Dadson Racing: 2010 Revival

[Enzo]

Hi Dad,

          I think you are right. The sensor up front is the anti lock brake wheel speed sensor. I don't know what vehicle it is off though.

David.

[lampy]

See this thread for info on thats under that cover

 

http://www.fullboost.com.au/forum/showthread.php?3714-Project-510-1972-Datsun-1600-SR20DET-Conversion-Under-Construction

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Thanks for the feedback guys and lampy this is gold I can now attack it with my angle grinder in the knowledge I'm not going to strike oil.

 

 

Cheers

Dad

[Agno]

Some Jap-import R31s came equipped with ABS so I am assuming that your diff has probably come from one of those.

[Grandad]

Some Jap-import R31s came equipped with ABS so I am assuming that your diff has probably come from one of those.

 

Hi Agno

The previous owner bought it from a guy who used to import parts from Japan so what you're saying makes sense.

 

Hi All

 

They say you have to take a trick occasionally and I've taken one today, that job was way simpler than I was expecting first up I used my angle grinder and discovered it is made of cast alloy which has little tensile strength so I introduced my hammer to it which had the desired effect.

 

I left one bolt in place then bent the shroud out of the way.

 

A couple of taps later and the job was done.

 

I then removed the shroud that was held in place by two spot welds that I then ground off.

 

I gave it the once over with my wire brush, a lick of paint and fitted the bottom mount so now it's ready for the really fun part, re installing it.

 

How can I possibly forget the precision tools I used.

 

Cheers

Dad

[PB260Z]

Gidday

 

That sensor ring on the Pinion shaft would be for sensing any speed differential between front & rear axles on AWD equipped cars.

Just another piece of the electrical trickery on modern cars.

 

 

 

[Grandad]

Gidday

 

That sensor ring on the Pinion shaft would be for sensing any speed differential between front & rear axles on AWD equipped cars.

Just another piece of the electrical trickery on modern cars.

 

Hi PB260Z

The previous owner told us the diff was out of a Patrol which made no sense at all but out of an AWD sedan does.

 

Hi All

 

Well the most dificult part of my least favorite job is done, the diff is back in place with tail shaft connected, I'm actually a bit pleased with myself because that's twice now I've fitted the diff solo without Murphy tipping the damn thing off the jack, now I just need to refit and lock wire the half shafts and put the sway bar back on once I have weight on the suspension then bolt the exhaust back on and it's good to go.

 

Remember this.

 

And this.

 

Well, after going to the effort of fashioning and fitting a spacer I had to remove it because with the different casting of this diff it's not required, I'll tie it to the 3.9 diff for for the next time we fit it.

 

Cheers

Dad

[PB260Z]

Hi PB260Z

The previous owner told us the diff was out of a Patrol which made no sense at all but out of an AWD sedan does.

 

Nissan Patrol  I agree that makes no sense as if I recall correctly the Patrol runs an old fashioned rigid axle

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Well the diff's back in and the half shafts are tight and lock wired and I'm in absolutely no rush to do the swap again any time soon.

 

I mentioned earlier that we had some strange noises coming from the rear end, one was a fairly loud bang on extreme change from acceleration to deceleration this, is what prompted me to introduce a spacer to the top diff mount to reduce diff movement, the other sounded like a metal shroud over the rear springs scraping against the suspension tower with every move of the suspension on the passenger side, this was even audible outside the car.

 

When I serviced the car on the Saturday night of our recent two day Northam event I thoroughly inspected the suspension and couldn't find any evidence of the suspension touching the body so in an act of absolute desperation I put a couple of drops of oil on the lower control arm rose joints, interestingly next day the noise had gone.

 

With the car securely up on jack stand I had a look at it today and here's what I found.

 

That doesn't look quite right to me so I straightened them up, I guess wheel aligners don't get to work on rose jointed suspension all that often so I'll make sure I'm under the car next time it's done.

 

The car's finally booked in for a mandrel bend stainless exhaust system on Saturday so I couldn't help myself polishing the stainless bits of our current system that will be reused, the major bends of the current system are mandrel bent but there are other minor bends that restrict exhaust flow so hopefully on Saturday afternoon we will have a more free flowing system that retains the current sound.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Today has been just a little bit crazy but a lot of fun.

