Schizo's CA-DET Concerns Thread

Alright, so I bought a fellow forum member's S12 a bit over a month ago. Since then, I've discovered so damn much wrong with it, and I don't know how much is because of the previous owner, or the one before him. (Actually, I do know quite a bit from the last guy's work)

But, anyway, this car is hurt, in the engine. Especially in the wiring.

To start, the wiring harness is all hacked apart, and the ignition harness is even worse. I have an old battery terminal for a main junction. And the previous owner put a J30 V6 ignitor on it. (How he planned to make that work, I  still can't figure. I mean, did I miss a memo?)

To try and remedy the wiring issue, I took the harness apart and started to get it back together, but quite a bit is missing, and there are some parts from an old KA-E in here. I was gonna start soldering what I could, but I really don't know where or how to get what together, because I don't have any reference, except for the wiring diagram. Which is useless for discerning where joints go, physically. (Again, so much of this harness is missing, I'm building a lot of it from scratch) To add to my troubles, I had to buy a Q45 ignitor for the car, and I really can't find anything that tells me concisely how I'm supposed to rig this up to the harnesses. On that note, I guess I may as well keep the KA-E MAF setup, since parts still exist for that, and just re-ROM the ECU. (Thank goodness I'm an amateur programmer)

Then, the car is missing a vacuum line that I don't know the use or origin of. (There's supposed to be one on the intake-side CVS nipple, right?) Also, the flywheel cover is 6 kinds of screwed. Anything I can do about that flywheel cover?

To top the thread off, I may as well just put out a few other things that are up with the car, that aren't purely-engine-related, see if anyone can help. The brake is harder than anything I've felt, like something is physically jamming the master piston in place, and the front wheels make a scraping sound when I spin them when the car is off the ground. It's missing its PS pump and most of the lines. (Which is a problem because I lack most of the use of my left arm. I can probably get a PS pump in there, but I don't really know what to do about lines, seeing as they're not really in supply) The shifter doesn't have a clip to hold it in place, so it likes to slide out, not to mention the transmission doesn't like to shift gears, even with what little clutch I have left, open. I'll admit I'm a noob when it comes to S12 drivetrains, so I probably missed some otherwise well-known bit. Anyway, I appreciate any help anyone can render.

With all due respect,
Schizo

jeezus.
im pretty sure itd be easier to buy another harness altogether man.
about the flywheel cover, ive heard of many people running with no cover without any major issues but i dunno.
that scraping sound sounds like it could be your wheel bearings.

haha the tranny not shifting also doesnt sound very good btw.

Well, I mean, I've swapped wheel bearings before. They don't make the same scraping sound. Sounded like the truck, when its brake lines stuck because some idiot put contaminated fluid in.

Plus, it's all 4 wheels making the sound, and the brake is harder than fuck. So I think something's jammed in the master cyl. I figure I'll check that, and if it doesn't turn out, I'll look at the bearings

well if theres something stuck in your BMC, that could also be part of the problem.
maybe the brakes are being engaged?
seems feasible no?

To add to the issue, I just tried re-filling my clutch reservoir. Bled it and everything. Still just drops to the floor. So the brake is hard, the clutch may as well not exist, plus the entire engine bit.

New Clutch and slave master the post some pics of your hacked wiring and maybe ill be able to help figure shit out

Yeah, I'm working on the clutch stuff.

Dropping Resistor Connector:


The left 3 are for the fuel injectors, can't rightly remember the rest:


Overview (Mind the Jicama):


Ends of the wires:


Wires I haven't worked back in yet (The only connector I could identify was the CAS connector):


Ignitor harness:


Ignitor chip (Q45; the previous owner had a J30 V6 ignitor):


KA-E MAF connector.

...WOW

I'm an ME major, and I've taken a couple EE courses, and this all evades me.

Ah, reminds me of when I reworked my harnesses... Of course my car actually ran before I started too. :lol:

I never really found automotive wiring to be that hard, I've even been through 4 EFI harnesses: Original CA20E, original SR20DE, reworked SR20DE, MegaSquirt SR20DE.

A good wiring diagram goes a long way, but it doesn't help that you don't really have a good base to start with either.

Yeah, I'm using ImpactBlue's diagram, and it's pretty good, but it doesn't translate to lengths of wire, and I can't figure out the body harness connectors, from it at all.

