Pete. (l33t FS) said:What do you use for wiring CAD? I wanted to make diagrams for "Colin" but came up short for anything that wasn't expensive, or had a learning curve steeper than just using pen and paper.
That was a small joke....I'm using the Google sheets connector pinout and adding wire color and car item name.
There is a free program someone link to me a few weeks ago....I'll find the name, for doing simple wiring sketches, but I've not played with it yet. Let me look
mke said:Pete. (l33t FS) said:What do you use for wiring CAD? I wanted to make diagrams for "Colin" but came up short for anything that wasn't expensive, or had a learning curve steeper than just using pen and paper.
There is a free program someone link to me a few weeks ago....I'll find the name, for doing simple wiring sketches, but I've not played with it yet. Let me look
here it is:
Trying to get the front end back together. Steering billows came as a set.....or 1 that fits and 1 that doesn't. I cobbled the second on some I'm not stalled while I hunt for the right one.
I'm adding camber....so the the toe will be wrong, I guessed 2 revolutions on the tierod ends....but as soon as its driveable it need to find an alignment rack.
Then a-arms on....what the what is going on with the upper? The spacers are all wrong?
Doh!
tomorrow I'll paint the hubs then make new spacers while they dry and hopefully wrap it up. The new power steering unbit will be here tomorrow too so I know what I'm doing this weekend.
The ecu parts are all in the US, the hardware guy is doing 1st round testing, then the firmware guy will do his testing, then to my to do my thing. We have been slowly working through a few oddities and I thing the acceleration enrich is now much better, at least on the bench....well....table...with a not actual ECU so more testing needed.
I am pretty seriously considering replacing my sticking already ruined 1 starter ignition switch with a push to start setup. That has to be good for 5hp especially if I do a blue led back lit version and it kind of falls into the "if you've got it, flaunt it!" category as well I think.
This was just not my day. I stared out cleaning up the front hubs for paint.....fiat. Its one thing to "know" its another to KNOW.
Then the spacers took forever to sort out. Don't know why but it did but I got the upper a-arms installed and nice and figured I'd pop the spindles in the see...I wanted more camber but wtf!
There is a slight chance that I built them upside down.
Tomorrow is a new day. It shouldn't take more than a few hours to fix this blunder so I still could have it back together tomorrow. Everything's nice, cuz I do it all twice.......
Also a buddy and one of his buddy's are popping over to have me take a look at a head of and bwm M44 for an autox car. I guess its making about 120rwhp now but they asked me to see what dynomation had to say.....322crankhp on E85, 300 on pump gas using off the shelf cams and advertised flow numbers. So now the question is what might it take to get those flow numbers other than a 3-4K check to the internet guys? I think I saw a broken tube on the flow bench...one more thing.
I thought you were intending to extend the upper ball joint. Check the geometry on your geometry mcjigger, it may still work out.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
There's no living with it. It will take maybe 30 minutes to cut it apart and also couple hours to redo it. ..so double that I guess and it will be right.. sometimes I'm a dumbass
It is comforting to see that it's not just me that does that sort of thing.
It must be some kind of Fiat curse. I was just reading Trents Fiat thread and he did the exact same thing building his front end.
So I'm pretty sure I understand why take 2 on the upper a-arm spacer had some drama and rework.....there's 2 sizes. Doh!...I never learn.
then onto fixing spindles....cut around the weld
smack it with a big hammer
clean it up....and just like it never happened
Then spacer in the lather to recut the weld prep and on the spindles.
And back to where I thought I had started from
Front end together tomorrow....if nothing else goes wrong.
There was a 90 minute delay when my grinder died 1/2 way through cutting the second one apart. Who had what? how much? I had a boss a while back who worked at dewalt, he told me "buy cheap grinders, we could have make them last any longer than the cheap one" so I settled on a $40 HF option. So far I kind of like it...they claim its rated as the same power as my old one but its noticeably light so I kind of wonder....but it works and its noticeably lighter. The wrench is black and get lost instantly on the bench, when I grab another can of yellow paint that wrench need some.
As I put the spray can down the BWM racers showed up to talk ports and engine theory in general...so now there is a bmw head on the floor waiting on the some love.
That looks a whole lot more right.
I think I've gone as far as I can with the front end for today and as much as I know it won't look like this for long, and it took a couple tries, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks right now....properly racecar like imo.
Installing the sway bar I noticed it has a little preload, I'll recheck that when its sitting level and adjust the end links if needed. 3/8 black pipe is just about perfect for the spacers, that was a good find at lowes this morning.
The hubs can't go on because I have the wrong seal.....these are apparently GT4 seals so they will get the right ones out monday.
In the lower balljoint barrel bolts I decided to go with blue loctite on the OD so in theory the bolt, which is a tight fit will not turn out but if I need to disassemble there is less chance of the bolt just spinning the ball joint...at least in my mind.
