DirtyThirtys 1984 Toyota Starlet KP61

[DirtyThirty]

This build was never supposed to make it to a "next page", oh well.

 

ECU mount which will be tucked up behind the glovebox/footwell. Needs some rubber isolating washers and fixings. REVISED, now attached to the back of the glovebox for even more space saving.

Its got a nice locking plug but also needs to get the vacuum feed with minimal kinks to the MAP sensor from the vacuum block.

Also its nice and close for the wideband as the wideband plugs into the ECU. The plug is bigger than the actual sensor so the cover plate for the gear lever hole will have a wideband sensor sized hole with a grommet.

Working on a mild wire tuck, battery all wired up and will be unnoticeable once carpet is in again.

 

Other than that, motivation is at an all time low so updates will be slow. Turns out getting married is quite expensive so not sure if the KP will be driveable this year. 

The Mini is currently in for a small birthday, new tyres and a once over. Working towards paint.

I think a nice orange for both cars eventually would be nice.

 

 

 

Inspo:

 

[DirtyThirty]

Decent update:

ECU basically all wired in, just the wideband to go and a few bits to go. We've turned the car over which is huge! Will go for a start shortly.

 

Semi wire tuck has gone well, just a few bits to tidy up. I've learned a thing or two for next time. Theres not many good wiring diagrams out there for KPs. I thought being around as long as they have been with numerous 4AGE swaps that there would be more accessible information out there.

Before and after:

 

 

Just some small amount of body loom that will be showing in the engine bay. Itll be hidden by the coolant tank anyways.

The Mini is back in the garage, after a once over and some new tyres she runs mint! @mk2marty and I had a good night hoon. Really need to get onto paint prep, but time is scarce.

[DirtyThirty]

For anyone looking for a KP Starlet wiring diagram that seems to be correct. No idea where on my travels I found this. 

[DirtyThirty]

Systems check.....Dad you forgot to tighten up all the fuel fittings so now the garage smells of fuel.

 

Managed to get the front straightened out a little bit, requires some metal hot glue gun action

 

[DirtyThirty]

A wild @mk2marty sitting in some half mounted fishnets, thankfully not wearing any fishnets.

Take it as you will, but we just have another few holes to drill and then we'll make some holes in the seat rails to mount them up properly.

[DirtyThirty]

FIRST START! Turns out I'd bought a rotary thinking it was a 4AGE with the idle its currently got.
Huge milestone and it doesnt make any metallic noises so thats a bonus. Its basically an unopened engine thats been sitting for god knows how long in some garage in Wellsford. Now has some extra bits bolted to it an a new ECU so Im surprised it did run okay for the 10 seconds it was on. Cant post a video unfortunately/

Now onto sorting everything else I've neglected. Theres a leak on the return line fuel fitting to sort, I probably need to extend a fuel hose down inside the tank so the fuel isnt aerating as it goes back into the tank. I need to track down the sick vacuum leak. 

Body side wiring to do, not all the gauge cluster works atm. Clutch fork retaining clips (due to some photo found, I did this already! woohoo), some oil in the gearbox is probably wise. 

Carpet seems to hide a multitude of sins...

 

[DirtyThirty]

Period correct locks! Cant be bothered with getting standard locks working, I dont want multiple keys etc so Solex's seemed like a good/easy solution. 

[DirtyThirty]

Driveshaft off to get redone. New yokes as there's too much play. Hopefully get that back in a couple of weeks. Driveshaft measurements were from end of output shaft to diff flange 1165mm (basically end of gearbox to diff), and from end of output shaft to gearbox seal was 125mm (basically end of gearbox towards front of the car).

And Martys courier services delivered a pair of these......first proper Jap wheels. 13s too!

[DirtyThirty]

For anyone looking, diff measurement from backing plate to backing plate is around 1220-1225mm. A MK2 Escort is about 1225mm as well. 

Some firewall /wheel well holes plugged up with much help, a work in progress:

 

Some locks fitted, passenger and boot lock. One of the POs had welded a plate behind the lock holes to patch them, absolute bloody PITA to remove. We've gotten there in the end, drivers side to go. Annoying missing a door lock rod connecting everything so Ill have to fashion one from some 3.5-4mm wire. 

