Re: bit of a project thread

[Logi]

Lovin the exhaust stack There are getting to be a few really good projects coming along on here.

[johnnyboy666]

Hadnt even thought about greasing the leaves to be honest, were they greased from the factory?

Cheers Logi!

The problem I face now is making sure water doesn't get in the exhaust too much when it rains! I've got a tractor style weather flap, which will do for the time being, but it doesnt looks great and I get the feeling it might make one hell of a clatter!
I could do with a nice turn-out tip or something, but I havent seen anything quite right yet.

[HighlyJetted]

Tractor style exhaust flaps are the bomb mate!!

[Logi]

Tractor style exhaust flaps are the bomb mate!!

  

[FrontBackSide2Side]

Hadnt even thought about greasing the leaves to be honest, were they greased from the factory?

I'm not sure to be honest but i've done a bit of reading about making vehicles with leaf springs handle better and this seems the way to go, clean them up, paint them with a slippery paint then lubricate them so that the surface of each leaf can glide over the one next to it

[johnnyboy666]

mini update!

been working on the prototype exhaust mid section. figured I'd do it out of random pipe bends I had spare from the Pug and some adapters and clamps to test the theory and Iron out any teething problems, before re-doing it at a later date properly welded.

the spare downpipe arived after my accidental wrong cut on the original one, so I chopped the correct flange off this time, and then wrapped it in heatproof wrap

IN

Got plenty of fiberglass stuck in my hand whilst I was at it too

After PLENTY of trial and error, and improving my metalworking skills in the process, I ended up with barely any of the original donor pipe left.  I regret buying the flexi section before hand, because it was intended to slide over the pipe and clamp down, but because of how many changes I made to my initial plan, it actually ended up slotting inside the pipes, with a shim to fill a slight gap.

trying to get the angles right was a pain in the arse as well. plenty of head scratching went on, but heres the resulting frankenstein:





aint too pretty, but as i said its a prototype


If you cant tell, it sleeves over the downpipe and the end slides inside the backbox

fitted it all up and went to fire it up!!

Battery was flat

jumped it and tried again, took a few turns to get it going but she fired up!!

Not too loud and the tractor flap is now my favourite thing ever.

She still smokes like a beast, but (as i think I mentioned earlier) the old diesel pump seemed to have been sending engine oil via the return hose back to the tank, so theres a bit of that to burn off yet. I will top off the tank with fresh fuel when I get chance. (and i've been contemplating a veg oil conversion at some point)





there's a small leak that needs looking at, as you can probably tell from the smoke coming from lower down, but I'll deal with that another day!


You can probably also see that ive put one of the window bars on after a lick of paint, forgot to put the second one on.

I've also taken the snorkel off, as I was using a random bunch of pipes and it looked wank, so I've got some pipe that fits the snorkel properly and I've given it a lick of paint too. ran out of time this weekend to get it mounted.

also got onto the rear lights, the new ones are all wired up now, all working except the drivers side brake for some reason. I'll have to try and figure out why that is.  Ive mounted one of them with a bracket made out of some spare ally.


In other news, after I'd started it up and left it running for 5 mins or so, I started to hear a bit of a bearing whine from the gearbox, stood on the clutch and it went, so that points at the release bearing in my experience.  Cheapest I can find them is about £30 for just the bearing!

whilst we're on the subject of gearboxes, one of my other threads mentions my struggle to get this into reverse, and although I have managed to get it into reverse at the box before, I now cant seem to get it to go in properly. It'll go in probably 1 time out of 10 tries, so something aint right.

I won a box from a petrol for £30 off ebay, so I'm going to see if I cant just swap the bellhousing and see if that works. They look very similar, so I dont see what it wouldnt work.

Another thing I noticed is that on the prop shaft, one of the four rear bolts isnt quite right. Looks like its snapped and been drilled out and replaced but slightly wonkey. so I'll be on the lookout for one of those at some stage I expect, unless I can repair this one when I take it off

Thats all for today.


The next update may involve WHEELS!!!

[Logi]

 

[FrontBackSide2Side]

Nice update, the exhaust is looking awesome! Can't wait to see the wheel update!

[johnnyboy666]

cheers

Whilst I'm on the subject of release bearings, just realised that the gearbox I bought still has its bearing attached, and a quick google tells me they should be the same part, so thats potentially saved me a few bob

[Guest]

Clutch kits usually are three piece . Buying the cover and plate in my experience is usually dearer. So having the release bearing already may not be the saving you hoped for.

If the drive flange is damaged then the sensible thing to do is replace the flange I would have thought.

[johnnyboy666]

will have to wait and see when I whip the box off I suppose. its just a little whine, so I'm assuming nothings gone bang yet (famous last words).


just had a go at pulling the bellhousing off the donor box, got it halfway off before running out of daylight. It amazes me how small and light these boxes are, even compared to one of the smaller peugeot ones ive got kicking about.

[Guest]

Oddly enough the main whine I get is a large one and it is always from my wife's direction when I spend too much time on my Hi-Jets.

I don't know why she is whining -- I have got rid of a few and OK I have bought a few but I am down to 15 Hi-Jets from a high last year of 22 !!

