Wohoo my car didn't blow up!

[someonestolecc]

No worries - ceffies look so damn tough with a cage and every little thing that goes into my car to make it stiffer I end up loving. So I wish I had money to burn for a cage and a floor brace

I will post up on Saturday as to what the engineer says - I'll then be looking for borrow some wheels for blue slip *looks at CEF11E* so if that all goes down well CRUISE soon! :wassup:

Basket's car was landed with a rb25

[someonestolecc]

Was tuning my iebc.. noticed smoke coming out of it.. turned out something shorted - I think only 1 resistor is shot.. but that means the car is on LIMIT-LESS BOOST.

Anyways, coincidently I noticed water evaporating from my exhaust (some got in in the recent rain) so I decided to go for a quick spin to warm it up and evaporate it. So going along in 3rd coincidently it turns out I can't take it out of 3rd.

MY CARS GEARBOX/CLUTCH IS now officially cactus. LOL I got stuck in 3rd had to drive home in 3rd.. then as I got outside my house luckily it all let up and I could put it into reverse, then got stuck in 1st for ages as well.

Do engineers care about mechanical "worthiness" or just the safety aspects (ie structural/braking/etc)??

To remedy my situation I've got so far in the plan-

Exedy 6 puk ceramic $600

s14 gearbox $700

Installation $$

Either that or try my "mystery" gearbox I bought from a sr20de for $100... hmm choices choices Does anyone know the best way to guess-timate the condition of a gearbox without opening it?

Either way everyone please wish me luck for tommorrow arvo for engineering

[someonestolecc]

woot car engineer cert in the mail Mon/Tue !!

[gtst25]

Hi,

Have you checked the oil level / for oil leaks in the clutch master / slave cylinder? If you're having problems getting it into / out of gears it sounds like the clutch isn't disengaging properly. Just because you can't change gears it doesn't necessarily mean the g/box is stuffed.

As you have found out the hard way owning a midifyed car requires the owner to have good fault diagnosis skills or know a good well recommended workshop.

Good luck

Was tuning my iebc.. noticed smoke coming out of it.. turned out something shorted - I think only 1 resistor is shot.. but that means the car is on LIMIT-LESS BOOST.

Anyways, coincidently I noticed water evaporating from my exhaust (some got in in the recent rain) so I decided to go for a quick spin to warm it up and evaporate it. So going along in 3rd coincidently it turns out I can't take it out of 3rd.

MY CARS GEARBOX/CLUTCH IS now officially cactus. LOL I got stuck in 3rd had to drive home in 3rd.. then as I got outside my house luckily it all let up and I could put it into reverse, then got stuck in 1st for ages as well.

Do engineers care about mechanical "worthiness" or just the safety aspects (ie structural/braking/etc)??

To remedy my situation I've got so far in the plan-

Exedy 6 puk ceramic $600

s14 gearbox $700

Installation $$

Either that or try my "mystery" gearbox I bought from a sr20de for $100... hmm choices choices Does anyone know the best way to guess-timate the condition of a gearbox without opening it?

Either way everyone please wish me luck for tommorrow arvo for engineering

[someonestolecc]

Thanks Glen,

I didn't realise there was oil in the clutch? Do you mean fluid? If so it's always full and looks nice.

When the car is on and the clutch pedal is not pressed it actually makes a grinding type noise.. when you push the clutch pedal in it goes away (as soon as you press it the sound slows down as if it was spinning down and then stops).

While I don't think that's the actual gearbox one thing that makes me think the gearbox is ALSO cactus is that 4th feels different to engage than all the other gears.

[gtst25]

No there isn't oil in the clutch. If there is you will have a problem as oil in the clutch means leaky rear main oil seal or leaky gearbox input shaft seal. Oily clutches slip.

Instead of a old style cable actuated clutch most modern (all that I have seen) manual cars have a clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder. When you push the clutch pedal in the linkage connected to the pedal push a hydraulic cylinder (which is the clutch master cylinder).

The master cylinder then pushes oil (fluid) through a oil line (you can see this exiting the master cylinder if you have a look) which goes to the slave cylinder which is mounted on the gearbox. The slave cylinder has a piston in it which moves as you move your foot to dis-engage the clutch. So if there's a leak this symple hydraulic system then the clutch won't disengage properly/not at all making gearchanges hard.

