yoeddynz

did he wipe up his mess?

Your other half is a cat? Who's the person holding her?

Just glad my threads are keeping you entertained, safe at home in Melbourne, instead of you heading out with your hi viz on and start fights at protests in the name of freedom....

Yeah- he's been mentioned to me before. I should check out some of his videos for sure. But youtube can be such a rabbit hole and time absorber I do my best to not get too sucked in

Oh sweet! I'll check that out (in the morning though because knackered now) Thanks very much for the link Dean. I'm stoked you've been enjoying my threads- its neat that they have given you something entertaining to read while in lockdown. I'll certainly keep updating them because even at the very least I like to see them as a sort of build diary for myself to remind me when I'm old of how much time I spent working on funny old cars Alex

Are you insinuating that I don't have decent child bearing hips?

Hmmmm.....

he'd be all like...

I have just realised that as I typed that I'm actually wearing an almost identical top and I've got my thick rimmed glasses on. Oh dear.

Scored this book locally from the book of face market place. $15 bargain. Some interesting and useful stuff inside. The dude who wrote it looks like a good honest fun barry to have along for a bbq...

Starter motor time. I had bought a Subaru leone 1.8 starter from the fella I'd got the gearboxes and 1.8 ring gear from. Made sense to use all the same bits. Only thing I'd have to do was move the mounting face for the starter forwards towards the engine to suit the new ring gear position on my home made flywheel... Easy as I thought and I had it all planned out. I shall start at dawn! However that's not what happened once I got a friendly query from a fella about the starter motor turning the engine the wrong way. Oh yeah. Bugger. Of course it will do that. Yay. So after a few ideas and suggestions from various folk I had a few options. My first option was to mount the Subaru starter on the front of the bellhousing adaptor, facing backwards. Essentially turn it 180 degrees and it would spin the Honda engine in the required anti-clockwise direction I needed. But would it fit? Yes it does... It wouldn't be too tricky to mount and on extension the pinion almost lined up perfectly with the ring gear. It sat down in place quite low too. So this solution was a strong contender. But it had a couple of weaknesses that meant it went to the back burner. One: the ring gear would need turning around so the leads shaped into the teeth faced the pinion. Turning it round and having the pinion strike it from the opposite side then meant that the step I had machined into the flywheel would have been on the wrong side and the gear could potentially work off over time. I was reluctant about the idea I could add a few welds, as some folk will do, because it adds stress risers, could affect the balance. I really didn't want to muck about with the ring gear. Two: having a fairly large ugly starter motor plonked right there on the top of the motor was something I never had in my minds pictures of how I wanted the engine bay to look. It would be right where I might want some linkages for the itbs, possibly a centrally mounted plenum between the itbs and there was also going to be some water pipes around that area too. So back to the other options- the main one being to look for a suitable Honda starter that's mounted from the gearbox side or a starter from any standard clockwise rotating engine that mounts from the front. The pinion had to have the same pitch and ideally the same tooth count. I did some research and it seemed that all the Japanese cars of this era all shared the same pinion pitch and were all around the 9 or 10 teeth. This was handy indeed. Off to the wreckers then... I went through the various shelves of starters, starting with Honda and found a possible candidate within a couple of minutes. Feeling pretty satisfied with my find I still double checked the other shelves just in case there was something even better but eventually I was spotted skipping out of the door happy with my Honda Civic/accord starter. Back home I looked at my booty. Subaru one is on the left... They were so close but not close enough. The Honda item has a smaller diameter 'locating spigot' that centralises it in the hole on the mounting face of the bell housing. This was a better turnout than it being bigger than the hole though! I would machine the hole in the plate to suit the new starter, which I was going to have to do for the original plan using the Subaru one anyway. The holes for the starter mounting bolts, that go through the bell housing into the engine, were 5mm closer at about 115mm and they were also offset to one side, not in line with the starters centreline. This was handy though because I could then have separate bolts holding the bell housing and room to turn the Honda starter about its axis, having the solenoid positioned in the least obstructive way. A plan was forming in my head. I took some measurements, did some scribbles and it all looked like it should work ok... I had already bought a hefty bit of 12mm plate for the Subaru starter repositioning and luckily it was still going to work with the new starter. I swapped the 4 jaw chuck onto the lathe and set it up. Drilled a big hole... Bored the hole out to suit the Honda starter spigot... Marked and drilled holes to suit... Recessed and spot faced one of the holes for the bellhousing to the engine bolts that just happened to slightly clash with a bit of the starter casting. So I now had a plate that the starter fitted neatly into, with not a hint of slop. The bolt holes lined up perfectly with the bellhousing bolt holes so lining the starter up the correct distance out from the ring gear. Now I need to move the face of this plate closer to the engine... So I cut a big lump of alloy from the bellhousing with a grinder and a hacksaw... This allowed me to move the plate closer and let the pinion fully engage with the ring gear... I tested the fit of the starter... The height was good but I wanted it to be perfectly parallel to the face of the flywheel so I really had to mill it. Luckily I was just able to squeeze the gearbox into a position on the mill that allowed me to face it perfectly... I must have some pretty honed hacksaw skills because I only needed to skim off about .75mm to get it flat. Sweet. Now I bolted the plate in place, then the starter and tested it... Oh I forgot to mention that once I had decided I was going to use a starter mounted in the original position I popped a hole through the adaptor plate in line with the starter pinion. This was to allow me to check the pinion mesh... I was super happy with the mesh so I marked the excess on the plate to be trimmed off and gave it a hair cut in the bandsaw... I also milled out the back of the plate where it just clashed with the rivets and pressings on the outer edge clutch pressure plate. Bolted it back in and welded it up, taking lots of care to avoid any chance of movement or warping. It went well.. Added some little filler plates to tie it in neatly and gave it a tickle with a flap disc... Bolted the starter back in, stood back and admired it all, really happy that one of the trickier jobs had been completed and that the starter was sitting in there very neatly and tucked away nicely, no higher than the top of the bellhousing... Next step was to make a cover for the 'front' of the engine, adding a connecting link between the oil filter outlet and the main oil way into the engine, a filling point for the sump, a dipstick and allocations for engine mounts to suit a cross member. Still lots of work to do but I'm getting closer...

