Okay, so I did not finish the car in time for the rally. Gave up two days before, when I realized that even though I might start the car, there was no way I'd actually get it drivable. Then I had a bit of downtime and eventually hauled Micra back to my place this Thursday.
Wrenched on for a bit on Friday and today, got the vac pipes connected, rest of the temp fuel system, ignition system, spark plugs, etc. Got everything ready for a test start, things seem fine, the starter turns, the fuel pump runs, dash lights, headlights and taillights work. Took the rear wheels off and inspected the drums. Seems the disk brake conversion shouldn't be too hard.
Then, once I put in water in the cooling system (wanna flush it a bit before I put actual coolant in), changed the oil filter and filled the engine with oil I had a go at starting the engine.
And it started...
... a fire on the wrong end of the intake manifold.
Luckily, I did have a fire extinguisher at hand. Unluckily, it was the powder type, which meant a mess everywhere. Even though it did look a bit spooky, the damage is minimal, a few slightly burnt fuel lines, bonnet latch cable and my fighting spirit.
Since it was getting dark and cold I decided to just take the carbs off and drop everything for the day. But then I read about cleaning the powder and apparently it can be corrosive, so I chose to get rid of it asap. Which meant flushing everything down with a garden hose. Also flushed the carbs as much as I could, getting all my clothes wet in the process, because I didn't really care at that point. Took the carbs to my room and set about taking them apart and cleaning what mess was left. Luckily there were only trace amounts of powder on the membranes. The float bowls were clean. Now that I put them back together I regained enough spirit to go back and try again, but it's almost midnight and I'd rather wait till everything dries out anyway.
As for why that happened, I guess I had the timing too advanced and something was wrong with the overflows, causing fuel to spill on the carbs. Then it backfired and things got heated. Since I'd like some pointers here, this is how I went about with setting the ignition and cables:
- Turned the crank till the timing mark pointed to 10 deg BTDC on 1st cylinder
- Took the dizzy cap off and checked the rotor arm position
- Turned it so that one of the contacts was aligned with the rotor arm
- Connected that to cylinder 1 cable
- Went counter-clockwise attaching cables for cylinders 1-3-4-2
Did I mess something up? I know the timing should be 15 deg BTDC at idle, no idea what to go with. Should I just stick with 0 deg? Did I misorder the cables? I'm assuming the carb backfire was caused by ignition with the inlet valves open, though the timing would have to be way more off than just 5-15 degrees, meaning the cylinders fired out of order. However, I'm pretty sure I checked a few times that I did connect them correctly. Would appreciate any suggestions.
Oh, as I was writing this post, I watched a few vids on installing distributors and realized I forgot about one small detail. Four stroke means two revs per cycle. Which means I might have set it at TDC of the exhaust stroke instead of compression. I guess this is where I ****ed up, the timing's 180 degrees off. D'oh.
Also, god damn, finding a replacement bonnet latch cable is gonna be a bitch. Guess I might hit the local Nissan dealership for a laugh.
And finally, have some photos:
New brake setup under the rim. Snugly fit.
Modded dizzy. The machinist couldn't get the tip off the K11 dizzy, so he whipped up a new one. Also, the centering collar.
Same thing, assembled.
Backlight on the white gauges. Gotta replace a bulb or two, but looks really comfy. Might actually leave the warning lights uncoloured as I like the look.
Hopefully I can sort stuff out tomorrow and get her started.
