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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/07/18 in all areas

  1. The time has come, Effie has been sold. With all that's been happening recently, and trying to get my fleet of cars from 4 down to 2, after selling the Mini it was inevitable that eventually Effie would also find a new owner. I was contacted by the buyer, Nick, a couple of weeks ago regarding potentially buying Effie. He was a long time fan of SD1s and had been pining to buy a Vitesse for years. Back many years ago he planned to buy one in the UK and bring it back to NZ, but unfortunately life got in the way and it never came to fruition. He has tried to buy a Vitesse in the past and it just didn't manage to happen, so when he saw Effie for sale, at a reasonable price (especially compared to the Vitesse that have been for sale recently) he gave me a call and we went from there. Of course when selling a classic British car, not everything goes smoothly. The agreement was that since I was selling for less than the asking price the car would come without the headunit (my flash $200+ JVC unit) and would have the standard steering wheel fitted instead of the wooden Momo wheel. Swapping these over was a piece of cake... The issue came the next day, the evening before Nick was flying in from Nelson for pick the car up, after I had washed the car, when I noticed that the interior lights aren't working. Hmm, that's odd I thought.... must be a fuse. Sure enough, I found a popped fuse. Figuring I had popped it removing the radio, I removed it and went to replace it. The original spec for the car calls for a 25A fuse, but I noted there was a 20A fuse fitted. Knowing I had a spare 25A, I popped that into place and immediately noted that it was warm to the touch. Odd. The interior lights were now on again though which was a start, but the left hand one was dim. Weird. And then I smelt it. Melting plastic. Shit. And then I saw it, the massive plume of white smoke pouring out of the engine bay. Double shit. I quickly sprinted to the driver's side, flung open the glovebox and ripped on the bonnet release. Throwing open the bonnet I quickly spun off the nut for the negative battery terminal to kill the power (damn glad I have a wing nut for quick release) and went to see what damage had been done. Thankfully an inspection of the area the smoke came from showed only one wire was melted; the power feed for the bonnet lights. I have taped the end up, but all of the insulation has been melted off the bonnet side of the wire, and the car side of the wire started to melt towards the loom bundle (thankfully stopping short of melting through the bundle). It turns out that some time in the cars past someone had pinched the power feed for the lights in the bonnet hinge, so obviously years of movement in the metal had worn through the insulation, and yesterday it chose to create a dead short. Annoyingly the 25A fuse I fitted didn't blow. So once I had tested and checked it wasn't all going to try to melt down again, I removed the 25A fuse and refitted a new 20A. Everything still works, except the bonnet lights obviously, which is a relief. I'm lucky it happened in the driveway, and in my driveway at that (not the new owners), so damage could be caught quickly and minimised. WIth that crisis averted, Effie was looking nice and clean and ready to go. Today was the day, and after a quick check over that all the fluids were good, and that she hadn't tried to burn herself to the ground again we were good to go. Since it was the first time since picking the car up in 2016 that I had driven with the standard steering wheel, I was pleasantly surprised by it. Sure, it was huge, and weird shaped, and rubbed on my thighs when I turned, but it was comfortable and easy to drive with. It also lightened the steering due to the increased diameter over the Momo. Not a bad wheel over all, but not as nice in the hand as the Momo. We were picking Nick up from the Airport, so after a nice half hour cruise into town I met up with Nick and we had a good chat and look over the car. He seemed very happy with her, and I could tell straight away he was the right buyer for her. I couldn't be too picky as there aren't a huge amount of SD1 weirdos out there like us, but I could never risk selling her to someone who would disrespect her, or worse still, wreck/strip her for parts. Nicks plans are to tidy her up, and make somewhat of a Vitesse replica by fitting the Vitesse spoilers and suspension. It's a good plan and he should be rewarded with years of happy motoring as long as he keeps up with the maintenance. Being a panel beater by trade, I feel he is in the right industry to take Effie to that next step and make her really shine. It also helps he looks right at home in the driver's seat. It's a bittersweet day. I'm glad she is sold as I just wasn't doing her justice anymore. I couldn't drive her as much as I wanted, and being homeless soon I wouldn't even have anywhere to store her. It is sad though, I put so much blood, sweat and swears into this car to save her and make her what she is today. From a dilapidated old bucket that ran badly and was (once again) trying to burn herself to the ground, to a car that im genuinely proud of, and could just jump into, drive and enjoy. She will be missed greatly, but times change, and now she can be enjoyed more and get out and do what she does best; cruising. Bye my lovely.
