PHLEX

Another winter gone without much of an update. Now here I am sitting a week out from Christmas and i've decided its time to get the old girl legal for summer Only real updates since june is I started making Pillar trims for the A and B pillars and all I can say is im glad I bought 1.5m2 of vinyl as ill need to have another crack at the drivers A pillar once i've perfected my technique on the others. yesterday I finally purchased some shock inserts and am I talks with somebody who can hopefully shorten them a bit for me. Fortunately they are alredy 10mm shorter than the ones I pulled out so we don't need to take as much off. Today I went and got everything to give it a service since its hasn't had an oil change in about 18 months so I don't want to start driving around without doing that. Also hoping santa will bring me a good bonus this quarter so I can buy a new carb from weber specialists as I feel the one i'm currently running isn't doing the engine justice

Thanks, PM sent to Steelies

I haven't pulled the shock apart yet as it will immobilise the car which is currently movable when I need to. I have a set of inserts sitting on the pickup shelf waiting for me at repco and they aren't overly expensive. I tried calling autolign in wellington a while back hoping the guys there would have some ideas but they recommended I bought brand new shocks and went to Howat engineering to get them shortened. @Beaver I hadn't actually considered the spring would be taller even when compressed completely that it would be impossible for the shock to go inside itself. I think ill stick to this idea and shorten some brand new shock inserts down as its probably less work than making adaptors to make other inserts work. Thanks!

Calling out to cortina gurus! I have a 68 mk2 4 Door currently lowered on mk1 super low king springs and 2” blocks and it’s sitting nicely. I have replaced shocks in the rear and bushes throughout but the issue I’m having is the front shocks are about 40mm too long for the springs to be captive. i have looked into shortening some brand new replacement shocks but the shaft will end up shorter than the body and the engineer I spoke to is not willing to go that low because they may leak if they get compressed too far. ive heard of others using a corolla or Camry shock with slight modification, google has failed to tell me what this shock is! Can anyone one help with a recommendation of something around 40mm shorter? Be great to get this car legal again for summer cruising

Old thread but thought id chuck my 2c in. I paid $850 for mine, standard bore, had a replacement piston and set of rings chucked in a few years back. I didn't think that was too badly priced. Spent around 6 months trying to find one as my earlier engine ran but was pretty tired, ended up finding a guy locally with about 3 of them under his bench and he agreed to sell me one eventually. Sounds like they are commonly bored and a "standard" motor is what everyone wants

Bookmarked that for a potential upgrade if the slow speed gets annoying. Actually surprised nobody seems to sell a pre wired plug in plug out single phase to three phase converter for these types of scenarios. However not overly difficult to wire once you know what each letter means

Had not even considered that. Both diagrams are on the lid for the terminal box. Will do some research and give it a go. It is however it was wired before. Didn't take too much notice other than to identify what colours had been wired to what terminal (U V W)

Thought I'd jump back in and give a conclusion. I ended up going with a solid state 1.5HP frequency converter which has worked to get it going in both directions and cost us just over $100 on eBay. Definitely worth the money to get it going relatively simply, downside of running a 3 phase motor on 240V is that it is lacking a bit of torque. Tested it out on a bunch of 17" wheels we had kicking round and short of needing a slight helping hand occasionally it was faultless. Total cost of tyre machine and the converter is a little under $700 so still less than half the cost of a Chinese single phase

Might give stocks a call and find out what the price is for a new single phase motor as this model appears to have come in single phase also. On the subject, Can anybody identify this power point? It is labelled 15A and is on the wall closest to where the tyre machine is. Unsure if its still live but if it is it would be ideal to save using a 20M extension cord.

I had seem some people talking about a VSD but removed that as an option as anything we did would need to be able to be plugged into a standard wall socket as the building the tyre machine will be in is our lockup in an old factory building which has been divided into 3 or 4 units and is all run off the same power board and we have no access to it. Due to it being a "power included in rent" deal we don't want to ask the landlord for 3 phase or to run extra wires from the meter as we will likely end up with a rent increase. Plus due to the housing development going up around us we don't want anything too permanent as you never know when the place will be sold

Awesome thanks! I saw those boxes on ebay and ali express but wasn't sure if the capacitors was a good idea or not and I suppose although slow spinning they need to maintain torque sometimes. Will look into the converter box!

