P6B S Project Car

Having been stalled by a supplier on a 15/16 crow foot to get at the nearside track rod lock nut I took matters into my hands. Some idiots were asking $100 for 15/16 stubby spanner! I had a 24mm open/ring spanner with which I loosened the offside lock nut easily. I check the size of the track rod (~5/8), and cut a slot that size in the end of the ring, and then cut the spanner roughly in half. Got it on the nearside nut , couple of taps with a hammer through a socket bar - loose! Then, with the track tape measures in place, proceeded to turn the rod with visegrips to reduce the toe-in. Couple wriggles of the steering wheel, check the tapes, finished up with ~ 3-5mm of toe, measured at the ends of long rods (33"), so its not a lot. Since I have now found the relay/idler has some slack that can change the toe by at least 5mm, I am going to leave it at this, and redo it when I get the idler fixed.
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The alignment kit is from Quicktricks (IIRC?) . The vital (and dear!) parts are the turn plates - extras. Some make turnplates with plastic sheets with water between them. The bungee strap is needed to keep the assembly tight against the wheel rim - the standoffs have a slightly curved face to cup the rim edge, but they cant grip the rim. The long horizontal rods have slits in the ends to hold the tapes, so its easy to see quickly what the toe is - and how much it changes when you wobble the wheel at 3-9 o'clock against any slack in linkages.
 
Got some diff hanger bushes at last. Wadhams sells the tall ones as 1.7", vs the shorter 1.375" units, so ordered 2 talls and one short (diff extension mount). First one is in - most trouble was getting the small mounting bolts undone - going to replace them . The near side old bush rubber was coming through the hole in the base quite a lot, and the hanger was visibly lower on that side. The new ones dont have part nos, but the rubber has 'JRW' moulded in it on the top.
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Second bush in place. The first was unbranded, the second is marked Metalastik 17-1258, which is a number mentioned elsewhere. The nearside old bush is in pretty good shape really. Now both ends of the hanger are an even distance below the base, and the stay rod is now meeting its bracket squarely.
Seeing as I am working alone there was a lot of arrange a spanner on top, get under, do some socket/spanner work there, top spanner goes awry, get out....etc etc. Knees are a bit sore.
 
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Seeing as I am working alone there was a lot of arrange a spanner on top, get under, do somesocket/spanner work there, top spanner goes awry, get out....etc etc.

I remember playng that game on a very regular basis. I had one spanner that would fit on the bolt head and wedge itself in place over the top of the recess in the boot and I got most irate if I couldn't put that in place and get tightened up underneath without it falling off. Practice makes perfect as most of the time I did it in one hit, but it's still four trips up and down. Still that's what you get if you're Billy Nomates.
 
Needs must. My usual mechanical aide has not been well for a while now - fighting Big C. He does love to hear news about my battles with almost anything, so I spend a while on the phone with him between visits.
 
Doing the front diff extension mount. Dont appear to have the distance piece between the top washer and extension ? Didnt seem to be lots of spare thread on the top of the long bolt...? What sort of height is the spacer - 74 model, chassis is a 482...D suffix.

EDIT: Spacer was on TOP of the extension.....Duh. With it in proper place, nose is now a bit higher - spacer was ~ 5/16". There seemed to be some sort of washer between the underside of the nose bolt hole, but it seemed to have an extension sideways to the car's right, as though it is located by something...I could move it around, but not get it out?
thanks
 
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Next major concern....getting trapped somewhere because of difficulty getting reverse properly engaged - so far I have had to hold the lever as far back as possible to get backward motion, and it would slip out with ease. Did some digging and found some pics showing more detail of my type of large cast mount. These showed there was a steel plate coming over the top - on mine this plate was resting on the cast part. Jacking the box ~3/8" wasnt enough to engage reverse (more get out and inside, back under again), but at 1/2" I fully got reverse - lever boot stretched more than I had seen before. Throttle countershaft now pretty much horizontal, instead of angled downwards to the front. Verified no tailshaft movement underneath. Now to try to keep it up near that height. Would have liked something rubbery, but dont have anything like that, that is thick enough. In the end I used some 19mm ply, with a groove cut in it that will engage on the edge of the casting, and could be slipped in from left side (bit wider there). Released the jack support, lever stayed in reverse. Havent dropped it to drive yet, dont know how long it will stay there...but hopeful it will stay for a while without damaging anything.
This is upside down view of the mount(from web) - steel lip piece visible at bottom.
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After some thought I realized lifting the box might affect the exhaust line up further back, so I checked. Sure enough the first can was hard up against the body. Loosened off the bolts at the joint, no help - wouldnt come down at all. Checked the front pipe connection to the gearbox mount - its attached to the gearbox, not the mount. Loosened off that bolt a few mm, rear joint came down enough for the can to clear the body. Fitted a spacer washer at the gearbox attachment, carefully, evenly tightened the 3 bolts at the joint, can still clear of the body. Hope its doesnt move enough to be noisy. The rear 2 mufflers are welded in one piece, not the original 2 part assembly. The rear one may be the same size as the original, but pretty sure the front one is bigger than original, which doesnt help at all.
 
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Got the sucker out, without dropping the exhaust. Distinctly second hand - should have been replaced when the box was last worked on. Hope my fingers are up to starting the top nuts on the new unit.
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These seem to have the rubbers directly bonded to the steel. The new ones use generic rubbers with M8 threads, and nuts tacked inside the triangle , and the top bolts are 3/8 -UNF. Once one of these is fitted the rubbers could be unscrewed and replaced without removing the whole assembly.
 
