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Thanks Barra Oh yeah, Updates may be slow lol, majority of my money has to go to rent, food, etc, but will be doing bits and pieces from time to time, I have a list of stuff to repair, and then stuff to Upgrade, which I will post up later
Cheers guys, it's already an improvement on what it was, after I spent the afternoon before christmas restoring the paint from the dull sort of finish it had, I plan to buy a machine polisher thing though, and bring it up further, so watch this space
So I got the car in August 2008..... Christmas week 2008 I was sat in 5th gear at about 40mph off out to set up a television for someone, when me and the misses heard a grinding noise coming from under the car somewhere.... So I pulled over, and tried to inspect under the car with my torch, couldn't see anyting, and it was raining which didnt help, anyway, saw nothing, so jumped back in the car, and continued on our way, the grinding had stopped. Got to our destination, and the gearstick locked itself hard into 2nd, and refused to budge..... I wasn't happy to say the least, so a few hours later went back to collect the car, and drove it back, locked in 2nd gear at 11PM, f*ck knows how many people I annoyed screaming past in 1 gear lol. After a few phone calls, I was told to expect the worse, that the gearbox had sh*t its self.... Which it hadn't, the diff had.This left me with a problem..... I had no money to buy a replacement diff/box/anything..... So the Cally stayed parked up for the best part of 4months before I had the time to even start looking at the problem.... This is where the fun began. I had/still have f*ck all mechanical knowledge, but armed with the good old Haynes manual, and a mobile for the extreme problems I couldnt figure out, I set to work stripping off the old box to assess the damage. I still don't know what the broken part is called, I think it's a crown pinion wheel (will post a pic later), and it somehow managed to wedge part of its self in the gearset side of the case, leaving the F18 casing pretty much f*cked.By this time I was unemployed, and trying to save a few quid a week from the dole to fix my beloved eventually paid off, when I bought a second hand F20 case,diff, and gear set for €150. Only problem being, I also needed to change the flywheel and clutch (something I wanted to do anyway). Thanks to one of the lads on Blitz and Griffin, I soon sourced the requred from a recently scrapped 8v cally, where the engine and box were the only survivors, so a quick trip to collect those parts, and I was another €70 lighter. Thankfully the 2 local garages in my area are dead on to talk to, and offered tips, and even let me borrow the tools I required that I didnt already own (Torque wrench, and crowbar thing lol)After a bit of effort, I managed to swap the old heavy type flywheel out, and replaced with my lighter 8v one, got it all torqued up, and fitted the new (second hand) clutch. I felt I was finally making progress.By this stage a further month had passed and the car was still jacked up awaiting the new gearbox to be bolted up. I had no problem getting the F20 case on, with the diff in, but for the love of god, I just couldnt get the gearset to slot into place, which was odd, as my mate said it came out of the hole only the day before.... Odd huh??Anyway, once I realised it was never gonna happen, I took it down to him, where he promptly swapped the F20 diff into an F16 case, and checked the F20 gearset fitted that (which it did). So I was off again, 3hours later, and the gearbox was on! All that was left to do, was bolt up the subframe, and pop the driveshafts in etc, which I did the following day. I finally got to reap the rewards in July last year when I managed to test drive the car to make sure everything worked fine, which it did, except for the loud clunk from what I am now presuming to be the release bearing not being greased up enough - this is something on my to do list still!So.... roll on November the 20th 2009, I have money saved up, and so ring Quinn Insurance, and managed to get myself insured, and not long after, 3months tax thrown down. Satan was on the road again!! Thank god for that!!! That brings us up to the present day really, all I have achieved since then, is to get back into work working for a phone company as a store manager selling mobiles, and broadband for 3.Once I have a few bills out the way, I am taking the car into one fo the local garages to get the exhaust manifold removed and get the 2 broken studs replaced with new, along with the relevant gaskets, and also replace the passanger side CV joint, as I tore the gaitor when sliding it back into the diff.After that it's more or less onto the upgrades which will be kept minimal, and subtle
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Topic: Dave's gaff (Read 8136 times)
