I dislike wiring, but I'm doing this as hard as I can. Bussman weatherproof fuse/relay box needs to get wired up. Rather than have a rats nest of wires headed everywhere I'm making a subassembly to keep things neat.
My bin of wire reels is coming in handy. No duplicate colors!
Wires get wrapped, then another set gets counter wrapped to prevent the whole thing from wanting to "unwind". Flat waxed string ties things together without adding bulk.
Deautsch flange plug all assembled and a sheath of clear heat shrink adds some protection. I'll work on the other end of things tonight. I wired more circuits than I'll need so it's easy to add on things later with a bit of wire and then just add a fuse for the circuit.
The relay side of the box will get its own subassembly.
For hating wiring that is some nice work.
In reply to java230 :
Thanks. The only thing worse than doing wiring is having to do it a second time, so I'm doing this as well as I know how.
My flappy paddles are ready. If these work well I'll get them printed in something more durable than PLA.
And a little more wiring gets us here:
No it isn't running. The gauges are only powered up. It's getting closer though!
The rest of the wiring for the air shifter, as well as the Co2 tank, have arrived. Very nicely made and should install simply enough. Unfortunately there's a fault in my main harness that I can't find. Fortunately (total rollercoaster I know) I have 2 spare complete harnesses. So I have to pull the harness and swap in another one. The good news is my spares are in much better shape overall and the connectors aren't nearly as beat up.
SWMBO asked me to move some stuff from the table to the basement. So I started working on the car while I was down here rather than help cook. I got a talking to, but I got the old harness out and the new one laid out before I had to go back to life.
I can't get this site to accept facebook videos so picture this - you hear a beep and see the gauges on a Busa cluster do their full startup sweep and return to rest and a check engine light. This means my replacement harness is functional.
Now I need to disable ALL THE STUPID MOTORCYCLE stuff on the harness so it will REALLY work. Things like kick stand switchs, tip over switches etc. There's a bunch of em.
The joys of canbus wiring systems, guy i bought my super blackbird motor from tells me if you unplug any of the sub-looms they won't start, hope you don't strike the same issue.
Got my wiring bits in and installed. I haven't routed the harness yet because I figured better to test when things are easy to access than to wait.
The wiring all works! Which is great. And led to me needing to finish plumbing the fuel system, which I had been putting off for no good reason.
God bless aeroquip socketless hose and AN fittings.
Here's what "Testing" looks like
I turned the engine over without plugs to get things oiled. Found a couple seeping fittings that needed snugging up. Then I pressurized the fuel system and, again, needed to snug up a couple fittings. TIME TO FIRE IT UP!
Nope. The "cleaned and matched" set of injectors I bought we're 75% non function. One of them would fire weakly. And I purchased them so long ago that there's no point in complaining about it. I used my power probe to do some testing and found 4 injectors that at least would activate among the collection. Well. I did that AFTER I checked spark plugs, injector wiring signals and a myriad of other things. All in all I worked on this thing for 9 hours today. I did get it to fire though. I didn't run it for more than 10 seconds because it was late and the doors were closed so I was making smells. I think it might just need to run a little and clear its throat from all the "testing" I did. I'll find out more tomorrow when I get home from the office.
I'm reminded that I also need to put water in the system and wire up the water pump and check for leaks...
Brakes: Done
Clutch: Functional
Coolant system: Full and retaining liquids
Tires: Old
Ability to get it into neutral: Nope. Need to move it around some I think.
DaveEstey said:
...Ability to get it into neutral: Nope. Need to move it around some I think...
This may be something with your fancy air shifter but from my days as a motorcycle mechanic I suggest making sure the clutch is fully disengaging and that you're running motorcycle oil designed for a wet clutch. If you're trying to get it in neutral with the engine off then you'll likely have to do some kind of dance where you play with the shifter while rolling the car back and forth.
In reply to DaveEstey :
Oh, that sounds glorious! And the cackling laugh at the end is perfect!
CAinCA
Reader
6/3/21 11:36 a.m.
I've been following along for the last 15 months as you've gone through this build. I'm happy to see you made it to fire up day. That cackle was well deserved. I can't wait to see some video of it on course.
This thing is gonna freaking HONK.
Any luck finding your neutral?
AWESOME! Glad I'm not the only one who sets off fire alarms all the time....
In reply to golfduke :
no neutral yet. Gotta adjust the clutch.
The "Tiny projects that take a long time" theme continues. Saturday I had time to make a throttle cable. It took an hour and a half for me to get it how I wanted it. This is how everything goes right now.
I'm putting the car wiring together for the final time, which means routing things in an entirely new way since this harness isn't modified at all to reach things. It's tricky, but I'm employing deautsch plugs all over the place and I really can't recommend them enough. Also, get non-insulated butt crimps, they aren't nearly as bulky once you heat shrink them and fit nicer in a harness package.
And now we're back to having the dash in the car, but now everything is wired up and done done, which is a milestone.
I'm also re-working the "side pod" wiring to make things neater. I need to make a bulkhead plug hole for the simple fused circuits, and then get another for the relay circuits (there's only 2 luckily).
Wiring was done up enough for me to start the car from inside the cockpit for the first time. I think I knocked an injector clip loose because she's cranky and threw a code.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x38zF5ZmIDI
More wiring. I only needed one switched relay circuit for the electric water pump, but decided to start wiring things up for 5 relay circuits.
Until I need it all I settled for making a more simple circuit. MVP (minimum viable product) for now. I don't have anything else that needs relay switching since the motorcycle harness handles most things.
Tight like a tiger. Now I need to rewire the switches to be ground instead of 12v positive.
Big day. Brought her outside and ran it for a good long time at temp. Found neutral!
Having the lawn mower as a tow vehicle is pretty excellent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qUgw8USfuo
She got angry at cylinder #3 and the injector ohm'd out at 9. Spec is 11 to 17. Swapped in another one and she's right as rain. The shifter needs adjusting since I can't get first, but regular milestones is helping my ambition.
Oh yeah, the charging system has no issues keeping up with the electric water pump at idle, which I was mildly concerned about.
Long day. Shifter is adjusted to I can get all gears now. The air shifter isn't installed right now - I'm going to get to know the car before I add it. Applied the zinc oxide primer to the shifter mount plate also.
Exhaust is wrapped. Oil switches, brake lights and rad fan are all wired up also.
Looks great Dave. When's the anticipated first drive now?
In reply to golfduke :
I'm registered for a "Drive until you don't/can't drive anymore" track day at Canaan Motor Club on the 26th. Should be ample time to shake the car down and figure some things out.
