Banjo

So the 36:1 toothed trigger wheel for the 4K engine arrived, & is now fitted to my 5K engine. The 36:1 toothed wheel will fit 3K, 4K, & 5K crankshaft pulleys, as the mounting points are identical on each. The 3K & 4K crankshaft pullies, are about 110mm O.D., whereas the 5K crankshaft pully is about 145mm O.D. The toothed wheel is 155mm O.D. so sits nicely on the 5K pulley, with the teeth clear of the pulley edge, as seen in the above pic. The toothed wheel, will bolt straight up to the 3K & 4K pullies, but has to be spaced on the 5K pulley. My 5K crankshaft pulley is dished, to take additional pullies, & has a harmonic balancer built into it, so the toothed wheel will crush the harmonic rubber, if bolted up, without a spacer. The centre bolt also needs a spacer behind the toothed wheel, as there is a gap there to the crankshaft pulley, of about14-15mm. Likewise, the 4 off 8mm x 1.25M mounting bolts, will need to be about 35mm long, & need spacer tubes behind the toothed wheel. I'm actually going to use manifold studs, that happen do be available, in that exact size. Makes it a lot easier to assembly, than with bolts, & spacers behind the toothed wheel. This 36:1 toothed trigger wheel, is laser cut from 6mm thick plate, rather than being a machined one, which cost a lot more, to manufacture. Considering it is laser cut, it is of good quality. I set it up with a piece of clamped metal near the teeth, & measured the eccentricity, & lateral run-out, & it was much less than 1mm out. The best & easiest point, to mount the Hall tooth sensor, is off the K engine block A.C. bracket mounting points, just around the corner. You could make a fancy one, that was mounted off the "timing chain cover", but at this stage, that is a lot of work, & will have to wait until another day, when the timing chain cover is off for another reason. Last night, I temporarily hooked up a Honda Hall effect sensor, I got on ebay. I used one of these previously, for counting the starter teeth on the flywheel, & it worked well. I cranked the engine over, without spark plugs, & was greeted with a clean stream of pulses from the Hall sensor, via an opto-coupler & an LED, on a little board, that also produces a 0-5 volt square wave pulse train, for the Speeduino ECU input. Here is a good general video about crank & cam toothed wheel sensors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW0ENqcxNSg Now I know it all works, I'll take the toothed wheel off, & paint it, as being bare mild steel, it won't take long to rust, in our Qld. weather. Cheers Banjo

Trigger wheel arrived, so testing soon ! Cheers Banjo

Hi Josh, PM sent to you regarding Gregory's No: 184 manual. Cheers Banjo

Doubles as a quick & easy towing hook. Say No More ! Cheers Banjo

The long awaited Haltech R5 VCU, is now apparently available for sale, in the past few days. I've followed it's evolution with interest, as it is an entirely different concept. HALTECH NEXUS R5 VCU Despite being aimed squarely at the motor sport industry, it has the ability to be able to control just about everything, in an ordinary automobile, from just one controller/box. So gone is the ECU/EMS tag, & in with the VCU, which stands for Vehicle Control Unit. There appears to be enough outputs on this controller, such that every light, horn, windscreen washers/wipers, radio, etc., can be controlled from this VCU box. Explanation of Haltech Nexus R5  - VCU At around $ 5.5K, I doubt Rollaclub members will be flocking to buy something, that costs far more than most our Rollas are worth. However, it did cross my mind, how simple the wiring diagram would be. Battery, Alternator, Nexus R5, & a single wire to each electrical item in the car. No interlocks, no relays, no mass of wires behind the dash. How simple to trouble shoot ! P.S. It would almost do Altezzaclub, out of a job, tracing our electrical wiring diagrams, to asssist our RollaClub members, with "electrical issues". Cheers Banjo

Hi Darren, Yeah lots of fun coming up. The COPS are a natural progression of experimenting with different fuel & ignition alternatives, for our K series engines. I have previously had a 4K engine running in waste spark mode, using a couple of Commodore coils with two HV spark plug connections. The only problem with these; are that the spark travels/jumps in one direction, in one spark plug, & in the opposite direction on the other. That then requires expensive platinum plugs. The beauty of the COPs is, that each COP has it's own ignitor on board, & the input trigger signal is low voltage. Just parallel two COPS together, & they then fire in unison (waste spark) with the spark jumping the gap in the same/right direction. The Waste Spark system, also employs a simple triggering system, so you don't need to have a synchronising camshaft pulse, at all. Just awaiting the toothed wheel to arrive in the post, to start experimenting, with the Speeduino, which has been running perfectly, non stop, on the bench, for the last four (4) days. Cheers Banjo

