Project Brandy

[rkmiller73]

Looks good!

[cage]

Thanks Boof

[malscar]

Noice bling

[cage]

Getting the engine back tomorrow. Verdict - 50oz flex plate. Stupid dickhead.

[Dwayne]

No damage?

[cage]

Nothing reported, hopefully just a beautiful smooth engine this time.

[boofhead]

i will not say I told you so. it would be beneath me'

[Dwayne]

Just double checked the one that you sent me was 50oz ?

[cage]

Well I have another one for sale now, slightly used, haha.

And you be quite Boof.

[Dwayne]

Have you still got that slightly used 164t/50oz flexplate?

Looks like I may need one later this year.

[cage]

Yes I do Dwayne. It is here when you are ready.

[hybrid]

Any updates cage?

[Dwayne]

Yes I do Dwayne. It is here when you are ready.

I am ready when George & Hybrid are ready.

[cage]

Any updates cage?

Yes Hybrid, I haven't had much of chance to do I write up but I will soon. Gear Vendors is now installed though.

[cage]

Ok so a week ago Hybrid joined me in installing the Gear Vendors unit. Let me just say that you get what you pay for. All up it took about 3 hours and to be frank was a breeze, apart from the yoke, but more on that later. Below are some shots

We um'd and ah'd for a while on whether to take the gearbox out or try to install the GV with the box in the car. After looking at all the gear we decided that if we used a transmission jack (which we found lying around, woohoo) with the crossmember off we could get enough clearance so it was worth a try.

First off we disconnected the speedo drive etc from the box, dropped the tailshaft, released the crossmember and took the old C4 extension housing off. C4 looks pretty clean. Also took the transmission mount of the stock housing




Next was to mount the transmission mount back onto the new housing supplied by GV and install the housing with the supplied gasket. This was pretty easy, tightened bolts to spec and all sorted. Next there is a coupling supplied that engages the tailshaft splines you slide in to the end of the housing. There is a certain spacing requirement for this so shims are supplied to get the position right. This was a little tricky with the box still in the car as the shims kept falling and stopped the coupling from sliding in properly but with a little patience we got it sorted pretty quick.









Now once that is done it was time to install the GV unit itself. Again this was not overly hard, with two people and the box still in the car, as we had to clear some of the cables to get it lined up properly. This is where we came into our only problem. You are supposed to install the yoke and use that to line up the splines however we could not get the yoke in no matter what we tried. It kept fouling on the inside bush of the GV unit. We probably spent 30min of the 3 hours on this alone and decided that we would install the GV without the yoke properly installed for now. I will come back to this later





Lastly was to install the speedo cable assembly back onto the GV including a speed sensor (pulse generator), 90degree speedo drive unit etc. Again everything is though of and easily installed








We then set the wiring up through to the cabin and connected to the controller and provided switches for auto/man and shift switch.

With everything installed and connected the attention was put back onto the yoke. After another 30min of stuffing around it was obvious that something just wasn't right and we did not want to just bang it in there and hurt something so we called it a day. I then made contact with Gear Vendors who again were straight onto why this might be occurring. There were two possibilities;

1. They received a bad batch of yokes around the time that my unit was produced. They caught it quickly but some were sent out before they knew. the problem is there is some slightly added material on the inside of the yoke only on 180degrees of the inside that is about 1-2mm thick stopping the yoke from going on straight and fouling on the bush. Solution is a new yoke

2. With the unit being delivered overseas sometimes the drive shaft can go off centre a bit with all the trucks and boats and the way people treat boxes etc making it hard for the yoke to centre on the bush.

To be honest we both thought number 2 was probably the more likely however as we inspected the yoke you could definitely feel the added material and lip on the inside. You couldn't see it but could definitely feel it. This would effectively push the yoke to one side slighting on the shaft making it foul on the bush. Gear Vendors sent a new yoke straight away and hopefully I will see that this week. Then I can get the tail shaft measured up and shortened and back in.

Will update once I get the new yoke so cross fingers