Thanks guys! I was out tinkering on the Cabriolet project last night and decided to pull the spare cavy rack apart. It was quite simple, I just need to pull off the seal disc for the ps (looks to be bolted on!), reassemble, and I should have a free manual rack.
Pics tonight, or tomorrow night.
Dan
To go from Power to Manual do you simply remove the plumbing, pump, and plug the line ports on the rack? Does the rack need to be lubricated or maintained at all?
Basically. The simplest way is to loop the lines on the rack, you cant just plug them as you would create pressure (or vacuum) inside the rack on either side of the piston on the rack shaft.
Im am physically “depowering” the rack by following the basic instructions found here: http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/depower.php?x=1
I was surprised that even though my rack looks ALOT diffrent than the miata one (my tie rods actually attach in the middle) the basic construction is nearly identical. It came apart the exact same way etc. Just the pressure seal was different, at least located in a differnt location.
Dan
Thanks for the info.
No problem.
Almost finished the rack “depowering”.
Its really pretty simple. I basically followed these instrucitons: http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/depower.php?x=1
I didnt take step by step pics, so Ill explain quickly.
Remove C clip from the column side of the rack (this will allow the pinion shaft to be removed later)
Remove the large lock nut (I had to beat it loose with a brass drift), the adjustment nut, spring and support yoke,
Remove the small cover on the bottom of the rack, exposing the nut that holds the pinion shaft in. Then tap the pinion shaft, bearing, seal etc, out the top side of the rack, where the C clip was removed in step 1.
This shows the bottom cover and nut removed, exposing the threads on the bottom of the pinion shaft
Here are all the pieces that should now be out
Row 1: bottom cover, pinon nut, top pinion bearing, seals C clip
Row 2: lock nut, adjustment nut, spring, (yoke not shown)
Row 3: pinion shaft
Remove the bolt that holds the pressure seal in place, then tap the seal off the end of the shaft.
Clean up the old shaft, pinion etc, regrease and reassemble
Plug the unused ports however you like. I welded up the holes in the tube nuts that I pulled from the pressure lines.
Rack cleaned up.
Pressure port nuts welded up and everything painted (I have yet to decide how to plug the feed and return lines to the pump).
Tonight Im hoping to get it greased up and reassembled. Ill add the rest of the pics then.
Dan
that is because we both have great minds… 
^haha, must be.
Big progress again tonight.
Finished assembing the modified rack.
Removed the power steering rack, pump, lines, cooler etc.
Mounted the idler pulley (Dayco p/n 89028) by drilling out the middle ps pump mount hole. I still need to machine up a real spacer and get a longer bolt, but otherwise thats done. The tensioner ended up in almost the exact right spot, according to the pointer and marker on the two halves.
Installed the new rack, completly torqued etc.
I weighed everything quickly and it looks like the swap removed about 13-15lbs, not bad.
Dan
EDIT: Gallery fixed!
The factory strut brace wouldnt fit with the new intake, so I came up with a new one.
I had the brackets laser cut, and bent, and then I welded them up and drilled the shock tower mounting holes. The brace itself is 4130 with 1/2" rod ends.
The new brace will allow me to enlarge the hole in the top of the shock tower so I can get the springs out easier for doing bump steer measurements etc. I’ll prob get that cut out wed night.
Dan
looks great, i love everything but you must be an engineer not working on a dead line bc you not an artist.
How long did it take Picasso to paint the painting Guernica?
He worked on it from the beginning of May till the middle of July.
hehe, i hope the pope would like your work… btw do you have any relation to a Jeff Cotter, that works at Northrop Grumman?
Hah.
No relation. My half brother is actually Jeff Cotter, but he lives up near Whiteface.
Dan
Lots of little things done tonight.
-cut shock tower holes out to the size of the hole in the new brace (to allow for more adjustment, and damn it looks way better)
-removed stupid factory fender / firewall braces
-made a blockoff plate for old f/w connector holes on pass side
-rest of the hardware installed on new f/w connectors
-last lined clamp installed on the return fuel line
-replaced washers on camber plates and put bolts in outer holes (so they arent directly adjacent to one another)
-primed and painted the bar part of the strut brace ( brackets tomorrow nite)
Dan
I always hated the way the stock mustang throttle cable attached to the TB, and the way I have it mounted now it made no sense to wrap it way down, then way back up so I came up with my own pulley assembly.
I sourced a pulley for $6 from McMaster, and some cable ends and an adjuster from Flanders. It was quite simple to do. I just had to drill a few holes in the pulley: one for the cable barrel end and two to mount it to the original TB cable flange.
