Project Car / Motorbike thread. Let's see 'em.

[MasterOfReality]

I pulled the box out and saw that the wire from the coil to the ignition module had been destroyed, hence the no start. Fixed that and it started.

Whilst the box was out I had another look at the clutch and adjusted the pivot ball so that the fork was square to the input shaft at the start of the pedal travel. Took it for a drive and pretty quickly realised that I fucked it up. There was a rattle from inside the bellhousing that only went away when the clutch pedal was pressed halfway so I'm gathering that's the TO bearing.

The clutch take up point was pretty high which I wasn't happy with. Other than that, it went fine, changed gears fine.

Spoke to Mal Wood and he tells me that the clutch fork needs to be square to the input shaft at half pedal travel. That would put the clutch take up point closer to the floor which makes sense.

Now just got to find the enthusiasm to pull it all apart again!

Pulled my finger out and removed box, reset clutch fork and put it all back together. Seven hours from start to finish.

Pretty tricky trying to judge the position of the clutch fork at half pedal but I think I got it close. Factory pivot ball height spec is 105 mm, mine ended up at 103 mm. The clutch still bites high up in the pedal if I adjust the cable so that the clutch pedal is level with the brake. If I back it off a bit the take up point is a lot better, just that the clutch pedal now sits below the brake. Trying to decide whether that bothers me.

 

[Flow-Rider]

Pulled my finger out and removed box, reset clutch fork and put it all back together. Seven hours from start to finish.

Pretty tricky trying to judge the position of the clutch fork at half pedal but I think I got it close. Factory pivot ball height spec is 105 mm, mine ended up at 103 mm. The clutch still bites high up in the pedal if I adjust the cable so that the clutch pedal is level with the brake. If I back it off a bit the take up point is a lot better, just that the clutch pedal now sits below the brake. Trying to decide whether that bothers me.

The bite point will move as the clutch wears in.

 

[MasterOfReality]

The bite point will move as the clutch wears in.

Thats good to know. The gearbox is noisy as hell too, but I'm driving it with no centre console so I'm gearing all the gear noise and rattling. Advice from Tremec groups is that it will settle down after the 1,000km run in and fluid change. Lucky if this car sees 1,000km a year!

 

[Dales Cannon]

They were a noisy box. Gear or bearing???

 

[MasterOfReality]

They were a noisy box. Gear or bearing???

It whines but I haven’t driven it enough to see if it whines in all gears or stops in 4th which would indicate a bearing issue. Mind you I’m listening to it through an open hole in the trans tunnel.

There is a chattering/rattle when I engage the clutch to creep the car forward or backwards. Don’t know what that is yet. If I give it some revs it doesn’t rattle.

Spigot bush went in nice and square (I spent ages tapping that mf home) and I didn’t hammer it in too deep (measured off the box input shaft and block for the required depth). Gearbox itself slid home smoothly when I had the splines lined up, no dramas there. The thought of a misaligned bellhousing has crossed my mind however.

Gear changes are all good. A little tight but it’s a new factory unit so I’d expect that. Input shaft had no play and it’s fitted with a Mal Wood retainer.

Will see how it goes after it’s run in and I dump the fluid.

 

[Dales Cannon]

They have a gear whine but not bearing noise. Sounds like a tight new gearset. I put a mismatched used crownwheel and pinion in my first mini (yeah mate, matched set). I lapped them together with an electric drill and paste over a weekend. Beautiful.

 

[Flow-Rider]

It whines but I haven’t driven it enough to see if it whines in all gears or stops in 4th which would indicate a bearing issue. Mind you I’m listening to it through an open hole in the trans tunnel.

There is a chattering/rattle when I engage the clutch to creep the car forward or backwards. Don’t know what that is yet. If I give it some revs it doesn’t rattle.

Spigot bush went in nice and square (I spent ages tapping that mf home) and I didn’t hammer it in too deep (measured off the box input shaft and block for the required depth). Gearbox itself slid home smoothly when I had the splines lined up, no dramas there. The thought of a misaligned bellhousing has crossed my mind however.

Gear changes are all good. A little tight but it’s a new factory unit so I’d expect that. Input shaft had no play and it’s fitted with a Mal Wood retainer.

Will see how it goes after it’s run in and I dump the fluid.

Some of the bushes were sintered bronze and should be soaked in engine oil or push the oil through with your fingers. The shudder might be the clutch plate that needs bedding in or the drive plate that has heavy center springs in it. The commodore manuals weren't a refined thing, more of an afterthought as most of them were autos. The tail shaft phasing is really important in those too, as you get a bad shutter on take off.

