Sigma-galant.com

congrats mate. im mega excited for you (Y)

I got an interesting email yesterday afternoon.

It's from a bloke named Dennis who edits a blog/publication called Gearbox Magazine. Check em out
He said he'd like to do a feature about our little coupe on the blog! He said he saw it over on japanesenostalgiccar.com
It's quite flattering that my little project is generating interest around the intarwebs.

I'll make sure to post the results and give SG.com a big plug in the interview I think I should finally put together a video for it too

**EDIT** Cool!, just found TUFSIG on there

That's some serious props, congratulations mate

Quick update, mainly to share photos.

Spent the weekend up in the Hunter Valley and took the Galant on it's first long distance trip ever
Took the back way up there from Sydney using Putty road and terrorised some motorcyclists.. until they found a straight stretch of road and left us for dead
The car didn't miss a beat! never even thought about overheating, never ran out of brakes and cornered nice and flat. However it did bring out a few faults that aren't evident (or really even a problem in) urban driving.

While it cornered flat and never felt like it was going to under/oversteer it did really show just how sloppy the steering box is. Some of the really quick corners got a little hairy because you just couldn't feel the front wheels. It doesn't wander it's just vague. Like trying to pick something up when your hand's gone to sleep, everything functions perfectly fine and theoretically there shouldn't be a problem but it's still difficult. It felt hard to confidently place the car on the road is what i'm trying to get across.

The other thing is that the rear end now feels a tad too soft. I think the shocks are all wrong. It bottoms out pretty badly when it really shouldn't and crashes pretty hard on big bumps. In fact it sounds like there's a seatbelt bolt of something hitting the tailshaft Gonna have to climb under the car and check that one out.

The syncros in this gearbox are getting a bit knackered. This I already knew. Second gear has always been stiff and crunched when decelerating hard and changing from third. And the whole thing has always been a bit sticky. After three and a bit hours of driving the palm of my left hand was getting pretty sore.

Oh and it really needs a 5 speed. It wasn't so bad coming up putty because your speed is always changing but on the way home we joined the F3 at Calga which really isn't far from the end but by the time we hit Hornsby my head was throbbing.
The plus side of always being in 4th is that at 100km/h overtaking is a cinch! you just plant your foot and watch the needle wizz past legal speeds!

Anyway, enough on my moaning. Heres some pics!


nine and three - nine and three - nine and three.....
and yes that is 3500+ rpm at 100km/h


The brewery we stayed at, called Potters Brewery. They make some mean beers!


(curly) white line fever


Proof it's not some pampered trailer queen.
In fact this road was smoother than some of the main highways around the Hunter, and they were sealed!


homeward bound

Tj. wrote:Some of the really quick corners got a little hairy because you just couldn't feel the front wheels. It doesn't wander it's just vague. Like trying to pick something up when your hand's gone to sleep, everything functions perfectly fine and theoretically there shouldn't be a problem but it's still difficult. It felt hard to confidently place the car on the road is what i'm trying to get across.

This can also be caused by sidewall flex in the tyres. Lower profile tyres can help reduce that issue.

Wide tyres, on the other hand, can cause the car to "track", ie follow ruts in the road.

Running 225-50-16 tyre all round on the wagon and changing lanes on the freeway at 110kph can sometimes be very unnerving, because the steering wheel seems to have a mind of it's own if there are ruts.
There is minimal slop in the steering box and all the ball joints, tie rod ends, wheel bearings etc.... are less than a year old.
Power steering would most likely help with this but can't be bothered installing it in the old girl.

Tj. wrote:The syncros in this gearbox are getting a bit knackered. This I already knew. Second gear has always been stiff and crunched when decelerating hard and changing from third. And the whole thing has always been a bit sticky. After three and a bit hours of driving the palm of my left hand was getting pretty sore.

What gearbox are you using?

Tj. wrote:and yes that is 3500+ rpm at 100km/h

That is a little high. What is your diff ratio?
The wagon sits on 2400rpm at 100kph in 5th gear but I'm running a 3.308 scorpion diff.

Good to see you out and enjoying the beast..


Cheers.

It's running a stock 4 speed, hence the high revs at 100km/h. I have a few spares but I don't know how much better they are. It's not a problem, it was just getting a bit much on a long drive.

