Project Yellow Peril

[Woznaldo]

Dropped the car off at 0800 in the morning and explained how to open the bonnet, that the 'cool' door handles are std and that it would start better on the choke. He said he would give me a call when it's done.

I called just after lunch to give the dude an alternate number, as I was in a poor reception area, and he told me that he hadn't started because there was a backlog from the day before .

You'd think they wouldn't book me in if they were so snowed under? Just have to wait until tomorrow now.

[Woznaldo]

OK, got sent away on a recovery with work and didn't get back until 1630 yesterday, which left me just enough time to pick up the car.

It failed! Reasons were:

-Couldn't read VIN
-No head lining - too many shape edges? Anal Aussie rules!
-Gearbox oil leak
-VIN on import approval, old V5 and strut tower are the same but, the engineers compliance report VIN doesn't . I think I'm more vexed that I didn't notice after it was done.

The VIN has already been sorted as it was just from the respray, so I've just stripped the paint that covers it on the strut tower. I'll throw some laquer over the top for protection.

Not too sure what to do about the head lining as I don't have any and I'm not paying the shipping to get one sent over. I might see if they're happy with some sponge insulating tape in the key areas?

I know about the repair kit for the gearbox selector shaft so'I'll have to get one on order sharpish. They work out at 54 euros door to door.

Should be easy enough for the engineer to come out to do a physical check and then reprint the cover page of the report?

Bugger............

[rs250nut]

OK, got sent away on a recovery with work and didn't get back until 1630 yesterday, which left me just enough time to pick up the car.

It failed! Reasons were:

-Couldn't read VIN
-No head lining - too many shape edges? Anal Aussie rules!
-Gearbox oil leak
-VIN on import approval, old V5 and strut tower are the same but, the engineers compliance report VIN doesn't . I think I'm more vexed that I didn't notice after it was done.

The VIN has already been sorted as it was just from the respray, so I've just stripped the paint that covers it on the strut tower. I'll throw some laquer over the top for protection.

Not too sure what to do about the head lining as I don't have any and I'm not paying the shipping to get one sent over. I might see if they're happy with some sponge insulating tape in the key areas?

I know about the repair kit for the gearbox selector shaft so'I'll have to get one on order sharpish. They work out at 54 euros door to door.

Should be easy enough for the engineer to come out to do a physical check and then reprint the cover page of the report?

Bugger............

Thats a bit of a pisser but nothing thats to difficult to sort, more on an inconvnence

[Trevhib]

So close mate!

Ridiculous how anal they are over there about import cars and yet they let some dreadful Aussie and S.E. Asian heaps on the roads, often driven by complete t*ss pots. Far more dangerous.

[Woznaldo]

Tried to sort my gearbox selector rod leak recently and also noticed that part of the reason there's a lot of play in my gear stick, is the state of the nylon cup that the selector linkage sits in! Took the opportunity to fix up both issues:


I've pulled the external selector rod seal down and stretched an o-ring over the selector rod and seal so that I can squeeze the o-ring between the internal and external selector rod seals, if you follow (o-ring no pictured)


I've also added a film additive by 'Lucas' to help stop the leak. I won't be able to test it's effectiveness until I get some new selector rod/linkage boots and road test it.

[Woznaldo]

Got a couple of trick bits from www.dp-automotive.hu for the gear shift. Very nice guy and a pleasure to do business with. Here's his quickshift kit:


This is his Stiff Shift 2.0 adjustable gear stick ball joint housing. A work of art and very well engineered:

[Woznaldo]

Here is the Stiff Shift 2.0 mounted in the gear stick support housing, together with the gear stick itself:


The housing needed modifying to allow the SS 2.0 Allen adjustment bolts to be accessed:

[Brigsy]

Looks like a decent bit of kit!

[Woznaldo]

Looks like a decent bit of kit!

It does seem to be. I've now fitted it to the car and the shift has a beautiful snick, snick, firm precise feel to it. Very pleased with the result and would definitely recommend the Stiff Shift 2.0 and the Quick Shift to anybody.

[Woznaldo]

I've put the car in for it's second attempt at passing the 'Road Worthy Inspection' but didn't finish work in time to pick it up. Don't yet know the result and have been told that when (being optomistic?) it passes, they will need to send off for some mod plates that will be riveted to the bulkhead and that may take up to 2 weeks! Oh the pain.

