Our 1975 GC Hardtop (pic heavy and epic read!)

[Tj.]

No worries nath, it'd just be rad to have two hardtops on display. Mines still up in the air mind you.

Dwlee, that looks like a good idea and its something similar to what I need to make, its just my heater plumbing's on the other side of the engine bay due to the damn CAS getting in the way (lesson: don't be a tight arse and stump the dollars for a crank trigger setup)
I picked up a few 5/8ths tee pieces and straight couplings and I've still got a few 90deg elbows and tube left so I can try a few things.

I just hope it doesn't take too long to get all the brake parts in, I didn't expect to be replacing so much.
Anyone know if you can still get galant wagon drums new from DBA or someone similar? I haven't had time to Chase it up or measure the linings to see if they can be machined.
I'll make some calls soon.

It's getting tense!!!! It feels like an episode of American hotrod or overhaulin or something just dragged out over 13 months

**edit** 4 pages!!! Hehe

[Tj.]

A little more progress this week.

Man drum brakes are a pain in the arse to work on! so fiddly! so many springs!

Found the culprit of my leak:

It's a bit knackered.

I'm hoping that's what was leaking down the backside of the backing plate and that my wheel seals aren't leaking too. I know the diff centre is but that s a PITA to fix so it can stay leaking for now.

SO it now has

• 2 new wheel cylinders

• 2 pairs of new shoes

• and 1 new drum

.... yeah, about that.
Someone appears to have done a shifty in RDA and returned a "wagon" drum but put a reco'd (almost to the max dia.) sedan drum in the box, meaning I ended up with only one new wagon drum the other drum should be in sydney next week. Apparently the only pair available at the moment are in Newcastle. Hope you weren't planning to overhaul your brakes anytime soon Dave
So, to wrap it up, all the new parts are in the car, just need to slip that second drum on and bleed the brakes and that's that little job done

Also
I HAVE A THROTTLE CABLE THAT FITS!
Conwire in Milpera managed to do in one day what that gaggle of dickbeards in Melbourne took eight weeks to decide they couldn't do!. I highly recommend them. They make any type of cable so they'd be perfect for anyone looking for a clutch cable which I think there are a few of you doing.
I just need to perfect my bracket to hold the cable in place.

Like my 'JNC' soft jaws in the vice?


This is the bracket I made ages ago early on page 3 but it still needed to be finished off.



Uhh, now that's going to be a little bit of a problem.....
Annoyingly because of the shape I made it and where it's bolted on i can't shift the whole thing back 20-30mm, I have to re bend the end of it and re-make the stay I cut for the cable
Does anyone have any better ideas for actually holding the cable in place? i'm kinda scratching my head on this one.

And lastly the old fella has soldered together the water pipe for the heater:


The end that would be pointing to the drivers side when bolted into the car is what goes to the heater. The other end goes back to the throttle body. This will tuck it neatly around behind the block and we'll run a rubber hose from there to the TB.
It looks rough and ready but that's only because we haven't cleaned it up after the soldering was finished. A buff with the wire wheel in the drill and a coal of black paint and you probably wont even notice it once it's fitted


While I'm relaying good news, The car was dropped off at the auto electrician's this morining. He seemed quite happy that I'd done the fiddly work of shortening the loom and seemed to know straight away what needed to be done. The only unfortunate thing is that he wont be able to work on it until after easter, meaning it probably wont be ready until just after All Japanese Day
Damn.

Now all I need to do is find something to keep myself occupied while the car isn't here. I wont know what to do with myself

[75wagon]

Uhh, now that's going to be a little bit of a problem.....
Annoyingly because of the shape I made it and where it's bolted on i can't shift the whole thing back 20-30mm, I have to re bend the end of it and re-make the stay I cut for the cable

I always run with the theory measure twice, cut once. But every now and then even that fails.
There is nothing like being able to see what you need to make in place so you can fine tune it.
Everyone's a genius in hindsight

Newcastle. Hope you weren't planning to overhaul your brakes anytime soon Dave

Na, I did mine up a few years ago. They should be right for a little while yet.

it probably wont be ready until just after All Japanese Day

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make it either.

Dave...

[Tj.]

Something a little interesting happened today.
As I've mentioned, the hardtop's in at the sparky's getting finished. Anyway, I was around there this arvo and this happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu3hUX__xZk


IT FUCKING STARTED!!!!

