gmac708 wrote:
Cam also picked up a his replacement ride... a 93 FD. I have no idea...plane and simple. Not a clue. Time to read up on rotary engines I guess.

Great car. I bet he's got a little more $$ invested in this project that the last one.

You know Columbus is basically ground zero for rotary tuning in the USA. My buddy from Wisconsin trailered his RD to Cbus to get it tuned there.

Lol, an FD at what, 17?!?! Where does he work? Anyways, nice pickup.

You seem to be a busy guy!

WTF thats the best upgrade ive ever seen. 240 for an FD...Cam is the man. Now i really gotta get up there.

FD ftw!

this has to be one of the best builds out there! nice work.

Just spent an entire class period at school reading this instead of working on circuit boards, great build, and FD at 17 is awesome! For his safety though I would've gotten a FC, haha. Can't wait to see more progress and videos!

Looks really good, you must be so proud, I know I am!!!

I thought I would update everybody, It's like I fell off the planet.
Betzy has been on the back burner since I got the RB running. Worked on the gauges a bit and stuff like that.
Cameron and I have been trying to get the 240SX going.
The bad KA has been pulled and stripped, The replacement engine now has a new head gasket installed. All the accessories have been swapped. The replacement engine was Auto trans and I forgot to order a pilot bearing for manual. Once that is here, we can put clutch/transmission back on and drop it in place and start hooking everything back up. Going back together without turbo. Going to use cold air intake. Got one on e-bay. Engine came with stock exhaust header. I need this thing outa-here.




Let's see...what else...Santa got Evan got a carbon spoiler for his EK, we put that on X-mas day. The Bose stereo in Cam's RX7 does not work. He got some money for x-mas and I see a radio change coming soon. Bose stereo complicates things a bunch, could be anything . Lot's to do. I'll get back to Betzy in a few

Merry X-mas everybody.

Gord

Just dropped in on this thread.Nice build you got going.I have owned four Z cars in the past and would love to have another one to do the same thing as you are doing!Nice work my man!

gmac708 wrote:Let's see...what else...Santa got Evan got a carbon spoiler for his EK, we put that on X-mas day. The Bose stereo in Cam's RX7 does not work. He got some money for x-mas and I see a radio change coming soon. Bose stereo complicates things a bunch, could be anything . Lot's to do. I'll get back to Betzy in a few

Shoot me a PM if you need a hand with the Bose system, or new headunit recommendations. I love the stuff JVC has been putting out lately, like this guy for $150. HD radio built in, USB slot on the front, clean efficient power. Crutchfield will include the Mazda harness, but if you're keeping the Bose speakers and amps, you'll need a PAC OEM-1 unit to convert the speaker level outputs to a low level line out. I've tried running the RCA outs to the Bose amps and haven't had any luck with it, the PAC solution works every time.

I love this thread... thanks Gordon for the footage!

Gord.... come on! Keep posting! It's been over a month!

What he said ^^^ I check this at least once a week.

Awesome work man! I hope to have a nice S30 one day.

Hey everybody. I'm still alive. I had a few other things going the past few weeks, but I got some "fun time" with Betzy today.
I am working on getting the wire harness and everything "inside" now. My initial intentions were to get everything working correctly, before I secured and tried to tuck the harness out of view. A few of the connections had to be lengthened/shortened to make the harness fit right. Everything is almost back together.



We should see things pick up a little bit.
Gord

Nice, I'm ready for some updates!

S13AL wrote:Nice, I'm ready for some updates!

Time for another update.




I have been putting the harness back in Betzy the last couple of weekends. I ran across a few problems that must have been driving somebody crazy before. I always wondered why there where those blue wires that had been run across the top of the engine to the coil. It appears that the Amp meter had shorted "open" at some point. The battery bus is hooked to the alternator bus via a coil of wire inside the amp meter. That is why those big #10 wires go to it. Without the circuit going through the meter. There was no power charging the battery and no power to the ignition. I am also finding a bunch of old burned and high resistant connectors as well.



I also cleaned out the old ignition and alternator wiring out of the front harness. The outside wrapping looked pretty bad, but the actual wiring is in great shape. I ran a few extra wires for the electric fan. I need to add a fan relay up front as well.



I'm getting closer, but still a couple days left on the electrical stuff.

Gord

Wow, that connector got cooked.

you are better off starting from scratch on the wiring, on top of being 40 years old it's all wired backwards by todays standards and it gives you a chance to wire the car for a modern internal regulated alternator with heavier chage cables etc

Didn't read the entire thread but there are aftermarket dash caps that are extremely well done if you are still looking for a fix for your dash. Also as you've discovered the Ammeter has the full battery load going through it to the fuse block. If you are modding it and not worried about it being stock I'd get rid of that ammeter and go directly to a new fuse block. Actually personally I'd rewire the whole thing.....

Great build - lots of guys are crazy about the RB swaps into the Z cars! Keep the posts coming.

evildky wrote:you are better off starting from scratch on the wiring, on top of being 40 years old it's all wired backwards by todays standards and it gives you a chance to wire the car for a modern internal regulated alternator with heavier chage cables etc

agreed!

FricFrac wrote:...as you've discovered the Ammeter has the full battery load going through it to the fuse block. If you are modding it and not worried about it being stock I'd get rid of that ammeter and go directly to a new fuse block. Actually personally I'd rewire the whole thing.....

agreed!

It's about time for an update.

