Captain Obvious

Nice work. Have the orders started coming in yet?

Haha!! That was the emergency meeting. That's the one we had to call Cliff to let him know. Funny... Only had to call him once!!

One of my off season projects for this year was to replace my temporary light duty nylon web diff strap with a more substantial version made using a stronger webbing which I purchased from McMaster. I also figured out a simple way to adjust the webbing tension to account for stretch that may occur over time. Here's what I started with. The blue webbing is whatever the local hardware store had on shelf. Worked great for the six months it was on the car, but I had already planned on replacing it after proof of concept. The black webbing is McMaster P/N 3510T83 - Shock-Absorbing Nylon Webbing, 1-1/2" Web Width, 5100 lb Breaking Strength: To adjust the strap tension, I designed a new adjustable anchor bracket for the driver's side mount. I had originally planned to put these new brackets on both sides, but the diff doesn't sit in the middle of the tunnel, and it was an uncomfortably tight fit on the passenger side. With the help of our resident sheet metal magician @disepyon doing the bending for me, here's what I came up with: Here's the adjustable anchor assembled. The strap loop goes around the center shaft and the bolt slides in the slots to adjust: Here's my new strap in place. Original anchor on the left in the pic my new anchor on the right in the pic (driver's side): And here's my adjustable anchor bracket in use. Loosen the bolt, pull down until desired tension is achieved, and then tighten the lock bolt through the middle: Works great!! Thanks again disepyon for the help!!

Looks great so far. I'm assuming the stitch design will make more sense to me when it's done.

I'm so there!! I'm getting to Austin on Wednesday mid-day or so. Hoping to grab the rental car and head straight to the Oasis from the airport. I've got a local place to stay, so I won't have a room at the host hotel, but I'll be there for the CZCC meetings.

He turned me into a newt.

RIP Greg and Chris. I was out at a bar last night and the entire time they were playing Chris Cornell in all different configurations. I was very pleased with the music choice.

I agree completely. I'm positive he weighs the same as a duck.

"Or I could buy a stitching awl and do it all by hand." I unfortunately believe this would yield the best results.

Arrrrrgggh!!!

I would use a cheap generic relay with maybe a 20A rating, and put it in an accessible spot so that when the contacts burn up, you can just pull it out and replace it with a new one. I don't think I would go as far as to use a 40A continuous rated relay.

That's exactly what I answered. 30-40A for an instant, and then about 8A continuous after that until you release the key.

I have. First, let me point out that the starter solenoid actually has two coils inside it, which are wired in parallel (a "pull-in" and a "hold" coil). When you first apply power to the solenoid, both coils are activated and are used to PULL-IN the solenoid. Once the solenoid has pulled in, one of the coils is disabled and just the second coil alone is used to HOLD the solenoid in place. So the answer to your question, based on my measurements is... When you first apply power to the solenoid, the solenoid current will very quickly ramp up to between 30 and 40A for a short period of time until the solenoid has pulled in. Then once the solenoid has pulled in and disabled one of the internal coils, the current will drop to about 8A when just the "hold" coil is energized. And by the way... It's those high currents involved that eats ignition switches for lunch. Here's a guy who took apart a Bosch starter solenoid and talks about the two different coils: http://www.ifitjams.com/solenoid.htm

Haha!! I wouldn't eat those...

And if you get stuck, send me a PM and I might be able to swing by to lend a hand.

Haha! That's exactly how most of my projects go: "And then a completely unprofitable huge amount of time later, I have this...."

What's your skill level? Are you comfortable pulling the valve cover off yourself? And I'm not too far from you. Maybe half hour. Welcome aboard neighbor!

Incredible. You are working on the wrong kind of car. I know this isn't the "day job", but you should consider changing focus to doing metal restoration work on Ferraris or Maseratis. Something with a higher price tag than old Datsuns. There are people out there willing to pay for that level of work.

That's probably the case. I modified a couple different rear view mirrors from other cars to fit my Z, and it takes a bit to get used to it. I wish they were all closer to the roof.

Thanks for the tips on the Loctite. I'll keep that stuff in mind next time this job comes up. I was installing bearing races onto antique motorcycle magnetos and that sort of work doesn't come along every day! Keep up the good work!

"They seem wider at the top too which is like the one in the first post." It's a spherical mount. Turn it 180 degrees and it'll be wider at the bottom?

Howdy Cousin!! Year or three ago I was at a beer festival and they were raffling off some prizes. You filled out the form and put it in the box and they pulled names out later in the evening and announced the winners. I filled out my form as Haywood Jablowme. They called the winners up on stage. I won a shirt. It was epic. All my friends and all the eighth graders in my area still talk about it. It's my second favorite shirt behind the one from Back Forty.

Well, there's no reason to feel bad. Mine's a half finished yet to be tested project that hasn't yet seen the road. Still plenty of time for the whole thing to go horribly wrong!

Haha! "insulted connectors". Spell check to the rescue!

Yup. You got it. Here's a pic of the original combo. The timer box is the white plastic covered cube in the center, while the part that actually makes the noise is the smaller nodule on the right with the red and yellow wires terminating in insulted crimp on connectors: And here's a pic of the original combo again, with the Acura ding-dong in the center of the pic (the two wire device with the orange and black wires): Just connect up the orange and black of the Acura ding-dong to the Y and R coming out of the timer module, and you're good to go. Only other thing to remember is that since the Acura DD is an electro-mechanical device, the mounting position may be important. I found that if it wasn't level, it would "ding" - "clink" because one of the internal bell chime bars wasn't sitting on it's mount properly. I suspect they're like little xylophone bars inside and if they get cokked to the side, it won't ring properly. I drilled a new small hole and mounted mine like this (it's upside down). You can see that the original buzzer cube is still there, but is no longer connected: But none of this is about the HVAC servos that the thread was started for.