Mickeyduck's machines

[GDII]

T10 LED fittings are what you need. And 4 is enough to do the dashboard. They last forever and are not hard to get so yeah.

Thanks for the info Phill.

What size would I get to do the tiny bulbs as well?

T5 but there really isn't a need to replace any of the small bulbs with LED unless you can get them cheaper than a replacement normal bulb. After almost 29 years none of mine have stopped working as most barely get any use.

Don't change the indicator bulbs as they will make the system hyper flash.

Here is the link for the t10 bulbs I bought.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2324367772

I also bought these bulb holders as a few of mine looked a little burnt
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10X-LED-T10-19 ... 343?_ul=NZ

5 in total if you do the empty fuel led too. My bulb works but the lights never come on for me. I'm happy to send you mine and I can just order another spare set. Saves you 3 weeks waiting time

Yeah 5 if you do the fuel empty light but I like mine to fade in and out

[mickeyduck]

Thanks for the info fellas, appreciated. I'll score a fill set of LEDs for the new cluster before I fit it. May as well do the lot so I know they're all good.

Thanks again Justin but you keep those 4 left-overs mate. I'll be wanting to do all 5 as well as all the little ones. But thanks mate.

Well I threw the exhaust back together yesterday. Had to modify the brace that I made recently as the down-pipe sits slightly differently now that it's one piece again. Car seems a little quieter now too oddly enough. Until you boost it.

Left rear tyre hit the guard again this morning which really annoys me so I've dialled the shocks up to 3/4. I guess it remains to be seen whether the BC Golds are actually stiff enough to prevent those 18's from hitting on harsh bumps, or if I need to either reco the Kei Office or sort out some 17's. We'll see.

OK, GoPro dashcam update. The supercapacitors turned up on Friday so today I wired the 2 of them in series, then fitted them to the GoPro in place of its dead li-ion battery. So basically I taped them together with electrical tape, twisted a + and a - together, and fitted the the other + and - to the GoPro's hair-like red + and black - wires. Fiddly stuff, but my soldering actually worked SWeet.

Not the best photos sorry but you get the idea. And ignore the little white wire - it's merely tucked in out of harm's way.

It works!

Here's a wee vid of it running as a dash cam (kinda) powered by the ciggy lighter. It's having a real OOBE, filming itself.

https://youtu.be/ynqSgEXJEyM



All I need to do now is figure out a new case of sorts for it. The death of the old shell means it's a mission pressing the buttons, especially the Menu button, and so far I'm stuffed if I can figure out how to get the buttons press-able if I mount the thing inside my now surplus 45-metre waterproof clear case.

Also it turns out it won't stay alive when plugged into my Mac's USB, so to get files off it I need to remove the micro-SD card and use a card reader. No biggie but it does have an impact on what I do for a case (to make it mountable as a dash cam).

Might have to fit it inside something like this yet?

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/For-Gopro-H ... 72bw%3D%3D

Screen Shot 2019-02-03 at 6.32.03 pm.png (102.17 KiB) Viewed 2090 times

[mickeyduck]

Real nice to have learnt that changes to a Certified Low Volume Vehicle do NOT need re-certification if the changes fall within the allowances of the Certification Threshold Schedule.

https://www.lvvta.org.nz/faq.html

Screen Shot 2019-02-17 at 3.59.17 pm.png (38.71 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

Certification Threshold Schedule:

https://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents/supl ... eshold.pdf

Therefore, I can do things like swap OEM seats back into my SW (even though the race seats are on the cert plate), remove the in-boot fuel system and replace it with an in-tank one (even though the in-boot fuel system is on the cert plate), or fit lowering springs to my AW, with no certification worries.

E.g:

Screen Shot 2019-02-17 at 3.45.29 pm.png (26.23 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

Screen Shot 2019-02-17 at 3.44.57 pm.png (68.56 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

and:

Screen Shot 2019-02-17 at 3.56.29 pm.png (54.71 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

and lowering springs are ok providing that:

Screen Shot 2019-02-17 at 3.51.15 pm.png (135.45 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

It's all too common for people (even WOF testers) to bounce up and down about things without knowing what the rules actually are. Worth reading up on things yourself, always. And contacting the LVVTA for clarification if necessary, as they are real helpful.

On another note, VERY happy with the welded up and braced exhaust on the SW. And I've ditched the horrible wired bolts arrangement on the turbo (pig of a thing to fit and almost as much of a pain to remove) and replaced it with the OEM tabbed locking brackets from a Nissan Skyline's T3 turbo. MUCH easier to fit or undo. Great to have power steering that works again too!

