L-Jetronic conversion to microsquirt 1975 Ascona A 1.9

[ghcoe]

 A update for this weekend's adventures in F/I. 

 

Friday after work I stopped in at the local junkyard and picked up a few more parts I needed. I really only needed a couple of plug connectors to solder into the harness, but wound up with a couple of other items. As per usual when I go to the salvage yard. I destroyed a couple of plugs trying to disassemble them to solder wires to the pins. I gave up on that and decided to just solder the plug wires into the harness. Not as clean, but not as much as a headache to do. 

The throttle body that I had found, to try and make this project work, was off of a 1994 Ford Escort 1.9. When I was assembling the wiring harness I had thought that it would have been nice to have the plug for the Idle Air Control valve (IAC) come in from the same side that the Throttle Position Sensor plug did. It would look cleaner and would save from kinking the wire to make the bend into the plug from the opposite side. I happened to look under the hood of a 1993 Ford Escort and found this. 

The one on the left is off of the 1993 Escort. The one on the right is off of a 1994 Escort. Not sure why they would have changed them for 1994 up, but they did. Makes the wiring longer for those years, but works for my project. 

[ghcoe]

Next. I was also trying to figure out how to get a air filter on the throttle body. I had a few plans, but while looking at the Escort air intake I noticed that the rubber hose made a nice 90 degree bend, similar to what I needed, and it already was the right size for the throttle body.

I cut the intake hose with my radial arm saw where I thought it would work.

And the test fit.

 

After the cut the opening turned out to be about 60mm. I found a 63.5mm air filter on Amazon for $15.99. Then I need a way to connect the two. So, I looked around and found that 2" PVC pipe is 60.325, this should work as my connector and provide a place for me to install the Intake Air Temp sensor (IAT).

The air filter is not here yet so I will have to update the results at a later date. 

[ghcoe]

Yesterday, I did a final run of the wiring harness before starting to solder on pigtails and install new plug ends that I have.

So, the wiring harness, as a recap, is a mixture of new wire soldered to old pins.

Plug and pig tails soldered into harness.

And, new plug ends attached to new wire. 

After a few hours I it came to this. 

 

In the above picture is the harness ready for install. I have three engine bay runs now. Top one is the fuel injector run. Middle is the power supply and Fuel pump relay. Bottom one is sensor run. 

Coiled in bottom right is wires not used and interior ran wires.

I will be working on the fuse/relay box a bit today. 

[ghcoe]

This weekend was more wiring work. I verified and rerified the wiring to make sure all looked right. Once I felt comfortable with that I started to wrap the wiring up with Wire Loom Harness Tape. $5.99 for two rolls. Turns out one roll was enough for this project. 

The tape goes on nicely and makes the wires tidy. After installation the wiring in the vehicle I will be adding a plastic wire wrap as well. Picked them up at Harbor Freight, about $4.00 per size. 

I also had to order in a oxygen sensor bung so I can get a O2 sensor installed. I found this one on Amazon for $32.99. 

 

[ghcoe]

I also finally got the relays wired in the relay/fuse box. Took me a few times to get it right, but finally I got it done. I then found a spot for it under the hood. 

I used self-tapper screws to attach it to the fire wall. I added plugs to the wiring to make the install go better and for future mods that I may have to do. This build right now is just for fuel only. Later I may go to timing control. I figure one thing at a time right now. 

I also made a fitting for the air cleaner to intake hose. 2" PVC pipe works great. I drilled a hole in the PVC pipe to accommodate the GM type Intake Air Temp (IAT) grommet. 

Looks pretty good, I think. 

Well, that is about all for this week. Hopefully I will get the wiring in next weekend if the weather holds up.  

[Jessopia74]

Nice progress.

Big fan (convert) of the PDU's to do away with the requirement for fuses/relays now

[ghcoe]

On 18/11/2024 at 02:06, Jessopia74 said:

Nice progress.

Big fan (convert) of the PDU's to do away with the requirement for fuses/relays now

Had to look that one up. Interesting concept for sure. 

[ghcoe]

Last weekend was spent installing the Microsquirt harness into the Opel. I also fired up the laptop and got communication with the Microsquirt. I entered some data, but I finally gave up since it was cold and some the directions on how to install the data did not make much sense. 

