Nippondenso Alternator IC Regulator Cheatsheet

During my starter motor rebuild, i found this reference sheet hanging on the workshop wall. This has the mounting hole distance, regulated voltage value, pinouts and the built-in functions of most, if not all, ND IC regulator. This will save my life one day.

Back With A Bang

I'm back! My long-awaited work leave was finally approved and since last week, i got lots of things done to The Dog. Some of them were minors and shall be noted here for my record. The major ones will have their own dedicated post. So, without further ado, the following are the minor things i got done:

1. Rerouted Clutch Line near the Slave Cylinder

I wasn't lucky enough to have a JDM T50 bellhousing that has the clutch slave on the intake side so previously the clutch line went under the extractors before terminating at the slave cylinder. Should the exhaust decides to crack and fall, it'd take the clutch line with it. Now it's routed on the other side of the extractors, the same side as the slave cylinder. This was before:

No after shot but it should be obvious.

2. Studied my Megasquirt

Mine was built by someone else and he said it's 75% different from the original schematic. I called BS and decided to check it myself. Unsurprisingly it wasn't that much different. Indeed his MS schematic was not exact the copy of v2.2 from B&G's but only because he added some options such as secondary trigger input capability. Why bother doing this? I need to know if the options like boost controller and wideband lambda input shown on MS EFI websites are still applicable to mine to further plan the next step.

3. Picked up my Ultra Racing AE86 Fender Bars

Finally got the time to pick up this item i ordered months ago at the seller's workshop.

The plan is to take the car to a sprayshop and get these installed with the Ebay FMIC intercooler in one go since getting the fenders off to install these means the grill and front bumper is removed as well.

4. Alternator Rebuild

Opened my alternator and swapped the regulator with the spare from my 4A-C (which was already converted to internally regulated when i bought the car. Original Charmant is a stone age external cut-out system). I did this because previously the battery would lose it's charge overnight and i suspect it was a blown alternator. Later i found out it was only due to incorrect ignition key positioning. *sigh*

5. Bride Pros Installation

Custom brackets which still allow the stock seat to be put back.

6. Built a Junction Box for MS

The wiring on mine was previously a spaghetti carnage. I decided a junction box is best to solve this and make the engine bay neater. Here's the box in progress.

See the wire terminal strips? These are where the sensors, ignition and power wires will be connected. The relays will be housed inside the box to reduce engine bay clusterf*ck.

Here's the box in action. It's on the firewall next to the wiper motor. A DB25 serial cable connects the box to the MS.

Notice anything missing from the engine? Yes, i ditched the leak prone distributor and finally got the Ford EDIS kit running. There will be a dedicated post on how to do this later.

Below is the junction box terminal designation for my own record purpose should later i lost the labels on the box. You can ignore this.

7. Starter Motor Rebuild

Used the original starter motor that came with the 4A-C. It struggled to turn the engine on cold starts and, even worse, won't crank on hot starts. Previously i thought it was heat soak since the starter is unfortunately placed on the same side as the exhaust manifolds and so i made a custom heat cover from a thin steel plate. This didn't help. I also installed a relay before the starter solenoid line and this too yielded no success. I then thought it was normal for the 4A-C starter to struggle to crank a smallport 4A-GE considering the higher compression the starter motor has to fight. I was apparently wrong. After finding out that it was the starter solenoid dying and some soldering points on the starter were fried, the necessary actions were taken and now i'm confident the engine will crank on start ups anytime i do it. So, take a note here, a 4A-C starter motor has no problem mated to a high compression smallport 4A-GE. If you find similar problem, now at least you know what could be the culprit. By the way, the starter solenoid on the 4A-C starter is same as Hijet 1000's.

Custom 4-Links Installation and Wheel Alignment

Last weekend, The Dog had finally got full spherical rod-end suspension links on her rear-end. After the installation of the lateral rod a few weeks ago, the 4-links were in. Everything went smoothly as planned, a sign that i did my measurements correct.

I decided to keep the stock diff angle for now so the custom 4-links were set to have the same lengths as the stock ones. With the Dog now lower than stock height, a diff angle adjustment should be in order.

Here's a comparison of the stock and custom link. The red Prothane bushings were only a few kilometers old but i'm swapping them anyway.

Here's the lower link installed.

Verdict? Except for the extra noise in the cabin, can't say that i notice any difference on normal driving. My previous polyurethane bushings were still new so that's expected. I wasn't surprised with the extra noise as metal is worse than rubber in damping differential noise. Anyway, albeit small, improvements are improvements. Let's see how long those rod-ends last.

Next was the pending wheel alignment. I changed my steering links months ago so i've been driving without proper wheel alignment ever since.

