Banjo

Hi Steve, Most Rollaclub guys who upgrade their front brake rotors & calipers, also increase the capacity of their master cylinder to avoid a very hard pedal. Master cylinders with 15/16" or 1.0" dia. cylinders work well. I used a Pajero MC, and it worked fine. Brand new ones on ebay were relatively cheap. You could do the conversion in two stages. Upgrade the brakes, and see how "hard" the brake pedal force required is with your existing MC. If it is too hard then upgrade the MC also. I did similar upgrade a couple of years ago. I used Cressida rotors & calipers, + the Pajero MC. The braking performance of the car was greatly improved, and it has worked perfectly. I've currently got a KE55 complete rear diff assembly & 9.0" brakes ready to go in, to finalise the complete brake upgrade. Only thing to consider, is whether you want to upgrade the booster also. However, it gets very tight in that area, if you go to a bigger booster + MC. I stuck with the KE30 one. http://www.rollaclub...page__hl__banjo http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/70150-problems-after-paj-master-cyl-install/page__p__686736__hl__+pajero#entry686736 Cheers Banjo O

Hi Jeremy, I wasn't giving you a bum steer about there being ignition coils out there with 3 terminals. I'll grant you they are not common, but they do exist. I don't know what he means either. If your existing coil has 4 ohms primary resistance, that's probably why you are getting a weak orange spark. The yellow 4K toyota bible says, you should be using a coil with a primary resistance of 1.1 - 1.3 ohms, with your reluctor dizzy with ignitor. The external ballast resistor should be somewhere bewteen 1.3 - 1.7 ohms. The ballast resistor should be shorted out effectively, by the start contacts of the ignition barrel. Let us know how you go ! Cheers Banjo

The olde ballast resistor quandary ! What is it for ? Here's my take for what it is worth. In the very early days of the automobile, starting the engine was always an effort, particularly in cold weather. When the weather is cold, the engine is stiff & the oil thick after standing overnight. The lower the temp., the lower the battery o/c terminal voltage. The colder it is, the more current the starter motor draws, which puts a bigger load on the battery, and the voltage available in the system drops, sometimes to around about say 8-9 volts. The 12 volt coil performs well at 12 volts, but with just 8-9 volts across it, it didn't provide the optimum stored energy & therefore spark, just when it was needed at start up the engine. Ford, I believe, suggested using a 9 volt coil, which solved that problem, but introduced another. The 9 volt coil overheated & burnt out, when it was supplied 12-14 volts, once the car started. Solution was to put a resistance in series with the coil, that lowered the voltage to 9 volts, whilst the car was running, but was shorted out effectively, whilst starting the car. The resistance in series with the coil also had another beneficial result. It lowered the current passing through the points & therefore the points life was extended, from the normal pitting & burning. The ballast resistor, when used with a points system, also had the effect of regulating the current drawn. As the average current increases, at lower revs, the ballast resistor heats up, and it's resistance increases lowering the current. At higher revs, when the points have less time to put current through the coil, the ballast cools slightly, lowering it's resistance, and therefore increasing the current through the coil at higher revs. This particularly improved the performance of 6 & 8 cylinder engines at the higher revs. If an ignition coilhad an inbuilt ballast resistor, but only had two terminals, it could achieve the increase in current at higher revs, but cannot be used as a starting resistor, as you cannot get to the other end of the ballast resistor, inside the coil, to short it out during starter motor operation. There are coils out there with 3 terminals that achieve both improvements. Try a coil with a lower primarly resistance, and see if you get a blue spark, and the car performs better. You won't burn the ignitor out doing a test like this, for a short time. Be very careful when measuring the primary resistance of second hand coils you have available. Common multimeters, are not very good at reading resistance of a few ohms very accurately. Trust this assists. Cheers Banjo

Hi Jeremy, 4K engines came with points distributors & reluctor distributors, depending on the country of origin. The reluctor distributors came with & without internal ignitors, according to the yellow Toyota bible. All came with ballast resistors, which were external to the coil. A 9 volt coil with an "internal ballast" resistor, that is shorted out on startup, is easily recognised as it has three (3) terminals. Ballast Resistor: 1.1 - 1.3 ohm with ignitor. Ballast Resistor 1.3 - 1.5 ohms without ignitor (points distributor) Coil Resistance - Primary: 1.3 - 1.7 ohms with ignitor. Coil Resistance - Primary 1.2 - 1.5 ohms without ignitor (points distributor) Coil Resistance - Secondary 10 - 15K ohms with ignitor. Coil Resistance - Secondary 8 - 12K ohms without ignitor (points distributor) Hope that helps. Cheers Banjo