ME = this -->

It settled into an idle straight away, but it still has no water so I wasn't able to run it for more than a few seconds. We repeated this a few times (trying to get the tacho working, which it totally is now by the way )
The lifters are pretty noisy but i think they'll settle once I can run it for more than a few seconds.
Oh and the exhaust is nice and loud too

To say I'm stoked would be an understatement of epic proportions. I pretty much started doing backflips after this video. And relieved too, I was worried that it'd seized whilst sitting for so long, or I hadn't put something together properly and it was going to fall apart and lunch itself leading to me rebuilding another engine wasting another few months.

The sparky reckons it'll be finished tomorrow! And I've only got a handful of fiddly jobs left.
Who knows, if I pick it up tomorrow night I might have it on the road terrorising honda civics by lunchtime sunday!

[A112H]

[gaz914]

Good news

cheers
Gaz

[webby]

[lchilds82]

sweet as
so awesome

[Tj.]

Well, it's been quite a busy weekend here in the garage.
The car came home from the sparky's on Saturday morning all wired up and running. This is quite a big milestone meaning that it's the very last of the big fabrication type jobs that needed to be done.

This weekend, mostly today on Sunday, we've managed to:

Re-assemble the interior, putting glovebox and parcel tray back in completing the interior once more.
I'm pretty pleased with where and how the ECU and loom has gone in. You cant notice it at all, from inside, it's all factory. The way it should be.

We got the modified water pump pulley installed. To re-cap, I'm running a Starion water pump and as such, the pulley does not line up with the crank pulley, nor does the pcd of the bolt holes line up. I tried redrilling on myself but it wobbled around in an oval shape. In fact, the other day at the auto electricians when we started the engine there it threw the belt off within about 10 sec of it starting
So, using some contacts through contacts I got hold of a bloke that does engineering ad fabrication jobs for race cars. In his workshop he had an 80's Porsche 911 that looked like it was being preped for tarmac rallies, a Ford GT40 replica that was completely in bits and not one but TWO Nobles!
If anyone can make a pulley that spins true it's this guy.

Here's what he made for me to space the pulley out to line up with the crank pulley



It simply slips onto the water pump and the pulley goes on top with the bolts going through to secure the whole lot in place



Works a treat! Threw a belt on, tightened it up and it spins nice and true.

Then we got to work on finishing the plumbing.
Earlier I posted a picture of an L shaped pipe that was going to transfer water to the heater and also to the throttle body. The old fella finished welding all the little tabs and bits and pieces on it and we set to work bolting it in place. It comes out the back of the water pump and follows the block under the extractors. When we were mocking it up it just slid in under the exhaust from the front but after it had the mounting tabs welded on it just would not fit. The only way to get it in was to jack the drivers side of the car up and thread it up between the gearbox and the extractors, trying to slide the other end of the pipe up over the top of the gearbox whilst squeezing the corner of it between the exhaust and the floor. With one hand. With only one eye.
To say it was a pain in the arse would be an epic understatement. Oh, and we had to do it four times, firstly to measure and mark it, then to test fit and then to paint it. And THEN we discovered a massive leak from one of the joins we lost about 3 hours to the damn thing.
Once it was in, all the connections and caps on it (I'm blanking the heater connections off for now) we were able to get the radiator in and fill it up with water. Luckily dad has an old radiator pressure tester. Just a big pump with a pressure gauge and a connection that fits the neck on the radiator. Pump it up to operating pressure and go find the leaks! way easier than running the engine only to get showered with hot water.

And that signalled the completion on the actual assembley! it's all bolted in and working!

Sort of....

When we did start it up and run it for about a minute it started (much to my annoyance) to burn the paint of the extractors smoking out the garage. What worried me though was that only three of the runners was burning off, the paint on number three was intact
We pulled the plug and it was clean and dry so, after testing it to make sure we had spark (we do) we were sure that the injector wasn't uhh... injecting. Dad whips out a stethoscope with a long needle instead of a flat thingy like a doctors (seriously, is there anything that guy doesn't have hiding in a tool box somewhere!?! ) and a quick listen confirmed that indeed number three injector was not doing it's thing. Shit.

It's at this stage that I called it a night. My back is calling me things that'd make a biker blush.
I'll refer to my manual to check the signal on an injector wire. It's more than likely the wiring as I had the injectors themselves cleaned and supposedly tested.

My other main concern is that even after running it for a about 2-3 minutes the lifters are still rattling like all hell. How long do they take to prime with oil in a freshly built engine? I don't think it's been run long enough to get the oil up to operating temperature so it may still be a little thick. What do you guys think?

