Cus' NA6

[Nevyn72]

Trains need more crazy people!

Correct!.............But only if they are driving them!

[Cus]

Trains need more crazy people!

Correct!.............But only if they are driving them!

I've seen the crazies they let on to trains, I'd feel a lot better about the world knowing they weren't in control of said trains

Remember my interior lights computer from a couple of pages back? Well, it's getting further and further out of hand. I've unashamedly stolen droo's window ideas, built the hardware, and I think it's ready. I just need to combine Rolley's window timer idea (well, the power component of it) to power the windows when the car is off, and we'll be laughing! No more remembering to wind the windows up, just get out, lock it, and let the car sort itself out. Laziness at it's best. Spending 10s of hours creating a system that will save me hundreds of seconds when summer arrives and I actually have the windows down...

It's stupidly cold outside at the moment, so The window control box hasn't been installed, but the software is built and ready to upload to the car.

"Ready to upload software to the car, sir!" ... I sound like a bad sci-fi movie.

A screenshot.


A photo.


A llama.

[Rolley]

Annnndddd you lost me.

These control boxes you and Droo are making are really impressive. They have far exceeded my capabilities I can follow basic wiring diagrams and copy circuits from photos but coding chips and combining systems, these are just amazing.

Keep up the good work Cus! And if you do break in a moment of weakness and start producing these let me know!

Luke.

[Cus]

I did a trial-run of the window controller this morning.

It seems coding a "smart" window controller isn't something you can design by "smashing out some code and seeing what happens"...

The windows went down excellently, and most of the way back up.... unfortunately every time I put the windows down they went up about 2cm less - I think it's because the end stops aren't triggering, so the computer was loosing track of where the windows really were.... the good news is that "oh crap" code works - it stops the windows if they seem to be doing something they shouldn't - it was designed to be niece-proof. (Four-year-olds and electric windows aren't actually a great combination)

But, that did just give me an idea! lockable windows! If you think you don't need to lock the window switch, go for a drive with a 4 year old for a few hours and then tell me how much you'd like to be able to disable those buttons.

As for producing these kinds of things ... The idea is growing on me. When I get mine to a point where I'm happy to say it does all the things I want, I'll fire up the bat signal and see who's interested, maybe some kind of modular "I want X, Z, not Y" arrangement.

[speed]

^ please put me on your list. After the Llama of course ;)

[Cus]

Dear Diary,

Last week I got a replacement indicator stalk assembly for little red. It arrived in the mail. I was very excited. We had an almost sunny day on Friday. I went to the you-tube, typed "how to replace indicator assembly mx5" and found nothing of interest.

I already knew the basics: undo the allen key bolts at the front of the wheel, undo the big one in the middle, get a puller, pull the hub off, undo a random bolt on the indicator assembly, unplug the wires, pull the assembly off, then do everything in reverse with the new part.

I pulled the car up next to the shed, opened the big door, went to the toolbox, got some items of consequence, and returned to the primary position in the car.

I discovered to undo the big bolt, I needed to have the steering wheel back on, just without the horn; and that I also needed to use the breaker bar to get the leverage required to get the bolt to move. Once I did, we were on, son.

Or so I thought. There are three pullers in the shed. (Four if I'm in there, *baddum-tish*).

• One is a block of who-knows that's been milled into a centre-hole, and two long holes either side. This one was missing the centre-bolt, and has a different thread to everything else on the planet.
• The second one was a ... gecko-foot shaped one. It probably has a name, I do not know it. It had the centre-bolt. but not the edge ones, so I fashioned some out of bolts randomly the in shed, and failed dismally. (it was the wrong size "foot").
• Thirdly among the pullers, we had a tri-claw clamp thingy of mayhem. It's biggest failure was getting it to hold itself in place long enough to tighten it enough to start pulling the hub/boss/thingy off.

So, by this time, I'd spent about 2 minutes getting to the removal of the steering wheel, and then about two hours not getting anywhere after that. My excitement had waned. Considerably.

