The "Hurry Up and Wait" build

[thedave925]

Large connector behind gauge cluster, had to relocate some pins in order to use the old connector, and the turbo indicator plug had to get switch over.
The pins didn't fit the newer connector so i soldered it and heatshrink after:


Additional plugs by kick panel to be switched to newer year plug style




Other news, I helped SupraStroker88 with his Santa Cruz supra, its running now YAY
Harness needed repair: remove scotch-loks, replace couple plugs


He got a real deal on this supra, the guy just wanted it gone and anything related.
Hooking up the starter, I peeped this:

What clutch is on there too, I don't know still

My GF has a nice country location now. I get to see the hills in the morning

This is a prime example of literal meaning behind "Golden Hills of California".
They are green about 5 weeks of the year, around February/March.
I absolutely love when its green, the way the oak trees stand out on the round hills.
I've been meaning to photo shoot it with the Supra for YEARS now but its always one thing or another holding me up plus the short time window.

MY Supra progress:
Been sourcing prime wires to use for the after market gauges and Accusump EPC.
Driver kick panel fuse location 8 has a blank I'll be removing for a custom harness to plug in with a few inline fuses to supply the daisy chain of gauges with full time 12v+ and the EPC switch.
Hmm that makes me realize the EPC switch oughta to get power from my ACC 12v+ choice: The Red/Blue (R-L) of the cig lighter plug.

Full-time 12v+ for Prosport Premium gauges (memory for peak I believe, illumination color is chosen by wire) from kick panel fuses
ACC 12v+ for EPC and gauges from R-L cig plug wire.
Illumination wire for gauges from G(reen) at Foglight switch plug.
Ground for gauges is from W-B of Foglight switch.

That's the last of the wiring necessary to run at the moment.
Later is the WBo2 and maft-pro, both of which already have leads prepared by the ECU for future install.

Ever closer.
You know what, I dunno how IJ. makes such fast progress. Ever notice how fast he moves day to day? He must be smarter or something (ignore the experience factor please lol)

I plan on mounting the gauges on the steering column. The issue is there will be 5 gauges and I dunno how they'll fit. Custom column cover perhaps?
Obviously I'm avoiding conventional locations.
A-pillar mounting is a bit rice-and-lifted-diesel-truckish around here.
I don't really care for hacking into my gauge panel.
Glove box is far. It should be closed during driving too
The stereo and climate controls aren't moving, and I need my cig lighter for those plug in goodies like GPS and phone charger.
Lining the top of the dash with gauges, it sounds ok but I'd rather not drill my dash or be that obvious.

Sounds like this will be interesting hehe

Edit:
Yes I know solder joints die fast in a car. Wanna know why? The wires got over heated, or too much flux ran up the strands and didn't burn off cuz its under the insulation.
Its true that soldering makes the wire more brittle where the solder ends but the same is true about welding.
Proper crimps are longer term, but good wire solder joints aren't that hard.

Pointers on wire soldering:
- a CLEAN tip of your soldering iron really helps. Wipe it off on a wet sponge after every joint.
- a "Helping Hand" is worth the money (alligator clips on an adjustable stand)
- strip enough wire insulation so it doesn't melt.
- put the appropriate sized heat shrink tubing on before the next step
- twist and j-hook the wires to interlink for easier working of the joint.
- I find it easier to melt a ball of flux cored solder onto the iron tip and then heat up the wires with the wet ball.
- Bigger wires mean more heat/power and larger gauge solders. My 35W iron isn't that great for bigger than 14awg. There comes a point where crimping is more time efficient/RELIABLE, usually 8awg and larger.
- When the joint is melting the solder, I add solder at the intersection of the iron and existing wet solder under the wire, to burn off the excess flux. Enough flux will wick from that location down the strands. Only move the solder on top of the "wet" joint if there's not enough coverage.
- "Enough" is the point where the joint's strands and a bit of the wires up to the joint are coated. You still want to see the shape of the strands when your done.
- Cool ambient temperature and wind will affect the time it takes to heat up the wires. Avoid wind.

I'm a perfectionist. I'm always experimenting if I don't feel something is correct. And I like hearing other opinions as there's more than one way to cut down a tree

 

[thedave925]

ECU location. Ground for Shaeff's Knock sensor rewire kit still needs to be mounted (where'd that 10mm nut run off too???)


The entertainment wiring mess.

4ch patch cable for amp, 2ch patch cable to the same amp (it's 5ch amp), Aux input patch cable, blue is remote amp turn on line, and the antenna plug. Ignore the mess of oem wires, they're abandoned at this point...

