yoeddynz

Cant remember actually. Possibly toyota or Mazda. Ask Zebra dude or some wrecker fella.. they'll know.

11th sounds good to me. Can you change the title on first page?

I like food. I like bBQ. Might even have wagon ready soon. bunny island sounds good.

Happy update time.. it runs! After chasing around electrical gremlins which ended up in a instrument cluster swap among other things I finished yesterdays efforts by filling the carb with fuel, pulling the choke out and turning the key. Two seconds later and it fired up easily. I'll get a video later. Couldnt run it for long as Id not filled it with coolant yet. I'm so happy. I'll be happier when Ive taken it for a drive and confirmed it has not got any issues like BHG etc. So going back a few days here's some things that have been finished.. First off. I finished the wiring and mounted the solenoid, tucked out of the way under the servo.. Then I thought I'd better fit the speedo cable. But it didn't turn. It was seized solid in one spot. I tried so many things to free it up, lots of wd40, plusgas, twisting, wiggling, pulling, pushing etc and finally it freed up but only one half... Luckily I had a spare cable from when Viva one was swapped over from cable speedo to my home made electronic setup. But it was really long, made to suit the Mazda rx7 gearbox and how do I shorten the inner down? I tried years ago to grind a new square end and it doesn't work. So I looked it up and the square end is actually squeezed into shape! I made a little form tool from some steel and at 5mm a time I squeezed my new cut down inner into shape... It worked a treat!.. The sparkplug leads that came with the car are horrible old red Repco branded items. Not a chance they will get fitted... I priced up leads in NZ and the prices were stupidly high, even at trade. Plus most are coloured blue or red. So Ebay Uk and the nice people at.. http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-Green-Spark-Plug-Co?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 .. had just what I needed. 7 days later and I had a nice new set of good quality black leads for only $25.50 inc postage!!! Its great this weak Pound Sterling thing! Yesterday was finishing little things and sorting out why instruments didnt work. I found a defective circuit strip thing plus a broken plastic casing on the cluster so I swapped the parts across from a spare.. While I did that Hannah did some other jobs.. like clean the mucky sunvisors.. That is it really.. I'm hoping to do a bit more today and then take it for a drive to check it out. Very excited. It currently sits here waiting..

I think I do but my fan output was not working so I was going to swap. I must look into this as that's a good idea!!!

Cool. Cheers. Just thinking.. if one was to wire up a relay to the oil pressure switch it would have to be a 'normally on' or two way relay eh. I think.. (from early morning sleepy time electrical circuit planning) Or with a timer just wire it to ignition circuit? No good if someone leaves ignition on though.

Off to ali now for a looksie...

I was wondering about a timer as well. From what I read in the link I put above most factory ecus will know, I guess according to coolant temp, how much potential condenstaion there might be at start up. They then delay the O2 sensor from heating up for a few seconds. So yeah- a timer based off the oil switch seems like a neat idea. But Diy timer? Jaycar kit I guess?

Ha ha ha...so topical to me at the moment. I have only just killed my second wideband sensor and most likely for the same reason as Dave has posted above. My first sensor I think got a bit iffy from a lot of excess fuel when I was trying to tune the 12a carb turbo. Possibly killed it with reasons above also. Second sensor which I put in a couple of years ago finally started throwing up the E8 error code. I only just happened to ring NZ performance where I bought my MTX-L kit and will get another sensor. Funny enough, since I was annoyed Ive killed another I did some reading and found this info here which backs up what Dave has just said.. http://www.nzefi.com/bosch-lsu-wide-band-airfuel-ratio-lambda-sensors-fail-often-aftermarket-performance-applications/ I have mine installed on one bank. Its possibly too close to the head although its actually no closer than where the factory mount them. I will move mine down to after the Y pipe but last time I looked it wasnt going to be easy as fuck all room around in my tunnel (little car life) Dave - that idea of rigging the sensor up to a relay powered by the oil light is fantastic! I shall do that. For now I have disabled the sensor on the ECU and just running off the maps. Will be interesting if it makes much difference to economy or running.

nah I think its still ok as getting messages from others. In other news- I need seatbelts and have noticed Datsun wagon has some in the back. sweet. They aint self retracting but neither are the ones in Viva one so Im used to it. Race belt life.

....is pretty much all you need.

Get in before sam destroys it in a derby.

