maj
Install will be happening this weekend. Spouse has been notified I will need beer and pizza and no house duties will be getting done until next week.

Haha. Priorities!

So the weekend came and gone, and I promise I spent all the time I could in the carport swapping the transmission!
 
In reality I didn't get as much time as I had hoped due to all sorts of shenanigans going on, always typical that when you devote a weekend to the car; everything unexpected pops up.
 
However. By the end of the weekend everything had gone smoothly. Dropped the old transmission and swapped the passenger side subframe while I was at it, which also made more room for wheeling the transmission out. Didn't have any issues popping/putting driveshafts back in, so I think I've mastered that technique.
 
Took me about an hour of slowly playing with the crane and jack to get the transmission aligned perfectly before popping the bolts on. Everything completely back together and ready to drive it around 6pm Sunday before discovering despite charging the battery for 3 days it still didn't have enough to kick over the car :( Such an anticlimax.
 
Missus got impatient on Monday and demanded I rip the battery out of her/my car to see if I've fixed it. Followed orders and discovered I'm getting a noise like either the starter is still catching, or I haven't popped the torque converter on properly (though I swear I had since it was deep on the transmission when pulling it back onto the flex plate), or something else unexpected.
 
Thankfully it's not the god awful noise I was getting with my last transmission, but unless it's something simple like I need to reinstall the starter again, I'm afraid I might need to perform yet another transmission drop and double check everything again.
 
I'm totally looking forward to getting over this last niggle and getting the car on the road again, but getting very frustrated having to do all this on my own. Might have to reach out to see if I can find someone local happy to be a second set of eyes as I do it all yet again.

Life always seems to get in the way, but I finally found some time to keep working on the Autodub. Starter was dragging on the flex plate. As much as I insisted the spacers were the right way around and had pics of the original engine dropped showing the spacers, I still had them the wrong way around.
 
Had the engine and transmission dropped as one unit as it made it much easier to figure out. Popped it back in on Tuesday but ran out of time getting it all back together. Lucky it's a long weekend in Canberra this weekend.

So we will be seeing it at MTC then.
 

Car is running with only a few things to iron out before roadworthy. Such a weight has been lifted from my chest but it's kinda bittersweet because a few years under the carport unprotected has taken its toll on its once almost flawless paintwork. Will try to restore as much as I can.
 
MTC is very likely if funds will allow it and entries are still open by the time I know I can make it; booked flights for a holiday to Japan next year so using the next few months to save up spending monies.
 
At the very least though I'll have this on the road for a few months with a for sale sign on it.

Congrats on getting it running man! I'm sure it will get registration easy.
 
How much are you going to sell it for? Were you selling other spares at one point?

When it was up for sale before it was more of an enticement for someone to buy the whole lot rather than just the shell and parting out everything else. e.g. $500 on top of shell price for everything, or around $1500 for just the parts alone if I had to part it out.
 
That was for an unregistered, non-runner. Since then I have imported a working transmission and spent the time getting it back on the road.
 
The shell almost very nearly went to Wil up in QLD for his reshell, but he needed some time to work out logistics etc. Then all of a sudden the transmission popped up for cheap. It was a hard decision that I didn't want to prioritise a potential sale over a chance at getting the car working, so in the end I wasn't able to help as much as I wanted to, just bad timing. Glad he ended up getting a nice shell that suited his needs.
 
I'm probably optimistic, but hoping for between 5.5-6k for it, fully registered, running and zero issues, with all the goodies installed. If I manage to rebuild the original engine it'll probably bump up the price an extra $1000. At this point there's very little I need to source for the engine rebuild, most of it is shop work and investing time.
 
I am reluctant to let it go below that price but if any potential buyer feels it isn't worth it, then I'll just be keeping it for longer and slowly tidying it up more until the right buyer comes along.
 
Whilst I have made the decision it's not going to be my second car long term, at the moment the urgency to sell isn't a much as before, so i'll likely stay within that ballpark. Mostly stock condition GZE's are coming harder to come by, so who knows what the future will bring.

Been working on this when time permits. It's seen about 1hr of road time and it's running the best it's ever been.
 
Had to take it over the official ACT rego pits since of the change in engine number, they only bumped it back over minor issues so was a relief more than anything. The biggest one they spotted was too much play in the steering column where it met the uni joint.
Thankfully the bearings etc. are all in excellent condition, it was just the rubber insert on the spline that reduces NVH had chewed through, very common issue on AW11's of this age.
 
The insert popped right out as soon as the column was removed, cleaned it up with wax/grease remover and injected a heap of SikaTitan in there (hardest Sikaflex I could get my hands on). 24 hours later there's absolutely no play at all when it went back together.

 May I ask which bit of the steering gear you have used stickyfix to repair ???
Please tell me its not structural !

Definitely not! I always aim to fix to factory specs or better. Nothing bodgy here.
 
If you peer in your footwell you see the bottom uni joint and the spline going to the steering column.
 
The spline itself goes to a flattened section that slips into the main steering column. From factory this slip join is rubber jointed and essentially glued in there. The flat section prevents excess movement but essentially the rubber is there to prevent too much NVH going to the steering wheel.
 
Eventually this rubber gives way and starts chewing out (common issue on our cars). I was getting around 30mm of play before the uni join started moving. When I removed the column altogether the slip join fell straight out.
 
Filling it with a polyurethane is the best factory-like substitute. I didn't remove any of the rubber that was still adhered to the spline, just coated it and glued it back in there, to seal any gaps. Most people weld them together but that brings in all sorts of issues on its own.
 
My preferred fix was to buy a new main steering shaft altogether for the column, but they've been discontinued for years.