    4 points
  2. painted the door insides and the hinges. just realised i have to take the front guards off again to mount the front doors. bummer. ill stick the doors back on it tomorrow and try and get it all aligned. in other news the guy i bought it off found the hood lining and the door cards which were missing and they are all in top condition (for a 40 year old car) so thats a good. 2018-04-07_01-29-35 by sheepers, on Flickr 2018-04-07_01-29-47 by sheepers, on Flickr
    3 points
  3. Took it for a ride, 155 main jet, 20 pilot, shit it hauls! Wheelies so damn easily it's a handful! Cracked the head pipe, that put an end to the ride. Running a bit lean up top with the 155 in it though, can hear and feel it's happier at 3/4 throttle than WOT. Chucked a 165mj in, should be pretty much spot on I'm thinking, will find out tomorrow.
    3 points
  4. lol im not surprised that aeroflow pump was loud. it says itll flow enough to support over 600hp and you put it on a 4k.
    2 points
  5. Hey everyone I've finally managed to convince my old man to give me his commodore to restore and get back on the road where it belongs. its got a bit of rust here and there and is in need of a new paint job so far I've got most of the interior stripped out. I'll update as I go Discussion
    2 points
  6. Someone had deemed these "junk" and left them in a fish bin full of water outside for a year. Some time ago i cut open a dead RB25 coil hoping to see what was inside. Such fine wire, so many windings. About a million of the finest wire windings i had ever seen, trapped in resin plastic, sealed and unable to be unwound at all. At least by any methods i could see. These 100 year old ford ones remind me of the same thing, except the wire is slightly thicker and there is 2 lots of 1million windings. 2 per coil around a heavy primary winding. Accidentally put a chisel into the primary and is still works. Not for 100 years anymore as it'll corrode now it's damaged but still... not many ignition coils you can pull the windings out of, involving chipping away or melting the tar they were packed in. Those brown paper things are capacitors. Condensers effectively, like you have for a distributor. While i'd heard of old timers making their own from paper and chewing gum wrappers back in the 1940s when they were poor kids fixing their first car... i'm not that keen. These had real tin foil, not the alloy foil we have today so they solder really nicely. A couple tested within spec' so i re-used them. Others i replaced with orange things. Mix and matched the wood. And going ot do the same with the burnt out windings so i can turn 8 burnt ones into 4 good ones... hopefully. Had some burn up after 10 minutes of driving because i didn't realize how keen they were to have inch long sparks jumping inside the box if i didn't put the glass plates and tar back in. Opps. Bit marked up, some have clear borer holes in them but not too bad for 100 year old ignition parts. How many of you are still running original coils and points at 1/3rd the age?
    2 points
  7. Discussion: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/57479-hyperblades-kp61-racecar-beams61-discussion/ Moving over my project from the club-k forums to make it a bit more public for those interested. So it started when I brought this 1984 Toyota Starlet Racecar, I wanted something I could drive to the track, while still being safe during racing, hence the roll cage. It came with a 2L Altezza 3SGE BEAMS engine with the 6 Speed box, already in it and a really good build history from the original owner. Sale thread here has some more details: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/38220-fs-1981-kp61-starlet-race-car-certifed-homologated/ More to come...
    1 point
  8. The woman complained about my propensity for leaving my work clothes either; on a couch or hanging over a door. I asked if it would ok if i screwed some hooks into the wall and she said nuh. So I got into my scrap pile of treasures, pulled out my 50's era Arc Welder and made this. Farkin Cool! Gave it to my son (A sandblaster) who blasted and blacked it for me. Shoulda made one years ago. I asked if she wanted one for her shit also, lol! She said nuh.