I'm still working on the harness. I finally got my brain wrapped around the wiring and figured out what went wrong years ago , what they did to correct it , and how to to get it back to the way it was supposed to be , and then modify it to suit the newer electronics .

The computer is mounted on the firewall. There is a little space behind it for insulation, I will get that done later.



I wired the hot battery wire to keyed switch. Battery bus for horn and wipers. Accessories are killed during start. Relays are used to isolate and shut off everything. The ignition powered wire going to voltage regulator (black/white) now has a diode and hooks up to alternator. Starter wire (black/yellow) is hooked up. Fuel pump, ignition, all done.



One more relay to share the load of the lighting and stuff on the main charging buss, that should be easy. I also have to add the relay for the electric radiator fan, that will have to be armed on with ignition as well as have temp sensor.



Enjoying this part. Having a ball.

Gord

It's going to be nice once you get the wiring out of the way. Keep up the good progress.

Update

I got the second power relay installed this morning. That should share the load a little better. I also started hooking up a bunch of the switches and lighting stuff. I got my wiper moter working with a little help of a hammer I also found this little button switch installed below the dash in the lighting circuit. Not really sure what it's for.



I suppose it's something to do with the the main power issue, and that it was bypassed. This is a real Sherlock Holmes mystery. I think I'm getting things straightened out. I'll get everything hooked up without the dash installed. That way I can be sure. I also found the dash lighting had been bypassed. The rheostat had been replaced with a jumper wire.



Found a source for my gauge lighting and power. They are all hooked up.



Time to fire it up and check everything again. Everything is perfect. I am programming the warning lights and shift lights on the Speedhut gauges. They are pretty cool. I can set the low limit warning light for the oil pressure and the high limit for water temp. More on those later...



That's it for today...time for a beer.

Gord

is the rheostat the dimmer for the dash lights???

I've found those white Scotchlok connections to be less than reliable for joining two wires together. I had to cut them out and butt-splice/crimp some connections to my door actuators because they weren't getting enough juice across the small metal connector in the Scotchlok. I changed nothing but the connection method and the actuator worked perfectly. Just my expereiences I'd figured I'd share.

S13AL wrote:It's going to be nice once you get the wiring out of the way. Keep up the good progress.

I am actually enjoying this part, but you are correct, It will be nice

BigTDogg (MA) wrote:I've found those white Scotchlok connections to be less than reliable for joining two wires together. I had to cut them out and butt-splice/crimp some connections to my door actuators because they weren't getting enough juice across the small metal connector in the Scotchlok. I changed nothing but the connection method and the actuator worked perfectly. Just my expereiences I'd figured I'd share.

I hate those things! I agree with you about butt-splice/crimp.

USsil80 wrote:is the rheostat the dimmer for the dash lights???

Correct. I ordered one and should be able to dim the gauges. I'm going to need to make a few modifications to the wiring...stay tuned...

I ran the fuel pump wire and the fuel quantity wires along side of the original harness today. The fuel pump wire is 14 gauge and should be enough to keep a good stable voltage. The fuel quantity wires came with the speedhut gauge and were a pretty good looking harness, but came up a little short at the end. I had to extend it.



Next was to install the electric fan relay. I got a Derale performance fan controller Part # 16759. It has the little pencil type probe. If I had known they offer a pipe threaded type probe, I would have welded in an extra bung in the radiator. Too late now. I can always get the other probe later, it just plugs into the same harness. I had a Derale in Cam's S14 and it had a melt down and shorted out. They seem to have made some improvements and now the relay is a plug in type . Also wiring is a little different.

I mounted it up front because I wanted to keep the wires as short as possible. This seemed the logical place.



Wiring was a piece of cake. They also had a manual override circuit. This would bypass temp sensor or could be used if air-conditioning is turned on, but I figured I would be OK without.



The controller had a little adjustment screw for when the fan would kick on and off. CW for higher, CCW for lower.



I turned the power on and placed temp sensor in a cup of hot water with a thermometer. I added hot water and adjusted the screw to get the controller to switch on and off at the right temp.




I ended up at about 175 it kicks on and shuts off at about 165. Good place to start.

The probe inserted tightly between the cooling fins on the radiator.



That's about it for up here. I am taking Betzy on her first road trip this week (on a trailer). She is going to get an exhaust system and a roll bar installed. I need to get her ready...





Gord

I got a few loose ends tied up today, I also opened up a few more issues with the wiring .

I replaced the driveshaft bolts with new ones I had ordered a while back. I just needed an excuse to get under the car. I added a few zip ties and some wire shielding. Basically went over everything on the bottom. I also added the passenger seat and the rear windows. Going to need these installed to establish the roll bar clearance. I also tightened up the rocker covers.



I also raised Betzy up a few more inches. This should help with loading on the trailer.



I started to play with the wiper and washer fluid pump. I had noticed a while back these three blue wires had been taped together. Blue, blue/white, blue/yellow. The Blue has voltage when the washer button is pushed.



This black/yellow wire goes out to the washer pump and was never hooked up????



The wipers are running but not the way they should. I think I might have the wrong stalk switch. I remember a while back looking up the prices for the switches and the early 70 series 1 were a bit different. I will have to investigate a little more.



Anyway... I had a great weekend, Joey was assisting me, he never gets tired of chasing the flashlight beam around the garage. Crazy dog.



That's it for now...time for beer.

Also...Happy b-day dad.

Gord

Wow, looking really good! Can't wait to see the next update with the cage and and new exhaust! Good luck!

I'm hoping to see it on the track at Carlisle this May. Is that the plan Gord? Will it be ready?