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PostPosted: November 3, 2015, 1:41 am 
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Harbor freight has a decent rivnut installer, but last I checked it was SAE only. Had to make an M6 anvil for it when I put the cargo net kit in my moms civic.

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PostPosted: November 3, 2015, 9:01 am 
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300D50 wrote:
Harbor freight has a decent rivnut installer, but last I checked it was SAE only. Had to make an M6 anvil for it when I put the cargo net kit in my moms civic.
A nut/bolt combo, a few washers and a little grease make a great rivnut installer if you only have a couple to do. I like this method if I can see both sides because I can control the squish completely!

+1 on the HF unit. It's pretty stout (does steel pretty well) and cheap enough that I bought a second and modified the anvils to match the nuts that we have at work.

K "nuts" S

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PostPosted: November 5, 2015, 11:17 pm 
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Location: central Arkansas
The Australian balance bar showed up today. Looks fine to me. The adjustor cable is also quite flexible, which was a surprise... and there are spring-loaded detents in the adjustor knob. And the manufacturer refrained from engraving advertising all over it, which was nice.

The gasoline heater arrived over a week ago; it's both smaller and heavier than I expected. I hosed it down with penetrating oil and set it aside for now.


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PostPosted: November 17, 2015, 3:19 am 
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Location: central Arkansas
Where unsprung weight comes from:

(front corner)

19.0 195/50-15 tire (catalog weight 18 to 20 depending on brand)
12.5 Motegi 15x7 wheel
7.7 Honda Accord 10" x 9mm brake rotor
4.23 Honda Accord bearing hub, flange, and studs
.72 VW Beetle upper ball joint
.72 Ford Courier tierod end (lower ball joint)
.22 Honda axle nut
.9 four 12mm lug nuts
----
46.01 pounds

I still don't have weights for:

xxx Wilwood brake caliper
tierod end (VW Beetle)
bolt-in valve stem
fabricated upright and steering arm
Honda to Motegi hub centering ring

also, figure half the weight of the A-arms, spring, brake line, and shock...

These are all lightweight parts - very light wheel, small tire, tiny brake rotor, and so forth. But there are a lot of pieces, and they all add up.

Unsprung weight manifests as wheel "patter" on rough surfaces, plus a harsher ride as you need stiffer dampers to keep from hammering the bump stops. But in the end, the weight per corner is going to be about the same as a Honda Accord with the same bits, except the Accord weighs 2950-3150# depending on the model and equipment.

Nothing much to do about it, other than to shrug and move on.


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PostPosted: November 17, 2015, 9:30 am 
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Location: central Arkansas
I decided early-on to go all AN for the brake lines and fittings. I couldn't justify the price for fancy stainless steel hardware, which is fortunate since not all the pieces I need are available in stainless anyway.

Godman in Memphis not only had excellent prices, they also had the metric banjo to AN-3 fittings I needed for the Cobalt rear calipers. (Most racing-style calipers appear to be 1/8-27 NPT) Speedway sells premade -3 hoses for less than I can buy the pieces for; I've bought from them many times before, including -3 hoses for fuel and oil pressure gauge lines. I've twice had the cheesy nylon oil pressure lines get crackly and break after 15 or 20 years; my wife wasn't impressed when she got hosed down with hot oil on the way to work one morning. Later, I found the tiny 1/8" line can fill the passenger footwell with oil in just a few minutes. I smelled something funny about the time the lifters collapsed...

Anyway, AN hard lines require a 37 degree flaring tool, so I went shopping. The standard and generally hated design is a bar with nuts on each end and holes for the tubes; you tighten the bars over the tube, twist the flaring mandrel holder on, and go to town. That's your generic flaring tool you'll see in auto parts stores everywhere. They're hated because the bars don't get a good grip on the tube and they can slide out as you're trying to make a flare. Also, the mandrel holder is supposed to self-center on the tube, but it's easy to get an offset or eccentric flare if it doesn't. There are 37 degree versions available, but most of the vendors only recomment them for brass or aluminum tubing if you read the fine print.

The Imperial flaring tool has a better reputation. It uses a stack of blocks between two guide bars with a jackscrew on one end; instead of two clamp bars that can bend, you have a stack of blocks under straight compression. The Imperial swaging cone has four flutes, that more or less roll the flare onto the end of the tube instead of just jamming a cone into the end.

