Thread: VVL activation with VAFC not working! need help

I'm trying to wire up the vvl solenoids with a VAFC and can't get the solenoids to activate. I wired them to 12 volts to see if they click and they both do. One set of wires is grounded to the block and the other are hooked up to the pink wire on the vafc. I get rpm readings on the vafc but for some reason its like 1k rpm off, I took the signal from behind the cluster(blue/org). Does anybody have any knowledge on these or wiring diagrams for the vafc. Do I need a relay, is there any other sensors that have to be hooked up to the vafc like the tps, vtec input(purple wire)?? I get a constant 12 volts to the output wire(pink) with my meter but its not enough to activate the solenoids if I hook it up directly. any body have any idea whats going on??

http://www.sr20-forum.com/506858-post48.html

thanx, but I find it kinda weird that the solenoids would be triggered by a negative(ground) wire. Right after I did the swap I didn't have any kind of cam activation control, so I ghetto rigged it to my fog lights since I don't have any, and I just grounded the solenoids to the block and used the 12 volt wire from the fog lights to activate and it worked fine. I'm gonna try the relay later and see what happens.

The factory wiring is setup for constant 12V and switched ground.

When you ghetto wired it you obviously disconnected it from the normal loom as you said you grounded one wire and hooked the other up to the foglight. This will work just fine too. You can wire it up so its positive switched, but from the factory with the OEM loom running through the OEM ECU, its ground swtiched.

so then I should wire the solenoids to 12 volt source, and have the vafc with a relay to send a ground trigger to activate the solenoids? Another question is why does the vafc vtec output wire(pink) have a constant 12 volts, shouldn't it only send out 12 volts when the selected rpm is reached?

You can wire it up whichever way you want. It would be easier though to just cut the single wire for each solenoid in the cabin and leave the original constant 12V to the solenoid there. Then just use the relay to complete the ground circuit.

Sounds like you need to check the settings on your VAFC or maybe its damaged if the output wire is reading constant 12V.

I got it to work. I just rewired everything from scratch. I just used the pink wire which is the vtec output wire and tied it straight to one set of wires to the solenoids and just grounded the other set to the engine block. These solenoids can be either triggered by 12 volts or by ground with a relay. With the vafc you don't need a relay. I set my engagement points 4800 and off @ 4700 rpm. Works great.
vafc wires needed:
org and red to 12 volts(IGN)
blk and brn to ground
green to rpm signal
pink to vvl solenoid
This is just for vvl activation only