"Let's try to make this atleast barely roadworthy" ...Project(?)

[Jet Badger]

Now that I've started doing with it something that could be mildly interesting, I'd thought I'll make a thread.

So I've bought this thing almost two months ago for 290 euros. I wasn't really looking for a 306 but it just so happened that I checked out a couple and this one seemed the least beaten into the ground. Pretty bad idea considering that for the combined sum of money it already owes me I could've gotten something that would be a much less of a headache and a money pit. Can't win all the time, eh? 

The little things so far:

Bought and painted a new driver's door handle. Painted the mirror covers at the same time too.
New windscreen washer motor as the old one was seized
New used rack u-joint as the old one had unacceptable amount of play in it. What a scarce part that is. 
Oil, coolant, fuel filter, spark plugs.
Tie rod end. Two of them on the same side as I managed to strip the threads on the first replacement.
Got another turn signal stalk. It's from a ph2 though so I need to get around to fixing the old one as I'd like them to match...
Replaced the fuel feed line under the bonnet.

Also, the not so little thing - the result of me not being a thorough used car buyer I overlooked the little fact that the underside in the front is all gone. Had it all rewelded including new chunks of sills on both sides. 180eur for that.





Pretty nice interior though for what it is.



Now for the money shots:



A previous patch attempt just fell off when I poked it after lifting the carpet...



It's all fixed now though. I'll have to make another pass or two with some coating as I've just noticed little iron oxide bastard spots are starting to peek through there. I'll also paint the sills body color once the weather is warm enough and I have the time for it. 

---

Now for the in-car entertainment. When I bought the car it came with some circa 1999 Pioneer headunit and the CD player didn't seem to work so it was limited to radio only, which is pretty crap tbh. So I made an audio amp using a TDA1552 chip, it's 2x22W, feeds off 12V and needs very few extra components. Also it was from an old project of mine so I just had it laying around. Plug in my phone as the sound source and bingo!

Why I don't just buy a 50 buck headunit? Because I'm trying to save money and keep it as unappealing for potential thieves as possible, even though those days seem to have long passed, you never know.

The next step is to make the little OEM steering wheel radio control lever work with this contraption. For Android phones you need to have a resistor of several kiloohms between the 4th(mic) pin and the ground pin in order for the phone to see it as a headset with a mic and thus a 4-pin TRRS jack. Then have the 4th(mic) pin go to ground through different resistors for volume control, so that's no big deal. To skip/back songs, though, you need to double and triple click those two contacts together. I considered doing that with the lever would be a great inconvenience, so we need something to do that for us - a microcontroller! I used an Arduino loaded ATTiny85 and a transistor to control the contacts.

Android reference for audio remote: https://source.android.com/devices/acces...electrical
Programming an ATTiny using Arduino: http://highlowtech.org/?p=1695

Breadboard stage, using the Arduino Nano as a programmer, and in this case a power supply.



The code for it is very simple, basically just the blink sketch several times over. Through trial and error I figured that the minimal ime between the clicks is 100ms for it to be reliable, any shorter than that and it may just play/pause or skip the wrong way etc. 100ms must be what's programmed into the phone, as it's a nice round number. I put a little safety feature that it has to go to neutral position between clicks, so if you hold the lever it doesn't do the routine for as long as you're holding it. You have to release and press it again if you want to skip through more than once.

I might make the whole thing a bit fancier with short click for play/pause, long click for skip back and the like. It seems enough for me atm as it is though so I'm not really bothered.

Code:

int laststate1 = 0;
int laststate2 = 0;

int delaylenght = 100;

void setup() {
pinMode(0, OUTPUT);
pinMode(1, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(2, INPUT_PULLUP);
digitalWrite(0, LOW);
}

void loop() {
 //double-click song forward
 if(digitalRead(1) == LOW) {
   if (laststate1 == 0) {
   digitalWrite(0, HIGH);
   delay(delaylenght);
   digitalWrite(0, LOW);
   delay(delaylenght);
   digitalWrite(0, HIGH);
   delay(delaylenght);
   digitalWrite(0, LOW);
   }
   laststate1 = 1;
} else laststate1 = 0;

 //triple-click song back
 if(digitalRead(2) == LOW) {
   if (laststate2 == 0) {
   digitalWrite(0, HIGH);
   delay(delaylenght);
   digitalWrite(0, LOW);
   delay(delaylenght);
   digitalWrite(0, HIGH);
   delay(delaylenght);
   digitalWrite(0, LOW);
   delay(delaylenght);
   digitalWrite(0, HIGH);
   delay(delaylenght);
   digitalWrite(0, LOW);
   }
   laststate2 = 1;
} else laststate2 = 0;
}

Circuit:
I really didn't spend a lot of effort on this. The transistor is just random one I had laying around. The 4.7k base resistor is also random. But hey, it works!





I could've put more effort into transferring the toner onto the board aswell as it didn't turn out too great. Etching PCBs at home is too fine of an art for me... Next time maybe.







