Banjo

True ! https://www.justcars.com.au/cars-for-sale/search?p=2&make[0]=ford&model[0]=escort Cheers Banjo

Bloody hell Pete ! You should put this story down, & get it printed in a paperback. It would become a best seller. I'm trying to think of a suitable title. How about, the car telling the story. How about "My Life as an Escort" . That should get an initial kick off in sales. Actually, talking about paperbacks; I was given a paperback 10 days ago, called The Cockoo's Egg, which is a true story by Clifford Stoll. The paperback was first published in the late 1980s, & recounts how the initial hacking of computers took place in the USA, and how they detected it. Sounds boring I know, but the writing style, & true substance was intriguing, and I couldn't put the book down for about 5-6 hours. Unbelievably good read. Cheers Banjo

I had a good weekend experimenting with the Honda crankshaft sensor, on the 5K engine, with the engine rotating. I was delighted to find it worked perfectly, & that my concerns that the teeth on the flywheel ring gear were possibly too close, to effectively prevent the Hall Effect device/sensor from turning off, were not realised. This is the area, where I mounted crankshaft trigger sensor. It is accessible from the underside of the engine. ' The Hall Effect sensor fitted through the engine backing plate, with air gap circled. On the RHS of pic is the Hall Effect sensor & its cable. On the LHS of pic is the remains of a previous experiment, where the radial inserted rare earth magnets, let go after a few months operation. I'm still find little bits of smashed rare earth magnet, attached to various items at the back of the engine ! Before fitting the two (2) rare earth magnets to the flywheel, I used the pilot hole to drill the hole in the engine backing plate so the centre of the magnet & the centre of the Hall Effect sensor lined up perfectly. The flywheel bolts onto the crankshaft in six (6) different positions, (60 deg apart) so you will always be able to find a point suitable for the trigger point position range required for any particular ECU requirements. '' The trigger sensor accessablity from under the rear of the engine. The CRO traces of the ring gear teeth sensor, & flywheel trigger sensor, indicated they were both working well. All these tests were done with the spark plugs removed, & the starter motor used to crank the motor. 12 Volt flywheel ring gear teeth clean square wave pulses. Crankshaft trigger pulses. Next test is the fit the Honda sensor permanently in a cut-out of the bell housing, a little bit higher than its temporary position, so it is easily accessible from within the engine bay, behind the oil filter area. Honda Crankshaft sensor in temporary position for tests. (It's almost like it was physically designed for this K Series engine application ! My design criteria is, that all sensors must be accessible, & easily replaced from the outside of the engine, without any major “removals”. I’ll then refit the bellhousing & rear engine mount, & run the engine at operating revs up to say 3K-4K rpm, and check that the pulsed outputs from both sensors, still remain stable & clean. Only the non critical synch pulse to do now, somewhere off the camshaft train, & I’m then ready to do some tests on an external ecu & ignition system connected to these sensors, but not actually running the engine. Lots of fun, & a good learning experience. The timing & the absolute accuracy & reliability of these sensor signals are critical to whether the ecu works well on not. Doesn’t matter how good the ecu is, if the signals are poor, the results will be less than ideal. What do they say . . . “rubbish in, then rubbish out” Cheers Banjo

I think we all have one of those stories. Mrs Banjo had an RA40 Celica, when I met her, & we once drove it to South Australia from Brisbane. The RA40 had an electric oil guage, so the sender unit down near the oil filter was quite large, compared to the simple oil warning switch. Anyway, somewhere, a long way between towns all of a sudden the oil pressure guage needle drops to zero. I think a guage displaying zero is somehow, an even more frightening visual, than a simple red light. ( It sort of droops !) Anyways, we stop, & check out everything. Oil OK; no sound of bearing rattles; fuses OK; short sender wire to chassis & oil pressure guage moves rapidly upwards. So it appears in is just a sender unit, that has given up the ghost, at the most inconvenient of times. Next town is Mildura, about 40 minutes away. I ring Toyota dealer, not expecting them to have the part, but lo & behold, they had one in stock, but closed on Saturdays at midday, & it was nearly 11:30am, Saturday. That was a very quick trip to town, especially, for future mother-in-law, who was in the back seat. I figured 30 minutes of discontent was a better option than the remainder of the trip to Adelaide. Happy ending ! Got there with 60 seconds to spare. Got the sender unit. Drove to the banks of the mighty Murray River, and fitted the new send. Drove to Adelaide, without further stress to future Mother-In-Law, & all ended happily. Cheers Banjo

For the flywheel tooth sensor experiment, I found some Honda Civic Hall Effect sensors cheap on ebay. A crankshaft & a camshaft sensor (2 sensors) for $ 20.00. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2PCS-Car-Auto-Camshaft-Crankshaft-Position-Sensor-For-Honda-Civic-2001-2005-L4/253646611587?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 Managed to find the connections for the crankshaft sensor on the internet last night. Hoping that the camshaft sensor connections are identical. https://troubleshootmyvehicle.com/honda/1.7L/how-to-test-the-crank-sensor-1 I hooked it up last night on the bench, and waved it by hand past the flywheel teeth, with the sensor switching an LED, and surprise, surprise, it appeared to work perfectly. I was a bit concerned the teeth on the flywheel, may be too close together, for the sensor to effectively switch off, between teeth. The purpose made toothed wheels on cars, seem to have the teeth widely spaced. So will fit the flywheel back on, the test engine, make a stable bracket to position the sensor, run the engine, hook up a CRO to the Honda Crankshaft Position Sensor, & see how clean the resulting pulse train looks. The other sensor at the top of the pic, is the crankshaft/flywheel trigger Hall Effect Sensor. It triggers off two rare earth magnets, I embedded in the flywheel, exactly 180 deg apart. P.S. Does anyone know where I can get the harness connectors for these sensors, here in Oz ? They sell them in the USA, as a repair item, complete with wires, but neither Amazon or the USA spares companies, will ship or post them to Australia. Might have to head to the wreckers, with a pair of wire cutters in my back pocket ! https://www.amazon.com/Position-Sensor-Harness-Repair-2001-2005/dp/B078JZZJWF/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1533860684&sr=1-1&keywords=Honda+Civic+crankshaft+sensor+connector+harness Cheers Banjo