I was able to enter more data to the laptop once I got in the house and was able to figure out some of the directions. One thing I will suggest is to read the setup instructions a few times all the way through. Some information is kinda wonky and not real clear. Microsquirt is based on the Megasquirt II platform and in some cases they are different. Sometimes the directions are for Microsquirt and sometimes it is for Megasquirt II so it is a bit confusing. Then they walk you through a process and it all falls together well and then they are off on something else that you have no idea where that is at. Then some terminology is similar but different, so you have to figure out if that is what they are talking about. 

After reading all the way through the setup procedure and playing with the dropdown menus on the software it started to make more sense to me. 

I was just playing with the software anyway since I still had a few things to do before startup, which I am doing this holiday vacation. I did get to see the TPS, IAT and MAP respond to the calibration inputs though. That was a bit exciting. 

[ghcoe]

Today I was hoping to knock out a few things. The first thing on the list was to get the O2 sensor bung installed in the exhaust pipe. This was going to be the hardest thing left to do so I decided to start with that. Of course, the ideal location for the bung was in a location that was difficult to get a drill into. I had purchased a 90 degree drill just for this procedure and still I could not get it where I needed it. The transmission cross member was right in the way. I figured a 10 minute task to get the transmission crossmember out of the way, but nooo... had to take a 1 1/2 hours to finally get it out of the way. Then found out it was my bad that it took so long. Would had been only a 10 minute job if I would have done it the way I was suppose to. Well anyway it finally got installed and is wired up. 

 

 

Once the O2 bung was out of the way it was time to tackle the throttle cable. I cut the old cable close to the fire wall. I then was able to pull out the firewall passthrough portion of the cable. I found the firewall passthrough a interesting piece of equipment. It is a barrel that has a spring in it. It is designed so that if the throttle is at its full open stop the spring begins to compress rather than applying stress to the cable ends if there is still downward pedal movement left. I wanted to keep this feature if possible. First, I had to figure out how to get the cable out of it. The cable is fed into one end and then crimped into place. I figured out that by taking a pair of plyers and pulling on the spiral portion of the cable it will unfurl and eventually just pull out of the crimp. Simple. 

 

 

The next step was to figure out how to combined the new cable to the old firewall passthrough. Looking at the diameter of the hole left after removing the old cable it looked to be pretty close to the thread diameter of the new cable. I did have to drill out one size larger to get a tap into it. 

 

 

You have to be real careful here though. There is not too much forgiveness if you get carried away at the crimp location. I was able to drill down about 1/2" without opening up any holes, I then only tapped down about 1/4". 

I then pushed the old throttle cable boot over the treads and then tightened the new cable end into the old cable end. 

Then reinstalled the old/new throttle ends back into the spring loaded firewall passthrough and reattached the boot.

I then pulled out what was left of the old throttle cable at the peddle and compared the two ends. 

The old cable looks a lot stronger, but maybe it was overkill. The diameter looked like it should work so I just fed the new cable through the peddle retainer and out through the firewall passthrough hole. Once in the engine bay area I then thread it through the firewall passthrough and through the new cable housing. Once it poked out the end of the housing, I was able to pull the cable all the way through and reinsert the firewall passthrough. 

By now I was running out of time for the day. So tomorrow I need to finish up the throttle cable. I am hoping that the throttle cable will be plug and play. Still not sure how the peddle throw is going to work with the throttle body linkage yet. Hopefully I will get full close/open of the throttle body without having to mess with something. I also have to rerun a ground from the O2 sensor controller since I grounded it at the wrong place and hook up the - Distibutor sense to the Microsquirt. I may have a fuel pump issue to figure out as well. Then more software. Crossing the fingers...

[cam.in.head]

yeah the spring loaded "end" of the cable is used on autos to allow full throttle then "more" movement for kickdown . obviously can be fitted to a manual but not thd other way round !

[ghcoe]

5 hours ago, cam.in.head said:

yeah the spring loaded "end" of the cable is used on autos to allow full throttle then "more" movement for kickdown . obviously can be fitted to a manual but not thd other way round !

Interesting! This car is a manual. 