Gave the beast an oil change yesterday and removed the oil cooler while I was it it because it held about 1/2 litre of crappy old oil that could not be drained without removing it. That meant contaminating the new oil at each change, so it's back in the parts bin in case the thing ever becomes a track hack. Used a horse-sized syringe to suck all the old oil out of the catch can too of course. Note to self: oil change in the SW requires 4L oil in the engine and 600ml in the catch can (to bring it up to recirculation level).

Suspension is now set higher at the back than at the front, shocks set at 2/3 hard rear, 1/2 hard front. A fairly large dose of camber both ends with a decent amount of toe-in on the rear. Not sure I'm totally done with setting it up yet but took it for a good test drive today and all was well, even after hitting some nasty bumps. Inspection afterwards showed nothing broken or fallen off. It seems my push to have the SW "harden up" is working. Time will tell...

Running well now. Fun. That thing does 120kmh in 2nd so it's always a laugh to flick it into 2nd to pass someone at 80kmh.

https://youtu.be/ogPu2t-t1Uo



Next weekend is looking like being utter rubbish weather, so I might rip the AW's rear suspension apart and rebuild it so it has no leaky shocks and a gets rear sway bar. Either that or perhaps I'll sit down and write up a manual for my SW, as it has a LOT of weird mods and funny things to remember when working on it, that I need to write down before I forget them all. Might transpose the fuel map pics into a spreadsheet as part of the exercise.

Button down the hatches, North Islanders. Next weekend is looking like it might be one hell of a crazy dose of weather!

Screen Shot 2019-02-17 at 5.50.40 pm.png (370.39 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

[mickeyduck]

Well the weather certainly turned out to be a LOT nicer than it might have been!
It came through with a real nice fine window for us here in Auckland.

Screen Shot 2019-02-24 at 3.05.53 pm.png (341.41 KiB) Viewed 1875 times

Having recently managed to eliminate all exhaust leaks and loose things, I discovered a new rattle coming from the HKS GT II wastegate. Removed it and pulled it apart today to figure it out. Turned out there was a nylock nut inside it which had started to undo on account of the heat having got to the nylock. Didn't have a spare M6 heat-proof locking nut so I replaced it with a new nylock nut and a star washer underneath it. No more rattle. I'll grab a few more heat-proof stainless lock nuts sometime and one day biff a pair of them inside the wastegate. But even as is, it should be fine for some time.

I can't believe how quiet my SW is now. Compared to what it was...

[mickeyduck]

Michelle and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary today by taking the day off work and nipping up to Waipu Cove for lunch in the SW. About 2 hours' drive from home, heading north. Despite the new seal on maybe 20% of the route (FH aka "freakin' hopeless" melt-in-the-sun tar with a few marbles on top) we had a blast. That little red beast can certainly get the job done.

Lunch at the Waipu Cove Cafe - eggs benny done right - and a nice blat back afterwards too.

Going out to the shed to check the car over now, but it seems to have run beautifully without incident. Hauls arse. It's a hoot.

[mickeyduck]

Raised the SW by 15mm yesterday so it's now the same height off the deck (measured to the jacking points on the chassis) as a standard one. Made two discoveries in the process:

1) The adjustment rings on BC Gold coil-overs are made of rather soft stuff. And the BC spanners have too shallow a notch in them. Resulting in the thing slipping and gouging a chunk out of a couple of the rings' teeth. I'll be using a punch to gently lock and unlock those rings in future, rather than tapping the supplied spanner with a bit of wood.

2) Somehow the front sway bar had flicked itself around and both links had bent in a big way so the whole thing was about 90 degrees out of kilter. WTF...? Maybe the links were too short for the mounting positions on the BC Golds? Anyway they have been replaced with longer ones that look to be made of high tensile rod. I recall there was one of our crew whose sway bar link munted itself on a race track not long ago, resulting in a shredded tyre etc. Same type of link (are they the OEM ones?) I won't be using them again...

[Jabeo]

Raised the SW by 15mm yesterday so it's now the same height off the deck (measured to the jacking points on the chassis) as a standard one. Made two discoveries in the process:

1) The adjustment rings on BC Gold coil-overs are made of rather soft stuff. And the BC spanners have too shallow a notch in them. Resulting in the thing slipping and gouging a chunk out of a couple of the rings' teeth. I'll be using a punch to gently lock and unlock those rings in future, rather than tapping the supplied spanner with a bit of wood.

