Captain Obvious

Yeah, there's some significant differences there. Could be measurement tools, technique, or both. If you're sure what you have are stock N-27's I'd be more than happy to check them for you. Send 'em over, I'll record them and send 'em back. And BTW, I'm pretty sure it was just a typo, but when you said .010", I'm thinking you actually meant .0010", right?

So they sent you that rusty head claiming that it was a good condition usable piece? Seriously?

So were your numbers anywhere close to mine? Or are you in the market for some better measurement tools?

There's no way a digital HF caliper is going to cut it. The resolution is only a half thousandth, and the accuracy (and that's advertised accuracy) is one thousandth. It's good enough to toss in your tool bag to take to the junkyard and tell the difference between a .68 wide rotor and a .72 wide rotor. Not nearly good enough to take measurements off the needle stations however. A couple years ago, I measured some (what I believe are) N-27 needles. They came out of a pair of round top carbs I bought. I didn't own them from new and I have no idea how many other hands had been into them messing around with things. I may have been the first person in there, or the tenth. The needles may be OEM stock, or may have been replaced and changed many times. And unfortunately the numbers on the side of the needles is no longer readable. What I can tell you is that the carbs appeared to be unmolested and the needles are N-somethings printed in black ink (not stamped into the brass). I can also tell you that the car I had the carbs installed on ran great with those needles. Not too rich, not too lean. The carbs worked great. Bottom line is that I believe, but cannot guarantee, that they are N-27 needles. Lastly, I have a good eye, a steady hand, and made these measurements with a quality micrometer. I'm not infallible however, so would I would claim accuracy only to maybe plus/minus maybe two tenths. So with multiple qualifiers and caveats, here are my numbers:

I checked and double checked. My 77 uses three different gauges all the way out to the bulb. Like I said though, I don't know what other years did. Those grommets are actually Mitsubishi power antenna drain tube grommets. Find one on an Eclipse or Diamonte and probably other Mitsubishis as well. I grabbed three of them last time I was at the yard. One for each headlight bucket, and one (you guessed it) for my antenna drain! I think it was a little tight to get into the antenna hole in the body, but once it's in there it's snug and certainly way better than the dry rotted non-existent grommet that was in there before. I put a small ty-wrap on the antenna tube as well just to make it as well sealed as I could. Anyway... I'm getting off topic. Back to the headlight buckets. I cut the holes on the back of the buckets large enough such that I could get the connector off the back of the bulb and get the connector out through the hole from the rear. And your question about the H4 bulbs is exactly why... At some point, I'm thinking that I might upgrade to H4's and it would sure be nice to be able to get the bulb out the back as well without having to drop the buckets. So, the bottom line is that was my intention, but I haven't tried it. Hole might not be big enough.

Well I'm not sure if they ran different gauges for different years, but on my 77, I've actually got three different gauges running the whole way to the bulbs. Including the little pigtail between the buckets and the harness. I modified my buckets for a new larger grommet so that I could take the connector off the back of the bulb without taking the whole headlight bucket off the car. But the point is... You can see the three different gauge wires: The red/black for the low beams is the smallest, the red (common) is larger, and the red/white for the high beams is the largest. Note that I've got my red/white wrapped with black electrical tape stripes to remind myself that it's actually the common now and connected to ground instead of it's original connection. And in case you're interested to see what the grommets look like once installed in the back of the buckets:

Tamo, I whipped up a quick sketch for the starter relay. Original design is on the left, upgraded version with the new relay is on the right. Basically you are reducing the loading current on the starter switch so you don't burn up the contacts inside:

I'm assuming the "Bosch style" is a term coined by automotive enthusiasts to describe the size, shape, and pinout of those relays. I'm not sure Bosch ever really actually made relays themselves. If forced to guess, I would assume that Bosch didn't actually make them themselves, but private labeled them from someone else and had Bosch screen printed on the case. There may be some small spec variation in the part specially for Bosch (or maybe not). There are lots of relay manufacturers, and I don't think Bosch would compete in the world market. As far as being inferior goes... About the only words of advice I would provide is buy from a name you recognize. And even then (as Blue has pointed out on numerous occasions) you're not always guaranteed to be getting what you think you are. On the good side, however, you're not going to be taxing these relays anywhere near their max specs, so even if they are a little sub-par, you'll probably be asking them to perform below what they can handle.

Great. That'll provide a source for others. Getting the contacts out of that spade connector body is pretty easy. If you managed to get those contacts out of the Ford O2 sensor, then getting the contacts out of that six position spade connector will be a breeze by comparison. Paper clip, jewelers screwdriver, small piece of stiff wire. You can even see the retaining tang without magnification.