From what you are advising, it sounds like you do not have any physical horns fitted to the car at all ! So first thing, is to get some form of horn, so you can test it out. You do not need to turn on the ignition, to produce a 12 volt supply to the horns. The horn circuit should be alive, in most cars, even when the ignition is off. That's why it shares a fuse with the Hazzard lights, which can be turned on, when the car is disabled on the side of the road, without the need for the ignition switch to be on. The horn ring in the steering wheel, is already connected to the chassis, so the spring loaded pin, should be connected to the horn/s. This is usually a single wire, on a small spade connector, that plugs into the rear of the steering wheel centre section. It may simply have not been plugged back in, when someone had the steering wheel dissembled previously. The circuit diagram above indicates that the horn/s are grounded or earthed to the chassis, directly by the horn ring switch. I have always liked to add a relay between the horns & the horn button, so the horn button, does not have to switch the full current of the horn/s. If you want to do this modification, give us a yell, once you have some working horns, & we'll provide a sketch, to assist you. Cheers Banjo

As you have never heard the horns work in your car, then the first thing I would do, before tracing wires & fuses etc, is ensure that the horns actually work. This is easy. I believe the horns on your car are located down between the grill & the radiator, one on each side. Disconnect the spade terminal leads from each horn. Take two pieces of wire, & connect or temporarily clip them each, to the battery terminals. Then touch the two wires from the battery across each horn's two spade contacts, to ensure they work. If that all works, then at least you know, the problem is wiring, fuses, or most probably, the horn contact switch in the steering wheel. I got so sick of my horn not working, because of the horn ring contact wearing, that I converted my horn button to wireless. Horn button contact wear problem eliminated forever ! https://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/75658-ke3055-horn-steering-wheel-contact-ring/ Cheers Banjo.

Hi Mark, Welcome back ! I figure you are talking about these vents ? I figure you are talking about Depending how bad the rust/cancer is, you can only improve the strength in this area, by welding a piece of sheet metal, over the exposed holes, depending on how far back, around the hole, you have to cut, to rid yourself of the rust. Venting the boot, depends on how the existing tank is vented. Later model KEs had a vent line that went right back to the engine, with a little plastic valve, before it fed into the air cleaner. However, early KEs, just had a line that went up into the roof almost, (to prevent siphoning), before the pipe just dropped down to under the rear of the car, to atmosphere. I had a KE55 Coupe 1979 vintage, & the area, I'd me more concerned with, is the metal between the rear & side windows. This is a crucial part of the KE55 Coupe's body work, as being of pillarless construction, it relies on that area between the roof & lower body, for rigidity. Toyota, rightly placed about 4-5 layers of metal in this area, to provide extra strength, but it was raw unprimed, unpainted metal. It is very prone to rust, when water creeps in, through the rear glass rubbers; particularly down at the bottom corners. Unfortunately, this is an area you cannot readily inspect. 1979 Ke55 Coupe R.I.P. I remember when I cut my KE55 coupe up, to sell the rear floor area for a wide rear wheel mod, I was horrified, when I cut the roof off in this area. Don't know how you can really check this are out. Maybe, place the car on a flat concrete pad, & jack each front corner of the car up, one at a time, as high as you can go, to create some torsional twist in the body. Maybe, someone could put their ear to this area in the rear upper quarters, & listen to hear whether there are any not so nice noises, as a result. Others, on here, may care to share their views on this "dark area" of our beloved Rollas. Cheers Banjo

Here is another source of genuine Toyota KE20 strut tops, if the Amayama option doesn't play out. https://toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.com/oem-parts/toyota-support-sub-assy-fr-4860912030 Cheers Banjo

