Robbo

Oh man, outrageous how full circle that's gone! Cool to see you've got it back though. Last thing I saw of it was a pic of it on Facebook with a 2ZZ in it, any idea how it got into this state?

Cheers, got the hang of heel toe now so most of my corner entries are seem considerably smoother. Ah interesting, will look into that!

Haven't had a lot of time for this thing lately, did the last weekend trackday of the year though and the car went pretty bloody well! No real issues other than the alternator belt needing tightening. Got put in a group with a bunch of GT86s so it was pretty good pacing against them, on the whole I seemed to be a fair bit quicker. Timed some laps with the Race Chrono app and quickest of the day was a 1.50.07 for the Grandprix Cicuit, don't have much to compare it to but seems respectable. Tires still seem to have some life left in them, not road legal any more but haven't worn through the dots yet but grip definitely feels down from previous times probably just been heat cycled too much now. Couple of laps from the day:

Actually took the Levin there to get the alignment, owner seemed like a great guy and clued up too. Will give them buzz.

Just looking here http://www.adenstyres.co.nz/collections/competition-tyres/15 123S are $239 ea and only come in a 195 where as NT01s are $285 in a 205 so hardly seems worth going down to the Achilles? $180ea would be ideal!

Yea that'd make sense, I'll look into it. Last time I looked at the rubbers they were a bit melted but still in one piece. Is there any way to check the exhaust for cracks other than just looking over it? Did notice one of the joints was leaking a bit when we were trying to diagnose the noise so will have to sort that. All good, was a good excuse to buy a soldering iron and relearn how to solder hah

Sounds super similar to what my old daily used to do occasionally (without the miss though), I did a bit of research and concluded it was the o2 sensor. Ended up selling it before I got chance to replace it though but that'd be the first thing I'd check out.

Got a Clubsport licence sorted just in time for the twilight dual car sprint at Ruapuna last weekend. Took it for a wheel alignment on the Friday, was miles out as expected because we pulled most of the front end apart doing the gearbox. The car actually went really well to my surprise. The synchros in the new gearbox are mint, no crunches whatsoever. I was a bit worried because it usually crunches going into reverse and with the bits of metal that came out when I first drained the oil, stoked though! No hurry to rebuild the old gearbox now so I'll probably hold out until I can get my hands on an LSD. Dual car sprint was awesome, did the last track at about 7.30pm so it was pretty dark. So sketchy not being able to see the corner until you're turning into it, most cars were running spot lights and light bars so think I did well with shitty 90s clouded over headlights. Sweet photo from the day: The noise is still there, seems to be some kind of vibration. Happens with clutch in or out, comes on about 6500 upwards and seems to go away on reasonably hard left turns? Got me stumped. Have pulled all the drive belts off and ran it without them so it's nothing idler or alternator etc related. Also didn't touch the clutch when we pulled swapped gearboxes. The left turns makes me think it's axle/shaft related but it still happens at a stand still in neutral, hmmm... Only problem for the day was some wiring on the first run, when things were getting quite bumpy on the track it would shudder and the revs would suddenly drop. Checked all the earths and no issues there, turned out to be one of the wires running to the ignition coil. Has been repaired at some point and going over bumps the weight of the loom would pull on it and cut the power to it. Did a temp fix by taping it to the strut bar which thankfully lasted the whole day. Figured I'd fix it properly so bought a soldering iron and then whipped down to Pickapart and grabbed another random plug from a Toyota. Pulled the plug apart, swapped the new section of wire into it then soldered the new to the old and shrink wrapped it, sorted! Also scored a 3 piece front lip from a ST160 Corona Coupe while I was at Pickapart, going to try and modify it to fit the Levin. Not sure if it's the right style though, would definitely suit a more boxy 80s ride so may just flick it off for some moolah. Anyone got an AE101 lip they want to swap? Haha. Been looking for ages but they're super uncommon. Going to be needing some new tyres soon, looking at $1200-1300 for a set of these same Nitto NT01s, ouch. Anyone got tyre hookups in Christchurch?

Nah don't think so, having the clutch in or out doesn't seem to make a difference. Motor is otherwise fine so no idea what's causing it, I'll try chuck up a video sometime.

