LocostUSA.com

I had guessed that, given the application. All I need is "off", "on", and "start".

Thanks for the heads-up on the generator light. I've made a note to double-check the charging circuit.

You can always trim down and panel mount a 2000-era Hyundai Elantra ignition switch.
They are based off 90's Mitsubishi ones, have a pigtail coming off, and the keys cost $7 cut from the dealership.

A little quick-set epoxy and sandpaper to attach it inside a large conduit fitting, and it could look pretty spiffy.

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Walt
06 RX-8 Shinka
04 RX-8 GT
06 325xi
Some people never have anything except ideas. Go do it.
Emissions & fuel economy haven't exactly been areas of strength for past rotary power plants, but absolutely no one with a soul has ever cared.

I found a nice speedometer. I had already considered building an electric drive for a mechanical speedo, so the gearing isn't an issue. This one is from India, a repro for (possibly) a Royal Enfield motorcycle. I found a very similar one with a 120mph range, but 90 ought to be more than adequate for 50hp...

I played with one of the BASIC Stamp controllers years ago. It looks like the Arduino pretty much owns the hobby microcontroller market now. I ordered a couple of Arduino books so I can come up to speed on the gazintas and gazoutas. The programming I can handle, it's the magic smoke part I need to read up on...

I found several old motorcycle speedometers with mysterious white lines at 40mph. I thought Indian might have had a 40mph speed limit like the 55 we had here. Searching showed that 40mph seems to be pretty standard for pre-WW2 motorcycles and for scooters up to the present day. My guess is that the line was to remind riders of upscale 250cc road rockets that the speedo went to a whole 90mph instead of 40... this one, however seems to be at 30. (shrug)

Tachometers were rare on early bikes. That line is red line for 1st gear. I believe the tradition started around the turn of the century, when motorcycles typically had two speed transmissions.

[note: I made that whole thing up. Saying "I believe" is an old internet trick to increase general plausibility--pointing out some detail and admitting that you're not absolutely sure of it ("I believe" instead of "I know") implies the rest of the claims are undisputed fact.]

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

As a plug for my preferred dev board/chip maker, I present you the Cypress Semiconductor PSoC4 eval kit.

http://www.cypress.com/documentation/de ... yping-kits

If you get one, get the "PSoC® 4200 Protoyping Kit (CY8CKIT-049-42xx)"

It's $4.00 from Cypress directly, with $4.00 shipping, so $8.00 total.
Their IDE is great, and it's much more powerful than most of the "arduino" stuff.

You program them in C with a graphical schematic capture utility for configuring the on-chip modules.

I've been using the PSoC since 2006 (before the arduino ecosystem hit it big), starting with the CY8C29466 in DIP on the official eval kit.

The learning curve is a little steeper, but I like em, and they're flexibility is hard to beat.

Sorry for the plug, it's almost involuntary when I see "arduino"...

And no, I'm not paid by them, or affiliated with them.

I also really dig that speedo... It's perfect.

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Walt
06 RX-8 Shinka
04 RX-8 GT
06 325xi
Some people never have anything except ideas. Go do it.
Emissions & fuel economy haven't exactly been areas of strength for past rotary power plants, but absolutely no one with a soul has ever cared.

Jack: if you ever do find out what the line is for, I'd be interested. It was a minor curiosity when I saw so many at 40mph... but with that one being at 30 is just plain weird.

300D: I have an almost reflexive aversion to the Arduino, mostly because its supporters refer to it as a singular person (Arduino) instead of an object (an Arduino). I fiddled with a Stamp back in the day, and I played briefly with a device called an OOPIC, which I found utterly incomprehensible. I came *this* close to a Raspberry Pi, which would be utterly trivial to program in a Pascal or BASIC, but with so many vendors out there on the Arduino bandwagon, I figure some form of it will be around as long as I am.

Since this is technically my wife's car, she gets to decide a lot of the details. I've set up some slideshows of interiors, fenders, etc. Every now and then I'll run them by again. Sometimes things change.

Recent changes:

She had favored the Caterham CSR dash, particularly after I had pointed out that the forward-curved lower tubes would give more room for entry and exit. Last night she changed her mind and decided she wanted a Series 1 style flat panel, and pointed out that the high, thin dash would give just as much entry room as the elaborate CSR dash. True, and it will save me a lot of trouble...

She had been undecided about clamshell vs. cycle fenders. About the time I had started thinking the clamshells might be the way to go, she decided definitely on cycle fenders in front.

She declared the classic back-panel-and-bitch-pad seats as "hideous" and wants separate seats. Which is fine, since the driver's seat has to have sliders due to our height difference, and the seats need to fold forward to get to the storage cubby behind them.