I just sent you a PM about a local Lada just taken off the road. Its a complete wagon.

Glad you're still at it though. LSD were made in limited numbers for the larger axles but spendy and rare. I think Geoff fitted an escort axle (english or atlas?) so he could find lsds cheaper and easier. ask him.

Thats odd. I just sent a message to someone else and it worked fine? Try my email.. my user name at hotmail.com

Oh come on.. don't be a tease!!! Please please please start a thread. HB Torana. MATE ! wow. pretty rare thing then! Yeah at least start a simple thread and throw up some photos. Ive said it before.. there just aint enough Viva content on OS.

Ah yeah I remember earlier conversation with you about how the 1159cc engine you had been using was not too shabby for daily use. I think I'll be ok so long as the engine is in ok condition.. this I wont know until I first drive it. Our problem is that for the most common trip over to Motueka involves a bloody steep hill with no passing places. I don't care how fast I get up but all the locals might.. I can always just go the slightly longer, less steep, way via Kaiteriteri and cruise

You naughty boy then. I hereby banish you to your shed to give your car some attention.

Yeah... I'm constantly aware that 50 bhp for a supposed daily hack wagon might not cut it.. I'm still so keen on fitting a tiny economical twink for several reasons . I like doing conversions, Ill want more power and it'll probably be cheaper to run. Plus would look cool. But I'll give this originality thing a go first (well still sort of original) plus I cant/don't want to afford the whole cert stuff right now.

I am quite happy to say that I have managed to get quite a bit of work finished on this little wagon. With the evenings being brighter and warmer and having a new dose of enthusiasm I have spent more time on it and its been fun. So where was I last update. Lets start with the doors. I knew they had rust but not too bad and in places that’s easy to get to. I have been putting off repairing them so now is the time after having just finished the last few bits on the tailgate (hatch..) Luckily the rust was mainly on the outer skin wrapping over the inner strengthening panels that the hinges are welded to. I cut it away and let in some nice new thick sheet. I actually ground back the welds afterwards because it it made sense to have it all finished properly in a place that is hard to get to once the doors are back on. Plus the seals, speaking of which I will need to get some decent second hand ones with the originals having fallen apart, will need a good smooth surface to squash against. There was minimal rust along the inner bottom of one door and they fixed up well. Really glad they are in good condition otherwise with minimal dents on the outside (just dented enough I say..) While I was working on them I also had one of those ‘expecting it to be a arse but it was actually easy’ moments when I had to remove a broken screw from a window winder stub. The screw was small, broken unevenly and I sure that Id not be able to drill it central enough. But I did, it worked and I was happy.. With the doors repaired and the repairs painted over I put them aside and started on the wiring. I enjoy wiring and have always planned to tidy all the original stuff up. I got carried away and its now pretty well hidden from view. I added some extra wires for the fan etc and decided to run the main loom out of sight via a hole I added in the tunnel. The original bulkhead grommet worked perfectly. Once I started hiding things I got even more carried away. I disliked the look of the fan wires running externally along the top of the bulkhead so they were carefully re-routed then back through the heater box and through another added hole. The main loom sorted back through inside the car and I was happy with it all. So onto the heater hoses. First I fitted them as per original. Oh dear. No, no ,no.. this will not suffice !… Damn they are ugly hoses, just running over the engine like an afterthought, looking like a scaled up version of a badly designed Lego tecnics kit with poorly scaled pneumatics. Nup. No sir..I don’t like it! So I rummaged through my always handy supply of random hoses and found a few Mazda items that will help in my quest for neatness, a Toyota bottom hose and a ideal tee piece. I also found a heater pipe from the Crysler Northstar quadcam V8 I have been gifted (another story…). Still not enough pieces to complete my puzzle. Back to the wreckers then… I love going to wreckers, especially when they let you roam about by yourself and get your own bits, a rare thing these days with so many OSH rules. Luckily Hannah enjoys it too because she was along for this sortee. We found a variety of hoses from a Datsun something, a Mitsubishi Mirage, a Honda Shuttle and also scored an ideal inline heater valve from said Honda. A few hose clips and other handy bits. All this for $10 free image uploading Back home and I assembled my scavenged findings together and came up with a design. I cut that steel pipe down, welded on a bracket so it mounts onto the carb support bracket beneath the carb. Chopped the excess bits off the heater valve and mounted that in the original place using various bends from my even more awesome stash of bends. Added the Tee into the Toyota bottom pipe. It worked out fine except for one thing.. the heater valve works backwards. Hot is cold and vice versa. Luckily my other Viva, with its Chevette sourced heater valve is exactly the same. So no confusion for us.. just everyone else.. After finishing them I noticed my exhaust was not yet connected to the manifold. Then I discovered holes. Bugger! So old towels out to protect things and I carefully welded in some repairs. I am a bit upset in that the blobby welds might well restrict things and lose me a pony or two. However I shall learn to deal with this. Then on to the breather and brake servo hoses. I have decent PCV valve to use and some pipe now. But nothing matches. Out with my stock of alloy bits and I worked out a plan using my 1/8th bsp taps. I machined up an adaptor and it worked a treat. Finished and mounted.. With that lot finished and looking a lot neater it was now it was time to sort out the throttle pedal to carb interface system. I am using a HC Viva floor mounted pedal like in Viva one. The original top mounted pedal system uses rods and is..ugly. I copied the design of cable clamp and pedal mount from Viva one. Noted how much cable pull was offered by the pedal. Did some maths and worked out the diameter of pully needed. Then I machined up a pulley from a lump of alloy on the trusty old, leaky, English lathe. Made a new cable bracket and used some old bike barrel adjuster. It was an easy enough job but just time and I’m glad its done. Cable clamp so the nipple will go at pulley end for neatness... Measure cable pull.. Pedal mounts here on new base... A leaky (because English made) old but trustworthy lathe and a lump of alloy.. A new pulley.. I wont mount it yet as some wiring to do for the starter solenoid yet to be done. But I’m not far from firing the little 1159cc block of fury up and I’m quite excited. Here's a photo of the new hose layout. I'm much happier with it and it was worth the hassle... Back soon

