It's probably about time I updated this.....
First off pics from the abandoned Toyota dealership I visited during my time in Cyprus. (have posted these elsewhere before)
Caught up in the disputed buffer zone between north and south Cyprus, this dealership is largely as it was left in 1974
i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo205/Ivan_Brennan/Mobile%20Uploads/20151121_120418_zpsqlrigzoo.jpg[/IMGNot great pictures but there was around 25-30 cars down there. All with delivery mileage and plastic seat covers.
Back in the UK, battery on and the beast fired right up after 3 months standing
Same old vibration between 50 and 70mph though and still slightly sluggish if you floor it. Also I noticed some brake fluid had eaten the paint around the master cylinders, which turned out to be a rotten clutch master cylinder cap. So instead of replacing it I bought some shiny aluminium catch trays and a cleaned and re-oiled the K&N's. Still need to order that cap.....
I've smeared a curse word load of Vaseline around the whole area for the mo which should protect it a bit until I can sort it out properly in the summer.
That was December.
Since then I've bought this.
A Vitesse 2ltr overdrive box. I was supposed to be buying one from
mdh of this parish but this turned up just down the road with a bloke doing up a vitesse. He'd bought it as a spare incase his project car had a duff gearbox. That was over ten years ago and it had been sitting in one of his greenhouses ever since. Still he only wanted £150 and as these seem to fetch a fortune on ebay I thought it'd be worth a punt.
It looked alright at first and selected gears okay. Bit graunchy in 1st and 2nd though....
But on further inspection
That don't look good...
This is the next one around
Theres supposed to be a spring and ball bearing in there
There being the 1st/2nd synchro hub.
This is the 3rd/4th synchro hub complete with ball bearings with springs behind.
Better strip it down then...
Found this in the oil
A lot of gold and some more bits at the bottom of the casing
Anyway
All taken apart and cleaned you can see the full extent of the damage
On the left is the 1st/2nd synchro hub. you can see where the synchro ring has worn into it. some serious force has gone into this
On the left is the 1st gear synchro ring, on the right, 2nd. Spot the difference
And notice the bloody great crack down it too!
Now this gearbox is from a mk1 Vitesse 2lt. Same gearbox that is fitted to mk1/2 GT6's. One of the small differences between this box and a Mk2 Vitesse/Mk3 GT6 box is in the synchro rings. If you look at the legs on the ring on the left, they are flush with the body. on The right they are wider. And don't fit in the earlier synchro hub.
I'm presuming this has been "rebuilt" by someone before. It can't have been like this from the factory can it? There's very little wear on the gear faces though. Either way it need rebuilding.
So I've ordered a rebuild kit and a 1st/2nd synchro hub.
Until that all arrives I'm painting the casing. Red. For added racecar points
It maybe a lot of hassle to get a wonky propshaft sorted but the prop on this car has a sliding portion and the play is in that and can't be balanced out. so as I'm having to order a new prop anyway, It might as well be behind an overdrive box. With my longer, non overdrive spec diff it should be quite good on the motorway once its fitted.
Let's hope there's not too much wrong with the overdrive.....
Other than this I think the reason this car is a bit sluggish may be dues to the fact that I don't remember setting the float heights on the carbs when I rebuilt them. Idiot. 16-17mm when I get round to it. It would explain why I had to adjust them to fully rich.
Mini wise, I need to order a new boot floor.
Other things get in the way though. Like my reliable, modern daily which has in the last month had a full exhaust, radiator, front grille, wheel valve and has had several engine running issues, starting with high unstable idle/stalling (throttle bypass valve sorted this) to just stalling (throttle potentiometer hasn't sorted this) It's really annoying as it happens as you come to a stop at junctions/traffic lights and only when warm. cold its fine. I've disconnected the lambda sensor and its made not difference to how it drives. It's supposed to revert it to a sort of base map which makes the car drive like a pile of curse word. I've not noticed a difference so I'm hoping a new sensor cures it.
If not. I'm pretty much out of ideas. No faults on ECU, did a TPS reset when I put the new one in which made it drive the same as it did with the old TPS. The only other thing I can think to do is a ECU reset by disconnecting the battery and connecting the +ve and -ve together for an hour. I'll see if a new lambda does anything first though
Cheers