Hi Rune, This depiction, is probably how your alternator is hooked up. The battery connection on your alternator is not one of those three (3) light wires. The battery connection, is the very heavy terminal, just showing in the top of your pic of the alternator connections, with the big "B" next to it. The three (3) wires, are most likely, the same as the IG (ignition), S (sense battery voltage), & L (light - charge) in the above depiction. So if you can determine which wire one is the charge light, which shouldn't be too hard, both remaining wires go to the battery. One via the ignition switch, & one directly to the battery. That last one, would be connected to the fusible link, which is usually very close to the battery terminal itself. P.S. Most of the alternators we have in Australian Rollas, with internal regulators, only have two (2) wires. The battery sense, is quite often, just connected internally inside the alternator, to the "B" terminal. Let us know what you find. Cheers Banjo

Giday Rune, Thanks for the pics. Is that a four poster hoist, you've got your Rolla sitting ? I wish I had one of them ! With this "thin" radiator you have found, I presume you are still going to remove that bulky clutch / fan arrangement, & still fit an electric thermofan. Is the alternator one with an external or internal regulator ? I thought I spied a box on the engine bay wall, just across from the turbo, that looked like it could be an external regulator ? If the alternator is the original, that came with the 2TG motor, then it shouldn't be too hard to find a wiring diagram for it, to see where those three (3) wires go to. The other way is to strip the ends of each of them, a little & check the continuity to other wires in the likely places, with the same colour code. Is it a Bosch alternator ? Has it got a model number on it anywhere ? I suspect it is an alternator, with a built-in regulator, so any wiring diagram, will indicate where those three wires go to. Charge Warning light ? Ignition Switch ? Battery ? Do a little research, & you should be able to solve it. Start off with the Charge warning light. That one will be easy, & then that only leaves two (2) off. Cheers Banjo

Hi Daniel, I'll certainly take a few pics of the 36:1 trigger wheel, when I receive it. Wow, that's a lovely looking Rolla you have there. I love it's stance, & the wheels. What other mods have you done to it ? Is the engine stock ? You might be interested in the COP setup, I have made for my 4K/5K, which should hook up to the Speeduino easily, either sequentially, or wasted spark, paralleling them up in pairs. One of the usual problems with these long stemmed COPs, is that they get very hot; being basically inside the head. With my arrangement, & all that air passing around them, that won't be an issue for me. Cheers Banjo

Hi Daniel, Beautiful picture ! Thanks. What model Speeduino board are you using ? The V0.3 or V0.4 PCB ? I've got a V0.37 kit, which I put together at the end of last year, but haven't had a chance to test, or hook it up, until this horrible COVID-19 thing, slowed us all up. I've actually got it running on the bench right now, & testing all the inputs & outputs using Studio Tuner, with latest firmware. I presume you are running your Speeduino in "distributor" mode, or have you got 4 off seperate coils, or maybe 2 off coils & waste spark ? What sort of enclosure did you put your Speeduino in, & where did you mount it ? Under the bonnet, or under the dash, inside somewhere ? The V0.37 board doesn't seem to have enough mounting holes in the boards, to mount it securely. Would be interested how you fared with yours, whereas the V0.4 seems to be specifically designed for an enclosure. If there any other Rollaclub members, who have used a Speeduino successfully, you might like to add your thoughts, in this thread. Love to hear from you. One of the advantages of "machined" trigger wheels, is, that if they are centred perfectly, the gap between the Hall sensor tip, & the end of each tooth, is pretty precise. Have you rotated your laser cut ones, & measured the clearance with the sensor tip with a feeler guage to see what variation you obtained ? Sorry about all the questions, but I hope to have it up & running, as soon as I receive the 36:1 trigger wheel next week. Cheers Banjo

Hi Daniel, Thanks for that larger photo ! I suggested in this thread earlier, that an ideal point to mount the Hall Sensor bracket, would be to two (2) mounting points, on the lower front edge of the 4K block, where the A/C mounting bracket was attached. Looks like you might have used those holes also. Could you provide us with a picture from the side, so that it depicts the whole bracket assembly ? Thanks ! Banjo

Hi Pete, Has your part book got the P/N for the KE20 strut tops ? Without part number, I could not check availability with Amayama. I placed an enquiry with Amayama yesterday, describing part, but now they need chassis number. I thought I had found it on the web yesterday, but it turned out to be a front indicator orange lense. Cheers Banjo