The Ridgid 377 looks pretty much like the cheap tools; two clamp bars and a detachable mandrel holder. But the mandrel holder has a jack screw on the side so it can both locate in a dimple on the side of one of the clamp bars and to put maximum pressure right at the tube hole you're using. The Ridgid tool uses an eccentric cone to roll the flare into the end of the tubing.

While I've seen various racers swear by the Imperial tool, the Ridgid one looks like it might be the better design. Of course it's the most expensive one... [sigh]


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PostPosted: November 22, 2015, 12:30 pm 
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Location: central Arkansas
The rear calipers are aluminum, with built-in parking brake mechanism, for last-generation GM midsize cars (05-10 Cobalt, etc.) The discard thickness for the Cobalt rotors is 11.8mm, the new thickness of the 9" Geo rotors is 10mm, so I'll have to make some spacers to go between the pads and caliper. They have one 1.5" piston. They have a large, heavy steel mounting ring that bolts to the upright.

I wanted an O'Reilly/Pep Boys solution for the front calipers too, but none of the OEM selections I could find were suitable. I finally went to Wilwood.

Wilwood had two Dynalites that looked suitable. One had 1.75" pistons, the other 1.38" pistons. Using Puhn's brake book and a couple of online brake calculators, I had a hard time getting my mind unwrapped around 3500+ pound front-engined cars without enough brakes, down to 1500-odd pound cars with more brakes than required.

The 1.75" Wilwoods would theoretically give 61% front bias, the 1.38" 50% bias. After agonizing a bit, I went with the 1.38" calipers. The balance bar and proportioning valve should let me fiddle things as needed.

After that, I went down the rathole of looking for suitable brake pads. Wilwood lists their pads by backing plate shape, which is "6812". The price direct from Wilwood looked a bit high, so I looked on the web, where interestingly most places wanted more money than from Wilwood directly. Then I discovered I should be using the Wilwood part number instead of shape and compound numbers; that got me a bunch more hits, including some BP-10 street pads off Amazon at a good price and free shipping.

While I was blowing the budget I picked up a Southwest Speed splined, ring release steering wheel quick disconnect and, a 10-slot fuse block, a 100-pack of shrink-insulated spade terminals, and a four-post battery disconnect switch.

A few all-nighters doing data recovery and building a new server for a client did wonders for the car budget, anyway...


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PostPosted: November 24, 2015, 9:19 pm 
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Location: central Arkansas
The brake clips, the flaring tool, and the Southwest Speed splined steering wheel coupler showed up. The coupler looks very nice and fits tightly, but it's scratchy and and stiff to operate. The little slip of paper blister-packed with it says "DO NOT OIL" and also says "replace coupler every 200 insertions.

I'd also not considered that with the relatively fine splines, it would be easy to put the steering wheel on in the wrong position.

Perhaps the hex joint with the locking pin is a better system...


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PostPosted: November 28, 2015, 9:33 am 
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Location: central Arkansas
I had one of those universal-replacement ignition switches in a parts box, but I was cruising the web looking at switches anyway. My wife chose this one because the ignition key was "cute!"
Attachment:
Massey ignition switch.jpg

Note the double nuts for sheet metal mount and the ridged neck, which seems to be designed to keep it from rotating in a wooden dash panel. That was a problem with the Dorman switch in the bin - the springs inside were so stiff that the switch would turn no matter how hard you cranked down on the mounting nuts. The Massey switch also appears to have a D-shape at the threads to help keep it from rotating.

I'm hoping that being a tractor part, there's some measure of water resistance as well. Tractors have to operate in the rain, anyway. $7.59 + $1 shipping from Amazon.

I was looking for rotary headlight switches and found what at first looked ideal: Standard DS-380, for an '88-'92 Pontiac Le Mans. The switches are everywhere for $20. Round hole, file some slots for the retaining ears, push it in. But nobody seems to have the mating connector, which looks nothing like an normal GM connector. That turned out to be because the '88-'92 was actually a rebadged Daewoo. I found some other names it was sold under in different countries and batted zero each time. It has blade connectors, so theoretically I could hook it up by pushing female spade connectors onto it, but I found this instead:
Attachment:
Farmall headlight switch.jpg

That's a Farmall Cub rotary headlight switch. That's the early style; the later ones have a different knob:
Attachment:
Farmall late switch.jpg


The Farmall switches are available in 6v or 12v. Some are three position, some are four. "Three" means off-dim-high, which I can wire to off-park-on. "Four" apparently has something to do with the charging system on some models.