Hmmmmmmmm? .... One could link up several in a row and have all of the pulses for so many toys. Or could that get messy?

Light surrounds look amazing! Ditto the plenum. Please tell me more about that gearbox speedo cable adaptor/sensor. What size thread is it, where did you get it ?

Ditto that man. What a cool result with it only being the vac hose as the main issue. That tuning/diagnostic program looks pretty damn snazy. Is that only for Rovers or it is made to suit other cars with a similar ecu/engine management?

sweet. Good score. I think they are choice cars but yeah I know what Clint means- they seem to attract a certain type of driver. Time will change that though and prices surely can only go up. Here's a nice one I spotted locally. I don't really know much about them though - so this is an earlier car eh? But looks kind of the same and I just love this shape...

Ahhh yeah- I think K11s can leak through the tail lights as well... The plot thickens....

Cool!!! I think this is the same type of Rover I had spotted in blenheim a few months ago and popped up on oldschool spotted? They look really neat- I like the pumped out front arches. Those seats are lush- quite similar in style to the Momo branded recaros I had taken from a Alfa GTV for my Viva. Super comfy! Going by all those leaks I am presuming Rover got the Nissan k11 team to design the seals etc .... Going to watch this with interest- I like your threads.

Today class we shall be discussing 'project creep'...

Sitting outside cafe this morning nomming down a cake and coffee, watching some barrie in the carpark looking all over my imp, hands on hips, shaking his head and tut tutting. He heads over to the cafe and orders a coffee. Works out that it's me who owns the imp and asks, in a very strong Yorkshire accent, "how long have you had the imp?" "oh maybe 3 years? I rescued it from a rusty shell in a field" I tell him, thinking to myself this could be a nice interesting conversation but having a feeling its going to be painful.. "has it still got the original engine?".. he spits out, no interest shown at all in the fact I've taken the effort to rescue a nice little classic car and done a not too bad a job at it. "nah.. Ive fitted a Datsun engine in there" I replied. Here we go, this will go one way or the other I thought. Fuck me did he roll his eyes and gave me the dirtiest look. He might as well have walked over and thumped me one with the fists i could picture him building in his fit of barry rage. The conversation stopped there and we left, hannah laughing her arse off at how I've gone and upset another barry with my choice of engine

Keep moving man. You'll be here soon...

