I hear you, doesn't real life just get in the way some times lol As part of the work I'm doing at the moment I'm putting a V5 box in as, as you've eluded to, the stock VR ratios are fairly ridiculous for anything other than wafting about. That and the original box had done 170k miles so was dropped off with Hotgolf for any spares he could salvage from it. I'm leaving the short 5th for the moment to see how much I use it before deciding on a suitable track/overdrive compromise ratio. The V5 box standard should be doing 4k at 80(!) and max out completely at around 120-125 at the rev limiter - should be amusing Thanks for the very useful advice RE the dampers. I'm hoping I get enough time in the car after getting it back from the welders (having some previous owner sill damage/rot repaired) to be able to get some time in the car on the road and play with settings so I've got the feel of the process before heading to (an almost certainly cold and greasy) Brands.
thought I'd post a mid winter update on what's happening with the car. I bought a doner gearbox to swap my 3.3 final drive with a 3.9 final drive. I took the gearbox apart and took what I needed. Just need to press the rest of the gears of the main shaft. I will be using my gears from the ccm gearbox as I know the mileage on my car is low. Will be refitting with new bearings, syncro rings oh and a Quaife lsd. Next job is removing my box and doing the transplant! More updates to come when the diff arrives and the box is out
Front end off tonight, ready to remove the box. Last time I removed the box it came out under the car... a fiddly pain in the a53, so thought I would bring it out the front and make access a little easier.
I got the diff from darkside developments, ordered Saturday night, posted Monday and arrived on Tuesday.
Haven't gotten round to removing the box yet but have bought a press to make rebuild easier and also future bearing changes etc. So used it tonight to remove the remaining gears from the doner pinion shalf just need to drill out the rivets holding the doner crown wheel to the open diff to make it ready for the quaife
Completed some more jobs tonight, removed the remaining gears from the pinion and removed the bearings too. Also removed the wheel for the speedo from the doner diff. My new press is definatly worth the very affordable 85 from eBay!! Ready to remove bearing from pinion Bearing sleeve removed Bearing free pinion gear And diff bearing removal to take off speedo ring Drilling next...
so I followed some others suggestions on forums to removing the diff rivets. I started off with a 6mm drill bit for pilot hole and then used a 12mm drill bit to remove the additional remainder of the head. But the 12mm drill bit took a long time to drill. I found it much easier to increase from 6mm by 2mm with each drill bit, I managed to drill 6 rivets using this method in the same time it took me to drill just two using only the 6mm and 12mm bits. Pictures of progress below, the crown wheel is now free and following a thorough clean along with the pinion ready for assembly.
A little progress update. I've taken apart my box and started cleaning and inspecting all the parts. So much cleaner than the doner box and so far all parts and gears in really good order. I've mated the crown wheel with my quaife and torqued up the arp bolts. Fitted the bearings, next job is transferring my gears onto the new pinion shaft. Nice and clean reverse gear And shifter forks And 5th gearset Next is to disassemble and reassemble my gears onto the new pinion shaft And assembly of the quaife
It does mate... I've taken the time to do a thorough clean of all the gears, and just finished reassembling the pinion shaft with my gears tonight... Old pinion shaft...
I now have one fully rebuilt gearbox including new final drive of 3.9, complete new bearings, oil seals and a quaife lsd Now just getting in back in the car
Thanks mike, looking forward to getting out on track again. Few more small jobs to do as well as getting the gearbox back in the car and it's all ready to go
So, I've pressed on with installing the gearbox, now in position and putting everything back together again... with the help of a little corona I also fitted a new sump while the access was a little easier, the original was starting to seep from the seal. Trial fit of the new wheels... some tyres on the way Just a little maintenance and it's all ready to go, rear pads need changing and bleeding the coolant system of any air locks.
Some new rubber for the tyres, I've read good things about the Nangkang AR1's so thought I best try them, used as the control tyre for the BMW m3 cup and not badly priced
At last... it moves again! Bleeding of the coolant now done and ready to roll. I does like the new alloys! Checked all gears at low speed and all change smoothly so happy with my work on the gearbox.