If your current distributor is the original 5K distributor, with reluctor trigger & internal ignitor, you won't achieve anything really by replacing with your options, other than possibly easier starting. The reason is that the PowerSpark replacement Hall Effect ignitor module, does not change the timing & advance/retard of the ignition, which is still a function of the centifugal bob weights in the base of the 5K distributor. The 5K engines were basically used in Toyota commercial vehicles & forklifts, where the requirement was very focused on torque, rather than outright power. As a result, a 5K dizzy in a Corolla is a bit sluggish. If you really want to get some more ooomph from your Rolla, by all means use the PowerSpark/Accuspark module, as a trigger source, rather than the existing reluctor, but then feed it into a programable ignition module with ignitor. This will however, require "locking up" the centifugal bob weights in your distributor. This is not a hard job. Simply remove the springs, tie the weights in with wire, and then a few "dollops" of Araldite to secure it. You can then produce an advance curve that will delight you with the results. Instant starts, greater acceleration, smooth cruising & very reliable. Only warning is don't go overboard with very low ohm sports coils, unless you have an an ignitor that can handle it. Lots of guys burn out ignitors, (which are not cheap) by not matching coil selection to ignitor capacity. I've been running such a system on my 4KU for several years now, and the results were very pleasing. Cheers Banjo

Hi Jeremy, Is your 4K distributor a reluctor type, with internal ignitor, inside the distributor, or a reluctor type with an external ignitor, or has the 4K distributor been fitted with a HotSpark modification, with Hall effect trigger & ignitor all inside the distributor ? You need to determine this before going any further. Cheers Banjo

Hi Jeremy, Because of the shape of the combustion chamber in the head & the dished pistion, I believe the long reach plug places the spark in the middle of the compressed air/fuel mixture at the moment of firing, to provide best explosion and rapid flame front to all parts of the combustible mixture. Cheers Banjo.

Hi Jeremy, I run a 4KU in my KE30 at present. I just took a plug out & measured it, as it was a good excuse to see they were, as I haven't looked at them for a year. This plug also fits an early model Falcon, that had long reach plugs. I used to buy 2 x packs of 6 plugs at SCA when they were on special, and finish up with 3 sets of plugs for the Rolla. Cheers Banjo

Hi Daniel, Clips over the centre of the disc pad to stop it from rattling. Cheers Banjo

What a wonderful story, and a great car. It definitely has a value, & would sell, with a low mileage like that, for a Corolla getting on towards 40 years olde. It's value is really what someone is prepared to pay for it, if they really want it. The fact that it is still registered would make it even more attractive. These cars probably sold new at about $ 4000. There could be someone out there that might be prepared to buy it at 39 years olde for $ 4000. However, realistically, you could expect maybe $ 2000 - $ 2500. There maybe someone here on Rollaclub that may be interested, when they read your post tomorrow. The other way would be to put it up on ebay, with a realistic reserve, and then see what the "market" out there is prepared to pay. The "audience" on ebay is enormous, & you might even find an international unique or classic car buyer who is interested. Keep us posted with what you decide to do, and the outcome, as there are lots of us here on Rollaclub, that are keen to save & restore as many KEs as possible. Cheers Banjo

Well there you go ! You live and learn. Every clutch cable I've ever had in a KE has had the shoulder built into the cable, so no circlip was required. I've never seen one of those before, like Springer has. Good one Altezzaclub. Problem solved. Cheers Banjo

There is no circlip on the bottom of my cable. I just grabbed an old original Toyota cable from the garage & photed each end. Springers, looking at your photo of your cable poking through the bell housing flange, it looks like a different cable. If you want to remove your cable & measure it all up, I will do the same here to this one, and you can compare lengths of the sheath & cable end to end. Cheers Banjo

Yeah, aftermarket stuff can be cheap, but often the quality is poor. The original KE series clutch cables had a Teflon or similar lining/coating on the cable itself, inside the outer sheath. This reduced the friction on the big bend/curve in the cable as it changes direction 180 deg down past the brake MC. Many of the after market ones don't have the Teflon coating. You can improve the uncoated ones by holding the outer sheath in a vice & slowly dripping oil down the cable, working the inner up & down, until it drips out the bottom. I have revived an old cable sucessfully that way in the past. Another way is keeping the 180 deg bend in the clutch cable rigid, so that it does move, under load. Later KE55s had a factory bracket fitted to the brake MC, that did just that. The clutch adjustment at the firewall, has always been an issue, with the circlips popping off. Many installations finish up like this. Cheers Banjo