Other things that have happened here in our little micra climate recently.. Hannah pinched the comfy sporty seats from Molly the G#/autostrada and bolted them into Minky... She found a few treats under the seats and carpet.. with all the seats out of both cars there had to be a rail swaps take place. In fact it was a bit more involved than that. Because the sporty seats were in a 4 door they didn't have the neat auto tilting function set in that the 2 door model seats have. So we took all the mechanisms apart and swapped bit around... The sporty seats then bolted into Minky... Then Molly was put up on the hoist and Hannah started removing her engine. We have no proof that Mollys engine is worse than Millys engine other than the feeling that Millys is possibly a bit peppier. Also when we looked inside the cam covers on both engines Millys is really clean and looks like its had more frequent oil changes whereas Mollys has a build up of older burnt looking deposits. Mollys engine still seems to pull hard and goes well, revving freely. But we went with what looks clean and feels right. Hannah then took her time and carefully took apart the front end and removed the engine and box complete with some help from me. It took longer than it probably should have but its sort of a new layout for both of us along with a fair few bolts being a bit stuck in place/awkward to get to. We rested the engine/box onto the large roll around steel bench and with the last engine mounts free lifted the car up on the hoist. Seemed the easiest way. Discovered a bit of rust on Mollys front cross member and also one of the guard bottoms... Hannah removed the guards, Autrostrada/G# spoiler, grill to suit and stashed them upstairs above the bedroom. They will, along with the bonnet and rear spoiler, be painted up later and we'll do the pre facelift swap on Minky. After the engine was out we pushed Molly out the back and rolled Milly in place and up on the hoist. This time things were much quicker. Hannah was now becoming well familiar with the layout and best order in which to disassemble things. Cool weather meant the hoists oil was thick and it seemed to take ages for the lightweight little car to drop each time she needed it to so planning this order of disassembly helped. All the bolts on Milly seemed a bit less corroded as well. One of the first things removed from Milly was her crystal. Hannah has had her eyes on that for ages. Millys magic crystal is going to be handed over to Minky. It mounts on a separate factory fitted bracket along with a little bit of extra loom that plugs in series between the lights and the loom. All very neatly done. The bulb inside is blown and its a funny little screw in jobbie we will need to source from somewhere. Millys engine came out fine- nothing different really except Milly doesn't have ABS so there's a bit more room about that side above the engine to get hands in. A mighty fine 1.3 big block... Hannah swapped the non LSD gearbox onto the engine from Molly, to be fitted into Milly... Actually having fun, becoming the valleys K11 expert.. There's a very visible difference to the diff casings on the LSD box- loads of extra ribs cast in to keep things stiff. The yucky corrosion look on the case is just aluminium oxide flashing from Molly having sat out the back of the shed over wet ground (where cars go to die...) Hannah has since cleaned it all off and with a bit more work its going to look very neat indeed. The LSD driveshafts (top) are quite a bit different too... Mollys engine with Millys gearbox were then plonked into Milly. We lubed her clutch cable while it was easy too and that made a big difference to the clutch feel. She started up with her new heart straight away and sounded fine. Took her for a test drive- all good. She's now been put back into regular service and will remain that way while Molly continues to get stripped of her interior dash and wiring loom. Later on Minky, who is now out of warrant, will come in for a transplant. There's a few question marks over how easy some of the wiring and certain components will swap across between a 1.3 PFL and a 1.0 FL. Both have mechanical speedos which is handy. Both have ABS and although they have slightly different pumps the wires are all the same - but in a different order in some places on the plugs. The dizzys are different - Minky has a later apparently improved dizzy. So that will remain and be swapped into the 1.3. The bulkhead area has the same pressings so but for popping a hole in place for the clutch cable I think the manual swap should be ok. We are fully prepared to have to swap out the entire front loom if need be but hopefully wont need to. There's also the disc brake rear end to swap across - having a look at it while Molly was on the hoist it all looks fine but will need a good wire brush and paint in order to be shiny enough to deserve being placed into Minkys immaculate underside. Lots to do but no urgent rush- just another fun project (that was never meant to be a project.......)