Putting everything into a case



Bench testing with a computer PSU and a mock up speaker - all working! Not with the phone in the pic though. It's too old and doesn't have the functions for the thing, but I was taking the pic with mine so I couldn't get it in the shot.



I could've put a proper ISO connector for it but figured it'd be just extra wire. The screw terminal job was already there so I just went with that for now. It all tucks behind the dash nicely and snugly and I patched the HU-hole with a piece of plastic but that's a tad too ghetto. I'll have to figure out something nicer in the future.

Notice the AUX cable coming from under the ashtray.





With the blank space that I now have I'd like to do maybe something similar to what ronj did - a small screen to show various real time parameters like ECT, MAP sensor data and all. Sigh, the extents you have to go to in a pre-OBDII car...  The car has bigger issues atm though, so that will have to get sorted first. Since MOT is next week and all...

[Mattcheese31]

Wow, nice to see the love, shame u couldn't have started with a better example but credit to you for cracking on with it

[Poodle]

Great read, interesting to see the details of the home-brew amp build.

[RetroPug]

That's got to be the worst rust I've seen behind the rear arches on the 306.

Does this have heated front seats? I think I can see the buttons behind the handbrake.

[Piggy]

Clever that

[Eeyore]

only just seen that. Thats some awesome skills. Great work and thanks for including all the circuit diagrams and parts etc

[Jet Badger]

That's got to be the worst rust I've seen behind the rear arches on the 306.

Does this have heated front seats? I think I can see the buttons behind the handbrake.

Yeah, that's where road salts and neglect will get ya... And yep, heated seats. Atleast supposedly. I don't think I felt any warmth when I tried turning them on. A/C seems to work though! Atleast it does blow cold air, maybe just because it's cold outside. These are the least of my worries now anyway. It needs a new clutch, sorting out idle issues. I know the valve cover seal is leaking but the little drops on the bell housing are a bit excessive. Rear seal maybe? It'll have to last until the gearbox is off for clutch replacement though. Also bearing noise from the engine, especially when it's cold. Gah, I have no more than 5eur available to throw into it right now...

only just seen that. Thats some awesome skills. Great work and thanks for including all the circuit diagrams and parts etc

Thanks! I'd like to swap the amp part of it for a TDA7384, which has 4 channels at 46Wmax, same thing as in many off the shelf head units. The current setup isn't ideal. Loud power-on pop, also it's making a woodpecker noise when phone's plugged in but not playing. Not really a problem with the chip itself but I'd like it gone while at the same time I can't be bothered looking into it

[Jet Badger]

Little update of little things...

Ran the MOT (well, it's equivalent here) yesterday. Didn't pass obviously, but it did surprisingly well. Better than I expected anyway. The inspector even forgot to check if I had an extinguisher, first aid kit, etc. which ofcourse I forgot to "install", these things are otherwise a big thing here, all hail the EU.

Anyway, it didn't pass because left wheel handbrake didn't work, at all. :| One foglight was loosely fitted and the PAS leak at the rack.

Today I set to fix things up starting with the handbrake. Got stuck at the part where you're supposed to take off the drum, just can't get the bearing nut undone with the tools I have... Okay, maybe force it to self-adjust and hope it works? I stomp on the brakes a few times, pull the handbrake and all that jazz when suddenly the pedal just goes all the way to the floor O_O A rear line burst. Better on the driveway than on the road, eh? The spare tire bracket is long gone so atleast access is good



Good thing mom is on vacation so there was a way to get to the parts store. 2,1m of pre-made line with fittings that should be enough to cover both sides, a line cutter and a couple of "quick" connectors. I guess they're not the best solution, but whatever works.



The old lines seemed fine up to the point where they splice out into the wheels so that's where I'll replace them. Got one side done today, but ran out of daylight, so I'll finish tomorrow.

Tried to get a pinion seal that's on top of the PAS valve body for the rack while at the parts store but their catalogs couldn't find it. I'm assuming that's what's leaking. God this 20+ year old thing is so cramped in the engine bay...

The broken fog light fastener was easily fixed with a ziptie, but then the light somehow went out. It worked yesterday at the MOT! Frigin bastard. And ofcourse the screws holding the bulb in the reflector are seized dead, doesn't help that someone in the past ran one in that's way too long and bent onto the reflector housing as it went in... Maybe WD40 will do it's job overnight 

[Jet Badger]

Slowly getting there. Passed the MOT this weekend, so now it's fully road legal! On top of fixing the brake lines I gave the rear drums some elbow grease - both cylinders were shot, everything rusted together, adjusters out of whack and missing parts. No wonder handbrake was working on only one wheel...





A small touch to liven up the wheels. Didn't do much for the overall image of the car though.



Now let's play the game "Find the interior leak". Was not fun. I've been driving with the center console and front carpet out for a few weeks now, really missed the fluffy floor.



