Newbie With 3 White Nissans Saying Hi

[llama_au]

It's had a blade adjustable Whiteline Rear Swaybar for about 5 years, one of my first mods

Sourced a 2L rad with thermo fans in good nick so that'll go in on Monday.

[llama_au]

New rad and thermos:

The bloody thing is tiny and as light as a feather, I'd never realised.

So tomorrow they'll go in tomorrow along with the thicker front swaybar, new bushes, new seatbelts, new guard liner and new battery tray that I've been meaning to install for ages. It'll almost feel like a new car

[llama_au]

As they say, problems don't rain - they pour. So the radiator I bought above is unusable. I had noticed a big crack on the top inlet where the hose would go. I've been told it's a common problem that the plastic goes brittle and breaks there. So unfortunately that radiator is a dud. My mechanic has ordered a new radiator - so now as I have to get a new radiator I have gone bigger - 26mm. We'll see how it goes for clearance.

While replacing the guard liner they noticed that the driver's side CV boot is split...so now I'm replacing the driver's side CV joint as well. To top it all off the SSS seatbelts I bought earlier in the year don't fit because Nissan are dickheads and somewhere along the line changed the clip system that hold the seatbelts steady between the pillar and the trim. Why must you mock me?!

I'll get the car back tomorrow (replacing the brake fluid as it's overdue), it's back to the panelbeater for a few touch-ups and it'll be back on the road. Or that's the plan :lol:

[llama_au]

Well as most Melbourne members know I gave the Pulsar trans it's last rights at November DECA last year.

Now with rear-mounted gearbox!

In all seriousness, today was a sad day and the end of an era. I started the car for the first time in close to 4 months. She started as though I had never left her, the auto worked as though it was never broken. After being auto for her 12 year life I think she's a bit sad about letting go. But it's for the best, I know it won't last forever.

And an update for the Skyline;

The '34 got some relatively inexpensive but very effective neatening up yesterday. The door pillars were wrapped in some cheap, shitty 'carbon-fibre look' vinyl by the previous owner which looked tacky and had started to come off. The strips on the rear door were also faded. So 4.5 hours (yes, it took that long to get it perfect!) from a very patient and lovely SAU member and this is the result:

Before:

Comparison:

After:

It's 3M carbon fibre look vinyl. This stuff it incredible, it's the most expensive on the market and there's a very good reason for that - it looks and feels exactly like the real thing. Very happy with the result.

[llama_au]

The LSD was about 3 weeks late, but that serves me right for getting it as cheaply as I could. Behold, a box of Nismo:

I like opening things

Gearbox and LSD go on a holiday to Sydney tomorrow.

[llama_au]

Gearbox and LSD sent to Syd, air-con gear out: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Fs...-S-t308657.html

And a shiteload of progress it would seem. Went to have a look at my car to find it Flintstones spec. Some dodgy iPhone pics tell the story:

It's guts on the floor (plenty more not pictured):

Photo of auto mounts for future reference:

As you can see the car's now sans air-con, transmission, transmission coolers and everything in the way that had to come out to get to it all. Brake pedal is mounted but not much else can happen until the gearbox arrives back. In the meantime my mechanic is cringing at working out the hydraulic conversion, but I have faith in him The idea of using one of my trans coolers as a power steering cooler isn't going to work, it's just too small.

And the reason it was clunking on take-off recently, there was one bolt left holding the auto trans in. OMFG!

[llama_au]

Not that anyone's reading, but;

More progress.

Gearbox is apart and the reports are that it's in pretty bloody good condition. It looks like it's never been opened (factory Nissan goo inside) and everything looked great. Surprising - it's a 19 year, 190,000km old box! Even the standard, original flywheel looked excellent but will be getting machined. Although, so I don't have to touch the box for a very long time I've told him to replace all synchro's and bearings with any sort of wear whatsoever. The last thing I want to do is cheap out on something only to have it need replacing a year down the track.

It would've been back but PAR had run out the 4.07 ratio final drive, only had the 4.43 and a 3.something, neither of which I wanted. They're arriving on Thursday so it should be finished and together on Thursday night and to my mechanics door on Friday.

I'll miss my motorkhana and track day I had planned this month, but that's probably for the best. The car needs a tune and I need to learn how to drive it haha

Nearly there.

