The aspect that i chose was the last big project i completed, which was the isntallation and configuration of the tachometer module sensor. Originally it's meant for adjusting the pulse from the speedometer in the dash to the pulses in the transmission, to give the appropriate reading of speed on the dash; otherwise without it, you could be going 50 km/hr physically, but the speedometer reads 25km/hr or 75 km/hr, ect. with peters installation the gasolene speedometer gear from the gas tranny, and installing it to the diesel tranny, that resolved the speedometer issue, but the Tachometer simply reads nothing at the moment, so we will be using it for that.
after reading through the instruction booklet for the module, there's a few things i've noticed we needed to do to connect the the wires and make it work. on the module itself, there are wire inlets (or ports) to connect various wires to, such as power, ground, different pre-set pulse settings, and a custom one were you can adjust precisely the amount of pulses necessary. along with that there are switches that indicate different sensitivity levels (high and low) of the pulses. lastly there is an up and down button, meant to be used to adjust the pulses
so let me elaborate on the pulses. for each number on the tachometer, (1-7 usually), it means 1000-7000 RPM, or rotations per minute. what needs to happen is the module has to take in 1 pulse for every RPM, so at an idle of 800 RPM, the module needs to read 800 pulses per minute (PPM), to read 800 RPM on the tachometer on the dash board.
Steps
1) splice a wire that provide 12 volts of power when the key is in the ON position, to be connected in the 'POWER' port of the module
2)Next, find an appropriate ground on the engine (in this case, we shared our ground eyelet with another ground) and connect to the 'GROUND' port of the module
3) we have 3 tachometer wires, TACH (sensor ground), TACH#1(from the engine), and TACH #2(from under tachometer in the dash).
4)connect TACH to SENSOR GROUND port of the module
5) Connect TACH #1 to the 2000 PPM INPUT (lowest pre-set) port of the Module
6) Connect Tach #2 to the OUTPUT port of the module
Now that all connections are made, with the vehicle turned on, the sensor read about 3100 RPM at the tachometer in the dash, at idle. which means right now the 700-800 RPM of the physical engine is giving triple amount of PPM to the module, which can be seen on TACH in the dash.
Configuration adjust steps
1) Holding the UP button while the vehicle is in the off position, then turning it on, brings up a RED light which indicates it is now in 'COURSE ADJUST MODE', which means i can adjust the PPM by clicking either the UP switch and DOWN switch.
2) since the PPM is triple the amount to high, i tested by clikcing the down button '50' times to see were it drops
3) turning off and on the engine takes the module out of COURSE ADJUST MODE, allowing us to see the current RPM at idle. it dropped down about 1000 RPM.
4) so after turning the vehicle on and off multiple times and adjusting accordingly, we set the PPM to match the idle RPM at around mid 800 RPM. as we add put pressure on the accelerator, the Tachometer rises consistently with the physical engine RPM,
5) success !
6) the last step is installing the module to the fire wall, resizing the wires and placing them in the most convenient location so that they wont get tampered with or be in the way of anything while the vehicle is in motion.
What did i Learn from the conversion? what was the most challenging, and why?
So first I want to say that I've truly expanded my knowledge in automotive mechanics, the various steps, procedures and hardships it involves, as well as the various components indirectly involved: such as learning about green technology, learning how to work with others to name a few. During this semester, I've learned how to read manuals by knowing what is necessary to read and how to find it. I've learned things that you cant learn in books such as the 'feel' for moving, installing, un-installing and creating parts for a vehicle, from the simplest methods of tightening bolts to the max then just 'a little extra', to more complicated procedures such as welding, grinding, and bending parts. the most challenging aspect of the conversion was not being able to find resources on making things work. everything is logical; you need to do something?, find some resources, instructions, manuals, ect, then apply. but when those resources don't exist or are hard to find, it makes things a lot more challenging. more specifically, the wiring diagram for the TCM just didnt exist within our reach. after a lot of research and contacting, we couldn't find a way to match wires from the transmission to TCM, so we had to figure out alternatives and take initiative in getting it done the best way possible.
Overall, I don't see much we could have improved on. Maybe just a few things here or there, like organization to allow ease of each process after another. everything else went very well and we pretty much got it all done.
I've always been very interesting in learning in depth the aspects of automotive. I love cars and the Industry, and through the inspiration of taking this coarse and learning what's involved, I've considered to take on the field of automotive in post secondary school, sometime in the future. what a fun a great experience this conversion has been!
-Dennis
