Cefiro #3 - Can't Stay Away

[konect]

Been a while since I updated this...

Still haven't got the vibration fixed for a variety of reasons but expect to be able to take it in late June. I've spent the time doing a few other bits and pieces on the car.

While chasing vibration issues I noticed one wheel had a lot of movement for I bought new tension rods for the rear. Stock ones were gone and it's much stiffer now.

Finished carpeting over the metal sheet in the back and blocking the boot off from the interior. So much quieter now!

When I was tidying up the wiring in the back I noticed there was a heap of sandy gravel in the wheel arch. Upon inspection I found that when the arch was flared they never sealed it up. The passenger side has been fibreglassed at some point but the drivers was wide open. Welded some patches on it, bogged with metal reinforced filler, covered with tar coating.

The car never had an overflow from the header tank when I got it so I finally went to pick-a-part and found a radiator overflow I liked the shape of and would fit in the space I had. Think it came out of an Excel or something. Welded up a bracket for it to slide on to and got some silicon line. Working nicely now and doesn't spew out on the ground like it used to!

From November to March I was dealing with GKTech and their tie rod ends. Many dramas and I eventually got them to agree that they actually needed to provide jam nuts for them. I received jam nuts but I know a few people that haven't. Don't buy these - there are a danger without jam nuts and a pretty crap design all round. Also got some new Hardrace tie rods with lock spacers built in at the same time but had to trim them a bit to get the tie rod ends to fit with them.

Got a footrest and new climate control unit as the old one was busted and stuck on full fan and heat. This was a highlight of the last few months. You can imagine how much it sucks driving with the heater on full all the time.

Painted the drivers rear arch and welded up the crack in the passenger side front arch. The front one cracked the weld on the flare from bottoming out when we blew a strut driving it home from QLD. Came up alright for a spray can job!

Took the car for a spin, pulled into the servo and noticed the front brake line leaking. Got braided lines. The front ones are really long but looks like they need to be in order to have enough length at full lock. Bit too close to the sway bar for my liking but apparently normal...

Just this week while the car is on jackstands after doing the braided lines I put new steering rack bushes in. Passenger side took about 1 min. Drivers side took about 1 hour and a lot of swearing.

And now we are here....

Coming up in the next few months:

• Replace more bushes front and rear (I'm a bit addicted to this at the moment as they are so cheap!)
• Get a wheel alignment to correct everything
• Get vibration investigated
• Get a tune
• Drive it somewhere

Edited May 30, 2014 by konect

[works 510]

nice work!

Wish I had my own area to work on mine

[konect]

Yeh its nice being able to leave it on jack stands and work on it when I feel like it

Need to get yourself a place with a shed!

[works 510]

I own 5 cars, 3 motorbikes, need a factory, they require LARGE deposits

[konect]

A month since my last post. No pics this time. Drove the car tonight after bleeding the brakes and it felt like crap...hopefully wheel alignment fixes it then its off to the tailshaft shop!

Items completed:

• New ball joints all round
• New front and rear LCA bushes (I will never do this job again!)
• New front sway bar bushes
• Bled the brakes (still a bit squishy)

Activities coming up:

• Wheel alignment tomorrow morning - should be interesting as I haven't had once since replacing the arms/bushes.
• Tailshaft inspection in 3 weeks time!

[konect]

The cefiro woes continue. Tailshaft is all good and I was super excited. Put a second hand 2 way in and now it has this stupid vibration under load which I suspect is something to do with the clutch plates in the diff. Had it inspected and they couldn't find anything wrong with it.

Put the diff back in the car today and still rattling and rolling.

Upcoming excitement:

• Run break in, change to a different oil on diff, if it still vibrates, put stock diff back in and test
• Tune booked for next Thursday
• Get new tyres
• Hopefully get a spot for EXE Winton day 12 October and finally use the car after 2 years of owning it!!

[konect]

Update time!

So it's been an eventful couple of weeks. I took the diff in to be inspected and they pulled it all down and said there was nothing wrong with it. I got them to put some axle seals in while it was there. $300 later and I was no better off...

I put the stock diff back in to give it a test and it started doing the same banging/vibration it had done with the 2way! I established that it felt like it was the centre bearing (on the brand new tailshaft) so checked it out and boom - massive split through the middle of the rubber. It had only done about 1 hr of driving!!

Took it back to the tailshaft place and after some discussions about soft vs hard centre bearings they put in a Nissan one. I refitted to the car and wouldn't you know...no issues

I kept the stock diff in there for the tune just to be safe. Got it tuned last week and made ~220rwkw which wasn't too bad. Gained quite a bit of midrange. The Red line is the original tune, Orange is Trent's tune. Only issue was the VH41 AFM is no good at idle as its too big so its a bit rough now but will be upgrading to a z32 or 35GTR AFM when I get a new turbo kit.

One the weekend I refitted the 2way, swapped a new driveshaft in on the passenger side as it was leaking, test drove and NO VIBRATIONS!

After 2 years I can finally use the car

[PranK]

This is awesome! I love it.