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PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 11:07 am 
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Location: Wyndham Green, Vic!
Good point and well made.



The document will come to good use if anything ever goes wrong with mine! (knocks on wood)
I forgot everything to do with wiring my car as soon as the engine started. It was a coping mechanism! :lol:

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Toyota 4EFTE Powered Minivan.
102 Kw @ The Front Wheels....Oh What a Feeling!


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:46 pm 
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I've added a further page (Pg 19) to the document today and uploaded to the same location.

I remember it was hard to get my head around how the A/C and Radiator fan relays worked on conjunction with each other so the extra page details the current flow through the relay coils and contacts in various A/C and coolant temperature configurations.

btw, The orignal document is in A3 if anyone wants a larger size.

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I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one :D
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 11:46 pm 
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Location: NOR, Perth, W.A.
Warning : Lots of pics in this post

I've managed to get a few bits & pieces done in the last month - steering column mods & seat mounts

I wanted to retrofit as much of the Starlet gear as I can in the Mini to make the wiring easier - this includes the combination switch assembly for the wipers, lights, indicators etc as well as the ignition barrel which therefore need to be mounted onto the Mini steering column. The Mini steering column is smaller in diameter than the Starlet so like everything else, a custom bracket was used.

On the EP82, the bracket which mounts the main switch assembly in the Starlet is actually welded to the steering column so this had to be cut off.

Image

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Even though the Mini does have a steering lock mechanism, the Starlet ignition barrel will be mounted higher up the column than the Mini one so the Starlet locking pin won't be used and was ground off.
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To allow the ignition barrel to bolt around the smaller Mini steering column, I simply welded in some half tube on one bracket (on the right bracket in pic below) and then made another piece to sandwich between them (middle piece in pic below).
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For the plastic cover to fit around the switch assembly and ignition barrel, the switch assembly and ignition barrel had to be a specific distance and angles to each other so a section of tube was welded between the two factory pieces.
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Before the gear shifter position is determined, I needed to find out where the seats would go. I had previously purchased a pair of near new 2nd Gen (~2007) Suzuki Swift seats which provided a reasonable amount of lumbar support and are quite comfy.

Standards (boring but important stuff) :
The Dept of Transport in WA specifies that the seats have to adhere to the national Vehicle Standards Bulletin (VSB 5B) which says 25mm x 25mm x 2mm RHS is to be used for making a supporting frame for a seat from another vehicle but I decided to use a beefier 32mm x 4mm flat bar with appropriate gusseting for the mounts.

The standards also specifically state that where the mounts are affixed to an un-reinforced section of the floor pan, each attachment point must be reinforced by the use of a plate of not less than 50mm x 50mm x 3mm thick. Sliding seat mounts must also have a minimum of two bolts per side, of 8mm diameter.

The bolt types to be used are not specified in the VSB 5B but the CAMS motorsport Schedule C.8 states that a minimum of high tensile grade "8.8" bolts are to be used.

End of Standards guff.

My design was overengineered but I am comfortable with this since I don't stuff about with essential saftey items. The seats were positioned inward (away from the door) to achieve two things 1) Better lining the driver up with the slightly offset steering wheel 2) Stop the seats from hitting the rear map pockets when it's moved back on the sliding mechanism.
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The height of the seats was positioned to allow the sliding mechanism to move over the top of the cross member if for some reason a short person (not me) drove the car and had to move the seat forward.
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The sliding mechanism of the seats was removed and I made up some frames to hold them in place, and square.
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The frame for the drivers seat. One side was angled to clear the exhaust tunnel. The seat is bolted to this frame by 4x M10 grade 8.8 high tensile bolts. The nuts are welded to the underside of the top part of the frame. The countersunk holes are for the locating pins that the Swift seats have.
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The front of the frame was bolted to the cross member by 5x M8 bolts and I installed some rivnets into the cross member.
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The seats in their final position
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Unfortunately while making these frames I forgot that VSB 5B requires that the centre line of the bolts need to be aligned with the top or bottom of any corrugation and be complemented with a shaped backing plate underneath. I ended up with this :(
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... so I decided to modify the floorpan to remove the sections of corrugations that were in the way.
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Note the evidence of part of the messy welding job (not me) next to the new plate that was done to the shell when I got the rust removal work done. If only I had the Lincoln MIG before getting this work done :roll:
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Once those pieces were welded in and holes drilled through them for the bolts, the seat mount frames were bolted in place with a 120mm x 50mm x 3mm reinforcing plate with 8mm nuts also welded in place - for adherence to the necessary standards.
Image