[Woznaldo]

Oh, on a brighter note, my work have just procured a four point aircraft weigh kit, so I will be able to have a crack at sorting the corner weights! I'll get plenty of pics and let you know how I get on.

[Woznaldo]

I've put the car in for it's second attempt at passing the 'Road Worthy Inspection' but didn't finish work in time to pick it up. Don't yet know the result and have been told that when (being optomistic?) it passes, they will need to send off for some mod plates that will be riveted to the bulkhead and that may take up to 2 weeks! Oh the pain.

Picked the car up at lunchtime today from the inspection and was chuffed to hear that the Yellow Peril passed...... ......but, there was a clause.

The engine number on the documents looks like the Renault prefix i.e. C1J 788 and then the actual engine number X000000. The fix for this is to take all of my documents to the 'Road Traffic Authority' (like the DVLA), who will then refer me to a Vehicle Identification Centre? Once this is done, I can then go back to the RTA for a set of plates and away we go! Still looks like a 2 week turn around .

God the wheels turn slowly in Oz.

[Woznaldo]

Got back to the RTA today and have managed to get an appointment at a centre that's about an hour and a half away on the 31st of March. So, if all goes to plan and I can get back to the RTA later that day, I'll be all legal!!!!!

[Woznaldo]

I thought I'd put up a few more shots of my Quick Shift fitted to the car. Here's the Shift Rod starting to be modified with my trusty Dremel!



Heres the Shift Rod after first attempt - FAIL



Here's the final attempt - WIN



Made it look a bit smarter but, wondering whether to add some strength and close the 'hole'?



Not as easy as I first thought but, this kit was developed for the Mk1 Clio first which has a slightly different Shift Rod and Gear Stick Assy.

[Brigsy]

I just ground the lip off the box for clearance The boot wont fit back on with the short shift so no need to keep it.

Did you have to grind the selector rod? i had to do mine the full length as it was hitting the gearbox when selecting 4th!

[markey b]

i've just boughts a stiff shift, only the plastic one, but i noticed after driving my orange one that the gearstick was terrible compared to my raider, so hopefully it'll do the trick. instructions were emailed today and look pretty comprehensive

[Woznaldo]

I just ground the lip off the box for clearance The boot wont fit back on with the short shift so no need to keep it.

Did you have to grind the selector rod? i had to do mine the full length as it was hitting the gearbox when selecting 4th!

I had to bend the rod a little so I could get about 5mm clearance from the sump plug housing and I have fitted the boot that covers the linkage ball but not the one that covers the end of the selector rod/linkage eye end.

[Woznaldo]

i've just boughts a stiff shift, only the plastic one, but i noticed after driving my orange one that the gearstick was terrible compared to my raider, so hopefully it'll do the trick. instructions were emailed today and look pretty comprehensive

The instructions are very good but the English translation could be a little better and something I will offer Yanoo if he wants it. That said, his English is way better than my Hungarian! I've also taken plenty of photos while I've been pulling it apart and putting it all back together again for an article or just for reference.

[Woznaldo]

We just got an aircraft weigh kit at work. It's an old kit but I thought it might be ok to do my corner weights with. So today I took the car into work and had a crack.



I started by trying to even up the ride height as best as I could measured from the base of the wheel arch extension and that seemed ok but, as I would roll the car back and forth after an adjustment, it would never quite equate to the adjustment I'd just made.

The best I could get was:

FL______FR
582mm 580mm

RL______RR
536mm 536mm



As for the corner weights, I thought I'd get a diagonal with high weights front and rear but, the car seems biased to the right without me sitting in the drivers seat. Here's what I ended up with.

FL______FR
258kg 269kg

RL______RR
138kg 139kg

Total Weight: 804kg (3/4 of a tank of fuel)

Corner balance: 50.62% in favour of FR/RL

[Woznaldo]

I also had to relieve the rear bumper fwd face and some bodywork as both tyres was catching during routine driving. I've done the left rear and will attack right rear tomorrow.

[Woznaldo]

Just been out on a road test and I'm still getting contact on the body in the area I've trimmed, so I'll have to take some more off and go again.

I've also noticed a couple of leaks. One oil and one water. I think the oil leak was from the rocker cover gasket so I pulled it off, re-seated it and put it back together.

