Instrument Cluster Pinout

Took a closer look at the underlying circuitry of the instrument cluster yesterday and managed to map out the pins. Perhaps this would be useful later if you wish to troubleshoot indicator related problems.

Left Connector, close to clock.

1. Brake Fluid Level Warning. Goes to brake master cylinder.

2. Oil Pressure Warning. Goes to oil pressure sender.

3. Indicator Lamps Check. If this pin is grounded, all indicator lamps should illuminate. This allows you to see if any lamp is broken.

4. High Beam

5. High Beam

6. Brake Light Warning. This indicates if one of the lamps on the brake light is broken.

7. Battery Acid Level Warning. I have not personally seen any car battery which allows this but i could be wrong. This goes directly to A (the A to D mark above the clock).

8. ACC power supply to clock.

The circuit which is marked with A, B, C and D above the clock is connected as below.

A goes to 7 on left connector

B goes to IGN (+), pin 15 on middle connector

C goes to Battery Acid Level Warning

D goes to Ground

Middle Connector, close to speedometer.

9. Left Turn Signal

10. Right Turn Signal

11. Not Connected

12. Ground (Earth) for Water Temp and Fuel Level gauge

13. To Fuel Level Sender unit

14. To Water Temp Sender unit

15. IGN (+) to all Indicator Lamps

16. Not Connected. Goes to empty indicator below Battery Acid Level warning.

Right Connector, close to tach.

17. Ground

18. +B (constant connection to battery for clock memory)

19. Door Open Warning

20. Fog Lamp? Can't be sure.. The indicator that looks like a lamp with three ray beams.

21. Hand Brake Warning (parking)

22. Instrument Cluster Illumination

23. Instrument Cluster Illumination

24. Tach Signal input to Tachometer

I could be wrong but i did my best to avoid any mistakes. At least this should give you some help to trace any problems later.

Here's the warning lamps.

1. High Beam

2. Brake Light Warning

3. Oil Pressure Warning

4. Battery Acid Level Warning

5. Brake Fluid Level Warning

6. Charge Lamp

7. Fog Lamp?

8. Door Open Warning

9. Handbrake Engaged

Brake and Reverse Light Switch

Fixed two minor problems yesterday. I'd been running The Dog without working brake and reverse lights. Apparently, it was the switches. Here's the replacements.

The connector on the reverse/back-up light switch.

The brake light switch was said to be shared by many Toyotas so you won't have any problem finding the replacement there. Locally, you can ask for Toyota Kijang's switch. I won't be surprised if the switch is shared with Corolla KE70 as well.

The reverse light switch part number is 84210-60021. I can't guarantee if this works with stock Charmant's T50 gearbox since i'm now running W58. It's said to be the same as KF40 Toyota Kijang, the Grand Extra trim to be exact. This switch should work with any G or W gearbox.

Fuel Level Gauge & Sender

Bought this cheap universal fuel level gauge out of curiosity on how it works.

Dissecting the gauge was easy. Pry the outer ring using a screwdriver and pliers. Just be careful not to damage the glass face.

Undo the three nuts holding the needle circuit and insulating plastic.

Here's the gauge's internal circuit.

Circuit diagram.

Looking at the circuit diagram above, one is able to deduct that the ground (-) is not necessary to be connected. You can just connect (+) to ignition line from coil and (S) to fuel level sender, grounding the other end of the sender to close the circuit. To be noted is that the (-) is not connected to the gauge's body. The trimpot is there to adjust the gauge needle to show the actual fuel level.

The more current flows through the electromagnet coil inside the gauge, the closer the needle will point to Full. Without any current, the needle rests on Empty. This means your fuel level sender float should have high resistance on Empty and low on Full. I decided to check whether this is the case with my fuel level sender.

Charmant's fuel sender is confirmed to be the same as KE70's. Confirmed? Yes, i wrote about this earlier.

Here's the connector on the sender. There are two pins. One goes to the gauge and the other gets ground.

Part number on the float.

