about the ECU man. I've been poking around the DYIEFI site on and off for ages keeping an eye on things. YAY

Yay. Okay well hopefully that explains it all. Will pick up repaired alternator later in the week and look forward to a trouble free life. Thanks chaps.

Yeah my dash doesn't have one but does have an ammeter to show if it's charging or not. If the bulb is a must and not having one is the cause of my problems then I'll just hide it somewhere. But ideally a resistor can do the same thing i.e provide some load? But I'm still not sure if the bulb is the cause of the failure. I reckon you're right about the heat not being my problem. There's heaps of air under my bonnet. The only thing is the alternator isn't in the factory location; it's rotated within about 40mm of the headers to clear the steering shaft. But still.... probs should be fine...

So the diode I've been using is just a normal diode, I just didn't know how to test it properly. This will be the 3rd or 4th time I've replaced the regulator on my alternator, so I still need to work out what killed it. Could it be that not running without a bulb caused the problem? I'd rather not use a bulb, so if I use a 48 Ohm resister in series with the diode will that suffice? Or is it more likely to be the heat that caused it? BMWs have ducting for their alternators, I could use something like that:

I just popped round to the alternator man and test-bench confirmed the regulator is fucked and charge light isn't working. So he's gonna fix that, the question now is what fucked it? I'm thinking either heat, or that 5M Ohm resistor/diode. Any thoughts?

Oh yeah, that's the other thing I tried. When I had a light hooked up it never lit up. I thought it should light up when IGN is on but the engine isn't running? So maybe my alternator is poked from not wiring it properly for ages.

I'm back on this. I can't believe I've driven the car for so long with this problem! Anyway, I've been investigating and found some things. I think my problem is to do with the "L" terminal. What I've found is after switching the ignition off the alternator pulls 0.17A. If I then temporarily ground the L terminal it drops to 0.02A. So that's quite interesting. This is how it's supposed to be wired up: I *kinda* had it wired up like that, I found this diode harness connector and used that instead of the "Combination Meter". After measuring the resistance it's actually 5M Ohm. I'm not sure if using it has caused any harm to my alternator or not, it still charges fine. So I've tried a few things this morning: If I connect the L to ground the alternator doesn't charge. If I connect L to IGN with a pull-down resistor (10k) to GND it charges but will still draw 0.17A when you turn IGN off. I've found that you have to have a pretty low (330 Ohm) resistance between L and GND to make it not pull 0.17A. I've found you can't use a 330Ohm resistor as a pull-down resistor without smoke. So I'm not too sure what's going on, hopefully one of you bright-sparks does. (SEE WHAT I DO?!) I could replicate the "Combination meter" but I'm not sure what values to use for the resistor, and is that two diodes? Shouldn't one be a bulb or an LED? And wouldn't my diode I had plugged in effectively do the same thing? HALP

I'm back on this. I can't believe I've driven the car for so long with this problem! Anyway, I've been investigating and found some things. I think my problem is to do with the "L" terminal. What I've found is after switching the ignition off the alternator pulls 0.17A if I then temporarily ground the L terminal it drops to 0.02A. So that's quite interesting. This is how it's supposed to be wired up: I *kinda* had it wired up like that, I found this diode harness connector and used that instead of the "Combination Meter". After measuring the resistance it's actually 5M Ohm. I'm not sure if using it has caused any harm to my alternator or not, it still charges fine. So I've tried a few things this morning: If I connect the L to ground the alternator doesn't charge. If I connect L to IGN with a pull-down resistor to GND it charges but will still draw 0.17A when you turn IGN off. I've found that you have to have a pretty low (330 Ohm) resistance between L and GND to make it not bull 0.17A.

Nice one. Thanks. Yep I'm totally a believer in the epoxy primer thing. Nothing from a can come close to the durability, esp when painting over steel of dubious quality.

Heya Spence so you mix it up in a pot and paint it on with a brush yeah? Isn't clean-up a pain in the butt? Or do you just throw the brushes out afterwards?

Loving your work! Geez I love watching people replace rust. Oh aaaand, regarding sealing that patina, I use this http://www.bunnings.com.au/flood-4l-penetrol-paint-additive-_p1566568 I know it says it's a paint additive but if you brush it over your rusty bits it dries hard and clear and seals the paint, it is a little shiny thou. It's often used as a rust sealer but doesn't actually treat the rust, just seals it. I believe it's better than clear coat because supposedly the rust fucks the clear coat. I've used it on industrial firniture and old bikes.

WHY NO UPDATE