Banjo

Hi Greg ! Welcome aboard RollaClub. We all just love new members with digital cameras who can post some pictures for all of us to drool over. Glad you like the forum. If you haven't already, spend a night or two reading the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) There's a wealth of info in there that I'm sure you'll find interesting, gathered over a long time. SEARCH is another great function. If you see something missing, don't be scared to ask or even contribute. We are all here to learn . . . and have a bit of fun. Cheers ! :P

Not quite Fook ! The other way around. The crank spins at twice the speed of the cam & dizzy. Well, it did last time I looked. Therein lies the problem. All electronic crank sensing systems need a second sensing signal from a cam shaft sensor, or dizzy sensor like the Nissans, to tell the ECU whether the crank trigger is suppose to trigger cylinder no: 1 or cylinder no: 4 (in a 4 cylinder engine) TDC no:1 cylinder is the exact same rotational position as TDC no:4 cylinder, except one cylinder is on the end of it's compression stroke & the other is on the end of it's exhaust stroke. The same conditions occur with cylinders nos 2 & 3, except they are another 1/2 turn on, of the crankshaft, usually requiring another sensor. You are right about the flywheel providing greater accuracy, due to it's larger diameter. Without lathes and accurate machining facilities, trying to do this on the crankshaft pulley, leaves a lot to be desired. I know a lot of aftermarket systems use brackets that bolt onto the lower front of the engine, but I want my bits & pieces hidden safely away at the back of the engine. Stay tuned & all will be revealed. But please keep those comments coming ! :P

Teddy is closest to the money ! As the Blackadder said . . . . . "I have a plan so cunning, you could pin a tail on it." :P

My 6 year old is constantly asking when we are going to put the wheels & seat on the "engine stand thingy" ! I think he has visions of screaming around the backyard in/on it ! * evil thoughts enter another RollaCluber's mind ! * :P

Aluminium is nice & soft & easy to work with. Mark hole with scribe or sharp point. Drill series of holes around the inside edge. Join up holes & break out centre biscuit. Take coarse & fine files, and half an hour of patience, & hey presto ! :P

And while Xany has been madly welding this last weekend; what has that other Rolla nut been at . . . . ? Drilling little holes in 5K flywheel & gluing in little cylinderical magnets . . . . . . . . . and cutting little rectangular holes in bellhousings . . . . . . . . and making brackets out of old 3K engine backing plates . . . . . . and making sure all pieces line up ! All will be revealed. Stay tuned ! :P

Welcome Aboard Luke ! You've found the right place. We all love our early Rollas here. Hope you've got, or are getting a digital camera. We love lots & lots of pictures of projects in progress. :P

Looking Good Simon ! :P

A bit of investigation has turned up that we could be onto a conspiracy here guys. There are out there everywhere. BEWARE ! :jamie:

Grim; I didn't know those early Corollas had beds with pillars in them. Those early Corollas were well ahead of the old GMH Swagman ! :jamie:

Fook with all respect, I think you simply need to upgrade your gearbox to something a bit heavier duty ! Here are a couple of suggestions. Sorry Fook ! I couldn't resist, when I came across these today. :jamie: P.S. You might have to move the seat back a bit in the KE35.

Come on ! Don't you know you're Corollas. THATS's the fuel tank. They're always in the rear. Radiator overflows are always up front. :jamie:

Was driving in the Redland Bay area this afternoon, when a bloody ASIO agent had a pot shot at my "red" KE55 coupe. Lucky, I stopped without damage & got a quick shot of the culprit. :jamie: :unsure:

Came across this picture of a very early Corolla on the internet last nite ! The last driver / owner must have been a drifta, cause ther's little or no rubber left on the rims ! :jamie: :unsure: :o P.S. typical Corolla, a fair bit of rust in the arse end !