    1 point
  9. Lawl . . . Soz Puj still has its place as a weekly Red Rocks taxi / mainland offroad adventures. Is also Grandads old one so a bit of a treasure
    1 point
  10. @My name is Russell So now that you’ve got a new tow wagon, guess that means the ol’ Paj needs a new home....wink wink nudge nudge
    1 point
  11. motor and box back out left a huge hole left as much of the original tunnel as possible even using the factory mounts..i think i have done just enough to be able to still use factory carpet.... once trimmed up front. started on the firewall
    1 point
  12. This is fucking cool shit you are up to. Good luck with it all.
    1 point
  13. Had some free time last night so I did some fab work and got my Recaro seat installed in the car...mostly. The seat is 100% in and the brackets are all together, but I ran out of welding wire, so the rear bracket is only tacked in place. Gonna finish welding it up tomorrow afternoon. I used the factory sliders and the plates I made in the last page to raise the seat up high enough to clear the factory slider release. I also off-set the seat on the sliders to it's in line with the steering wheel. I also managed to fab the brackets up so there is about 1/2" clearance between the seat and the B-pillar. I lined up the height of the shoulder bolster and the natural curve in the B-pillar to ensure it clears properly. Also did a dry fit of my flocked dash pad to get an idea of how the interior is going to look when its all completed and all I can say is god damnit I can't wait to get this thing road legal. Also picked up a 3rd set of wheels for the car a couple weeks ago. 14" Supra wheels with 3 good tires on them for $100. They are actually in good shape too. No curb rash or damage, just dirty and oxidized a bit. Should clean up nicely. Only downside is that they only came with 1 center cap. But that's okay. I'm hopefully going to have some time to work on it over the weekend and start doing some metal work on the front windshield cowl panel, finish welding up the brackets and give them a good shot of paint, and remove the rear bumper/bar to figure out where I'm going to cut for my replacement patch panels.
    1 point
  14. Been pretty quiet on here lately, still sifting around, still drifting every 3 - 4 weeks but its rinse and repeat except the last 2 months ive been driving the new Evergreen track at Meremere I have had a couple of wall tags though... First outing March 4th Fixed up for second outing April 2nd Second outting.... So ive been teaching myself panel beating.
    1 point
  15. Quickly threw together a seat cover - all done!
    1 point
  16. I like where this is going...... Manual 4wd doooort whale
    1 point
  17. Sorry for the lack of updates guys, been to busy working on other cars. Managed to get some work done over the Easter weekend. Fixed all the rust in the front windshield housings and repaired a couple little cracks in the fenders by the head light cutouts. Here's some pics.
    1 point
  18. I'm running a 24mm on my 70+cc Gyro, it's about perfect sized for the engine. 12mm would have been such a restriction! Engine out, again. If I wound the idle hard in the carb wiggled into place, bit of hacking-I mean shaping- of the inner skin + grinding the adjustment screw right down small gave just enough clearance, 1 hole through the outer skin to let a screw driver through to adjust and it's done! SO MUCH COMPRESSION!!! I want to index the cam side cover so the "CDI" writing is level, there's a little tab that sits it where it is and this on the inside Can't see much reason I can't just put it on level?
