The Kadini coupe!

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gemsince88
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by gemsince88 »

s*#t just seemed to fall into place in the last few weeks for this project. I'm always on the look out for certain parts and usually when something comes up I'm broke but this time it all happened. Firstly I was after a C22NE or C24SE Rodeo gearbox and then I noticed Pick N Payless in Blacktown had one and the price was too good to resist. So off to Sydney I went and pulled the gearbox and sump off this Rodeo for $220.

ImageDSC_0911 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Got home and thought I wonder what engines are out there. 5 minutes later I had found a guy in Minto stripping a turbo Astra. I messaged him saying I wanted everything on the engine and asked a price. He came back with $1200 which considering a long bare one of these engines is going for $1700 is bloody good. So the very next weekend I went back down to Sydney and helped him pull it out of the car. He was really nice and another completely mad car guy!

ImageDSC_0912 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageDSC_0913 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageDSC_0914 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageDSC_0917 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Found a fly wheel from C22NE Rodeo on Ebay so bought that. Test fitted.

ImageDSC_0916 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageDSC_0920 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

This weekend I had a little bit of a play fitting the engine mount brackets. I bought these off eBay years ago.

ImageDSC_0915 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The drivers side is pretty straight forward with a minor wiring relocation needed.

ImageDSC_0919 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The passenger side is a different story. The outlet on the turbo pointed straight at the engine mount, oil lines were in the way, and the ac compressor bracket shares a bolt hole. So I wondered if I could turn the front housing 90 degrees and proceeded to pull everything apart. I found the turbo is really stiff, no shaft play but hard to turn so ordered a rebuild kit for it.

ImageDSC_0918 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageDSC_0921 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The plan is to take everything that needs modifying to work and cut the s*#t out of everything then put it all back together but different.
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Jonno
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by Jonno »

Definitely keep the spooliboi on there.

Cheap fasts they make ok power from factory without leaning on them too hard?
The resident flog we know seemed to think so.
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gemsince88
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

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The last couple of weeks have involved taking things to work, making modifications, test fitting then repeating. The turbo was pulled apart and basically just cleaned all the crap out of it. Just replaced the thrust washer and the nut as everything else was in good condition and there was less play in the original bearing than the new chinesium one.

First thing was to modify the turbo front housing so the outlet pointed straight out. Cut the inlet pipe down and had it welded back together.

ImageIMG_20190715_151606 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190715_151615 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190719_151634 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I made this out of a used receiver drier to replace the fitting that was cut out the front housing. It'll go somewhere on the intake when that's figured out.

ImageDSC_0924 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Modified the waste-gate actuator to suit.

ImageIMG_20190715_151632 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Cut up the oil feed line then silver soldered annealed copper tube on to extend it. Also makes it flexible enough move if needed. I'm still stuffing about with the drain.

ImageIMG_20190715_151709 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Cut a section off the mount to clear the oil drain. Cut too much but doesn't matter.
ImageIMG_20190715_151649 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Cut a notch out of the ac compressor mount.

ImageIMG_20190715_151735 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Fitted the turbo back up to the manifold then test fitted. The front housing still hit the mount and the dipstick tube sat right in front if the turbo intake. I modified the dipstick tube with a crowbar. The whole manifold needed to be spaced away from the block, which meant a spacer and longer studs was needed. I ordered a 12mm flange plate and because I'm a tight arse I made longer studs out of high tensile bolts.

ImageIMG_20190719_151607 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190726_122856 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

After all that I bolted the manifold on and it fit. The front housing just touched the top bolt on the mount.

ImageIMG_20190726_160625 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I eventually pulled the sump off and found this contraption "balance shafts". If had known it had this s*#t I would have grabbed the girdle and splash plate from the Rodeo engine. You can get balance shaft delete kits from the UK for about $400 but surely there's a cheaper option. I will try and find a C24SE girdle but if not plan B is to weld some bits into this then take to it with the 9" grinder.
ImageIMG_20190726_153105 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageDSC_0923 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Good news is the oil pickup and sump bolt straight on with maybe a trim of the gasket. Depends what gasket you get I suppose.

ImageIMG_20190726_160245 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190726_160320 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Got myself a diesel cross member and plonked it on the upside down engine to get an idea of what is needed. I'm still thinking how to do the mounts. The idea is to mount the engine and box 60mm further forward which would then mean an auto tail shaft will go straight in, clearance for all the crap on the rear of the engine and you may even get the speedo drive straight in with the dreaded TX flat floor manual gearbox mount.

