A little something to offend everyone
- Thread starter DRIVEN
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I left off today essentially as you see it above. Engine and radiator in and a lot of stuff hooked up. Next thing I'll do is raise it and install the transmission. I may rework the transmission crossmember. It works fine as-is but if I was building the car today I'd do it differently.
The tedious task on deck is modifying the harness and cleaning up the wiring in general. Again, if I were building the car today, I'd do it differently.
As it lays now...
Red is the bundle that went through the firewall (at purple circle) and tapped into an aux fuse panel as well as things like tach feed.
Orange is the ECM connectors. It was mounted just behind the driver's side headlight.
Green is CTS, knock sensor, and oil pressure switch.
White is all the misc. throttle body sensors.
Blue is injector harness.
Yellow is the coil and ignition module.
The two relays are fan and fuel pump. Note the lone blue wire that feeds the pump.
The way I'm planning to change things is by mounting the ECM below the glove box and running injector harness and throttle body related through a hole above the gas pedal. The coils and CTS bundle will go through a hole on the passenger side way high and close to the fender. Should clean up the underhood area considerably. The rest will live under the dash.
The body harness (lights, horns, wipers) is what's wadded up and stuffed inside the white grocery bags on the passenger fender. That will get rewrapped and routed in the factory location.
The tedious task on deck is modifying the harness and cleaning up the wiring in general. Again, if I were building the car today, I'd do it differently.
As it lays now...
Red is the bundle that went through the firewall (at purple circle) and tapped into an aux fuse panel as well as things like tach feed.
Orange is the ECM connectors. It was mounted just behind the driver's side headlight.
Green is CTS, knock sensor, and oil pressure switch.
White is all the misc. throttle body sensors.
Blue is injector harness.
Yellow is the coil and ignition module.
The two relays are fan and fuel pump. Note the lone blue wire that feeds the pump.
The way I'm planning to change things is by mounting the ECM below the glove box and running injector harness and throttle body related through a hole above the gas pedal. The coils and CTS bundle will go through a hole on the passenger side way high and close to the fender. Should clean up the underhood area considerably. The rest will live under the dash.
The body harness (lights, horns, wipers) is what's wadded up and stuffed inside the white grocery bags on the passenger fender. That will get rewrapped and routed in the factory location.
It's going away. I've pretty much lost interest and I'd rather put that money toward other projects.
I guess this is technically a sub-thread from The Compound. Hang on to the end and you'll see why I thought I would offend every niche of the car community.
Chapter 1:
My wife drives a '95 Neon that we've had for 16 years. She loves it (she's a keeper, right?) but I know it isn't going to live forever. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for a few years. I actually was hoping she'd drive the Rambler wagon I had for a while but she just didn't like driving it. We finally settled on a Datsun 510 wagon. They're still pretty affordable, parts are available, it's pre-smog, they can handle well, and most importantly - she thinks they're "cute". I found the first one for $400 but it really had more body issues than I had hoped.
My brother is my bodyman and suggested I look for a better platform. I had it for a few months and got it running and driving. Mechanically it was actually well above average. I came across the second one at a local tow yard auction. The manager said it had a blown head gasket. I assumed the engine was toast. Here's how it sat when I got it home.
There actually IS an engine in it. The good news was that it had an L20b (2 liter) swapped in place of the 1.6 they came with. Not really a big deal because the engine was never intended to stay. I immediately started "operation un****".
Replaced the head gasket and leaking radiator then replaced the faulty, incorrect carb.
Removed the decals. Tossed the ill-fitting Cavalier seats in favor of a stock pair. Upgraded from stack steering wheel to a spare 240Z unit I had.
Next up was an altitude adjustment. I picked up some clipped stock springs from a buddy and ordered up some Toyota MR2 rear strut inserts. This is a fairly common upgrade for the front of a 510. In order to make them work you need to shorten the strut housings.
Stock spring on the right, mystery spring on the left. Don't know why they were installed but the inside edges of the tires were wasted so I think they were used for a while. Makes no sense because there were 2" lowering blocks in the rear.
While I was at it I replaced some worn frontend parts and installed bumpsteer spacers. Also got some different wheels and tires they were red so I painted them and added a set of trim rings I had laying around. Much better!
Another common upgrade is replacing steel rear drums with the finned aluminum ones from a 240Z.
Doesn't look a whole lot different but a lot of little tasks have been handled. Transmission in and driveline hooked up, exhaust connected, all the hoses and fittings checked, plus a few forgettable odds and ends.
Very well done. Well worth the effort from what I can see from 500 miles away.
Appreciated. Certainly not show caliber but far better than it was. I've decided I'm going to do more wiring cleanup than originally planned. Won't make it run any better but I'll be less embarrassed to sell it if it's tidied up.
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