My C32 Laurel Medalist V-Turbo hardtop

[broke]

Well I got that plug sorted, it put up a bit of a fight though. Saturday was a mildly productive day for me. Got the engine sitting back on the mounts. Took the expansion tank out and cleaned a s$#tload of rusty crap out of it with some rocks and degreaser. Went to bolt up the gearbox and uh-oh.... it doesn't fit. Not even close. I've got the same issue Brocky had when he tried putting the LD28 into the R30 - Nissan very thoughtfully put the mounting studs for the crossmembers in completely different locations. We're talking 300mm different here.

So yeah. I do now have it all mounted up, but I had to do some things I'm not proud of. In fact, I'm so not proud of it that I'm not even going to put up the pictures....

Anyway, I also fitted up my slave cylinder, dummied up the hose I'm going to use for the clutch and I'll swage it.

Here's what I'm doing for a clutch line - I'm sick of those crappy flared lines where the nuts get all seized, and I hate how Nissan put a male thread on the end of the hose into the slave cylinder so that you have to rotate the whole thing to undo it. These JIC adaptors will have female running nuts on the end of the hose go onto them, so nice and easy to remove and refit. As a bonus I can put caps over them to stop leakage too.

2013-03-09 19.53.36.jpg

So I got it to this point, fitted the exhaust back up, got the bonnet back on with Brocky's help and then called it a day.

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[broke]

New extension housing seal fitted. Exhaust hooked up again. Started putting the accessories back on, the alternator is a real prick because it's a Maxima 90amp one so the wiring isn't really long enough to go on nicely. Attached the heater hoses and noticed that the weird kink in one of them is perfect for allowing the clutch hose to go past.

Pulled the drain bung out of the box and it had a large stack of metal filings on it and some bits of bearing cage. Stink.

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I sort of stopped all work at this point when I saw that stuff. Do I carry on, fill it with gear oil and drive it and just see what happens? Or should I pull the gearbox out now while it's easy to get at, have it rebuilt and put it back in after even more delays?

I'm tempted to just run it, and Brock says he's seen similar stuff come out of working 71C gearboxes before that kept going. What do you guys think?

[DJZ]

Same as the bits that came out of the DR box, just not as many. There's a pretty good chance it'll be noisy. If it's the front counter shaft bearing it's reasonably easy to do, if it's the centre it's a pain in the ass, I just bought a rebuild kit and new shaft nuts for about $210.

[Bartman]

I'd fix it now too.

[broke]

Same as the bits that came out of the DR box, just not as many. There's a pretty good chance it'll be noisy. If it's the front counter shaft bearing it's reasonably easy to do, if it's the centre it's a pain in the ass, I just bought a rebuild kit and new shaft nuts for about $210.

Sounds like good value, does a rebuild kit include new synchros too? I see there are plenty of US sites selling 71C rebuild kits but it seems like there are a million different bearing and synchro sizes as well as bronze and steel synchro versions.

I'd fix it now too.

I don't know how. I might actually have to pay someone to do it. This pains me greatly.

Ah bugger it, my CDO won't allow me to run this thing without at least tearing it down and inspecting it and replacing the busted bearing first. (CDO is like OCD, but the letters are in alphabetical order, as they should be).

At least with a manual box where an auto was there is now tons of room to get at the thing. Well that's my weekend booked out then.

At least I got something done today - I made my clutch hose at work. Here it is.

[crustywhip]

I had the same with my Cefiro I brought of my old boss. Shifted fine but it was noisey. You have done so much on this it would be a shame to leave it.

[DJZ]

Same as the bits that came out of the DR box, just not as many. There's a pretty good chance it'll be noisy. If it's the front counter shaft bearing it's reasonably easy to do, if it's the centre it's a pain in the ass, I just bought a rebuild kit and new shaft nuts for about $210.

Sounds like good value, does a rebuild kit include new synchros too? I see there are plenty of US sites selling 71C rebuild kits but it seems like there are a million different bearing and synchro sizes as well as bronze and steel synchro versions.

Nah, no new synchros. I got the two shaft nuts off Scott, they only need replacing if you root them as I did. The bearing kit was from BTS Taranaki who advertise on Trademe, that's all the bearings, front gasket and the two seals. I did look at the kits on eBay but the chances of getting the wrong thing were pretty high.

[Bartman]

I get my bearings from Wilsone Bro's.
Rip that gearbox outta the hole, and we'll pull the bellhousing off. Then see what the butcher's bill is. A front bearing is a three minute fix. The center bearing is nearer three hours.
The main trick, is to have a nice clean bench space to work on. The rest is easy. (ish)

[classicdat]

I get my bearings from Wilsone Bro's.
Rip that gearbox outta the hole, and we'll pull the bellhousing off. Then see what the butcher's bill is. A front bearing is a three minute fix. The center bearing is nearer three hours.
The main trick, is to have a nice clean bench space to work on. The rest is easy. (ish)

Sounds like a great opportunity for some young guys to come and learn Bart so they can have confidence to tackle their own. Sounds like your weekend booked out too

[85_Z31]

if you need to I can print you out an A1 exploded view