Hey efunk, engine goes in this week. As for horsepower, hoping for 100 but I reckon I'll see 85-90. I'll completely strip the engine again when I get back from PNG and get it right up to scratch, I'd like to do a bit of work to the con-rods. I had an insane camshaft in it earlier but that made the engine useless to me under 2500RPM so at this moment it has the 'better behaved' alternate camshaft in it.

Anyway I lowered it yesterday, and thanks to Andy-roo for his impressive knowledge in slammin' 1000's, he gave me some advice on the rear leafs. Cheers mate.

It was pretty straight forward but when people say to flip the rear springs, this is near enough impossible without causing damage to the undercarriage. It's way too low if you flip the springs.

1. Support the body/chassis of the vehicle high off the ground.

2. Disconnect the shocks:






3. Jack the diff housing up to take wight off the springs:






4. Disconnect all the springs mounts:





5. Drop the springs:






6. Separate the springs by un-bolting the centre-pin. You can remove the lowest/smallest spring but this will make it pretty sloppy in the ride, so I sandwiched it between the largest and medium leafs.

Be sure to clamp the set of springs before unbolting the centre-pin as the pressure on the pin will cross thread the nut as you undo it. I just used a set of vice grips to keep them together. G-clamp would be ideal.






7. Replace the spring, repeat on the other side and drop the car back on it's wheels:






You can see the difference in ride height compared to the front which I did later:






8. The front is tricky as it involves separating the stub axle assembly from the upper ball-joint, I spent most my time trying to remove the ruined split pin.

Be careful that the assembly isn't hanging off the brake lines when it has been separated from the upper control arm, in all honesty these should be disconnected to avoid any extra work [if they were to break].

9. When the stub axle assembly has been separated it should drop low enough (pivoting on the lower control arm) to enable access to the bump stops. Take out the bump stops.

10. Place bump stops in a vice and DO NOT BOTHER WITH A HACKSAW. This takes forever and the blade 'walks' all over the place giving a very ordinary cut. I used a carpenters saw with a decent dose of oil rubbed onto the blade, this sliced nice and straight. I'll try and get some pictures of the detail.

I removed about two thirds of the rubber and this was how she sat:

Very nice mate, so when are you putting that A12 in? Be interested to hear how it goes, thats one this with horsepower, you just want more and more. You doing anything to the brakes or suspension?
At this rate your project looks to be moving along nicely.

Cheers levey, I appreciate it.

I'm still not sure about the swap.

It's crunch time in a few weeks anyway so we'll see how it goes.

Awesome setup! and the black & white photos add some more class.

Dan, so sorry dude, I've been busy as hell. Last couple of weeks at Uni and work is busy as with all this warm weather.

I sent you a PM, and I'll try my best to be in touch this week. Have you got those parts? How much do I owe you?

looking fantastic chris, always loved the 67, I will post the missing sillstrip and clips tomorrow, they are up to the mint standard of the rest of it.

no worries, thats cool mate,.... haha how shonky is it? "You are going to piss yourself laughing when you see it, but I reckon you'll agree that it's perfect for the job" haha ill be the judge of that one buddy!!! haha.


"We just have to be careful that it doesn't roll away when the engine is running on it." dynabolts into concrete? ahh we shall work something out aye.
be in contact over wkend.... i gotta work tonight, but ill give you a buzz sat morning.
we can work something out soonish!
cheers
Dan

I'd be interested to hear what you think Mike?

I'd certainly appreciate two extra gears as things aren't so dandy once she's cruising above 70/80 kph. The old A10 is on the way out too. It runs real well within the normal rev range but there's a patch of about 300 - 500 rpm where I can hear a con-rod (or the crank) knocking.

So basically I have a car with an engine on it's last legs (it still had the factory head gasket when I got it) that is in need of a comprehensive rebuild. On the other hand, I have a spare engine that just happens to be heavily worked.

1000deluxe those are the hubcaps I was going to sell you so I can put my New Old Stock set on.


Hey Dan, I have a frame for the engine that needs a little work (like two hours or so). You are going to piss yourself laughing when you see it, but I reckon you'll agree that it's perfect for the job. We just have to be careful that it doesn't roll away when the engine is running on it.

are you really putting the killer motor in the Granny spec..

and good to see colour photos again lol