I rough cut down a mirror and then ground the corners with the grinder. It was messy and the edge wasn't perfect but the black sealant I used to hold it in place within the stainless casing hid the edges. It was totally functional and looked suitably ropey enough for a shitty old viva wagon.

Thanks for the kind words fellas. Glad you're enjoying the ride Nathan- how many cups of tea did you have while catching up? Its quite a wordfest..

Phew- been busy. Lots done = update time. But to save my sanity I might do it in two lots. So as per @GregT bit of information above I looked into motorbike oil pump chains and yeah- bugger all have tensioners and they actually run quite loose. I then decided to scrap the idea of spring loaded tensioners because even with the ones I had they were still a bit awkward to fit and didn't quite work in the angle I would have wanted. So enter stage left my new adjustable tensioner device... which fits like this... The bolts that clamp it down are actually accessible from below with the sump plate removed so once the chains wear to a point that I'm not happy with I can tension them independently. The will be nyloc nuts replacing those normal nuts on the tensioner bolts when the final assembly takes place. So with that finally finished I moved on down. The sump cover. It has to be fairly beefy because it could see some hits plus the engine will rest on it when on the bench. It has to be alloy so It can be used as a useful heat sink to pull heat from the oil. It has to look cool for when the Barries look under the car. So some fins were in order. I bought a big lump of alloy from Ulrich aluminium. That hurt. I put it through the old table saw and did some rough cuts just to save on time milling... Into the mill and did milly things. It was going to take bloody ages thought so I made a new tool which I shall call the DDC. 'Dewalt drill control' ... It could always be an MDC. Makita drill control. My cunning design is adaptable. In action... Groovy man... Then the sides taken down... I stopped there. The bit that is left unslotted will be machined to suit a recessed sump plug. I wont do any more until I finish the front cover below the cambelts where I'll also be adding some engine mount points. Next up was to finish the adaptor plate that connects the engine to the gearbox bellhousing. I had machined a bunch of pedestals to an exact length I had worked out to suit the positioning of the spigot shaft on the end of the first motion shaft into the spigot bearing. These pedestals have been machined on the gearbox end to locate within the dowel like spot faced bolt holes on the bellhousing. This way there was no chance of any float in any direction - the box would always be perfectly concentric to the engines crank and the bolts are really just clamping it. I bolted it all up together... Then cut some strips of 4mm alloy plate and started bending them to suit. Connecting the pedestals... Once I was happy with the fit up of those filler strips I ran a marker pen around them and took it all apart. Then cut the plate back to the lines in the bandsaw. Well I did so for a while but due to several things including the bandsaw having a totally rooted bearing collapse in the saws gearbox so making blade run off the driving wheel. plus the only course pitch blade having some missing teeth I ended up using the jigsaw. Anyway- got there in the end. Pieced it back together and it looked like this... Now time to weld it all together. I knew this was going to be tricky because the whole lot is like one huge heatsink and our current power cable to the workshop and the subsequent circuit breakers I have installed as a safety net wont allow me to run the welder at enough amps for such a mass of alloy - sit on 150 amps for any longer then 20 secs and it would trip. If I had a big enough oven I'd heat the whole lot up together nice and slowly. But I don't. So I just had to be strategic about it and work fast because once I stopped welding the heat soon dispersed. Luckily the welds just have to be strong and functional because it would all be smoothed down with a flap disc for a more factory casting look I wanted. It turned out good and best of all it hadn't warped so the box still fitted correctly and neatly. I was happy with that and it was now time to move on to the next stage which was the starter motor fitment. That will be in the next exciting instalment

Fucking done it now haven't I..