keltik Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 Small pictureless update tonight. Got the engine back in with the new clutch, reassembled the engine bay. Inspected rear wheel for noise, unable to reproduce concern, no fault at this time. Did one of the rear brake hoses then the one on the other side refused to undo. Had a go at making my own special brake line spanner with a normal ring spanner and a grinder....it didnt work, shit is just too tight. Need some multi-grips/pipe wrench/something else to undo it. So tomorrow i want to do that last stubborn rear brake line. Splash some underseal over everything from the back of the cab backwards. Refill with coolant and have a play with the light switch again. A nice helpful gentleman on the USMB forum has furnished me with some wiring diagrams so i can figure it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted January 23, 2014 Author Share Posted January 23, 2014 Got the new brake hoses on. Rears fitted pretty well, the front went on fine but the knobby bit in the middle that locates it on the strut is in slightly the wrong place. Also the ones on the strut are a bit munted so might look at getting some other kinda mounting bracket on there somehow or figure something out. It will work as it is, just not neat enough for my liking. Nothing is under strain but the proportions dont look right. Old busted New hotness Mr Jones even appeared to help me bleed everything up.....when he wasnt complaining about how ugly and shit my car was compared to his MGBs...yes plural. New clutch works, got new coolant in the rad to replace the flush stuff. Went for a wee drive to make sure it was biting well and seems to be a good improvement there. The 2 rusty floor spots are the next challenge i set myself before i begin on the front valence disaster. Coming along nicely at this point. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyfive Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 We took this donor turd to the man for $40. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted January 26, 2014 Author Share Posted January 26, 2014 First order of business for the weekend was to get the irritating electrical gremlins sorted. So easiest way to do that was to remove the entire cab wiring loom....there it is Discovered a few broken wires that were mildly necessary. One of the ground wires to the cluster had snapped, so that explains the wonky instruments. Then i managed to remove the wiring for the heater and other things that no longer exist. Ended up with something much cleaner. So now everything electrical works and I've got some spare power feeds fused and ready for use by whatever should come up. Next item was to tackle the rust in the rear cab mounts. Now i need to point out that i suck at welding. I honestly do and im ashamed of the results frankly, but fuck it - at least the job got done and with a bit of flap wheel and a bit of filler, it looks good as a bought one. Cut the rusty section out, bent the stringer that goes from the cab floor to the rear chassis out of the way then welded a new patch in, bent the stringer back into place, plug welded it back to the floor and undersealed the shit out of everything. Then i keyed the floor inside, primered it and painted it black with some tough sound deadening paint from supercheap auto. It went quite well. I also tried some satin black from supercheap to paint the back of the cab but it was super shithouse. Fucking awfull paint! So im going to get some of the nice VHT satin black from Repco that ive painted the rest of the car in. It might cost twice as much but it does ten times as good a job. Rinse repeat for the other side of the car. Today im going to whip the front bumper off and start attacking that front valence. Tomorrow, it shall go for a wheel alignment then on the first day im free, i'll take it for a wof and we can see what else needs to be tackled. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 Took the ute into work to get the front pads n rotors fitted and a wheel alignment. Turned into a half fail/success affair. First of all the rotors were fine, so i didnt replace them. Instead it was discovered that the front calipers were seized with shit and all the dust boots were nakkered. Got some caliper kits and had them rebuilt. Then for the wheel alignment, nothing was adjustable so it just ended up getting left alone. Headlights got aligned and at the end of the day, it came out with some improvement at the expense of my wallet. I didnt know what to do about the front valance, so i chopped out the rotten bits and discovered it was just as bad as i had feared. Then i found out that they are still available new from Subaru Japan...so im going to save up and just buy a new panel i think. Its not crazy money and is going to yield a shitload better result than trying to fudge the existing one back together. Next mission is to re-bleed the brakes as the pedal has gone a bit spongy after the new caliper kits went in. I suspect a sticky rear wheel cylinder so will be examining that also. Finally i get to fit my new gauges. Got a tacho, water temp and oil pressure sorted. Just gonna dash mount them. All is looking good for the cannonball run. 2 weeks left to go. Hope to meet up with some oldschoolers while im in the Auckland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 Good news everyone! 