Torana SS

[VK_3800]

Clutch arrived:


Looks to be reasonable quality, comes with ARP fasteners and no less than three different plastic alignment tools. The plate closest to the flywheel has a proper marcel spring, the other one doesn't (or is very minimal). Need to pull finger and sort out the master cylinder then get this changed over.

In the mean time I finally bought a proper alternator to resolve some low voltage issues. I had a new 120A unit but it was one of those universal ones so it didn't put out a lot at low revs. I was using an old VN 85A one for a while which was marginally better but still not great. Pulley ratio is fine (~2.45:1) and engine idle speed is now relatively high (925rpm) which gives me a good 2200rpm at the alternator at idle. However I have aftermarket injectors, two fuel pumps, twin 14" cooling fans and by the time all that is going and you turn the lights on, the ECU was showing under 12V at times!

Solution: 140A Mitsubishi style unit as fitted to LS1 Commodores. This is meant to give better output at low revs and even came with a test report - 101A output at 2000rpm. Physically fitting it requires changing the pulley (I had to make a spacer but I do have oddball pulley spacing) and changing the tensioner bracket - if I ever get around to it I might change this to a turnbuckle type thing for easier adjustment but it works for now:

Wiring it up is the same as a VN unit, load and sense wires, but with a different plug or you can cheat and use spade terminals.

Speaking of wiring I thought I'd better replace the old starter, earth and alternator leads with new ones of appropriate size to make sure there are no problems in that department. Only problem is the leads come in weird colours:


Fixed:


Now the ECU reports an immediate 13.7V at idle, which doesn't seem to drop no matter what's running. Voltage at the battery/sense wire is a constant 14.3V.

[immortality]

Nice. I grabbed a VT 304 alternator which is 120amps. That is an odd color indeed, when I do mine I'll use some welding flex, I love the stuff as it's double insulated and I just bought one of those hydraulic crimpers so I can do it at home now.

[VK_3800]

Nice, I almost started looking at fancy crimping tools but I think the budget is well and truly blown already, for a couple of crimps the vice and some suitable bits and pieces does the trick. Definitely on the wish-list though.

[VK_3800]

Had a bit of an issue with the seat last week, suddenly found myself sitting on the floor:


Quite a common thing with the old Recaros. There is a place in the UK that makes new diaphragms but £50 each plus shipping, and I'm impatient. Got some 70mm heavy duty upholstery webbing for $5/m and made up some straps:


Its hard work stretching them to get installed on the seat, but even so a bit more springy once on:


Seems workable so far but not sure if I like it yet or not. Could try making something up to get some mechanical advantage for stretching, or maybe just double up one or two in the area that actually takes the load if I don't.

Also got the new speedo gear, looking at it the teeth are quite thin so this is probably where I went wrong with my home made one - it seemed to go in fine but perhaps the drive gear was constantly pushing the teeth apart with the spacing being too small?

[VK_3800]

Installing the new shifter surround made me notice how shabby the console was looking, so that had to come out for a respray. Came up pretty good, possibly a bit too glossy but hopefully that will dull off a little:




Somehow I had stupidly wrapped wiring around the console in such a way that a few had to actually be cut to remove it. Ended up with this mess:




After some new plugs and a bit of time its looking slightly better and I can at least take the console in and out as required:




Next up is the clutch change, getting a feeling of déjà vu here...




My near-new steel flywheel definitely needed re-surfacing, that's some sort of record for shortest time for me. Sorted:




Clutch install. First driven plate:



Then the adapter and centre plate, attached with supplied ARP bolts and little loctite:



Second driven plate:



And finally the pressure plate:




Plenty of room in the bell housing:




I thought I took photos of the thrust bearing but obviously not, since the pressure plate diaphragm has Chevy style radiused fingers rather than the flat ones Holden intended, I had to change the bearing from radius faced to flat. All very well, but turns out that I was just short of adjustment to get the appropriate clearance so the front bearing retainer had to come off the gearbox and undergo a touch of machining to push the threaded collar a couple of mm further back.


Then I put the gearbox back in (followed by the passenger side header and starter which have to be removed for access) and fired it up for a test drive. A very short trip later the engine is running very badly, stalling and sounding like the timing is very retarded. OK, must have bumped the dizzy when the engine was tilted back, no problem just reset the timing. Did that, but every now and then I can see the timing go from 20 degrees before to some way after TDC and (for obvious reasons) it mostly stalls at this point...? Urgh. Pull the dizzy cap and observe that the rotor can be turned back and forth around 30 degrees, that's not right. Removed the (now very hot) dizzy and discovered that the drive piece on top isn't stuck to the shaft spline like it should be. Weld that up, fix the pickup wiring I managed to damage along the way, and put it all back together. Fixed, that was easy.


Oh the new clutch, yes. Seems pretty good so far, definitely easy enough to slip but you do need to be aware of the engagement point otherwise you can go past the slip point and it will grab pretty quick. I like the direct drive without the sprung hub, feels nice. I do need to sort out the master cylinder though as despite the advertising it doesn't require anywhere near as much travel as a standard clutch, maybe a bit over half. That should give more control too with the correct pedal ratio.

[vlad01]

Nice bit of kit there.

[VK_3800]

OK, time to sort out this clutch master cylinder. After many measurements of the very limited space available and many scrapped ideas, a template is born



Transferred to metal and beaten into 3D shape



Add some nuts and bolts - the large 1/2" bolt uses the standard hole where the original pedal pivot was, and the smaller one above it uses a standard hole also.



Master cylinder fits. So far, so good.



Here you can see the pedal pivot and its relation to the master pushrod. A third hole needs to be drilled up into the bent flange in the column/pedal support in the car, but at least you don't need to disassemble half the interior to get in there on that angle.



The original pedal is nothing like what we need here, so some grinder cutting wheels are sacrificed and we get this



This is how it all looks when assembled



And this is where it goes in the car (test fit in project car which is far more accessible). Its quite a way further left than the original pedal which came out on the right side of the steering column, I'm quite happy with this as it places it better under foot. There is still clearance to the park brake pedal.



Plenty of clearance - which is to say none, but no interference



The final product resplendent in the correct shade of rust protection



I seem to have stopped taking detailed photos from this point, the usual fight ensued getting everything to fit together in an extremely tight spot. I did have to lower the steering column once all the hoses were attached but it fits, just (like everything else).

Both master and slave are Tilton products, but they use different sized fittings. Brilliant. Spun up a AN-3 to AN-4 adapter to solve that problem.



Both the feed hose and the pressure line manage to share the old pushrod hole and the remote reservoir is mounted in the engine bay where it belongs (only a matter of inches from the master cylinder anyway). There's still not quite enough room to have it perfectly upright but compared to before its a massive improvement. Also a bit of a mess to clean up in the paint work from where the old reservoir managed to leak out the lid, will leave that project for another day.



The pedal ratio is a lot better now, I may tweak the pedal height adjustment some but its a lot easier to control the clutch release now, the twin plate is very driveable. And no more auto-releasing clutch as the master cylinder bypasses, excellent!

[immortality]

Nice!

[Gareth]

Love it, top job

[heff0018]

That’s awesome.