Usually, we can only adjust the toe and caster on Charmants but with the T3 plates, cambers are also adjustable on mine. I did a search on wheel alignments settings used by most AE86 owners and based on that decided to have mine something like this:

Front Toe: 0 deg

Front Camber: -2 deg

Front Caster: 3.5 deg

I left the rears as they were although with the 4 links, i can at least adjust the toe.

I learned later that i can only get to 2 deg of caster on the front. I already ran out of the threads on my strut rods so it couldn't be shifted further for more caster. I don't know why but maybe my RCA prevents the extra Caster.

Confused with the terms? Here's good depiction taken from Hayne's manual.

So why did i choose the preferred settings? A zero toe would guarantee my tires last longer, a moderate negative camber would help on cornering while minimizing impact on inner tire wear and finally maximum caster helps on straight highway drive as it stabilizes the steering better. Compare a Harley Davidson with Suzuki Hayabusa. The extra rake angle on the Harley helps to minimize move on straight roads compared to the sporty Hayabusa right? Well that's just about what extra caster do on your steering.

Here's the comparison before and after the alignment.

Notice what it says on the upper right corner? Yup AE86 P/S. The wheel alignment computer had no database for Charmants so i told the aligner to set it as Power Steering equipped AE86. Should be the same right?

Other than those, finally found the culprit of my cranking problem. It was the battery all along. Changed to new battery and starting the engine has never been easier. With this solved, i am confident that i can take The Dog to my workplace so i'll get to see her everyday.

Other than that, i also get to install some Hella horns in and fixed the door lock. It's the small things that makes the car more enjoyable to drive. The more minor problems you fix compared to the major ones, the more it tells you that your car's doing great.

Last thing, how about a new look on my OG Axis Oldskool wheels? Yeah, the Equip cap certainly helped to improve the looks, i'd say!

Drama on The Dog's First DCC Gathering

After two years since the project started on Mar 9th 2008, The Dog can finally come with me for her first gathering with fellow Daihatsu Charmant Community members! The gathering was held on a sunny Sunday, Mar 20th 2011 on Senayan Parking area. This was actually a small gathering to discuss the plans for DCC's 5th anniversary next month.

To be honest, The Dog seemed reluctant to join the gathering. She gave me all sorts of drama during the day. First, she refused to start after i stopped by an ATM. Starter motor seemed struggling hard to crank the engine. At first, i thought it was heat soak from the exhaust manifolds so i waited for it to cool off a bit. Crank it again, still struggling. Ffffffuu... Okay, this won't work. I won't bring The Dog to the gathering like this. I have to solve this first. Got a help from a few guys to push The Dog, shift to first gear with clutch on and once she had enough momentum, off with the clutch and there she goes. Definitely something with the power supply to the starter motor.

I quickly head off to the nearest auto-battery shop and told them the problem. They took their battery tester out, checked the voltage, told me to crank the starter, checked the voltage again and scratch their heads. "The battery's fine. Have you checked the starter?", they said. Well, it was the same starter i use on the old engine and it was fine before. So, i asked them if they have any ground cables. Luckily they do, well most battery shop has anyway, and i told them to put more ground cables to the engine block. Here's how the engine looks after.

Notice the bright green-yellow thick cables coming out from the battery? One goes attached to the front of the engine, near the cam gears cover and other one goes to the back. Once done, fingers crossed, turn the ignition key, crank and *vroom*. Wow it worked! I had been suspecting this for a while since i noticed the ground cables were too thin. I was focusing on other problems so didn't really find the time to fix it. Well, now that i have been forced to put the cables, i'm relieved that i did.

That's not the only problem she gave me. On the way to the gathering, i drove on a highway and she decided to act up again by giving me high temperature reading. This reallllyy started to piss me off as she never gave me this problem before. I tried to speed up hoping that the wind might cool off the radiator. It turned out making the matter worse. Fearing i might overheat the 4A-GE, i took the nearest exit and drove slowly to the gathering using alternate routes. Temperature refused to cool off but i decided to keep on going until i finally reached the gathering spot.

Let's stop the drama for a while and focus on the fun part, shall we? Obviously i was a bit late from the starting problem. A line up of beautiful Charmants had already parked on the gathering area. I quickly took my place and was greeted by the guys. Nourie told me to open the hood and took snapshots of my engine. "Finally you finished the car!", they said. Well, a project like this is never-ending but thanks guys! Here's some photos i took myself. Can you spot The Dog?

Quite a few interesting Charmants i saw on the gathering, some packing mods i wouldn't have thought of putting on The Dog but turned out quite well actually. Here's a taste.. How about an Autobot Police car?

or this internet/audio/GPS/Hello Kitty-packed Charmant?