The Corolla, as with all older Toyota vehicles, has a light switch on the RHS of the column. The light switch stork itself, has two separate switches inside it, which is why the wiring diagrams show the switch as two units (light switch & dimmer) The light switch is the rotational switch on the end of the stork which has three (3) positions. (OFF, PARKING LTS, HEAD LTS) The dimmer switch is activated when moving the whole stork backwards and forwards, and is to change from low beam to hi beam, & visa versa. When the light switch is pulled straight back when the headlights are off, then the hi beam is actived. That's why there are two control wires to the head light relay. One to turn the head lights on, and the one from the dimmer switch to turn the head lights on during the daytime, when headlights are normally off. That's what you use to warn other motorists of bears on the road up ahead. The dimmer switch internally is quite complicated, and the reason the combo switch (as Jamie calls it) fails, is that Toyota have the high head light current passing right back through the column dimmer switch which burns out the contacts, & creates the sort of problems you now have. I fear you will probably have to replace the whole combo switch unit, but my suggestions in the earlier post, will get you home at night in an emergency. :jamie:

Fook, here is a rough sketch I trust will assist you. If the head light relay can not be heard to click when you turn the light switch on, then the problem may well be in the light switch. Just earth the RW (red/white) wire to the head light relay. This is easiest to access just under the steering column. The wiring diagram says it is red/white, but on my KE55 it is just red. It is easy to find. There are four (4) heavy wires & then three (3) thin white, red, & green wires. The red wire is the 6th wire in. If however the relay is working, then the problem is more likely to be in the dimmer switch which is quite complicated internally. With the headlight switch on, just earth either the heavy Red/Green or Red/Yellow at the same terminal connector as above at the base of the steering column. One will give low beam & the other hi beam. Good Luck ! :jamie:

You might have to take & early mark today ! I'll see what I can do ! The wiring diagrams in the Gregory's don't scan well, as there are so many fine lines. I find them very hard to read, with wires running all over the page, and then coming back to almost the same place. I find it easier to draw out the circuit for the one area of operation that you are interested in, rather than get confused with all the added stuff. It makes it easier to understand. I only worked out last night how to post a hand drawn sketch on Rollaclub, which I did for Xany. 5K Test Bed Wiring Diagram I'll sketch out the wiring of the headlight circuit, and post it soon, or if you PM to me a fax no: at work, I'll just fax it through. It might be clearer that way. I suspect from your previous posting on this problem, that the problem is in the column light switch stork unit, and is not probably the sort of thing you can easily fix at work without tools. However we might be able to find a workaround. :jamie:

Hi Simon ! The ignition is quite straight forward. The 5K has an electronic dizzy on it, with internal ignitor. It just has two wires coming out of it. The one with a red stripe on it is +ve, and goes to the coil +ve & the IGN terminal on the starter switch. The other wire goes to the coil -ve. I didn't have a spare ignition barrel / starter switch lying around with keys, but got a generic one from Auto Pro which has ACC, OFF, IGN, START just like any normal starter switch. Here is a rough sketch of the way I wired up my test bed. It works perfectly. I was also thinking about an electric pump, but opted in the end to use the standard mechanical one on the 5K engine. The fuel tank is one of those plastic 5 litre spare fuel containers you get from SuperCheap for $ 14.00. You can see it in the sixth pic above. Actually I pinched mine, from my better halfs car boot, but don't tell her; she hasn't missed it yet. About 2 meters of rubber fuel hose along the inside of the side bearer & she is sweet. I drilled a hole in the lid of the fuel container, so that hose is tight. A $ 2.00 fuel filter allows the fuel container/tank to breath. Any other questions Simon, just give me a yell. :D