I stopped for a moment to think about the situation, in order to assess where I was going wrong.

Then, I found the solution!

I re-tightened the centre bolt, I put my horn back in, I put the wheel back on, where I wedge the horn wire behind the steering wheel, which causes it to short out and gave me a couple of minutes of air-horn while I removed all of the front-bolts on the steering wheel again, then I fixed where the wire was routed, put the little bolts back in the front of the steering wheel, I put the plastic trim on the indcator assembly, put the screws to the trim in the leather of the gear shifter (they don't rattle, and don't fall out, and remind me I need to put them back) and put the new indicator assembly on the passenger-side floor.

So, That's the story of how I put a new indicator assembly in the car.

[speed]

I've never used a puller to get the wheel off. Take the big nut out, put the Allen key bolts back in and belt the wheel with the palm of you hand, usually in 3 places around the wheel to loosen it, then undo the Allen keys and pull off the wheel. ;)

[Rolley]

My fail safe has always been to loosen the man nut so its only on about 4-5 full turns. Sit in the seat and firmly grab the wheel at 3 and 9 o'clock and pull back hard one side at a time. Left, right, left, right then try 12 and 6 o'clock.

It should pop right off! Leaving the main nut on stops you from punching yourself in the face with the steering wheel.

[Cus]

I tried everything from a "rubber mallet" to "the english nanny shake". I pushed, pulled, hit, yelled at, spoke softly to, bought flowers for, took to dinner, bribed with money, gave compliments for 'no' reason - it was a busy two hours - but alas, nothing worked.

I'll try guilt next - "I told the forums you were being a sh*t, and they were all like 'ohh! I never!' and made judgy old woman faces" .. yeah, we'll see how that goes, can't be any worse than roaring like an ADHD child and whacking it with the mallet.

[rascal]

but whacking it with a mallet makes you feel the best despite not being able to get it off...

[hks_kansei]

As above, steering wheel on and just pull like mad.
and yeah, keep the ecntre nut on at least a few turns, saves a broken nose.

Get some penetrating oil on the splines to help break the grip, and if you need to only use light taps on the centre nut with a hammer. (leave the nut on, it protects the thread being mangled by the hammer)

Don't smack it too hard though, since the columns have a collapsible bit for crash safety, and smashing too hard can bugger it up.

A steering wheel puller is a lot easier though, but so far i've not found any that really fit the MX5. Closest is a 3 or 4 jaw gear puller.
(also bear in mind the OEM boss is pretty weak, and if you use a puller on it you can bent it out of shape...)

[Cus]

Well, today I put in a concentrated effort into changing my indicator stalk.

Tried another puller, still can't get it started, Hammer, bigger Hammer, please, thankyou, tried random things that look like they might do a thing.... Nowhere.

Was all prepared to offer someone on the forums $50 to get my wheel off, whacked it with the mallet purely for entertainment, and the boss came loose.

THE EFFIN BOSS CAME EFFIN LOOSE! GET THAT UP YA!

Job's on! Wheel off, stalk out, new one on, wheel on, double check "top" is top, nuts up, key in, start car, twiddle knobs.

Everything works! New indicator stalk is much tighter, I'm a very happy little camper indeed!

Seatbelt on, pull out into traffic, look down, and...


It's OK, we can fix that, wheel off, one notch around and wheel back on. Simple.

Or so you'd think. Currently I'm unable to remove the boss again, and my OCD isn't enjoying it one bit.

[Cus]

OK, the mallet failed me this time, however using the handle of the breaker-bar worked a treat. (it fit under the boss and seated nicely against the nut) a couple of 'comeonyacunnovathing"s later, and the wheel was back off. One notch to the right, and she's apples.

I'm pretty sure my steering wheel is a prick.

[speed]

Glad you got it sorted.

[Cus]

Today I spent a bunch of money on car parts. My wallet hates me. The car better love me. Or else. *shakes fist*