 

[MasterOfReality]

Some of the bushes were sintered bronze and should be soaked in engine oil or push the oil through with your fingers. The shudder might be the clutch plate that needs bedding in or the drive plate that has heavy center springs in it. The commodore manuals weren't a refined thing, more of an afterthought as most of them were autos. The tail shaft phasing is really important in those too, as you get a bad shutter on take off.

The bush is sintered bronze and I did soak it in engine oil for a few days and pushed the oil through until it appeared to be sweating. Also added a very light smear of high temp grease when installing the trans.

I took the tail shaft to Hardy Spicer to have it reassembled with new bearings and joints, and then balanced as I had heard of this phasing issue.

 

[beeb]

The bush is sintered bronze and I did soak it in engine oil for a few days and pushed the oil through until it appeared to be sweating. Also added a very light smear of high temp grease when installing the trans.

I took the tail shaft to Hardy Spicer to have it reassembled with new bearings and joints, and then balanced as I had heard of this phasing issue.

Hmm, in that case...

Needs moar skidz.

 

[MasterOfReality]

No skid pics, yet.

 

[Haakon]

Seems odd having a cable clutch on an engine that big - or more accurately on a pressure plate big enough to clamp that much torque. Most of my frogmobiles have had cables, but waaay less torque!! Their problem was the RHD conversion often resulted in convoluted cable routing with resultant issues with cables binding when worn….

 

[Dales Cannon]

Seems odd having a cable clutch on an engine that big - or more accurately on a pressure plate big enough to clamp that much torque. Most of my frogmobiles have had cables, but waaay less torque!! Their problem was the RHD conversion often resulted in convoluted cable routing with resultant issues with cables binding when worn….

And they were French.

 

[Cardy George]

Seems odd having a cable clutch on an engine that big - or more accurately on a pressure plate big enough to clamp that much torque. Most of my frogmobiles have had cables, but waaay less torque!! Their problem was the RHD conversion often resulted in convoluted cable routing with resultant issues with cables binding when worn….

And they were French.

And Holdens.

They weren't exactly on the cutting edge of tech in the 90's

 

[Haakon]

And they were French.

In LHD, the cables tended to be about 50cm long and a nice clean single arc - neat, smooth and durable. In RHD, add at least a metres and 5 bends…

I swear they did it just to piss off the English…

 

[Dales Cannon]

And Holdens.

They weren't exactly on the cutting edge of tech in the 90's

Work on a 2006 Patrol for cutting edge tech. For a chaff cutter.

 

[Haakon]

And Holdens.

They weren't exactly on the cutting edge of tech

Fixed

 

[MasterOfReality]

Seems odd having a cable clutch on an engine that big - or more accurately on a pressure plate big enough to clamp that much torque. Most of my frogmobiles have had cables, but waaay less torque!! Their problem was the RHD conversion often resulted in convoluted cable routing with resultant issues with cables binding when worn….

They moved to a hydraulic setup in the VS I think. I had the option of converting this to a hydraulic set up but just went with the factory cable option. It's not an overly heavy clutch to operate. I had a Mazda 3 MPS that felt worse!

 

[Haakon]

They moved to a hydraulic setup in the VS I think. I had the option of converting this to a hydraulic set up but just went with the factory cable option. It's not an overly heavy clutch to operate. I had a Mazda 3 MPS that felt worse!

Cables are fine if it’s a good cable and thoughtfully laid out. Even my frogs were nice when the cables were new, they just needed new cables every few years (which were at least very cheap).

Just like bikes, and why I hate headset routed gear cables so much…

 

[MasterOfReality]

Cables are fine if it’s a good cable and thoughtfully laid out. Even my frogs were nice when the cables were new, they just needed new cables every few years (which were at least very cheap).

Just like bikes, and why I hate headset routed gear cables so much…

Yeah this one is pretty simple. Out of the firewall next to brake booster, loops under itself and feeds down next to extractors and over steering rack to the bellhousing. The cable manufacturer put silicon sleeves in exactly the right places so the cable doesn't melt.

Not looking forward to replacing it though, I had to blindly fumble the pedal end until I felt it catch the hook. And that was with all the electrical pulled out from under the dash.

 

[Dales Cannon]

laid the first sidewall down with Teroson MS939 adhesive using an air sausage gun... fun times.

@binner are you aware that the Australian Electrical Standard (AS3001) for caravan/camper/motor home etc with a fixed 15A input have changed? From what I just saw batteries cannot be placed in a habitable area though that just means a box or compartment sealed to the interior so batteries can still go under the bed or seats. Battery compartments must be vented to the outside regardless of construction and solar panels must have breakers between the panel and bms. If there are 4 or more panels then all panels individually must have breakers, 3 or fewer can be wired in parallel to a single breaker.