I know what you mean about wide tyres on skinny rims. The galant has 195/65 (i think...) R14s so they feel pretty good.
The zed runs 215/65 R14s on 6" wide rims combine that with stuffed shocks and Buggered rubbers it makes it feel like you're driving a Zorb down a spiral staircase. That's all getting replaced when I get some time.

Every steering component in the coupe is brand new. So I know its the steering box. I just don't know what I can do about it. I know you can replace bearings but that's only half the problem.

Having said all that, its fine for tooling about the burbs and once I get the Zed fixed up it'll be our long hauler. Way more comfortable.

Tj. wrote:So I know its the steering box. I just don't know what I can do about it.

Have you tried the adjuster nut?

As for tyre track, my wagon (with 13x6 +5's with 205 60 13 tyres) never tracks at all, but my hatch (with 16x8 +10's with 205 45 16 tyres) is the worst car I have ever driven for tracking. BTW my Hatch never tracked at all with the old rims 14x6 +26's with 185 60 14 tyres.

Dave...

I have found "tracking" has nothing to do with wheel track, wheel size or offset. It is all about tyre profile, anything under 55 series will "track". What this refers to is "train tracking" nothing to do with the track of your car.
The lower the profile the worse it gets. I had 40's on my VR-4 and that would grab every line on the road, lol

i agree 100% with what jason says. im running 215/35/19s on my astra and that thing just tracks like anything. the LC never tracks and mums cj lancer has i think 40s (series tyre) on there and that tracks but not as bad as the astra.

BTW, just for the record,
What I meant to say here (but obviously abbreviated too much)

75wagon wrote:As for tyre track, my wagon... etc...

Was:
As for tyre tracking.

I understand that the track of the car (width across the car) has nothing to do with if a car 'train tracks'

Dave...

I know what you mean about the steering. Mine is the same. I think the steering boxes on the Galant's are adjustable to get rid of the play in the steering.

Enough talking about steering(jokes) i wanna see a vid of this thing stratn its stuff

I'm getting to it. I just have stuff all spare time at the moment.
I'm going to, hopefully soon, start this article that the guys at gearboxmagazine.com want me to do and I'm going to try to put together a video for that.
Problem is, nearly all of my precious little spare time is going to be spent replacing the motor and suspension in the Zed. I'm getting well fed up with it stopping from fuel evaporation on my way home from work EVERY fkn afternoon

The fact that my poor old 260Z is a bit of a mess mechanically means I've had my hands full with it so the Galant hasn't gotten much love lately.

It has had plenty of use though and flat out refuses to miss a beat. Considering I built the engine I'm pleasantly surprised

Anyway, having a good friend who's a very talented photographer comes in awful handy sometimes:



This photo just reminds me of all the happy years I spent tooling about in my old GD when I was younger. The B&W only reinforces the nostalgia

So, it appears that the gearbox has gone and shat it's pants.



First is difficult to find and third is completely AWOL
Weird thing is though, it didn't go bang, doesn't make any funny noises (except for a slightly grumbly throwout bearing) it just happened.

Stay tuned for photos of gore-y destruction and tales of me throwing wobblies trying to pull the motor and gearbox back out

I have a spare 4-speed at work that came out of the GB - was working OK, just replaced it with a 5 speed

cheers
Gaz

Thanks Gary, but I already have two spare 4 speeds in the shed that should work. If they're not any better I'll give you a call.

Just wish I had a 5 speed to put in while I'm going to all the effort of pulling it apart

Check these out TJ.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-par ... 305796.htm

That would solve ya gearbox issues once and for all

I'd love to put a W55 behind it but its a bit exxy at the moment.
Besides, I'm running a narrow block

Erm.... Fixed it.

The bolts that hold the base of the shifter in had come loose

The threads are a bit shitty so I'm going to pick up some new bolts and clean out the bolt holes in Tue topple of the box to make sure they stay in there.

Don't I feel like a tool now

Dude, that is kinda funny but I can make you feel better.

I bought a new exhaust gasket last week, after I pulled the extractors off cleaned them all up, siliconed the next gasket and went to fit it, it was the wrong one. I then spent ages with wax n grease remover getting all the silicone off so they wouldn't know, drove the 20 mins back to the shop I got it from and said it was the wrong one, I even took the one from my car as an example and it clearly didn't fit.
The guy behind the counter looked at it, tried it and it didn't fit.
He then looked at me, flipped it over and WHALAH, perfect match.