_________________
-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one :D
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:30 am 
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Progress is good.

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:31 am 
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Progress is good.

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 Post subject: Gear Shifter
PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 11:08 am 
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The gear shifter and cables have now been installed. While I had the seats bolted in the shell, I found a comfortable position for the gear lever and marked it's position. Luckily it was forward far enough while still being comfortable AND clearing the standard handbrake position so I won't have move the handbrake mount and lever.

Image

When I dismantled the Starlet front cut, I cut off the pressed steel gear lever mount and have used it in the Mini. I simply cut off the front and rear part of the factory mount and welded them in place in the Mini. I now need to figure how I'm going get the cables through the firewall and seal it properly

Image

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I was motivated to complete a few other items. The first part of the exhaust with a few simple bends to avoid the rear engine mount, and a 6" flex joint to prevent any fatiguing of the exhaust as the engine moves about.

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... And then a mount for the (VH44) brake booster
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Note that bracket was designed so that the "nose" of the booster is angled upward slightly so that when the brakes are bled (from the nipple that's under my thumb in the above pic), the air is easily bled out of the cylinder. The pic below of the bracket shows the front & rear plates of the bracket are not parallel which angles the booster.
Image

And now the bad news...I have a week or so off work over Christmas/New Year and had all these grand plans to design and mockup the radiator, intercooler (with piping) and remote oil filter setup, but I have been slowly wearing my back down over the last few months in & out of the shell and leaning over the engine and have ultimately ended up with a tilited pelvis, swollen disc (relapse from an injury 8 years ago) and back muscle spasms. So I'm off for a few weeks on Diazapam, anti-inflammatories and pain killers and forced rest. All that work I could have got done will be no longer, but all I've got say is I currently I don't agree with Mr Mackey on South Park... Drugs are NOT bad mmmkay! Diazapam is one hell of a drug.

_________________
-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one :D
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.


Last edited by Mearcat on Wed Jan 27, 2021 7:08 am, edited 5 times in total.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 11:33 am 
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About sealing the cables through the firewall, you could use rubber blanking grommet instead of normal grommets and then drill a small hole through the blanking grommet.
The centre of the blanking grommet is thinner which will flex to match the cables.

Image

You need to smear a bit of rubber grease onto the cable to get them to fit though the small hole and to slide along to the right spot.

Sorry about your back. I get the twinges quite a lot these days and can't do as much as I want to.
I try to bring he work up to my level but it is awful hard to do with a complex job like yours. Hope you are better soon.


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 1:07 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:31 am
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Location: Burpengary, Queensland - Home of Tricky Performance Engineering
Alan,

I am very sorry to hear about your back and I sincerely wish you a very speedy recovery. Back isues are never fun - but I guess Diazapam will tak that edge off!

Your display looks great and a real credit to you! How come its reading two different A/F's??

With regards to the firewall penetration for the shifter cables - did you not keep the factory disamond shaped item that seals the firewall?? Its the best thing to use I reckon and if you havent got one well worth a trip to the wreckers to get one.

All the best mate, hang in there!!

Cheers,
Tricky

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 3:05 pm 
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Tricky - I do have the Starlet firewall cable grommet & metal pieces ... somewhere. I just need to find it :)

As for the display, the figures are only hard coded test numbers at the moment - hence the two different A/F's between the two photos. No thermocouples etc are connected yet.