Now the last little job is a mounting bracket for the throttle cable which the old fella looked after whilst I was at war with a leaky water pipe. It's completely different to my idea, plus he's made it from 3mm angle steel which is way heavy but he can weld it rather than trying to bend and shape it out of a single piece of flat sheet.

More photos and video later, I'm off to watch the F1!

[Nath76LA]

It must be killing you that it's so close to completion. It's coming along great.

[GC75]

i love this car... just saying.

[Superscan811]

My other main concern is that even after running it for a about 2-3 minutes the lifters are still rattling like all hell

1.Did you replace the lifters?
2. Are they Gen-3 lifters (3mm hole) or the Gen-1/Gen-2 lifters (1mm hole)?

The Gen-3 lifters will quieten down quickly but the others can sometimes take a while.
If they are the original lifters, I'd recommend replacing them with the Gen-3 lifters.
If you were planing on doing a bit of work to the head later on, I'd suggest the full kit. It contains the adjusters, 1mm OS stainless valves and bronze valve guides.

Cheers.

[BIG26L]

So, using some contacts through contacts I got hold of a bloke that does engineering ad fabrication jobs for race cars. In his workshop he had an 80's Porsche 911 that looked like it was being preped for tarmac rallies, a Ford GT40 replica that was completely in bits and not one but TWO Nobles!

That sounds like Black Mark's workshop in the back of Sevo! Good mate of mine and a very very smart man!

[Tj.]

to be honest Scott I wouldnt have a clue. My engine builder put the head together so ill assume that what it left Japan/korea with is what's in there.
I put a bit more oil into it this evening as it seems to be soaking into all the nooks and crannies and it quietened down.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the manifold is leaking air will investigate tomorrow.

Ran a test light over the injector lead and its got 12V but I'm unsure how to check if its getting its signal from the ecu. With a bit of luck, its just my shitty soldering somewhere between the injector and the computer.

God I wish I could have just bolted a set of webbers on the damn thing


And yeah biggy, it was Mark. Nice dude.

[Superscan811]

Ran a test light over the injector lead and its got 12V but I'm unsure how to check if its getting its signal from the ecu.

Quite often, like the coil, the negative is switched, not the +12v, the reason is the electronic components to switch the negative are cheaper than the ones that switch the positive.

If it's still a problem, let me know. In my garage, somewhere, I've got an old oscilloscope. Perfect to diagnose this type of problem.

Cheers.

[Tj.]

You're bang on the money there mate. I remember from when I was shortening the loom that the 12V to the injectors all branched off the same wire whereas the other injector wire goes straight to the ecu. I realise now that the way I worded it made it sound like I was expecting the 12V to be switched. Hooray for my 4th grade literacy!

I'll continuity test the feed from the ecu tonight and hopefully that'll show there's s break in the wire.

Yknow, we might just have an old school proper engine tuning oscilloscope somewhere in the garage. Back in the day dad used to have a mobile mechanics business and specialised in electronics engine tuning (as long as it was a carb engine, that's how far back I'm talking) and I remember he had this big unit thing in the van that had an osciloscope for timing adjustments and an exhaust gas analyzer with a big gauge showing if it was running rich or lean plus a bunch of other stuff. Most of that gear wouldn't be much younger than the car and I think a lot of it got thrown out buy I know he kept some things that still worked.
I'll ask him about it tonight.

[Tj.]

Well I found the cause of my misfire.
After testing the constant 12V plus the continuity of the signal to the injector, then the manifold gasket and then compression it turns out its a dud injector.
The give away was the paint on the extractors. Earlier I said that the paint had been bubbling up and smoking on runners 1, 2 & 4. After swapping number 3 and 4 injectors around whaddayaknow, the paint on runner 3 starts burning off the annoying part is I payed a fair amount of money to have them cleaned and tested. unfortunately I cant find the receipt and it was quite a while ago now too.

Oh well. With a bit of luck that'll help the weird throttle response too. We'll see.

[Tj.]

Ok, I got the misfire figured out. I pulled out the offending injector and drove up to the place that cleaned and serviced them a few months back.
He took one look at it and then hit it with a hammer.

Seriously.

Okay, so not that hard, but still. He then chucked it in his test machine thingo and sure enough, it worked!
Apparently when they sit for a while they stick shut. Wish I'd known about the hammer trick though. Would have saved a bit of time and effort. Oh well, at least it didn't cost me anything.

