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Post by SeanW on Aug 25, 2016 6:10:08 GMT
I've spent the evening searching through build threads looking for information on the best way to go about wiring up the brake/tail lights. So far it looks like the quick and easy though somewhat less reliable route is to use a trailer hitch adapter while the more reliable method is wire up a series of relays. (I've downloaded the photo of the wiring diagram that's referenced in a couple of the threads here.) Eventually I plan on building an Arduino controller so that I can do more interesting things with the lights but that's a project for later, after the car is on the road.
Honestly, I don't really know which path to follow on this one. Thoughts and advice greatly appreciated.
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Post by rumm on Aug 25, 2016 6:16:48 GMT
If you have the know-how for the relays, I'd recommend going that route. As long as they aren't bouncing around, they shouldn't ever go bad. I personally chose the lazy route with the $16 trailer adapter because I wanted to get it completed without having to figure out the wiring diagram for the relays. I figure if it ever fails, I will put the effort into figuring the relays out at that time.
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Post by SeanW on Aug 29, 2016 1:03:39 GMT
Good news! My lights work!
Bad news! The car won't start now.
Looks like the ECU's either not getting power now or is no longer properly grounded. After getting the lights working I started pulling out things like the circuits for the pop-up motors. Some where in there the car stopped starting. Fuel pump comes on, all lights turn on except the CEL before trying to turn it over. Once the car fails to start the buzzer turns on and won't go off. This is more of a 'wow, I boned that' update than anything else. Need to dig through the electrical diagrams tonight.
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Post by steadfast on Aug 29, 2016 3:04:17 GMT
shared ground somewhere I bet! I did the same thing. Likely a ground for a major sensor somewhere... Just a guess.
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Post by SeanW on Aug 29, 2016 5:40:25 GMT
shared ground somewhere I bet! I did the same thing. Likely a ground for a major sensor somewhere... Just a guess. I'm guessing ground, too. Hopefully it won't take too long to find the problem. |
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Post by SeanW on Aug 30, 2016 2:06:41 GMT
shared ground somewhere I bet! I did the same thing. Likely a ground for a major sensor somewhere... Just a guess. Wasn't a ground, but while checking every single ground I did find the problem, which I'm posing out now. |
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Post by SeanW on Aug 30, 2016 2:32:08 GMT
Good news! I figured out why my Exocet was flipping out on me and it wasn't a ground. Unfortunately, it was something far more dumb and absent minded which is totally a "my bad" kind of thing. While working on the harness I'd unplugged the ECU harness to get some space, then plugged it back in. Later on, when I tried turning the car over everything went wacky. Well...turns out that I didn't realize that two of the three connectors on the ECU harness are keyed identically and I'd inadvertently swapped them.  I didn't realize what was going on until this evening when I started double-checking every single ground, and attempting to turn the motor over. When I got to the grounds on the ECU harness my mistake became clear as day. Swapping the connectors back to the way they should go put everything right. Mostly. At least the buzzer's not going crazy and the ECU appears to be turning on with the ignition which is about 50% better than where I was at yesterday evening. Bad news! While sorting out grounds and testing (attempting to turning the motor) it got to a point where the car stopped cranking. Even with the ECU plugged in correctly, the car now won't crank. It just makes a clanking sound when attempting to turn it over. I'm doing research on what could be wrong and how to fix it. I'll post a short video clip of what it's doing later. |
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Post by SeanW on Aug 30, 2016 5:11:34 GMT
Here's a small clip of what it's doing now when trying to turn it over. Any thoughts on what to check, try? |
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Post by rumm on Aug 30, 2016 5:44:38 GMT
Here's a small clip of what it's doing now when trying to turn it over. Any thoughts on what to check, try? A bit hard to hear on my laptop, but from here it sounds like the starter solenoid. I'd recommend checking and cleaning the connections on the battery and the starter. Edit: Also it may be worth turning the engine over manually with a wrench to be sure it isn't a deadspot on the starter.. |
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Post by gwnwar on Aug 30, 2016 15:14:19 GMT
Is battery fully charged..
Try hitting starter with hammer while trying to start.Might be a dead spot in starter.
Also pull connector from ignition switch look inside both sides see if it is burned/melted.
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Post by SeanW on Aug 31, 2016 4:31:33 GMT
Turns out that it wasn't battery or starter or switch or anything of that nature. It was hydrolocked with fuel, kind of a pain in the butt to clean up. I did learn that the previous owner had cross threaded the plug in cylinder 2, basically making it unusable junk after pulling it out to check down into the cylinders where I found it full of gas. One emergency run to to O'Reilly for a set of pre-gapped plugs and celebratory stop at Starbucks quickly ensued. Anyway, it turns over now.  It'll turn over and run but I wouldn't exactly call it 100% healthy just yet. Roughish idle. Smokes a lot. (Which I expect given the ocean of fuel That was in the damn thing!) And thankfully that horrible lifter tap goes away after about 5 minutes of run. (I really wanna convert to solid shim under bucket lifters.) It's also throwing a CEL which will hopefully give me a little more insight into the rough idle. But whatever, at least I know the ECU isn't fried and the harness isn't FUBAR. Motors can be easily rebuilt...and this one probably will be soon. :/ I'm definitely going to need to change the oil (had planned on that this weekend) since it's almost certainly been contaminated with gas leaking down from the flooded cylinders. I don't thing that the timing has gone wonky, thankfully, but I'll check that too and the gap on the plugs. The motor had 187k miles on it before I started the tear down so it wasn't exactly in the most awesome condition to start with. |
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Post by gwnwar on Aug 31, 2016 17:31:54 GMT
So you have an injector stuck open some dumping fuel on shut down..Replace or have all cleaned and flow checked.. Try running a spark plug tap in the hole Vacuum out cly when done.
A little never seize.. might be able to save it..
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Post by colin on Aug 31, 2016 17:32:01 GMT
Congrats!!! I had the lifter tap too when I first started my engine after completely re-building it. Luckily it went away after my first real drive.
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Post by steadfast on Aug 31, 2016 18:42:32 GMT
I have a set of freshly rebuilt and cleaned Miata injectors if you need them.
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Post by SeanW on Aug 31, 2016 19:50:26 GMT
So you have an injector stuck open some dumping fuel on shut down..Replace or have all cleaned and flow checked.. Try running a spark plug tap in the hole Vacuum out cly when done. A little never seize.. might be able to save it.. The threads were actually in pretty good shape, actually! (I love my bore-scope.  ) The new plug went in just fine with a light bit of anti-seize to lubricate. I'm exploring injector options right now. |
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) The new plug went in just fine with a light bit of anti-seize to lubricate.