altezzaclub

It wasn't a positive earth Accuspark unit by mistake??

Excellent! Nice to get a solution! You'll probably get a better spark out of the electronic unit when you get one that works, but at least now you're not under pressure.

OK, new look/update/something, and while it locked me out for a couple of days its all working now. Thanks Boss-

"1. Converted to electronic ignition ( problem started prior to this ) " Ah- I didn't realise the significance of this until your reply above. So, there's very little can go wrong in a points setup, as Parrot said power comes in from the coil negative (which you checked and has 12V) goes through the body to an insulated terminal that puts it into the points arm. Then it shorts out as the points close & the current flow causes the coil to surge. The condensor charges up and discharges as the points open & shut. What can go wrong.. The wire breaks internally as it goes through the dizzy body, so power doesn't get to the points. If its on a clip terminal there it can get loose. I've seen them where the motor works until you go around a corner and then it dies as the wire sways. The short wire on the points breaks The insulated terminal fails so power leaks away continually. The points arm spring breaks so they float open and shut. The screw holding the points loosens and you lose the points gap. The condensor breaks down internally and bleeds power to earth, or its screw gets loose and it doesn't work. You can check all this on the bench with the old dizzy in a vise. You can even hook the old coil up to it and have it fire a spark plug. The new electronic dizzy is probably fine, although it depends on whether you replaced the wire from the coil negative to the new dizzy. The old wire might be dodgy, but if you fitted a new wire it means a real puzzle! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We stopped in a special stage one time when the motor was cutting in and out & as navigator I leapt out to lift the bonnet and see what was wrong. The condensor (on the outside of the Datsun dizzy) had broken off its tab and was hanging on the wire, sparking as it swung against the dizzy. As it sparked the motor ran, when it swung free the motor died. That never made sense with my understanding of what a condensor does, so I looked it up right now, and its more complicated than I thought! Technical Talk – Ignition Condensors Basically the function of a condenser in a coil ignition circuit is to reduce the spark at the contact points as they open in the distributor and thus minimise burning and pitting of the points. Arcing is caused by the effect of self induction in the coil as the points interrupt the flow of current. The resultant collapse of the magnetic field produces a high voltage to be generated in the primary winding which then tends to flow across the points, thus causing burning or pitting. This current flows into the condenser and charges it as the points open. The rapid collapse of the magnetic field produces this high voltage in the primary windings, which can be as high as 250 volts. This further charges the condenser and the consequent collapse of the field causes a high voltage to be induced in every turn of both primary and secondary windings. As the secondary winding has about 100 times the number of turns of the primary, the voltage can reach as high as 25000 volts. Normally this voltage is not reached as it is limited by various factors such as point gap, compression, engine revs. Etc. so only sufficient voltage is produced to produce a spark at the plug. As the spark is produced at the plug gap the energy in the coil, stored in the form of magnetic flux, begins to drain from the coil through the secondary circuit thus sustaining the spark for a fraction of a second or several degrees of crankshaft revolution. During this interval the condenser discharges back through the primary winding producing an oscillation of the current flow in the primary circuit for the brief interval that is required for the primary circuit to return to a state of equilibrium. The condenser DOES NOT DISCHARGE UNTIL AFTER the spark has occurred at the spark plug. This information was taken from a Delco Remy electrical equipment book. http://www.austin7club.org/Ignition%20Condensors.htm

"10. Tested Spark at each plug and wire including directly from coil. ( No SPARK ) " You could- Disconnect the coil negative, run the high-voltage wire from the coil to the dizzy onto a spark plug earthed out on the body, then earth the coil neg with a wire that you tap on and off an earth a few times. That will cause the coil to fire and a spark to jump across your spark plug. Even better, you could turn the engine by hand to line the rotor up with a spark plug, use that plug lead with a plug in it lying on the motor and short the coil out as above. That checks out your whole system except the module in the dizzy that shorts the coil negative out. I expect that is where the problem lies, as you've thoroughly checked out everything else. One check would be to grab an aerosol can of refrigerant used to check electronic components and spray it over the modules inside the dizzy, although it does seem like its time for a new electronic setup in the distributor. You could check any clearances in the dizzy module, if its a hall effect magnetic one there will be a few thou gap between the arms and the sensor, but I think its unlikely that is your problem.

Well, the last pre-CAKE jobs are in the workshop this week. Josh did a driving stint in the Kenworth then got into the ute tray- There's still quite a lot of work on this yet. Its within 1.5mm of dead square in 3 dimensions, I know I wouldn't be that fussy! Meanwhile I've been making foot-plates for a cage in the Subie. They were both waiting for the Mini to finish, so if we can knock them out in the next few weeks its finally CAKE time! Mind you... sunny spring weather is arriving, and today is footings day for the new workshop extensions..

