M_C

Sounds like the voice of painful experience. What happened?

And I thought the open diff head was heavy until I picked the LSD up! Can't wait to drive this! Tightened break away, rebuilt and better 3.9 ratio. Checking over the diff with paranoia I noticed one half shaft bearing was a little worse for wear. Thanks to Tony for the heat and beat technique to get the shrink collar off. My bashing was never going to move a 20T shrink fit... Now I just need to get it back together. Got to love the maintenance shop at work... Any idea where to get the bush that sits under the gearstick on a celica gearbox like this?

45min making a tool for a 2 tap job may be excessive... Made up a slide hammer to coax the half shafts out of the diff, only to find two little taps and out they came. Much better than the other way round I guess. And the silly low 4.556 diff is out ready to swap for my Lovely rebuilt tightened 3.9 LSD. Hmmmmmmmmmmm How much play should there be in the half shafts pulling them in and out??? Before unbolting them I could feel a small amount of play.

Big thanks to Billy for persuading the gearbox to come out. And it took a bit of persuading... May have found where the AWOL gearbox oil went... Of the 6 bell housing bolts only the bottom two were present. WTF? This has had suboptimal results for the gearbox with front bearing is gone by the feel and oil in bell housing rather than gearbox... Nice wear on pressure plate. Add that to the shopping list. Checking the bare bum of the engine. Pilot bearing is toast, but rear crank seal seems OK. Note custom mismatched header wrap. Only visable from this angle. Most Exciting! Rebuilt 5sp steel case Celica gearbox with all the bits and correct bell housing! Needs a little tidy up after sitting in a mates garage for a while and work out a cable clutch. Excellent!

Keen!

Will has a 1300 gearbox if that helps. Has wine in 4th. Not sure if internals are the same to swap out?

The gearbox was in the car when I got it and I haven't touched. Didn't bother checking the oil as I figured it should be fine and was going to replace the gearbox anyway. Douh. Another lesson learned. Noise was scary bad when we got back to my garage so have started pulling it out. Mostly by drinking beer and talking about it...

Photographic proof of Hampton presence. Escort badge has fallen off the right end of the boot. Gutted. Back on stands for another strip down. I’m pretty sure a gearbox should have more oil than this in it…

Cheers mate, found that one. Looks like a standard type 9 for 1600 for 2L. From memory the 3L ones have strengthened input bearings or they get lunched quickly. Current plan is to pull the Zodiac 4spd out and see what's going on. If toy money funds allow I have a line on a rebuilt celica 5spd with correct bellhousing. Hmmmmmmmm nice 5spd...

Excellent, the new radiator cap works well and the mystery of the disappearing water has been solved. She pushes a surprising amount of water out into the overflow bottle, but with the new cap then sucks it all back in. Dumped the warm oil and all looks good. Track Day Here We Come! Leave pass approved from handbag, car run to temperature and all tested, Hampton day booked form the good guys at http://www.playdayontrack.co.nz/ , trailer and van loaded with a good weather forecast. Bugger!!!!! On starting Felicity to back off the trailer at Hampton a dry metallic clashing noise was heard from the drive train. Much head scratching, jacking and chin wagging ensued. Peering under and much wiggling found nothing amiss. Noise was only occasional when in neutral and clutch up. Clutch in was fine. Short test drive found the noise also rearing its ugly head after 15’ so a big NOGO for the highly anticipated track test. Load her back on the trailer and home we go. Main suspicion centres on something loose in the gearbox. Maybe the bad 3rd gear syncro has given up? When trying to unload at home it was considerably worse and now un-drivable. Maybe time for a full car trailer rather than to borrowed dolly trailer that drags the rear wheels spinning the gearbox. Ironic that the gearbox and diff are the only things I have not rebuilt on the car. Plan was to change them soon, but that has just gone to the top of the list. Time to learn how to pull a gearbox, where did I leave my faithful Haynes manual? How hard can it be…?

Went down to Hampton today. Gearbox blew and didn't even get on the track. That and the diff are the only things I have not (yet) rebuilt. Bugger...

Cheers, soon going to find out with track day next weekend. Oh Yeah!

Hopefully a new radiator cap from Enford (RHS) replace the Ripco (LHS) one will stop the water huffing out/allow expansion water to suck back in. Looks like a better seal under the cap and different style. Couldn’t find any G series diff’s from PickaPart Mangere so had to satisfy myself with shiny new mirror to replaced manky cracked one. Throttle return spring mark 3 done and a few fussy details like heat sheild for brake master as its a bit close to the headers. Now to warm the engine up to temp as final check before the track day. Bit worried the water is sneaking out somewhere bad…

My cage is definitely a no go on the compliance side! Am planning to do some basic track days and club sport stuff where a cage is not compulsory. When stepping up a level the cage will come out and a proper one go in. I want to talk to the organizers before turning up about the car to make sure they are happy, hoping that a cage with good lines and crap welding is OK for basic stuff rather than cutting cage out to do same event. I have left a message with Chris from Hampton and waiting for a call back.