BLMC spec. kind of fitment that was there before. The car obviously has been in a driver's fender/door accident judging by all the parts with junkyard type marker writings on the airbag, inner mudguard, bumper. And by the fact that the sill is all mangled, inner arch is bodged and that the door doesn't close as well as it should. And that the door was green at some point in it's life.   If I rotate the stalk assembly so that the shroud aligns with the ignition barrel, it ends up rotated wayyy too much to the left. Any ideas about possible solution? I aligned it so that it kind of doesn't leave a gap there now, but the whole thing is still a tiny bit to the left.



Also... Anybody know what the pair of brown and white connectors behind the upper glovebox are for? Airbag? Did ph1's even had that option? I'm kinda interested.

And is the inner fender part supposed to collect water? I'm talking about the section in the pic below, there's rain water in that part behind the holes if you stick your finger there. Wondering if that could be a part of my interior leak problem.



Now a bit more interesting part. Received one of these the other week. I think I'll upgrade the hackjob stereo as it get's annoying having to plug/unplug the phone every time.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-XS386...08396.html

And since day one my thought was that the clock screen size was very similar to a standard 1602 LCD. And it is! I'm not sure yet what I'm gonna do with it though. I'd much prefer a larger 2.8" or so TFT screen there to display various parameters. 

[Mattcheese31]

Loving the love, you're doing a great job of fetching her back to life! . . . . . . i think one of those connections behind the glovebox is for an alarm light, brown one . . keep it up

[RetroPug]

It might not be the leak you're experiencing but it is certainly worth removing the wiper motor and getting rid of all of the horrible crap that collects there. It can block drains which then lets water into the cabin.

[Jet Badger]

Thanks! I think I'm done with the big dollar jobs on it though. The goal was to have it pass MOT and be driveable. One more thing to prove that I'm not a smart man is the fact that I bought another steering rack, assuming it had a major leak there. Ended up spending another 70 on top of that on some tools and jackstands to replace it when midway I got the genius idea that I don't really need to replace it. So I got a spare rack now, some wasted time, an ARB link that I had to buy because I boogered the old one while removing the subframe. Ended up just replacing the valve cover gasket. The rack does leak a tiny bit through the pinion seal, but the inspector marked it as only a minor fault, so I can live with that.

Errm, yeah, hopefully no more large sums needed to keep it on the road for a few more years when it gets consumed by mother Earth. It's a really crappy example of a car, it appears to have been worked on by the most ham-fisted people on this planet. Atleast it drives, eh

It might not be the leak you're experiencing but it is certainly worth removing the wiper motor and getting rid of all of the horrible crap that collects there. It can block drains which then lets water into the cabin.

Yep, I did that a few weeks ago after searching for it on these forums and there really was good chunk of crust there that I removed, but that didn't solve it sadly. :/ The fact that the car had rather serious damage in that driver's side area that was repaired particularly carelessly, is likely the cause. The part where the metal meets just below that very drain, at the side of the inner arch is a complete mess. There's a clearly visible hole there (which I had temporarily patched with some duct tape to see if that stops the leak), but given the shape of the spot and how the metal meets there, it's pretty hard to tell. My goal is to solve it over these days. 

[Jet Badger]

So a month or so ago I tried fixing the door loom issue. I've been wondering for a while how to approach it as I didn't want to buy an original part that's half the price of the whole car, so firstly I thought I'd try to just crimp on spade ends on the wires that would mate with the connector pins on the door. My original idea was to run the wires directly into the door, but it appeared to require getting the window sliders out of the way so I can push the connector into the door, so I ditched that idea.

The broken and previously taped together piece by a previous owner. The broken orange wire is the reason central locking stopped working, which drawn my attention to the loom in the first place.



New wires on. I just bought a set of colored 0.75sqmm(I reckon?) wires, 1m each and some thicker speaker cable for the heavier wires. Those were 2.5sqmm if I'm not mistaken. 



Crimped the ends on them and the end result is



...subpar.

The amount of room for the wires is too tight for this, they get fairly heavily stressed, not to mention lack of waterproofing. One of the connections (radio speaker) failed after a day or two, but I was too busy/not motivated enough to fix it again, so I just drove around with only the right speaker working. All the other wires somehow stayed attached. Nevertheless, I have finished my bachelor's studies last friday (yay) so now that I have all the time in the world I set to fix the loom once more.

I'm still not buying an OEM plug end though. What are other options though? I know! let's use the old one!

I removed the rubber selastic coating off the plug to get access to the pins, then took all the pins out one by one, cut the wires short and soldered the new ones onto them and put it all back together. Very tedious process that took me good half a day, but at least it should be more permanent than that other one.




Insta-gasket? More like insta-doorplug! Haha! ..ha... nevermind....



On another note... Anybody knows if the thermostat housing on the 8V 1.8 is removable? I kinda stripped one of the two thermostat bolts... It doesn't look like it's leaking any more than it was before, but I'd like to fix it without having to get a new head or whatnot. Looks like it should just bolt off, maybe together with the distributor, but still.