By the sound of what you just said though it must be a gearbox problem. When take your foot off the clutch pedal the gearbox shafts will spin - when you push it in they slow down and stop allowing you to put the car into gear.

So that grinding noise you describe sounds like gearbox bearings.

If you buy a second hand g/box you won't know the condition of it - if it were me I'd pull the one I have apart first and inspect before getting another - it probably just needs bearings/seals etc.

If they are buggered and the shafts have too much end float the syncros won't work properly making gearchanges feel strange / very hard.

The r32 gearboxes have big nuts holding the shaft assembly together which get loose over time - not sure what g/box you have but dad and I pulled his r32 g/box apart the other day when replacing the clutch - we found the nuts loose so we tightened them up - now it feels like a new one - hardly any end float and second doesn't crunch.

Good luck

[someonestolecc]

It's an SR20 box.

Thanks mate I will keep that in mind when I swap my box for another one .. I have a "mystery" gearbox lying around

Will keep ya posted heh heh

[gtst25]

Not sure if the sr20's are a similar design to the rb20's.

Might be worth finding out.

Cheers

[someonestolecc]

Apparently they are the same other than the bellhousing.

So has been said to me - I can't confirm that as I don't know

[gtst25]

If you've got the box on the floor I'd suggest taking a look at it / getting someone to check it out before sticking it in the car.

In these photos you can see the nuts which hold 2 of the shafts assemblys together - just to give you an idea of what they look like. They have a soft metal edge which is peened over to stop it undoing - the photos aren't the best but might give you a bit of an idea.

[someonestolecc]

Gday Glen - thanks very much for the photos.

I asked a mechanic if you could take it apart to look at it he said if you do that you may as well have it re-shimmed to put it back together... so.. is it ok to just take it apart to look inside and then put it back together, or will it fall apart on me ?

Cheers

[BasketCase]

CC - Mate i think the roll cage will be staying, but if i change my mind will let you know for sure!

Basket - Dude did you drop the RB25 into it, or did u get the car already with the RB25? Looking at dropping same engine in and i know prices for the engine but just wondering on costs for installing it all?  

Cheers

Deviat Mine came with the Rb25 in it already, I can imagine it'd be a bit of a costly operation to do in Aus, but the car does hall arse with the Rb25

Go the whole hog and build a cefzilla! Rb26! :wassup:

:kick:

[S13Deviat]

Dave - Nice work on landing a Ceffie with a RB25 turbz in it!!! Mate i would love to drop the RB26 into it but cost difference bewteen the 25 & 26 is about $5000 so cant really justify it with current budget. May see what happens down the track thou...the RB25 isn't planned to go in for at least 6-12 months so maybe by then i can afford the donk RB26!!!

[someonestolecc]

Pfft rb26.

RB25DET + RB30DE = good weight and good power.

I'd love rb30 in the cef... CEF11E's original plans I will now sell as my own hehe

[S13Deviat]

lol CC....i agree with the weight thing. That is the main reason why i am steering away from the RB26. Rb25 has great power capabilities with the weight advantage. Especially considering it will eventually become a track/dori pig

How'd all the engineering go with ur car mate??? All sweet?

[gtst25]

Gday Glen - thanks very much for the photos.

I asked a mechanic if you could take it apart to look at it he said if you do that you may as well have it re-shimmed to put it back together... so.. is it ok to just take it apart to look inside and then put it back together, or will it fall apart on me ?

Cheers

If you're game it's not really hard to pull the g/box down to the stage in the photos. It would allow you to check for chunks of broken bits and also check those nuts for tightness. If anything it's really worth doing those two nuts ups as it made a lot of difference to dad's 32 g/box - just make sure you replace any bearings if they get damaged while using a puller or press.

To do this job you will have to access the box form the back - splitting the back of the box off. If you want to go further it'll be worth looking into shimming / new bearings.

There has been a bit of information going around on these forums about doing this - if you want more info just tell me.

Basically you have to :

At the rear of the box there's the bit where the gearstick goes in. The gearstick slots into a moving rod in here which selects the gears - you can see it from the top.

The rod has got a fitting (the gearstick fits into this) which has got a pin holding it in - the fitting has to come out before you can split the box.

Get a punch and carefully tap the pin out making sure you don't lose it in the box.

