Plight of the Navigator

So there I was, trolling the interweb for "JDM Legend" stuff as I usually do and what should pop up on eBay but some more stuff from "JDMISME" a.k.a. my man Don in Japan. What kind of stuff?



THAT kind of stuff. So I won the auction for a pretty decent price and that was...about a week ago. The difficulty in payment is due to having to deal with getting my daily driver running or to be specific, paying the man who made it all possible on top of buying a differential that I hadn't anticipated. Suffice to say that this week the item WILL be paid for and in two plus weeks, I WILL finally have a genuine alpha Touring Navigation trimmed center console for Project Legend.

I plan on going into the specifics on all the differences between USDM, JDM, EDM, and JDM w/Navigation center consoles in my next post, but until then....keep this in mind as a probable end result:

The Difference Betwen Differentials & Dismay Discussions

What is a differential and why would it be relative to the post? A differential is, well, I’ll let this Copy Paste Job from “How Stuff Works” .com explain it for me….

“This article will explain differentials -- where the power, in most cars, makes its last stop before spinning the wheels.
The differential has three jobs:
• To aim the engine power at the wheels
• To act as the final gear reduction in the vehicle, slowing the rotational speed of the transmission one final time before it hits the wheels
• To transmit the power to the wheels while allowing them to rotate at different speeds (This is the one that earned the differential its name.)
In this article, you'll learn why your car needs a differential, how it works and what its shortcomings are. We'll also look at several types of positraction, also known as limited slip differentials.
Why You Need a Differential
Car wheels spin at different speeds, especially when turning. Also note that the front wheels travel a different distance than the rear wheels. Each wheel travels a different distance through the turn, and that the inside wheels travel a shorter distance than the outside wheels. Since speed is equal to the distance traveled divided by the time it takes to go
For the non-driven wheels on your car -- the front wheels on a rear-wheel drive car, the back wheels on a front-wheel drive car -- this is not an issue. There is no connection between them, so they spin independently. But the driven wheels are linked together so that a single engine and transmission can turn both wheels. If your car did not have a differential, the wheels would have to be locked together, forced to spin at the same speed. This would make turning difficult and hard on your car: For the car to be able to turn, one tire would have to slip. With modern tires and concrete roads, a great deal of force is required to make a tire slip. That force would have to be transmitted through the axle from one wheel to another, putting a heavy strain on the axle components. “

So there you go. Got your learn on I hope.
Now as far as relativity, that previous info on differentials is relative to this post because as it turns out, the differential is what went out on my daily-driven KA7. Not the torque converter that both I and my trusted auto tech had thought.

Awesome. There goes another hundred dollars for a low mileage differential shipped as well as another 3-5 business days without my car. Not to mention a bit of a waste of money in respect to the two hundred plus spent on a low mileage JDM transmission that I didn’t need to buy after all.

Could be worse though.

While in this somewhat never ending transitional period of not having my whip, I have had plenty of time to put things in perspective and reflect on my goals, ambitions, and cold realities surrounding Project Legend.

For example, how am I going to incorporate my planned exodus from Wisconsin into power moves for Project Legend and its upgrades?

How feasible is it to maintain a daily driven luxury sedan that runs on Premium gasoline when gas prices are going nowhere but up?

How much sense does having not one, but two of these sedans in the long run, make?

How many of my planned modifications will make it onto my Daily Driver before my move vs. how many will just come along for the ride in boxes until I purchase the Blk on Blk Type II 6-Speed Sedan?

How much of a monetary investment do I intend to make in regards to a daily driven car that might just end up being passed along to another member of my family anyway?

Wouldn’t it just be easier to buy a Honda S2000 and focus on that?

What kind of horsepower am I going to be satisfied with when all is said and done?

How much is the culmination of ALL my plans, dreams, and aspirations for Project Legend going to cost me in the end in both time and money?

Is it all worth it?

How far should I go in regards to V.I.P. tuning?

How feasible is it to do a 3.5 swap if a Type II 6-speed is enough?

Will my car be safe where I live when I move out to California?

How much effort/money needs to be spent in order to be at least somewhat satisfied with the end result in regards to each aspect of the build?

How much of the work am I willing to do vs. paying someone else to do it for me?

How hard is all this custom fabricating going to be?


Ok….well, not so much perspective….but I am getting forced to come up with answers and solutions to some of the questions/problems previously listed.

More on that later. I’ve kind of got a lot on my plate people.

Conversations and Conversions of Torque

So two weeks ago on Mothers Day, I shifted my “Project Daily Driver” Legend into reverse only to hear a loud “BANG” and then it just revved when I shifted into D4. Bad news.

I’m pretty sure it was my torque converter that went out, which is a costly repair to say the least. What is a torque converter you may ask?

Well, let me explain…

Torque Converter

On automatic transmissions, the torque converter takes the place of the clutch found on standard shift vehicles. It is there to allow the engine to continue running when the vehicle comes to a stop. The principle behind a torque converter is like taking a fan that is plugged into the wall and blowing air into another fan which is unplugged. If you grab the blade on the unplugged fan, you are able to hold it from turning but as soon as you let go, it will begin to speed up until it comes close to the speed of the powered fan. The difference with a torque converter is that instead of using air, it uses oil or transmission fluid, to be more precise.

