Banjo

Hi Dave, Thanks ! I'm having fun. I'm very happy with the programmability of the Jaycar ignition system. It was one of Silicon Chips most successful automotive projects. The kit was recently discontinued, in December last year, & I snapped up a few kits that were left in one store. I recently even sold one to a fellow Rollcluber in Portugal. The Silicon Chip project was never intended for a distributorless application. It had one output, that triggered an ignitor, which fired a single coil, whose HT output was fed to the centre tower of a conventional dissy cap, to be "distributed to the four spark plugs, as normal. All I am going to do is create an electron "dizzy cap", so to speak, that will direct the o/p signal to the four ignitors built into the COPs. That's the easy bit. I'll use either a small Picaxe, or an Arduino uP. Just got to sort out this ring gear pickup sensor, as the integrity of that signal, is crucial to the whole system working flawlessly. I do have a back-up plan "B" if I'm not totally happy with the ring gear sensing precision, or reliability. I could drill eight (8) radial holes in the flywheel, & fit some cylindrical rare earth magnets, alternating North & South poles, facing out. A bipolar Hall Effect sensor would pick up the south poles & turn on, & then turn off, when the north pole presented itself. The magnets could be positioned so the period in which a particular spark plug was fired, would only be an angle, through which normal advance & retard normally operates over. (eg: 50 deg BTDC to say 10 deg ADTC. This would reduce considerably the possiblity of cross firing. However, the ring gear proposal, is the simplest, & easiest. Because it is counting the teeth, which are 3.4 deg apart, (360/106 teeth) I could set the this "firing arc", to be anything I wanted, within 3.4 deg accuracy, which is not important. To do that with magnets, you have to redrill flywheel & reposition, if required. The Megasquirt alternative I still have noted for my 4K EFI conversion, which is sitting on my test bed, awaiting some finishing touches. This project is an inbetween one, which can very easily be introduced to my road car now, to see how it works in the real world. I wanted to make the mods for triggering & synching simple, that didn't require major changes to the engine, itself, for interested parties. When I get to the Megasquirt, I'll definitely give you a yell, as I'm never interested in reinventing the wheel, if someone has been there before. Cheers Banjo

Hi Guys & Gals I am in the process of building an electronic ignition system on a 5K engine, I have here on a portable engine stand. The electronic ignition has been working perfectly in my daily drive KE30, without a hitch, for sometime. It uses a "locked up" 3K dizzy, with an Accuspark module in it, used purely as a triggering source. It uses the Jaycar programmable system, to provide a customised advance & load retard map. The next stage is to go distributorless, altogether, using the COP conversion I have carried out to the K series head. I am going to go full sequential firing (1,4,3,2) rather than waste spark, but it is easy to try, or revert back to "Waste Spark", once you've gone sequential. I'm considering how to provide the crankshaft position sensing information. There are plenty of aftermarket systems, I could bolt onto the front of the engine & crankshaft pulley. However, these are fairly expensive, & prone to get damaged, or misaligned, at that position on the engine. The area I am looking at is the flywheel ring gear as a source of pulses. Bit like a Nissan “optical dizzy”, but signal sourced from the flywheel ring gear. . The K Series flywheel has 106 teeth on the ring gear, which makes 212 teeth per 720 deg of rotation, which is a full 4 stroke cycle. That number, results in a full number, when divided by 4 cylinders (53) The ring gear already exists, so it just needs a sensor. I’ve cut a little hole in the bell housing to get easy access to the ring gear. A synch sensor can easily be derived off the large timing chain sprocket, which I already proved, & works well. I may even look at using the fuel pump lobe on the camshalf, if I fit an electric fuel pump down in the boot. Some manufacturers apparently used flywheel ring gear sensing in their earlier attempts. Research shows some European models went this way. Early attempts used inductive 2 wire sensors, but most later model cars, used Hall Effect sensing 3 wire sensors, as the Hall Effect sensor has constant amplitude, irrespective of the revs. The commercial automotive Hall Effect sensors are pretty expensive, so if I buy one, I want to be pretty sure it will work on the K series ring gear. I have just spent some time building a Hall Effect sensor using the model UNG3503 Hall Effect component, & mounting it with a small bias magnet, behind it, in a small aluminium tube. It took a bit of experiment to get the bias magnet positioned correctly, so that it wouldn’t switch until the ring gear tooth was in line. However, when I rotated the flywheel, the sensor would not turn off, due the magnetic hysteresis of the sensor itself. Probably due to the width & depth between teeth on the flywheel. I’ve decided to give that away, & just get a commercial Hall Effect one, that I know will work, because it has been used with ring gear, in its original application. Has anyone on here any advice, or experience, as to which crankshaft position sensors, available as a spare part . . . . , were 1. Hall Effect (3 wire), & 2. Intended for, & used on flywheel ring gear ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Graeme, Picture No: 1 of the Gumtree ad, indicates the car has no windscreen ! How much more air conditioning than that, do you require ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Bruce, No, I never wanted to lower it too much, as it limits me where I can go. I have some Old Skool Delta 14" mags on her, & they just (I mean just) clear the large Cressida rotors & calipers I have fitted. However, the standard KE70 King Springs I fitted, were made from King Springs newer material, which results in a much stiffer spring. When I first dropped her to the ground, she sat up in the front. I drove it around for a month or so, thinking the springs might "settle", but no such luck. I finished up taking about a full coil turn from them, to get the ride height to match the rear. Perfect now ! It gives a firm ride in the front, assisted by the 22mm dia. sway bar. Bit harsh on rougher roads, but corners, like it is on rails ! The full coil turn removal, still kept the coil spring captive, with air under the wheel. From all I've learn't whilst doing my front end, I'd like to have another go at it, with a different approach. I've always believed that there is something basically wrong with the whole McPherson strut design/geometery, if it is not just right. There appears to be a lot of "chat" on the net to support that. When I was young, I owned a "Harry Potter" Ford 105 Anglia, which I drove all over Australia, when I just got a licence. It had an inherent issue, where the front end would get a violent "shimmy" up, at a particular/exact speed. No end of balancing & wheel alignment could ever fix it. I just used to drive through that speed range quickly. I'll take some pics of the ride height later today, to show you what I finished up with, & add them here. Cheers Banjo

