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Old 30-06-2018, 09:18 AM   #11
bigal_250
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Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Adelaide
Car: 2001 Astina SP20
Posts: 20
The ups and downs of competitive motorsport: At the last regularity meeting I entered, the gearbox let go 3 laps into the first practice session. A loud crack on exiting the northern hairpin, and it decided it was only a 1-speed box of fourth.

The shifter still works normally for the most part, it just doesn't translate into any cogs being moved about. Though attempting to pull reverse the shifter physically jams into place and requires some serious rev matching to extract it. I figure something inside the box has come loose and bound it all up.

Getting it onto a trailer with only fourth gear is a lot of fun! ...

Anyway, went to get a replacement box from U-Pull-It (how good are DIY wreckers by the way), and found a couple of guys already half-way into removing the engine from the intact SP20 in the lot. They were planning to transplant it's FS-DE into a 1.8 323 and already had the gearbox, so I got my mates around and we all got the engine out together, go teamwork! , they took the engine, and I got the gearbox, win-win!

Next step will be to pull off the old box and find how how borked it is, and get the car back into running condition.

So while the car is off the road with it's engine half-out here is the list of stuff I want to do:
Replace gearbox with one slightly less broken.
Swap OEM clutch for Exedy HD unit
Remove front 3 engine mounts (2 of which are fairly broken) and fill with polyurethane (partially because OEM mounts are not cheap, but also for fun-sies)
Maybe try to fit the random set of extractors I found at another wrecker
Bolt on the fat sway bar mentioned earlier (two of the bolts are badly stripped, so some grinding will likely be required)
And anything else I think of that might be fun
__________________
2001 Mazda BJII 323 Astina SP20 The 'Racecar'
2012 Ford FGII G6E The 'Limo'
1985 Nissan Bluebird TRX The 'Rally car'

A proud member of the Scout Motorsport Club SA.
http://motorsport.sa.scouts.com.au/
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