SP450andLE

I'll summarise this then tell the story. My 1983 Suzuki Alto 800cc 4-door Auto (yay specific) has two holes in the diff (well I assume it's the diff, its behind where the driveshafts come out of). And I want to know why. Story: I replaced the heater hoses, fixed the broken temp sensor wire, removed and replaced the starter because the replacement didnt fit, then took it for a drive. It went well, but it didnt want to turn right very much. I didnt think much of it because it has 13" starlet wheels and it's had rubbing issued before. But then I turned hard right again, and it made a 'pop' noise and it could turn right more (the amount it usually would). I figured it had just bent the corner of the guard or something. Then coming up to the driveway I pushed hard on the brakes to check they were working OK (it was on the gravel). There was a clunk, which I guessed was something just moving inside the car. But when I got up the drive and checked for where the tyres had bent the guard, I saw oil pouring out under the car. I swore a bit then checked what was causing it. Which is where the situation with the holy diff comes in... The car still drives (slowly forward at least). So any ideas on what would have caused it? I guess I'll be pulling out the engine and getting it welded up. Fun times.

In need of a wiring loom for a '64 Daimler V8, so does anyone know of anywhere to get one in NZ? The car is being restored, and the loom is on the list of items to be replaced... Cheers.

Lame update alert... After sitting at 130 on the motorway for quite a few Ks, I looked behind me and saw blue smoke everywhere. After shitting my pants, I pulled over and, fearing the worst, I opened the bonnet to have a looksee. Luckily it had just squirted oil everywhere again. So, I've come to the conclusion that the breather is clogged and when I go too fast it sometimes blows oil out past one of the grommets on the rocker cover and messes shit up. So no biggie, I'll fix it when I do the next engine-out cleanup (which will hopefully be soon...).

I have no nuts that I know of sorry :/. Should just be standardish ones you can get from anywhere shouldn't they?

Yay! Good to see my diff put to good use

I figured it was time for an update... I've been dailying this since I had it repainted. There's been a few small problems... Weird high speed misfire - fixed by fitting fuel pump from my spare engine. All-speed misfire that got me stranded in Dairy Flat - fixed mainly by replacing the dizzy cap. Broken steering rack boot - replaced. Massive oil squirtage throughout the engine bay discovered when in Kaukapakapa - fixed by tightening rocker cover bolts that didn't even seem loose... There's also various extra squeaks etc coming from the suspension - time for some attention there I think. But all that isn't very surprising. If I had a working odometer (or even speedo cable drive come to think of it...) it would show that I've been racking up the Ks like crazy. The girlfriend and I went away to Pakiri a little while ago, spend most the time just driving all over the incredible (and unexpected!) roads round there. And most these Ks haven't been the most easy-going either. A lot of it is rather 'spirited' driving... But seeing as I've actually been working a bit over these holidays, I have me some moneys to spend on this. Plans are rather extensive and most probably won't come to fruition, but oh well... Here's a taster of what I have planned... Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/30253-sp450andles-austin-mini-1000-le/

I enjoyed having Mx5s there. That way I wasn't in the least manly car. But yeah, some sort of parking scheme needs to be sorted out...

If all else fails my mate lives in Manly

Had a caliB today. Was real good. Ned, you obviously lie.

Shore meet before hand?

Right, I'll try that. Thanks

Trying to start the Dart, but I'm not having any luck. It's turning over ok, but there seems to be no spark. What I've done to turn it over is just run a lead between the positive on the battery to the negative on the starter solenoid. Is there something else that needs to be done for it to start?

I got this turning over properly today. No luck starting it though, I'll check if it has spark or not tomorrow if I have time. I got a quick vid but I'm too lazy to upload it atm

More need a trailer, Mum's Pajero has a towbar. Wont borrow the same trailer for a while, the guy didn't like me losing the winch handle lols

I'll see how rich I'm feeling, have an SP250 committee dinner the following night, so I may just have to drink water and steal food while people aren't looking at one of either meets lols

Oh i didnt see your lotus there. Mind you i barely got a chance to walk around haha. And yeah, dad said it sounds real sweet, even better than the 2.5! And yeah i gave it a quick tap with a hammer but couldnt really get to it enough to hit it properly. I may try again tomorrow though...