Yeah, I felt like a dick, lol

Not a winning moment... But at least it was only a gasket and nothing major.

I had the same problem a while ago with my jap 5 speed Tj. I was driving to the shops for lunch from work and all of a sudden it felt like I had extra gears and my neutral was all over the place, went home to have a look and fair enough the the 3 bolts at the bottom of gearshift were loose.

just to make you feel even better, over the christmas holidays me and a mate were working on another mates
patrol before going 4 wheel driving, he went and picked up a new air filter for it and all stuff to service it,
my mate picks up the air filter box to fit it and looks on the cover and it showed a panel filter (we needed a ring type),
we then drove back to the parts store to have the guy open the box to reveal the right type of filter

all we needed to do was open the box!

didn't my mate (a MECHANIC) cop some shit that night / the next day / the next month / forever

Bahaha!! Awesome stories!
At least I discovered it before pulling the car half to bits.

SNAP QUIZ!!

Rare (apparently) "Bilbo" 14 x 6.5 +9 offset



Or;

SSR Supershark 14 x 6.5 +11 offset




Pictures googled for illustrative purposes only, not the actual wheel sets I'm looking at

Thats a tough one, I have always loved Bilbo's but the Sharks are always a hit.
Think I would go for the Bilbo's based on offset, every mm counts, lol

A112H wrote:Think I would go for the Bilbo's based on offset, every mm counts, lol

Yeah true.
Tj, what front struts are you running? You might be able to go more?

Dave...

GH greens.
I'd love more offset but I'm kinda limited by budget and availability of wheels. I can pick up these sets pretty damn cheap.

Well, considering I was reminded of them as I opened this thread back up tonight, I've realised I'd completely forgotten about the Bilbo's. Damn. They were only $400 at otomoto for a set in need of a decent clean crap.

Anyway,
WHAT THE SHIT IS THIS!!

WHAT THE HELL ARE HOTWIRES DOING ON MY CAR!

well....


(not bad considering these are nearly 3 and a half years old)

That's why Today of all days where the average rainfall in Sydney's been around the 150mm mark. Balls.
At least the little lady was able to get it to work without borking the tyre or the rim.

All this rain has shown that the poor old girl is about as water tight as the MS Herald of Free Enterprise
The front screen is leaking around the bottom on the passenger's side into the footwell and after pulling the spare out today I discovered that the spare wheel well was also full of water but it was still fresh and clean so I'd say that its come up though the little cover over the the fuel gauge sender (which is just sitting there) today. I towelled it dry tonight so no harm done.
The back screen leaks a little too, but only weeping.

But I have plans in place. The boss lady is going overseas for 5 weeks and the car will be not needed so I'm going to try and track down a screen for it. The original has a nasty big chip in it and is scratched so badly and thoroughly it's nearly opaque. I spoke to a guy some time ago who was quite adamant he could get screens for coupes but I never followed it up. I'm a little doubtful that he can anyway. But I do have a rubber that Shuggy sourced from Japan stashed away so thats a start.

Plus there's a swag of other stuff I want to do.

I need to fix the drivers side window winder mechanism. The gear on the back of the winder handle has stripped. I have a few sedan mechanisms that I'm going to try and cannibalise to fix it. Stay tuned, that'll be a fun one.
I've been a bit of a slack arse but I was chasing up a bloke that has a 5 speed for sale. I think I may have missed the boat on that one too (noticing a pattern here?)
There's a seat belt bolt that touches the tailshaft when we hit a big bump or if there's people in the back that I need to shorten.
The brakes are sticking a bit, they've always done it but I'd like to figure out why
The water pump pulley just nicks the wires on the thermofan. Need to sort that out
The bracket for the windscreen washer bottle is starting to break and go all floppy. Scored a bucked of stainless steel offcuts from a mate that may come in handy.
I think the back shocks are on their way out, it just doesn't handle right.
I also think the front wheel bearings might be a bit "how's your father" so I'll look into those too.


Man, I think I need to send her away for longer, that's gonna be tight in 5 weeks.
Oh well, plenty of work to post up in june then!


**EDIT** I just remembered. My Dad has tracked down a bloke that rebuilds old style steering boxes fabricating the worn parts from scratch. Apparently he works for a company that does some sort of work with steering components but does these on the side for peoples restoration jobs. He's going to do the box for Dads 2000 sports so if he does a good job I might sling him one of the spare Galant steering boxes I have.