I'll feature one of my favorites soon in another post.

As previously said, we discussed the plans for our next 5th anniversary next month. Some meeting spots have been selected and surveys will be done soon. Also we have some plans to make another batch of T-shirts. During the gathering, we also voted for the best Charmant in some categories like best engine, exterior, interior, etc. We aren't allowed to vote our own car so it should be fair, i guess. Winners will receive some goodies and parts for their Charmants and will be announced on the Anniversary gathering. After the discussion, we then continue to have lunch together before bidding farewell to each other.

Okay, back to the drama. During the gathering and also on the way home, the temperature remained high. I haven't installed my custom lateral rod so i decided to make a quick stop in an autoshop so that i can also check what's causing the high temperature. A quick analysis, i found out that the fan is not turning although the temperature is obviously above the thermoswitch threshold. I ruled out faulty thermoswitch as it's still new and working last week. Unplugged the cable going to the switch and the fan turned on instantly. Okay, fan is good also. Radiator is also brand new so that couldn't be the problem. Three things left to check: waterpump, faulty radiator cap and thermostat. I decided to replace the radiator cap in the shop and carry on to install the lateral rod. Here's the rod installed.

The rod went in easily so my measurements were correct after all. I didn't get to install the 4-links as the shop's about to close.

Anyway, new radiator cap. Let's see if this works. It's was only one or two kilometers drive to my house but it was definitely nerve-wrecking. Temperature's still hot! Arrived at home, turned the engine off, opened the bonnet and waited for the engine to cool off a bit. Opened the radiator cap and turned the engine on again, with ease this time thanks to the new ground cables. Peeked through the radiator cap hole and saw no water flow. Hmm.. this could be either the pump or the thermostat. Pump is less likely as it was okay last week. Decided to open up my remote thermostat housing, 10mm wrench should do it, and took the thermostat off. Went inside the house, mom helped me boil some water over the stove, throw the thermostat in and waited. Hmm.. boiling bubbles started to appear and thermostat remained closed. Waited another minute and still the same. Gotcha! Faulty thermostat! This explains also why my fan didn't turn on. If you checked my writeup previously, you'll see that water flows like this:

radiator --> thermoswitch --> thermostat --> engine

If the thermostat refused to open, thermoswitch will always be exposed to cool water and will never turn the fan on. It's only when the thermostat opens will the switch get hot water and activate the fan!

I was afraid that i have bent my cylinder head from overheating but seeing that there was no water bubbles coming from cylinder compression after i run the engine with no thermostat, it seems my 4A-GE is doing okay. This just goes to show how reliable 4A-GEs are. It ran for a day under high temperature and yet still smiling. I don't want to speak too soon so let's see later if it's still running well.

DIY Converting to Internally Regulated Alternator

My 4A-GE comes with an internally-regulated alternator, IR alternator from now on. Having very few chances to see my Charmant, i thought it still has the stock alternator which is externally-regulated (ER) by a electromechanical cut-out regulator (the black box near your battery). Hence, i was prepared to convert my charging system to suit the engine's alternator.

Here's a picture of the cut-out regulator and engine bay fuse box. You'll fiddle with these two stuff on doing this conversion.
Fortunately for me, i found out that the previous owned had replaced the alternator with an IR type so i was spared from having to figure out the charging system wiring. All there was left for me to do is extend the wires going to the alternator as it is now on the driver's side.

I won't discuss in detail about the ER alternator as i also have very few references about it. I don't even own a Charmant wiring diagram. (yes.. i would be in deep trouble if i actually had to convert from ER to IR). I will just jump to the IR system and tell you which wire to tap from the old system.

Here's an IR alternator charging system. Below is a Toyota charging system so i'll assume all IR alternators meant for Toyota models are using the same system.
As can be seen from above pic, there are four pins that you need to figure out from your alternator: B, IG, S and L, respectively stand for Battery, Ignition, Sense and Lamp. Consecutively, you need to figure out which cable from your Charmant's stock system to be connected to these pins.

First, here's my alternator pinout. If you have the same alternator, lucky you. If not, google is your friend.
Many people mistakenly assume that the large B lug on the alternator as the ground for the alternator and end up with a very expensive bonfire in their garage or at least, a glowing "ground" cable. Don't make the same mistake. B is in fact the alternator's charge output and should be connected to the battery. The ground is on the alternator body only so you won't need a dedicated ground cable for it. Just make sure you have a good ground loop on the engine block.

With the alternator side done, all that is left to do is figure out which wires on your Charmant to tap and connect to the alternator.

First, B should be connected to the battery. Your old alternator should have the B wire already. It's the thick wire approximately the diameter of your pinky.

