mk2marty

Keen! 

Last time was pretty good

Took some photos on Saturday

the rest are here: 

54 minutes ago, 66gt said:

Burtons in the U.K. have it all. Burtonpower.com 

I thought they did too, but they don't. I tried getting needle rollers off them, and they could only supply 25 of the 42 needle rollers required. And it took a few months of emails to establish this. Don't get me wrong though, it was good that they gave me some because I had enough decent ones left to make up the shortfall. 

Might order some more stuff from there in the near future though, while the Pound is weak. They did send me a catalogue the other day...

On 1/24/2017 at 17:26, ESKIN8R said:

Hey man, the needle rollers and layshaft are all available new, I purchased them recently for my gearbox rebuild. Happy to send you the links for future reference

Cheers man, that'd be awesome! I thought i'd pretty much canvassed the internet looking for them, but maybe not haha. Will definitely get some in case the 'box needs to come out again in the future, I just used the 'turn the layshaft upside down, so the worn bit isn't under load' method. It'll make me feel better knowing there's new stuff in there.

10 hours ago, shaneo said:

I have a cut down lay shaft to help with the reassembly if you want to borrow will help with all those needle rollers ?

That's a better idea than the one I used tbh. The way i did it was to pack the rollers into the gear cluster with lots of grease and lower it into the box with a bit of rope, then slot the shaft in. It took a bit of swearing to make it work haha. Cheers for the offer though, I might just cut down the worn layshaft that was left over from the rebuild, it probably isn't good for much else

Keen for shed touring. I don't have a shed to show off though, my cars are still marooned on the 'rents driveway. Sadface.

Upon dismantling the gearbox, a few things became obvious. Mostly, that the rear bearing was stuffed, and the cause of most of the noises. However, the countershaft and associated needle rollers seemed to have had a pretty hard time too, and the shaft and several rollers had worn through their hardening and were seriously pitted. 
So the hunt was on for bits, but there didn't seem to be anyone locally who could supply needle rollers. Ford, in their infinite wisdom made them a 2.75mm diameter, when the standard (and readily available) sizes are 2.5 and 3mm. Burton Power had some listed, but after an eternity of waiting it seemed even they couldn't supply a full set. So after a lot of scrounging I found enough to make up a complete set, and found another (better) countershaft (cheers to Dad again!). Burtons also sent front and rear bearings and a seal kit.
And after that, the kerosene bath came out again, and removed forty years worth of oily buildup from the gear assemblies and housing.. All the synchros looked OK, as did the gear teeth, so after pressing the bearings on and fitting the seals I put it back together.

All that was left was to mate them together and put them in the car...

Oh yeah, so this happened. In truth it happened back in August, but we'll overlook that.
A broken Telstar and other stuff got in the way, so the promised rebuild kept getting put off. But eventually it happened, so sit down and i'll tell y'all a tale

In the last update there was a melted Kent that looked like not a lot more than some gunk-encrusted, blue-painted scrap. I didn't have high hopes for it initially, but upon further investigation, some not-so-bad bits started to appear. Once I pressure washed all the oily crap out of it, it was actually beginning to look useable. The thing that saved it, though, was when Dad found a set of NOS pistons in a box in the basement, that he'd had since the '70s. He says he'll never own another 1300, so they were mine. Cheers Dad!
The bores, surprisingly, were standard size, so i guess it was made to be. Otherwise, aside from the lipped bits at the top of No.3, the rest of the engine was serviceable, I made sure the bearing clearances were within spec and inspected everything visually and it all looked OK. Sure, if I wanted to do it properly I would have rebored it, ground the crank and thrown some bearings at it, but that can wait until I do the original and matching-numbers block (which in all truth will probably end up with a 1300 crank and rods anyway. Who can tell from the outside?).