ImageDSC_0925 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190726_160558 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190726_160551 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

A new RA Rodeo clutch and all the bits to convert to cable clutch.

ImageDSC_0926 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageDSC_0927 (Medium) by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr
Last edited by gemsince88 on Sun Aug 18, 2019 1:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Jonno
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by Jonno »

You'll have this done by Geminats at the rate you are going
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gemsince88
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by gemsince88 »

Yeah Jonno which year though? Long way to go yet.

Extra content
How it looks with the turbo, manifold bolted back up with the mount.

ImageIMG_20190729_212303 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr
Last edited by gemsince88 on Sun Aug 18, 2019 1:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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moley
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by moley »

Good work man
I'm trying to get mine done too yes Jonno, been test driving it a bit making sure it's gonna be long drive possible
Coupe rebuild number 6..
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gemsince88
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by gemsince88 »

Thanks

I have my finger in a few pies with this project at the moment. Getting ahead of myself I think!

So it turns out getting a crank girdle for a Z20 is a bit harder or more expensive than expected. The C24SE Rodeo at Pick N Payless is long gone and they have a C22NE Rodeo now but the C22NE doesn't have a girdle. Then any bastard with a C24SE parts engine isn't willing to pull the girdle out so I went to plan B! Plan B involved cutting up an EB Falcon steering rack tie rod and jamming it between the bolt holes above/below, whatever, the balance shafts. This was then sent out to get TIG welded on, for free of course. When it comes back I'll cut the balance shafts off, somehow, drop saw, 9" grinder, gas axe, C4!

ImageIMG_20190807_134117 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The turbo plumbing is all sorted for now. The oil drain is done and I picked up some silicon hoses to cut up to use the factory inlet crossover pipe.

ImageIMG_20190809_214053 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Ever wondered what the difference between the petrol and diesel cross members are. 50mm further forward and 12 degrees steeper! I still needed to move the mounting point of the engine another 30mm forward and compensate for diesels spastic 12 degree difference. So a 75 x 25 flat bar was cut up. First I cut it at work with the drop saw to 130mm long, an hour later of noise, sparks and tripping the saw, thats what I had. Next thing was to have it cut down the guts at 12 degrees. Sent it out to get cut! Bugger trying to use the drop saw for that!

ImageIMG_20190809_141744 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The plan is to bolt the wedges to the cross member and bolt the rubber mounts to the wedges 30mm forward.
I could have just put a big lump of steel from a petrol crossmember to cover the 80mm or made some custom bracket off the cross member but a big lump of steel would start putting torque on the mount bolts which I thought wasn't good. Couldn't be bothered making a custom bracket! An added advantage of the wedges is there is a small amount of adjustabilility with them like up, down, side to side and angle of the dangle. In theory.

ImageIMG_20190809_214010 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Years ago I picked up a set of turbo Piazza brakes, front and rear, or so I thought. When I went to fit them to my TG I found the calipers were for the non turbo 230mm rotors not 250mm. To make them fit I had the rotors cut down to 230mm. This is dodgy as the pads hung over the innner diameter edge a couple of mm but it worked.

ImageIMG_20190804_163252 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Recently I picked up some turbo rotors and calipers so the plan is to pull the Piazza stub axles off the TG and convert Gemini stub axles to fit the Piazza calipers then fit them back on the TG leaving all turbo Piazza stuff for the coupe.

ImageIMG_20190804_163307 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

A long time ago I read that all you had to do to convert Gemini stub axles was to drill the threads out and fit washers in between the caliper and axle. Where that came from I don't know but it's bulls*#t! The problem is the Gemini stub axles aren't machined flat on the side you mount the Piazza calipers, its just raw casting. Another thing is you can only convert late model single piece axles as when you machine enough off the early axles with seperate caliper mounting bracket to fit there won't be enough material left.

ImageIMG_20190804_171344 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I thought this wasn't a problem as I should have a pair of late axles that came off the TG when the Piazza axles went on. Nope! I only found one. The other must have grown legs. So I'm currently sourcing another.

ImageIMG_20190804_171411 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The first thing was to get the Gemini axle in the lathe and turn the casting off. I only took just enough off so it was flat. The second was to drill the threads out to 10mm. This was all easier said than done as these axles are bloody hard material. The lathe work was really slow and the drilling needed the drill press on dead slow with lots of lube. They fit pretty well though and put some pics up later.