If there is enough memory left on the microprocessor, I'll also be implementing a peak value display and possibly data logging. Over the last 4-5 years, I've made kits for (and sold multiple of) a sequential shift light, intercooler spray/pump controller, overboost alarm, and 4 channel temperature display, but this one is the best yet and discards the need for lots of gauges in the car. Being able to monitor all the vitals of the car without the cabin looking like a pilots' cockpit is nice and doesn't scream "break into me and steal all my sh!t" :D

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-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one :D
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 7:52 pm 
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I like it Al - reminds me of the Digidash I have for The Cat - very simple display!!

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:57 pm 
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So the dash cluster will show you what ever you need, custom to what you want it too? So if you have the right sensors and what not you could read just about what ever you want?
Coolant temp, oil temp, ambient outside air temp even?
If so that's somethig I've often wanted, cos the digi dash you can get are a little limited to what they can read. I'd like to have different pages with what ever readings I wanted on them... Make sense?

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http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20746


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:45 am 
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This display (small @ 75mm x 25mm) will simply be supplemental to the main instrument cluster as I will be retrofitting the factory Starlet cluster (tacho, speedo) in the Mini. The sensors used for this are all standard K-Type thermocouples and what temperatures you can read - oil, ambient air, intake air, coolant, turbo housing, EGT, transmission etc- are only dependant on where you can fit a thermocouple. This design is based on a simpler kit that shows just four temps that I used to sell (but it was removed from the product lineup late this year) and is improved further to include Air-Fuel Ratio and a boost pressure sensor to alarm on a lean-out conditions of a high A/F under boost.

It looks like a simple display but there is thousands of lines of program code for this display and although I have had customers in the past ask for customisations to what the (original retail) kit can do, the hours involved in changing the program and in some cases redesigning parts of the circuit board is generally not cost effective.

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-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one :D
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.


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 Post subject: Radiator & Intercooler
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:52 pm 
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Location: NOR, Perth, W.A.
For the radiator, I contemplated using the (half-size) Honda Civic radiator route but decided on a custom one - with a core size of 300H x 300W x 50; and a 10" Davies Craig slimline fan.

To ensure there was not fouling anywhere, I made a MDF/chipboard mockup of the radiator and fan assembly which slotted in perfectly.
Image

And it was pure luck that the factory radiator hoses can be used (coupled with the fact that I can put the radiator inlet & outlet pipes wherever I want). All I had to do was turn the factory hoses around 180 degrees (So the end of the hose that is normally attached to the engine end is instead attached to the radiator) and trim them for them to fit. The inlet and outlet pipes on the radiator will have to be angled slightly to achieve a snug fit with the trimmed hoses.
Image

From there it was a quick job to confirm the angles of the pipes and positions of the drain valve, thermocouple, mounts and filler. At the base of the radiator will be two rods which will insert into rubber grommets underneath, and a tab on the upper tank which will bolt through a rubber mount next to the headlight. I just need to get a quote and get this fabricated.
Image

Now onto the interooler set-up. My plan is to use the space to the left of the slam panel brace for the intercooler. Before anybody pipes up about using that location and being so slose to the exhaust manifold etc .... the exhaust manifold and dump pipe will be ceramic coated, there should only a limited amount of heat transmission to the back of the intercooler.

However - This space gives me a max intercooler size of ~370W x 190W x 50mm thick but after heaps of searching I can't find the dimensions of the factory Starlet intercooler (I have long since sold the one I had) to see how my size compares.

Can someone please advise of the core size of the factory (top mount) intercooler?

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-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one :D
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:51 pm 
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From memory the top mount is roughly 300 x 300 square, still a top mount though and any cooling is better than none...

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Life's a garden.... Dig It!
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20746


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PostPosted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:47 am 
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Location: Burpengary, Queensland - Home of Tricky Performance Engineering
I will have a gander for you tonight Al...

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