    1 point
  19. Vote for tang desprang and mirror tints here
    1 point
  20. So as some of you might have noticed in another thread I started over in the dark side of the bike section..I have been having sweet dreams about a future Imp project involving a Honda Goldwing Flat six... For that flat six growl ! Create a Imp 911. Hillman 911? Anyway.. I have spent a fair proportion of good sleeping time recently laying awake going through ideas on how and looking through drawings on a workshop manual I downloaded. It had it all worked out this morning. Worked out how to deal with the oil pump drive, create a Flywheel hub, deal with the alternator and water pump issues etc etc. It was looking good. But then a fella goes by the name of Darkspeed on Retrorides, who's been into Imps for a fair while and had once investigated the same engine, quipped in... "I think they might be counterclockers" Yes. Dammit. He is correct. After all those late night/ early morning ponderings I failed to spot which side of the belts the cam belt tensioners were on... So yeah. Back to the drawing board. Which could mean using the stock transmission and cobble together a neat little diff. The output is offset though. But diff could be offset a little and then extend one axle drive outwards, supported to suit. So long as the uni/Cv joints are in line with the stock position it'll be fine. A sequential shift. Hmmm. Plus some later Goldwings have a electric reverse (how much it can deal with I dont know though) Anyway.. this idea is ways off so back to welding. Oh and also...look who came through and stayed the night on their Tour of love to Nats down south. Fun times were had that night! Very chilled. They all took a quite shine to the alluring beauty of an Imp... Hopefully I will see more Imps turn up on Oldschool in the future
    1 point
  21. L/H guard repair: first up was shaping a foam block to fill in this gap And sanded all the paint of the guard. The LH side had a fairly clean break from the rest of the body so it fitted back into place well. The front was a bit broken so I cut it off clean and fitted a new foam block First layer of fibreglass going on, I am going to be putting on 2 layers inside and out. And all sealed up with 2 layers of glass. It needed a very light skim of lightweight filler in one patch which was a bit hollow. I did this before laying on the glass. Im very pleased this guard was able to be reused One more gap to fill!
    1 point
  22. As is always the case, of the list of things I wanted to do before the next club day, I only ended up doing a couple... First job was new headers and exhaust, I had been running stock Altezza 4-2-1 headers (shortened at the 2 section) 2.5 inch steel system with two old mufflers under the rear diff and out the back. This was a pain as it was one piece all the way from the headers back and was bolted such that it could not be removed without major work (infact I never had it off as it was to hard). So the goal of the new headers/exhaust was: * Make it eaiser to maintain. * Side exit so no more diff issues * Gain HP * Save weight I was "lucky" when I spotted some TRD headers come up on Yahoo Japan in really good condition. Unfortunatly when we went to fit them, they ended up being 100mm to low, and there was no easy way to modify them to fit However they gave me accurate measurements, so on to plan b which was to get some custom headers made to the same specs. As the TRD ones were meant to give 13kw across the rev range. Being Made: All Wrapped: Next was to get rid of the indvidual trumpet filters. While I would like a cold air intake plenium, I just didn't have the time or desire to make one at the moment, so decided to go with a Pipercross filter and a backing plate to suit. Now space is quite limited in this area, so both the backing plate, filter and firewall had to be massaged to fit in and still allow the bonnet to close normally. Luckily there was enough meat on the filter to take the plastic frame down while still keeping its integrity, it means it's no longer quick release, but it will do the job. So then off to the dyno for a retune. Old Dyno Results: 134.6 kw (180hp) @ 6929rpm, 215 N-m @ 4560rpm (Hub Dyno) New Dyno Results: 149.9 kw (201hp) @ 7250rpm, 235.4 N-m @ 5150rpm (Rolling Road) Very happy with that result! So off to Club Day 4 with some new tyre pressures to aim for too (after advice from someone in the know) now running 21psi hot instead of 24psi. Race 1: Race 2: Race 3: So previously my best laptimes across the 3 races were: Club Day 2 1:39.040 1:41.980 1:40.270 Club Day 3 1:38.824 1:39.307 1:39.911 Club Day 4 Was: 1:37.187 1:37.400 1:37.424 New PB of 1:37.187 down from 1:38.824. What was most pleasing however was in race 2 every single lap was in the 1:37's where as previously they had varied quite a bit, I think that's mostly down to tyres as they used to feel like they were getting slippery in final laps. Car is now lifting it's front left wheel a lot out of the corners due to the grip, acceleration, and in some cases the back tyre was also lifting. It's performing a lot better now, and I can actually keep up with the competition down the straight so have a chance of getting them under brakes, where as before I was just to far behind. Next major items before the last Club Day 5 are around aero and improving the drag/downforce: * Duct cold air to the filter. * Front splitter/tray * Rear diffuser (If I get time)