She picked out ignition and headlight switches, from Massey-Ferguson and Farmall tractors. The also declared she doesn't care where the headlight, horn, turn signal, or wiper switches are, and that toggles or rockers on the dash are fine. I'm probably going to use a turn stalk and a wiper stalk though. The choice of tractor parts isn't too surprising considering she declared my Degtyarev DPM to be "cute" and decided it was hers. No, I didn't agree that a set of commemorative flower plates was a fair exchange. I'm still sulking...

She agreed with my idea for minimalist instrumentation. I was thinking of just a speedometer, or a speedometer and fuel gauge. She had no problem filling up by the numbers, but she wants oil pressure and water temperature gauges.

She questioned my arrangement for the gauges, lights, and switches on the dash. I pointed out they were arranged not to be blocked by the steering wheel. She has agreed to the general positions, but wants to pick out the final positions once I get the wooden cockpit mockup done.

After I determined the correct offset and bolt pattern, she picked out the wheels.

When she found out the correct lug nuts were available in either chrome or black, she decided on black.

The interior will not be black or any dark color. We both have un-fond memories of the Spitfire with the black Naugahyde interior. The interior will be "cream", tan, or light gray, and made of some kind of marine-grade cloth, not Naugahyde. I'm on board with that... downside is, neither of us can sew, and local upholsterers are expensive.

She wants round headlights with painted shells. No projector lamps or chrome shells. She hasn't decided between 5-1/4 and 7" lights yet.

So far, she has no opinions on interior trim, taillights, rear fenders, or final color of the car, though she has declared that raw aluminum is not an option. Drat.

Her plan seems to be that I will do all the building and she will do all the driving. That's when I'm going to say, "Remember my DPM? Neener neener!"

I sbagged one of the old Smiths dual gauges on eBay - mechanical oil pressure and mechanical temp in the same 2" round gauge. The listing said the water temp part didn't work. Since the face and bezel appeared to be in excellent condition I googled off to see about repair, and it turns out the gauges are repairable. The common technique is to pick up a cheap Equus or Harbor Freight mechanical gauge, cut the bulb off, and solder it onto the old gauge with a sleeve, using an ice/salt mixture to keep the ether liquid. Plus you get an NPT thread instead of a BSP thread. I even have a couple of old Stewart-Warner gauges I couldn't bear to throw away that I can use to practice on.

Smiths used several bezels; the one on this gauge is fairly common. I found several matching gas gauges but they're all a bit crufty; I'll keep watching for a nice one. Replacement bezels and lenses are available, but a bit expensive.

New replacement tank senders seem to go for about $25, which is entirely reasonable.

I also snagged four used 7/8" Wilwood master cylinders for $25. Those were the ones I was planning to use. The seller claimed they were a year old, but they must have had a hard life... I checked the price of rebuild kits, then decided to take a chance. He also had a Wilwood cast aluminum bracket with balance bar for another $25. Apparently nobody else bid on either one.

In other news, the bottom of the oil pan is well above the bottom of the chassis, so there's no problem with running the shifter tube down the spine and under the engine to a bellcrank assembly at the back. The Suzuki transmission has a single coupler sticking straight out the back; it moves in/out and left/right. Considering the hassle some people have routing their shift mechanism, I got lucky again.

I always liked that gauge with the dual functions,did you manage to get the themostat phial that goes in the head ? MGB used it as standard fitment.http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MG-BRAND-NEW- ... xyLN9Sg7Nl

Bob

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Build Log viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16640&p=187700#p187700

Mancave http://s1116.photobucket.com/user/mypic ... ow/mancave

It's supposed to be there, but since it was listed as "temperature gauge not working" I'm assuming the line has been cracked, kinked, cut, or twisted. I got it at a good enough price to justify cannibalizing one of my old gauges. It's unlikely the innards of the gauge are broken, and I'd have to extend the tube anyway; it's a long way from the dash, through the center spine, and up to the engine behind the seats.

Except for some ancient gauges, the working fluid is one of the ethers. Apparently they all use the same stuff. The general procedure seems to be simple enough.

Even with the exchange rate and shipping, that's a great price on the one at the link you posted! The few I found in the US were going for twice that and more. If the one I bought (from Canada, no less!) doesn't look as nice as the pictures imply, I'll be mighty tempted...

The combo gauge showed up. Looks pretty nice.

I just noticed that this gauge came from Canada, the balance bar came from Australia, the speedo and tach are on their way from India, and the various 12, 14, and 16mm LH and RH taps were from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Some of the jam nuts and electrical bits came from China.