 

I was running late getting the car down off the jack stands and going this morning, on the way to the exhaust shop I heard an unfortunately familiar sound coming from the back end on deceleration, I immediately identified it as the diff front yoke making contact with the rear sway bar, we've encountered this problem previously and failed to attend events as a result, the simple fix has been to bend the sway bar mounts to give extra clearance but because of our previous experience Will has strengthened and reinforced the mounts considerably so the tyre lever fix may no longer work.

 

With the car up in the air this is what I found.

 

You've seen this pic previously it clearly shows the difference in the front yoke diameter and positioning that is causing our problem, I will investigate swapping yokes but if that's not possible I'll have the large yoke machined to allow clearance, one way or another the problem will be solved, interestingly one of the guys at the workshop today identified the diff as being out of a WRX.

 

 

A bit of work with levers has at least given a bit of clearance off the suspension mounts, there are a few lever bruise marks to repair but that's not a problem.

 

 

Peter, who has done our exhaust work for many years doesn't have the equipment to weld stainless so arranged for a friend to do it, when I arrived I expected the job would be done today but because we want all the bends mandrel bent the guy could only inspect it so he knows what bends to order, we are booked in again for two weeks time which is ok if that's how it has to be, while the car was up on the hoist a few extra cars arrived and there were an increasing number of people milling around, when I went outside I saw this.

 

So thinking that I didn't have anything else planned for the day and this could be an interesting diversion from being at home listening to jazz while working on the car in the garage, I stayed and talked mostly crap with the guys which is something I rarely do but it was a bit of fun, the guys got into the bourbon and beer but knowing that for me one is never enough, I stayed on coffee.

 

Turned out to be a shoot for big girls so jazz in the garage suddenly sounded like the better option but by then the car was in place so I got into the spirit and made the most of it, it turned out to be one of those things you,ll remember forever.

 

The girls aren't professional models but put an enormous amount of time and effort into there makeup and took it seriously when they knew the camera was on them, I took a few candid shots.

 

OK almost everyone is looking at the official photographer.

 

No girls don't look at me I'm the candid photographer.

 

That's better girls a nice family photo.

 

Don't those shoes just catch your eye?

 

Could she be Elton John's original dirty girl?

 

I can see the ad coming up.  For Sale Jensen Interceptor Mkii good condition some stiletto heel damage to bonnet, video available at extra cost.

 

It's been a crazy good day, the 44.1 diff makes a greater difference than I remember and from standing start the car just wants to launch without wheel spin and is looking for second very quickly so I cant wait to get back on the track to test it.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Today has been just a little bit crazy but a lot of fun.

 

I was running late getting the car down off the jack stands and going this morning, on the way to the exhaust shop I heard an unfortunately familiar sound coming from the back end on deceleration, I immediately identified it as the diff front yoke making contact with the rear sway bar, we've encountered this problem previously and failed to attend events as a result, the simple fix has been to bend the sway bar mounts to give extra clearance but because of our previous experience Will has strengthened and reinforced the mounts considerably so the tyre lever fix may no longer work.

 

With the car up in the air this is what I found you can see contact marks on the yoke.

 

You've seen this pic previously it clearly shows the difference in the front yoke diameter and positioning that is causing our problem, I will investigate swapping yokes but if that's not possible I'll have the large yoke machined to allow clearance, one way or another the problem will be solved, interestingly one of the guys at the workshop today identified the diff as being out of a WRX.

 

 

A bit of work with levers has at least given a bit of clearance off the suspension mounts, there are a few lever bruise marks to repair but that's not a problem.

 

 

Peter, who has done our exhaust work for many years doesn't have the equipment to weld stainless so arranged for a friend to do it, when I arrived I expected the job would be done today but because we want all the bends mandrel bent the guy could only inspect it so he knows what bends to order, we are booked in again for two weeks time which is ok if that's how it has to be, while the car was up on the hoist a few extra cars arrived and there were an increasing number of people milling around, when I went outside I saw this.