Done, finished! Since I have in the past found 1 of my trolley jacks prone to leak down slowly when under load, I worked a 20L drum and a bit of wood under the box just in case - sure enough the jack was halfway down this arvo, load on the drum. Nothing untoward happened, but I need to mark that jack as dodgy. Worry #1 - since I havent dropped the exhaust, and the @#$%^ cast mount was still sitting in the exhaust , would I get the new mount with 2 intact rubbers inside the casting - bit of a struggle but got it in eventually. Worry #2 - getting the top nuts started on the mount - well founded. After spending much time failing to get the nylocs started, I switched to plain nuts with spring washers; took far too long but made it in the end. By the time I got the 4 mount bolts home the jack was unloaded again, so its all safe again. Now to measure something related to the height of the prop shaft while everything is close to design position, so I can try to get there when the LT77 goes in.
Dont want to do this again. Dropping the exhaust would not have helped get the top nuts started one bit, so I reckon it would usually be a box out job to replace the mount.
 
Dropping the exhaust would not have helped get the top nuts started one bit, so I reckon it would usually be a box out job to replace the mount.

So you put the bolts in from the bottom with the nuts on the top? If so that's not how they are supposed to go.

I can't imagine the box having to come out to replace the mounting, I certainly never had to do that, and I always avoided removing the frontpipes because the studs snapped most of the time, making far too much extra work.
 
You lost me for a minute there Harvey - I think you mean the 4 bolts holding the cast mounting up to the body - no, left them in from the top. The nuts I refer to are those on the short studs on the top of the triangular mount thing, in the pic above. The nuts for those are just under the UJ, and the space is pretty tight - I had to rotate the prop shaft to just the right place to be able to get fingers in there. Tell me how you managed this part - is there a book time to do it?
 
Having a couple of rubber pieces on hand, I thought, why waste the original mount .. I cut off as much rubber as I could off the old metal, cleaned up the rest with a wire wheel. Drilled the centre of the faces to mount the rubbers. I had hoped to tap the holes 5/16-UNF to screw the rubber bolts into, but there was a bit of plain shank at the base of the threads that fixed that idea. So they are just bolted on...very tightly. Dont have welding gear (or skill) to tack the nuts on, as was done on the replacement part, but with everything in compression here, I doubt it will fail in service.
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I think you mean the 4 bolts holding the cast mounting up to the body - no, left them in from the top

I did. Sorry for any confusion.

The nuts I refer to are those on the short studs on the top of the triangular mount thing, in the pic above. The nuts for those are just under the UJ, and the space is pretty tight - I had to rotate the prop shaft to just the right place to be able to get fingers in there. Tell me how you managed this part - is there a book time to do it?

I just use an OE spanner, doing both studs a little at a time so the mounting can be kept pulled away from the prop. I did look for a book time when you mentioned removing the gearbox to fit the mounting, but it isn't in my list of times.
 
Yes, I used an OE spanner there, but my major problem was just getting the nuts started. I must have spent an hour or more holding the nut on top of the bolt with one finger, and trying to turn it with another, only to wriggle the holding finger and have the nut fall off. No luck starting the nylocs at all. Hope I dont ever have to try to fit the replacement I have made. At least I wont have to remove the mount when I go to LT77...eventually.
 
Yes, I used an OE spanner there, but my major problem was just getting the nuts started. I must have spent an hour or more holding the nut on top of the bolt with one finger, and trying to turn it with another, only to wriggle the holding finger and have the nut fall off.

You need fingers like Twizzle.
 
I did some measuring , sort of. Trying to get a datum of where the propshaft should be height wise. With a file across the free areas of the mounting plates at the rear, I make the UJ boss (at the bottom of its rotation) around 1/2" higher than the mounting plates. Can anybody verify, offer other observations please?
 
While I was underneath I notice some non-original dents in the pass front floor. A few blows with 2kg hammer got it close to normal shape. Posted a bit in the electrics section about some strange side-light/brake light behaviour.
 
Gave up on the ABS for the boot lid liner - too heavy, very hard to bend etc. Finished up with 1.8mm ply - easy to cut and drill, easy to mark, being a pale finish. Used black flange headed screws for all but one fixing (needed a bigger thread). Once I got one screw started it was easy to work around the rest. The edge of the ply is just under the rubber seal at front and back. Hardened the edges and the screw holes with a dab of superglue. One issue was that the old spare lid I built on has what seems like a thicker rubber seal, - at least it seemed to stand up more than the one on the car.
Anyway, I think it looks a lot better than the scrappy old cardboard one. The hole next to latch looks like somebody has had to get at the latch mounting inside. Similar hole in the inner skin where the stay is fitted. The slots next to the centre front screw are to allow for the edges of the brace for an externally mounted spare.
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Still reckon that apart from the original cardboard Coreflute is the best bet. Flexible, easily worked and the correct colour.
But each to his/her own.

Keep safe and well.
 
Still reckon that apart from the original cardboard Coreflute is the best bet. Flexible, easily worked and the correct colour.
But each to his/her own.

Keep safe and well.

Isn't "corflute" a plastic signage board and twin wall at that. I would have thought heavy card, like the original, would last longer.
I like your thinking though
 
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