I wish I had an easy way to fix this T_T

If you were much closer, I could redo the harness for you. Throw some pictures of your engine bay. How do you want the wires ran? You can always start with a KA harness and modify it, since it's much easier. You can just redo the pinouts for the DET ecu. Automotive wiring is cake anyway, just take care of one component at a time.

If you want to check out the progress of my new hatch, go on to s12silvia's member profiles and you can see how my engine bay is setup and wired.

Edit: Alternatively, you could wire any of those components anywhere since you're doing it from scratch. Lay the harness out in the car and start wiring things one at a time. Start with the injectors, ignitor/coils, air idle, CAS etc then do ECU power/Fuelpump relay, etc(that's like 8 wires, EZ).

seishuku on 10:32:03 PM / 09-Oct-11I never really found automotive wiring to be that hard

mod_mastaz on 12:50:29 AM / 10-Oct-11Automotive wiring is cake anyway, just take care of one component at a time.

You're trying to tackle on too many things at once. Try to find the component you're looking for, IE MAF wire, and ignore the rest of the wiring. Just keep track of the 4 wires to the maf and wire it. They are color coded the same all the way to the ECU. Like I said, one component at a time and you won't have any worries. Keep the wires organized and laid out. It makes it easier to keep track of and not get tangled and overwhelmed. I section out my wires and deal with them slowly. FSM is you're only friend. It's the most accurate and organized document you can have.

It's not the actual wire management, or the spacing of wires, to components, that is bugging me.

It's all the various junctions on this wiring diagram. Apparently, a lot of wires connect to a lot of other wires, and that's the part I can't figure. Because most of them don't look like they hit other wires before the ECU.

Anyway, I'll take a look at your thread on S12Silvia, when I get a chance today, and I'm gonna spend some more time figuring out this diagram. I think I may have an idea as to how it goes together, but I'll have to see. Other than that, it's just figuring the body harness connector (Which is likely to go back onto the harness, based on wire color) and hopefully it'll work.

It'd be a lot easier to do it one-by-one if I had a garage to work in, but as it stands, all my shit's being done on my rained-out driveway.

Oh, and here's my engine bay before I started fucking with things:

dude seriously? your gonna quote me and put it as your sig?
the car wasnt in such a bad shape at all it turned on idled and all that good stuff, i told you it was a project from the get go, it has a new CMC thheres no way the brakes are seized, the reason why he brakes are so stiff is because there is no vaccuum running to it ever think of that? commom sense, why the car will barely move, maybe because it has rust on the rotars? (duh) the car was not in bad shape at all just that stupid primer that was on it, the j30 ignitor is always an upgrade whenever you cant get your oem ignitor, sr20's run them all day the same with RB's. you keep bashing my name like im some type of asshole that sold you a piece of shit car we all know s12's are pretty hefty on money sometimes, quit bashing me man seriously i was being kool and all that and you come on the website talking your garbage and nonsense about me, you eep blaming the harness on me that is the way i bought the engine set, but whatever dude keep being a unmature about things and you will get nowhere

newby200sx on 07:47:33 PM / 10-Oct-11dude seriously? your gonna quote me and put it as your sig?
the car wasnt in such a bad shape at all it turned on idled and all that good stuff, i told you it was a project from the get go, it has a new CMC thheres no way the brakes are seized, the reason why he brakes are so stiff is because there is no vaccuum running to it ever think of that? commom sense, why the car will barely move, maybe because it has rust on the rotars? (duh) the car was not in bad shape at all just that stupid primer that was on it, the j30 ignitor is always an upgrade whenever you cant get your oem ignitor, sr20's run them all day the same with RB's. you keep bashing my name like im some type of asshole that sold you a piece of shit car we all know s12's are pretty hefty on money sometimes, quit bashing me man seriously i was being kool and all that and you come on the website talking your garbage and nonsense about me, you eep blaming the harness on me that is the way i bought the engine set, but whatever dude keep being a unmature about things and you will get nowhere

only you can make a dark man blush

I try ;D

lol retard, i dont mean to come off like an asshole bro but this guy keeps bashing me, like im a completely horrible person i told the guy everything i mean everything

You didn't say anything about half that shit man. You said it was a project and whatnot. And I'm not making shit up. Those are your words ;)

Anyway, I've had a hard brake before. Swapped my truck's whole brake system last year. Bled the lines, unassisted. Brake wasn't so hard, I was afraid if I kept pushing it, I'd break the seat. I can accept rust as being only so much of the problem, but the front rotors aren't bad enough for this kind of seizing. Like I said, I'm waiting until the engine runs to make a final judgment on the master cyl.

