Lee's Garage

[lee303]

so a little more progress today

started by swapping out the drive flange bolt that had a ruined thread, did two as they are slightly different to the originals so thought it best for balance

still not got the retaining clip so couldn't re fit it yet, so i made the new brake hose i needed

and refitted all the lines to the pedals with new copper washers


so once the clip shows up i can refit all the drivetrain and bleed everything up, then its pretty much mechanically done, just some electrics to re fit and i can have a drive

[Tathan]

How does someone with a car so tidy have a garage so messy?

[lee303]

hah! the garage is actually quite clean currently, thats just matts bench that is looking slightly ‘busy’ as ever

[spanishfly]

looking good, looking forward to sitting in it again

[lee303]

jeeeeeeesus its cold out there tonight!
still went up though, as we had a temporary resident showing up…

so we had a brew, and made a list…

so as you can see, a few little jobs to sort and some mods to make it more what Will wants it to be
first job was to strip the charger off to fix the leak, so i let will loose with some air tools and he was away!


but i'm not sure he was working on it the whole time he was at the garage tonight

i meanwhile made some large washers, which are actually to become my steering rack limiters like so…

thanks for that tip mattias

then we went to mcdonalds as it was cold, the end

[Benn]

How do the plastic washers limit the steering turn? How has the child like writing then? lol

[lee303]

do you mean who? then that’s me, when it comes to a marker pen on a bit of paper at the garage anyway!
the plastic washer is actually stock, the metal washer i made stops the rack moving by hitting the body of the rack, thus limiting the steering

[Benn]

lol oops yeah Who.. lol And ah ok, i see.

[lee303]

righty, small update as its once again piggin’ freezing! but i did do two jobs on the astra list
sorted the boost leak with a new hand made gasket and some sealant...

and as you can see also cured the TPS problems, which is nice


still no clip for nova drive flange sadly, i really must up my game on that one...

[Tathan]

I use whiteboard marker and a convenient window because I like to experiment with new ways of doing things.

Good work on the gasket, can you make me one?

[lee303]

yes, but it will be £201

[stuartp]

ok, so, waterpumpless cambelt
here is my tensioner i made from a stock one with the middle removed

here you can see the insert i made with an offset hole to allow for ecentric adjustment

and the actual cambelt all fitted up, stock(albeit SBD versions of) cambelt pullies are used, along with my tensioner


as for the car, did some p clipping today


joined two of them together to make a nice little pipe clamp/seperator for the scavange pipes

even washed it!lmao

found it lol, i cant even get the cambelt on with stock rollers, asif the belts to short!
im going put a smaller roller on the inlet side to effectivly shorten the route, then have a look at getting a tensioner on. sorry for the thousands of questions about this. but does ur tensioner still self adjust only reason i ask is because i cant see what holds it in place.

[lee303]

1800 or 1600? i have had the same belt on both but had the 1800 skimmed somewhat
as for the tensioner, as i said in the first reply, and as you can clearly see in the pic, i made an eccentric middle portion, so it doesn’t auto adjust no

[lee303]

a-ha! so, thanks to that man among men Andy Lloyd, i now have some drive flange clips

so should see the nova back on its wheels tomorrow

[lee303]

so a slightly chilly update, but an update non the less!
still lots of snow about as you can see….the focus doing its usually trick of the belly hitting the snow in the middle of the road

but i had a drive flange clip, so wanted to get on!

so fitted that, then re greased the inner cv

then fitted it all up

back on its wheels!

i then refilled the gearbox, which took a while as its so piggin' cold!! lmao


that was it for nova today, as i need to bleed the brakes and clutch next, and finish a few wiring things, i did however do a bit more on the garage guest, such as refitting the charger and its associated plumbing

and the rad, although that needs a repair doing before i can refit it properly

so all in, not a bad mornings work, then me and jim had a mcdonalds sat in the car as the restaurant had flooded ffs, i think i shall now hibernate until monday….

[lee303]

did a bit more astra this evening, got a new rad int he end as the repair just wasn't viable sadly, still, new one looks nice

then had a mess about with the throttle stops as i had moved the tps

stuck it back on its wheels with its sexy front bumper

and it even works and makes whiney noises!

took it for a little spin and it seems back to rude health, which is nice
novas turn on the weekend….

[corsadonk]

Nice, I'm looking forward to seeing the Astra getting some abuse.

[Benn]

Astra sounds awesome, love the whine!

Nice to see the Nova back on it wheels.

[lee303]

yeah, was actually meant to be having a little drive of nova today, but bleeding brakes and clutch on my own proved impossible oh well...

[jonlem]

One word. Easybleed !

[lee303]

got one, doesn’t work on clutch with no proper bleed off sadly

[novashed]

bummer

[lee303]

righty, another slightly frustrating visit, got the clutch bled with my mate jimbo, wired in the fuel pumps and primed the oil system so she was ready to go

and then the battery went flat when i was cranking it, got it to rev up twice but as i didn't catch it it died, and the battery cried enough

should be charged up by saturday though!
brian was up too, and spent last night doing this apparently…


thinking of aero for the astra next…


so, will drive nova on saturday, which is nice

[Brian_S]

Can't wait to get the Manta back on the road! Good job the sump appears to fit fine! It better not leak! lmao

[lee303]

well if it leaks now with no oil in it i would be impressed...oooooh you mean when its filled up