Tamo, Three of the four relays in that Corolla box are very common and are almost as ubiquitous as the Bosch style relays that you are using. Here's an ebay auction for the three common ones. This one happens to say Toyota on the side, but there are lots of manufacturers for this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOYOTA-Fog-Light-Relay-Fuse-DENSO-12v-OEM-Factory-90084-98031-/111438776950?fits=Model%3ACorolla&hash=item19f244ca76&vxp=mtr I'm not sure about the fourth relay. It might be easy to find as well, but I've not looked into it. So yes, I can guarantee that three of the relays are very easy to find replacements, but I've bot looked into the fourth. About the open barrel contacts, Do you know how the retaining feature works on your relay block? There are a couple different retention schemes used, and each one has a different feature on the contact that is important. Some use a little bent metal tang on the back of the contact, while others use the plastic tab that catches between the two rounded portions of the contact. Without knowing how your contacts are retained, I'm not sure I can help with a source. And as for a starter relay, it's different than the ignition relay. It's an additional relay upgrade (like the headlight relays) to add a relay where there didn't originally exist one. I searched around thinking I would be able to find a schematic that someone already drew up, but couldn't find one. I'll draw something up when I get a chance, or maybe someone else knows where to find a sketch and can point you to it. Essentially, there is a black/yellow wire that comes off the back of the ignition key switch and goes to the starter. Problem is that the starter draws more current from that wire than the switch likes, and eventually the switch stops making contact. The solution is to add a new relay between the switch and the starter.

Thanks Chuck. I've been concentrating on reliability and just getting stuff to work properly, but one of these days I should try to make my Z look better.

Tamo, I'm not sure how the terminals are retained into the box you have, but most of the ones I've investigated use a little clip that catches on material between the two rounded bent over "wings" on the spade terminal. The reason I bring it up is if you try to use a terminal with too wide of a gap between the two sides, it won't catch the retaining tab. I've had a little trouble sourcing open barrel female spade contacts that have an appropriate spacing. So I don't know if your box even uses the same retaining feature, but I hope your contacts work properly. If not, I can dig up the info on what I purchased. PS - If you've got an extra relay in your box, I would suggest using it as a starter relay. Put it between the ignition switch and the starter solenoid instead of having the ignition switch drive the starter solenoid directly. The current to drive the starter solenoid eventually burns up the contacts inside the ignition switch and putting a relay between the two will prevent that from happening.

Tamo, Glad to help. And on a related note, I was at a junkyard today and snapped some pics of the Corolla relay box in it's natural environment: The one I saw today was a 98 Corolla but I'm sure the used the same box on all years of that generation:

That concept has been around for quite some time:

Chuck, I hear ya. I usually just use a local notary. I only went to Harrisburg once because I had three things to do all at once and I was in a real hurry for one of them. It was way cheaper to burn the gas to drive to the PennDOT hive than to spend three times the notary fees, plus I walked out with what I needed. Yes, I had to sit in that big smelly room and I wouldn't have done for just one item, but since I had three.... I also burned an additional extra couple hours and took the guided tour of the Capitol building while I was in the area. I tried to turn the day into a tourist "experience". PS - What's it cost to blast an entire car at your guy?

Haha!! It's great when your joy is so apparent that it's infectious!

Tamo, It's yours if you want it. I'll send it to you if you would like. I'm not going to use it now that I've got my headlight relays mounted using a different scheme.

New record short, or new record long? From my experiences at the PA DMV, it could go either way...

That's great news. You must have breathed quite a sigh when you found that!

My dimmer switch (I called it the HI/LO Beam Select) is in the lower right of my schematic. As for the deployment difficulty, I'm not sure which would be easier. Assuming the new plug-in harness construction is the same difficulty for either version, that part is a tie. Then for the traditional approach you have to run a new power wire and fuse from the battery, while for what I did you have to make a couple changes to the headlight switch instead. All things considered, I think the traditional approach is a little easier, but I think the benefits to what I did were worth the small extra amount of work. I'll try to draw up another schematic of my modified 2-relay version that shows more clearly how to construct a harness.

Before I finished up my relay upgrade, I was also looking for a pre-existing box to house the relays and some fuses. Here's the best one I could come up with. It's a pretty adaptable relay/fuse box from (I think) the later model of Corolla. I like it because not only does it have room for four relays, but it also has four of the mini blade fuses. This is the only pic I have handy right now: I'll try to snap a couple better pics of the box with the lid.

Wow, that's fancy!! I too wonder how much $$. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know!

Pffffft. Flat top carbs. Didn't anyone ever tell you those things are junk? You can't go fast using them!!! That's probably why you crashed. Seriously though, I hope you're OK and it's just muscular. Necks are complicated.

You looking for something up in that corner of the car? The power wires to the ballast might suit your purpose.

Sorry, I'm not trying to muddy the waters... I'm not sure if there even exists the need for some sort of adjustment on the starter, just suggesting that it might be a possibility. Sounds to me like there's a "tight" spot once per crank revolution. I've never seen any sort of adjustment on the starter engagement, but I've never messed with the gear reduction version either. Maybe you could toss the old starter back in just to see if the clunk goes away? On edit, just saw your most recent message. I'm going to let the dust settle a little and see what happens.