Hi Mason, There are two types of 5 speed boxes available for the your KE Series. There was one that came out of KE55 Coupes (about 1979), that has the gear shifter coming out through the floor, in the exact same spot as the 4 speed. There is the 5 speed GB out of the KE70, that has the extension on the rear, so that the shifter point is further back. This is probably the preferred option, but does require cutting a hole in the floor, & changing the rear gearbox mount & cross brace, to the KE70 one. Both these options are a straight bolt up to a 3K-4K-5K engine. Just keep searching, & you may come across one. I got one, from a guy several years ago on the Gold Coast who was cleaning out a garage, because they were moving. He only wanted $100 for it. When I inspected it, on the garage floor, it was attached to a 4KC engine. I said I'll take it, so you'll have to unbolt it for me. Bugger that, he says . . . just take the lot. Luckily, I had the trailer on behind my car, so we slid engine & gearbox, up into the trailer, & I was off, in case he changed his mind. Turns out the 4K was in good nick, so I'll mark that purchase down with a big tick against it ! Only issue with the 5 speed boxes are that parts for repair of same are getting very rare, including bearings. Cheers Banjo

Thanks Pete ! I've learnt something today. A few years ago, I refurbished all my KE30's, ball joints, tie rod ends, & pivot point, with "555" branded parts, which I purchased on-line. I remember at the time of installing, thinking, these are really good quality, & look exactly like the originals, I'd just removed. Now I know why ! Thanks. Banjo

Amayama might be the go ? You really need to have the original OEM part number, to make it easy, but it's amazing how much brand new stuff they have for olde Japanese cars. Some parts are expensive, but others, I've been presently surprised. Very fast delivery to Australia, as they apparently consolidate everything for Australia, into one shipment, & then deliver out of a warehouse somewhere in a southern suburb of Sydney. https://www.amayama.com/en Cheers Banjo

I think that KE38 sold for about $ 7.5K a year or so ago. It wasn't original. It had been resprayed etc. off memory.

Hi Luca, Welcome aboard ! Where are you located, & what sort of availability to alternative engines do you have ? How much power do you need to generate ? What are you going to be using your KE38 for ? What shape is the body & the rest of the car in at present. (pics please ) What kind of transmission, is currently in your KE38 ? auto/manual/4sp/5sp ? Don't forget, if you start upgrading your engine, there are a lot of other things, like brakes & suspension, that must also be upgraded. Give us a bit more description, & your intentions/aspirations, & we'll go from there. Does your KE38 look a bit like this one. Think this one might be a 1978 model. Cheers Banjo

Welcome Aboard ! Yeah, I would be doubtful if any the main-line spare parts places stocked them, as they are in pretty small demand, these days. You best bet is ebay. There are a couple on there at present; both second hand & new aftermarket ones, out of Thailand. There are still a lot of olde Rollas in that part of the world, & it has spurned an after market manufacturing need. All the Rolla bits, I've sourced from Thailand over the years, have been pretty good. Someone, on here might have some, they can spare. Love to see some pics of you & your grandson's project. Which state & region, are you located ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Mason, Thanks for the pics ! You really have been busy on your KE36 recently. What region of NSW are you located ? I actually had a KE36, exactly the same as yours, years ago. It actually was white also. Went to Rolla heaven years ago. Died of the dreaded "cancer". Has yours really only got 73K klms on the clock ? Definitely, worth looking after. I'm a presuming it has a 4 speed manual gearbox ? If so, an upgrade to a 5 speed, from a KE70, would make it very pleasurable to drive. Cheers Banjo

Hi Mason, Glad you got it all fixed, & that we were able to help. Where are you located ? Keep an eye out for a good second hand, or rebuilt 85A Hilux alternator with built-in solid state regulator. They come up on ebay every now & then. One of the best upgrades you can do early Rollas. Pity your cars electrical wiring, has been hacked by someone else previously. Makes it a bit hard for you. Another thing you can easily do, is clean all the earth points. Battery negative terminal. Earth terminal between battery negative & the chassis. Earth/chassis strap or cable between chassis & engine block. That one is very important, as it takes all the starter current, which is the largest load in any car, & potential for the greatest voltage drop or reduction. Any other electrical issues, just give us a yell. There are a couple of "experts" on here. Don't really like using that word "expert". Ex is a has-been, & a 'spurt", is a drip under pressure ! Cheers Banjo

Hi Geoff, Certainly will let you know. Cheers Banjo