200km round trip to an OS event and i didnt break down or get arrested. Mission accomplished. Car is road legal for now but still needs a few things tidied up on it. Tonights little trip revealed a few things i really need to get sorted before the big event next weekend; * Raise the back a smidge and lower the front * Get the instrument cluster backlights working, using the maplight aimed at the gauges isnt an ideal solution. * Fix the split CV boot before the joint decides to eat itself * Investigate clunk in the front suspension that has magically appeared * Finish installing oil pressure and water temp gauges 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 Made a little more progress. Got some speakers sorted and a headunit. Even came with some mean beats in it so ive been enjoying the tones of SOAD and RATM and other acronyms. Got the car stickered up, got my spares packed and will be making final adjustments to ride height tonight. Front geometry is a bit wonky so lowering should get the camber more reasonable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 Got my gauges setup all good. The oil pressure one drops a lot with any electrical load, the power supply to accessories under the dash isn't exactly beefy and suffers when the lights come on. Will look at fixing that later. For now, at least ive got some kind of dials to monitor things. A top tip for the hip kids out there, 60mm gauge mounts are expensive but 65mm PVC pipe brackets are cheap. Bit of spray paint and some PVC sleeve to take up the size difference. Good as gold. 3 gauge mounts for a total of about $15. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 Spare alternator, fuel pump, hoses and clamps, knead it, zip ties and race tape. Most importantly, a tow rope and bus fare home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 Decided to do valve clearances too just to be thorough. They were roughly double the correct gaps on most cylinders, such an easy job to do tho! Rocker covers came off with 2 bolts each side. Nice sealed cork gasket that was easily reusable. Super clean in there too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 Got the front ride height 'adjusted' a little bit better. Popped the front struts out last night and 'adjusted' the front springs and took some measurements for my future cunning plans. Finished the headunit install too. Everything is sitting a bit more level but I might put another notch on the rear torsion bars to stiffen the back a little. Too close to the bump stops at the mo for my liking. Ive got the adjuster at max height, so on the next notch at lowest height it should only raise up half inch if that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 Secret weapon for maximum good luck will be arriving tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 16, 2014 Author Share Posted February 16, 2014 Holy shet. Made it to the CannonBall Run and got all the way through the event....but not without drama. My good luck secret weapon was Jesus on the bonnet. A good friend made up this sticker and it completed the look of the car slapped front and center on the bonnet (which i have a pic of, but not right now). So following post I'll try to summarize the pant-shittingly worrying mechanical issue that nearly ruined my day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post keltik Posted February 16, 2014 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 16, 2014 Friday after work i set off for Auckland. Everything was fine until the Karangahake Gorge. On right hand turns, I could feel a little vibration in the floor which progressed to vibration in the steering wheel. A few kilometers later, i figured it would be best to "check engine" and discovered steam coming from that damned CV boot i never got round to fixing. There was nothing to be done, so i continued driving. The vibration was getting pretty bad by Ngatea, part of me wanted to pull over and investigate the problem, but a larger part of me knew it would be wasted time that i should spend heading north. So i continued driving, perservered with the vibration which was getting far more serious. I stopped for gas and the car slowly groaned to a halt with a squeeking screech coming from the drivers front axle. At this point, the outer CV was too hot to touch...so i decided not to touch it, filled up with fuel and continued driving. By this point it was picking with rain and starting to get dark. Coming up the Bombays, the front CV was getting REEALLY hot. The vibration had progressed to a violent banging by this point. Backing off the throttle as i crested the hill, the car tried to change lanes by itself and the violent banging turned into a big shuddering rattling the dashboard into a blur. I was applying about quarter of a left turn on the wheel just to keep the car tracking straight. It was getting to be brown pants time. I worried about the axle coming through the floor and amputating my legs, i worried about crashing, i worried about how