Captain Obvious

In it's original configuration (with the original values as supplied by Honda) it flip-flops much faster than 1Hz. But the point is that by changing a couple resistor values and maybe the caps, you can configure it for whatever frequency you desire. And yes, 1Hz is easily achievable. Also in it's typical configuration, it's setup for 50/50 duty cycle, but by using different resistors on each side (instead of the same values on both sides), you can imbalance the charging rates and change the duty cycle as well. There's lots of info on the web, but here's one site that also includes a some scope photos and videos. http://rayshobby.net/?p=1079 Been a long time since I was messing with the module, but I believe there is also one additional "output driver" transistor hanging off one of the collectors so the bulb current doesn't go through either of the oscillator transistors. I have to find my notes... I took a quick look and couldn't find them, but hopefully in the light of day tomorrow they'll turn up. I'm envisioning this: Pull a dimmer module from a Civic. Pop the circuit PCB out of the plastic shell. Change a couple resistor values and maybe the caps to get an appropriate frequency and a pleasant sounding duty-cycle. (For example, maybe 1Hz and 70/30 duty cycle for ding..dong............ding..dong..........ding..dong) (Or 50/50 duty cycle for ding......dong......ding......dong......ding......dong......) Run +12 and ground to the module. Connect the module output to your ding-dong. Pics and notes tomorrow hopefully.

Ummm... Why does it seem like so many of my stupid kid tricks involved fire or explosions?

Yeah Yeah Yeah!!! We (kids) did that too!! Awesome. It's those kind of tricks that you wonder if it was a regional phenomenon or if other people were doing the same thing. Clearly it wasn't that regional! Ahhhh.... The good old days. Stupid kid tricks. Popping the Styrofoam labels on the soda bottles. Popping leaves on your hand by slapping with the other hand? Building lighter fluid powered tennis ball cannons out of soda cans. Making little match rockets with tin foil over the match heads. Making firecrackers out of cap rolls with a needle and scotch tape. Had to be real careful when you pulled the pin out? Harvesting the black powder out of your dad's shotgun shells for... well... for whatever you needed gunpowder for, which could be anything!! Heating hot dogs through electrocution with an extension cord. Some of it was clearly Darwin in action.

You wouldn't have to do any PCB work for the Civic dimmer. The beauty of it is that it's already pre-packaged in a little module. PCB inside already and knob for adjusting the duty cycle. I reverse engineered the circuit so that's how I know what's inside. All you would have to do is change some of the passives to tune it to a more reasonable frequency (it's currently way too high because they don't want the incandescent lamps flickering) and maybe adjust the duty cycle as well. It's pretty small... Maybe inch by inch-n-a-half? I've got one in a box somewhere around here. I'll dig it out and snap a pic or two to show you what I'm talking about. Last time I used one I took just the PCB out of the plastic housing and replaced the brightness knob pot with a fixed resistor and wrapped the result in electrical tape instead of using the plastic housing. Gets way smaller when you do that. End result is maybe half inch by one inch? Glue that to the top of your ding-dong. A dollar at the junkyard. I couldn't build one from scratch for that.

Another alternative? The dimmer circuit knob on all the Honda Civics uses the ubiquitous astable multivibrator. You know... this one that's used absolutely everywhere: I've already harvested them for other applications. Change a couple passive component values and you should be able to tune it for whatever frequency and duty cycle sounds good. Not only that, but it comes with it's own build in pot for tuning on the fly.

The blinking Christmas tree bulb would be a very easy (and IMHO elegant) solution, but you'd have to make sure the bulb was designed to flash on the current drawn by the ding-dong. If it's not enough current, you could add a resistor in parallel with the ding-dong to supplement the draw, but if it's already too much, you're out of luck. The other circuit based on the Esaki effect on the transistor worries me a little. I'm not sure how many times a back biased junction that was never designed to be used as a Zener would fare over time. Maybe because the power in the whole thing is so limited it wouldn't be a problem, but I just wonder if the transistor could take it forever. Also, I'm not sure if the dump pulse would be long enough to get your ding-dong to ding. The ding-dong is driven by a coil (an inductor) which means that not only will resist the current dump, but it also takes a certain duration to establish enough of a field to swing the movable pole to ding before it springs back to dong. How about a turn signal flasher? Might not work because the ding-ding doesn't draw enough current (same potential issue as using the xmas light bulb), but one of them new fangled flashers for use with LED's should work. Just tossing out possible alternatives?

Yeah, I'm not surprised. I went back and re-read where I had seen that and the guy who had the problem left the part in half-submerged for days. Etched a line at the interface. Theory is that the solution is water based and enables rust right at the interface, which is then removed by the solution as it occurs. So the part is converted from steel to rust to gone over and over right at the interface. But it appears that it doesn't occur quickly. Sounds like if you spin it after a day, you'll be OK, but don't let your part sit half submerged for days?

Back when I was comparing the 240 and 280 trays, I didn't notice a difference in width: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/45678-ash-tray-trivia I noticed depth, but not width. More ash tray trivia?

And I'll throw my opinions into the mix with the ashtray stuff.... I'm no paint expert, but I would expect powder coat would be the most durable (and yes, clear powder coat is not unusual). Catalyzed polyurethane would probably be the next most durable. Other solutions will be less durable, but anything is better than what you started with right? SteveJ, Don't know if you've messed with the stuff before, but if you're using Evapo-Rust, make sure your parts are completely submerged. Don't try to do top half and then spin the part around a day later to get the other half. I've heard that bad things happen at the steel/chemical/air boundary.