IG can be tapped from from the ignition coil. It's the wire which connects to the (+) of the ignition coil. There maybe neater way to tap the ignition signal but this was how i found it on my car.

The rest, L and S are taken from the fuse box. Here are the wires that you need to tap.
There you have it. Four wires to tap on your Charmant stock system and four pins to connect on your alternator. Connect these pairs together and you should be done. I admit there must be neater way to have this done. I am quite sure that S, IG and L can also be found on the cut-out regulator's connector. If they do, it's better to tap the wires there as they would be kept close together and easier to troubleshoot.

Excuse me for not actually showing you the conversion work. I am merely showing you how it was done on my Charmant which was working properly the last time it is running. I will take no liability if you anything goes wrong. Blame the guy who did the conversion on my car.

Christmas Shopping: Ripped Off!

I went for some Christmas shopping for The Dog in Jakarta last week. Most of the stuff i bought were either for the body work or so that the mechanic can fit the stock engine back. I learned something interesting after the shopping.. There's a thing about having an old car, you may not be able to get all the parts you need from just one seller. You need to go to maybe 4-5 sellers before you complete your shopping list. When you do, make sure you get their name cards. You'll be grateful later. You'll avoid getting ripped off. This is about doing the basic thing before you spend your hard-earned cash on anything: price comparison.

Before last Christmas, i only knew one spare parts seller to supply my Charmant's needs which is Serimpi Motor. He was the seller that supplied me the head lamps, side lamps, etc. Since Charmants are so rare, i thought this seller was maybe like the one and only guy who sells Charmant parts. I was wrong.. I heard about another seller, Kumala Motor from a forum. This is a famous seller among retro car owners. Just like GI Joe, "When all else fails, he doesn't", Kumala Motor is the place to go when you've run out of places trying to get your hen's teeth part. So i decided to pay the seller a visit.. Kumala Motor is located in Krekot Jaya, quite a distance from home but for the sake of seeing in person this well-known seller, i went anyway.

Kumala is famous for selling very rare parts but also for the hefty price tag. Expect to see lineups of rare part hunters there too. After an hour drive, i finally get to see Kumala Motor. It didn't look like i what i had in mind. Maybe it was because i went there on Boxing Day, there weren't so many people shopping but the place was so small and cramped, you start to imagine how to fit many people inside on a busy day.


Just like Rosso and his bumblebee, one of my engine mounting rubbers was split in half and the other will also need replacing soon. Hence, a pair of engine mounting rubbers is on the shopping list. The clutch release fork on my gearbox was also busted. Here are the stuff i bought.

Above you can see the new clutch fork paired with the busted one. It was actually only the "tounge spring" thingy that was busted but since i will be using the gearbox for the engine conversion, i replaced it anyway. Next comes the engine mounting rubber. You can see the old one which was split in half. Oh and i couldn't get a pair, since Kumala only has one in stock.

Actually i bought more stuff in Kumala but that's for other post.

With me getting only one mounting rubber when two was needed, i headed on to other location called Pasar Mobil Kemayoran hoping to complete my list. I was a bit skeptical though, if the well-known Kumala was out of stock for engine mounts, i won't expect others to have it. But i was wrong, as i ended up getting these..

Other than the left engine mounting rubber, i got also a transmission mount. What bothers me is that i got the last engine mount for only a fifth of the price i paid Kumala! Granted Kumala did supply me original Japanese part and the last one was Thailand-made imitation, but here's another proof that i got ripped off by Kumala: the exact same clutch release fork was sold at around 20% cheaper! So i guess i was in some way lucky that Kumala ran out of engine mounts because if not, i might still got ripped off by it. So where did i get the last engine mounting rubber? Here you go.

Again, a small shop but it's a good option if you're looking for Charmant parts.

Other than those parts above, i got me some body parts. The first one was door weatherstrip for this part of the door:

I was told i need about 3 meters of weatherstrip for each door and as there was four doors, i got me 12 meters of it plus an extra 3 meters in case they f*ck up.


Here's how the weatherstrip looks like.


My battery turned out dead after nearly a year of no charging so i also bought brand new battery. I got the maintenance-free dry type and paid a good price since i also traded my old battery for it.


Lastly, i paid for these also.

A key set and engine hood support rubbers. Unfortunately, i can only use two from the three locks i got. Only the door locks fit. The one for the trunk didn't fit so i will have to use my old one which key was already different from the ignition key when i bought The Dog. This way, i'll have three keys for The Dog: ignition, door and trunk.

So, after the post-Christmas shopping i did, i now have three seller options if i need to get Charmant parts. I just have to call, asked for the price and went to the seller with best price. I guess i have to consider the rip-off by Kumala as my learning cost. In time, i will know which seller has the best price for any particular part i need.