Nope ! There are still cheap AE86s around. Here's one currently up a Gumtree. Cheap, & keep you busy for a few weekends ! https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/glenmore-park/cars-vans-utes/1985-toyota-sprinter/1189229501?utm_source=criteo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=MF-cars-MAU&utm_content=120777_9299 Cheers Banjo

Hi Stuart, I was very lucky ! My wife's very first car was a KE30. When I married her I inherited a/her Celica RA40, which we cruised all over Australia, until kids came along. She currently has a late model Corolla, but strangely enough, when she goes shopping at the weekend, it's my KE30 that disappears from the driveway, for an hour or so. P.S. I keep telling, to check I'm not under it, when she hops in it. (We have four Toyotas in our family) Cheers Banjo

Maybe an early electric car ! This picture was part of a story on electric motor conversions on older & classic cars, on the ABC website today. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-24/make-your-own-electric-car/9918964 Does anyone know of a K Series Rolla anywhere that has had an electric motor substituted in place of it's 3K/4K unit ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Graeme, Here is another one around that pricing area. https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/adelaide-cbd/cars-vans-utes/1987-ae86-levin-coupe/1189715163 Cheers Banjo

Life is full of What Ifs !

Last month, I was sitting in a doctor's waiting room, whilst my daughter had her flu shot. I picked up a "Just Cars" sale magazine, which has a classic section in it. There low & behold, was a KE55 4 door, stock as could be for $ 14,000. Why you ask ! It had mileage of 4,700 klms thereon ! Yes they are out there, & there are those out there, who are willing to pay. I missed out on a KE55 4 door once on ebay, down in Port Macquarie NSW. It was one lady owner, & looked immaculate with low klms. I wanted it, & put my bid in. There were a few other bidders, but I stayed ahead of the pack. Right at the end of the auction (last 5 minutes) another bidder came on the scene. I battled for several minutes as we outbid each other, only to get sniped in the last second, by my new rival. I was devastated ! I made some enquiries, & found the mystery bidder was an international classic car buyer. The KE55 was put in a container & went to a buyer in The Netherlands. If you ever watch Custom Garage on 7 Mate, you will see that there are people out there, where money is no object. There a couple of resto outfits here in Australia, who do amazing work, for high end clients with funds. There is one resto company here in Brisbane, that I watched/followed a custom resto on the website, which was amazing. About a year later, I was at the Leyburn Sprints in September, & there at the Shannons Show & Shine, was this resto in the flesh. It was absolutely beautiful. One could almost say "Art" ! Cheers Banjo