After watching WRC and having the car pretty much ready to go I am KEEN to get out on a track day or similar. Anyone heading out to a track day, motorkhana etc? What events and dates are coming up? Auckland car club May newsletter has: "For those of you who have a clubsport licence we are having a Clubsport event on 1st July at Hampton downs working with the Historic Racing Club, it comprises a bent sprint, hillclimb, and a motorkhana at the same venue you can enter online at www.motorsportentry.com and the cost is $75.00 and will run all day, ideal for your first Motorsport event, the add is in this news letter also." http://aucklandcarclub.com/i/images/May%202012%20LR.pdf May be a push to get my clubsport licence by then, but I am sure is possible. Cheers

Good news I don't need to pull it all apart again. Surprising that such a small gap has been OK on Low N Slow, I was not expecting that asnwer. Was expecting more along the lines of the awesome power of the mighty essex will soon wilt the rubber resulting in a quick armco embrace. Going to have to pull it apart again at some stage to paint the brake brackets so will skim a little off them and the spacer then. Cheers

Maybe melting moments with tie rod rubber boot 2-3mm from the brake rotor...? More pics and details in the build thread http://www.oldschool.co.nz/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=30748&start=25 Helpfull/amusing comments appreciated!

I'm a bit worried about how close my tie rod end is to the disk brake rotor. Mine is approx 2-3mm from the rubber boot to the rotor! I am wondering if heat from track days will do bad things to the rubber boot then spilling grease onto the rotor with sub-optm€ial results for braking and rotor... A few options; Ignore it hoping heat will not equal grease on brakes? Or get another 1.5mm of gap by machining down spacer between hub and rotor below. And reduce thickness of brake mounting bracket. Plate between zinc bolts below. Don't want to go too thin as I imaging the brake calliper will be under considerable torque during heavy braking. And maybe also pack out steering arm off the strut as its just bolted on. So how much gap would you be comfortable with? Comments? Cheers!

Spent Sat in the garage, supposedly looking after the kids. But they were playing well so I got to make some brackets up. Not a very exciting shot, but now the big sausage petrol tank is mostly secured and not going to try and join me in the cabin. More unexciting bracketery to stop fuel pressure regulator flogging around. All back together and running well. Even got the timing right on first guess. Cheers Billy!

Keen to watch Sun Special

No worries, I was expecting it to be a particular style of Hiace... I am in Eastern Bays Auckland and about to enjoy rainy day traffic getting home. Looking at the Hulix codes the work van has a matching 8" G series with 4.1 ratio. Hmmmmm would fit nicley in the Escort.

Thanks guys! Newbie question. What is iirc? "hiace have 3.9s if iirc" Quick google search did not show up anything clear.

Good day for a locked diff...

Cheers, 4.1, 6,500rpm and celica 5sp box gives 197km. Thats more like it. Even with current 4sp box its 167km. Rims are already 15", but bigger tires is a thought. She already looks like a crop sprayer though. So little money available for so many mods after big tax bill so trying to work out best bang for buck. Any idea on how different hilux diff heads are?

Pre-gasket saga I took the car for a test drive on some private industrial land resulting in a huge grin as hydrocarbons were turned into noise and some motion. Very happy to find the Haynes bible 144hp and 192 torques of the standard big lazy 3L V6 essex were enjoying release with the warm cam and extractors and their first run in a Long time. She was happy to wheel spin first and second gears from a standing start, although this may also be due to the weight of the essex over the front axles… This lead me to wonder how low the diff ratio was as she ran out of legs quite quickly. From my vast experience on one track day I know the back straight of Hampton can be quite boring with a low ratio diff and four speed box resulting in hitting the rev limit at the end of the sweeper before the straight. I was told it’s a hilux diff but have no idea of type or year. Spinning the wheel and counting I calculated a ratio of 4.55. Releasing my inner geek this calculates to a top speed of 150km at 6,500rpm. Hmmm, need more. Question time: How many rpm would a stock essex engine withstand before I am looking for trouble? 6,500? The only modifications are a warm cam and extractors. Heads still have press in studs for the rockers and points ignition. Are hilux diff heads all interchangeable, or are there versions I need to look for? Are standard hilux LSD diff’s a reasonable option for casual track days and time trial races or more suited to mud plugging? There is a 4.1 LSD on TM $550. 10 bolt 8”?? And open 4.1 on TM for $250. Thoughts and comments appreciated. Cheers!