[Jessopia74]

Does your car have air injection (anti smog) fitted? If so it’s going to mess with the Lamda in that position mate. But good progress. 

[Jonathan Pounsett]

Reading and re-reading the manual a few times, certainly helps - it’s weird that it can be so confusing and then suddenly after a short break you read it again and all becomes clear. Have you tried phoning them for advice?

I think they get asked the same questions over and over again, so are usually very good at explaining something to you in laymans terms.

[ghcoe]

On 29/11/2024 at 11:02, Jessopia74 said:

Does your car have air injection (anti smog) fitted? If so it’s going to mess with the Lamda in that position mate. But good progress. 

It did have EGR but no Air Injection.

This is a Wide Band O2 sensor. From what I have read the best location is 2-6 inches past the collector and 18 inches from the end of the tail pipe. If there is a cat then before the cat. Unless there is something I missed. I know that the narrow band O2 sensors are recommended for other locations.  

18 hours ago, Jonathan Pounsett said:

Reading and re-reading the manual a few times, certainly helps - it’s weird that it can be so confusing and then suddenly after a short break you read it again and all becomes clear. Have you tried phoning them for advice?

I think they get asked the same questions over and over again, so are usually very good at explaining something to you in laymans terms.

You do have to digest the whole manual and then decipher what they mean. Just reading as you go does not work real well. At this point I think they really need to address the manual and bring it up to date. I can see how less experienced people would have a hard time making this work for them. Who knows I might not be able to make it work and I feel pretty confident in my abilities. 

I have not called anyone yet. Just a lot of reading. There are good forums with good information. Calling or starting another thread on a subject that has already been beaten with a stick is my last resort. 

 

 

Well, I finished up the throttle cable and it works great. I have full range of motion at the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS). It looks to me like it is the exact same throw as with the original throttle with the same distance from the floor with the pedal. Happy about that. 

It is a bit tight at the front injector plug, but I think it should be fine. 

Then I entered in more data to the microsquirt, checking off all the boxes as I went. The last box to check was to see if I had a RPM signal to the microsquirt and of course I did not. After a day of trouble shooting, it finally came down to the very last grasp of the last straw. In fact, it seemed so trivial I almost did not do it. Well, I am here to tell you that it worked and I now have a RPM signal to the microsquirt. 

Like I mentioned before the microsquirt/megasquirt II instructions are a bit vague in certain areas. The manual says to connect the Opto+ to the negative side of the coil and the Opto- to a 12 volt key on power supply. First off, you have to read that a couple of times since + to - and - to + seems a bit weird and goes against the grain. Nowhere, however, does it mention you should connect the Opto- directly to the coil positive side. This picture is what gave me a clue and then I remembered a couple of threads I had read mentioned this. Again, very vaguely with no real conclusion of the outcome.   

So, I tried it, and it worked. Only thing I can think is that when the coil fires it drops the voltage on the positive side with the pulse on the negative side giving a signal to both wires. One up and one down. Hopefully it will keep working. 

I think the fuel pump has gone out since I parked it. I double checked the relay to make sure it was sending power to the pump. It is fine, but no pump action. Rather than mess with it I ordered a new pump since the old pump was giving me some issues before I parked the Opel. The pump is probably not going to get here in time to install this weekend. Tomorrow's chore is to get the old pump out and that will be it, unless the pump comes in early. Till next weekend.

[Jessopia74]

No your lambda position is sound, but I do know some US spec cars have that strange sit injection setup. If it’s just ear I would be tempted to remove the pipes and fit a bung. It will be easier for the map with EGR delete.

My MS2 was a built up version, from extraefi.co.uk, so support for the stupid questions I had was pretty good. 

[ghcoe]

2 hours ago, Jessopia74 said:

No your lambda position is sound, but I do know some US spec cars have that strange sit injection setup. If it’s just ear I would be tempted to remove the pipes and fit a bung. It will be easier for the map with EGR delete.

My MS2 was a built up version, from extraefi.co.uk, so support for the stupid questions I had was pretty good. 

Yes, that is what is planned. If I can get the nut off there, I'll just cap it off. I should have tried to take the nut off when I had the car up to get the o2 sensor in. More work later I suppose.