Classic examples- Massively overpriced, poorly planned and many hours of work to finish. https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/east-fremantle/cars-vans-utes/1982-toyota-corolla-xx-manual-sedan/1277681660 https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/cranbourne-north/cars-vans-utes/1984-3sge-beams-ke70-unfinished-project/1279563872 https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/runaway-bay/cars-vans-utes/sr20-ke70-ae71-wagon/1275286410

Banjo found this one, a real classic so long as you don't set fire to it with a welder! https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body/681758-building-wooden-body-rotisserie.html

Well... almost! The Mini has gone back to its owner to be prepared for some Bathurst work. Josh was asked to do a couple of days driving a gravel truck, but while they were checking it they found cracks in the tailgate hinges. It has unusually long hinge arms that allow the tailgate to swing a long way up, I don't know if that's part of it, but the cracks were along all the horizontal webs, top and bottom, and there were no vertical gussets. So we ground it all out and welded up what we could on the truck to hold it in place, then took the whole tailgate off and laid it flat. (pays to have a bobcat at home!) A sheet of 6mm alloy panel and a few days later it was in much better condition. I was surprised, Josh pointed out that a max tonnage was gravel up about 400mm, and the bin is only full if you carry grain. On Friday it was all back together and amazingly the pins went it with no problems. Next we had the exhaust flexible joint to replace along with the steel angle that carries the fuel line from one side tanks to the other. Something had clouted the steel angle and bent it up to rub the flex apart. That left the afternoon to take the Evo3 for a wheel alignment and take out some rear toe-in, but it was beyond adjustment and into modification.. So we slotted holes in the lower control arm and Josh set it up this morning, all set for tomorrow's rally sprint when I get back in the suicide seat after 40years.. Then Gladis locked down all of NSW so that won't happen either!! Still, we're definitely closer to KE70 work, and the weather is improving so we can drag the CAKE out of the mud and get it up the hill!

...make one of these!! You will never regret it! A shell only weighs a few hundred Kg, this rotisserie is way overbuilt, it rolls 4WD utes! We slip castors under the feet at the corners and push the whole shell around as we need. You can make one out of wood if you prefer carpentry, but any simple construction to hold a shell and let it roll over makes body repairs/strengthening so much easier.

"Does the interior insulation or car underbody coating contain asbestos? " No, its why cars explode & burn so well in movies! Asbestos was used in clutches & brakes, and in some gaskets although that was rare. I've never heard of it in underbody, or seen it in interior insulation. Generally its easy to identify. Synthetic fibres are all the same diameter, like grass or reeds growing, so they are singular along the edge of say, fibre-cement board. Natural fibres start off large and split down to small ones, like a tree and its branches, so you see some fat & some thin. A magnifying glass helps, although a microscope is better. With covid around any worries about asbestos have vanished!

I spent a stack of hours chasing bulb holders to mount on an aluminium sheet and replace the rotted plastic ones in the tail lights.. Then I came across these- I ordered a set last Sunday, and amazingly they were here Saturday morning. I was pretty excited to plug them and replace these ones- Then I noticed the earth had come apart here, and actually they were just twisted wires with some tape around them and the bulb earths are just the bare wires pushed down the side of the bulb. Mine are all soldered-. When I went to put them in I found the earth tag in the middle of the boot didn't exist. ..and of course they didn't fit at all! The screws are all in the wrong place, although the middle one will do, and they strain to fit at the edges. "Sealing" just doesn't enter into it! When I plugged them in the left hand indicator was the brake light flashing, the brake light was the reverse light and there wasn't a reverse light.. It was easiest to pull all their wiring and bulbs out and put all the old gear into their plastic cases. CBF drilling new holes tonight, I'll finish it tomorrow. At least the lights all work as they should- So, all in all, $55... not too expensive, but the quality is cheap, the assembly work cheaper and its not designed for our cars anyway!! If they flogged the plastic cases by themselves for $15 it would be a better buy!

Came up nice... About 60kg all up from the amount of pipe that went in. I jacked one rear wheel until both were off the ground and the shell is rigid! Floor joined to B pillars, through the roof bars and joined to A pillar. I'll jack the KE70 and actually measure the twist before and after a cage. Do that Subbie too.

Back in Orange last week, the red truck is running fine and working already. I had a panic when it started making a howling like a trombone as the speed built up, but it turned out to be a hose-clamp on the inlet wasn't tight enough and the boost was leaking out past the silicon rubber. This week we finished the Mini cage, it goes back today to be prepared for events like the Bathurst 6hr. I reckon you could throw it down the side of the Mountain and walk away with a bit of luck. So, next is a bit of work on the Evo3, there is an invite-only rally sprint in a week and we have an invite. There is a Subaru cage to build, but a mig one not a tig, so a week of hard work should do it, and THEN we can start on KE70s!

Well, as far as I know you can't buy the layshaft bearings for a K40 or K50, so you just can't rebuild them now. That's them finished unless you can grind the shaft down to fit some other bearing. Then T50s will be next, some shortage of parts in a few years means we will be looking at J160s to use. Really, the whole 4AGE/T50 is 40years old and we need some current-ish lightweight revvy 1.6 or 2L motor that is still useable in RWD and has gearboxes to suit. The Hondas are definitely a start, the F20 from the S2000 and the newer K motors if they can go RWD. Mazda MX5 motors and gearboxes run right up to now, and the BMW N20 pulls 240bhp from 1.6L in RWD. They will all take as much work as Littleredspirit put into the 2AZFE, just in different areas, but we need something to give us a decade of running into the future.