Just picked up a Corghi A2001S tyre changer 3 phase model. I know there is boxes you can buy that allow them to be run on single phase but was wondering if anybody had experience rewiring a tyre machine to run on single phase without the need for extra bits? I know they only spin one way but that doesn't worry me too much if its going to save a whole lot of cash. I have seen people using capacitors to boost the charge for the missing wire but am not a sparky so am reluctant to start playing round with that sorta stuff!

Just picked up a Corghi A2001S tyre changer 3 phase model. I know there is boxes you can buy that allow them to be run on single phase but was wondering if anybody had experience rewiring a tyre machine to run on single phase without the need for extra bits? I know they only spin one way but that doesn't worry me too much if its going to save a whole lot of cash. I have seen people using capacitors to boost the charge for the missing wire but am not a sparky so am reluctant to start playing round with that sorta stuff!

wow another 3 month stint without update. Back in March I finished the rear suspension and installed the lowering blocks which had arrived that day. Unfortunately due to the "good" leaf springs being a bit firmer the vibration is back, but only between 80 and 95KPH which is manageable. Handling has improved significantly and I can live with the vibration for now as its not being driven much. I will get the driveshaft lengthened by 1" at some point soon to get rid of the shake for good. Not much else has been done in the past few months as I've been working on my Skyline race car instead, that was treated to a new engine and a bunch of upgrades to get ready for next season so that hasn't left much money or time for the Cortina. Fortunately its quite happy sitting warm and dry in my garage at home. Current plans / dreams for the Cortina when time and money allows: - Lengthen driveshaft - Replace front shock inserts with shortened units - Widen rear wheels 2' and fronts 1" and paint to match green interior, ditch outer chrome trims and just run centre hub cap (one needs replacing) - A and B pillar trims to buy / make (white vinyl) - Rebuild and tune carburettor (Weber 32/36) - Electronic Ignition upgrade - Semi sealed headlights / LED everything - Stereo install either in glove box or in the dash where the ash tray currently is No new photos since the lowering was complete but ill put some up next time I go for a cruise.

awesome thanks for that ill go and see him next week when I get a chance. I need to get a couple of shocks shortened too so might see if he can do those at the same time to minimise the amount of time the cars off the ground

Just to give everybody an update. I splashed out and replaced the rear shocks and all the bushes with nolathanes, reinstalled the good set of springs with some 2" blocks. I thought the driveshaft didn't look as far in as the saggy springs let it go in but put it back on the ground and road tested. Vibration is back but not nearly as bad, probably 40% of the original intensity. It is also now only there between about 50mph and 60mph then goes away again completely. From here my plan is to get the driveshaft extended by 20-30mm and balanced and that should solve my problems once and for all.

Managed to get a bit more done over the past week in between work and other projects. On Saturday removed the old rubber spring bushes from the good leaf springs, replacing them with nolathane bushes since the whole front end has already been done in nolathane. The rear bushes basically fell out but the fronts were in there so well they required fire so there's now a nice burnt rubber patch on the grass at the workshop! Last night I got stuck back into removing the saggy old springs to install the good ones back in, replace the shackle bushes in the rear with nolathanes and swapping out the old tired rear shocks in favour of some Monroe replacements. Finished the passengers side and decided to leave the drivers for another night, All going well I should receive my lowering blocks today and can finish and road test when I get home!

Over a month between updates due to chasing my tail trying to find the source of the vibration coming through the driveline at anything above about 70KPH. Fortunately due to a couple of mates who have cortinas and lots of assistance from my tech post here on OS we managed to figure out the issue was that when I replaced the modded rear leaf springs with some factory springs in much better condition it raised the car around 15mm which was enough to pull the driveshaft out of the gearbox that much too far to allow it to wobble at speed. We eventually removed the shaft and towed the car up to 90kph and it was smooth which pointed us to either the gearbox output shaft or the driveshaft itself. Having already replaced the UJs in my shaft and trying a friends one I decided to try the old springs back in before spending money and it solved the issue!! Big thanks to everyone who assisted with that. 5 pages of good advice and the answer was actually on page one but it took me a while to try that. here's a pic of the testing rig I set up to check the run out of the rear wheel axle flanges Silver lining from this is I have now replaced every bush in the car (previously only the fronts had been done), brand new gearbox mount as the old one was soft and oil soaked, checked and replaced the rear axles to a pair with less wobble (wasn't the issue), replaced the universal joints in the driveshaft, spanner checked the entire car and found a few loose-ish bolts that needed a nip up and the long term fix for the driveshaft wobble is to lower the car at least an inch which was always my plan along with widened steelies. I picked up some second hand front king springs which have dropped the front end 55mm giving 150mm ground clearance to anything structural on the stock wheels. I have ordered some 2" blocks for the back to match it to the fronts height. The front shocks will need to be shortened to keep the springs captive but I'm going to do some driveway testing before I commit to the height as my driveway is a bit of a prick and as this will eventually be a daily driven car I don't want to be scraping! Massive difference between stock and king springs. I see why they state you need shortened shocks! Still got plenty of work ahead of me to get the Cortina where I want it. Few more interior touch ups, pillar trims and a stealth stereo install and then its time for an exhaust and a rejet to get the potential out of the engine!