[ToaseMan]

First of all i'm not 100% sure what i'm saying here could be right (he says even though his job is working with gearboxes)
But You're saying you've bought a petrol gearbox, but your hi-jet is diesel.
Now as i say i'm not sure about this, But surly the gearing will be completely different due to the fact the diesel hi-jet will have a quite a low RPM due to it been a stright diesel.
As where your petrol will have quite a high RPM due to been petrol.
So if you swap the boxes it would just leave you with a slow pickup that revs its knackers off to do 20.
Unless you're just using it to steal parts off in which case it might work.
As i say i'm not sure, and i could just be confusing everyone.

[Logi]

Pretty sure the propshaft is different to the diesel and petrol variants, not sure about the boxes tho.

[Guest]

Gea

[ToaseMan]

Find HJ he'll know the answer!

[Guest]

Gearbox ratios are slightly different. The 1300's have a first gear ratio of 3.769 but the Diesel 1200 and the petrol 1000 have a first gear ratio 4.059. The diff ratio is 4.875 on them and 4.444 on the 1300.

Both five speed boxes have an overdrive ratio 5th gear of 0.838. Third gear on the 1000 and diesel is 1.457 whereas the 1300 has 1.376.

I hope that helps you all.   

[johnnyboy666]

Numbers! Lots of numbers!! to throw a bit of an extra brainteaser in there, the seller of this box didn't know if it came off a 1000 or 1300, i trust there'll be a code printed on it somewhere?

those ratios don't sound too far off to make it undriveable I don't think, and to be honest, I plan to do a bit of fine tuning of the ratios with a change of rear tyre size.

I think its going to be very much 'try it and see' with this project!

I agree I think the props are different, but I think the bit that goes into the gearbox (technical term) should be the same, considering that end of the box is the same. I'm hoping its just the length thats different.

I suspect, when i take the old box off, i'll be stripping it down to find out what goes on inside it, for future reference.

[Guest]

The 1000 props are longer than the 1300 and yes the splined ends are the same as are the diff end.
The 1300 pickup prop shaft is 20mm longer than the van one . The van and pickup axles
are not interchangeable( without altering) as the shock absorber mountings are in different places.

[johnnyboy666]

Well, Ive got nowhere on this at all this weekend.

I've spent bloody hours trying to split the gearbox from the bell housing, but it would seem that its much more complex than I originally thought. It's not just a case of 'unbolt it and it comes off' ooohh nooo, you pretty much have to dismantle the entire gearbox. And even with every visible bolt removed, the bell housing will only come about 1cm way from the box before it gets stuck on something. So now I'm after a diesel box (see wanted ad).

But enough about gearboxes, i'm sick of the sight (and the stench) of them.

I promised wheels!

slight delay though, as only one pair has arrived, the other pair should be here in the next few days.
And the tyres aren't on yet, as the ones i'll be using on the back are the ones that are currently on the front of the peugeot, and there'll be a new pair going on the front of the hijet.











They should be instantly recognisable to some people as replica minilites.

The rear ones are 13x7 and the fronts will be 13x6

They are 4x108, and i'll be using wobble bolts (after some careful deliberation, i decided i'll give them a go)

the front hub mounting flanges will need to be turned down in a lathe a couple of mm. I really wish I owned a lathe!!

in the meantime, a couple of ideas crossed my mind. The PCD of the front discs is 97mm I believe, and fiat pcd is 98, so if the front mounting flange was removed, and a hubcentric spacer and longer bolts were used, fiat wheels could fit.
Alternatively - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140898334900?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
those could replace the flange bits at the front and convert to any pcd, and not alter the offset too much (although they would alter it a lot on the rear. just thinking out loud.


and i'll finish off with a question. Does anybody know the reason for 1 degree of positive front camber as standard on these things? and is there any know fault that could cause excessive positive front camber? e.g, wheels like this \---/ causing excessive wear on the outer edge of the tyre?
I assume its to help with turning with heavy loads?

anyway thats enough for today

[Logi]

I promised wheels!

And the tyres aren't on yet,

No shit....... 

[johnnyboy666]

Oi, I spent hours photoshopping the tyres off!!

[FrontBackSide2Side]

They look awesome mate!

[Logi]

Oi, I spent hours photoshopping the tyres off!!

  

[Guest]

Have a check on the back with tyres on those GORGEOUS MINILITE REPLICAS (as it looks that you haven't much offset on them) that the tyres don't rub on the handbrake cables. I think that they will be mighty close john.!!

[johnnyboy666]

Cheers fbs2s!
Good shout Woody, I will indeed keep an eye on the cables. The offset is ET0, mind you i'm not sure what the standard wheel width and offset is?
Fingers crossed they'll be alright

the other pair of wheels arrived today, and then left again, as i wasn't in to sign for them

[Guest]

Oh bad luck. I have got 5.5J rims on mine and they are very close to the cables.

[johnnyboy666]

soooo, drained the diesel tank a bit. no wonder it bloody smokes!!!!!

Blacker than the bowels of hell!

[HighlyJetted]

Urgggg!!

That mings, looks like someone has been trying to make it run on all kinds of minging crap.

[Guest]

The Diesel tank ??? Looks more like the sump.

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