The gauges/alarm led & valet button wire mess


Stole 12v+ ACC from the Cig plug Blue/Red stripe wire


*Caution* Do your own homework, wire colors changed through the years, and also vary country to country. Should've put this at the beginning, there's wire discrepancies at many plugs...
Gauge/Misc. wiring

On the signal lever, left pink is to EPC. It gets 12v ACC.
Signal lever right side is another red. That 12v+ Constant, for the gauges. Power is from #8 fuse slot (formerly unused), driver kickpanel.
The dangling blue plug is for the dimmer.
The Black plug is for foglights. Switch it on and you gave the foglight relay a ground so it can let power pass to the foglights. The gauges get their illumination lead from the White/Green stripe wire on this plug.
The beige plug is for the rear window and mirror defroster. Someone previously did the foglight mod with the green jumper. I joined to the jumper junction for the White/Black ground wire.

The solder I used


Filter reloctation:



Filter pics are for Moy
Yes those IC pipes will get redone... and Yes there is a ghetto fabulous cold air intake using plumbing parts (more plumbing parts hehe)
Thought that while I'm running the AFM for smog/break in purposes, might as well have some fun

AND a finished bay... for now.

This is revision 3. Revision 4 already planned for 2012 lol

Still to be done:
- mount drive shaft
- finish interior
- cat back exhaust
- brake/clutch fill and bleed
- PS, coolant, oil fill
- Prime turbo

Other Future ToDos:
- Finish cruise control
- Horn to work with Aftermarket wheel
- MAINTENANCE i.e. suspension stuff etc
- PAINT!!!

 

[thedave925]

Fuel leak prevents engine success: As I cranked the engine, I heard this hissing from under the popped hood. Turns out a couple crush washers at the Fuel Pressure Regulator on the fuel Rail need to be replaced.
Also,
I suspect the brown wire from the TEMS connector from Post 73 is needed to continue the CHK wire that gets jumpered for codes. I plan to sister it in to the CHK Conn. wire at the TCCS pin as a test.

Interior is almost norm except the 3' extensions for the Prosport gauges emerging from the steering column gotta finish that.

Been discovering the hassle of interchanging harness years, now figured out the deep center console doesn't like fitting Airbag cars, braces are raised up front holding up center of console.

More good news, I purchased and mated an 88 steering column harness with spiral ring to the apparently Early 90' column (drill and tap, use spacers due to "step") and now I have a Horn, YAY!
Now for that cruise control...

Plug and Chug, too close to quit

-Dave

 

[thedave925]

Crush washers changed.
With the key to ON, I jumpered the Fuel Pump at the CHK Conn. Box, waited 5 min walking around the car trying to hear the pump over ambient noise lol
No leaks.

Got my Headlight Relay back I lent out for testing purposes.
Installed and tested my own Supra.
Seems my Integration and Retract relays aren't quite on the same page.
Switch to parking lights on, interior lights flash and either go on or stay off.
Flip to head lights, headlights don't pop up. Or if they do, they go down, and Might come back up. Sometimes they go up no issue. And they are on the whole time.
Flip back to parking lights, interior lights flicker as the switch rotates to the next stop, headlights stay up but go off. Sometimes they go down. Sometimes they stay up through the holding setting and retract when flipped to off.

The whole time the gauge lights don't illuminate, and the climate control sometimes flickers at the selection LEDs but the night courtesy bulbs don't light up the buttons at all.

So yes the gauge lights are at a different harness, I suspect the 'JDM tyte' foglight mod green wire at the foglight switch. Easy.
If its not that, I know at least that theres a ground somewheres that shouldn't be.

And I'm still thinking on/studying which wires affect the Integration and Headlight Retract relays. I believe I've got 4 plugs to consider.

Meh, these issues were expected, with all the plug changing and inaccurate info I've had to sort through for this late 89 PRE-early 90 build Chassis.

I trust I can fire her up but want these details sorted. She cranks. The battery light is on when I do turn the key to crank the engine and stays on if the engine isn't running, thats normal.
I didn't check to see if the tach bounced, but then again that might be caused by the missing EFI fuse, I'm probably mistaken.

 

[thedave925]

I spend what free time i can studying the diagrams.
in the 90 tsrm a Yellow wire powers the gauges, I may have missed that in the harness? I'll have to check.

And a low battery (sub +12V) will start making systems act funny

 

[dubsupra209]

hey we have a meet on the 20th hope you come out...the thread is on cencalsupras.com

 

[thedave925]

^^^ I'll try for the meet but I have to bust ass to get the supe on the road and broke-in. and pass smog lol
I can do it yes i can

today I reconnected the original column wiper/lights stalks. That fixes the erratic retracting issues at the 'dimmer' (high/low/retract) switch. So its going back in place.

more to come as I diagnose this wire mess I made for myself

 

[thedave925]

Made decent progress tracing runs, finding out what pinched wires do to good fuses, and got some lights to work.
Then, after finding one of the Yellow power runs from Junction Box 3 didn't have continuity, I decided out goes the dash to switch harnesses, enough with the games.
Tomorrow will be the original harness onto the newer dash.