I like the early style a lot. Downside: $45-$55+shipping. I'm going to check the local Tractor Supply Co. before I order, though.


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PostPosted: November 28, 2015, 10:20 am 
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Location: central Arkansas
Attachment:
HF tool cart.jpg


http://www.harborfreight.com/580-lb-cap ... 95659.html

I bought one of these last year for $129. Immediately afterward, of course, they went on double-extra-sale for $99. This is a BIG heavy-duty cart, much better than the usual Harbor Freight quality. It's workbench height - 38" tall - and weighs almost a hundred pounds empty.

I have some rather bulky tools and fixtures that were overrunning my rollabout boxes. This thing has room for all of them and to spare. The lid is also sturdy enough to use the cart as a portable workbench. The drawers aren't quite so sturdy, but it's HF after all... I like this thing a *lot*, given the price.

Last night I found they were back on sale for $99 and my local HF had a few in stock. I slogged through the downpour and got one. The growing pile of project car parts in my computer room will hopefully migrate out to the shop and the cart...


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PostPosted: November 28, 2015, 11:23 am 
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I would give the ignition barrel a miss, that uses a generic lucas plant key which fits loads of agricultural machinery . http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LUCAS-KEYS-FR ... 4af4b1a324

Bob

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PostPosted: November 28, 2015, 4:19 pm 
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They all take the same key? Excellent! I was wondering how I would come up with some spare keys...

I'm not really worried that some potential thief might be walking around with an old Massey tractor key on his ring, even if he recognized the keyhole.


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PostPosted: December 2, 2015, 9:53 pm 
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My 3" .062 ERW tubing came in. I had them saw the 20' stick into four pieces; that'll make four DeDion tubes. Theoretically I could get five tubes, but I left some to hold on to while bending.

I also bought most of the rest of the steel I need - square tube for the chassis, various sizes of round tube and round bar for A-arms, steering column, bushing sleeves, etc. I'll pick it up Friday.

The steelyard gave me a smoking deal on 1" .18ga 304 stainless square tube, so the chassis will be stainless. Brackets and bits will be plain mild steel, so it'll have to be painted. This is "mill finish", so it's not pretty like the brushed or polished tube. This the same stuff as the 1-1/4" tube I've been making floor supports out of for years, except it's only 1". The stainless welds beautifully compared to plain carbon steel.


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PostPosted: December 2, 2015, 10:11 pm 
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TRX wrote:
The steelyard gave me a smoking deal on 1" .18ga 304 stainless square tube, so the chassis will be stainless. Brackets and bits will be plain mild steel, so it'll have to be painted. This is "mill finish", so it's not pretty like the brushed or polished tube. This the same stuff as the 1-1/4" tube I've been making floor supports out of for years, except it's only 1". The stainless welds beautifully compared to plain carbon steel.


You are a lucky skunk... Stainless does weld like butter, and since you're going to be welding to mild steel, you don't need to worry about the nickle/chrome boiling out at the joints as much.

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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.


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PostPosted: December 3, 2015, 7:31 am 
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If the stainless hadn't been available I would have gone with .062 since I'm pretty good at blowing holes in .049 cold rolled...

Drat. I got the 1-3/4" square bar for the front spindles, but I forgot to pick up the 4" rounds for the rear bearing carriers. I'll snag some when I pick up the metal tomorrow.

The Geo bearings press directly into the forged knuckle instead of using a cartridge bearing, so I have to make up some bearing carriers. I'm making them bolt-on like cartridge hubs instead of welding them directly to the DeDion tube.

The tube is a big sheet metal weldment, and I'm expecting to have a couple of "learning experiences" figuring out how to make it without having the rear wheels wind up pointing in random directions!


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PostPosted: December 3, 2015, 11:57 am 
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TRX wrote:
They all take the same key? Excellent! I was wondering how I would come up with some spare keys...

I'm not really worried that some potential thief might be walking around with an old Massey tractor key on his ring, even if he recognized the keyhole.


There is another problem with using these, they work in odd ways and primarily for old school diesels. First position is ignition on, next up somewhere between ignition and cranking is the glow plug feed which is sprung loaded not a position . There are normally no functions for auxiliary live so all you will get is a feed in,an ignition live, a post for the glow plug live and cranking. When you turn off the ignition the generator light live will back feed the ignition circuit so it wont turn off. These were made for pull stop diesel`s. I have got round this using a diode but its not ideal.

Bob

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