Hi Bruce, Yes, that is what I used. Very easy mod. Would loved to have found a new Toyota HiLux or Landcruiser one, that fitted as easily, but the price, availability, & ease of changeover made it an easy decision. I think the only adjustment was the adjustable big pin, between MC & Vacuum Brake Booster. Ah them knuckles ! Off memory, they were only out by a couple of millimeters. I'm sure I did a post on Rollaclub. Details are earlier in this thread. Off memory, I opened up one of the bolt holes & relocated the dowelling. I know it was very easy, using a cylinderical carbine cutter on a hand drill. Off memory I discovered there were a number of different KPI angles on the various 50mm dia. Toyota struts, & the Celica RA65 struts I obtained were different in the wrong direction. I remember at the time, that there those on here, advising me not to use RA65 struts, as they had obtained +ve camber as a result. I had gone too far with the mod, so pushed on, & finished up with 0 deg camber on one side & 0.3 deg +ve camber on the other. I finished up getting some Techno Toy Tuning camber top adjusters, from the USA, and had they professionally set with 0.6 deg -ve camber on both sides. Could have gone to about 0.75 deg -ve, but was happy with the 0.6 deg -ve. I'm only using it as a daily drive, so certainly did not want to go beyond 1.0 deg -ve. Cheers Banjo

Hi Dave, You've always been a great innovator ! I like it ! Cheers Banjo

Hi Bruce, Has been a great mod, &worked reliably & well ever since it was first installed. It hard to remember how poor the original Rolla brakes were, after modifying as I described. The most important part is to fit a larger master cylinder, to get all the extra needed brake fluid into the larger caliper pots ! I used a MC from a Pajero, & it fits perfectly; same studs, no need to modify pipe connection either. Cheers Banjo

Oh I hate all those little rubber hoses that go hard & crack & leak ! What a nightmare to test all those little actuators, & one way valves. Came across one once so bad, I ripped all the "decrepit" hoses off to replace them, only to find someone had placed a ball bearing tightly in each hose, to make it look right, but totally inoperable. Cheers Banjo

That is just the sweetest looking Rolla ! Which 5 speed are you after ? The KE55 5 speed will drop in without issues, as dimenensionally it is the same as the 4 speed. The other 5 speed available is the 5 speed gearbox from a KE70,, which has the same overall dimensions, but has the point where the gear-stick comes out, a little further back. This will require cutting out your tunnel a bit, & filling the hole at the front. If you don't want to molest the floor pan/tunnel, then the KE55, 5 speed is the one to go for. Cheers Banjo

Hi Hermes, Nice looking KE55 4 door you've acquired there. Looks very clean, & having been an auto all its life, probably hasn't been thrashed. Very easy to identify whether your Rolla has the imported Jap diff, or the later Borg Warner. The Jap diff has no access to the banjo from the rear. The BW diff does have access from the rear, identified by a bunch of eight (8) bolt heads holding on the access/cover plate, around the perimeter. I would think yours has the BW diff. The name plate on the firewall, in the engine bay, should give you the year of manufacture. Yours looks like it might be around 1979. Front of BW Diff Rear of BW Diff Front View of imported Jap Diff. Rear View of imported Jap Diff/Axle Case. There were two sizes of brake drum fitted to the KE3X & KE5X Rollas. The early ones had drums 200mm in dia. The later 9" drums, are 229mm in dia. Whip one off & measure it, then you'll know which one you've got. If the shoes you've been supplied are too small, then you must have the 9 inch drums. 9 Inch Drum on later model Rear Axle Plentiful & available on line on ebay. Where are you located ? There might be someone close by on here, that can give you a hand locally. Cheers Banjo

Hi Hermes, I did a bit of research on the net, & this thread on Rollaclub, from 2011, gives a lot of good info. https://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/49567-ke30-manual-conversion/?tab=comments#comment-508707 It appears that the conversion I did was the easy one, as it was a 2 speed auto. I suspect the auto gearbox you removed was a 3 speed, as apparently, it is different. Here is another comment I found on this site, that basically confirms your finding, that you will need to fabricate a new cross member, for the rear mount. If you are in Australia, you could have a Borg Warner diff fitted rather than a Jap imported one. Be aware, these have different mounting flanges. If I'd had an olde 3 speed auto box, I would have known this. We live & learn. Hope that assists. Cheers Banjo