 

[CajunKenny]

Wiring work. Tedious...............


Are you going to be able to access the air filter for maintenance once it's all buttoned up?

 

[thedave925]

Yesterday it rained/misted all day and I didn't want to move my pop up canopy currently covering my weight set in the back yard.
I spent the day tool shopping and honey-do's.
Picked up a variable speed buffer, a/c manifold kit and vacuum, ventilation blower, and a bunch of supplies for a paint repair coming up.
Still need a full size paint gun because the detailer I have won't be enough, and a bigger compressor now that I see how hungry for air those guns are.

Made a boot scrubber deal, basically mounted the boot scrubber with larger bristles Harbor Freight sells onto the center of a 3' 4x4 for portability.
Stand on the 4x4 and scrub away
Brought that to my GFs, she's on a ranch and have to deal with mud ya know.
and got a new rug for her landing, placed in front of the dog door outside since people know enough not to track mud into the house

Today I'll be trading the harness from the original dash into the newer better shape dash and giving that a shot.
That means I have to trade back over several plugs, not hard but tedious.

And to answer Kenny, yes wiring is much much more involved than i thought, with all the studying and figuring out exactly how unique my chassis is (89 car with too many 90 features).
Hopefully going back the original dash harness will resolve my gauge cluster lighting issues.
I had everything right but that yellow wire at plug B1.
There are 3 yellow wires that supply power to things related to the oem guages, divided by 3 different plugs in my EWD. And I found one without continuity, bummer.
Hence the dash harness trade off.

The filter is temporary until after I pass smog.
A 4" elbow with vacuum fittings in place will be installed along with getting my maft pro up so I can let that turbo breath

I'm thinking about re routing the fender pipe to go through the passenger headlight hole while directing the turbo intake through the fender.... that's in the future though, I just need to get my car up.

 

[thedave925]

Wiring differences, top is my original and bottom is other dash



Of course one of my Yellow leads wasn't powering the dash when the wires in the plugs aren't placed the same!!!

More differences:
Original harness part number

the other dash number


Different vent inputs at driver left
original

other

The opening differ as well

Foglight plugs, different pin out
original:

other:


Behind the dash block plug behind the gauges
original


other



Driver kick panel block plug
Original

You can tell the newer style by the release tab design, and white is white not that faded clear.

Other



Kick panel plug
original


other dash

 

[thedave925]

In short I was practically pulling my hair out for 2 weeks learning all the wire colors, plugs, paths, purposes.
If I hadn't been in a rush to place the dash, and swapped the harnesses as this itch of a thought suggested to do as I started to install the wrong dash/harness combo, I wouldn't have stressed myself so.
As it was, it took me about an hour to pull the entire dash after having EVERYTHING buttoned up nicely the day before yesterday, and today with swapping harnesses and doing pics and a solder job, about 2 hours to start installing the hybrid dash (my original harness, the other dash, my original's driver vent hookup).

So I got all but the lower driver panels reinstalled bar the center console lid.

Flipped the headlight switch, gauge lights came on; for those of you that didn't notice, in the previous post is the comparison of interior light rheostat dial plugs, clearly showing the ground and dim lead switched, which caused my funny headlight retracter issues (a ground always on when not supposed to be).

Turned the key to 'ON', Chk Engine light displayed.
Jumpered Te1 and E1 at the Diag box in the engine bay, positive results. Code 22, the TCCS isn't getting resistance from its water temp sensor (G-Y wire). No biggie.

On thing that got my attention was that the light indicating Cruise Control is on was lit up. So I went and unplugged the relay under the dash and components under the hood. Light off. I'll look into it later, I suspect the different column sticks. But I have a spiral ring and horn with my aftermarket steering wheel, YAY!

In went the clutch pedal, cranked that previously primed assembly and ALMOST had it fire up after several turns.
2 cylinders would fire successfully, the gleam of the new engine peeking through the crack at the hood and windshield revealing how violently the engine kicks for life.
But wouldn't complete the cycle for firing to life, seems my firing order is wrong, or 2 cps/ignitor wires got mixed somewhere along the way, the plugs looking healthy for the most part.

That my friends, is something to visit on the morrow.
It's taken me a full 2 hours to calm down from the thrill of having her live again, the mighty Supra.

No regrets, however much stupid I feel for the dash harness mixup, when I got the feedback I needed tonight, after so many months of time and dollars testing my patiences and smarts.
Hell Yes, Git'r DONE!

 

[thedave925]

SUCCESS!!

Today was very busy, positive, eventful, morning to evening.
Started out as most mornings cooking my GF breakfast. Helped her sort some business product in her place before I took off.
On my way out she gave me her storage key for a few items to leave her dwelling temporarily.