Mike, It appears to be a goofy search issue on their website. I found the dual washer versions the same way you did (by searching for "m8 sems") but they don't show up if you search only for "sems" and then choose bolts or screws. So there's just something weird with their search engine. Thanks for the help.

All jokes and double entendre aside, I do think that if you really have to pull the parking brake handle up that far to hold the rear wheels, then you're in need of adjustment somewhere.. And thanks for putting up with our childish humor.

Thanks again guys. acarnut, That's the same ebay seller I had turned up, and he's got some stuff that would be good enough. I'll hold out a little longer looking for something better, but that's exactly what I was going to do if something better didn't turn up. (He's got dog point in the length I need, but I'd just end up cutting the dog point off) And Blue, I had previously said that clipsandfasteners didn't have the bolts with both lock and flat washers, but the link from Amazon clearly has a bunch of them. So they're on Amazon, but I couldn't find them on clipsandfasteners.com. Can you figure out where the dual captive washer SEMS are on the clipsandfasteners website? They obviously DO have them!

Thanks for the help guys! Unfortunatelty clipsandfasteners and Fastenal only seem to have bolts with a captive flat washer (no lock) and I'm looking for something with both lock and flat. Mike W, Thanks for the additional source ideas. I didn't get the chance to dig into them yet, but hopefully something will pan out. And if you have a list of what you've purchased in the past... I'm looking for (this time) M6 x 1.00 x 25mm long with both lock and flat washers captive. Of course, too long is fine as I can just cut them off shorter, but it would be nice to find a source where I could buy ten of them or similar parts for other projects.

Haha!! Exactly! And performance like that only comes from the improved later version of the parking brake handle with the extra notch for more stamina and improved holding power. There's some parking brake trivia for ya! I can tell you from experience that once you've grabbed ahold and yanked one of the newer ones up and down a couple times, you'll prefer it to an older one. PS - Did you use catalyzed polyurethane?

Anybody got a generic source for the ubiquitous "yellow" hardware that is used so extensively on the Japanese autos? Traditional hardware is easy to find, but I'm looking for some of the stuff that has captive washers and I'm not finding sources that sell small quantities. There are some sources that mention "SEMS" (as in pre-assembled?) as a catch name for the hardware with the captive washers, but that name isn't consistently applied. I'm looking for a source that lists by size, pitch, and length. Not by application. Something like M8 x 1.25 x 25mm long with captive lock and flat washers. Not "seat hold down bolts for a 98 Subaru". I found some stuff on ebay, but there's got to be better selections out there. Anyone got a source that they like?

I believe the technical term for that amount of angular displacement is "Schwing!" I've also heard the term "boiiinngngng", but I don't hear that measurement unit as much anymore and I think it has gone out of fashion like furlongs and fortnights.

The years hadn't softened Moroni. He continued to murder the English Language... And anyone who got in his way.

Yeah, that sounds like the same boat I'm in. The motor currently in my Z works fine but it needs some attention. I figure that attention would be better spent on a later ZX motor. Zed Head, When I first got the ZX, I was thinking I would strip down both motors and redress the 83 as my 77. But the more I think about it, the more I've been leaning towards porting it over verbatim with the whole newer FI system for all the reasons you mentioned.

Why a ZX motor? Because "they" say that the later ZX motors are a little better than the previous years. Basically, I turned up a running ZX motor that has the P79 head with the F54 block and the flat top pistons. A combo which is desirable. I figured that if I was going to be swapping motors, I may as well try to find one of those. So about a year ago I bought an 83 280ZX for the motor and it's been sitting in the driveway since. I haven't yet had the proper opportunity yet to move the motor over to my 77. It's on the list for this off season. So at this point, the short answer is... Because that's what I have?

I'm thinking it's more than just the threads. It looks like a previous owner seized and spun the outboard wheel bearing race.

Nice. I wish I had an uncracked dash. I'm pretty sure that the mechanical bulk of the dash is shared from 74 to 78, but I wouldn't be so sure about the wiring. I haven't looked into it, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some minor wiring changes between some of the years. I would at least take a good look at the connectors and make sure the same locations are populated with the same color wires on all of the connectors. 76 to 77 sounds pretty innocent though... I would be more concerned between anything with an ammeter vs voltmeter or a 78 to anything prior because of the fuel pump changes. All else fails or if you do discover any differences, just strip the wiring harness out of your 76 and move it over to the 77.

Fiero!

Haha!! Excellent! I love the waft of smoke that comes up from behind after your burnout,

Yeah, I know. I've been meaning to take a look at it, but the real way I planned to fix it was to drop in a 280ZX motor instead. I keep putting it off because (in theory) the motor that's in my car currently won't be there for very much longer. In theory...

Thanks for the input. I put the "correct" non-projected plugs in my 280 (because that's the kind of guy I am) and I've just always wondered if I'm leaving any performance on the table by not running the projected tips like most of the other years. My car does not run lean and I'm in no danger of overheating my plugs. In fact, I think it could stand to run a little leaner. Something that I've been meaning to look into for a while but hasn't bubbled to the top of the priority list.