|
|
Post by Zed. on Sept 30, 2022 18:57:12 GMT
Being an old person and therefore an “authority” on this particular colour. I can and do emphatically declare it ….. Beige.  Rich. |
|
|
|
Post by Bilbo on Oct 2, 2022 1:18:00 GMT
Well you can all piss off hahaha. It's officially "Toyota Ivory", so we're all wrong.
|
|
|
|
Post by Bilbo on Oct 2, 2022 1:19:32 GMT
The discs arrived so I could get on with sorting the wheel bearings, and fitting the discs and calipers. The old discs had plenty of material left on them and looked undamaged, but were just very corroded and needed resurfacing. For the price of a new pair I really didn't see the point, so just got new ones. Unbolted the old discs from the hubs, removed the bearings and hammered the old races out. Scooped out all the old grease, the outer bearing had beige grease but the inner bearings on each side had some black grease on them, so I assume these may have been changed at some point in the past. Got all of it out, repacked the void with fresh bearing grease, packed the new bearings, tapped the new races in, and got the hub bolted onto the new discs. Everything looking so much better now with the fresh brakes on there!   The torqueing process for hub nuts with tapered bearings still upsets me, even though I did it exactly as per the book, and there is no wheel play at all. Torque to 20lb ft while spinning the wheel, then undo the nut until you can fit a very thin feeler gauge between the nut and the washer, and then fit the split pin. It feels so wrong, the nut is basically finger tight, everything I have ever done on cars makes me feel uncomfortable leaving it like this, but the wheels are both perfect now, no play, spin very freely. Calipers are also on and looking much better in silver. We then turned attention to the engine fitting. My mate was at the workshop today, so we did a test fit, he marked out what I needed to cut, and I got to it. Started with a pretty simple cut on the centre of the subframe:  After another test fit I cut the lower part of the vertical metal that was left in the above photo, so now the rear side is just the flat bottom section. Engine fits, just about after some light massaging of the lip of the firewall to give room for the rear water outlet on the engine. My mate will now brace and strengthen the subframe as we have obviously cut a fair bit of metal out. He has a pretty good plan of what he's going to do. He's done a ton of fabrication work in the past so I'm 100% confident he'll make something decent, probably stronger than it was originally in all honesty haha. I then addressed the shifter placement. It is too far back to run a straight shifter, so we will make a bent shifter to bring it a good few inches forward and away from the handbrake handle. I cut the original automatic hole out a fair bit further back to get clearance:  Currently I think the box is a little high like this, but I will check the output position in relation to the existing diff/propshaft, it may need bringing down a little. Once this is all sorted and the position is decided I'll weld up the hole a bit, the hole further forward won't be needed, so no point leaving it open like that. Anyway all this cutting and measuring resulted in this:  It's looking much more at home now. Engine is sitting straight, pretty much bang on where it needs to be, very pleased. Leaving the engine mount work all to my mate, much more his territory than mine. I'll make up a gearbox brace when he's all done, should be much more simple, and looking at the original box brace mount points on the chassis I should be able to use the existing holes in the 5 gearbox fairly easily to make up a support. The good news is with some modification to the bias valve bracket, and re-drilling some holes, the MX-5 brake booster should squeeze in fairly comfortably with the engine in position. I'm not sure a clutch master will fit though, still need to work that out. There may be room behind the engine, but the odd shaped firewall doesn't really give enough room to fit the booster and the clutch master next to each other. I'll come up with something, just need to consider my options. |
|
|
|
Post by dadbif on Oct 2, 2022 20:28:04 GMT
That’s the way we used to adjust wheel bearings…
|
|
|
|
Post by Zed. on Oct 2, 2022 20:54:24 GMT
It's officially "Toyota Ivory" BEIGE so  Agreed  anyway, forget paint & get on with it Rich. |
|
|
|
Post by Zed. on Oct 2, 2022 21:00:00 GMT
the outer bearing had beige grease its almost like a SIGN  anyway, front wheelbearings same for cav, manta, chevette, Astra (rear) and nova / corsa (rear) so cheap & easily available Rich. |
|
|
|
Post by Bilbo on Oct 2, 2022 23:40:03 GMT
That’s the way we used to adjust wheel bearings… Yeah I'm going from the good old original Haynes manual. Adjustment process is listed as the exact same process as the initial fitting process. Seems to be happy, we'll see eventually haha. the outer bearing had beige grease its almost like a SIGN anyway, front wheelbearings same for cav, manta, chevette, Astra (rear) and nova / corsa (rear) so cheap & easily available Rich. Oh ffs haha. It's actually been surprisingly easy to find most things for it so far. Far easier than the Bluebird I must say! Manta sharing most components certainly helps. |
|
|
|
Post by Bilbo on Oct 3, 2022 0:14:50 GMT
After realising the MX-5 booster should fit with the engine I decided to start work on it today. First off, some might ask why I'm even bothering to go to the effort of changing the pedals and the booster over from the original. Basically the car was obviously an automatic. The original pedalbox does have the bracket in place, and even the hole in the firewall (bunged from factory), for the clutch pedal and cable to fit. However the MX-5 box is of course hydraulic clutch, which is the first issue. The original brake pedal is very tight, it seems to want some refurb work to move freely, and the bracket that holds it just wouldn't work with the need for a clutch pedal with a master cylinder attached to it. When I got all of the MX-5 engine and loom stuff off my mate, he threw all the pedals and master cylinders in for free for me, so I have them sat there, all fresh and working. So I just thought why not? And that's basically as far as my thinking on the matter went, I have the bits, I have a grinder and a welder, they will fit whether the car likes it or not. So I took the 5 brake pedalbox, this also has the throttle pedal on. The original Vauxhall throttle will be perfectly fine as it is, so I lopped the throttle pedal part off of the 5 pedalbox with the grinder, and offered it up into the car. The original strengthening bracket for the Vauxhall pedalbox is spot welded on to the firewall in many many different places, so I lopped most of that off with a grinder as well so the 5 brake pedal would sit flush. Noticed that with it offered up using the original brake booster hole, the pedal was going to be too far to the left, with my planned clutch pedal position they would be very close together, with a big gap to the throttle pedal. The brake pedal has a very slight bend in it from factory, so I heated the area up with the torch and bent it over a little more. The foot pedal part itself was obviously not straight after this, so I did the same the opposite way down by the foot pedal itself, and got it back straight.   