The fitting can come out now and you can undo the back section of the box.

Once all the bolts are out you can slide the rear outer section off the box. It will most likely take a bit of a gentle knock with a hammer to do this/gentle wedgeing with screwdrivers.

Once the outer casing is off you will see the gear selectors and rear of the shafts - just like in the photos. Straight away you'll be able to feel the nuts to see if they're loose.

In dad's box we made up a puller to pull the bearing off the 4th gear shaft - this is the long shaft which runs all the way to the rear of the box. The holding nut has a piece of metal which has been peened over - you'll have to bend it back if you want to tighten the nut up.

To tighten the nuts up we used a great big ring spanner ( you have to pull the bearing off to fit it on ) with a length of pipe over it, while I held the gearbox with a crowbar to stop it from turning. To stop the shafts from turning you'll have to lock the box into 2 gears at once - you do this by mucking around with the selectors.

That's about it - a bit of a rough outline - I'd say that just about every older skyline has loose nuts on the shafts - if I ever buy a 32 I'll check this if I've got the gearbox out.

We just used castrol mineral oil in the 32 - I just put synthetic in my r33 and reckon it has made no difference - not really worth 90 bucks for 4 litres. the stuff is so thin I can't see how it can do its job - it's nearly like water.

Cheers

[someonestolecc]

Thanks Glen - sounds like a big job. After 3 months of fart-assing around I'm OVER it.

Funnily enough after my car go rego'ed i'd been driving around with it going from 1st to 2nd to 5th. Then after a couple of days 3rd and 4th came back as if nothing had ever gone wrong.. they actually weren't squishy and worked perfectly. Then today (a few days later) I rev'ved it out a little in 3rd and it doesn't want to come back out of 3rd. It will come partly out but taking the clutch pedal up then produces a god-aweful sound.. so I limped home and she's now stuck in 3rd.

*sigh* the plot thickens - I don't get why it would just work all of a sudden again... HMM!!

Dev - car is fully engineered, rego'ed but gearless

Cheers.

[RiverSide]

Time for another second hand gearbox i think CC.

[someonestolecc]

MY CAR IS BACK ON THE ROAD!

Big up to BHDave who helped ... well.. he did most.. (95%) of the work so I should really say I helped him with the 5% (which was made up of handing him beers).

Thanks Dave! :P :)

gearbox - $100

clutch kit - $650

machined flywheel - $90

running car - priceless.

*happy dance*

Next issues to combat -

things that really worry me

- when going round corners enthusiastically (the lower end of enthusiastic) there is a thud or a creak from one of my steering components

- when turning at lower speeds (ie more strain on the steering) there is a thud or a creak from one of my steering components this may be the same or related to the one above.

- ecu tune need to get it tuned

- unknown injectors which are spraypainted to the nismo injector colour

things that make me angry

- took off the front pipe (that's hangin off the xforce split dump and leads into the cat) and even though it's 3" pipe all the way through they pushed the pipe together and welded a freakin 2" flange to the freakin pipe!!!!!

- the cannon still steps down to 2.5" (looking for new cheap muffler kakimoto or super dragger wanted!)

outstanding issues

- HID lights have the wrong focus point (gotta reinstall halogens and wait for H3 bulbs to come in..)

- IEBC still melting a resistor on me (gotta check it out with a multimeter to hunt down failed component)

- gotta get a grill for the front of my car

- gotta clean up the wiring

- metalic (brakes) rub every revolution from left rear or front wheel/rotor when going under 20kmh. Will replace/upgrade rotors with slotted ones next time I do brakes.

- squeeky brakes (r32 brake anti-squeel shims wanted!)

Can't wait for the long weekend! Thanks for everyones support during the last 6+ months and especially to:

ceffo, CEF-11E, DumHed, too_much_boost, BHDave (super hero!) :wassup:

AND a big up to everyone else who has given me random bits of information, support, parts, encouragement - this is every single one of you guys who are reading this! :grouphug:

(anyone I've forgotten it's not for lack of wanting it's for due to being young which results in bad memory heh heH) :headspin:

[lwells]

MY CAR IS BACK ON THE ROAD!

In other news, the Bureau of Meteorology has announed that hell will be experiencing a slight drop in temperature

Congrats: good to here things are (literally) back on the road.

Lucien