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Avenga's 1UZ V8 powered 1980 Avenger Wagon


Avenga

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Yeah, and especially because I am running much wider and stickier tires than stock, and it has the extra weight of the V8 conversion. It probably would have been fine for a standard Avenger but not for mine. And it probably wouldn't have failed while driving, because my steering is actually super light as soon as I start rolling but it is really heavy when parking. So I think all those things added towards the failure. The new rag joint that we made is heaps stronger and has reinforcement, so that would probably be okay, but because I do track days and the likes then I don't want to risk it so I will go down the path of making a custom column with 2 universals.

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3 hours ago, Avenga said:

So after 3 and a half months of waiting I finally got my wheels from Performance Wheels in Australia!!

What do you guys think?

IMG_E6642_zpse2b4e2wj.jpg

I approve. It looks like a performance setup done the right way - properly lowered to a sensible height, less sidewall without resorting to smaller diameter tyres or rims that don't suit the car, wider rubber without bolt-on flares etc. Plus dirty bogan wheels are just cool. 8)

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@Thousand Dollar Supercar That was pretty much my list of must haves when I was building the car, it was too low before so I raised it up a little bit, made it quiet and picked a nice wheel tyre combo. They are pretty much the same size as the tyres on my green Avenger, the rear are the same and the fronts are slightly smaller but on this one I did the opposite to my green Avenger and went inwards instead of outwards so I don't need any bolt on guards or anything.

It's sort of crazy that this is running the same size tyres

IMG_9124.jpg

@Toddy415 Thanks. that is the deepest dish I could get on the cast wheels. I really like it. I am running a 16mm spacer so I could go even deeper dish on the back if I go to the forged version, but they are like $1000 each wheel so I don't think it is worth it. Looks pretty bad ass as it is.

@NickJ Yes, that is the exhaust, it's further away than it looks in the photos because the steering column goes through the middle of the headers. I checked that and it's not getting too hot, the heat wrap helps. I think what it might have been is the type of rubber they used, it might have a really low glass transition point, I didn't see any signs of melting but it could have been enough to soften the rubber. With the stock Avenger, the exhaust is over on the other side of the engine, so it wouldn't normally even get warm, and they wouldn't need to put in any kind of heat resistant rubber. The rubber I made the new one out of has much better heat resistance.

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I would get in touch with the supplier and let them know it has failed - they could have a serious liability on their hands as the outcome could have been so much more severe! For something that controls the most essential aspect of a car it is a huge safety concern. I would also look into swapping it out for UJ's as early as possible as it would do wonders for the steering feel.

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I have been speaking to my local rootes group parts supplier who I brought the part off, and he said that in previous batches they did have reinforcement, as did the OEM ones. This latest batch didn't and he assumed that it was a stronger grade of rubber, but no, it was shitty soft as rubber with zero reinforcement, so it was a totally inferior part that wasn't up to the task it was designed for.

My local parts guy is taking it very serious and he has pulled the rag joints from sale and he is going back to his supplier in the UK with what happened and saying, the that new batch is shit and either do it properly or he will find a different supplier.

We have already started planning the UJ conversion. We will have to get a new shaft made up and splined for the UJ's, won't be too hard to do, and if anything then it will give me piece of mind. The new rag joint that we made is reinforced so it should be okay, but I don't trust it anymore after the old one failed catastrophically and without warning.

 

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On 17/09/2018 at 10:15, Avenga said:

Yeah. I had the exact same thoughts. You can tell just from looking that the Diff is really well made so what difference is the invoice going to make? The only thing I can think of is so they have someone to blame if the diff fails?

The vacuum hose on the other hand, we gave him the invoice which he was happy with, but then the vacuum hose turned out to be crap, it is collapsing under the vacuum when the engine is running. Which is the whole point of vacuum hose, so I am going to have to replace that, but he was just happy with the invoice even though the product itself wasn't up to standard. You think it would be better the just test of the hose is withstanding the vacuum alright, rather than just whether or not you have the invoice for it.  

Hey bro, I am rapt you have been giving your car big arse trips and laps and having little to no problems. I'll echo what the others have said - you've carried out a quality build for sure. I missed reading the above threads about some of the details concerning the cert. He (your certifier) did get intouch with me to check out/verify what I had put in the Differential Work Declaration. He wanted to be confident that I had some idea of what I was talking about. Fuck, he left disappointed :( Nooooo!! Hehe!! He was sweet as after we discussed a few things, but mostly after I told him I have done a heap of them and have built diffs (and do diff work) for one of the local certifyers down here - that he knows. Maybe he rang him up? I dunno. So yeah.   

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I wouldn't trust a nolathane one either 

 

One Nats at taupo, we had to fix cazzas escort nolathane 'rag joint' with a bunch of cable ties, it had a steel safety cage thing around it so it still worked, just got a lot of slop in it when it split

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On 02/12/2018 at 11:16, johnny.race said:

Hey bro, I am rapt you have been giving your car big arse trips and laps and having little to no problems. I'll echo what the others have said - you've carried out a quality build for sure. I missed reading the above threads about some of the details concerning the cert. He (your certifier) did get intouch with me to check out/verify what I had put in the Differential Work Declaration. He wanted to be confident that I had some idea of what I was talking about. Fuck, he left disappointed :( Nooooo!! Hehe!! He was sweet as after we discussed a few things, but mostly after I told him I have done a heap of them and have built diffs (and do diff work) for one of the local certifyers down here - that he knows. Maybe he rang him up? I dunno. So yeah.   

Thanks for all your help with the certing process! I have been having a blast driving it since then!

@Ashkellybarr @sluggy Thanks guys. I spent freaking ages doing that engine bay and I am always stoked when everyone comments on how clean it looks. It was my first engine loom so it was a bit daunting but because I have had years of building gaming PC's and hiding all the wires on them then I treated this the same way. And I love the way the air intake turned out, that has to be the number 1 talking point every time someone sees the engine, I have never seen it done like that before, and it took me a lot of head scratching before I figured out how I could make it all work. I'm glad I did though because those trumpets look damn cool.

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