Banpei's new TA60 family cruiser

[banpei]

Bad news: after waiting two weeks, Amayama cancelled my order. Their response is that the pump no longer is in stock and/or produced.
I have now sent an email to PTZ to inquire what I can do now. I did find in their 2012 catalogue that they used to produce a replacement for my pump with partnumber 4535. I ordered one for a Carina from 1979 and later, but the partnumbers don't match and it's different than mine. So perhaps they can shed a light on it...

[The Doctor]

Put in a small electrical fuel pump for carbs instead?
Or try and rebuild your own? It's probably the membrane which causes the issue.

[banpei]

(08-27-2023 10:49 AM)The Doctor Wrote:  Put in a small electrical fuel pump for carbs instead?
Or try and rebuild your own? It's probably the membrane which causes the issue.

Yes that's an idea r.ave also had. He offered me a kit he got with his itb kit and wasn't necessary for his setup in the end. It has an electric pump and a fuel pressure regulator.
I'm not sure where exactly it leaks as the mechanic just told me the pump is leaking, so I reckoned it cracked somewhere. If not it could be rebuild.
PTZ came back to me and ensured me that if the lobe of the pump is correct, they can offer the same one with a return line.
So I have at least three options to go for. To be honest, I don't care for originality and any of these solutions would be fine with me.

[banpei]

No news on the fuelpump as my mechanic is on holiday...
However, I couldn't sit still and do nothing. As I made the decision to keet the Carina, I made a short list of all the things I want to do with the Carina. One of the easier things I could do that wouldn't require me to be near the Carina were the Japanese facelift tail lights.

If you don't remember these, I bought them about 10 years ago and mounted them on the Carina:

And they look like this when mounted on the Carina:

I found out back in a day that there was an issue with the electrical connections not being 100% the same between the EUDM and JDM tail lights. To overcome this, I mounted the inner guts of the EUDM lights (containing the wiring and light sockets) right onto the JDM ones. This works, but there is an issue as the Japanese has a single lens with a dual fillament bulb handling the brake lights and the tail lights in the middle section, while the European has three separate lenses in the middle. I think this picture makes it a bit clearer:

Top ones are the EUDM and the bottom ones are the JDM spec tail lights. The issue is that there is only a single lens for the brake light, tail light and fog light whilst these are separate bulbs. This is not allowed, but hardly anyone would ever notice. However someone did: I did encounter a warning at the APK (MOT) renewal in 2017 that I should address the tail lights as the single lens wasn't allowed and also my reflectors were corroded (as you can see in the picture above). So in 2019 I de-JDM-ed the Carina:

The reason why I had corrosion on the reflectors was simple: both tail lights suffered from a broken bolts (it already arrived with one broken) and bad old worn seals. This caused water to creep into the tail lights and do it's oxidizing work.
Also, as you can see in the photo above, the indicator lens has become faded and yellowed and that also requires some attention. Since 2019, these JDM tail lights were in a box in my basement waiting for me to finally address these issues: correct the wiring of the JDM internals, fix the snapped off bolts, create new rubber gaskets and try to revive the shine by polishing them. So what I did this week was first figure out how to address all these issues one by one.

I started with figuring out the wiring. I found out the following connections were present on these connectors:

EUDM connector on the left, JDM connector on the right.
The pinout: (pin 1 on the top right, pin 6 on the bottom left)

Code:

pin EUDM    JDM
1   reverse reverse
2   turn    turn
3   tail    absent
4   fog     tail
5   ground  ground
6   brake   brake

Edit: I have reversed the pins to match the female connectors in the EWD, which are naturally mirrored
So it's clear I need to move pin 4 on the JDM tail lights to position 3 and everything should work as a charm!
Why didn't I do this 10 years ago?

I also made a first attempt in replacing the snapped off bolt. The issue is that the frame of the tail lights has been moulded around these bolts, so replacing them won't be easy. So my idea was to drill a tiny hole in them and then step up the drill a notch every time. Then tap some thread and insert an M5 threaded rod and glue it with some metal glue or JB Weld.

Step one: make the surface as flat as possible to allow me to center the hole:

My first thought was to use a punch tool to make a good center, but I quickly abandoned that thought as I would need a rigid surface underneath the frame (and lens) and that probably would damage it.
So instead I used a 0.5mm drill and it was good enough near center of the bolt. Then I increased size to 2mm and it now looks like this:

For M5 it should go up to 4mm and then I would be able to make a thread. Fingers crossed that this will work out as intended.

I will cut a rubber gasket using 2mm EDPM rubber that I found at the hardware store, so more will follow!

Also on my todo list are to revive the Black Racing rims:

They require new tires, but before doing so I'll paint them. I'm not sure if this will be a diy job or whether they will be powder coated (like I did on the Celica Supra rims). These rims are cheap knock offs, so do they deserve such treatment?

[decryphe]

Interesting stuff. Didn't know that each light has to have its own lens.

Quote:These rims are cheap knock offs, so do they deserve such treatment?

Cheaper to buy new? Buy new.
Cheaper to paint? Paint.

[banpei]

(09-01-2023 09:21 AM)decryphe Wrote:  Interesting stuff. Didn't know that each light has to have its own lens.