 

 

So thinking that I didn't have anything else planned for the day and this could be an interesting diversion from being at home listening to jazz while working on the car in the garage I stayed, it turned out to be a shoot for big girls so jazz in the garage suddenly sounded like the better option but by then the car was in place so I got into the spirit and made the most of it and talked mostly crap with the guys which is something I rarely do but it was a bit of fun, the guys got into the bourbon and beer but knowing that for me one is never enough, I stayed on coffee, it turned out to be one of those days you remember forever.  The girls aren't professional models but put an enormous amount of time and effort into there makeup and took it seriously when they knew the camera was on them, I managed to get a few candid shots.

 

OK almost everyone is looking at the official photographer.

 

No girls don't look at me I'm the candid photographer.

 

That's better girls a nice family photo.

 

Don't those shoes just catch your eye?

 

Could she be Elton John's original dirty girl?

 

I can see the ad coming up.  For Sale Jensen Interceptor Mkii good condition some stiletto heel damage to bonnet, video available at extra cost.

 

It's been a crazy good day, the 44.1 diff makes a greater difference than I remember and from standing start the car just wants to launch without wheel spin and is looking for second very quickly so I cant wait to get back on the track to test it.

 

Cheers

Dad

[NZeder]

That sensor on the front is an ABS sensor and the car it might have come from is mid to late 90's Nissan Cima as those are where I have found diffs lie that before.

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

The distance from home to the exhaust shop and back is no more than 10ks and you can clearly see where the yoke has been touching the sway bar.

 

I decided that the simplest fix would be to swap front yokes so took the 3.9 diff to Tuss for him to remove the yoke then borrow a puller to remove the one off the car and do the swap myself but I guess that would be just too easy, the unfortunate reality is I have no way of checking the preload when refitting the yoke so have a high likelihood of getting it wrong and with the treatment we give the car chances are the front bearing would last no time at all.

 

The next best option is for Tuss to mark and remove the yoke have it turned down 10mm then replace it exactly where it was but he's flat out this week and there's a Speed Event round at Wanneroo next Saturday so with that option not available I considered putting a space under the bottom mount as a temporary fix.  First I measured the current clearance which is ~4mm.

 

I then put my jack under the diff and loaded up the top mount then remeasured the gap.

 

So far so good that will give me an extra 6mm clearance.

I've mentioned before that taking pics and posting about the rebuild has actually helped me not only maintain momentum but also notice somethings I might otherwise have missed, well here's an example.

I can get the camera into positions and thereby see things I might otherwise miss, when looking at the third last pic showing the increased clearance without the ali spacers to attract my eye the mounting bolts stood out and it dawned on me that if I were to loosen them a little I might just get a bit more clearance so I did and guess what?

 

Now to lower the cross member and slide the packing into place.

 

I now have ~11mm clearance and a quick lap of the block has it working well.

 

There is now a very slight angle on the rear uni joint which shouldn't be a problem for one event but I will have the yoke machined later.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

The Speed Event Series is back at Wanneroo next Saturday with a sprint on the long circuit and the Zed is entered, sadly I'll be doing it solo because Whittie leaves at sparrow fart tomorrow morning to go to the US on a reconnaissance trip before moving there on a two year contract in about a month time, I was hopeful that he wouldn't leave until Monday so he could do this event but I guess that's the way the Mercedes bendz.

 

When we first got the car going I temporarily fixed the carby return springs to the fuel lines because I hadn't yet mounted brackets on the cam cover and as it turned out the accelerator pedal feel was perfect.

This is an old pic.

 

Knowing that would never pass scrutiny I mounted the brackets and reverted to our old setup but now the accelerator was not much softer to push than the brake.

 

I fitted some new springs last week but on the way to the exhaust shop the car was idling at 2500rpm so I shortened them before the drive home but they were still too soft so I decided to shorten them further today, I removed the first one without incident but slipped with the second one, it gave out a little ping and vanished so I thought no problem it can't be far away I'll find it in a minute but when I went looking for it it was as though it had vaporised and no amount of searching could find it.

 

With that I went to my local speed shop, where a cams scrutineer just happens to work, to see what throttle return springs they have and it turned out they just have the standard range so I asked if two springs joined together would pass scrutiny and his reply was that if they were joined securely he could see no reason why not so I bought a couple of short springs and joined them together.