I guess I'll play with the power steering now. I have a plan that involves cutting up the broken stuff to steal the connectors so I can make extensions and not have the controller where my feet feet kind of want to be or falling and pulling on wires that shouldn't be pulled on I'm guessing.
I picked up a bit and decided I just didn't have the steering in me today. I started, found the ballpeen hammers that have been lost and making me insane the past couple days. Now if only I could find the oil tank cap.
Then after looking a bit I decide I can probably get both the steering controller and speaker cross-over boxes up inside the dash behind the instrument panel....and I did get the screwdriver before just giving up for the day.
Forgot, steering rack boots. My 308QV/328 parts book shows the shorter boot and say qty2l, as in they should be exactly what the guy sent me so I have no idea what's in my car......"I guess when you ordered the V12 option it came with the lowered ride height and a different rack to match?"
I was explaining my "I don't' know, I guess that's part of the V12 package" joke to my some and younger son and he came back with "it looks like an assembly error, the guy on the line must have just grabbed the wrong engine." also pretty funny.
Today night I pulled the dash out and after a little playing found a configuration that put the steering controller and speaker cross-overs in the and let the instrument panel also fit back onto place
then on to looking at the steering unit. my plan was swap all the new guts into my modified housings.....but I took a short cut and welded the quicker to the PS unit so there is no way to disassemble that. ok, that is just a sensors, I can still swap the motor and that is probably the issue.....wait a minute.....my sensor unit is 8 wire and the new one 4 wire
the other unit I bought and broke by swapping the controller on to may old unit is also 4 wire. Why I do not know, but there is about a 0% change the new controller will work with that old sensor section even if that is not the actual broken part. So....I need to redesign the joint to make it not welded...or maybe just cut it apart and weld the new bits to it. tomorrow problem
I got looking at the steering unit and kind of remembered why I made the choices I did....and its not that hard to do so I cut out the old bits and prepped everything the reweld.
The one harness is hard to reach once I weld so I got started making a new longer one, but needed more heatshrink and kind of lost interest by the time I got back from the store.....tomorrow. My plan is make this cable, put it together and test it, then make the other cables and finish up.
mke said:So I'm pretty sure I understand why take 2 on the upper a-arm spacer had some drama and rework.....there's 2 sizes. Doh!...I never learn.
then onto fixing spindles....cut around the weld
smack it with a big hammer
clean it up....and just like it never happened
Then spacer in the lather to recut the weld prep and on the spindles.
And back to where I thought I had started from
Front end together tomorrow....if nothing else goes wrong.
There was a 90 minute delay when my grinder died 1/2 way through cutting the second one apart. Who had what? how much? I had a boss a while back who worked at dewalt, he told me "buy cheap grinders, we could have make them last any longer than the cheap one" so I settled on a $40 HF option. So far I kind of like it...they claim its rated as the same power as my old one but its noticeably light so I kind of wonder....but it works and its noticeably lighter. The wrench is black and get lost instantly on the bench, when I grab another can of yellow paint that wrench need some.
As I put the spray can down the BWM racers showed up to talk ports and engine theory in general...so now there is a bmw head on the floor waiting on the some love.
Zip tie the wrench to the cord near the plug. That way you need to unplug it when changing wheels and you never lose the wrench.
wvumtnbkr said:mke said:The wrench is black and gets lost instantly on the bench, when I grab another can of yellow paint that wrench need some.
Zip tie the wrench to the cord near the plug. That way you need to unplug it when changing wheels and you never lose the wrench.
Nah....let me tell you about the large hole I installed in my upper arm some years back cradling a paddle switch grinder in 1 arm while using my hands to plug it to the extension cord leaving me believing (probably falsely) that plugging tools in/out is one of the more dangerous operations and best avoided. Danger in the shop comes in so many forms its hard to know sometimes what a good choice is 
This morning I got confirmation the should be correct front hub seals shipped so a few more days and I can wrap that up.
I was unfocused tonight....I lot of ECU talk. The programmer is busy making CAN button pads work for a bunch of things, a bunch of talk about exciting stuff like boxes and box labels with QR codes linked to the instructions.......
But I did finish the replacing the 4" harness sensors with a 28" harness and get the steering all welded and bench tested successfully. So now I need to extend the motor power wires and harness and trim the motor housing a bit....and reassemble. It will be so nice having the PS back when it drives.
forgot to share this....in bench testing so its close! Right now I'm thinking the shock repair is going to be the hold up
That's pretty cool, I've always wondered what's on those impossibly thin/compact ECU's! Injector and coil driver circuits have become very compact and efficient over the years.