[llama_au]

The Skyline felt left out that the Pulsar was getting all the attention at the moment, so it decided that the front tie road ends were very worn and needed replacement while the car was getting serviced today. Not cheap!!! But fortunately readily available.

Car now has new front tie rod ends and every single fluid replaced. And for once it drives in a straight line. All along the car's steering has been knocking on deviations in the road and turning slowly, and always pulled left even after wheel alignments. Annoyed that it took my mechanic to pick this up at a service and various wheel alignment shops didn't spot this as the reason.

[llama_au]

WINRAR!

[Brandon]

Woah... did you do all that yourself or photos taken at the workshop?

[llama_au]

Photos of the car taken at my mechanics, photos of the gearbox build taken by my gearbox builder in Sydney.

[ssxRicho]

keep the updates coming. the car was scaring people when it had the autobox, and now a straight cut manual with lsd :bananna:

got torque steer in the gear change?...heaeah

[llama_au]

Haha, yep, plenty more updates to come in the next few weeks. The LSD should limit some of the torque steer, but that's what makes it fun to drive. No need for a steering wheel when you can change lanes with throttle haha

[llama_au]

Small amount of progress. The hydraulic gear is mounted to the gearbox and the flywheel is machined. My workshop have been super busy so I haven't been putting them under pressure to finish it. At this stage I'd expect the car to be completed late next week all going well

[llama_au]

Okay, so it's nearly done. There's a few very small things I am missing, please see if you can help:

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Wt...nd-t313577.html

Gearbox is in the car, solid engine mounts and brackets all fitted well and installed, most of the front end is back in. The only small hiccups are that the cold-side cooler pipe to the throttle body might need slight modifications to clear the hydraulic slave cylinder on the gearbox. Otherwise everything fitted up just fine, I'm very surprised. Still to do - mount clutch pedal and drill holes in the firewall, and install the bits I'm chasing in the thread I've linked to.

[ssxRicho]

ow, so close now

[llama_au]

Yup, but it's still not back damnit

[llama_au]

So so so so close.

Pedals are all mounted, shifter & linkages are in, engine bays entirely back together, master cylinder is mounted. What has caught me by surprise is that I need a new front pipe (dump pipe to cat.) It seems when they made my 3" exhaust when the car was auto it was made to sit a lot closer to the body, now the shifter linkages are in the way. Getting the mechanics to organise the exhaust with their local exhaust guy so they can drive it down. It'll be a very noisy and defectable drive to the exhaust shop with no exhaust :lol: Hoping to have room to add a flex on that pipe before the cat because it's never had a flex and it really needs one. Perfect opportunity/excuse.

Only things really left to do are to source the pin for between the clutch pedal and master cylinder from a wrecker on the weekend, run the hard lines, fill the gearbox with fluid, put the interior back together, service the car, exhaust then when everything is worn in nicely onto the dyno for a much needed tune.

[llama_au]

I got the car back tonight, it drove fantastically for 1 hour. Until it decided it wanted a new friend.

Hello Mt Tow Truck. Mr Tow Truck also brought a friend, Mr Lift Kit:

And back I where it picked it up a few hours prior.

So what's wrong? It's physically stuck in gear and the drive wheels don't move. I had to remove the lip so that we could get the hydraulic arms under around the front wheels and lift it. Towed with the back wheels on the ground. There was no way of getting it onto the tray, you can't even physically pull or push it. It was stuck next to a busy highway literally 30cm off the road for about 1.5 hours, I was just waiting for someone to hit me. It doesn't go into neutral or into any other gear aside from 5th. It's not the clutch, that works fine. There was no grinding, my other half went to go back into 4th and there was nothing, the gearstick does move into the neutral but doesn't wiggle at all and isn't physically in neutral, it's in still in 5th.

I'm not learning to drive it this weekend...

[llama_au]

Anyway, I went to have a look at it in daylight, still stuck in 5th and the shifter won't budge. I re-installed the lip because it looked ghetto, and took some photos of my Skyline next to it seeing as though it's not moving anywhere and I wanted to do something with it. They've never been next to each other so there's a first for everything.

No lip:

(excuse how dirty the car is, hasn't been washed for 6 months!)

Lip back on:

The important bits:

Now the wait to find out what's wrong next week.