GE Convertible
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 10:03 pm
As some of my Facebook friends probably already know I bought myself a GE Scorp convertible a couple of weeks ago. Those last couple of weeks have resulted in well over 3000k's of trips to look at, and pick up the car and parts that come with it and a heap of time and parts to get it back on the road.
So heres the story so far, along with my future plans for it.
It started out one night laying in bed bored so I started looking at stuff on Gumtree. I was almost in shock when I noticed there was a GE convertible on there. This is only the 3rd one I know of in at least 15 years. The others are a silver and black one with NSW plates I used to have a pic of, and Dave's white one in SA. It was too late at night to try and contact the seller but the next morning I organised to go and look at it. These were some of the pics from Gumtree.
The Scorp was in Coffs Harbour, about 450k's and 5 hours drive from me. I left early Friday morning to meet the seller at 10am and check the car out in person, before having to rush home again to be at work by 5pm. It wasn't quite as good as the pics show, but he had attempted to get a blue slip about 4 weeks before so I had a good idea of what would be needed for rego. Unfortunately the blue slip being 4 weeks old means I would need to get a new one. I was very much on the fence on if I should buy it or not, but ended up deciding that I may not ever get the opportunity again. To throw a spanner in the works I had promised my wife that I would not be bringing home any more unregistered cars. This means I would need to repair and get the car registered in Coffs, hopefully in one day, before I could take it home.
During the following week I spent most of my free time rnning around to organise parts, tools, appointments and so on.
Friday the 26th of September was D Day for the car. I had a boot full of tools and parts and was due to meet up with the seller at 10am to finalise the paperwork and make the car mine before starting the repairs ready for a blueslip appointment at 1.30pm
The biggest hurdle was the windscreen. The one in it had a bad crack and was the main cause of failing the blueslip. I had J & H Autoglass meet me just after 10 to fit a new one. This ended up being a much harder job then they expected (every one I have had done in the past has been a major PITA). They persevered and finally had the new windscreen in and the job completed by 11.30. Just 2 hours left till the blueslip.
The next big job was the power steering box. The one fitted had a major leak. I could have just cleaned it and hoped for the best, but there was no way of guaranteeing it wouldn't leak whilst at the blueslip, let alone on the way home. I had made the decision earlier to replace it, and had brought along a spare with a new pitman arm and so on. By the time we had this fitted and ready to start bleeding it the time was about 12.45. This is when we hit our first major hurdle.
Upon attempting to start the car to bleed the power steering, the starter made a single click, before the battery went completely dead. I'm not sure if the battery was the issue, or having doors open whilst working on it, but something needed to be sorted out fast. My parents who were there to assist saved the day by racing off to purchase a new battery whilst I attended to some other minor things I was worried wouldn't pass the blueslip. We finally had a new battery fitted and the car started first turn of the key. by now it was 1.15 and we only had 15 minutes till the blueslip.
A quick drive around the block to make sure things were working and I was on my way. I wasn't happy with the car, but I was out of time. I expected that it would fail, and I would need to finish sorting out a few more issues before returning. Luckily for me, they remember doing the blueslip almost 5 weeks before hand, and were happy to just inspect the work I had undertaken rather then doing a full inspection. Amazingly it passed. I then returned to my parents who stayed with my other car, tools and so on.
Now that the bluslip was out of the way and we weren't so rushed we took the opportunity to give the car a quick once over. We finished bleeding the power steering, changed the air filter, checked engine oil and coolant and so on. Finally happy with how the car was running and hopeful that it would make the 450k trip home we were off to organise insurance and get the car registered.
After a day of hard work it was finally time to head home with my newly registed Scorp with brand new plates. Unfortunately by this time the seller was at work so I was unable to pick up the parts that came with the car, the first major disappointment for the day, and would mean returning home with an empty trailer that I had just towed 450k's for no reason. Otherwise, the trip started out great. The engine was running great. Oil pressure perfect, coolant temp was steady and it was purring along. Coming past Kempsey, after 100k's and 1.5 hours already on the road was the first sign of any problem. I started to notice a slight whine coming from under the car whenever the gearbox was under any load. We were planning to stop at Port Macquarie for dinner so I decide I would cruise along and take it easy, and check it out when we got there. It never made it.
About 10 k's past Kempsey there was a massive bang from under the car, and I rolled to a violent, noisy halt. The engine was still running fine, but there was no drive in any gear. I wasn't sure if it was clutch or gearbox, but as soon as I would realease the clutch it sounded like a 2yo that had just discovered the pots and pans cupboard was under the car making as much noise as he could. The convertible would not be driving any further under it's own power, and we had to push it off the road into a safer position before leaving it.