I went to the Home Despot for a couple plumbing finish items to install at a customer's house.
They paid me before I was done!

After I went to a couple pick and pulls for quotes on van transmissions for my e250.
I say NAY!, I will not pay 850 for your product! lol

Then I hit the bank to up the funds in the accounts, more $$$ = more Happy

Finally I started work on the supra @ 330, the clouds rolling in to ruin the beautiful crisp day.
Nonetheless, I kept on to make sure things happened right when I turn that key next.

There was yet another oil leak that made itself known by the puddle that developed over night.
-AN fittings weren't tight?!? hmm, went through the rest I could get to as a preventative.
And I have to reseal the nipple directly off the oil thermostat, or get another thermostat if the casting split (mirror inspection is negative, but hairline fractures can exist...)

Next was verifying the firing order of the "high tension cords (TSRM terms) aka spark plug wires.
TSRM IG-13 lists install order as 5&6, 3&4, 1&2, which is WRONG unless you study the diagram they supply with the inaccurate wiring order.
Left to right, 1-6, 3-4, 2-5 is the order to insert plug lines into the coils.

I turned the key and didn't have much luck.
Jumpering the Diag box helped, but no potatoes.

I was afraid that I mis pinned the CPS, Ignitor or Coil wires at the TCCS end of the different harness.

It had taken me 4 times with the cover off to install the CPS correctly, you know, Cams and #1 Cyl at AbsoluteTDC with the CPS's notch and gear pin lined up as per TSRM, to finish upon insertion with the tab just right of the CPS coil.

So why was I having starting issues?

I clocked the CPS up from its bolt-at-center-of-the-slot position, to have the bolt at the bottom, thinking I needed advance.
Turned the key, hell it didn't even misfire the timing was so off.

Tried again, moving the CPS to have the bolt at the top of the flange slot, to retard was the goal.
Turned the key, Hot Damn that did the trick as the engine coughed itself into a positive compression firing order that moderately pulled itself faster than the starter could work the assembly.

At first it was all so rough and hollow sounding I thought the head gasket hadn't sealed
The moments passed to prove my doubts wrong with stronger fires of life and joy driving away the hollow fires into unmistakably normal reports from each cylinder, I have an live engine again YES!

Then I killed it by way of turning the key to 'OFF'.
I must have my DMV temporary registration pass to avoid LEO harassment.

I don't have a fancy camera or this event would have been posted, but everyone knows how tame a 7m with easier breathing legal exhaust sounds like.

I've yet to notice the oil pressure or speed of RPM climb.
Other details still to come.

 

[CajunKenny]

Congrats Dave!

A fresh start-up never gets old.

 

[dubsupra209]

finally get it ready before the meet on the 20th of this month

 

[thedave925]

Turns out the oil thermostat split.
Looped out the cooler and accusump line for now.
Derale has a similar product with more material to it, hopefully I won't unintentionally split it too.
Obviously I don't intend to rework the oil system much, just opt for different a maker of a similar product.

I did get to DMV for temporary allowance papers, limited to a couple day passes due to my situation of only needing to pass smog.
I get to run in the engine (legally) on Saturday and on Monday.
Sunday is planned for personal rest, 18hr days at full blasts productivity is very wearing (COFFEE is my friend, so is Vit B Complex )

My ToDo list shrinks:
-new oil thermostat
-prosport gauges
-determine cause of Cruise Control on when not set intentionally
-Maintenance
-PAINT <--- Just need a big paint gun, high volume compressor, clean room. Or CASH for trusting someone else to do a good job/not abuse the car...

 

[thedave925]

And she seized up while i was busy setting the cam timing stuff.... Fword.

 

[thedave925]

I bet I got the oil lines to the filter backwards.

Either way I'll be pulling this engine soon and making it ready for the machine shop, cleaning out any bearing debris.

Short of finish line, and I was all amped up this was drivable, very disappointing.

Anyways, I've got a side job I'm going to start and take my mind off this.

 

[thedave925]

Been a couple days, started turning it over in my head.
Called the machine shop, they wanna do the autopsy themselves, as if a bearing shell were wrong/backwards or something.
It still bothers me that the engine ran several minutes (5-10 total) on assembly lube and still didn't pull oil.
I think there might be a blockage at the galley, I don't see any other way.

So I'm going to make it my goal to have this engine out by Thursday (have to be in Sacremento Tuesday evening, 3hr drive).

Think I can make a 3 week turnaround?
Everything else car wise is ready. I even know approximately where the cam timing is supposed to sit now. Thats how far I got before the bearing spun and froze up.

There'll be an update when the diagnosis is in.

 

[CajunKenny]

That's horrible Dave. You seem to be in somewhat good spirits about the whole thing. Kudos for that!

Good luck man!