The water leak is coming from the water pump but I'm not sure if it's the water pump assembly gasket or the pulley? I'm leaning towards gasket.

I need to get all of the above sorted by Tuesday night as I've got the inspection on Wednesday .

[Woznaldo]

Took the car for the inspection last wednesday and after the 40 min inspection, I was told that the whole number needs to be stamped directly onto the block. The inspector said that he had seen people remove one rivet of the original ID plate and bend it out of the way and stamp the number directly underneath.

I took the car back to the garage that did the road worthy inspection and they were shocked to find that they couldn't stamp the block and just sign it off themselves? Anyway, the block has now been stamped at the base of the just to rear of the crank pulley.

I can't get a re-inspection until 09 Apr 10 and will be on a 5 week course away from home, so it looks like the car won't see the re-inspection until the latter part of May!

[Trevhib]

Nice and light.

I imagine the asymmetry in weight is down to the gearbox being on the left so slightly more weight to the right (due to the block etc), not much but probably enough to make that small difference.

It's like the authorities really don't want your car on the Aussie road, maybe they think you'll eventually give up if they make it difficult enough. No chance of that bud, especially not now you're this close

[Woznaldo]

If there is an opportunity, I might book the car in during the course and fly back down to Sydney from Brisbane, hope it passes, and drive back the 1400km! (12hr drive over 2 days). To do this I'll have to bring my return flight fwd but, if the car fails, i'll be stuck in Sydney and will have to fork out for another flight at short notice. It's a fairly big gamble but, I do have a long weekend break coming up which may present the perfect opportunity?

I'll have to sit on this for a few days......

[Woznaldo]

UPDATE

OK, never got round to taking a break from my course so had to leave the re-inspection until today. Got off to a poor start as it was absolutely throwing down when I woke up and the wipers aren't as efficient as they could be but, they work all the same.

After the hour drive to get there, I arrived about 50 mins early (allowed for bad traffic) and was lucky enough to be seen straight away as the appointment ahead of me didn't show. I jumped in the car and tried to fire it up but, it would hardly turn over? On the third attempt it decided to reluctantly play the game so I could drive it on to the inspection ramp.

After 40 mins (a bit worried at this point) the dude walks in to the waiting room and declares that all is fine and that I needed to take all my paperwork up to the main office to get it all registered. By this point I'm pretty chuffed but didn't want to beak out the mexican wave just yet as I could be waiting a long time for my turn in the main office!

Arrived at the main registry office to find only 5 people in there, woo hoo! Almost too good to be true. Lady had a look at the docs and all seemed well. ONly issue they had was they couldn't find the model GT Turbo on their system so rather than temp fate we went with 5 Turbo 2! I'll get it fixed up later down the track.

Long storey short, the car passed and after 4 years and 3 months in Oz, is finally registered and road legal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (mexican wave)

I'm well and truly over the moon!

Bad points are: The wipers are not the shizzle , battery is on it's last legs and alternator is on it's way out too but, today I couldn't give a rats rear end!

[clee]

Good stuff Woz ,well done You been out thrashing round the 'burbs yet then ?

[Woznaldo]

Not yet, doing homework with the kids, then I'll bolt the number plates on properly

[Trevhib]

Are you in with the Clio lot up there Woz? 172, 182, Cups etc etc. I can give you the number of a Sydney-based friend of mine who's all into it if you want. I think they have a website too. I went to a small meet just before I left. They are an alright bunch.

[dangerous dave]

[Wallace]

Wicked news mate

If i decide to join my bro over there, you may have to advise me what needs doing

At last get to enjoy it on the open road

[boysie]

well done! well worth all the grief im sure

4years and 3 months....... thats probably about how long its going to take me to get mine back on the road at the rate im going............

[Woznaldo]

Are you in with the Clio lot up there Woz? 172, 182, Cups etc etc. I can give you the number of a Sydney-based friend of mine who's all into it if you want. I think they have a website too. I went to a small meet just before I left. They are an alright bunch.

I'm on the Oz Renaultsport forum as well as Ausssiefrogs but whenever there's a meet, I'm away on some trip with work

I rang up a place called Alpine Affaire in Melbourne today, looking for a new alternator (yes mine has just S%$T itself) and the guy was very helpful but, didn't have one. He then asked if I was Melbourne based so he could check the car out!