    1 point
  23. Cut the holes out, flipping mission of a job, but got a result. Lost pics
    1 point
  24. Hopefully this will be there again and you can have a gold ozzie wagon love-in.
    1 point
  25. Bought some wheels from Japan, where everything great comes from. 1991 Porsche 944 S2-424 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 17x8 and 17x9 OZ Cronos, super '90s style and they're in magical condition. Have been spending lots of money on maintenance and fixing a few things that have broken. So far; - clutch master cylinder - clutch slave cylinder - new glovebox stays - new window switches - new fog light trims - new blinker lenses - K&N filter - new radiator and hoses - new badge seal thing - new hatch lock seal - new battery - regassed bonnet and hatch struts - currently in the midst of cambelt, water pump, all front seals, cam chain, balance shaft belts, idlers/rollers, thermostat, cam chain tensioner etc etc etc all that junk. TL;DR - this isn't finishing the KP.
    1 point
  26. Another day, more coolant. I'm quickly running out of time to get Effie ready for the show this weekend, but I needed to fix the leaking coolant first. The British Car Day show is in 5 days, Effie is leaking coolant and doesn't have a Warrant. Time is running out, and I still have some work to do on Tess too. I'll at least have Tess there, but I would love to have both Rovers in the show. So in my last post I detailed the issues I was having with a leaking under intake pipe. I couldn't drive the car far as I didn't want to risk an overheat, so I haven't been able to get a WOF for it yet. The other day I put the urgent call out on the OldSchool forum for someone to weld my steel pipe to the threaded boss. This was a crucial step towards fixing Effie, but not having the tools to weld it myself, I was stuck. Thankfully a member on the forum ( @Get it done ) came to the rescue, and yesterday he did an awesome job of machining down the boss, and welding the pipe into it. It was good timing, because today was a public holiday (hey Kiwi's, happy Waitangi Day!) and this gave me a whole day to work on Effie, so there might be a chance of getting a WOF this week. This is the engine, in all its wasted spark coil glory The first step is to dump all the coolant, and like usual, still no drain plug so it goes everywhere. With the coolant everywhere but your drain pan, its time to start ripping everything to bits. This isn't a small job by any stretch of the imagination, in fact, it's a bigger job than the "big injection hose" job I did this time last year. Off comes the intake piping, and the plenum. I'm getting pretty good at this particular part of the job The smart person I am, made this job easier for myself by putting plugs in the main engine loom, so that it can be disconnected from the section that runs into the car. The engine harness has to be completely removed to make life easier, otherwise it will get in the way. My plenum base had some oil residue in it. This appears to be normal for injected SD1s, and despite having drain holes in the bottom of the plenum base (at the bottom of the trumpets) this little pool of oil just chills out at the back. This is the whole reason for this job. Coolant on the valley gasket. It builds up until it overflows the black clamp, and then spills over the bellhousing. Six bolts, and off comes the trumpet base, leaving just the inlet manifold and injector setup. The loom is still fitted here, but it was removed, along with the injectors. The injectors and rails have to be removed to gain access to the manifold bolts under them. I was hoping to leave the injectors attached, but it wouldn't be worth the hassle. I also chose to remove the whole throttle cable bracket from the head, which was easier than removing the two cables from it. Before I could remove the inlet manifold I had to remove the leaking coolant hose. Yeah, the end of the pipe is FUBAR. I had been slipping the hose further and further forward to get it to clamp on good metal, but eventually the rust just poked its way through another part of the pipe anyway. The inlet manifold is held on