 

That worked a treat and the feel is great.  I moved the timing from 10 deg advance  to 15 deg which obviously increased the idle speed so I adjusted it and rebalanced the carbies, the engine sounds a little crisper and is much more responsive to throttle however with wet weather I haven't road tested it but I will tomorrow as I have to attend scrutiny for Saturday's event.

 

The Yoki's have been refitted so I'll leave them on now until they're completely dead.

 

Bring on Saturday, I'll try to get some vid.

 

Cheers

Dad

[peter t]

Take the rear sway bar off and try it. Some 2+2 's go faster without them due to the independent set up. / \  what the rear looks like loaded up without sway bar.

[d3c0y]

How is that a good thing? Negative camber increases as the car squats giving it less contact patch on the tyres when accelerating? Also the sway bar doesn't have anything to do with stopping the car from squatting in the rear.

 

 

It doesn't have anything specifically to do with 2+2s and more to do with cars running open differentials and trying to give the rear a softer suspension to help with traction on corner exit.

[Grandad]

Take the rear sway bar off and try it. Some 2+2 's go faster without them due to the independent set up. / \  what the rear looks like loaded up without sway bar.

 

How is that a good thing? Negative camber increases as the car squats giving it less contact patch on the tyres when accelerating? Also the sway bar doesn't have anything to do with stopping the car from squatting in the rear.

It doesn't have anything specifically to do with 2+2s and more to do with cars running open differentials and trying to give the rear a softer suspension to help with traction on corner exit.

 

Hi All

 

Thanks for your input peter t and d3c0y, the only benefit I can see from removing the rear sway bar in this instance is clearance for the diff yoke which will cease to be an issue once its diameter has been reduced.

 

Your comments sent me on a sentimental journey back to my teen years and mid 60s live rear axle open diff Fords, I owned and competed two Mk1 GT Cortinas, I was offered and test drove a rare Harry Firth created Mk1 Cortina GT500 Bathurst Homoligation special but at the time I had no idea what I was looking at and the ridiculously high first gear that was clearly designed for racing only put me off but at the time my Cortinas were also daily drivers so that simply wouldn't have worked.

 

These cars were built at a time when LSDs were virtually unheard of so they were set up with an extremely stiff front suspension and very soft rear to try and keep both driven wheels in contact with the ground to maintain drive, this resulted in some at times spectacular inside front wheel lifting.

 

I've had fun today searching for pics of Cortinas lifting inside front wheels and found this one from a mid 60s Bathurst race, I don't know if it's a GT500 or not the only way I can pick them is by the twin fuel fillers behind the rear screen before the boot lid anyway this car would have showroom spec suspension and even thought it's descending the dipper at Mt Paranoyer clearly the front wheel has plenty of air.

 

In race spec the Cortinas and later the Escorts often have a secondary front sway bar mounted below the factory one which often creates even greater front wheel lift while leaving the rear wheels in contact with the pavement.

 

 

At the time I had the Cortina GTs a few of my friends were driving Falcon GTs and I really wanted one but just couldn't afford it however l did have a XP Fairmont Super Persuit 200 auto sedan which was luxurious and top of the Falcon range (and let's not forget that when released the Super Pertuit 200 Falcons had been used by Police as chase cars, how exciting) anyway I couldn't afford a GT Falcon so I converted my XP Fairmont into one with a worked 289ci V8 4 speed manual transmission complete with vented front disc brakes, I should have done it to a 2 door coupe but back then where anything but cool.

I fitted a factory Borg Warner diff that I thought was limited slip but in fact was spin restraint (I was soon to learn the difference) I also fitted an after market rear stabilizer bar which reduced body roll significantly but quickly highlighted the limitations of a spin restraint diff and clearly showed that with anything other than a full LSD it was counter productive to the point of being dangerous in some situations so was removed.

 

Coming back to the Zed, as the diffs we run are full LSD we have no concern about the inside wheel being unloaded and loosing traction so the benefits of the rear bar far outweigh the negatives.

