01/30/10 - Wiring... done???
I wont bore you with another picture of the schematic... but it's basically all done!!! The ONLY thing I have left to do is attach a plug to the end of the dropping resistor and that's that.
So I applied power to the car for the first time in 4 years Four years. Before I get into that, I'll talk about the cluster. I powered it up. And could not read it at all from the driver's seat. I looked in the manual and it was pretty obvious why. It's meant to be read at an angle of 10-20 degrees above the horizontal. My original mount tipped it back, so I was reading it at nearly 30 degrees below the horizontal. Not good. So I fabricated (with the help of Erik - BigE) an angled standoff. It came out pretty nice and the display is now lucid.
Here's the old style:
And the new style:
The bracket came out awesome. I'm very satisfied with the
results... Still torn about wrapping it in "CF cloth"...
A cool little trick I came up with to transfer the screw locations to
the aluminum was making these little steel pencil point transfer
punches. It worked perfectly. You can see them
inserted into the screw holes, and one loose one:
In order to check the electrical system, I obvioulsy needed to
attach a battery... So I did it with these baller ass 150
dollar battery terminals:
Just kidding they were like 15 dollars shipped from ebay, but do the
job perfectly. The LCD seems accurate (compared to my mac
multimeter) and allows me to keep an easy eye on the voltage.
Also very simple to attach to the battery cables, just insert
and tighten the set screw.
So since I got the battery installed, it was time to check the
electrical. I was SOOOO nervous that something was going to
blow or short or not work... but EVERYTHING worked the first
time. Here's a list of everything that is confirmed working:
Parking Lights
Tail Lights
Low Beams
High beams
Horn
Fan
Wipers (int, lo, hi)
Brake Lights
Reverse Lights
L&R Turn signals
Hazard Lights
Fuel Pump
Cluster (including all the indicators for high beams, turn signals and
running lights)
Radio (only have the rear speakers installed)
Greddy Gauges
So here's some pics of some of that stuff working
And the last thing I'll leave you with is this picture of the new
tire mounted on my front wheel... It's about .7 inches smaller per
side... It has much more clearance. I think it's going to
be perfect. Take it easy!!!