The other bright idea I had was to fit power steering to the coupe. Years ago I acquired a Piazza power steering rack and Jackaroo power steering pump with bracket to fit to the TG but that never happened as there was too much pissing about to make it fit and I didn't have the gear to do it. So I thought why not fit it to the coupe.

The first problem with the Piazza rack is the mounting brackets are wider than the Gemini ones. My solution was to weld up the holes in the brackets and redrill the to suit the Gemini cross member.

ImageIMG_20190809_214043 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The second problem with the Piazza rack is that it's 20mm longer on the passenger side from the pinion. You could fit it as is but you could run out of thread on the tie rods when you align things. So I pulled it all apart and figured out how to take 20mm out of it.

ImageIMG_20190807_090607 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The first thing was to shorten the housing but getting it into the lathe was a trick with the equipment I have. I put the pinion side in in the chuck and held the other end with the pointy, spinny dodad thingy on the other end then turned the ridges on the end down to 50mm diameter. The first ridge measured at 50.5mm and the second at 51.5mm so no biggy.

ImageIMG_20190807_090810 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Put a 6010 bearing on the end of the housing and mounted the bearing in the 3 pointed clamp thingy. This left the end open to be machined. Bored the end plug ridge in 20mm, machined 20mm off the end and cut a new circlip groove.

ImageIMG_20190807_092221 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190807_102255 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Now that the end plug/rack bearing sits in further it now covers one of the fluid ports so I machined a groove around it to line up with the port then cut grooves from there to the end to allow the fluid into the hydraulic cylinder.

ImageIMG_20190807_110658 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190807_112509 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Next thing was to shorten the rack. Relatively simple job really in the lathe. Just remade the shape of it 20mm further in then cut the 14mm thread.

ImageIMG_20190808_095642 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190808_104415 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190808_105244 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Put it together and compared it to a Gemini rack. You'll notice the rack is still longer than the Gemini one but the Piazza tie rods are shorter. The whole lot is within 1 or 2mm of the Gemini rack.

ImageIMG_20190809_150124 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190809_150302 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190809_150137 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190809_150151 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190809_150158 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190809_150212 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190809_150237 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The third problem with the Piazza rack is the pinion. It has a spline connection to the column where the the Gemini is one piece to the rag joint. The spline is the same on the end of the Gemini steering column and so my initial thought was to use 2 of the spline bits that join the column to the rag joint but way too long. Then I thought a universal coupling or a rag joint from something else. I could make something up but then it would need to be scrutinized by an engineer and replacing it if needed would be a pain. If I can say this part is from that car it makes life a lot easier. Forget about the rack shortening business, it'll look factory! Problem is the spline is not a common size in the aftermarket scene and not documented when it comes to OEM stuff. It's looking like a Toyota Liteace rag joint/coupling will fit, maybe. I'll find out, the hard way of course!

Then there is the pump to run this s*#t! I could just get something like an Astra electric pump, nah! I would have to find somewhere to mount it then and wire it. So I'm going to use the Jackaroo pump I have. It's a nice small unit and I already own it. It'll go somewhere here.

ImageIMG_20190809_214358 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Jackaroo had a V belt setup and the Z20 has a 5pk belt so I needed a 5pk pulley on the pump.

ImageIMG_20190809_214145 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I found a 6pk compressor pulley on an old compressor in this pile.

ImageIMG_20190810_155230 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190809_214207 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I'll weld it on to the original V pulley something like this after I've figured out how to mount the pump.

ImageIMG_20190809_214234 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr
Last edited by gemsince88 on Sun Aug 18, 2019 1:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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gemsince88
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by gemsince88 »

Finished swapping the modded drivers side Gemini stub axle with the Piazza one on the TG. Disc sits relatively centre.

ImageIMG_20190813_171340 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190813_172228 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Had to trim a bit off the dust shield to fit the Piazza caliper in.

ImageIMG_20190813_170804 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Some pics for reference.
Gemini stub axle machined in lathe.

ImageIMG_20190812_165144 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Left to right, Turbo Piazza, Non Turbo Piazza, Gemini

ImageIMG_20190812_170534 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

13” wheel on non turbo Piazza brakes.

ImageIMG_20190813_172740 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The next thing was I got the balance shaft/girdle back from being welded and proceeded to cut it into bits.

ImageIMG_20190815_122833 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Got it close with the drop saw and various grinders then drilled where the bolts go close to thickness. Hacked away around the holes to get semi flat then used a square rotary burr in the drill press like a rudimentary mill, moved by hand to get flat. The burr is rooted now but hey its done.
Cleaned it up in the sand blaster.