So, did it pass the test? "Tank"-fully yes.. It gave 10.3 ohm when the float's at Full position and 113.1 ohm at Empty. This will also serve as correction to my earlier post which states that it works the other way around.

Finally, a little customizing and now i have my very own Angry Birds fuel level gauge! lol..

Famous To Famous

Look what got delivered yesterday!

Wrapped my old tires around them.. This is what 185/55/R15 looks on a 7 inch rim.

Slapped on my 4x114.3 to 4x100 25mm adapters.. Getting these adapters is definitely one of the best decisions i made in this project. They open up a whole lot of options when it comes to wheel choice. I'm no longer limited by my PCD measurement.

Et voila!

You refer to RS Watanabes as banana wheels, us Indonesians refer to them as starfruits, all obviously inspired from the spoke design.

So what happened to my other similarly famous wheels? They were sold out of boredom to my friend, Jefry. Since i'm keeping my tires, he has to buy new tires. Yum.. new rubbers.. Here's the Equip 03 replicas on his car.

Decent Daily Driver Dosage

With the audio system's in.. what's short on making The Dog decent for daily use? Correct.. Air-Conditioner.. and that's exactly the latest addition to my car. To be honest, AC is not something i'm too keen on having. It takes up too much space on the already crammed engine bay and stands as just one more headache to look after and maintain. Yeah, when it comes to cars, i'm practically old-skool. I say no to power windows, electric door locks, power steering and all that jazz. Cars should only be about reliability. Heck, i still even question my decision on putting the audio. I don't even listen to it that often.

So why did i do it? Just like anyone else running AC on their car, it's simply too damn hot. I'm fed up of soaking my shirt even on short distance driving. The leather Bride upholstery didn't help much on absorbing the heat (and sweat). It's just a matter of benefits outweighing the hassles. So, with the risk of having to add extra joints on my arms when i work around the engine bay, The Dog is now running air con.

First challenge was finding the spot for the compressor. It wasn't too difficult, right next to the EDIS crank position sensor was decided as the best spot. The compressor is brand-frikkin-new Denso originally for Daihatsu Granmax P/N JK447160-22203D This was chosen because it requires no extra tensioning pulley to tighten the belt so that i'm saving up space. The compressor bracket is bolted to the CKP sensor mount.

One minor negligible problem: crank pulley is 5 rib while this compressor has 4.

Belt size being used is 4PK-780.

Next challenge is cramming the condenser in. This is less-than-new Daihatsu Xenia condenser which at first i wanted to place below the rear trunk. However, the fuel tank size and the lowered suspension didn't allow for a reliable mounting spot. Finally, it's decided that i have to risk reducing the intercooler's efficiency by placing the condenser in front of it.

Here's another view of the sandwiched intercooler.

I was lucky enough i was still able to run the old blower motor assembly but the same can't be said about the evaporator. It was in such bad condition that it's better to replace it. The old evap has never been replaced since the car was new which explains the sorry state it's in. The cooling fins were blocked so badly, holes were poked through just so that they would flow enough air!

Charmant's cooling coil is similar to 4th gen Corollas. I couldn't find a Denso branded coil so i had to make do with PACO part number CTK-o1-R.

Verdict? The Dog's now tons more enjoyable to drive. I'm able to shut the windows so that i can listen to the audio better. One minor problem i still need to tackle is the idle up system. I'm still not running one so each time the compressor's engaging, the idle speed would drop significantly and occasionally the engine dies. For now, i'm increasing the idle speed a bit but later i'm going to install an idle up solenoid. I'm also considering on somehow running a pressure switch so that if the turbo's spooling, the compressor will be disengaged.

New Blog for The Bike

Decided to make a separate blog for the bike project.. and to make it in Bahasa Indonesia. I figured it's time that i reach out to my fellow Indonesian friends after this blog has been relatively successful in gaining international buddies.

So.. without further ado, here it is:

hondatigerefi.blogspot.com

Unless deemed interesting to share here, i will no longer post anything related to the bike on this blog. Enjoy, my Indonesian friends!