Yeah heaps better cheers. Back still iffy but face well on the mend. Geoff.. I found the old rubber seal and ended up repairing it. Not perfect but will do the job Cheers for offer. I've got a webber manifold but no webber. I could try it out in the future but only just tonight machined up bits and configured the new throttle pedal and stromberg carb cable linkage. I'll see how that goes. Given this engine is the lowest of the low tune wise I reckon a webber would be wasted right now. How's your beast going?

Big congrats Matt!!! I'm imagining its a hoot to drive.

I should do.. but I think its long dead now. Unless alien...

I have thought about that.. Ive actually got a SU hif turbo carb I bought from prozac ages ago as a spare for the Elford turbo 12a. And there's possibly enough room to sneak some tiny turbo in there down low. But apparently the bottom ends on these engines don't hold up to much.. although just an extra 20 ponies could transform it into something that won't hold everyone up and make it a better daily prospect. But then cert...

I thought I might try on top of the updates and post more often so avoiding such a long catch up session giving a subsequent easing of pressure on my brains hard drive. Distributor time. I had two dizzies. One was from this engine and one from Andres stock pile. I took then both apart and rebuilt one from the best bits. The original has at some point in its life had a proper battering. I reckon it can only have been from the weights breaking away and smacking the inside. I cant think of anything else that might have caused it? I also discovered that the early dizzy has a smaller amount of advance allowance of 25 degrees. This is specced for my lowly 7.0 to 1 low comp engine. At the risk of upsetting the initial running I have swapped in the shaft and weights from the other dizzy to allow for a full fat 33 degrees of advance. I do plan to uprate this engine if it seems OK. My near future plans are to swap out the current thicker head gasket for a standard one and have a much more useful standard comp ratio of 8.5 to 1. I believe (hope) I'm correct in that this is the way that Vauxhall changed the compression on these engines. With it all painted black and looking about as sexy as a distributor can look I fitted the electronic ignition module. Quite neat it is too. Then I slung the lot into the block and moved on to the next item.. Radiator fan. All the fans I have sitting on shelves collecting dust are suckers. I wanted a pusher to mount in front of the radiator because there just isn't enough room for a sucker plus it looks ugly. So off to the local wreckers with a peice of plywood cut to the size of my radiator front. After 5 minutes I found the ideal fan sitting on the front of an old Mitsi Pajaro. A few bolts removed and it was mine for $10. I got home and discovered it fitted perfectly within my Radiator, almost clicking in place Old mounts removed, new ones cut from some 1.6mm steel and welded in place with nuts welded in for easy removal. A bit of paint and it looks all good to me...