So with a bit of a hone and some new rings and gaskets, I put the engine back together. Thankfully all the melted alloy came off pretty easily, unfortunately the lack of a flexi-hone meant that the straight hone I used makes the lipped bores seem worse than they actually are. Oh well.
While i was there, I fitted a new water pump, timing chain kit and associated ancillaries too. There was a slight hiccup with the new timing chain and sprocket, it turns out that some bright spark at the factory put the timing mark about ninety degrees out. However, after a little thought, it's pretty easy to tell where it should be in relation to the dowel. So after some comparison with the old sprocket I made a new mark, and all was well.

I cleaned the head up, checked the mating face with a straight edge, and cleaned and lapped the valves in. And after many, many kerosene baths to get all the encrusted grime off, I put the valve gear on. 

As an aside, thanks to a donated manifold from Dad i've decided to run a Hitachi 2-barrel carb (found as standard equipment on a myriad of '80s Japanese classics), removed from a Mk1 facelift Laser 1500. It has a manual choke and a vacuum secondary, and is mounted on a modified Kent manifold. Two venturis must be better than one, right?
I torqued the head and set the valve clearances, attached the inlet manifold and hoped like hell that it would run without any nasty noises. If it was going in anything more than just my daily transport i'd have thrown more time and parts at it, but as it is it should last for a while. 

Up next, the gearbox...

Now that botophucket works again, i can show off the record cabinet i built over Christmas. The slowly collapsing cube boxes perched on the speaker just weren't going to cut it, and it was a good excuse to categorise some records properly. So I donned my best Al Borland flannel, and $50 worth of MDF and a few hours resulted in this:

Much better.

It's refreshing to find similar fellas interested in these vehicles and hopefully, well I'm sure paying the respect they deserve

 

I've been tin bum enough to score a 1996 version of these # 21/100 in a rather rare colourway (Fiordland Green) from my folks. I've done loads of research on these vehicles and have plenty of knowledge to boot form reliable sources.

 

My folks bought the vehicle @ a mere 25,000kms in 1998 from Pacific Motor Group in Whangarei where it has lived ever since. It comes with service history from day dot!!!  As mentioned in previous posts on this article they come with 16" Astrons, however this one has 17". I've viewed around 15 of these vehicles almost a 50/50 split in years of 94/96 and 99.9% of them have dual tipped exhausts, however my one does not as well as viewing the engine bays of the same Radz all have standard air filters, however my one does not.

 

I've been trying for a fair amount of time to start up an appreciation club for these Telstar Radisich's and or a Radisich Telstar car club, however all to no avail. I'm hoping you guys on here maybe able to help/interested in starting one.

 

Wish I could upload photos, however I spend more time in my garage under my varying vehicle hoods, so computer skills are @ a minimum, I'm sure someone could let me know how to show my car

 

P.S. How do you upload photos on this site :-x

Mate! It's good to know there are other Telstar people out there, mine must have spent some time at Pacific Motor Group too, their plate surrounds are still on it haha. Mine is no. 9/100, according to the ID plate.

Interesting point with the optional extras though, both my one and TheAudioDude's pair have dual tipped exhausts,16" Astrons and standard air filters (which if you remove the piece of intake that runs across the top of the radiator makes marvelous induction noise...) Yours might have been a special order..?

There's another guy on the North Shore who has a later production Radisich, and there's still a few others floating around Auckland. Telstars just aren't worth anything at the moment, so the more interest there is in them, the more get saved (i reckon). 

A Mazda KL Appreciation Society does seem like a good idea too, if we can get enough interest. Mazda-powered Vivas would be most welcome! 

Also, i was going to put this in the Spotted thread, but here will do:

Series 2 on Dominion Rd the other night. Would polish up pretty nice, i think.

Adding pictures is easy btw, just follow the guide: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/34643-how-to-add-pictures-to-the-forum/

And as for the Telstar as a tow car idea, do it! There's photographic evidence in a previous post that they can tow at least their own bodyweight haha

Mayte, can't beat a V6 Telstar.
I even bought one.

