Javal's Mechanical Spirit Guide / 18RG XT130 Hate Machine

[Javal]

A fubar'd wheelbearing forced me to accelerate my plans (it's not like my car is capable of accelerating anything other than repairs) and take care of all the front end brakes while they were apart. Apologies for the crap phone pictures.

A trip to the U pull it found me this



And not too much later, my wheelbarrow looked like this.



I also pinched a standard handbrake button and spring, as my dorifto AE82-rear-seat-knob-come-drift-button was making my car just that bit too 15 year old for my liking.

Also, if you ever get struts from U-pull-it, be sure to take the rotors off. They charge $30/ea for used rotors. Unfortunately i didn't have the mind to bring the cordless rattlegun, and paid $60 for something i didn't at all want and nobody in their right mind would use. 2nd hand brake parts don't exactly tickle my fancy.

So i ripped the old shit out, put new Monroe shocks in the RA60 struts so they had something that worked in them. Fitted new DBA RA65 rotors to hubs with new races and bearings courtesy of slide86. Put the XT130 strut tops on the RA60 struts. Put nice ferodo pads in the calipers. Bolt together, leave to bake for 2 hours at 180 degress, then you get this:



(I told you the pics were crap)

Alas, it was not to be so simple. The time came to install the steering arms. Now unfortunately the strut bolt spacing on the RA60 and XT130 are NOT the same. This would have made my life ALOT easier if it were. Installed one steering arm and found the strut to be fouling a little bit on the swaybar at straight ahead. Poop. This is because the hole in the steering arm for the balljoint is offset ~5mm to the outside of the arm. This also reduces track by ~5mm / side. Poop.

Switched the steering arms left to right, bolted up. Good clearance to swaybar. MASSIVE toe out -



That's with the steering wheel straight ahead, mind you

Good thing the XT130 has massive amounts of adjustment. This also pushed the tie rod end angle way beyond what it should be, which was a major bummer. Screwed it all back together again, put wheels oonnnnn.....ohwait. flipped steering arms were fouling the rims. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU ensued.

Realizing i would have to drive the car out of here one way or another, I re-reversed the steering arms, bolted it up. Wheel aligned it back to normal. While i was on the ground, i then realized that the struts were only fouling on the swaybar when the suspension was at full droop and the steering was straight ahead. Epic win.

So i have win brakes, shocks that work and very dirty hair. A hard day of work for a 'bolt in' brake upgrade. Yeah, right.

Oh also, during the process of all of this, a man who stores a truck in AJPS grounds, decided it'd be a good idea to do this:



No, he's jumpstarting the truck using the suzuki.

Believe it or not... it worked.

[R&D Mechanical]

was the Suzuki on the limiter? and bashing?

[Javal]

dude got a pole and jammed the accelerator at ~4500

[Javal]

Minor Update:

Over the past 2 days the 'Rona made a 450km round trip (on less than a tank, mind you) having to pass through the Adelaide hills without cooking itself, 3 up with a boot full of amps and the A/C cranking on said blindingly hot days.

This has however resulted in a minor problem, once again forcing me to start doing some work on my car.

Once again, a tale for you:

You see, the thing about owning a nearly-30 year old car with shitty Holden parts in it, is that eventually somethings just wear out from excessive removal and re-fitment.

In this case, my car has had a few clutches done in its time. This obviously necessitates removing the gearbox, and as such the gear lever. Unlike the K, T, W, G series or pretty much any other Toyota gearbox, the 'good 'ol Borg-Warner 505' does not secure its shifter to the extension housing with bolts. It instead has a large threaded area, and in fact the whole shifter screws into the gearbox.

The flaw in this design is that after many removals and re-installations, and a few years of mechanical abuse by my more naive younger self, is that the large threaded are where is screws into will actually increase in diameter and result in the shifter popping-up by one thread. If you re-tighten it, then you are likely to crack the housing.

This has happened to me. I have no reverse, sort of. It's difficult to select and can only be done when the gearbox is warm. Not much good to me. As such, it's time for a change.

I am now on the hunt for an 18R-C, running, complete. Drop me a line if you have one.

There is method behind my madness.

[shift_rook]

good shit man, only just found this thread then, love it good luck with it all, pm me if you've got msn, it's always good to have a chat to people i don't know

[Javal]

Thanks champ, i don't really use MSN much these days.

Another update, already:

An 18R-C has been secured for this vehicle. Expect it to be in within a 2 months.

[Joshie_Mcslide]

Nice!

[Jdm-Mcc]

I enjoyed this novel.

[Javal]

Ok, so not one, but TWO 18R-C's have been secured for this vehicle. One is currently residing at my residence, the other is to be picked up this weekend if i can ever tee up a time with the guy.

The plan goes like this: One of the 18R's has a few nice trick bits, such as: 1mm o/s pistons, completely reco'd head, new timing gear, new clutch, new water pump etc.

It has however been sitting for 2 years : / This means the rust in the bores is going to be so much that i have to have it machined out oversize, which means new pistons, which defeats one of the prime points of the exercise (my cheapness, and the fact that an 18R-C is not worth putting new pistons in).

So, i secured another. Fairly fresh out of the car, but 60% cylinder leakage. A 32/36 and adaptor kit were also included.

So, in the next few weeks, they do the mash. The monster mash. And the leftover parts head to the dump.

[driftke70]

cool beans