 

 

[DirtyThirty]

Bits of progress...

Bled the clutch, feels a bit odd being cable and hydraulic and I'm not really a fan. Really do need a way to fit that MC in there. But my fabrication skills are about as close to zero as you can get. 

 

Door lock tabs that were welded from the inside. Asshole of a thing to remove.

 

 

Next up, door rods were broken and I couldnt find any. My clever plan to find some 4mm steel tie wire didnt work as Bunnings/M10 needed me to buy 50m of it for fencing. So next best thing, went to pick a part there was a Ford Courier at the entrance with its doors dismantled so grabbed those rods. Cut it to length and bent it up. Works a treat! Pick a Part is dire, havent been in close to 10 years, all the kids were grabbing bits off Prius' and Nissan Notes. We had it good.

 

Ford Courier door rod that got cut up and bent up to save the Starlet. All doors are in working order, and lock curtesy of the Solexs! Wasnt as hard to sort as I thought it would be, would've been easier if the OEM bits werent missing.

 

Next up, passenger door handle didnt work because there was no plastic bush. Couldnt find one and the standard ones are slightly different. Cunning plan hatching, this rawl plug sacrificed itself. 

Photo of what I needed: 

 

Photo of my rawl plug replacement. I dont imagine itll last as long as the proper part, but it works for now:

 

 

Stripping back the problem areas:

Lastly, test fit. SHIT YEAH! Car on stands, ill drop it this week once the driveshaft has been installed. Mid way through lining up the front bumper. 

[DirtyThirty]

Thick black shaft in hand. Looks less girthy because its cold.

New UJ's at both ends, new yoke (this was about half the bill), balanced, painted. Looks the part! Have installed it so its all looking positive. 

Used Drive Inn, as theyre down the road from us. Aiden did a E30 driveshaft for me many moons ago, so went back to him for this. Happy it didnt need any shortening. 

 

 

Also took it off the stands:

 

[DirtyThirty]

The Mini has sold! Bittersweet, every night while its in the garage our daughter climbs in and pretends shes driving. But also sweet because garage space and can focus on the Starlet. It sounded good from the outside when they took it for a test drive. The guy came back, said it's the most fun he ever had on a test drive, handed over the cash as promised with no further negotiation. Hilarious tow rig, had half the trailer spare!

Bye, bye.

   

 

Back to the Starlet, rookie mistake. Like the idiot I am, used a 16V TPS on the 20V ITBs.  16V ones dont spin the same way hence the TPS issue. ST TPS in hand, along with a new connector from NZEFI. Issue all sorted, TPS all adjusted and we are away! Hectic rotary idle has gone too because I managed to sort the vacuum leaks out. All we need is a gearbox and diff oil top up and its test drive time! I also definitely need to do the valve stem seals. But might just get someone to sort that for me, it'll be faster.

 

16V vs 20V ST TPS:

 

 

Easier to take a single throttle body off than the manifold etc. See how tight everything is packaged close to the firewall

[DirtyThirty]

Pair of Weds Racing MK1's! They look great, again probably look better once on the ground....13s are absolutely the solution to a problem I didnt know I had.

I prefer them to the Advans even though "pieced" wheels are supposed to be top tire. These monoblocks look so much cooler!

On a side note, I got given a throttle controller to use on the Triton from a family friend. The throttle response is too sharp so have dialed it back. Nice and easy app to use. Has things like idle speed control which I will never use. The ramble idle is definitely not for me, but still a nice easy plug & play solution from ECU Shop.

Im picking up another rear bumper with the plate lights built in so can remove the slightly bulky ones on the drop hatch now. Front bumper install is going OK, just not happy with the gaps

Got a welder hence the lack of updates. It'll probably take me 10 years to learn to use it before I provide another update, so stay tuned. 

   

 

[DirtyThirty]

Found a rear bumper in the flat front style. Means I can get rid of the bulky license plate lights. Will make a rubber filler strip or something.

T50 filled with new fluid, took 1.4L, the fill plug was loose when I started...alloy is soft and don't trust previous owners. The crush washers were a size you don't get in the Tridon assorted packs, it's 2x M18. Tridon part # TSW025.

