Instrumentation

Slow progress, but moving forward

(05/27/2024)

Ok, it’s been a month+ since I last posted, but I have been busy and haven’t had a chance to do much with the car.

One exciting thing though is that the Torque Trends TorqueBox 3:1 reduction box is here and it is beautiful!

I also start designing brackets for the Volvo-based power steering pump. I really wanted to put an electric motor-based rack assist off a Kia, but it just won’t fit with how tight things are both under the dash and to the rack, so this is the next best thing. Making the brackets out of 3d prints first to make sure everything fits up, then will make them out of metal.

Lastly I’m working on revision 4 of the turn signal controller board. Rev. 1-3 did not work out so well. Hopeful I have it right this time!

Brakes are (basically) done!

(03/31/2024)

This weekend I bolted the brake booster in for what I hope is the last time. I made a gasket for the lid and did my best at bending the nickel-copper lines. I then designed and 3d printed a small clip to hold the lines in place. It didn’t turn out too bad!

I started working on the throttle for the vehicle. Using the existing pedal because no modern electronic pedal will fit, but rather than using all the linkage over (that was used for the transmission kickdown and cruise control) I am running the cable right to the pedal. The issue is that the gap in the pedal had to be widened about .020″ – – which meant I had to do this sketchy thing:

Aside from all that I also cleaned up the instrument cluster mid plate and primed it. Hope the right color paint arrives this week and I can get the cluster going again!

Brakes are nearly complete

(03/24/2024)

I’ve been sick most of this weekend so I haven’t done much here. However, I have the brake box completely painted and assembled for (hopefully) the last time. I need to make a new throttle ingress plate first before I bolt this to the car, but I’m close. I also mounted the brake proportioning valve and plumbed that in.

It’s been close to two years since I started the taillight portion of the project, but I finally drew up the PCB for the taillight controller. I have sent this out to Oshpark to make a board and hopefully no mistakes!

Gauges!

(02/24/2024)

At one point I was going to go full digital on the gauges. Old school 7-segment displays. Then I changed to use some round TFTs I found – – but those ended up having some driver issues and the ‘fix’ I didn’t like and felt it had some longevity constraints.

So, back to analog gauges! The speedometer can stay the same, the center four “roller gauges” will be a display (that isn’t as critical) and the tach is now changed to be an amp gauge. I’m fairly happy with how this came out, however the dry transfers I had made were not the best; even though I sent vector files to ensure they would be perfect, they have imperfections.

I’m going to let it go for now and know that I have another tach I can clean and paint and redo the gauge when I feel like it. Enjoy!