Oh clutch cables ! I think we've all struggled with clutch cable issues at some time or other. The most common problem is aftermarket clutch cables that are too long. After market clutch pressure plates with release fingers in a different position. Machined flywheels without reintroducing the lip. Throw out bearings omitted or put on back to front. Driven clutch plates with linings too thick. Before you go pulling out the gearbox, you can carefully prise out the rubber boot & put a small 12V auto bulb on a length of wire inside, to see with a little mirror whether everything related to the fork /fingers & throw out bearing looks OK. Three inches is a big amount of free play, so there is something very wrong. I've blown up your photo of where the cable passes through the bell housing hole, and it doesn't look quite right to me. The cable appears to be at a slight angle to the bell housing flange. It should be quite straight, because the cable has an alloy locator on it.I can't see the shoulder of the locator in your photo. When I head out to the garage later, I'll take a photo of this area & you can compare with your setup. I realise it's hard to take a photo of this restricted area. Here's a photo of this area I found on the net. Cheers Banjo

Nah ! Corolla Ad for me ! Cheers Banjo

Hi Mark, Yep, you can do the tail lights & everything at the back end of the car. I've done it, and the car rewire & larger 85A alternator was the best thing I've done electrically for my KE30. Details of the rear end rewire are in the following thread. http://www.rollaclub...ire#entry682538 Cheers Banjo

I came across this recently also, for the first time. I mentioned recently, it in a thread about timing chain covers. I think the front hole on each side of the sump, at the very front, is in a slightly different position, due to a difference in the timing chain covers used on the 4K & 4KC. Hole punch & a bit of gasket silicon should do the trick if you finish up with the wrong one ! Cheers Banjo

Thanks Mate ! Good info. We'll take a trip to Oxley. Cheers Banjo

Hi Guys, The clutch fork rubber boot is different on the 4 speed & 5 speed bell housings. The rectangular hole in the 4 speed gboxes are approx. 60mm x 30mm, whereas the 5 speed boxes, the same hole is approx. 70mm x 40mm. The smaller rubber boot for the 4 speed boxes is commonly available on line from a number of sources, but I am finding it hard to find the part number, or a source for the larger one, to fit a 5 speed gbox. Anyone know the Toyota P/N or a local source ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Stefan, Welcome aboard. Lucky boy with a KE20 in that condition, and we're all jealous of a workshop that biggggg ! Trust someone on here that has done a LSD in a KE20 can give you some suggestions & advice.[[] P.S. Keep the pictures coming. Cheers Banjo

Returned last night from the Leyburn Sprints in Southern Darling Downs, to which I always make my yearly pilgrimage, in my KE30 2 door daily drive. Great year this year, being 20th anniversary, with glorious weather, record spectator numbers, & record number of car entries (230), plus a few of "legend" drivers, from years post. Bo Seton . Two (2) Corollas in the field including David Thompson's KE30 with the Beams engine, the subject of this thread. Most impressed with it's performance, in a straight line. (not that there are too many straights on the Leyburn town/village track) Couple of photos I took in the pit area, some of you might be interested in. Cheers Banjo

This might work for you. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12V-DC-10A-DOUBLE-POLE-RELAY-/271926817933?hash=item3f5019f48d Cheers Banjo

You can fuse them separately after the single pole relay if you need to. However, if you want to place the fuses before switching them on with a relay, then you need a 12Vdc 2 pole N.O. or 2 pole changeover relay. Cheers Banjo

Is there any specific reason why you cannot feed data logger & wide band from the same source ? Once the twin relay you describe is closed, they will be connected together. Just join the 12V feeds to those devices, & connect that connection to a ordinary 5 pin auto relay, as suggested. Cheers Banjo

A very helpful guy called Michael at Toyota Sydney City Parts, did a serach for me for the O ring for the 5KC distributor. He came up with the Genuine Toyota P/N 90099-14090. Armed with this info, I have found that this part number repaces O Rings with P/Ns 90099-14020 & 90099-14106. This O Ring is also referred to in a number of parts lists as P/N 19007A. (Probably a discontinued number) Anyway, he also discovered that there was just 1 off 90000-14090 in Australia. i had him send it to me, and it arrived in the mail today. It's dimensions are 27.9mm OD and cross sectional (CS) dia. of 2.9mm. Basically it's a 28mm X 3.0mm O Ring, if you are buying a generic one. It has a very shiny finish, almost like plastic, and does not look or feel like the regular rubber aftermarket O rings. These can be ordered through any Toyota parts outlet by that part number. Hope that info is useful to someone. Cheers Banjo