Front bumper getting there. Also needs a filler strip but happy enough with how far back I could get it. Took some grinding and welding. Had some visitors hence the Indian FTR and Ducati Monster in the background.

[DirtyThirty]

It's been a year.

So for once some R&D has paid off for me. 370z/G37 clutch master cylinder looks like it will work well! I still have a 10mm gap to close, the rod reaches the pedal perfectly, and my existing clutch line is long enough to relocate. Needs a remote res, but that's easy enough to sort.

After what feels like forever searching for a solution that avoids a Wilwood style reverse mount pedal box, we might be onto something. Hope that it helps someone out because there was not much info online.

 

Some quick measurements of the clutch master cylinder (its what I couldnt find online when I was searching):

  

 

 

[DirtyThirty]

An unnecessarily long fought and expensive battle to get this.....

Still cheaper than the Nardi I want, mega wank factor points too. Sue me. 

I wouldnt mind the "twin cam 16" badge for the boot. Some guy makes reproduction ones in SE Asia, but maybe I should focus on getting it running first and not pay $50 USD for shipping a small badge....

EDIT: Bought a STL file so will try get a badge 3D printed and see how it goes

 

 

[DirtyThirty]

Been busy trying my best to focus on wedding planning.......

 

Firstly, fk me welding is difficult.

Welded up some holes, terribly.

Only starting to get the hang of it, I've found out that 90% of the result is down to prep. Theres a fair layer of bog to get through, which hasnt been fun. I am however happy with how the old license plate light holes turned out. Needs some smoothing over but turned out nice. 

  

[DirtyThirty]

Still pretty crowded in the area, but proof of concept. Ill bleed it all up and should be fine. Now I can get rid of the damn cable to hydraulic conversion box.

(ignore the pinholes, those are to be sorted later)

[DirtyThirty]

The clutch saga continues....

 

The angle of the clutch MC pushrod was wrong, along with the clutch pedal JUST catching on the steering rack boot it sort of didnt work as intended. Kind of hard to pick this when crawling around yourself trying to push the clutch in AND check the slave. While I was checking slave cylinder engagement/movement, @mk2marty was pressing the clutch down when he found the issue. Previously when by myself Id put my phone on video, try the clutch then review the footage to see how much clutch engagement there was. This was in hindsight a terrible way to do it. 

We've cut the tab welded on by Oldscoolautos to the clutch pedal and extended the tab up to get a better angle on the clutch MC pushrod (ignore the welds, theyre plenty strong just not that pretty). We added a cross brace so there is no lateral movement in the tab as we found it was slightly twisting. Cut the top of the pedal off (the hook) where the cable used to attach to, I have a spare and this was just making reinstallation much hard than it needed to be by leaving it on there. 3rd photo is just using the insanely long clevis I had on hand, you can see the pushrod is basically flat which is where it should be. Seems like a small win, but for someone who is fabrication skill deficient it felt like a big win as its something I've been chasing for a while.

  

Installed with the correct clevis length and clip (could do with a washer between the clip and pushrod mount):

 

 

Now its solid and feels like a clutch pedal! Unfortunately will have to wait for the weekend to fire it up again to see if it works as intended, but definitely looks like the slave travel has improved drastically so it might actually disengage the clutch this time....

[DirtyThirty]

IT WORKS! Clutch clears perfectly, so a few things to sort before our first test drive. 

Good news is it got rid of the ugly, bulky cable to hydro conversion box (which will be for sale). Also made a new bracket for the FPR to tidy it up further (in the time Binky has been going, even I of all people have learned how to make some brackets, which is saying something...).

Annoyingly theres a leak from the master to res, the taper seat in the clutch master looks quite different to the AE86 one so I think my fitting needs some work which is rather annoying.

Not such an easy fix without taking it all out and taking it to a fitting shop. 

I want to get a 3D printed base on an angle for the velocity stacks to angle them/place them in a better spot.

Otherwise I need to order the new seatbelts for the front, some lug nuts for the wheels. Get an aluminium upper and lower radiator hose section made up so I only need to use straight pieces of hose to make it work. Will make it much easier to find a replacement if the hose ever fails. I doubt the aluminium pipe middle section will ever fail. 

 

What an absolute muck around just to avoid touching the brake pedal for cert. Oh well.