The new 1200 acquisition

[DRIVEN]

Everything I just read is full of awesome. Congrats on the new place.

[Laecaon]

The house from what I can see looks awesome. And nice to see the car nearly on the road again!

[Gray]

Everything I just read is full of awesome. Congrats on the new place.

The house from what I can see looks awesome. And nice to see the car nearly on the road again!

It's definitely getting closer to running, helps to have a work space again, but so much left to do.

So glad to be out of the duplex and back into a house with a shop. House is in super good shape, previous owners were super meticulous.

Still some things I want to to change around as funds become available of course, and I'm also keeping my eye out for a 720 KC 4x4 because of course I need another project and want a 4x4 pickup.

[datsunfreak]

I'm 10 years in and just fired the engine for the first time this week. You're doing just fine.

[Gray]

Did some more work today. Hooked up speedometer cable, some fuel line, and some other minor stuff.

[DRIVEN]

And...then?

[izzo]

lol right, and theeeen

[Taterhead]

who’s this guy^^









And I’ll 3rd,

And then?

[Gray]

Well then...

So, I have actually been working on this lately, just not been taking pictures or posting. Spent all day in the shop working on this and doing some clean up and installing pegboard. Spent the last time I had shop time moving the access stairs to the mezzanine over (no fun at all).

Done so far since last posting:
Installed reworked KA harness and mounted JWT ecu, ended up under passenger seat. I also ripped out the 1200 engine harness, labeled all the wires cut out the unnecessary and tied in the new bits to the alternator etc., and rewrapped and then reinstalled it. Also completely finished the fuel system and it is tied into the harness/relays. Spent a lot of time adding in mounts for the fuel line and flaring the damn line for the fuel injection system to finish it off today. Injectors and new seals also got installed a while back.

Currently working on cooling system, I put in a fill port in the top line which doesn't show in the pics. Also, purchased a fan relay temp switch that fits in the hole of the radiator and I've been working on wiring that up today. I pulled the radiator back out today to fit the electric fans, but will need to do some minor trimming etc.. to get them to fit. Spent most of the day working on it and called it quits about midnight.

I tried mounting up the parking brake as I had a NOS cable but the 510 rearend setup is very different and I will need to try a different method and fab up some brackets.

Progress:
Currently fuel system is done. Still need to build a splash shield to go over the pumps but that is not necessary for test firing.
Electrical system is mostly done.
1) Basically just need to hookup the "power on with key" switch wire up, holding off on that as I looked under the dash and the stock wiring to the key looked hacked up, may just hook to a on/off switch for testing purposes until I sort out the ignition switch.
2) wire up the electric fans and the relay, hope to get that done tomorrow when I wire up and mount the fans, might need to build a baffle and do some trimming of the front valence to get everything to fit.

Still a hundred little things to do. Currently have it broken down into 3 parts, 1) things needed for test fire, 2) things needed to test drive, 3) things needed for reliability and safety (like brake upgrade etc..).

Some related in progress pics:

[DRIVEN]

Awesome. I know a lot of guys absolutely hate wiring but I find it relaxing.

[Gray]

Awesome. I know a lot of guys absolutely hate wiring but I find it relaxing.

As do I.

[Taterhead]

Good, I know of at least 2 guys I could send my harnesses to then…

[Laecaon]

I also find wiring relaxing.

[Taterhead]

And now I’m up to 3.

[Gray]

Stuff got done over the weekend.

Radiator fans are mounted and wired up and relay set to trigger from relay fan switch in radiator. Top hose was actually put back on after this pic, but I need to change out the hoseclamps as they are way too long, you can also see that I went with the filler neck in the top hose, ended up finding one for $5 I believe from Phil. Not too fond of the ziptie through radiator fan mounts, they look kind of ugly on the back side in the engine compartment, but they do work. This took way to much time it feels like and about 10 times of mounting and unmounting the rad, this pic was taken somewhere in the middle of that before I had the fans and hoses connected.

Still a ton of things to do, but getting closer, probably going to spend quite a while just trying to remember what crap I got half-way with and then forgot about.

Next thing to focus on will probably be battery mounting. The battery shelf has been shaved and the frame rail mount is way too small and kind of in the way at this point. I'm thinking I'll need to do a remote battery in the trunk, currently everything in the engine bay is running to the positive terminal on the starter as a tie in point, with connection to the alt bat+. Been a little bit reluctant to drop the money on the relocation kit as they are not cheap, I figure I need 20ft or so of 4 to 2 gauge wire. May just build up one myself at this point.

After that will be the accelerator cable, did some measuring on that over the weekend, and how much throw the pedal has and that is actually consistent, might just see if there is some generic cable I can find that will fit without having to hack the 2 cables together or modify the firewall to fit the KA truck cable.

Note: The way the ecu is mounted under the seat is on purpose, I also maneuvered the fuses so they can be changed without removing the seat, just in case.

[DRIVEN]

I'll have an update in my wagon thread probably later today that may shed some light on your battery situation.

[Gray]

Ok, I took a look at the thread. Never thought about putting it under the seat like that. I may have to stick the seat in (MR2 seat) and see what clearance I have. Currently the car has a bit of aluminum channel on the frame rail for a battery of this style, it just is super close to the oil filter and the radiator hose. I'm not a huge fan of small batteries in general but I have run the old odyssey batteries these are based off in a couple of projects before many years ago (24v in series running a 10hp electric motor) and they do seem to work well.

[Laecaon]

Cable, go find a stripped BMW in a yard. They all run rear mount batteries... of course that is labor...

Small battery, you can find a Deka ETX18L. Barely bigger than a Odyssey, a bit more reserve capacity. I also placed it under the rear seat of my wagon (it folds up).

[Gray]

Cable, go find a stripped BMW in a yard. They all run rear mount batteries... of course that is labor...

Small battery, you can find a Deka ETX18L. Barely bigger than a Odyssey, a bit more reserve capacity. I also placed it under the rear seat of my wagon (it folds up).

Did not know that about the BMW, with some research it looks like a 325I has a 00 gauge wire. Ok, well I will have to hit up the junkyard. My other option was some 20ft 4 gauge battery cables I had seen at the Bimart.

[Gray]

Spent some time today working on misc. bits and pieces. Biggest was tackling the exhaust pipe and figuring out an accelerator cable.

Holy crap is the distance between the steering box and exhaust manifold tight. Ended up doing a lot of removing flanges from the downpipe, removing the extra shielding and even some hammer based clearance on the pipe where it rubbed the steering box, still need to move the clutch line flange as it hits and maybe shim the motor mounts a bit to get more room. It is very close to the steering box, the speedometer cable, and the clutch line. But it looks like it will fit now, had to stop work as it was getting to be a bit late.

Also worked out the accelerator cable, I have a truck cable for a KA and a stock 1200 accelerator cable and originally was going to splice the two together as the 1200 cable is too short. Some extensive research later and an idea and I've ordered a RHD 1200 cable as it looks to be long enough, will tell when it comes in.

Last mystery was some of the weirdness with the ignition as I had an extra cut blue wire on the back of the electrical part of the switch and the back of switch looked wrong with soldered on wires instead of push on and in the wrong colors. Well some headscratching later and a trace through the wiring diagram and I've figured out someone replaced the electrical part of the ignition switch with one out of a B210, also noted the whole switch assembly is not in line with the notch for the steering wheel lock.

I might post pics up later, nothing super exciting though.