much longer the aged front tires could survive this punishment, i worried about being stranded on the motorway in the dark. Luckily traffic was very light, so i slowed the pace and after coasting down the other side of the bombays, the joint cooled enough to be safely drivable again. I limped into Papakura at about 9:30pm, into a friends garage and began work. I popped the inner DOJ off the gearbox, cut the last shreds of the outer CV boot away and saw the joint was very stiff to move and blackened with burned grease. The plan was to remove the axle and run in rear wheel drive (locked center diff). A quick call to J5 and he informed me that the axles on these brumbys dont like to come out without a fight. I wasnt equipped for much of a fight so decided to try and smash it out by reinstalling, shifting into 4wd and doing donuts at full lock. That didnt work and i discovered my rear diff makes one hell of a racket, so off to bed and I figured i would see what happened in the morning. The next day I had an excellent idea. The entire problem was caused by bad lubrication to the CV joint...so why dont i lubricate it. I didnt bring any CV grease, but CRC is just as good right? So before leaving in the morning, i doused the outer CV in CRC and headed off down the road. To my amazement, the noise was getting better and the steering was much nicer. By the time i got to Neds house, I had run on the motorway for 10kms and the car was driving a lot better. I sprayed on another load of CRC and continued north to the starting point for the cannonball. The car drove fine and i shifted it into 4wd regularly to relieve pressure on the front axles. The rear diff sounded so awful, i didnt want to run in 4wd for too long lest it shit itself also. By mid morning, with regular applications of CRC every 20-30km, the driving situation was back to a very usable car. By mid afternoon, i was lubricating the joint every 50-100km and it had taken on a shiny polished appearance with a slick coating of oil (albeit very thin oil). The car drove great and whenever i felt the shuddering coming on, a few miles in 4wd cooled the axle off enough to re-lubricate and carry on driving. At around lunchtime, the engine developed a slightly feral misfire. I suspected the alternator i had swapped in a month ago wasnt much good. So at the next stop, i got the multimeter out and found 14v at idle, raising to around 16.8 at 3000rpm. Good thing i packed the old/spare alt! I slammed it in at the Dotcom mansion and SUCCESS, it sat on a nice stable 13.8-14.2v through most of the rev range. The misfire was gone and later in the day, I trusted the car enough to hit Pukekohe racetrack. I think Ned turned a bit green on the track, but it was an absolutely intense experience racing down the back straight trying to catch a GSA full of GC's, a Patrol full of guys in camo suits with a gun turret on the roof whilst getting passed by Ferraris and Aston Martins. By Sunday afternoon when i was headed home, i managed a 200km stretch before needing another dose of CRC on the axle. I made it home and am super thankful to Jesus and the CRC company for another fantastic product. Ive got a few more things to do on the Brumby, but it can all wait because I've achieved the big goal. I did the Cannonball run! Now i can let the bank balance recover and think about what i want to do next. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 Enough text, PICTURES! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 Ute goes doooooort Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 Didnt know these pics existed til they popped up on bookface. The car on my head conceals the look of frustration and dread on my face. Photos courtesy of this chap http://instagram.com/keepcalmandthrottleon In the rain, wet and tired at 11pm trying to remove an axle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 Drove this thing into town to get tea. Put "Highway to the danger zone" on the stereo, got a thumbs up from a car full of pretty girls, dude at the drive-thru cracked up at Jesus on the bonnet. Fuck i cant wait to make it more awesome/less rangi. Ive had some thoughts on what to do next. The current engine is making lots of oil disappear very quickly....so i plan on seeing Mr Bell to purchase a spare EA81, Mr Voldo to purchase a cam and then ill slowly start amassing parts for a high comp engine build with some EA71/EA82 pistons. Maybe even a 5 speed conversion on the cards. Some 15" steels, some NOS panels from Japan and a more reasonable paint job. Thats the current dream. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted March 15, 2014 Author Share Posted March 15, 2014 To answer the burning question, will an EZ30 fit.... Basically....no friggin way. Legacy is choochin blue so the block will be put to good use in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltik Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share Posted April 15, 2014 Moving to a place with no garage and im also quitting being a car person. Contemplating letting this thing go, any oldschoolers happen to be keen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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