with 12 bolts. The two at the front are longer than the others, but the manual recommends keeping the bolts in order (which is why they are lined up on the valve covers). The manifold isn't actually heavy with all the rest of the bits removed. This is the pipe in question. Nowhere near as bad as the donor in my last post, but the end was stuffed and coolant was weeping out through one spot where it had rusted through The same process as the donor worked on this too. Cut the pipe as close to the threaded boss as possible, and then using some Ugga Duggas, spin that thing out. Easy. I'll be using the parts from this pipe to try to work out how to completely replicate the pipes. Another thing I noticed, and another reason i'm glad I did this work, was that the connection from the waterpump to the manifold (which I think feeds this pipe) was 95% blocked with rust and crud. I shone a light in from the back of it, and this was how much shone through. One small spot. Compared to after I had cleared it I took the manifold outside and gave all the coolant passages a real good blast out with the hose. A few big chunks came out, but over all the cooling system is actually very clean in this car. Its possible the breaking down pipe was just circulating rust. I also took this time to give the manifold a quick degrease. It came up a lot better. Quality parts Next I removed the valley gasket. The old tin one had lasted well really, with no damage or rust. I guess the coating of oil from the old leaks helped that. With the gasket removed I got to have a good look at the cam and lifters. The cam looked really good with minimal visible wear. I didn't rotate the engine to check the cam lobes, but I have no reason to suspect cam issues anyway (and it was replaced not long ago). I noticed one of the coolant ports was completely blocked. This is a blind hole anyway, as its blocked by the intake manifold, but it was ugly, so I cleaned it out. I had often heard talk of the injected engines having a cutout in the port for the injector to spray the back of the valve, but until now had not really seen it. This little notch, circled, indicates original EFI heads. Carb engines don't have this. This is the replacement pipe. Fits like a glove, with some thread sealer on it to make sure it doesn't even think about leaking again. A new valley gasket, of the black coated type, went on with some new seals and clamps. The clamps were bit of a prick to fit as the seals sat slightly proud in the corners. Got there in the end though, and on went the inlet manifold. All bolts were torqued up in stages to 30NM, working outwards from the center. I was about to refit the injectors and rail, when I chose to check the hoses, and this is what I found. FML. More severely cracked fake R9 injector hose. Its been a constant battle against this stuff, but damn i'm glad I caught it now as those cracks are the worst I have had. Two hoses on the fuel regulator, and the main fuel feed hose all got replaced with the good Codan stuff I picked up a while ago. I gave ALL the other hoses a real good, close up inspection and they are all in good condition still. The issue seems to be when the hose is bent. With the hoses replaced I refit all the injectors, and reassembled the rest of the engine. With it all back together, i gave the fuel system a decent prime to check it was sealed, and then filled the cooling system A trusty 50:50 mix of Nulon Long Life green coolant, as used in almost everything, because it's good stuff. Effie would know, she's gone through bucket loads of it. So has my garage floor. See? At least I tried to catch it. After bleeding the cooling system, so far she has been keeping her coolant where it should be. The heater is hotter than before too, so obviously it's getting better coolant flow now. I took her for a quick drive, and gosh she is lovely to cruise around in. So smooth, refined, comfortable, and grunty. I'll need to monitor the coolant for a bit to be sure we are all good now, but tomorrow i'll be calling up and asking for a huge favour... a warrant inspection this week. And then we can go to the show. Hopefully.
