Four-eye headlights have two filaments (a low and a high) in the outer bulbs, and one filament (high only) in the inners. The highs are tied together in the headlight buckets. B+ goes from headlight switch to center of rotary dimmer switch. Dimmer selects output to low (outers only), or high (all four).
The LED projectors each have a B+ and ground. Essentially, they are single-filament bulbs.
Using Corvair wiring as-is, the low beams turn off when the high beams turn on, because the dimmer switch simply selects one output or the other.
To remedy this, I de-pinned the low output from the dimmer, and spliced it directly to the dimmer's B+ input.
Now, when the headlight switch is engaged, low beams are on. The dimmer switch simply selects "highs on" or "highs off".
Low:
and High:
I'm calling this a win.
I also added a plasma cutter to my garage arsenal today. Made quick work of the drivers side headlight bucket. I should have had this machine 4 years ago.
Plasma cutters are one of the seven wonders of the universe.
Plasma magic happening again today, making lower firewall panels from the leftovers of the rear deck louver project:
and in place:
Man I should buy a plasma cutter.
maschinenbau said:
Man I should buy a plasma cutter.
Yes you should. The cuts I did today were faster than death wheel, and it is less stinky, less dusty / gritty, less noisy, and probably less dangerous.
This one has an onboard compressor, so no external air source required.
dammit dammit sonofabitch, i just lost a long post because my POS laptop dropped connection when i hit POST.
anyway, here's a shot of current whiteboard:
i need to add "trim radiator support" because the leading edge hit the driveway apron as i backed out.
logged some data this evening. only gave it about 60% of the beans, in a third gear pull up to about 4000 rpm. she pulls nice and makes musclecar noises. the exhaust is kinda loud, sounds pretty healthy. i wouldn't mind if it was quieter. need to shoot some video one of these days.
ending this post with a pic i shot at dusk today. headlight flare in center is due to 3-second exposure. i need to replace license plate light bulb. overall, i'd have to say this was a good weekend.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Did you move into the Red Light District?
Its to signal the babushka
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Babushka signals me!
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
loud exhaust isn't really a problem if you keep chicken footing it.
Mr_Asa
UltimaDork
11/20/23 11:55 a.m.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Long posts, I open Word and put everything in, then copy paste. Annoying but better than the alternative
In reply to RacetruckRon :
Moar CAD and plasma cutting goodness:
and installed:
a key interior feature:
and an updated board:
And with that, I'm calling it for the night.
11GTCS
SuperDork
11/22/23 7:35 a.m.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Please please please cut that shift pattern out on a hunk of scrap metal with your new plasma cutter!
Angry, does the plastic piece, with the shift pattern on the Porsche shifter pop out?
RacetruckRon said:
Angry, does the plastic piece, with the shift pattern on the Porsche shifter pop out?
yes it does. i thought about just putting the correct pattern in there, but that insert isn't really visible from driving position. i have a couple feasible ideas, not sure which one i'll choose yet. when i was a kid, my dad had a '66 caprice 396 / 4sp. Shift pattern was on console. i'd love to do something like that:
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Gotcha. If that isn't an available piece I'll offer my CAD and printing service again.
An alternative would be to engrave it. I was watching someone hand-engraving a decorative pattern on steel watching YouTube using a turntable to turn the piece and ended up almost getting hypnotized...those guys make it look easy. If you used a brushed aluminum insert there it would likely carve pretty easy. Every time I use wood tools to cut aluminum it never fails to amaze me how well it works.
RacetruckRon said:
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Gotcha. If that isn't an available piece I'll offer my CAD and printing service again.
I don't suppose you also offer a 3d scanning service?
Wicked93gs said:
RacetruckRon said:
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Gotcha. If that isn't an available piece I'll offer my CAD and printing service again.
I don't suppose you also offer a 3d scanning service?
I wish man. I had access to some pretty high dollar equipment at my last gig that made the Monzora badges real easy.
With freezing temps just around the corner, tonight I drained the tap water from the cooling system, and replaced it with 50/50 concentrate and distilled water. What came out was theee gallons of don't do that again:
I'd love to have a hoist. Instead, I do all my work at floor level:
I also pulled the dash cluster so I could re-pin the front parking light feed on the light switch. From the factory, front parking lights turn off when the headlights are lit. Weird. There's an unused terminal on the rear parking light circuit, so keeping the fronts on with the headlights is as simple as moving the purple wire from cavity 7 to cavity 4 on the headlight switch connector.
updated board:
Then i guess it didn't like the 30 degree air because it just cranked and cranked and cranked and wouldn't start, so I had to swap one set of winters in the driveway and didn't get to the second car, which is due for engine oil and ATF services too. Gonna be cold AF tomorrow and snow on Sunday. I don't have time for E36 M3 to not work. I plugged in the laptop and it showed "Low Res Pulse Fault" so maybe the little bit of coolant that I lost out the thermostat bleeder was enough to berkeley the Opti?
I don't think I have an Opti problem, I just think my engine doesn't know how to start when IAT is 30 *F. Tomorrow, I'm going to turn on my heater and let the garage get warm, and try it again. All eight spark plugs were fuel soaked when I pulled them after another failed attempt this evening.
New problem though, or reappearance of an old problem, is my starter appears to be berkeleying up. It is grinding as if it is spinning before engaging the flywheel. Hooray.