Nah it aint flat, I had just pulled it from the mini. And everything else works

I tried to turn this over this today... I got it cranking over by hand. Then by rolling it in gear. But no luck with the electrics. The starter motor just makes a whirring sound and does nothing I guess I'll have to pull it out and rebuild it unless anyone else has any suggestions? Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/30773-sp450andles-dads-daimler-sp450/

Why thankyou. I do agree

Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/30773-sp450andles-dads-daimler-sp450/ Oh my, an update (with words AND pictures) I dragged this thing to the Ellerslie Concourse yesterday. Here's a wall of text (that I've copied and pasted from an email I sent someone lols): The show was just yesterday, and I had brought the 450 down on Friday. Dad was excited to have something happen with the car, and as he put it, he hopes it'll help to get his "mojo" back. After a quick wash and clear out of most of the parts laying around inside it, it was ready. So on Sunday morning I towed it to the show. Within 10 minutes of arriving in the showgrounds, I had had two people asking if I was going to sell it - the reply to both was a firm "no". Being sat next to 4 tidy darts, among the numerous fully restored cars of various makes, the 450 really stood out. I had grabbed a bit of wood from home, covered it in black vinyl and written the specs of the car on it in a white paint-pen a couple of nights ago. I simply sat this board up against the right front tyre (where most people seemed to stand to look at the car), and it really worked as a way of letting people know it isn't just your standard dart. The whole day was fantastic - brilliant sunshine (resulting in brilliant red sunburn!), brilliant cars and a brilliant crowd - it really was something to remember forever. So many people would come looking for the owner of the 450 (which for the day was me, as Dad wasn't feeling well enough to make a day trip down for the show), all with various tales to tell. The most exciting thing was when a woman came up to me and said that she used to live with Jim Gilchrist, the previous owner of the car. She's going to give him my details and tell him to call me, which would be very interesting as he used to drag-race the car and did the conversion to the 5-speed Celica gearbox, something I'm keen to learn more about. All in all it was worthwhile making the effort to turn out for the show, it was all that I expected and more. So yeah, picture time: Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/30773-sp450andles-dads-daimler-sp450/

Smith and smith is gay. That's all.

So keen to get my steels on, but I still haven't found a replacement for the warped one But thanks guys

Umm as soon as possible, but I'm not super fussed if I have to wait a little while

Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/30253-sp450andles-austin-mini-1000-le/ Right, I've been holding off on an update for some time now, because I've actually had some proper progress. I took the Mini off the road to get the door fixed with insurance, and planned to give the whole car a quick respray. And then it started... The painter was like "why don't you take both doors off". Then "you might as well take both screens out" etc etc. So this went on for a while until I was pretty much stripping off the majority of the paint. And lucky we did that. There were a few bog patches that had been done by a previous owner, which were straight over bare metal. This meant that all the metal under the bog was covered in surface rust. So I sanded that back and cleaned it up with dioxidine until it was clean metal again. There were a few rust holes that needed fixing, but overall I was damn surprised at how solid it was for a daily hack with unknown KMs lols. These were all fixed by the panelbeater at my work (he's used to working on fancy cars worth at least 10 times what the mini is worth), so I can rest assured they'll stay right for a while yet. Doing all the prep was horrible. But In doing so, I learn what makes or breaks a paintjob. Bad prep = bad paintjob. Luckily the guys made sure I did good prep. I won't bore you with all the details of swapping bits round on the doors, getting all the panels gaps pretty much damn perfect and all that rubbish. But so finally we got it painted. It turned out real well, straight from the gun. Apparently the painter got a better finish on it than he does on most of the customers' cars (mostly show-winning hotrods and classics). And that was on the wednesday before Kumeu... A mad rush later it was ready for kumeu on friday night bar the screens. A trip to Smith and Smith (unltimate wankers, they f##ked me around so much and scratched my paint) in the morning, and we were at Kumeu by the arvo. Since then I've been fitting items up, and painting things to make them look pretty. I've also fitted a ramflo filter for more doort. Next on the job list is to paint the roof black, do the stripes, paint the centre of the visor white, paint the current wheels white to see what it'll look like with that colour wheels, pull the fuel pump out and see if it's stuffed or not, underseal the whole underside of the car and a bunch of other things I can't summon into my mind currently. I've probably forgotten a whole lot of stuff that was really amazing and all that, but it's time for pics so here we go... (pics of the entire process will be uploaded to an album somewhere later on, so you'll have to make do with what you see here for now) Pics here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4849470467780.2165712.1027525483&type=1&l=56dbe255d2 Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/30253-sp450andles-austin-mini-1000-le/

Hah, sorry