654 replies to this topic

[rustandoil]

Turning into a bit of a thread hijack, sorry

If you look t the Z-Cars Facebook page you will see a Hayabusa powered Elise fitted with a Z-Cars "drivebox" a product that is apparently under development, I suspect this to be similar to the Quaife product................

[2000lukey]

Yes,
I think that has been in there for a while now,
I suppose it was simple enough and light for grass track racing to have a chain drive, but when it progressed to road legal that part of the design did not move on,

It would fix your electrical issues )

[Alburglar]

I'm thinking more like another £4 relay rigged up to my neutral light, so that when I'm in neutral the relay cuts off any feeds from the rectifier charging the extra battery. Or preferably wiring the relay so that the push button is activated, the relay cuts off the feed from the rectifier to the extra battery.

I will try it first with a fully charged, completely standalone battery to check it works, and then with it being charged by the rectifier, with, as koss suggested, a switch to break the link to the rectifier to test that theory. If that works then hopefully my relay idea will work.

Thanks for the brainstorming everyone, much appreciated.

[Alburglar]

err edit - Kirk's idea, as I now see he has beaten me to it!

[2000lukey]

That sounds like the best solution, simple and effective. Hope all goes well with it, I will stay tuned for more of your updates! Mine is a minus to.
(have you done anything with the roof support / door frame bar on your shell? Just wondered) cheers.

[Alburglar]

Is yours an original minus Luke? Or a new remake?
Mine is original and has an integral steel hoop in the middle where the B-pillars are, that ties in all the seat belt bolts. Mine also had steel moulded into the floor where the rollcage feet were and where the front subframe met the floor, perhaps mine was spec'd as a motorsport / trackday shell from factory, because the floor did not look like it had been cut retrospectively to fit the plates in for the rollcage. Check out pages 22 and 28. I basically de-rusted all the steel and covered it back up.

[koss]

I'm thinking more like another £4 relay rigged up to my neutral light, so that when I'm in neutral the relay cuts off any feeds from the rectifier charging the extra battery. Or preferably wiring the relay so that the push button is activated, the relay cuts off the feed from the rectifier to the extra battery.

I will try it first with a fully charged, completely standalone battery to check it works, and then with it being charged by the rectifier, with, as koss suggested, a switch to break the link to the rectifier to test that theory. If that works then hopefully my relay idea will work.

Thanks for the brainstorming everyone, much appreciated.

Thats the solution no room for quafe reverse boxes on a rwd mini. over and out.

[2000lukey]

Always room!

Yes it's original status minus, I will check out the pages cheers. Its just a bit annoying having that rusty crap (made as good as possible) sealed into the shell when everything else is so rust free and tidy,
Some people have removed it completely on the minus register, so I am told.

[Alburglar]

Well I had a few minutes today. I wired a second battery completey seperately and charged it up. I hit the reverse button and.....
...well nothing happened, the engine stays running but there isn't enough oomph to turn the wheels backwards. I'm gonna try with the power cap in as well as the battery and wire it all in properly when the relay I ordered turns up. If it doesn't work with the cap, then I don't know what else to try apart from bigger batteries and caps?

Edited by Alburglar, 11 December 2011 - 07:41 PM.

[Alburglar]

I did a couple of other little jobs too. I set up the acewell digidash. First you're supposed to figure this out:
Tire Diameter (inch) x 25.4(mm/inch) x 3.1416 = wheel circumference (in mm).
Which for me with 13's should end up being 1037mm.- Should be, because the instructions give a figure chart for various wheel sizes, the smallest at 15 is 1197 and every one above that is +80mm. ie 16 is 1277, etc.
You have to press and hold both buttons on the dash to enter setup mode. You then flick through each setup stage like the clock, then set the rpm that you want it to warn you to shift at. It's default was 12500, and I wasn't exactly sure, so I left it at that. Then I set the SPC (Signals Per Crank rotation) setting to 0.5, because R1 carb has a waisted spark ignition system, it gives off twice as many signals per rotation as other non-waisted sparks engines would. This sorted my rpm reading double, so I was very happy with that.
Next I entered my weird circumference figure in, this is to collobrate the speedo. We'l have to wait and see if that works on the road.
Then I set mph instead of kph.
Sorted!

[bristolminimad]

when i set my acewell dash up, i measured the circumfrence of the tyre, and i ended up with a pretty accurate spedo. but once you have set it right, the dash never forgets it!

[The Matt]

Ali, sunshine..... your rolling circumference is the rim diameter, plus the height of the tyre (calculated from the aspect ratio of 50), which is then doubled, then multiplied by 3.14159...

A 175/50R13 is actually something like 1587mm.

[The Matt]

And I find the Acewell dash really good to be honest.

[Alburglar]

Ok I'll change it to that then.
I took for another drive and the speedo works, the revs are spot on and now so is my idle.
and as for the reverse, we have progress.
I charged the battery for ages, added the power cap rigged up a seperate feed to rectifier via an on off switch in the off position.

I hit the button and I reversed very slowly for about 5 seconds before it ran out of juice. Rubbish.
Battery is 600amp and cap is 2 farad. I can buy a 35 farad cap and a1600amp battery, but I am wondering, is it worth it? We'll see
I ran the car, and checked the main battery with meter - 13.80 volts from rectifier with feed to 2nd battery off. 13.40 volts with feed to second battery on. Not brilliant, but its a start. I will upgrade to thicker wiring and try again.
I also have added this cigarette lighter, hidden under px side of dash.

It's so I can add a battery conditioner for when cars not in use and satnav to make sure speedo is accurate.

[Alburglar]

Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I got some speed up on the last run and I have NO BRAKES!!!!!
Metro master cylinder is going on, next job!