I think it was this bit:

Quote:De glazen van de lichtarmaturen mogen niet zodanig zijn beschadigd, gerepareerd of bewerkt dat de lichtopbrengst en het lichtbeeld dan wel de functie nadelig worden beïnvloed.

Which would translate that they are not allowed to be damaged, repaired or modified to limit the amount of light emitted and influence its function in a negative way. As the brake light and fog light both were on the outer side of the Fresnel lens, they would give a distorted light that wouldn't be focused. So yeah, not according to spec and quite open for interpretation whether they influence the working in a negative way.

Quote:

Quote:These rims are cheap knock offs, so do they deserve such treatment?

Cheaper to buy new? Buy new.
Cheaper to paint? Paint.

I like that simple rule. They are definitely not cheaper to buy new or get second hand including shipping, so maybe I should powder coat them after all.

[banpei]

Today I polished the Japanese tail lights. Here's a before (left) and after (right) picture:

They really came out nicely and no longer look faded. However, if you compare them against the European tail lights you can obviously see they have a much less deep orange and even a bit more yellowy. It makes me even suspect they are supposed to be yellow from factory.

Mine aren't GT-R items and probably ST or SG spec. Comparing them against the ST coupe tail lights gives me the confirmation they aren't deep orange:


Edit
-------
More proof the indicators are yellow.
Set of 1985 GT-TR TA63 tail lights:

Set of 1984 GT-R AA63 tail lights:


-------

Next step is to fix the bolts, paint the frame and cut the rubber gaskets.

[banpei]

(08-31-2023 10:05 PM)banpei Wrote:  No news on the fuelpump as my mechanic is on holiday...

After four long weeks waiting the mechanic finally is back!

I visited him today and showed him the incorrect PTZ fuel pump. His first plan was to mix and match the two pumps and put the diaphragm of the new one in the old one. Unfortunately the PTZ is an aftermarket pump and the two pumps have a different diameter. So exit plan A.

So plan B is now to use the PTZ pump and plug the return line to the gastank as the pump doesn't have the return line for excess fuel. The carb has a float that will shut off the fuel supply. This means the excess fuel will no longer be returned via the return line and the pump will continue to put pressure on the line when the float closes the line. He thinks the pressure is low enough for it not to leak as carbs normally have a low pressure fuel pump. If not, we can always put a fuel pressure regulator in between to lower the pressure on the carb. Keeping my fingers crossed that I get the Carina back in a few days!

[banpei]

The past week literally was a two steps forward and one back.

First of all, the mechanic installed the fuel pump and the engine ran beautifully. However, on my way home (to the garage) I noticed sometimes it didn't run that smoothly. Especially when cruising (like 10% throttle) or when idling at a traffic light it rumbles a bit. I parked the Carina in the garage and was happy I could finally drive the Carina again:


So the next Wednesday I decided to wash the Carina once more as it became very dirty during the engine overhaul. I also decided to try to figure out what was up with the rough running and paid attention while driving. I washed the Carina and when I was done it refused to start. I tried starting it multiple times but to no avail.
So I had to leave behind my freshly washed Carina at a nearby parking lot. Now it was covered with a bunch of new dirty handprints because I had to ask some construction workers to help and push:


Later that day I received a call from the mechanic that he was able to start the Carina instantly and drove it back to his workshop. The next day I visited his workshop and he proudly tried to start the Carina, but to no avail. He traced back the issue to the float not closing off properly and therefore flooding the carb. Just pressing full throttle will alleviate this issue, but it's not a solution. So I have to find a replacement float-needle. So far I have only been able to find a complete rebuild set for the Aisin carburetor and this costs about 100 euros. At the same time, I could get a Chinese reproduction carburetor for about 150 euros, so I'm thinking about going for the latter.

I also had the tires removed from the Black Racing rims:

The plan is to paint them this week in gunmetal grey and get new tires next week.

Finally, I also made some progress on the JDM tail lights. I tried drilling a deep enough hole into the base of the bolts that snapped off. Apparently, I overdid it a bit and the first bolt I tried became too hot and melted the plastic slightly to sink into the frame. I then decided to change my plan and remove the base of the bolt (as it was now a bit loose) and replace the snapped-off bolts with bolts from an old EUDM tail light that I sacrificed for this purpose. I didn't try the heat trick on them, but immediately took my dremel and removed some material.

And then inserted the bolts into the JDM tail lights and filled up the gaps with glue:

Next thing on the list is to paint the frame black and red and then they should be ready to be installed again!

So all in all, one step back and two steps forward. Does anyone have experience with Chinese copies of Aisin carbs? Or should I just go for the rebuild?

[The Doctor]

21301 VALVE SUB-ASSY, NEEDLE
21301-15160

Thats the Toyota part number of the needle valve.
Should be around 40 euro from Toyota (if it's still available).

Weird that the carb is flooding now. Normally they don't go wrong, unless some dirt is inside the fuel bowl, or someone messed with the float height, or the needle valve.

Not sure about chinese copies of the Aisin carbs, never had anything to do with them.


//edit: i've asked a friend, he might have some spare ones.