A torque converter is a large doughnut shaped device (10" to 15" in diameter) that is mounted between the engine and the transmission. It consists of three internal elements that work together to transmit power to the transmission. The three elements of the torque converter are the Pump, the Turbine, and the Stator. The pump is mounted directly to the converter housing which in turn is bolted directly to the engine's crankshaft and turns at engine speed. The turbine is inside the housing and is connected directly to the input shaft of the transmission providing power to move the vehicle. The stator is mounted to a one-way clutch so that it can spin freely in one direction but not in the other. Each of the three elements have fins mounted in them to precisely direct the flow of oil through the converter

With the engine running, transmission fluid is pulled into the pump section and is pushed outward by centrifugal force until it reaches the turbine section which starts it turning. The fluid continues in a circular motion back towards the center of the turbine where it enters the stator. If the turbine is moving considerably slower than the pump, the fluid will make contact with the front of the stator fins which push the stator into the one way clutch and prevent it from turning. With the stator stopped, the fluid is directed by the stator fins to re-enter the pump at a "helping" angle providing a torque increase. As the speed of the turbine catches up with the pump, the fluid starts hitting the stator blades on the back-side causing the stator to turn in the same direction as the pump and turbine. As the speed increases, all three elements begin to turn at approximately the same speed.



So that’s what it is/does and without it working properly; my car is not working.

I was able to get it towed to my mans shop last Monday (finally) as well as acquire a low mileage JDM transmission complete with a working torque converter from a shop in Chicago. So basically my car, new/old transmission, and money are going to my man’s shop and there it well stay until he is able to fix it.

Needless to say, this is a bit of a financial set back in regards to what its going to take monetarily to get Project Legend completed but hey, that’s life.

New posts happening more than once a month.

Promise.

K-K-K-Keys Open Doors....

New Blog on JDM Key's Coming Soon......

It's About Time....

Here’s a pic of my new tire/wheel combo that I said I'd post awhile ago....



Yep. OEM GS 16's wrapped in some Falken Azenis. I'm pretty happy with them. Especially because of the Honda "H" center caps, although if you look closely; the plastic center cap's grey color does not fully match the aluminum wheels like the "Acura" caps that came on them originally. I guess I’m just anal like that, but they have to be perfect, so I’ll probably replace them at some point when the money’s right.

Actually, I plan on upgrading the whole combo altogether to something bigger/better.

Granted, bigger does not always equal better, but maybe some 17’s of the Mugen NR variety would be nice…



That is, if I cannot find another set of these limited edition M7’s…



(Photo courtesy of Matt at ICB Motorsports.)

Because of the size of the photo, you cannot really see the lettering on the face of the wheel but rest assured, it does say “VIA KA7” right next to the JWL and as such, is made specifically for the KA7 chassis, which would be an ideal choice for Project Legend.

These M7’s however, are uber-rare (as is anything Mugen, much less Mugen/KA7 specific) and when I inquired about the cost of them when Matt posted them on his website, I believe the price was upward of two grand. That kind of money is just as out of my range now as it was then, but still, I’m optimistic as to what the future holds for my “shoe selection” in all its varieties as well as its application in regards to Project Legend.

She can scan......man.

So a short time ago, a friend of mine who works at a creative design consultancy, was finally able to help me out with scanning some JDM brochures that I have amassed over the years. I had them translated about a year ago, and plan on re-editing them in Photoshop or something so that the English replaces the Kanji symbols (i.e. “makes sense”).

Here is a sneak peak…..






Now I don't know if or when I do complete this project; that these pics will make it to the blog, but I'll definitely be using pictures out of them for reference in later posts.

HONDA: Made in Italy?

A short time ago I received in the mail my new "MOMO/HONDA" steering wheel horn button.



As you can probably see, it is going to replace my existing "MOMO" badged horn button that already exists within the center of my MOMO wheel.

What you may not see, is that this new button that I acquired; now says "HONDA" underneath the "MOMO" and is also in gold lettering.

.......so here is a better picture.



Fresh right? Right.

FYI, this horn button was made for by MOMO for Honda and its limited edition EG6 (92-95 for those of you not up on your chassis code knowledge) Civic steering wheel.

Also, because I'm strongly considering keeping everything on my builds "era-specific," this horn button works out quite nicely because of its original chassis' yearly denomination coincides with the Project Legends' (91-95).

Now that the steering wheel has a properly badged horn button, all I need to do now before installation/replacement of my existing OEM steering wheel, is to replace the center woodgrain trim/garnish. I need to do this because it currently looks like this...



....but I want it to look NEW, like this....



Awhile back, I researched some different places that customized steering wheel's, wood grain garnishes, etc and came across a this company:


www.craftcustoms.com
214-564-1170
892 Steger Towne Rd., #59
Rockwall, Texas 75032

I corresponded with a man named Carter via email and he quoted me $150 plus $15 shipping to do the work. While this price seemed a bit excessive, he assured me it was necessary because it is important that the work is performed correctly as well as it being about a three day process plus color matching the center garnish wood to match the outside wheel-wood.

This has been over a few months ago and I have not been able to go ahead further because of (as always) lack of money.

Thats all for this post. Just an update more or less about another lengthy process thats going to take awhile to reach fruition. When that glorious day DOES come however, I'm sure that I'm going to be pretty happy with the results.

It should be a one of a kind with the EG6 Limited Edition horn button.....

However, it won't be as cool as the official KA7 woodgrain Mugen steering wheel that I am ALWAYS looking for:









......*sigh*........