I'm up there on a course for 5 months starting next weekend so I'll stick my head in and say hello .

[T.K]

Just to say, Federal 595 RSRs are excellent tyres if haven't picked these up already.

[Trevhib]

I'm on the Oz Renaultsport forum as well as Ausssiefrogs but whenever there's a meet, I'm away on some trip with work
.

You have PM

[Woznaldo]

My car managed to make the trip to Melbourne (850km) last Sunday without breaking down! However, the journey was not without incident.... ....as with all my kit in the back of the car, the suspension looked very compressed! After a reshuffle and putting most of the heavy stuff in the passenger footwell, I decided to head off.

As I hit the motorway I was getting some light rubbing but thought it would be too bad and would check it at the next rest area. Before I got there I hit a dip in the road and there was a pretty big bang. I slowed down and pulled into the rest area to check. The forward inside edge of the RH rear arch extension had cracked! The LH rear was rubbing in the same area but very lightly.

The tyres were uneffected by any of the damage and as I had to get to Melbourne at all costs, I continued with caution!

I completed the journey in 8.5 hrs! with the occasional rub. I have since removed some of the rear arch extension lips to get some more clearance have gone out in an unloaded car and all appears to be well? I think I'll have to take the rear torsion bars up a spline to increase the clearance a bit more?

I'll post up a few pics when my wireless is working properly (using my phone to post this).

LH Side








RH Side

[i l k e r]

hats off to you mate What a mission it's been to come this far, glad to hear it's finally road legal

oh, and I know the pain about sourcing parts and waiting on for delivery when you're abroad, not cool

keep up the good work pal

[Woznaldo]

Going for a drive tomorrow morning on the Great Ocean Road. It follows the Australian South coast from Melbourne to Adelaide. Lots of good corners so I'll be able to test the supension and handling!!!!!

I've adjusted my speedo needle so that i'm doing 98kph when the speedo reads 100kph.

[Wallace]

Lovely bit of road that

Don't be shy with the pictures of the 5 and the apostles in the back ground!!

Do you know what, infact i'd fooking love to take the 5 along there - lucky *******

Enjoy

[Woznaldo]

Lovely bit of road that

Don't be shy with the pictures of the 5 and the apostles in the back ground!!

Do you know what, infact i'd fooking love to take the 5 along there - lucky *******

Enjoy

I did the drive over the weekend and had a blast but couldn't get any pictures with the Apostles in the background as yi can't get that near with a vehicle anymore.

The car ran well but there are a few issues I need to look at. The temp was sitting at the bottom of the top third or higher for alot of the drive and I wasn't pushing hard at all. The rear end is still rubbing (hence not pushing too hard) and a few big bumps have made the car pull to the right a bit?

Th fuel gauge only works just after I've filled up and is intermittent for quarter of a tank before dying altogether. That said, the fuel consumption was very good but on the occassional squeeze of the throttle, the AFR would creep up to 12.5-13.0, so I think I need to get into the 2nd Stage and take it out to 1.1mm?

My proper net is still down but I'll update these posts with a few pics as soon as it's up.

[Woznaldo]

A few new pics added.

[Woznaldo]

A few more little niggles to keep me on my toes. The car started to pull lightly to the right so I jacked up the front end for a look and found that my RH strut, top mount, spring locator had become displaced. The locator is my mod to allow my 2.5ID springs to sit on the std top mounts.

Here's the spring locator where it's dropped down the strut:


Here's the locator on the LH strut where it should be:


I'll have to pull the strut off and tack weld the locator back into position or a good Loctite might do the trick?

The other issue I noticed while the car was being jacked up, was a leak from the fuel pump! I thought it might just be a case of tweaking the pipe clamp but, on closer inspection, it looks like the plastic end of the pump is leaking .

Here's a vid of the fuel pump leak:

[Trevhib]

Woz, your rubbing problems, unless you are running spacers for some reason, appear to be entirely down to the profile of your tyres. They look too big.

On lowered GTTs with 15 Renault wheels on like yours, there's very rarely any problem with rubbing as long as the tyres are 195/45/15. Usually, even with 195/50 profile the rubbing is light and only occurs when the car is lowered.