    1 point
  27. I had some time off from work today, so I finally got around to servicing my auto transmission. Hey, here's a car I haven't worked on in a while. Cant let the Vitesse have all the fun now can we? I purchased all the parts to service my auto a while ago, including the fluid, but have put it off. Rimmers doesn't have a lot of the parts available anymore, but because Rover used a standard old GM auto, I was able to order parts for a GM TH-180 (Turbo-Hydramatic 180) which was used in heaps of different cars, even the old Commodores. I ordered the gaskets from a place in the states called Makco but there are heaps of places that can supply these parts. In regards to which oil to use, there is HEAPS of discussion on it, but I chose to use a Semi-Synthetic Dexron compatible Penrite "Multi-Vehicle' ATF-MHP. This meets the requirements for the fluid type, but has the added advantage of being a semi-synthetic. I didn't want to go for a full synthetic because I'm not flushing the trans so would be mixing synthetic oil with whatever is already in there. Not keen. Obviously the first step in this game is the first step in most games.... jack the car up. Thankfully the EFI is at standard height and doesn't need any special work to get it in the air. Once in the air it was obvious why she smoked like crazy when sitting for a few days. The trans was leaking badly onto the RH exhaust pipe. The oil, as oil does, had travelled everywhere on the underside of the car. Makes a good rust preventative though I guess. Looking around I could see oil traces coming from two main places; the dipstick tube seal and the inhibitor switch. Both are common areas to leak from, so I pre-ordered the seals required to try to fix them. It also appeared to be leaking from the oil pan gasket itself. No surprise really as most of the bolts at the rear of the pan were barely finger tight. I know the torque setting is low on these, but that's just being silly. I'm not sure when the trans was last serviced, but it had been worked on at some point in the past. The GM trans of this era doesn't have a drain plug in the pan, so the only way to drain the trans is to make a mess. This was my first time working on an auto without a drain plug, so I wasn't so sure what I was in for. I loosened off all the 1/2" pan bolts, more so on the side that the exhaust wasn't hard up against, with the rear ones looser than the front ones so that the pan would drop at the rear. After breaking the sealant seal on the pan, it all started to dribble out, and most of it ended up in the drain pan I had placed under it. When that stopped dripping I removed the rest of the bolts whilst supporting the pan with my other hand, and when it came free I just tipped it straight into the drain pan. No mess, no fuss. It probably did help though that the oil level was low.... It should have drained about 2.8L, but only 2L came out. The fluid color was dark, but still had a definite redness to it. It didn't smell burnt, and no worrying chunks or anything were found in the pan. I was under the impression that most auto pans had magnets in them to collect the metal particles in the oil. There was no magnet in my pan, and the bottom of the pan and filter were covered in a fine layer of sludge. I thoroughly cleaned the pan, making sure there were no traces of oil, sludge or old gasket. With the pan off I could see the valve body and filter. It all looked pretty clean in there, and although I don't really know much about what I was looking at, it all looked like I feel it should The old filter got removed. This is held in place with three 1/2" bolts and then it just comes free. Apparently they can be cleaned and reused, as they are just a mesh filter, but a new one was cheap enough that it wasnt worth cleaning. I picked up a replacement gasket for the filter too. There was some confusion when ordering the gasket for the filter, as the parts book and Rimmers show a different style gasket to the one supplied by Makco. I ended up ordering both so I could replace it with similar to what came off. This is what the book shows And the gasket that came off (and what Makco supplied) I refit the square type, just to stick with what was already working before. Next up was to remove the dipstick tube and replace the seal. There were two different kinds of seal that I came across, so once again I ordered both. It turns out that the type used on the SD1 GM180 was the Top-Hat style Interestingly, the one removed from the car was smooth inside and out, whilst the replacement was ribbed inside and out. I used a thin smear of sealant on the end of the dipstick tube where it fits into the seal just to ensure it doesn't leak. Getting the dipstick tube in and out is a job that I wouldn't wish on anyone. It is a damn nightmare of a thing. This is what I have named the "Bitch Bolt" It's the only bolt holding the tube in place, but it's almost impossible to work with. It's a 9/16" head, but you cannot get a ratchet on it, and can only barely get a spanner on it to turn it 1/8th of a turn at a time. Getting it out wasn't the worst thing in the world, but getting it back in was terrible and took far too long and used up my daily quota for swearing. I even enlisted the help of my lovely wife as no matter what I did I just couldn't get the bolt hole in the block to line up with the bracket on the tube. We got there in the end, but my god what a shit of a job. One other tip I will say, is that