Clutch is still fucked, though. Re-filled, bled the lines, tightened shit up. Still no clutch. I'm not too worried about that. Parts are cheap.

Anyway, I seem to recall J30s use V6s. And it makes sense they can spark-time a 6-cylinder engine. Like an RB. But the math for 6-cylinder spark timing doesn't line up with 4-cylinder timing. So I got a Q45 V8 ignitor. That lines up mathematically. Also, the wires are the same as the original pigtails.

But regardless, I'm working on un-fucking this wiring harness. Maybe I can use bits from the CA20 harness in the back of the car. Hopefully.

Anyway, Newby, I'm not bashing your character, I'm bashing your ability to work on cars. Big difference there. :P

Let's just try and get along, man. No point in these constant bitch fights.

dont try to peace treat, your fucked up for being an ass and constantly saying my name. you think your a badass coming on this forum and talking ish but in reality we both know your a pussy. i have 3 years working for nissan and am comended in several areas, all you do is bitch and get nowhere. im done though ill see you around in your dumb little saturn, your parents and grandparents paid for the car your acting like your the one putting money into the car you never buy anything your family buys it for you therefore you will never understand how much sweat blood and time people spend in these cars, im actually dissapointed in selling my car to you if i would have known you were such a douch i would have kept it.

Bro, my aunt loaned me some money to buy the car. Everything since (including the fucking trailer to tow it home) was my money.

I don't see why you continue to be an ass about it. You sold me a junked car. Told me all it needed was a fucking Mass Airflow. Now I'm a couple grand in the hole over the car, and you won't even lend a friendly hand about it man. Shit I'm trying to be friendly as I can, but you're all over here, bagging on me with your bad grammar. Shit man.

OK we understand you guys dont get along. But seriously, TAKE IT TO PMS. none of this needs to be read by prying eyes unless you are trying to put on a show, Which would stupid and childish in my opinion. Not trying to be an ass but someone needs to step in sooner or later and end shit

Yeah, I mean, that was my last piece for public consumption.

Back to my car, I'm thinking of going back and pinning all the wires that go into the ECU, then figuring shit out from there. Maybe that'll be easier.

That might be true, It would give you a good start anyways

Yeah, that's the hope.

FIY, ignitors don't have anything to do with the actual timing of the engine, they just fire the coils.
A V6 one just wouldn't be using two channels, and V8s usually just split the banks so you end up with two 4 channel ignitors.

Now if it were a timing module, like trying to use a Ford EDIS-6 on an EDIS-4 car, that wouldn't work.

.. Never even noticed he said that untill now, the timing set of the CAS

Huh... Like, I'm used to the shit on my Saturn, where the ignitor times the spark. I guess I just made the assumption.

Anyway, I still don't like the phrase "Upgraded to a J30" when it's the sloppiest part of the harness.

Prolowtone on 06:23:43 PM / 11-Oct-11.. Never even noticed he said that untill now, the timing set of the CAS

??? No dizzy on a CADET... It has a Cam Angle Sensor

That's what I was thinking

lol nvm. i was thinking something else.. hahahaha.
i fail.

Hey, could be worse, VVL. You could have spent 1700 on a car that doesn't work

Hey Schiz, I bought a FSM on disk for an s13 equipped with a ca18det, I could send you the files for the wiring if you want

I've spent the last month staring at the FSM diagram. I've just decided to break down, between this and my family, to sell the car.

that is quite possibly the most depressing decision I've ever heard.

I'm so broken up over it, I'm glad breathing is an involuntary response.

hey come on man! theres plenty things worse than that.
best thing you can do is deal with the losses, pick yourself back up, dust yourself up and keep going. you live, you learn.
this just means that next time, youll know exactly what to look for when you buy your next car.
cheer up bro, your not the only one whos ever bought a car like this :grinwink:
(no offense intended newbie200sx)!

Prolowtone on 09:00:52 PM / 11-Oct-11??? No dizzy on a CADET... It has a Cam Angle Sensor

Yeah, I'm just upset is all. I never even got to drive her, man.