ImageIMG_20190815_140826 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190815_144602 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Now I had to find a coupling for the Piazza steering rack without modifying the Gemini steering column. I went to my see my friend Sandy at BBT Jap Wreck and initially had to deal with someone else that wasn't really interested in helping. Sandy then came in and asked what I was doing then pointed me in the direction of steering columns. I was about to give up and found this.

ImageIMG_20190815_140841 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190815_144607 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190816_162834 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190816_163042 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190816_163053 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

It's from a 1995 L300. Pulled the coupling apart, cleaned it up then test fitted. The length is good, about 4mm shorter to the rag joint, which is well within adjustability. The next problem is the hole spacing on the Gemini coupling compared to the L300 coupling is 4mm different. I thought about re-drilling the holes in the steel coupling pieces but that's dodgy. I needed a flexible piece with 2 different hole spacing's so I picked up this! A hockey puck!

ImageIMG_20190816_163630 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190816_163552 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

No not really, it's an 11mm thick 80mm diameter piece of hard polyurethane from Trident Plastics.
The plan is to drill the different spaced holes to suit the couplings then fit with bolts and crush tubes just like the $50 kits you find on eBay. This bit was $20 which was their minimum charge and the L300 bit was nothing.

When you get the Superpro Piazza rack mounting rubbers you will find one doesn't fit properly. This is due to a small radius where the bush sits on the rack and the Superpro bush is square cut.

ImageIMG_20190816_163815 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190816_163841 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I rounded off this edge and the bush fits a lot better. Well good enough. Tough s*#t this polyurethane!

ImageIMG_20190816_165333 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190816_165254 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190816_165307 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Now to fit the crank girdle. First you have to plug the oil feeds that went to the balance shafts. I drilled and tapped M8 threads into the 2 main bearing caps.

ImageIMG_20190816_165502 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Fitted grub screws with loktite and ground them smooth.

ImageIMG_20190816_170703 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Test fitted the bearing caps, girdle and oil pickup.

ImageIMG_20190816_174554 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Need to grind a bit more off the girdle to clear the pickup and find some shorter bolts.

Next was to work out how to drill the wedge mount adaptors and where the cross member will sit. I borrowed the rubber mounts from my TG. It looks like the whole assembly is going forward 55mm instead of 60mm unless I want to cut more of the sump. It's going to have to be cut to clear the steering rack. I can live with that.

ImageIMG_20190816_231650 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190816_231721 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190816_231710 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

On a side note I noticed the TG has captive nuts in all 3 holes on the cross member. I'm pretty sure the TX only has captive nuts in the centre holes and my TC only has captive nuts on the 2 outside holes. So you can fit TX rubber mounts to a TG if you want, which is what I'll probably do since I'm a tight arse. Maybe something to consider when doing say a 4ZE1 conversion and need an extra 30mm clearance from the firewall?

ImageIMG_20190816_224104 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr
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Jonno
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by Jonno »

This is f*#cking sick man. Probably the coolest Gemi thing you've done.

If you need an offload for the turbo piazza discs and such lemme know ;)
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gemsince88
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by gemsince88 »

Thanks Jonno. It could well be the last Gemini I do so why not go out with a bang.

The wedge adaptors were drilled and tapped.

ImageIMG_20190824_213108 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I had to customise some M12 countersunk bolts. You can't get countersunk M10 fine in high tensile.

ImageIMG_20190824_213037 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Bolted everything to the cross member.

ImageIMG_20190824_213510 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190824_213518 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190824_220328 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190824_220339 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Made up the rag joint with the L300 and Gemini bits. L300 bolt spacing is 55mm and Gemini hole spacing is 2” or 50mm.

ImageIMG_20190825_154107 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I had to order a new seal for the Piazza rack as this one was a bit crispy.

ImageIMG_20190825_154132 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Fitted the crank girdle, splash plates and oil pick up with new bolts.

ImageIMG_20190825_163422 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Test fitted the cross member with engine mounts and sump. I had to trim 10mm off both brackets from the engine. Cut a section of the sump to what I thought would clear the steering rack and clearanced part of cross member to clear sump.

ImageIMG_20190825_170638 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190825_170655 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190825_173719 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190825_173829 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Found a bit of aluminium angle at work and cut the sump to suit then trimmed the angle. Test fitted with no real issue except this tab on the oil pickup. I have no idea what it's for but it's going. Sent the sump to get welded up.

