Pauls Astra Mk2 rallying adventures

[RallyMarshal]

Rebuilt diff ready to be fitted..



Got that done, refitted the shafts, spanner checked everything and refitted the sumpguard

Then fitted the MSA spec mudflaps - these are insanely big - need to be no more than 8cm from the ground and stick out 4cm from the wheel as well. But rules are rules...



Also moved the passenger seat so the codrivers position is a bit better then rolled it outside on its "test" wheels which look pretty good in grey!



I also got the "wrong" sidegears machined down



and started rebuilding the TranX diff for the gravel car with it. However, it needs a new set of clutch plates fitted so have to order those.



Just a gratuitous side shot :-)



Ive got a scrutineer coming on Tuesday to (hopefully) give the car an MSA rally logbook then doing a trackday at Blyton Park next weekend (along with a bunch of other Astra mk2s and other Vauxhalls) as a test day and to give me seat time before Donington Park rally on 25th October.

Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

As Harv says, his problem was the centre splined bit being too long and bottoming out on the crosspins. Mine was due to the outer CV casing hitting the diff casing. Same symptoms but different problems and solutions.

Went over Daves last night to get diffs sorted. First job was to strip the diffs down...



Then inspected the gears and found as we expected.. The snap-ring groove on the one that works is 3mm deeper / longer / wider than the one that doesnt.



So rebuilt one casing with the new drive plates and correct side gears and that can be refitted at the weekend. Im going to speak to TranX (now Quaife) about the other ones but expect I will just end up getting these side gears machined locally.

Paul..

[DarrenH]

the cv sheered off at the land for the snap ring from what i remember of the pics on facebook ? wouldve taken some serious force or a smaller force in rapid cyclical/repetitive fashion. does seem to fit with your findings

[Harvey]

Wearing my bodging hat for a minute would it work if you just ground some off the driveshaft spline end so it went in further? Didn't Harvey have a similar problem?

Yes I did have a similar issue but mine was that the end of the CV was hitting the cross pins so the CV wouldn't go all the way into the diff so I had to grind 2mm off the end of the CV to get it to fully locate into the diff. After 'fingering' Paul's diff yesterday you can feel that the machining for the snap ring is too far in and should be 2 to 3mm further out to locate the snap ring correctly. As the CV is fully seating into the diff it's not hitting the cross pins so grinding a few mm off the end of the CV won't work for Paul.

[mick g]

All very interesting that Paul... Wearing my bodging hat for a minute would it work if you just ground some off the driveshaft spline end so it went in further? Didn't Harvey have a similar problem?

[RallyMarshal]

So after last weeks exploits, thought Id better had a decent look at the black car. Spots off, front bumper off and out with the jetwash..



Apart from the spots and bumper, the only other damage seems to be a dent in the front of the bonnet plus lots of paint marks / scratches from the bushes themselves and of course 2 wing mirrors.



Also gave the engine bay a once over...





and swapped new spots onto the subloom ready for refitting.



Then started on the tarmac car to get it ready for a trackday in 2 weeks. Had a small leak from the long driveshaft oil seal so checked it under the car



I found that the driveshaft wasnt full seated in the diff, and was far to easy to push in and out - the snap-ring wasnt locking it in properly. So driveshafts out, bottom plate off and diff removed so we could play on the bench with it. Even with snap-ring removed, the outer edge of the CV was hitting the diff casing before locking.



So, Plan B was hatched. The black roadrally car also has a TranX diff fitted. So back out of the garage with that and stripped the shafts, bottom cover and diff off.



Swapped the crownwheel onto a standard F20 diff from the spares box to keep the black car rolling



and reassembled everything and put it away (again)



So we now have 2 TranX diffs on the bench. The "black car" one locks onto the shafts properly whilst the "tarmac car" one doesnt. You can feel theres a difference in the way the sidegear grooves are machined within them with a finger inside it.

The "black car" one has the snap-ring groove machined further away from the cross pins so the inner CV doesnt bottom out before the snap ring locks into place. It does make me wonder if we had this issue on the tarmac car prior to Barbados and never noticed it, and that led to the damage to the short inner CV and diff and our retirement..?



This weeks next step is to take the diff to Big Dave and build one good diff with new plates and decent sidegears and to have the groove in the sidegears that arent right, machined to match those that are right.

Paul..

[mick g]

Good news was not missing breakfast eh? Im sure it will polish out

[Black Magic]

looking good paul. the black one didnt come off too bad, considering it got stuffed head on into a hedge!

[RallyMarshal]

Back to the black roadrally car. Had an event on the weekend of the 19th/20th and a list of to-do items still so cracked on. Harvey came up and we did the steering rack in-situ which was so much easier with 2 people than 1.



and we also swapped back from a powercap to a proper SFI airbox too.



Also filled the door properly and painted it black, fitted new 1144 pads and some used discs and took it out for a run to check it drove OK and set up the lights.

Then onto the Mercian Roadrally.. 149 miles navigational event, starting at midnight, couple of special tests around an old airfield. Slow start for both myself and Ian my navigator as been a while since the last event. Bedded the car in and progressively got quicker through the night. This is us at petrol halt after 80 miles.



Was going fairly well after that, but there were patches of fog that kept coming and going. One such patch of thick fog led to this on a tightening left hander..





Annoyingly we were on the last section so only another 3 miles to go.. The car wasnt really damaged at all. Just front bumper, mirrors, spotlights and some paintwork to do.



Managed to get it towed out and got to the finish venue in time for Breakfast though :-)

Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

MOT passed for the tarmac car - another step closer to its next event at Donington



Paul..

[mick g]

Nice one Paul, my seats are a bit snug even for my skinny arse

[RallyMarshal]

So the car indeed failed its MOT..

Front wheel bearing
Rear wheel bearing (that old chestnut)
50p hole in the inner sill that Id missed
Emissions

Took the car to a mates garage to do the welding and patching as the tank needed to be removed.. So tank guard off, petrol tank off and had 3 screw holes in the top from a previous owner! Then started cleaning up the inner sill. Ended up making a 50p hole into this..



An hour and a half later we had this fully remade inner sill.



Dave (the welder / mate) wasnt happy with the outer sill patches either so he took out the cutting disc and cut it all off, then we trimmed a sill section down and welded that on. This is that outer sill a little while later after some Bilt Hamber primer has been put on.. Not pretty but strong and this isnt exactly a pretty shell anyway!



We also did the wheel bearings and did a few emissions tweaks and it passed so its now MOTd, taxed and insured.

I also got the roadrally tyres mounted. Im moving to 15" wheels and these part worn knobblies should work pretty well and the Corsa Sxi wheels should be decently strong.



I then swapped the seat from the Gravel car into this one. This seat is out of date at the end of the year and the older OMP seat was too narrow for my lard arse but the Cobra Monaco are pretty wide and therefore comfortable for me. Dont need indate seats for road rallying so this can stay in the black car now.



and I also swapped to a smaller steering wheel too. This is a bit boy racerish with the flat bottom but its what I had in my spares box.



Couple of things still to do - steering rack needs changing as its leaking and tracking needs doing too plus would like to swap to standard inlet rather than a powercap but thats not essential.

The tarmac car is going to MOT tomorrow so will see if that passes or fails.

Paul..

[DarrenH]

wonders if it would tolerate a triple stack, hmm, that would look awesome

[RallyMarshal]

Darren - Ive got a brand new top half to match still boxed if your interested :-)

Paul..

[DarrenH]

those tool chests arent half bad. i have a black pro bottom half like yours, but top half is the red non ball bearing type.