Having lots of fun with this system, & just implementing the crankshaft trigger sensor at the moment, which I will document in this thread shortly. Have been reading about "GMR" crankshaft position sensors, developed by Mitsubishi, which are said to be ever better than a Hall Effect sensor. MR, the last one listed, in the table below, is I believe, what we more commonly refer to as a VR [Variable Reluctance] sensor) http://www.mitsubishielectric.com/en/about/rd/advance/pdf/vol121/vol121_tr3.pdf Wouldn't mind getting hold of one of these GMR sensors, & seeing if it can't be used in this project for the flywheel tooth sensor. Does anyone one happen to know, what current Mitsubishi model engines, use GMR sensors ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Pete, Just love museums, & things mechanical. My son lives & works in Canberra, & I get there fairly often. I note the Australian War Memorial, is going to be expanded greatly in the near future, & there will be a lot more equipment on display. One of my business's clients, is the National Museum of Australia, who I get to visit a couple of times a year. I am always amazed how much equipment they have stored in warehouses in & around Canberra, that has never seen the light of day. The people that restore stuff there, have an incredibly exciting job. I have a friend locally, who hails originally from the UK. He is into olde trains in a big way, & that "historic train" sector, is enormous & vibrant community. Please don't get me started, or this will become the longest thread in Rollaclub history ! Cheers Banjo

Hi Stuart, Awesome picture ! Lucky you ! The one for sale & the one in the Railton racer above, were both R R Meteors. If you are interested, here is the history of the Railton Racer above. http://www.leyburnmotorsprints.com.au/component/content/article/3-frontpage-/82-monster-tank-powered-special-to-debut-at-leyburn.html Enjoy ! Cheers Banjo

Your wife would complain. You'd have to remove the roof, to lower it into the lounge room, with a crane. I'd have no hope. I've got a nearly finished little 3K coffee table, with glass top in the garage, (ala Top Gear), & when said wife asked what it was, her words were, "It's not coming in my house !" I thought I might have a chance with it, but knew hanging a few olde head gaskets on the wall, would be out of the question. Cheers Banjo

Actually Dave, there was a Railton historic racing car at Leyburn Sprints last year with a V12 Meteor or Merlin V12 engine in it. Absolutely awesome. Drinks so much juice, the owner was looking for a fuel company to sponsor him. Might be there again this year. Leyburn Sprints is on the weekend after next. Best weekend of the year ! Cheers Banjo

Love it ! I'm a sucker for data also. I log it, as well as watch it real-time. Then I can look at it, at home, even when I'm not driving. There is a couple of sayings within the "measurement industry". "What gets measured, gets managed !" & Without data, it's only a matter of opinion !" Cheers Banjo

Saw this one on ebay tonight. What an awesome engine swap for a KE Rolla. My first thought was; What will Jordan say, when I ring, & ask him to make me up a modified KE30 set of engine mounts ? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Rolls-Royce-Meteor-V12-Rebuilt-Engine-Similar-To-Rolls-Royce-Merlin-Engine/223025293766?hash=item33ed57e9c6&_sacat=0&_nkw=Meteor&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.XMeteor.TRS0 Cheers Banjo

Hi Jasper, Just saw your question, & had to nip outside in the dark, & take a look under the bonnet, as I couldn't remember whether it required an adaptor or not. It did, require an adaptor, as the original Toyota one was M16 thread, & i think the one that came with the temp guage was M10, or something small. Luckily I had a box full of adaptors I've collected over the years, which include what I needed. However, I think you are right, that the brass adaptors are a bit exxy, as the ones available all seem to be VDO brand. Cheers Banjo

Hi Peter, If you can't afford a $50 temp guage, you might like to try one of these 52mm type, selling on ebay for around $ 10.00 complete with sensor & mounting bracket, & free postage. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-52mm-Car-Auto-Digital-LED-Water-Temp-Temperature-Gauge-Kit-40-120-Black-12V/222900115049?epid=503179273&hash=item33e5e1d669%3Ag%3AQoMAAOSwVqlaOjpE&_sacat=0&_nkw=2"+DC12V+Car+Auto+Tint+Pointer+Water+Temperature+LED+Temp+&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313 I bought one a couple of months ago, thinking, if its's a dud, then I've only done $ 10. It is still going perfectly, & surprisingly is very accurate. However, if you can afford a good VDO unit, as Dave has suggested, you will have a temp guage that will probably outlast the car. Cheers Banjo

If you reside here in Australia, just jump into your local Bunnings hardware store, & they have a selection of springs there, one of which should fit. I'll see if I can dig one out this afternoon, & measure it up for you, so you can grab one easily. Overall Length: 105mm (10.5cm) Coil Dia: 15mm Short Hook Length: 25mm (2.5cm) Long Hook Length: 35mm (3.5cm) Coil Length: 45mm (4.5cm) Wire Dia: 1.5mm 25mm + 45mm + 35mm = 105mm P.S. If you find a spring slightly shorter, it should be OK, as it will stretch a little more. If you find one a bit longer, then a wire cutter & a vice & pliers, should result in something fairly close to the mark. Cheers Banjo