When running a 195/50, there's a metal lip behind the arch moulding that should be taken out and maybe the inside of the moulding a tad but the wheel hitting the car in the places shown in the pics (and that much) seems very unusual.

What spec tyres do you have on?

[Woznaldo]

Woz, your rubbing problems, unless you are running spacers for some reason, appear to be entirely down to the profile of your tyres. They look too big.

On lowered GTTs with 15 Renault wheels on like yours, there's very rarely any problem with rubbing as long as the tyres are 195/45/15. Usually, even with 195/50 profile the rubbing is light and only occurs when the car is lowered.

When running a 195/50, there's a metal lip behind the arch moulding that should be taken out and maybe the inside of the moulding a tad but the wheel hitting the car in the places shown in the pics (and that much) seems very unusual.

What spec tyres do you have on?

I'm running 195/50/15 Bridgestone Potenza RE001s. I think that the car may just be too low and with no bump stops to limit the travel, the radius arm is swinging up past horizontal and the wheel starts to move fwd into the arch?

I think that bump stops would have masked the problem as they would have contacted rather than the arch. You can also see where the dampers are moving up so high that they are rubbing on the chassis rail seam.

I might give the Doris Bump Stop Mod a crack before adjusting the torsion bars? Thicker torsion bars would be the ultimate fix but, I haven't had my lucky numbers come up yet!

[Trevhib]

Ah right. Hmm, that's quite odd. By your description it sounds like you're looking in the right places then. Surely can only be bars or dampers as you say. The wheel moving forward on a GTT is normal as the suspension collapses.

Your car doesn't appear to be that low from the pics though, as it's sat on the tarmac (we've seen much lower with less/no problems). I'd say the travel is way too much if it's allowing that much movement.

Just a shot in the dark - Wasn't there someone on here ages ago that had the trailing arms on the wrong side and therefore upside down causing all manner of problems? One of them being too much suspension travel?

Otherwise, those dampers don't look like any I've seen before. Do you know their origin? Are they definitely designed for the GTT?

Btw, 195/45 would improve the car in a number of ways; handling, grip, appearance (and of course assist a little with the suspension/body clearance). I was surprised by the advantages when I changed mine.

[Woznaldo]

I know that 195/45/15s will improve matters but you can't get track rubber in that size, hence me wanting to get it all set up with the 50s,

As for the trailing arms being on the wrong side, I don't think they are as the handbrake cables exit in the right place and the rear calipers are the right way up?

The rear dampers are from Leda that I had made to order for the car a long time ago.

[Trevhib]

Ahh, good point, perhaps it was something else at the back, I don't know. There was definitely something going on though with another members rebuild with the rear setup that was to do with the rear beam somehow. Something fundamental was fitted back to front or upside down or something that could go on two different ways. I don't remember what exactly. All I do know is that it was allowing the rear suspension to collapse like yours, bringing the arms up too far and the wheels too far forward. Someone on here noticed it in a picture that had been posted at the time and the guy corrected it.

Does anyone else remember this that would care to help out here...

"you can't get track rubber in that size, hence me wanting to get it all set up with the 50s"

[Andrew Cooke]

I bet you can get better torsion bars made in Aus, you can buy them here, but they cost ££££.

http://www.renaultpower.com/?rS=parts&cid=109 (check out the diameters)

if you can get them made for sensible money I'll bet there would be a few takers over here.

[Andrew Cooke]

oh yeah, if you were thinking that a step from 21 - 23mm wasn't much, it's a d^4 thing, so they're ~44% stiffer

[Woznaldo]

I bet you can get better torsion bars made in Aus, you can buy them here, but they cost ££££.

http://www.renaultpower.com/?rS=parts&cid=109 (check out the diameters)

if you can get them made for sensible money I'll bet there would be a few takers over here.

I seem to remember you mentioning this a while back but, I couldn't find anything online? I'll probably have to make a few phone calls and actually speak to people!

I did a bit of research on renaultsport parts in general and a lot of the old stock was bought by Olymeca in France'

http://www.olymeca-sport.fr/

[Woznaldo]

oh yeah, if you were thinking that a step from 21 - 23mm wasn't much, it's a d^4 thing, so they're ~44% stiffer

I bet that would make the backend lively! Just the way I like it.