So now that it runs on all four it brings me to my next issue.
It won't rev. It'll start and idle fine, but as soon as you open the throttle it dies in the arse, sputters and then pops back through the manifold.

I dug out our old timing light and set the base timing using the CAS to the 0 mark. When the engine revs the mark moves backwards

Hmm, so what could that be all about? Is the ecu pulling the timing as a precaution or is it something else?
Here's a thought, if I've got the CAS in upside-down will it still idle? Could that be what I've done?

It's a real head scratcher.

[Tj.]

Checked the maf and the TPS tonight and still no clues.

Posted up on projectzerog tonight to see if anyone over there has any ideas. Those kids know their way around the 63 like few others.

Heres some more videos, not that they're too exiting.

This one was what it was doing at the start of the week. It'd just hunt, the revs would just bounce up and down like that until it over fueled and popped back through the TB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IObn2qvQEzA

Now its not even doing the hunting now and just cuts straight to popping back through the TB
This one at least has some exhaust note in it so theres that. Mmm, meaty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZE1ZH-EIDc

[Tj.]

FIXED IT!

Turns out there was a break in the wire going to the closed throttle switch that was shorting out on the TB.
It must have been telling the ecu the throttle was going open-closed-open-closed etc hence the funny goings on in that video.

In fact, I had it moving around the garage under its own power today! first time in almost 18 months!

Just have to put the bonnet and the grille back on, readjust the new back brakes and she's done.
And I actually mean it this time!


Having said that, there's bound to be plenty of new issues springing up in the near future, such is the nature of the beast I guess

Pics and vids tomorrow!!

[Nath76LA]

Great news. The two hardtops might be able to go cruising some time shortly.

[Tj.]

Having said that, there's bound to be plenty of new issues springing up in the near future, such is the nature of the beast I guess

Well, I didn't realise just how prophetic that was. The day after that post I got up early and finished adjusting the back brakes and reassembled the front body panels (I forgot just how damn pretty Galants look as a hardtop) fired it up and drove ( ) it into the driveway.
Trying not to let excitement to get the better of me I thought it best to do a few short runs up and down the driveway just to make sure everything was as it should be and alas, it wasn't all as it should be. The brake pedal more or less went straight to the floor. Now, I bled the brakes thoroughly (and again later) and made sure the rear drums were adjusted up properly (you can hardly push the car at the moment) but still, nothing.
Theres an odd rough sort of feeling to the pedal. The best way to describe it is gritty. Plus just before it reaches it's rest position it feels like it catches on something.
There was still a little bit of brake pedal there so i very cautiously took it for a short lap up and down the street.

I want to say that again. I TOOK IT FOR A DRIVE! On a real road!

It actually goes pretty well, not a huge amount of power on tap but a marked improvement. Quite a flat torque delivery too which is nice, it pulls pretty hard Now, these are only an early impression, not having much in the way of brakes i took it quite easy plus i wasn't going to stress a brand new engine too much with out running it in.
It sounds great too. Nice and loud. In fact, it doesn't sound too dissimilar to the 4G32 with a big exhaust on it. A little more throaty, more like a well worked 32.

The rest of the car felt tight as a drum too. A bit of a re-cap on the things I've done to the car since it's been off the road besides the engine:
Changed the gearbox oil and replaced the little nylon bush in the end of the stick and it feels great! the stick is free of slop and it goes into gear easy and with the firmness of a new(ish) box.
Replaced all the steering components; tie-rods, drag link, the... uhh, bit opposite the steering box on the other end of the drag link that i can never remember the name of, ball joints, control arm bushes, sway bar rubbers and reinstalled the softer 2 leaf springs in the rear
And it feels great!

After insulting the gregory's manual about the brakes and a few other people here on the forums I deduced that there is supposed to be a non-return valve in the vacuum line going to the brake booster. I do not remember there being one in the line when i pulled the car apart nor can I find anything resembling such a device. Crud.
Not to worry though, I managed to "borrow" one from a Sigma at the wreckers today to see if that makes a difference.
That's not all I did though, I removed the Booster and the master cylinder and they're now down at Specialised Brake and Clutch in Penrith getting checked over by someone who knows what they're doing. I did pull the master cylinder apart myself and checked it out and the bore was pretty good (as far as i could tell) and the rubbers weren't too bad but wanted to replace them as a matter of course anyway. However, the rubber kit listed for boosted GC Galants and GD's was different. The rubbers were a slightly larger diameter and the big rubber at the end of the primary piston was a different thickness and a different internal diameter as well.

