1984 Granada BOA; small progress & Civic 25/10/24

[mk2cossie]

I'm running 205/55r16 tyres on my rims, as they are the same rolling radius as the old balloon tyres on the 14inch rims it came with
Mr on here runs 205/50r16 on his without hassle though. but the 205/55 is more plentiful and cheaper than the 205/50 I've found And the Granadas don't look right without a decent amount of sidewall in my opinion

[mk2cossie]

Well, the MOT and tax were due at the beginning of the month.
So, just get it tested and I can get it taxed I thought
Except it failed on a front ball joint and these bueaties


Thats the end of the nearside inner sill, and these 2 are either side of the diff mounting



Ball joint was easy enough, just waiting to get it welded up on the bits above at the mo

[mk2cossie]

It's all taxed and tested now, didn't get any pics of the finished bits of MOT welding, but I did get some of the new spare wheel well




And I've even been getting up to 23mpg with the warmer weather lately

A little while ago (with the standard ecu and wiring from the mk3 Granada) i went to Track and Road for a power run.
Other than the comments about it not being a manual from the operators, they are a nice bunch of guys there. Shall be going back to get the Emerald ecu properly setup and hopefully have an improvement from the 1st dyno printout

[mk2cossie]

well, a fortnight ago I decided to change the CV joints on the drivers side driveshaft.
All went well, new parts sourced and the clicking noise reduced a considerable amount (passsenger side still to do)

Until the next morning on my journey to work, when pulling out of a junction (too enthusiastically) the outer CV joint decided to let go with an almighty bang and lose drive
Replacement CV joint was sourced in a last minute hurry and seems to be working fine so far. Must've just had an iffy joint

[mk2cossie]

Driveshaft CV joints holding up well on the offside
Ought to get round to doing the 2 on the nearside shaft I guess, and find out which wheel bearing is grumbling


Any one on here have any good suggestions for rust prevention for the underside?
Got an oily type of bodyshultz (I think) at work, that the old boy I work with seems to love. But think it best to ask for any ones experience on here before applying that

[SauceDoctor]

Good output for a "1900cc" though!

[mk2cossie]

Haha, I hadn't noticed that on the dyno printout

It is meant to be 2995, so I guess that was a hastie wrong button press when logging it on

[mk2cossie]

After a few hiccups with an intermittent washer fault (to the point of working fine whenever I went to check what the problem was), I decided to just get a replacement pump. On removing the old one, I was suprised to find that both terminals had corroded off



New pump fitted and all ok there. Wonder if the new un will last 30 odd years like the last


Also, the autobox is suspended on a Vibratechnics mount for a T5 Sierra box. After the 2nd set of rubber inserts died from that, I found out that my useful and ever resourceful friend had some nylon sprod, and a lathe



Some cursing a choice words later about nylon being a tad awkward to machine down, the rear mount is now suspended beautifully. A tad more noise transmitted in to the cabin area, but thats only more noticeable when the box is in 1st.
Don't appear to have any pictures of the old rubber or the new nylon mounts to upload it seems

[sierra1off]

Interesting you had it run up at Track and Road.

I enquired with them about mapping my project when its done ( automatic and turbo and Emerald ECU ) and they were less than keen saying under load in the higher gears it would just kick down not allowing them to map it correctly

Did they express the same to you

[darrenh]

Track n Road had my astra mapped there, steves are legends

[mk2cossie]

Feb 6, 2014 19:53:54 GMT sierra1off said:

Interesting you had it run up at Track and Road.