Shortened the stock cavy cable by about two feet and soldered the new barrel end on. This involves flaring the end of the cable after you push it through the barrel. The solder basically just keeps the steel part of the cable from pulling through as it cant squeeze small enough.
Made a simple steel bracket to hold the adjuster?. pretty simple really. I still need to add a return spring , but I have a plan for that, shouldnt take more than a few mins.
Painted the strut bar brackets and installed them along with the bar that I painted a few nights ago.
Installed the valve cover with new hex head hardware. I realy dont like using hex heads, but with the coil mount I couldnt access the socket cap screws to remove the cover (and remvoing the coil mount from the valve cover is a pain). Its not ideal but I can probably remove the cover in two mins.
I pretty much finished everything I had planned. I wanted to mount the MS and ground the main engine harness but there just wasnt time.
Dan
Just read through it all, and as always amazing work. I don’t believe you ever explained the design of the new intake manifold. I know with boosted applications the design isn’t as important with N/A setups, but how did you come up with your volumes? Also, I noticed you used braided S.S. lines for your brakes. Any benefits to that, or did you just do that because you had the line laying around? Can’t wait to see this car out and about.
HUGE progress tonight. I have the engine bay almost all buttoned up.
I think this is all thats left to do in the bay:
Torque intake mani to head
Adjust throttle cable
Terminate harness for crank position sensor and boost control solenoid
Nut / bolt / hose check
Fluids
I really think thats about it.
I still need to finish up some wiring inside but I should be ready to start this thing next weekend!
Dan
Pre-start checks underway
Monday night I finished mounting the MS, grounding the engine harness and removed the stupid window control module and relocated the window switches to the main switch panel. (no pics)
Last night I started going through everything on the MS. I quickly learned that almost none of the sensors were working. Apparently I forgot to add ground wires on the harness (not on the engine bay side thankfully) for the TPS, MAP, CTS and IAT. oops. After adding the 4 ground wires everything worked great.
The next issue is the coolant fan control. I need to add a transistor today to drive the relay. The singal that Im using for fan control now (I was using something different before) just wont turn on a relay, or if it does the current limits are very marginal. Should have time to add that at lunch.
Next big step is to connect the VR sesnsor and make sure I have the polarity correct while cranking with a scope.
After that a quick check to see that Im getting spark, and it should be ready to turn over saturday!
Dan
Great work as always…
What type of solder did you use? If you used Sn/Ni solder it will not bond to the Steel cable. It may appear to hold for now but it will be a cold solder joint that will fail over time. You would be better off actually hitting the end of the cable with your welder to achieve the same purpose.
I think I skipped a post, but this is where I am at now with this thing…
I figured out the priming issue… I had the priming pulses set to 0ms, oops.
However, the car still wont start. It doesnt seem to like the crank trigger.
Last night I upgraded to the newest MS2 extra code and got TunerStudio working. I also got the stim card built up (on monday) and went through everything over the last couple nights (and acutally found a wiring error with the injector outputs, which is fixed now) Everything is working perfectly on the bench.
I tried the MS quickly in the car late last night and its still not quite reading the crank trigger correctly. Its seeing all of the teeth, but not recognizing the missing tooth.
Im hoping to get back to it tomorrow nite. Hopefully adjusting the VR trigger pots will do the trick!
Dan
So I now have a tach signal! Adjusting the VR pot(s) did the trick.
I then verified that all the injector outputs are operational right to each injector.
Also 3 of the 4 spark outputs look like they are working perfectly. Cylinder 1 is “odd”, it only fires occasionally. Im not exactly sure what is up yet. Its very wierd, the output can drive an LED ok, but it just wont fire the coil reliably (maybee the coil driver is iffy). Hopefully I can nail down this issue tomorrow am.
Then I just have to fix one AN fitting on the fuel return line and it should be ready to fire, for real.
Dan
waiting…
few updates since my last post…
12 Jun
Finally figured out the spark issue. Cyl 1 coil driver IC is bad. I think its going into current limit when trying to drive the acutal coil. It will light an LED on the stim board ok. Also if I swap cyl 2 drive signal to cyl 1 coil everything is good.
13 Jun
Picked up a civic center console on ebay. Took a little time to get it to fit well. Basically just needed to extend the middle 1.25" and trim the back part by the floor of the ebrake section. I also deleted the cup holder and glued the cover of it permanentl in place. I was able to use the stock civ shift boot which was nice.
14 Jun
Ordered a couple new coil driver parts, they are due in wed or thrus.
16 Jun
Covered and installed the new center console parts. Worked on some random wiring things, vacuumed the carpet etc.
Pics of console:
Dan