 

Thanks for the interesting points raised and the resultant trip down memory lane.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

The event on Saturday was fairly unremarkable, it was wet in the morning which concerned me a bit and I ended up forgetting the video camera which was a bit annoying anyway a couple of laps into my practice I had a rear brake lock up and then could smell burning rubber which I thought was a bit odd because I had a rear wheel lock up I then could smell oil burning and when I checked the mirror I had blue smoke billowing out behind the car a quick check of the guages at least gave me some confidence that it wasn't anything major but it was straight back to the pits anyway.

 

It turned out to be simple enough the crankcase breather hose had touched the exhaust and burned a hole so a little duct tape and a couple of cable ties and I was going again.

 

I enjoyed my next run the car definitely feels better and the 4.4 diff is perfect for this track the car is in the middle of the power band at every corner so I just need to work on my driving now.

 

Unfortunately I must have let myself become a little dehydrated because I started the get some minor cramping in my hands, it's nothing new and Poweraid usually fixes it so I downed about a litre of it but it takes time to work and on my next run I was so far off the pace I was being caught by guys I would normally be driving away from so with that I headed back to the pits and packed up then watched the last of the event before heading for home.

 

The class lap record Whittie set at the last event didn't stand for long, John Hurney a local driving instructor entered his TVR and took almost 3 seconds of Whitties time setting a new mark of 67.7 sec, I know there's nothing like a challenge but I recon that will take a bit of beating.

 

The trip home was uneventful enough, when I got there I had to stop in the drive because there was a car blocking entry to the garage so I moved it and opened the garage door but when I tried to start the Zed it didn't want to know about it, we've had a bit of a starting problem and put it down to an old battery not holding charge so I decided to jump start it but that's when I realized that the battery is actually fine and the problem is faulty starter motor seals because the moment I turned the key the seals failed completely and let the smoke out and I know from experience that once the smoke escapes that's it it just won't go back in.

 

So now I'm stuck with a car that won't start on an uphill gradient.

 

Fortunately there was another car in the drive so I tied a short rope to the front and did the tow shuffle eventually getting it into the garage.

 

I did the ring around and searched the net for starter prices and found they are all over the place so finally removed the old one to see if it had a part no on it and it had Ingrams written on it so I googled it and came up with Ashdown Ingram which is where I got the fuses for the new junction box a few months ago, they have an amazing web site complete with parts catalogues and their price was the best.

 

They're now firmly saved in my favorites, here a link to their site clicking the links under Our Product Range will open the parts catelogue. http://www.ashdown-ingram.com.au/

 

Cheers

Dad

 

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Well it's going again and in all the time Whittie's owned this car I've never heard it crank so fast.

 

In the end I decided to go with a remanufactured unit simply on price, time will tell how long it can keep the smoke inside but I'm thinking we won't revisit this for a very long time.

 

The car will now go to Tuss to have the rear yoke issue fixed.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Another day another little issue rectified, I picked the car up from Tuss today and all is good the rear yoke has been machined and the temporary spacers removed so there is now more than adequate clearance and the vibration that was there when the rubber diff mounts were highly compressed is gone and the car feels relatively vibration free.

 

This is the rear yoke when the diff was initially fitted.

 

And now

 

Of course if I'd been there when it was fitted it would have looked more like this.

 

In all the years we have campaigned this car we have never collected more than a light oil film in the catch can so when I fitted the new one I considered it was there merely to comply with competition regs and look better than the old plastic oil bottle so I was really surprised when the breather hose that has been happily located in the same place for years decided to move over to caress the exhaust with rather spectacular results and also when the catch can decided to release oil because I hadn't properly sealed the drain plug, to my surprise once removed I emptied about half a quarter litre of oil from it. 

 

Now I have two issues to contemplate, why was there so much oil in the catch can and why did the breather hose that has so happily remained in place for many years suddenly decide to move?

 

I decided to remove the catch can to seal the drain plug and noticed that the dip stick was not fully located, I have experienced some difficulty with this since the new alloy sump was fitted but didn't think to mention it to Tuss when he retentioned the head and changed the oil, when I fully inserted the dip stick it showed the engine to be over filled so I guess that goes some way to answering my question.

 

I suspect that with the crank case over filled oil has been forced out  through the crank case breather with much making it to the catch can while some was trapped in the breather hose which as a result of extra weight has moved and ultimately made contact with the hot exhaust.