Threw a few parts at it. New fuel filter, ignition coil, iridium spark pugs and a wiper motor. Pulled all the wiper linkage out and most of the joints were pretty stiff which is probably burnt out the old motor, re-greased them all and its like having new wipers! Also the new seal fixed the gearbox leak which is good so I can actually drive it. Have started dissembling the gearbox I pulled out of it, got to this point where I need to pull off the 5th gear thingamabob (top of the right hand side shaft): Tried my own gear puller but it seemed like it was going break it so stopped, manual shows a puller that hooks to the inside of it but there's no grooves to use a puller like they show (it's for a C56 from a much newer Celica so probably something was added later). Anyway figured a gearbox shop would be able to do it pretty easily for a few beers... Tried four different gearbox shops 2 only did automatics and didn't have the gear, some faarrkkking grumpy old cunt at the third one complained about how hard of a job it would be, would be at least an hours labour and couldn't even look at it this week. They're the only place in Christchurch that do manual gearboxes too not that I'd ever take anything there given how difficult they were and what I've heard about them. Fourth place mainly did automatics but said I'd be best to heat it with an oxy torch, wedge something under it and smash the shaft with a copper hammer. Don't have either of those but said he could have a go so with it so have left it with him, hopefully it comes off in one piece... Also unfortunately that noise I thought the gearbox was making in 2nd gear appears to be in all the gears and even with the clutch in so we think it's engine related though not entirely sure...Drained the oil and there's a few small bits of metal nothing huge though, cut open the filter and it's the same story. Still runs and pulls fine though, suspect it could be ring related? Doesn't sound like it's coming from the bottom end but also doesn't smoke either, might check the compression when I get my hands on a tester? Going to focus on getting this gearbox rebuilt anyway and if it gets any worse will investigate further...fun times.

Thanks man, great to hear! I've got no previous experience in racing so totally starting with the basics, have already learnt a hell of a lot in the short space of owning this car though! Totally agree with what you're saying, I'm literally relying on my 'experience' of hooning around backroads so I'm just trying to get clued on racing lines and braking points as I go. Good to hear there's some potential but I definitely agree some advice from a more experienced driver would go a long way. Would be great to have someone come out with me at a trackday but unfortunately I'm not allowed to take passengers without a cage. Have joined the Canterbury Car Club now so I'll have a yarn with some of the members and see if I can go out with someone at the end of an event when the track's empty, even just going for a lap in someone else's car would be pretty helpful. Cheers for the input, great motivation to get it back on the track!

Thanks man, will all be useful information at some point! Got a new seal and put it in last night, doesn't seem to be leaking but haven't had chance to drive it yet. When I drained the oil to put the new seal in there were a few shards of metal floating around though. Hopefully they didn't come about from the 5min drive I did otherwise I don't think this box is gonna last very long hah... Rebuild doesn't sound horrendous, I've found a pdf repair manual for a ZZT230 Celica which has a tear down of a C56. Looks like the shifter arrangement is slightly different but everything else looks about the same. That's pretty reasonable for a factory LSD, TRD is probably out of the budget for now but good to know. Keen to get this thing back and running at full strength ASAP so will probably just look at rebuilding one of the C56s without an LSD. What sort of work is it to just fit a new diff? Do you still pretty much have to pull the whole thing apart?

Cheers man, super helpful! Thought about swapping the seals because it did look a bit rough but didn't want to risk wrecking them when we took them out, hindsight is a bitch. Yea bit of a bugger really, I reckon having the heavy duty clutch probably didn't help things out. Pretty keen to get my hands on an LSD box and get someone to give me a hand rebuilding it, hopefully this box will hold up for a few events.. The gearbox seemed to mate up pretty well and there's definitely no gaps, good to be wary of in future though. Didn't manage to get that drivers side axle nut free either so going to be a bit of pain getting to the seal, tried electric rattle guns/breaker bars/heat guns/jack handles etc but nothing. If anyone in Christchurch has a decently powerful rattle gun that I could come round and try out for 2 mins let me know!

Only way I can see to get movement would be the shaft moving inside the bearing and we did try for a while to push it hard up against the gearbox with no luck. I'll have a mess around with my spare driveshaft though and see if I can coax any movement out of that. The bracket locates on two pins on the side of the block so can't get any movement out there unfortunately!

So the leak was pretty much from where I expected. Basically when we were putting the new box back in the driveshaft didn't slot in as far as we thought it should into the gearbox but since it bolts to the side of the block on locating pins that's the only position it can be in, my mate took the driveshaft out when we removed the old gearbox so no idea if it looked the same with the old gearbox in there. Probably doesn't help that the seal itself looked a bit passed it though. Anyone come across this before? It's almost like the axle is 5mm too short which is odd because the old and new gearboxes are basically identical. This is how I think it should look using a spare driveshaft/the old gearbox. Leaked about 200ml over 24hr just sitting there but probably leaks more when driving? Pretty keen to do the dual car sprint out at Ruapuna this weekend despite the horrendous noise from second gear so if anyone has got a quick/temporary fix please let me know!