The Motegi wheels were made in China, the Geo engine and transmission were made in Japan, the 10mm to 3AN Goodridge banjo fittings were made in England. The lower control arm bushings were made in Germany. The Massey ignition switch was made in England.

The Honda brake rotors were made by AC Delco in the USA. The Geo brake rotors were made by Raybestos in the USA. The VW replacement ball joints were made in the USA.

I'm glad this hasn't gotten out of control or anything...

Some years ago I replaced the front wheel bearings in a Pinto. It had "NSK Japan" marked on the OEM bearings. Later replaced the front wheel bearings in my Mazda pickup. The old ones were marked "Timken USA." And after that I was casually reading around the Chinese chicken tracks on a pack of ramen noodles and discovered that they were actually made in California.


edit: I just blew $41 on weird gauge fittings. You need a 1/8 BSPP to AN adapter for the Smiths oil pressure gauge. I decided to go with a -4 line as recommended by Carroll Smith. The Suzuki engine block is tapped for 1/8 BSPT, the tapered variant. I wanted a 90 degree steel BSPT to AN adapter. The best I could find was a tee, so I'll just cap the extra -4 end. The Suzuki's ECM doesn't use an oil pressure signal; the original BSPP-threaded sender just turned on the oil pressure light on the dash, so I can use an ordinary American 1/8 NPT sender for that. Yeah, what the heck, I'm running a light as well as a gauge... I courted the idea of putting the sender in a tee at the back of the gauge to reduce wiring, but I've had a few senders fail, so I decided to put it in the back. 4AN to 1/8NPT tees exist, but I couldn't find a bulkhead tee and I didn't want the sender dangling from the oil pressure line. I did a bunch of measuring and figured that I could cut off a leg of a -4AN bulkhead tee and tap it for 1/8 NPT, so I found a steel bulkhead tee. The Suzuki triple is shaky at idle and I didn't want a stiff -4 line working at an aluminum tee. The steel fitting was $6 more than an aluminum one... I think I'll get $6 worth of peace of mind out of it.

The stainless Goodridge 45 degree 10mm-to-3AN banjos showed up today; they ought to let me tuck the brake lines down against the De Dion tube without bending the lines much. The new GM parking brake cable also showed up. I had no idea what the caliper end of the cable looked like, and a new one was $14 with free shipping... it is *very* heavy duty and nearly seven feet long. I'm glad I didn't order two.

The plan is to make the center spine only 2" wide. There's almost three inches between the bottom of the chassis and the bottom of the oil pan; plenty of room for the shifter to run under the engine. And room for the parking brake cables, if it comes down to that... I had planned on running the parking brake cable down the driver's side, but it might actually be simpler to run a pair down the middle to a yoke. I'm going to do some sketching and put a final decision off until I build the wooden mockup.

If anyone is interested in a "single gauge" solution, it turns out the MG Magnette had the usual Smiths 80mph speedometer with a small fuel gauge built in. It's a standalone gauge instead of being built into the dash like the speedo/fuel gauge in my old VW Beetle.

Still watching for a fuel gauge. It's not so much the price as that the ones for sale have been in very poor shape. Bezels and lenses are available on the aftermarket, but they're expensive.

I'd forgotten to order the motor drive board for the Arduino, so I took care of that, and ordered some motors for the instruments. It turns out most small DC motors are sold by RPM, and 15,000 to 25,000 RPM motors are most popular. With some searching I found some 3000 RPM motors and ordered a pair of those, and a pair of 1500 RPM motors that are apparently designed for vibrators. All four with shipping came to $15 on eBay.

A bunch of web searching showed that most American cars used 1000 turns per mile. So at 60mph (one mile per minute), the cable would be turning 1000 RPM. Most Japanese motorcycles and some Japanese cars used 2240 RPM at 60mph. Baud alone knows what the Smiths speedo expects; British OEMs apparently ordered their instruments with various internal gear ratios, then sometimes used inline gearboxes spliced into the speedometer cable.

"Snakes. Very dangerous. You go first."

Fortunately since I'm driving a Geo now it will be easy to move from the bench to a field test before boxing everything up and putting it away for the midi. I can calibrate the tach, but since the Geo has 12" tires I'll have to recalibrate the speedometer for the 15" wheels on the midi, but at least I'll be in the ballpark.

As far as bezels and lenses go have you tried a clock/watch repair place? I've picked up some nice stuff that way. Hope that helps. Joe

There are some of those on eBay; the last local one closed some years ago. Fortunately, Smiths makes a wide array of clocks as well as automotive instruments. There's some commonality among gaskets, etc.