mikey

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

I'm basically keen as fuck for this. Can I do skidz outside everybody's shed?

You're welcome to the axles, they're just taking up valuable space. And gimme ya email and I can send you the drawings I have for the brake brackets. Keep in mind I've not actually used the drawings to make any brackets from. This chap used it as a starting point and CNC'd some thou: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/43593-datsun280zs-datsun-280z/?p=1323846

Sweet, I have some supposedly shortened S15 axles if they're any use to you? They're 27 spline I assume? I was gonna do something with them but they look too long too me and it all got too hard. I even designed some 3x2 CV to 4x1 adapters I was gonna get CNCd. Yeah, my rear end makes some pretty funny noises too. I kinda hoped swapping the diff mount etc would sort them all out but there's still the occasional clunk when going from standstill. Just another thing on the very long list!

Sweet, so your front mount is solid now? That was an option too but I was worried about vibrations. Also some peeps reckon it's a bad idea to have the diff part solid and part soft mounted as things start cracking, but I've got no experience with that. I was keen to go to CV's as well, but have left it for a later project. I'd probably just go this route if I did it to save all the hassle: http://www.wolfcreekracing.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72&Itemid=61 My diff is a Nismo CLSD.

It's so much better. It still gets some vibes but nothing like it used to. It happens when I accelerate from 50-100kph with the foot flat. It never used to happen with the old engine but it's just 'cos the new one can twist the diff nose higher. Most people put in something called a Ron Tyler diff mount but it's a bit of a hack if you ask me. Been liking ya build BTW; great attention to detail.

So I've ticked two pretty big things of ma list and I'm stoked with the result. I've finally got a good LSD in and the front diff mount is heaps better. This was the old front mount, it has some rubber between the two steel plates. But when you out your foot down the nose of the diff lifts as the rubber stretches, the angle of the driveshaft changes and the uni joints start hella shaking. So I made a jig CHOP Put some tube in there that was the right ID for some poly bushes. All ready to go back in I also had to get some fancy stub axles from the states which are 27 spline but have the Datsun bolt pattern. 27 Spline means I can run lots of more modern Nissan and Subaru diffs. So now i'm just like pulling 11's all round town....

After taking this thing to the Taupo track and driving my brother-in-law's super sweet '69 911T, I realised it needs a bit of love. The track day went well buuuuuut, it's just kinda annoying to drive; it needs some finishing. I done a list: Install LSD Come up with a better front diff mount Convert from drums to disk brakes in the rear Seal filler neck Get alternator serviced (yet again) Move alternator to the left side of engine for better cooling Find more exhaust clearance Add some heat shielding to the firewall/tunnel to keep cabin temps sane Install carpet underlay So, today I removed the R180 VLSD, it's a Subaru thing and waaaay back on post numero ono I made the mistake of installing it. It puts the "slip" in LSD. So I have a some other CLSD thing which I'll get Steelie Gears to setup for me, I just have to source some 27 spline stub axles to suit Datsun half shafts (about $500USD, which is actually a lot cheaper than what it took to get the VLSD to work). While it's out I'm gonna change the way the front diff mount works. The factory setup sucks because it allows the nose of the diff to lift when you put the foot down and the whole car starts shaking because of the hinky uni-joint angles. It probably makes sense to convert to disks at the same time. I'm sure it's just me but drums seem awfully difficult to maintain and keep adjusted. I think I have all the bits I need to make this happen except some custom calliper bracket thing I'll have to make. These pics for fred are from when the car was in NZPC last year:

All my tests were from cold unfortunately. I'm not really game for getting it retested and re-repaired again; if it is broken It'll just happen all over again. The wiring all checks out and is pretty simple, I can't see where I've gone wrong there. Have 80A relay, will plop that in and be done with it. Even though the alternator is rated around 80A it never runs anywhere close to that.

Actually, I'm just gonna admit defeat and put an 80A relay on the B+.

I just checked and IGN & sense wires are correct way around. I'm all for the lazy but the relay on IGN or sense wont help as it's draining thru B+. Not sure I can put a relay on B+ as it's mega-amps? I'm also not convinced it's a diode as it's fine if I disconnect/reconnect B+ and it's just been rebuilt & tested. Even if it is a diode replacing it isn't the best fix either as that'll be my 4th alternator in 18 months and surely the same thing will happen again. So if that's the case I'll have to find a work around.

Yeah it still drains the battery if I disconnect the ign and sense wires leaving just the B+. I'll check tonight that they're the correct way around.

My alternator has been draining my battery in my 240z since I swapped the engine and it's a pain in the dick. It takes around 4 days to drain the battery to the point I can't start it. The symptoms are after driving the car letting all the electronics chill out for a minute the battery will drain 0.17A. If I then disconnect the alternator B+ wire it'll drop to about 0.02A at which point I can reconnect it and still only get 0.02A. I've tried disconnecting all sorts of things but the only thing that helped was the alternator. This is my third alternator since the swap and they're pretty expensive. The first two I swapped because I was pretty sure they had bad diodes - the place I've mounted the alternator gets pretty hot & I've since built a shroud for it - they had slightly different symptoms thou, after reconnecting they'd still drain hard out. The one I have now has professionally rebuilt and tested and has done this since I put it in. So have I done something wrong with my wiring? The obvious answer is I have a bad diode, but it seems odd that disconnecting and reconnecting the B+ fixes it. How can I work around it? I'm almost considering having a switch on my B+ terminal to isolate it. I potentially could have a relay on it so it switches on/off when I start the car. My concern is the amount of amps it'd have to deal with? CONFUSE