a 14mm ratchet spanner is very close in size to a 9/16" spanner... this makes tightening the long bolt up a lot quicker, but no less painful. After that fiasco I cleaned the old gasket off and refit the pan with a new cork gasket which I installed with a thin smear of sealant on both sides and torqued all the bolts up to their super low setting of 9NM. The inhibitor switch was the last part to get some special treatment. This was easier to work with, but was soaked in oil. A while ago when I was bored I reconditioned a spare switch I had. The GM180 switches are NLA now, so I couldn't get a new one. They are common for wearing out and either not allowing starting when in park, or the reverse lights not working. My reverse lights don't work, so I hoped that reconditioning and replacing my switch might fix this (sadly it didn't, so I need to look elsewhere). This is the GM180 switch. Nothing fancy. Mine was sealed, and the clips broken. I used a sharp blade to open the two halves The contacts weren't looking good Its a fairly simple device. On the bottom housing there are three contact sets. Park, Reverse and Neutral. Sprung pins in the moving insert bridge the terminals when the selector is moved Both the contacts and the pins had heavy wear, and were badly oxidized. I cleaned up the terminals with some fine sandpaper Half and half I got a bit more fancy for the pins. I carefully removed them and spun them up in a drill and used some fine sandpaper to clean them Everything got a good helping of dielectric grease and reassembled. I used a thin bead of superglue to re-assemble the switch. The replacement switch does everything it should, except the reverse lights still don't work. Oh well, at least I know it should be a reliable starter. One of the biggest reasons for me to do all this work (other than to fix the leaks) was to have a known quantity of oil in the pan. Since getting the car I haven't been able to get a clear reading on the dip stick, even after adding oil to the trans. Obviously now I know it was low, but since I know how much oil went in, I can monitor it correctly. I poured in 2.1L, and then as per the instructions I started the engine up and ran it through the gears three times. With the engine running, and in Park, I checked the oil level. It needed to be above the triangle on the back of the dipstick. It's hard to see but the oil level is below the Min mark, but is above the triangle on the rear of the dipstick. This is good. The new fluid was a lovely rich cherry red I took her for a drive to warm the fluids up, and burn off the oil and brake clean from the exhaust (boy does it smoke), and upon my return I once again cycled the gears and with the engine running I checked the fluid level. Now it should read between the two Min-Max marks; to which it was a little low, so I added another couple of hundred ml of oil which brings it to bang on. I'm not 100% certain this will fix all the leaks from the trans; they are well-known for leaking from new and being impossible to fix due to bad design, but hopefully this slows it down and reduces how much oil is ending up on the pipe. This also allows me to correctly monitor the oil level now. So how did the test drive go? Well, the trans is quieter, smoother and shifts better. It was already pretty good by 1980s standards in my opinion, but now it shifts like a trans made some time in the late 90s. Smooth and almost unnoticeable shifting. Now to put more rego on, and take for more hoons before its WOF expires again next month.
    1 point
  28. i have an autsin diff but BDAkarl or whatever his name was wanted it.
    1 point
  29. Pretty sure he doesn't touch beer though. But having a tiny tractor to make small tread patterns on the lawn is still cool though. Who am i kidding, drive it lots of places for a laugh.
    1 point
  30. I've found rusty looking, magnetic steel that no matter how much it was annealed it would not even be scratched by anything, not even cobalt drill bits (which would go through stainless like butter). Doubt they'd be that stuff. but IDK what it was.
    1 point
  31. Ive seen a W55 behind a leyland 4.4 (rover big block) so yes it should.
    1 point
  32. @SOHC can buy this around the corner from your place that old guy i get parts from.
    1 point
  33. My sister has a new workshop and she said you should come see it, particularly if you like Nissans & Toyotas 28 October. There will be pizza and drinks http://www.facebook.com/events/174566376421391/
    1 point
  34. Mmmm... wonder if i could get my shitheap there again this year? Could be alright. Could buy more rusty crap to sink money into too. Keen.
    1 point
  35. First time out on the track Managed to break the front splitter going off road when the rear came loose. But after removing the pieces got some good laps in.
    1 point
  36. Hood tie down strap made from a leather belt. The belt is so long it forms a loop for someone 3 times my size. Could wrap that around my waist 3 times before it met the first belt hole, and it has a functional lock in it. Why would it have a lock? So i don't know if i should start a technical thread on "How to make trembler coils" as mine are toast and one of the borrowed ones died today. Never successfully made an ignition coil before, i think i'll need help of the electrical gurus on here.
    1 point
  37. Saw this Steampunk genre drawing and made a real one.
    1 point
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