 

When I finally moved the car after it died in the drive last Saturday there were two distinct oil marks on the paving I had to deal with so I decided to remove the catch can and fix it.

 

Clearly it had been leaking.

 

The fix.

 

So then came the clean up, I gave the paving a thorough wash down to ensure it was saturated first to prevent any oil staining on paving that's not mine .

 

Carbies don't need a drink.

 

Solvent and degreaser will be helpfull.

 

I was busy doing the front and rear under body clean up when I took these pics and didn't even look at the colour contrast at the time but I can see why Whittie chose this paint.

 

I think Will's going to be pretty happy with his work here.

 

With the car looking so good I can't help but look back at some of Will's effort, he really does have passion for old cars.

 

With the cleanup finished and everything back in place it's easy to see how the unsuspecting could think the dip stick is properly located when in fact it isn't.

 

 

I guess this is what shake down is all about.

 

Cheers

Dad

[Grandad]

Hi All

 

Whittie's back from his US reconnaissance trip and is now waiting on a work visa to arrive then he's off to the land of milk and honey for a few years but that's probably four about a month away so until then the zed is his daily drive and attracting lots of positive attention, even the coppers in marked and unmarked cars follow him but leave him alone, maybe they're just admiring it.

 

Two days after Whittie arrived home there was a night event at Wannas under lights on first the long and then the short track, even though the BOM predicted storms he entered and I played pit crew and camera man, the BOM did get it right and there was plenty of rain but fortunately not much were we were.

 

So with the road wheels off and race wheels on it's time to hit the track.

 

This is Whittie's first run for the night, with the short 4.4-1 diff he gets through the gears pretty quickly but for our little track it's spot on.

 

I so love the sound of this car.

 

You may remember that my last time out in the car I mentioned I was locking rear brakes, listen for the bystander comment in this vid.

 

Looking through the camera I couldn't see what the bystander did but this is what he was talking about.

 

That pic was taken on Whittie's last run on the long track and knowing that the short track is far less demanding on brakes he kept on going.

 

That was a good event to do because it clearly hi-lighted just how far out the brake bias is and Murphy sort of looked after us which was nice, the heavens opened up on our journey home in a way that would have stopped the event and the rear pads finally said enough is enough a couple of Ks from home.

 

Here's what we found when we did a pad change a few days later, fortunately no major damage done but I'm thinking that with hair line cracks appearing new rear rotors might be in order.

 

Next job is to get the brake bias set correctly.

 

Cheers

Dad

[dat240z]

Love the 3rd last picture with the glowing discs! Strange the fronts arnt red hot though?

[Whittie]

We didn't know what we were doing with the brake bias adjustment and were trying all sorts of things. Turns out it was WAY out of whack, with far too much rear bias. The result was lots of locking rears, under braked front and hence glowing rears but not fronts. We couldn't work out how to make it any better and nothing we did made a difference, so I just left it and kept going.

 

Later in the week I spent a few hours researching pedal boxes and worked out that the brake mechanic we paid to install the brakes didn't do it properly and the piston stroke was all out of whack. I re-adjusted the piston stroke, which required changing the brake pedal position amongst other things and now it appears to be working properly again.

 

Next outing is Wednesday and item #1 on the list is get the brakes working properly, followed by lots of hot laps, in car footage, photos and hopefully a decent lap time to take home!

[dat240z]

Ah ok. I had a similar issue with my wilwoods, but a prop valve sorted that swiftly

[Whittie]

In the end it was a simple fix, the neutral position of the pedal box was with the balance bar parallel to the firewall, when that is how it should be on hard braking, so I just had to lengthen the adjustment nut on the front cylinder and then move the brake pedal back a bit so it was loose with no pedal pressure.

 

The master cylinders were sized according to the brakes we have, so the proportioning is correct but the stroke was setup wrong and the fronts would run out of travel without full pressure being applied, resulting in all subsequent pedal pressure going to the rear only. Now they're sorted out all 4 wheels lock at the same time with the balance bar set in the neutral position (testing in the local industrial area with the street tyres - so not conclusive). So, some more fine tuning on the track and she'll be good to go.