ImageIMG_20190828_155536 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190828_155557 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190828_155753 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190828_155828 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190901_122600 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Installed the spigot bearing I ordered from Lithuania for an Opel Reckord. Same as the Rodeo bearing but ¼ of the price.

ImageIMG_20190901_122607 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

The rack seal turned up from Germany. I don't know what it's actually for but the dimensions and construction are the same so it should be fine. I couldn't find anything even close locally.

ImageIMG_20190907_101029 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Reassembled the rack with the rag joint, test fitted it on the cross member and found the rag joint fouled. The diameter of the Gemini rag joint is 74mm and the L300 is 78mm. I turned as much as I could off the polyurethane down to 76mm but it still just touched. Nothing a blow torch and a FBH couldn't fix.

ImageIMG_20190907_114349 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190907_114403 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Got the welded sump back and bolted it to the engine. I had to cut the dip stick down to fit so now if there is nothing on it then it needs more oil. If I get excited later I may put a dip stick in the sump wing.

ImageIMG_20190907_130452 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190907_130521 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190907_140655 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I worked out that I would need 6 x 18 speedo gears with the diff and tyres I will be running and the gears in the RA Rodeo box were 5 x 17, so I went through all the gearboxes I have and found what I think is a Pizza box (complete with pepperoni) with 6 x 18 gears. Problem is the speedo drive gear in the MSG box is smaller than the drive gear in an MUA box. Luckily the earlier MUA Rodeo box I have had 6 x 20 gears so swapped the drive gears over and put the 18 tooth Piazza driven gear in. All the driven gears interchange between MSG and MUA.

ImageIMG_20190907_142836 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190907_150402 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190907_155128 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190907_161320 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Made a quick and dirty adaptor for the pivot ball to run a cable clutch. I used 10mm aluminium flat bar that we cut off a ute rear bumper bar.

ImageIMG_20190909_164356 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190909_164535 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Then I made a 3 finger knuckle duster.

ImageIMG_20190909_164826 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Actually it's part of a brace on a G series engine to gearbox that also holds the clutch cable. It just happens to bolt on to the RA gearbox in the right spot, mind you it'll probably need a trim before the engine is attached.

ImageIMG_20190909_165052 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Next is to make an adaptor to fit the Rodeo clutch release bearing to the Gemini bearing holder. I could use the Gemini bearing but I'm not happy with how it contacts the Rodeo clutch. I could also use the Rodeo bearing and holder but both the Gemini release fork and Rodeo holder are flat where they contact so the bearing may not be pushed out evenly as well as the fork to bearing retainer spring won't fit.
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gemsince88
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by gemsince88 »

Not much has been done recently as work has started getting busy so no more or at least less foreign orders. Had to do a bit on the daily drivers as well, you know, so they don't blow up!

I made up a simple steel sleeve to fit the Rodeo clutch release bearing on to the Gemini bearing holder.

ImageIMG_20190922_140619 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190922_140629 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

When I looked at where the belt path would be with the power steering pump installed the original engine mount on the front of the engine is in the way. So a scrounge around work came up with a small back idler, an offset tensioner and a piece of scrap angle.

ImageIMG_20190922_140559 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

This will bolt to the engine mount on the front of the engine. It still needs some mods before it goes on.

Lastly I started to get the Isuzu 1600 ready to be pulled out.

ImageIMG_20190922_140159 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

May have it out next weekend. Maybe!
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gemsince88
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by gemsince88 »

Welcome from sunny downtown Dubbo as we're taking Kadyn to see the Western Plains Zoo tomorrow. On a side note what is it about caravaners and the single lane roads they always travel on. Geez I would have passed about 30 of the bloody things on the way up here with all of them 30km per hour under the speed limit followed by a bunch of scaredy cats not willing to go around them.

Now that I've had my whinge on to the build!

I made up a cardboard template for the power steering pump bracket then transferred it to 5mm steel plate and cut it out. Made a few bends and this is what I had.

ImageIMG_20190926_151233 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Cut and drilled to fit the pump.

ImageIMG_20190927_143105 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Cut and drilled to fit the bracket to the engine.

ImageIMG_20190929_132756 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190929_132821 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20190929_132733 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Fitted the back idler to the old engine mount.

ImageIMG_20190929_155922 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

In the mean time I pulled the G161 and MSE out of the coupe.

ImageIMG_20190929_155941 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Now to convert the pulley. I cut the boss out of the A section pulley then turned up an adaptor ring and silver soldered it to the compressor pulley I scrounged.

