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11 minute(s) of a 241 minute read
3-2-2017
I've been driving it little more now, to be honest i'm falling in love how it drives again. It really reminds me on the first couple of drives when i bought the car, i was afraid not to turn into a tail happy drift car, but it sure wasn't the case. The torsen diff grips extremely well, and it has that solid feeling, not the rubbery feeling of the bmw and mercedes, the pick up of the line is just as i remember it, first lifts the back up then the front end and goes, i still haven't tried high speed cornering but from my experience the balance is much improved, it has no understeer at all, and the back follows the front well, there's a little amount of flex in the chassis but it always has have it. All in all i'm satisfied with the results, not sure if i would recommend that much work to someone else but i would do it again if i have to.
4-6-2017
Last night we had rain so i decided even the steering is not fixed to take this car to the spot where i used to drift it, and try to drift it, at first was holding a drift nicely, but as the tires warmed up and the surfaced dried it started to grip hard, it definitely needs more power to overcome the gear ratios, i thought the 405 are light at the back and i can do a little drifting but i'm pleasantly surprised of how well the chassis is handling the big changes and my abusive driving so i'll have to look else way for drifting, also the hydraulic clutch and short throw shifter are definitely an improvement, sorry no pictures it was dark and wet .
4-30-2017
I've had some time and did little more investigation, i thought the engine use to be more powerful but it's been so long since i've driven it hard that i don't remember, but my fuel/air mixture did seem to be all over, so i started changing injectors adjusting fuel pressure no change, then moved to the ignition, put in new bosch spark plugs new coil, and no change, but when i replace the igniter there was obvious change even starting it takes less time, after couple km driven my air/fuel started stabilizing and i can feel the ignition advance as it used to it really comes alive over 4k and pulls harder and harder, but this revealed a new problem, now i'm getting some serious axle hop, on high starts and burnouts, like is a live axle and has broken leaf spring, there was no hopping with less power, has anyone any experience what can be causing this or any fix?
5-1-2017
All of yours suggestions made me want to troubleshoot this even further, so i called a friend got her to drop the clutch at 5k whale i was watching from the back, we did this couple of times, and found that first to vibrate is the drive shaft, than the exhaust and then the diff and mustache bar, after all that then the tires start to skip, but in the meanwhile the diff is bouncing like a pendulum, after i drop my friend off pull the car in the garage and hummer in couple of plastic wedges in those bushings, drivers side has a split and knowing i'll have to replace them taught should try, so with the wedges if i preload the drive shaft the cars leave like a missile very little vibration until the tires grip up and go's, this lasted maybe 5-6 times and the the hop return, when i got back home looked under and took those photos, the wages were gone, only small piece mushroomed was left, it seams the forces are quite big, also managed to measure the angle of the trailing arms, is between 10 and 12 degrees, now i need to figure out what to use in those bushings, even with the wages in there there was lots of vibrations and noise, which i hate, any thoughts?
The diff is mounted like that so the axles are straight on ride height, and the fuel tank is lower then the diff by couple of centimeters, SRDT is right with the hydraulics it never goes lower than this, no matter the load, the car looks higher on pictures probably, but on the lowest point at the fuel tank is only 7,5sm from the ground, but has no scraping issues, roads here are not the best, steep driveway high sidewalks never scraps, you can see on page 10 when i was washing it how steep my driveway is, that is not a problem, i'm not sure if i can found polyurethane here to make my own bushings, white plastics like teflon, nylon, delrin are available and i can turn one on my lathe in minutes, about the complexity, those cars were ahead of their times, and the ride they provide is superior to FWD 405, this is the main reason why i've been thru all this to save it and enjoy it.
The mustache bar is made from spring steel, one of the first jobs i did is to strengthen couple of spots back at the start of my build thread, its made to flex only back and forward but is stiff left to right, to resist twisting under load, and how accurate are smartphone dynamometers, i did a pull and the app showed 155kw crank on gasoline and 144 kw on LPG, and feels faster then ever with the long gearing it starts to move around (wheel spin) near redline, is this right, things done to the engine are reground camshafts, aftermarket fuel regulator, redesigned intake manifold, much bigger throttle body, cone filter, good flowing exhaust, remap ECU with a very agressive ignition map even with all of that 155 kw seam high?
6-11-2017
No "whoop de doo" has ever put the diff in the ground, i've been accidentally airborne with this car and landed flat without even a scrape, the WRX behind me at the time broke a front control arm and crashed, that thing made a light show of sparks, lately i've been busy and have been waiting on heim joints, to be able to fix the steering the right way, but i've order left hand threads joints, forgetting i'm running a rack not a steering box, and now i have to buy a M12 left threading tap, or order a right tread heim joints, wich i may do, bigger should last longer and if i can put a rubber boot on them to look like OEM rod end.
6-18-2017
Today i was finally able to find to buy a M12 left tap, also bought couple of carbide inserts for the lathe, with different geometries, funny thing here is that those inserts cost more then the gearbox i've used to do this converson, more to come.
6-19-2017
Today i started to work on fixing the steering on this project, as you can see the steering wheel is straight and as i lifted one side you can see the bump steer, the wheel turns a lot, for mock up i use a scrap piece of steel and duct tape and i left around one centimeter clearance between the heim joint and wheel rim, after all the dimensions i took, i made the adapters, threaded one side M12 left other side M12x1,5, and two left threaded lock bolts, also cut open a factor rod end, to be able to measure the taper angle, so i can duplicate it on the drop adapters, more to come.
6-20-2017
Today was a long day working on this project, started by machining a 7 degree taper and M10 thread, wanted to make it attach fully on the taper and to make full contact on the 22 mm hex stock, this meant machining and testfiting it on the car many times, then i machined the other side, put a 30 degree taper to relieve it to have more travel on the joint, then i machined a 24 mm head bolt with M12 threads, i did this as a safety, if the ball falls of brass socket it can't completely disintegrate i also put an 90 degree taper to allow more travel on the joint, i'll grounded the edge of the bolt in place to make more space between it and the inside of the wheel, i also made two 17 mm headed M12 bolts to lock the safety bolts, tomorrow i'll install them and test them, more to come.
6-22-2017
Today i was finally able to finish mounting the new tie rod ends, and they won't work, i still have massive amounts of bump steer and they hit the inside of the rim on the inside edge, so i can't turn the wheel full lock, so there is no quick fix, i'll have to put the entire car on jack stands level remove the front springs and start moving steering rack and modifying the knuckles, i like the feel of this fiat rack and it has the lowest profile posible, so i'll keep it but may need to move it forward and do something like the drifters do to there cars to get more angle, in order to not rub on the wheels and remove the bump steer, on a happier note i drove it little and gave both 405's a happy 30th birthday wash, and as always the mi16x4 started to run lean i know immediately what is, this car has always had troubles with fuel leaks, even the stainless steel braided AN6 lines had leaks, so i put this fuel rated hose, it also developed a leak and the fuel pressure dropped, i must have some acid in the fuel tank or something that eats thru rubber, more to come.