In reply to Parker with too many Projects :
Just to be clear, that is not my work, its joe the hw guy's. My job the best I can tell to to be old(er) and cranky and say stuff like "wtf is this? On what planet would that be ok?" Voice of the customer :)
Also the basic product development stuff that in basic to me after doing it for 25+ years but not obvious to anyone trying to tackle a fairly complex product for the first time. My 2 partners are quite good as is the core rusefi code....but it needs to be a real product and I help with that.
I'm not exactly sure what recent trade policy changes will mean to the pricing....its probably going to need to launch at $599 (with connectors and pins) instead of $499 based on the amount of imported stuff. But stuff like a 3 meter long flying lead harness that we've sourced from china will be $299 instead of $199 so we are looking at maybe offering a "basic wiring kit" that gives you like 60 wires with the connector pins on (so you don't need crimpers) to plug in as you need rather than all 154 that most people will not need. Its all very much in flux at the moment but definitely looking at ways to control costs.
Pretty boring night....popping connectors apart, cutting wires, and soldering in longer ones. It seemed like it would last forever but its done. The wires are long enough to reach the controller in the dash and I did another bench test and all is still well so its ready to final assemble and install tomorrow.
In reply to mke :
If they are standard connectors, they should also be available by other means, too. Like used on ebay, or junkyarded. That the connectors can be depinned and repinned means that a whole engine harness may be usable as is just from repinning the connector.
Speaking of which. I recently found a company that makes analog input to CAN message devices to do things like natively control instrument clusters and things like power steering controllers when running a standalone in a modern car. It can turn a speed reference or temperature gauge into a manufacturer specific CAN signal. I bookmarked it for future reference.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:In reply to mke :
If they are standard connectors, they should also be available by other means, too. Like used on ebay, or junkyarded. That the connectors can be depinned and repinned means that a whole engine harness may be usable as is just from repinning the connector.
Its certainly possible to salvage connectors and often that is the only practical way to build a pnp setup/adapter. In volume production that would be a real challenge. We went with a knock-off oem case/connector set because they are very high volume so low cost....selling a bare board with no head on it to let people diy that stuff vs a complete unit in a case with the headers installed and the mating connects and pins in the box would save about $50 retail pricing? just doesn't seem worth the bother plus there is no way to warranty anything that goes out as diy people touching and soldering on.
harness though...get the engine with a harness, cut the connector off, put ours on, done. That is the idea anyway and why the pan is ecu+connector is the base package. That seems by far the cheapest, easiest way and that is what I expect about 30-50%to do. another 20-40% I expect will make a short adapter harness to plug into the existing harness so they are not hacking up their car. then something under 20% will do a full custom rewire...you now for old engines like mine that never has EFI. My guesses anyway and why we ordered a few flying lead harness in 1 & 3m.....we'll find out soon enough.
Speaking of which. I recently found a company that makes analog input to CAN message devices to do things like natively control instrument clusters and things like power steering controllers when running a standalone in a modern car. It can turn a speed reference or temperature gauge into a manufacturer specific CAN signal. I bookmarked it for future reference.
you can't share all the details and not share the link 
We do have a feature that lets you create custom CAN messages so if you know what needs to be sent to run a stock dash, the ecu can be setup to do it. Being honest, its not the easiest feature to use but it does work and I'm hoping to figure out a more user friendly way to do it. The same feature also lets you create custom functions, I saw someone on the rusefi site (remember we use their opensouce code base) doing cruise control with it. Another has an exhaust valve setup so something like hold hi-beam for 5 sec switches loud/quite. Powerful, but a lot of sets to setup, steep learning curve kind of thing at the moment.
Success! the PS is installed and working!
i did run into a small problem, I you look at the dash pic the 2 warning lights on the ends are out because that is where the screw go in to secure it, but the seatbelt warning sort of bottom center is also out because it no longer fits. I could do something clever like a little led in a printed backing to shorten it up and get it working ...... or I could just pull out the guts, glue the face to the dash to cover the hole and take the 1point hit for the dead bulb at my next concourse event....hmmmmm.....
Tomorrow I need to button up the last bits, put the pedal box back then I'm ready to start wiring for the new ECU. getting close.
Of course, I can't FIND it.
I found it by accident while looking up info for K20 swapping a Fit, and found a company that makes boxes that can duplicate CAN signals to control instrument clusters in Subarus. The key is that it could take a more generic CAN signal from a standalone OR analog inputs for things like fuel level, and turn it into the vehicle specific CAN signal.
Well, the electric power steering is generally on the same hi-speed bus as the cluster, and they read the same data, so this should be a neat little way to, say, use a late model WRX EPS rack with a Megasquirt. For instance.
Edit:
https://collinsperformancetechnologies.com/collections/adaptation-components/canbus
found this while looking for that:
https://www.agtengineering.com.au/canbus-automotive-solutions
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