We returned to Kempsey without the Scorp, and called into the Coles/Shell servo to organise hiring a car float. Unfortunately I can't remember her name, but the woman who was there to serve us had the friendliest attitude and we received some of the best customer service I have seen in a long time. We were able to leave my box trailer behind safely locked up, whilst picking up a car trailer for the rest of the trip home.
We then returned to the convertible and loaded it onto the trailer. Eventually we made it back to Port Macquarie, a lot later then expected, and with a broken car in tow.
After dinner we were on our way again. Thankfully the ever reliable and comfortable Celsior ate up the K's, and after dropping my parents at home, I arrived home with the convertible at around 12.30 am. Time for a well deserved rest, before unloading in the morning. After unloading it was time to return the car trailer to Kempsey, and picking up my box trailer. At this stage I would have really liked to continue back to Coffs to get the parts, but was unable to organise a suitable time to meet the seller so it was straight back home again.
Over the following week I removed the gearbox. I found a number of issues. Almost no oil, the input bearing had overheated and collapsed, the main gear on the input shaft had stripped, and the extansion housing an tailshaft yoke had been badly damaged after being lubricated by pieces of metal debris. Also, after removing the clutch I discoved it was worn out. It would need a replacement gearbox, clutch and tailshaft yoke before it would see the road again.
Thankfully, after years of collecting and hording parts, I had basically everything I needed. The only things I needed were a couple of seals and gaskets, getting the flywheel machined, and OIL!!!!!
By the long weekend it was on the road again, and I was able to collect the rest of the parts as well. In just 3 weeks I had driven around 3000k's, and used up a buch of my spare parts, but I finally had a running, registered, and driveable GE Scorp Convertible.
The work hasn't ended though. Just today I replaced the steering column to fix a dodgy 'mod' that had been done to move the steering wheel forwards. Good for really short drivers, but I kept bashing my knees against the wheel, and was unable to adjust it. I've also fitted a set of 15x8 and 15x9 Rota Aleica's.
Plans for the near future include removing the 8 bolt, 3.5:1 diff and replacing it with an Ex Lancer 10 bolt LSD. Pulling the engine out to replace a few gaskets and seal, a new timing kit, and a guick cleanup before refittig it along with a new radiator. Then, once the mechanicals are sorted, it will be onto the body to fix some minor rust issues before they spread too far, tidy up the interior and the list goes on.
TL;DR version - I bought a car. Tried to fix it. It broke on the way home. Fixed again.
So heres the story so far, along with my future plans for it.
It started out one night laying in bed bored so I started looking at stuff on Gumtree. I was almost in shock when I noticed there was a GE convertible on there. This is only the 3rd one I know of in at least 15 years. The others are a silver and black one with NSW plates I used to have a pic of, and Dave's white one in SA. It was too late at night to try and contact the seller but the next morning I organised to go and look at it. These were some of the pics from Gumtree.
The Scorp was in Coffs Harbour, about 450k's and 5 hours drive from me. I left early Friday morning to meet the seller at 10am and check the car out in person, before having to rush home again to be at work by 5pm. It wasn't quite as good as the pics show, but he had attempted to get a blue slip about 4 weeks before so I had a good idea of what would be needed for rego. Unfortunately the blue slip being 4 weeks old means I would need to get a new one. I was very much on the fence on if I should buy it or not, but ended up deciding that I may not ever get the opportunity again. To throw a spanner in the works I had promised my wife that I would not be bringing home any more unregistered cars. This means I would need to repair and get the car registered in Coffs, hopefully in one day, before I could take it home.
During the following week I spent most of my free time rnning around to organise parts, tools, appointments and so on.
Friday the 26th of September was D Day for the car. I had a boot full of tools and parts and was due to meet up with the seller at 10am to finalise the paperwork and make the car mine before starting the repairs ready for a blueslip appointment at 1.30pm
The biggest hurdle was the windscreen. The one in it had a bad crack and was the main cause of failing the blueslip. I had J & H Autoglass meet me just after 10 to fit a new one. This ended up being a much harder job then they expected (every one I have had done in the past has been a major PITA). They persevered and finally had the new windscreen in and the job completed by 11.30. Just 2 hours left till the blueslip.
The next big job was the power steering box. The one fitted had a major leak. I could have just cleaned it and hoped for the best, but there was no way of guaranteeing it wouldn't leak whilst at the blueslip, let alone on the way home. I had made the decision earlier to replace it, and had brought along a spare with a new pitman arm and so on. By the time we had this fitted and ready to start bleeding it the time was about 12.45. This is when we hit our first major hurdle.
