Q's 1987 VL Calais Walkinshaw project

[Tasmaniak]

Hopefully this is of some help. If it's anything to go by... Cyl 1 should be closer to 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock

 

[Tasmaniak]

I have absolutely no idea why the photo is not showing up.... just try a direct link.
http://forums.justcommodores.com.au...8-holden-distributor-wiring-firing-order..jpg

 

[Deuce]

What way is the fuel lines meant to go in.... from fuel pump to passenger side of rail, through rail, to regulator, back to tank?
Q

Correct


I would check your timing is spot on.

 

[Tasmaniak]

I would check your timing is spot on.

+1 It's really the only thing left. It's obviously not electrical. You know it getting fuel. Air is not a problem so it just isn't happening at the right time.

 

[GRPAVL]

thanks taz and deuce.

Ill give it another crack tonight after work. Found this while trolling the net on 304 stuff.

from memory my rotor is pointing almost at the reference mark. hope its that simple.



Q

 

[GRPAVL]

cracked the dizzy off after dinner and oops, my pin wasn't aligned to the oil hole when i removed it. So I aligned it, refitted it and now the #1 dizzy is at about 2pm (meaning I was a tooth or 2 out).

anyways, with that i got the wife to record and after 2 misstarts (due to a loose battery connection) it fired into life (yeah boy).



::: PLEASE NOTE :::

At about 30 seconds the exhaust is very loud due to phone camera and straight off the headers.

You have been warned.

Video can be found at THIS LINK HERE ...

Q

 

[GRPAVL]

sorry - been slack again, busy with work etc etc.

just about finished the driveshaft loop and have started to fit the v8 exhaust back up.

been pissing around with the smaller wiring bits like oil lamps, water temp, alternator lamp, brake lamp, air con wiring etc etc etc

other than that I have made the template for my adapter plate to fit the four pot calipers to the 290mm rotor. remarkably easy. just about to have the final product made now (i dont have drills sharp enough for 7mm plate) so will be able to get some photos up next week i hope.

Q

 

[GRPAVL]

Well apart from the oil pressure concern I had last week the wiring is all but done.

I finished off the dash yesterday by adding 2 emergency lights from the vn dash I had (1 oil and 1 engine warning). It wasnt too hard as there was a spare bulb for the oil lamp and I used the old "pwr" lamp for the engine check lamp which works perfectly. Will try to remember to get a picture today.

Need to do some work on the speedo drive. It broke today after getting caught on the gear select lever. as in broke the plastic screw casing off the speedo drive. doh. will get a new one of them and add a 90degree bend this time.

Still looking for where the brake warnign light goes after leaving the brake master. thats todays job

Q

 

[GRPAVL]

got the speedo drive out today. My T700r trans has an 18 tooth drive and 45 tooth driven gear (ratio 2.5:1). Will replace the casing if i can tomorrow and reinstall.

I plan to add a 90 degree bend this time around if I can figure out the ratio differences between the T700r and the old 4spd 6cyl VL autobox. The bends arent cheap and can be made in any ratio required (within reason) so I only want to do it once. this will save me having to re calibrate the speedo as well (no jaycar kits here as its mechanical).

As I am running the same 3.45:1 raio diff the only other thing that will throw the speedo out is the rims and I know that the 205/60/15 to the 235/35/19 will run 3% faster ... or 103km/hr at 100 so thats no biggie.

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Got the brake brackets back today as well. bolted up first time on the test strut. Will paint them up and get some new pads over the weekend and fit them up so I can start on the modified front pipes to the 4pot calipers and bleed the system.

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Finally tracked down the missing gray wire from the brake master. it feeds back into some sort of plug on the steering column just above the key. I done quite know how it works but at this stage it doesnt appear to be earthing to tell me the resevoir has no fluid. Maybe it switches while the car is running or something? At this stage I unplugged the lead from the conection and run a wire to earth from it and the brake warning light come on. Something to look into later.

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Also on the hunt for a new radiator. The one from the donor car while nice looking on the outside isnt so nice on the inside. Most of the intake side is gunked up and blocked with brown crap and the flow from it is pitifull. Radiator man said it will cost more to recor than getting another one or an alloy one so what out there fits straight up (or close to).

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Plenty of pics to come, just need to find some time to get them off my crappy old phone

Q

 

[GRPAVL]

Photo Time

Got the new Turbo 700 trans speedo drive bracket today ($25) so now I can put that back together.

Figured out the original nissan/holden box had a 17 spline driven gear though I am still on the hunt to find out how many teeth are on the drive gear (so i can figure out the ratio). Have been told that it is part of the output shaft on the autobox and not a seperate drive gear like the t700 is.

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Dash cluster.

I decided that because I will no longer be using the power button from the original trans that I would remove the image in the warning panel and insert the engine check lamp in its place. This was quite easily done (about 30-40mins) and simply involved cutting the engine check from the VN dash I had at home and connecting the ecu engine check lamp wire to the old trans button.
While I was at it I used the spare lamp on the left hand side of the warning panel and with a bit of rewiring added the engine oil check lamp to it. (you can just see the green trace wire leading to it as a little soldering was required for that one

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Big Brake upgrade

As previously mentioned I decided not to spend $1000 - $1200 on the VT (or more for the VE brake upgrade) kit. One day (money allowing) I will buy the VE kit but for now funds are getting tight.
So I come up with a new solution for you all that only cost me $450 which included new VL 290x22mm Rotors, Mazda RX7 FD3S Series 6 4 pot calipers, New Mazda pads.

The Mazda caliper would bolt directly up if the Holdens spacing was wide enough but its not, the Holden is 78mm while the Mazda is 160mm

Here is the difference in the VL Commodore caliper (left) and the Mazda RX7 Caliper (right). As you can see the bolt spacing is miles out.

To remedy this you need to make up two plates from some 200mm x 30mm x 6mm (or 40mm wide if thats all you have like I did). Next drill the 4 holes as shown remembering to offset the inner holes down 4mm from the outer holes (6mm would be fine as well as this only aids to push the brake pad closer to the edge of the caliper).

Next use the original bolts that held the caliper to the strut and reverse mount them as such using nuts to tighten.

The tricky part is next as you need to somehow insert the spacers under the plate to take up the space between the caliper and strut. Once done tighten up with some new bolts into the factory strut mount position.

If you dont mind the word Mazda on the caliper then your big brake 4 pot upgrade is complete for about $400-$450.

Note: I have been told you can mill the Mazda lettering off as long as you leave the ridge there as the ridge is the fluid channel between the outer two pistons. I have not tried this but googling does show it to be a common practice

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So there you go.

A 4 pot caliper 290mm rotor setup for $450.

I havent tested the stopping ability yet but the factory Holden master cylinder is 15/16 and the Mazda one is 13/16 so it should actually make a harder pedal as well. guess time will tell

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