2) Somehow the front sway bar had flicked itself around and both links had bent in a big way so the whole thing was about 90 degrees out of kilter. WTF...? Maybe the links were too short for the mounting positions on the BC Golds? Anyway they have been replaced with longer ones that look to be made of high tensile rod. I recall there was one of our crew whose sway bar link munted itself on a race track not long ago, resulting in a shredded tyre etc. Same type of link (are they the OEM ones?) I won't be using them again...

Are these oem front links or oem rear ones used on the front? The bcs i just got came supplied with new shorter links for the front that look different to those ones and fit well, cause they need to use a shorter front link But i guess time will tell.

[Benckj]

I’ve seen that once before on end links. Part of the problem is the weak point on the OEM links near the ends. I went for a set of K-Sport links awhile back which are adjustable for just this reason. Only seems to be a problem in the rear.

[mickeyduck]

Yeah these were the front links that failed Jim. Glad we got home without issue. Weren't just cruising either.

The links I've now used are longer than the OEM SW ones were Jabeo. In fact I think the links I've used came off an AW.

I think part of the problem is the BC mount points are at a different height to the mount points on the Kei Office coil-overs that came off the car recently.

The links flipped with the bar, like the 90 degree angle turned itself inside-out. Now that the links are longer that won't be possible as the angle at the joint is now less than 90 degrees.

[Benckj]

Wow, this happened on the front links. Wouldn't have thought that was possible given the geometry. The coilovers must change the OEM mounting point. Glad you got sorted all the same and didn't encounter collateral damage such as brake hose fail.

[mickeyduck]

The coilovers must change the OEM mounting point. Glad you got sorted all the same and didn't encounter collateral damage such as brake hose fail.

My thoughts exactly Jim, on both counts! Might have to buy or make some really strong adjustable ones yet... Hopefully the AW ones do for now.

[GDII]

Coilovers drop the mounting point due to the spring length. So you need the shorter links. The only way that the swaybar could invert itself is if the car was put back on the ground with the links pointing the wrong way. Or if you went over a jump and fully extended the suspension. But even then coilovers shouldn't have that much travel.

[mickeyduck]

The only way that the swaybar could invert itself is if the car was put back on the ground with the links pointing the wrong way.

Yeah right. Thanks for that Phill.

It's not physically possible to bolt the links onto the bar with the bar inverted if the links are straight. Not on the front struts of a set of BC Golds, where the links go up into a box bracket (not just a tab with a hole in it).

How the blazes are the links going to "point the wrong way" Phill?

They only managed to point the wrong way AFTER they bent.

And I can assure you they were NOT bent when I fitted them to the car.



It happened as we hit a bad bump under hard cornering. I remember feeling the car do a really weird wobble and after that it seemed ok again. Michelle commented to me at the time too. I thought maybe the shocks had got too hot or something so I buttoned off a bit after that. We had been pushing it reasonably hard on some rather bumpy and twisty roads for at least an hour at that stage.

So I can only conclude that one of the links bent under hard cornering with that nasty bump, and after that they both folded up nice and evenly during the remainder of the drive home. The other link bending to match the naffed one, seeing as the things are connected by the bar.

Pretty simple really.

I'll be sorting some stronger links at some point in the not too distant future.

[85AW20v]

I've been thinking about this a bit and I think the links were too short - but only just. When you put some lock on, the length from the shock connection to sway bar connection tries to lengthen - but can't so then the swaybar end moves up as the shock rotates. If the links are too short the swaybar end could be straight in line with the shock connection and if you then hit a bump - as Charlie did - then the swaybar could be flicked upwards rather than down as normal.

To me, it's to do with the maximum length that can be attained from the swaybar attachment to the shock attachment when the shock is turned. The links must be longer than that to prevent them turning inside out.

[mickeyduck]

I've been thinking about this a bit and I think the links were too short - but only just. When you put some lock on, the length from the shock connection to sway bar connection tries to lengthen - but can't so then the swaybar end moves up as the shock rotates. If the links are too short the swaybar end could be straight in line with the shock connection and if you then hit a bump - as Charlie did - then the swaybar could be flicked upwards rather than down as normal.

To me, it's to do with the maximum length that can be attained from the swaybar attachment to the shock attachment when the shock is turned. The links must be longer than that to prevent them turning inside out.

Exactly my thinking too Simon. Which is what I meant about the length of them versus a right-angle turning inside out. And if when you hit a bad bump, one of them bends even ever so slightly, all the easier for it to then turn inside out on the next bad bump...