ImageIMG_20190930_151953 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Made the bracket look pretty (painted black) then fitted the pump and then the pulley.

ImageIMG_20191002_211302 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Looking at it I figured there wouldn't be enough belt rap around the compressor so I dug up another back idler and a belt that I thought would be close. Well all that works!

ImageIMG_20191003_172501 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Lastly I lowered the engine into roughly the position. All looks pretty good. It sits pretty high but I won't get excited about that until I bolt it in properly. The battery tray is in the way too but the battery is going to have to be moved anyway as an intercooler pipe and the rear of the Kadett headlight will also occupy space currently used by the battery.

ImageIMG_20191003_220933 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20191003_220903 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20191003_220843 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20191003_220827 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20191003_220809 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr
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Jonno
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by Jonno »

I thought I saw it in the engine bay on facebook.
Zif you won't have this ready for Geminats 2020.

Wait lemme try again.
PLEASE have this finished by then. I read your gearbox shenanigans as well. lol what a pain in the ass.

The cross member out and engine testing for sump clearance is a really good idea. Kinda wish we had of done that with teh SR20. Might have saved half the day pulling it out putting it back in 2394235tty measurings etc.
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by gemsince88 »

We'll see what happens Jonno.

Last weekend Kadyn helped me pull the dash out.

ImageIMG_20191013_114212 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

To give you an idea how badly sun damaged this car is, here's the steering wheel. The moulded plastic on the top has crumbled to dust.

ImageIMG_20191013_114120 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I have this crazy idea of changing the heater box with something more compact and efficient with the fan and evaporator under the dash. It would clear up the space at the rear of the firewall for other things and it would also be nice to adjust the temperature of the face vents too. I'm thinking of something out of a Suzuki possibly late Swift. This is still just an idea and if I can't make it work then I'll probably run a TG heater box with the engine bay evaporator. The box in the picture is from an Ignis.

ImageIMG_20191013_114021 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I fitted the flywheel and clutch and then went to bolt the gearbox up but found the release bearing was already pushing on the clutch before it was even close to being done up. I measured that the bearing needs to come back about 10mm.

ImageIMG_20191013_133323 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20191013_135555 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20191013_142423 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

First thing was to take 6mm off the ears on the release bearing holder. Nice fuzzy pic of the bearing with everything else clear.

ImageIMG_20191013_160051 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Took about 5mm off both sides of the release fork.

ImageIMG_20191013_160032 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Replaced and countersunk 3 of the bolts around the input shaft.

ImageIMG_20191014_212539 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

After all that it now fits nice. Trimmed the clutch cable holder and installed.

ImageIMG_20191013_154626 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Even put the return spring on the fork, remote shifter and TX mount.

ImageIMG_20191014_222109 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Fitted the starter and the wiring to the alternator. The connections on the starter and alternator are not easily accessible with these installed and since the battery is now going in the boot I cut the cables so they reach the end of the inlet manifold where I'll probably put a terminal post.
I also installed the throttle body with its duct work on top. I had to turn the throttle body 90 degrees so I could turn the duct 180 degrees to point to the front of the engine. After a lot of consideration I decided to keep the drive by wire throttle as there will be a number of engine control advantages, I don't have to piss about adapting a cable throttle and I already have it. The original throttle cable will still come from the pedal but it will go to some sort of TPS. The disadvantage of this is getting an ECU for it as in cost. I'll be looking at $2.5k just for the ecu which for me is a lot.

ImageIMG_20191019_170026 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

I pulled the front suspension and cross member out. The control arm bushes and ball joints are all stuffed so I'll be hitting Daz up for those soon. All these parts will get cleaned up and reused.

ImageIMG_20191019_155521 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20191019_172104 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Removed the rest of the stuff from the engine bay.

ImageIMG_20191020_125454 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20191020_125504 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

There's a few dodgey things that need addressing.

ImageIMG_20191020_125521 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20191020_125535 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr

Finally I removed the AC compressor from the engine which I'll take to work and give it a clean up/service.

ImageIMG_20191019_172110 by Justin Sherwood, on Flickr
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Jonno
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Re: The Kadini coupe!

Post by Jonno »

LOL at the strut tower.

with your x member etc jsut get one outta a late model.
The buckets won't sit the car 392ty m in the air and easier to change engine mounts.

You can ghetto them up by using RS2000 style ones but they need to be double nutted underneath which can be a pain.
Unless you wanna keep it OG TX in which case ok but you're putting in this twincam...
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