Came out quite well I think, and the pedal will sit in a decent position that will be a good distance between both clutch and throttle. The MX-5 booster mounting bolts that go through the firewall are spaced differently to the original Vauxhall ones, so I got the original holes welded up, then got some new holes drilled out to suit the new booster:  All went well, holes were bored out wider after this photo to get the bolts through, and then I got the 5 booster test fitted:  Fits nice and snug in the bay, looks good to me. A little bit more work needed and it will all fit together nicely! I need to cut the bracket off for the bias valve and relocate it, as that will definitely contact the engine. Not a big problem, I did the same thing on the 5 when I fitted bigger trumpets, and I have to bend and flare several new brake lines already, so this won't be much more work. As you can see there is no room for a clutch master cylinder haha. So I'm going to wait until the engine position is fully finalised, and if there is room for a master cylinder, I will be extending the firewall to the right in the photo above. Essentially making more space inside the car for the 5 clutch pedal to fit, and creating a new firewall area to the right of the brake booster for the master cylinder to bolt to. Doesn't look like too bad of a job to be honest. As you can see in the first 2 photos the brake pedal currently has nothing to mount to at the top, this is obviously vital to a sturdy pedal, so I will be making a new plate for both pedals to be attached to above. Worst case if the clutch master simply won't fit in the engine bay, I have been looking at internal master type pedals, with the master contained entirely inside the car, but I am hoping I can squeeze the master behind the engine. A fair amount of work, but once done I should have a decent pedal setup that will have good OE pedal feel, and arguably be an upgrade over the original setup. |
|
|
|
Post by scottydugg on Oct 3, 2022 11:34:40 GMT
It's looking very promising indeed, if you don't run the EGR then that should give you a bit more clearance for the master cylinder especially with the mk2.5 intake, hopefully that way works out for you, I was surprised how much space there was back there.
|
|
|
|
Post by Bilbo on Oct 3, 2022 12:10:19 GMT
It's looking very promising indeed, if you don't run the EGR then that should give you a bit more clearance for the master cylinder especially with the mk2.5 intake, hopefully that way works out for you, I was surprised how much space there was back there. Funny you should say that, I unbolted the EGR last night for that very reason! I will make up a little blanking plate for it and buy a bung for the manifold threaded hole. And yeah a noticeable gap at the back of the intake manifold on this engine, hopefully it will give enough room to just squeeze a clutch master in there, will make my life easier if I can. |
|
|
|
Post by Zed. on Oct 3, 2022 14:57:20 GMT
get the engine in before chopping, if the master cylinder will fit but the reservoir clashes with the manifold then you can go for a remote reservoie either via bodge or a Mazda323 master cylinder  ^^all depending if the pedalbox will ft the car obviously  Rich. |
|
|
|
Post by Bilbo on Oct 3, 2022 16:48:32 GMT
get the engine in before chopping, if the master cylinder will fit but the reservoir clashes with the manifold then you can go for a remote reservoie either via bodge or a Mazda323 master cylinder ^^all depending if the pedalbox will ft the car obviously Rich. Yeah it can definitely wait, not doing all that for nothing haha. Oh the pedalbox will fit, one way or the other it's going in. If I have to cut and extend the firewall to do it then I will, but it's going in haha. |
|
|
|
Post by Bilbo on Oct 5, 2022 0:00:06 GMT
I noticed when I bought the car that the driver's rear had the drum removed. I assume this was because the shoes were seized on and the car couldn't be pushed. Anyway everything was pretty rusty on the drum assembly as a result.   Everything came off pretty easily, except the wheel cylinder, brake union was seized on really good. Good news is the fitting kit I bought is correct, all springs and pins are perfect replacements, and the shoes are identical too.  Anyway I got around to the wheel cylinder and when I put them next to each other I realised the new ones are not the same:  Bit annoying, they were listed as being for mk1 Cavalier, but there we go. I've ordered more now. And yes, I cut the brake line off haha, I was planning on remaking the rear line back to the axle union connection, but all the unions are seized, and the lines in places are deteriorating. I'm just going to make all new brake lines for the entire car, with all new unions as well. Will make any future brake work far less painful, and hopefully be a good safety upgrade over relying on 42 year old hard lines. I'll probably upgrade the rears to disc and caliper eventually, but I've got enough on my plate with the rest of the car, so these will do for now. |
|
|
|
Post by dadbif on Oct 5, 2022 15:04:17 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Bilbo on Oct 8, 2022 1:49:38 GMT
Cheers mate, I got the shocks from them, they have a decent selection. Should have checked them for the wheel cylinders tbh as straight away I saw they had ones that looked identical. My new ones from eBay have arrived now and fit, so that's that sorted! |
|
le sigh
Jul 15, 2023 20:03:52 GMT
le sigh
Jul 15, 2023 20:03:52 GMT