121kW of howling Mazda V6 for less than $2k, what's not to like? 

Otherwise, some BMWs are reasonable. For example, E36s are worth nothing at the moment, some mates and I bought a 325i coupe for $600, threw a manual gearbox at it and turned it into a hillclimb car. 

Early '90s V8 Commodores are getting cheap, but finding nice ones is difficult

Likewise early Legacys, VR4 Legnums, etc. Dirt cheap but usually badly maintained. 

I run an 82 degree thermostat in my Kent, only 'cos the radiator is a bit sad and it spends a bit of time in traffic. It doesn't seem to mind though

Had this three years now.

Scary.

Still going fine, had a few small niggles, found it leaks water into the back in heavy rain (which we've had lots of lately). Looks like it's coming in past the left rear window rubber, which probably means there's a rust hole under the rubber. Yay.

It's another excuse to only use it on dry days...

It was leaking fuel for a bit too, which wasn't fun. There must have been a small hole in the fuel line that goes across the front crossmember, because it was making small puddles every time I parked it. Swapped the fuel line with a different one, and it doesn't do it anymore. So yay again.

In other news, I ransacked the Mk4 wagon at Zebra, so i've got a full set of glass, a spare set of tailgate hinges/torsion bars, and some other small trim bits that only wagons had. 

It had the piece of grill that goes below the front bumper, which i've wanted for aaaages, so that made me quite happy.

Trying to make it look like it's in 1986, not 2016.

And more of it being photogenic

/discuss here etc

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/41622-mk2martys-83-cortina-estate/

A mate sent me this yesterday

Hope the guy towing was wearing his brave pants

Cheers! It's the biggest job i've had to do to one of my cars yet, but at least it's a learning experience.

Sorta helps that my Dad was at Ford when these were new, he's a great fount of information haha

That's awesome. Would they still allow you to run magnesium suspension bits though?

Also, i'd forgotten about updating this thread.

I took a punt on that being the only piece of rubber in the engine, I ran many, many sumpfulls of oil through the galleries and strained it all as it went back into the sump. Nothing else came out, so took a gamble and decided to put it back together.

While it was apart I chucked it some valve stem seals, camshaft friction gear/Belville washers, head/rocker cover/other associated gaskets, cambelt, tensioner and idler, auxiliary belts, a clutch master cylinder (because it looked like it was weeping and it's a lot easier without the intake manifold in the way), new oil control plugs, and some oil cooler heat exchanger hoses - they go soft after 20 years soaking in oil from the leaking rocker cover gaskets/oil pressure sender and then spray coolant everywhere. Most people don't realise or stop the car, all the coolant disappears, it overheats and then it's off to Zebra... 

Impressed with the hone marks still visible in the bores, and the general cleanliness of the insides of the engine. Thankfully this one looks like it's had semi-regular maintenance...

Gave it some fresh fluids too, and installed the original springs in the rear.  

Lots of shiny new bits to go in

Big spanner to get the camshaft washer nuts undone (feat. assorted Escort gearbox bits, which is another thread update completely)

New oil control plugs (and yes I cleaned the carbon off the tops of the pistons before putting the heads on) 

Head on, cams in

Belt on

Intake manifold on.

It's been doing daily duties for a few weeks, it's quite nice to have something with some pep to drive every day (rather than an 1100 Escort).

Haven't got any decent photos with the proper springs in the back, so that'll be the next update. Made a big difference to the handling though

A few more from the last couple of months

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/specialist-cars/competition-cars/auction-1125880823.htm

 

Not sure if has been posted

Swoon. That side pipe would sound awesome i reckon

There's this too, which is actually pretty tidy: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/ford/auction-1124731653.htm

Also, there has been some progress of late. 

Did the CV boots, rear springs, assorted fluids and clutch master cylinder. Hopefully that's all the future-proofing the car requires

Had to evict a Basil from the top of the engine block. ('Would you like a biscuit with your rat?' etc)

And removed the oil restrictors. This was the rear one, with a large chunk of rubber wedged in it. 