I enquired with them about mapping my project when its done ( automatic and turbo and Emerald ECU ) and they were less than keen saying under load in the higher gears it would just kick down not allowing them to map it correctly

Did they express the same to you

They weren't that impressed at 1st, and it did kickdown when loaded up in 3rd gear at low rpm

But, I'm currently not running a kickdown cable or the original kickdown solenoid. The Emerald currently has 4th gear inhibit below 45degrees coolant temp, and the torque convertor lockup is mapped to throttle position and rpm. So I can drive it normally and get it in 4th with lockup as low as 1500rpm and give it full throttle without it kicking down at all

Which should prove very handy for the two Steve's with the mapping when I return to Track n Road with the modified inlet manifold

Most autos as standard won't allow just a single gear run though, which is what the mapper is after so they have a consistent speed window for mapping the various load sites at varying rpm. Which from what I've heard, the two Steve's are very good at.
If you know that you can get your box to stay in gear at different loads and rpm regardless of throttle position they should be able to do a pretty good job though

[mk2cossie]

Finally got an update with the spare inlet manifold I got over a year ago. Apparently the insides are a restriction, so I've tapped the end plates off and I'm getting some new ends made up with more volume that bolt on
Both the sides are roof shaped, so machined flat is the 1st step

[mk2cossie]

Well, the inlet mods haven't progressed lately, so I thought I ought to replace the nearside driveshaft joints as I had them sitting around for a few months now And also check and replace the nearside rear wheel bearing as there has been a terrible whining from the back lately

So, whipped off the driveshaft and could spin the rear wheel up to listen to the rumble from the bearing, righto get that changed then! 2.5 hours later and the swine of a thing was out a changed

Think its safe to say that it was past its best

And the CV joints that I took apart a couple of years ago to clean up and regrease were quite slack and tired looking too




And after all that, whilst doing the driveshafts back up, I discovered that the offside rear wheel bearing is also noisy So that's another bearing to look forward to changing

[mk2cossie]

Well, both rear wheel bearings replaced after getting a new one for the offside from Kent Bearings as no-one else could supply one for me (and I don't like Ebay for el cheapo parts as a general rule!)
Can't recommend them highly enough with their service, as it was bloody marvellous

All going well up until last Wednesday, when I asked my friend to switch on the ignition on over run in the ecu settings. And that corrupted the map somehow

An enquiry to Emerald suggests the lead may have been the cause, and to try a different lead.
Luckily said friend has a brand new bagged lead at his work to try, but with no luck either.
So the ecu is out at the mo to be sent away

[mk2cossie]

A call to Emerald and they reassured me it wouldn't be the ecu, and to try another laptop with the software on to try and upload the map again. A quick uninstall and install of the software on my mates laptop, plugged in and as if by magic the bally thing worked and fired up the ole girl again

No pics of progress of late though, so have a pic from an icy morning a few weeks ago

[grifterkid]

Cripes, this car is just darn superb!

[mk2cossie]

May 1, 2014 9:45:53 GMT grifterkid said:

Cripes, this car is just darn superb!

Thank you grifterkid

No real progress to report of late though. MoT was sorted a few months ago, with a new lower ball joint, track rod end, sorting out a broken coilover spring and an iffy fog light switch

Got a spare front subframe to modify for some proper size coilovers instead of the current 1.9inch gaz ones that have survived for over 5 years now.
And my modified inlet manifold is nearing completion also, so pics of that when its arrived

[mk2cossie]

Well, finally got round to starting the front subframe tinkering tonight.
need to source some new tie rod arm washers or get some made up by my friend with a lathe as the original ones are almost rotted through

But I started out with this (already cut as I haven't got any pics of it as it was made )


As the 2.25inch coilover springs don't actually miss the standard spring top cups, they came out


And a bit of CAD for adding a touch of strength back in


And a bit of fine tweakage to get the 3mm cutouts lined up and ready for welding in

[blacksaff]

Read through the whole thing so far. What's a granny like round Brands? I've never seen it in that light?

[mk2cossie]

Apart from the current coilovers being to soft, it's actually quite good
Managed to post times a few seconds slower than my friends turbo'd Corsa C sri, so I'm quite happy about that

Not sure how to resize the pics, as I think they look a tad too big in my posts, but what do you lot think?
It's a tad over the place as I don't often get the chance to work on it to get a major job just done and finished :/