Last night we swapped the good springs back out for the sagging modified missing leaf units that were in it when I got it. It lowered the car 10-15mm when parked although handles like running in jandals due to the missing leaf. Also swapped my original driveshaft back in complete with new UJs at both ends and the vibration is 99% gone. Took it up to 70MPH on the way home and smooth as through the driveline. The only place I still feel a little bit of a wobble is for a split second through the transition of being on the gas to completely off the gas which I would guess is a change in suspension geometry. I feel if it was a driveshaft insertion issue then it should go away completely when I lower it, if it was a diff angle issue I can live with it as long as I can replicate the angles once the good springs and lowering blocks are in Once lowered the plan is to get the driveshaft extended to ensure its smooth if I ever choose to raise it back to standard

All focus is being put onto the driveshaft currently. Swapping back to the "low" leaf springs this evening to see if that gets rid of the issue. Will re check the UJs in the current shaft while i'm under there. Ill take some pics while im there to show the difference between the driveshaft distance inside the box and also have a good look at the output shaft for anything unusual If that doesn't work I will bite the bullet and get the driveshaft extended and balanced Thanks for all the suggestions! I feel like we are close to a resolution I did a bit more googling and found nothing else but the best description is that it vibrates worse while coasting, under full acceleration it almost clears completely and under moderate acceleration it comes and goes.

Two things that have come to mind. I removed the original leaf springs that were missing 2 of the leafs from the pack obviously to lower the car and replaced them with an unmolested factory set which raised the back of the car up about 2" and evened it out front to back. Is it likely that raising the car has meant the driveshaft yolk is now not going into the gearbox as far and is now flopping around? Plan was always to lower the car 1.5-2" all round once it was driving properly anyway so im wondering if adding some 2" blocks might sort my issue? Also I have done a bit more reading into gearbox and diff angles and might revisit this as I see they should be around 2-3 degrees different as dead straight can actually cause problems also. does anybody know of a supplier of the wedges that can be used to change the diff angle? I was also wondering about shaving an angle into the top of a lowering block to changer the angle if needed. has anybody done this? Thanks for all the help!!

There's definitely some play when the car is sitting at ride height. I noticed ages ago the driveshaft doesn't seem to be in the gearbox as far as I would have expected but wondered if that might have been to give it room to move in and out with the back axle moving up and down. Makes me wonder if it would be worth getting the shaft itself extended by an inch as approx. half the yolk is sticking out of the box when its at ride height so there's plenty of room for movement. Unsure if theres some sort of bush that locates the shaft. I don't think ive ever replaced the output seal so maybe that helps to locate it?

Right so removed the shaft from the diff and got towed down the motorway up to just under 100. Vibration totally gone, smooth as shit..... I have heard a theory the output shaft can get worn and cause a wobble.. what next?

I've swapped out the driveshaft to a spare off a friends mk1 that seemed nice and tight but had been sitting for a few years. I have now put brand new universals in my original driveshaft so will swap that back in this evening and see if that sorts it out. I've tried another pair of rear wheels to ensure its not those and it made no difference either so I believe the tyres aren't the issue.

Ok went for a drive yesterday morning. Vibration has definitely reduced but is still there above 70kph just doesn't feel like the cars shaking itself completely apart now but still a noticeable shake. I notice when I let my foot right off the gas and then press it on and off slightly I get a clonk clonk noise from the back end, I have had this previously in a Ute and it was the diff starting to go but in this instance I have replaced the diff with a good spare and it didn't make a difference. I will swap springs over and see if that does anything otherwise its off with the driveshaft!