We assume (or hope) that it's a bit of anti-drain back valve from an oil filter, because that's basically the only bit of rubber between the oil pump and restrictors. The worrying question, though, is whether there is any more of it floating around in the oilways...

Cranked it over on the starter motor a few times and flushed several sump-fulls of oil through the galleries, there were no more bits of rubber, but does that prove it's all gone?

The two options are:

-Flush it some more, put it all back together and hope

-Pull the bottom end down, perhaps for no reason...

Mine are easy - watch any episode of The Sweeney/The Professionals and both old Fords will be in the back of shot somewhere

ie.

Do I get bonus points for this 'cos Bodie and Doyle used it to chase baddies while carrying a desk on the roof?

Escort

The other two (both from Shortland St, weirdly)

yeah, it's a hatchback and not a Radisich. Near enough..

It's history (as far as I can tell) is all Far North, which would explain all the stone chips on the front, anyway.. 

First registered in Kaitaia according to the rego papers that came in the mail, and the service book has stamps from various places around Whangarei. It's got Pacific Motor Group plate surrounds too.

Although there's nothing to say it didn't spend some time in Wellington, there's about 10 years and 100000km between when the service history ends and how it is currently..

And it's funny you mention Amon Coronas. There was a time when I could have had a race with this one, but i'm pretty sure it no longer exists...

Cheers!

And not too sure on colours, some say that the majority of the first series came out in that purple/blue pearl, although red and white were available, and apparently Paul was given a burgundy-coloured one to use. I think by the second series they loosened the colour palette a little, mine just seems to be the standard dark blue that all Telstars were available in. Have seen a few green ones around as well.

Cams and headers are sounding quite tempting tbh, maybe once the wallet has recovered from the myriad of gaskets/seals/head recon/etc needed...

Yup, as far as i know they were the Peter Witehira designed never-go-flat batteries, which seemed to always go flat. 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=117699

Turbo sounds dangerous haha. Headers are a good idea though, maybe these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mazda-MX6-Ford-Probe-2-5L-DOHC-V6-Exhaust-Headers-Downpipe-Steel-Manifolds-/331886834817?fits=Make%3AMazda%7CModel%3AMX-6&hash=item4d45ff3481:g:f08AAMXQ71xRXxiF&vxp=mtr

Or maybe just delete a muffler or two...

And yeah, the gear knob grub screws work themselves loose occasionally. Apparently these were getting stolen in the '90s for the Momo wheel and knob, although whether that's true or not I don't know.

I run 13x6s and 185/70s on mine. Used to have to run 175s on the front with the last set of wheels or else they would rub on the inside on hard lock, but that was due to someone machining the inner mounting face down (ie. then moving the wheel inwards). Usually 7s are a maximum, mostly due to the width of the front suspension (in relation to the bodyywork), however anything is possible if you're into the whole flush fitment thing. Also depends how low you're going with it.

Mine certainly isn't that low, but on the flipside I have no wheel rub/clearance problems. And the guards aren't rolled, either. 

Personally i'm not into the massively-wide-wheel-tucked-under-the-guards look, but each to his own.

So yeah, depends on the style that you're after, really

Paul Radisich edition.

Jealous.

Cheers, it's surprisingly rapid for a 20 year old car. 

That's also kinda why I want to save the current wheel, foamer points for originality etc. 

Liking the leather polish idea though, may investigate that. Although not sure if it's actually leather, seems more like that imitation/plastic type stuff, which probably means it's poked. And/or that 20 years worth of dirt and skin oil will come out when I try and condition it (it was pretty rank after the Armor-All treatment tbh)

And more photos, for those with guilty pleasures. Here it is, in all it's '90s faux touring-car goodness

That's my brother's Radisich in front (and I don't know why mine is so Mexi-stanced in this shot)