Hi Hermes, I'm really interested to get to the bottom of this, as with exception of having to cut the tunnel a bit for the gear stick, when a KE70 5 speed box is used, all the Corolla gearboxes whether manual or 2 speed auto, were a fairly easy changeover. The biggest job is usually acquiring, & fitting the manual pedal box. Where about are you located ? Have you got any pics you can put up here of the auto gearbox, you have removed. Was it a 2 or 3 speed auto ? A picture of the car would be great also. I've transposed 3K, 4K, & 5K engines with various gearbox combos, over the years, between KE3X & KE5X Rollas, & never had an issue. I think there maybe more than one tailshaft length used, but that was probably to cater for slightly different wheel base measurements, rather than different gearbox lengths. 15cm is a big difference ! I can't imagine Toyota producing specific bodies to suit only auto, or only manual gearboxes, if they were to have different rear gearbox mounting points. Cheers Banjo

Hi Hermes, I pulled my gearboxes out of a heap today & lined them all up. They are all the exact same length from the front edge of the bell housing flange, to the rear universal protector end. The 2 Speed auto bell housing is removable, & I have removed it for a rear engine mount on my engine test bed. That's why it looks a bit shorter. Underneath the gearboxes, is a strip of aluminium on the floor, which lines up with centre of the rear gearbox mounting point, in all cases. I know when I took out my 2 speed original auto box, & fitted the KE70 5 speed manual, I used the same tail shaft & the same mounting points. So can't work out why yours is so far (15cm) out. However, my KE30 rear mounting points in the floor pan are different to your pic. you have two holes either side which are close together, & both used. My has two holes further apart, but only one used. This allows the cross member to have to mounting points if necessary. Cheers Banjo

I have a 2 speed auto box here, left over from when I converted my KE30 2 door sedan, to a 5 speed gearbox, from a KE70. I'll pull all the gearboxes out tomorrow, & measure them more accurately. I'll also take a pic, of my KE30 floor pan dual mounting points for the rear gearbox mount cross member. Was the auto you pulled out a 2 or 3 speed ? Have you done a pedal box conversion as yet ? Cheers Banjo

How are you going with this beauty now ? Is it all up & away, & now mobile ? Cheers Banjo

I presume that you are trying to fit & install a 4 speed manual gearbox from a Rolla into your KE55 ? I also presume that your engine is a 4K donk. I also presume you are trying to use the cross member that the auto box was mounted with. This is a fairly straight forward mod, so not sure what the issue is. Some pics of non alignment, or more information is needed. Cheers Banjo

This fuse supplies power besides the Heater/Blower On/Off switch; also to the combination meter in the dashboard, as well as the speedo. I'm guessing the speedo may have a warning light fitted, for the handbrake &/or maybe the stop light circuit. So there is another couple of places you can look at. The handbrake switch would be a good starting point. Does the blowing of the fuse coincide with operating the handbrake, or using the brakes ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Christopher, Bit of a challenge this one, but there are a few of us here in Australia, & Jeremy in the jungle in the Philippines, who are going to try & solve this. This is a bit different for us, because our Rollas, of the same vintage as yours, were fitted with a different engine. Altezzaclub's wiring digram is for the USA model, so should be very similar, or exactly the same as yours. The clue you have given us, is your comment . . . . The Rollas from that era, had either a fuse box with 8 fuses, or a fuse box with 10 fuses. I'm guessing your fuse panel is vertical, & has 10 fuses, the same as depicted above on the RHS, and as per the wiring diagram. The third fuse from bottom on the fuse box panel,is labelled "HEATER". However, as with all auto fuses, this fuse does supply power to more circuits than just the heater motor/blower. A quick trace of the wiring diagram, indicates it also powers the reversing lights. That's a circuit that runs from fuse panel to gearbox reversing switch, to the rear of the car. Does the fuse blow coinciding with putting the car in reverse ? Do your reversing lights work at all ? I'm putting my money initially on there being a fault in this circuit somewhere. A Short Circuit to chassis in the trunk somewhere, or in the tail light clusters, could be taking out the fuse, any time you put the car in reverse. If the reversing lights do not work at all, with an intact fuse, you might have a wiring that has come loose of off somewhere, that is intermittently earthing. I'll have a further look, & see what else it might be. Cheers Banjo

Your Instagram video appears to display a noise, that I would normally associate with a blown or leaking gasket; maybe on the exhaust system. This however, would normally not result in blowing a fuse, unless a leaking exhaust, was blowing directly on the rear of the alternator. Cheers Banjo