Xany, the stand I built out of hardwood planks measures just 900mm wide by 1700mm long. It could well be a bit shorter, as it is only 1400 to 1500mm to the rear end of the g/box from the front. Even as it stands now, it will easily fit into a 6 x 4 box trailer. Here a couple more pics below, of more detail that might help you. I think you are in Brisbane northside, but if you want to have a look at the stand, your welcome to call by & have a look. I'm down at Greenbank (southside). The only thing I had to buy that I didn't have lying around from a donor car was a front crossmember, which 78 Rolla at Ipswich sold me a good KE70 one for $ 10 or $ 20, and an accelerator cable which I got on eBay for $ 12.00. All the rest came from the junk box. Oh, and a tin of black fence paint. The two supports for the radiator remove easily so that complete access to the front of the engine is possible If you have any queries, or want some more detailed pictures, just give me a yell. My six (6) year old wants to know when I am going to put the wheels & seat on it, so we can drive it. :D

Yeah Jamie. New topic for the test stand/dyno thingy. Got a feeling this thread could go on for some time. :D

New to this image thing, as I only recently got a digital camera. I notice there are a lot of sites that do on-line storage, but there are limits and restrictions on some, and others don't allow URL linking for placing pictures on forums like Rollaclub, and the likes of eBay etc. I'm doing a 2 week trial on Fotki at present, but would be pleased to hear from others who have used these services for some time, as to which they have found most sucessful & cheap or freeeeee! Freebies :D

Oh, and we'll need some virtual dashboard / dyno software ! Anyone seen any good cheap virtual instrument software, that we can hook up to this Dyno ? I've got access to plenty of data loggers & kilowatt hour measuring equipment. :D

I'll do a search on the web tonight & see if any one lists a home made engine Dyno. Wouldn't have to be too big. Maybe a water or drum dyno of some kind, like the chassis type, car wheel drive on ones. Water is very easy to control, as it's only a bit of plumbing & valves/taps etc. I can feel a project coming on ! :D

Thanks Jamie ! Next job after I get the ignition sensors going is to "map" the engine over a wide range of revs & loads, for optimum performance, to program the ECU. I'm open to any suggestions as to what I could get the tailshaft to drive stationary, to put a variable load on it. Things I might be able to get my hands on cheaply, could be a big water pump, which I could throttle it's output, or an electric generator driving some dummy variable loads. (fence wire in a 44 gallon of water =) ) Any thoughts greatfully accepted. :D

Thanks Guys ! Glad you like it. Well I have had a theory for a while that I could design & build a waste spark ignition for the K series, that did away with the distributor altogether, but avoided the complicated crank & camshaft angle sensors, common to other engines. I had proved it on the bench, but needed to go the next step, & fit to my 4KU engine. I had already decided that crank angle sensing off the crankshaft pully was not ideal, and I wanted to go flywheel sensing, due the larger diameter, & therefore less angular error. To work in this area experimentally, you need the engine out of the car. Not delighting in having the engine in & out of the car several times, besides the point that the KE55 is a daily drive for my better half, I decided a working test rig was the way to go. I toyed with the idea of a donor Corolla body with everything cut away, exposing the engine. for easy access. I then decided a test stand couldn't be too hard to build, and three bits of 200mm x 50mm hardwood planks from the nursery supplier, & a few 10mm coach bolts & screws from Bunnings, and there it was. It took about 4 hours to put together, designed on the run. Believe it Jamie, not a weld in sight, or required. It's totally self sufficent, and has wheels so it can be stored in the corner of the shed. Guages are a luxury, but for $ 15.00 for a set of 4 off 50mm units off eBay, I could not resist. Some of you might have noticed the hand accelerator made from the height adjustor of an old Rover 4 stroke lawnmower. I'm quite proud of it. Anyway, the 4KU came off for the 5K, which needs to go into the KE55 coupe soon as it's 4KC is on it's last legs. Then back with the 4KU and finish off the ignition system. Actually I experimented with the flywheel sensors today on the 5K, and they seem to work out well. I'll post you some pics tomorrow of the sensors I've tried today. I'd be very interested to hear from anyone out there at all, who has had a go at putting a waste spark or crank sensing on a K Series motor. :D