Here's a pic to explain:


But if you look in the manual, the new rubber in the kit is the one supplied in the kit


Odd. So I've got some foreign master cyl in the car. Fun.

Anyway, Naomi and I gave it a tub on Sunday and While the sun was out, I got a few happy snaps of it. The engine bay needs a little bit of a dust over but I didn't want to wash it out with the hose as some of the wiring is yet to be tidied up.

So close! SO DAMN CLOSE!!!!

Aerial shot! You can see where i've tucked a little breather filter just near the charcoal canister. It's only temporary until i can find somewhere to fit a catch can and plumb it back into the intake. I think I might try and make a little one to go between the strut tower and the airbox. Fast running out of room in there.









Not sure about that washer bottle still....


Clear cam cover! looking gnarly!!!!




Also today I fitted the kill-switch in a super hidden place with a clever bit of fabrication that I'd love to show you all, but posting it on the internet kind of negates the point of having a hidden kill-switch. I really wanted to show it off too

Anyway, that's it for now. Hopefully i can get these braked sorted out then that'll mean the cars done!

[Nath76LA]

The Galant is looking awesome Really like the look of that motor, especially with the clear cam cover.

[A112H]

This thing is looking very cool, you should be proud.

This pic is pure sex

[Nath76LA]

This thing is looking very cool, you should be proud.

This pic is pure sex

I Agree

[ghuphill]

BEUTIFUL

[Tj.]

Found a few old photos whilst digging thought the computer tonight that I thought some of you might enjoy

Just before paint




Poor old original engine


The obligatory bench built glamour shot


Should be picking up my rejuvinated master cyl and booster from Specialised Brake and Clutch tomorrow and should have it fitted and ready for the weekend. With a bit of luck it'll fix my braking woes, or my woah-ing woes...... It was funnier in my head.

[Tj.]

It's proper finished now!!! Woohoo!!!

We reinstalled the freshly rebuilt booster and master cyl early on Saturday morning, installed the non return valve in the return line then bled the air out of the system and there was an immediate improvement to the pedal feel.
Gone was the notchy, gritty feel on the return and it actually had brakes!

The first five minutes of driving had me a little on edge. The rear brake shoes were still bedding on and due to them not being perfectly round so the brakes weren't quite up to scratch but progressively improved throughout the weekend.
More concerning was the noises from the tailshaft. It was making the same "ting" noise it was making with the borked unis.
However I believe that they too were just settling in. We don't have a hydraulic press on hand so we usually make to with using the bench vice and an old socket as a drift to get the caps in. It hadn't made the noises since the first two or so hard launches.... sorta hard starts anyway, so they should be fine now.

There was also an odd metal on metal rubbing sound from around the gearbox initially too but they've also stopped. I think it may have been the collar thingy where the yoke of the tailshaft enters the gearbox.

Another thing, also, was the clutch feel. To start with it was really bitey, almost like a button clutch (which it isnt) but throughout the weekend it softened up a little and was quite nice. It needs a little more adjusting to get right, it crunches occasionally going into second but then again, 2nd has always been a bit iffy. It's not the best box but it'll do for now.

its fascinating how you can literally feel a car settle in over the first few K's

The fan, which I recycled from the Hyundai and hooked up to the lower temp sensor so it'll kick in at 90 deg, seems to keep the temps down but I'm not convinced its keeping temps consistent. Judging by the stock temp gauge it fluctuates high and low as the fan switches on and off.
Dunno if it'll be an issue but ill keep an eye on it.

But all in all, I'm stoked!!! It goes well and sounds great!! Its starting to pop and crackle on the over run and even has a little burble between gears

Its booked in for a wheel alignment for Saturday morning, which it really needs, its bump steering and wandering a little.
Now there's just a few loose ends to tidy up before an engineers cert.

That actually brings me to a question:
What are the benefits of a oil catch tank? I can plumb the breather straight into the manifold and it should be kosher but would it be worth running a catch tank to keep the gunk out of the motor?

When the weather clears up we're going to take the car out for a bit of a photo shoot with a friend of ours who's a budding photographer.
Should be fun!

[webby]

NEEDS MOAR VIDEOS

[GC75]

this car is awesome... love this ay... my most fav build topic!