Upon attempting to start the car to bleed the power steering, the starter made a single click, before the battery went completely dead. I'm not sure if the battery was the issue, or having doors open whilst working on it, but something needed to be sorted out fast. My parents who were there to assist saved the day by racing off to purchase a new battery whilst I attended to some other minor things I was worried wouldn't pass the blueslip. We finally had a new battery fitted and the car started first turn of the key. by now it was 1.15 and we only had 15 minutes till the blueslip.
A quick drive around the block to make sure things were working and I was on my way. I wasn't happy with the car, but I was out of time. I expected that it would fail, and I would need to finish sorting out a few more issues before returning. Luckily for me, they remember doing the blueslip almost 5 weeks before hand, and were happy to just inspect the work I had undertaken rather then doing a full inspection. Amazingly it passed. I then returned to my parents who stayed with my other car, tools and so on.
Now that the bluslip was out of the way and we weren't so rushed we took the opportunity to give the car a quick once over. We finished bleeding the power steering, changed the air filter, checked engine oil and coolant and so on. Finally happy with how the car was running and hopeful that it would make the 450k trip home we were off to organise insurance and get the car registered.
After a day of hard work it was finally time to head home with my newly registed Scorp with brand new plates. Unfortunately by this time the seller was at work so I was unable to pick up the parts that came with the car, the first major disappointment for the day, and would mean returning home with an empty trailer that I had just towed 450k's for no reason. Otherwise, the trip started out great. The engine was running great. Oil pressure perfect, coolant temp was steady and it was purring along. Coming past Kempsey, after 100k's and 1.5 hours already on the road was the first sign of any problem. I started to notice a slight whine coming from under the car whenever the gearbox was under any load. We were planning to stop at Port Macquarie for dinner so I decide I would cruise along and take it easy, and check it out when we got there. It never made it.
About 10 k's past Kempsey there was a massive bang from under the car, and I rolled to a violent, noisy halt. The engine was still running fine, but there was no drive in any gear. I wasn't sure if it was clutch or gearbox, but as soon as I would realease the clutch it sounded like a 2yo that had just discovered the pots and pans cupboard was under the car making as much noise as he could. The convertible would not be driving any further under it's own power, and we had to push it off the road into a safer position before leaving it.
We returned to Kempsey without the Scorp, and called into the Coles/Shell servo to organise hiring a car float. Unfortunately I can't remember her name, but the woman who was there to serve us had the friendliest attitude and we received some of the best customer service I have seen in a long time. We were able to leave my box trailer behind safely locked up, whilst picking up a car trailer for the rest of the trip home.
We then returned to the convertible and loaded it onto the trailer. Eventually we made it back to Port Macquarie, a lot later then expected, and with a broken car in tow.
After dinner we were on our way again. Thankfully the ever reliable and comfortable Celsior ate up the K's, and after dropping my parents at home, I arrived home with the convertible at around 12.30 am. Time for a well deserved rest, before unloading in the morning. After unloading it was time to return the car trailer to Kempsey, and picking up my box trailer. At this stage I would have really liked to continue back to Coffs to get the parts, but was unable to organise a suitable time to meet the seller so it was straight back home again.
Over the following week I removed the gearbox. I found a number of issues. Almost no oil, the input bearing had overheated and collapsed, the main gear on the input shaft had stripped, and the extansion housing an tailshaft yoke had been badly damaged after being lubricated by pieces of metal debris. Also, after removing the clutch I discoved it was worn out. It would need a replacement gearbox, clutch and tailshaft yoke before it would see the road again.
Thankfully, after years of collecting and hording parts, I had basically everything I needed. The only things I needed were a couple of seals and gaskets, getting the flywheel machined, and OIL!!!!!
By the long weekend it was on the road again, and I was able to collect the rest of the parts as well. In just 3 weeks I had driven around 3000k's, and used up a buch of my spare parts, but I finally had a running, registered, and driveable GE Scorp Convertible.
The work hasn't ended though. Just today I replaced the steering column to fix a dodgy 'mod' that had been done to move the steering wheel forwards. Good for really short drivers, but I kept bashing my knees against the wheel, and was unable to adjust it. I've also fitted a set of 15x8 and 15x9 Rota Aleica's.
Plans for the near future include removing the 8 bolt, 3.5:1 diff and replacing it with an Ex Lancer 10 bolt LSD. Pulling the engine out to replace a few gaskets and seal, a new timing kit, and a guick cleanup before refittig it along with a new radiator. Then, once the mechanicals are sorted, it will be onto the body to fix some minor rust issues before they spread too far, tidy up the interior and the list goes on.
TL;DR version - I bought a car. Tried to fix it. It broke on the way home. Fixed again.