I got the car back today from the mechanic, the air conditioning gas was reconditioned and its super cool now (just in time for summer).
I took the time today to clean up a few things that I was meaning to do.
I got a GPS/BLUETOOTH/DVD headunit online the other week and got around to installing it today, it fit in really nicely. I wouldn't mind spacing out the headunit slightly further out (was thinking about elongating the mounting holes).
 
I removed the back trim on the hatch (it was damaged) and found a bit of damage doh :( I am hoping that the Panel beater will be able to remove them (even though you won't see it behind the trim its nice to know that its all straight.

 
I plastic welded the hole, it still needs more work but its better than what I had before. I found that cable ties are an excellent source of cheap plastic when plastic welding:

 
My Cusco Rear Sway bar is on the way from Japan. Can't wait to get it installed.

Here are some photos of the car:

 

 

here we go again..... :)
Please not an AUTO i hope.....?? :P

MRTurbo

here we go again..... :)
Please not an AUTO i hope.....?? :P

Hey Pal :)

Yeah its auto haha. They are very expensive in Manual (generally 13-14k for a decent one) and I have a cheaper base to start off with.
 
It was love at first sight when I first saw it so there was no denying it would be all MINE. haha 

lol fair enough...
I was gonna buy one years ago...white manual one (in Japan) for 10K... but had a slight scrape though.
 
Well enjoy mate!

MRTurbo

lol fair enough...
I was gonna buy one years ago...white manual one (in Japan) for 10K... but had a slight scrape though.

Well enjoy mate!

 
Oh that would have been awesome. I remember a few years ago that you were looking for one for your girl friend at the time too?
 
A couple of new photos today. I was driving around for the first time since I got the car back and noticed it was down on power, I noticed I was only boosting to .5 bar. I may have hit the boost controller when cleaning today. A quick phone call with the previous owner and it seems that the car was on the low boost setting. A quick adjustment and the car is back to normal now. Big difference from 7psi to just on 12psi now. I was wondering whether the st215 has a boost cut? I wasn't sure where to adjust the boost controller to (was thinking 14-15psi)

Well after a few months I thought its about time for an update. Just on 2 weeks after I bought it the auto transmission started playing up a bit. Since then its been in my garage while i've been sourcing out some parts to fix it.

I decided to go for a Manual Conversion, while it would have been easier to just buy a manual caldina, the car is nice and straight and wanted to see its full potential.
 
The gearbox conversion has so far been planned for the weekend of the 9th-10th of March.

My cousin has kindly offered the facilities of an engine hoist, transmission stand and tools.

I have so far asked for every part I could think of in the conversion package:
Gearbox
Clutch Master cylinder
Bols and Nuts for Master Cylinder/pedal boxes
Clutch Lines/brackets
Clutch Slave Cylinder and bracket (and bolts)
Manual engine dust cover and inspection plate (the metal plate that sits inbetween the engine and gearbox)
Gearbox Mount (if they might be different)
Rear Differential
Driver Side driveshaft
Flywheel
Radiator (since mine was from another car and didn't fit 100%)
Brake pedal
Clutch pedal
Shifter
The clips that hold the shifter cables in place on gearbox and shifter lever
Shifter cables
Steering Wheel
Dash Cluster

A few updates. I had to go today to pickup my Conversion kit package from Tullamarine. I went from the transport company, then to Customs, then to a Custom Broker, then to Quarantine, back to the transport company for a quarantine inspection and then I was on my way. What a big job that was, took all day. I should have the gearbox in by mid march if all goes well. The only thing I noticed missing out of the package was the transfer case off the gearbox. I'm hoping that the auto one will work.


The one part I was worried about the most was having to drill through the firewall for the clutch pedal and clutch master cylinder. I was happy to see that there was markings already there in the panel, they just needed to be drilled out. the previous owner had used this hole to route the boost gauge lines but this will have to be reallocated at some stage.

The Manual Conversion is all done.... Well I must admit that is a lie. I only test fitted the shifter to see how it would feel. Its a bit of extra motivation to do the other parts and get it on the road.

The gear knob has a great weighty feel to it, pity its very worn (some of the stitching on the other side has lifted)

I got the clutch and flywheel from the car in NZ so I will be able to get the flywheel machined (the clutch will be binned)
I got my Manual LSD rear diff. It needs a really good clean though.
The Wrecker in NZ was very comprehensive, all bit and pieces were included.

The glorious manual ST215 Manual gearbox
Parts that have so far come off, In all good time they will go back on.

I put the gearknob in a container with some washing detergent and hot water, the amount of grease and dirt that came off it was aweful.
I covered the gear boot with some washing detergent and hosed it off. Seems to have worked well.
Great to see the manual shifter in place, the auto shifter is looking on with disgust in the background now that someones living in his old home.
I caught a quick shot of my car taking a stretch lol

I ended up painting the gearbox and a few of the brackets. Wow what a headache that was. I'm still waiting for my transfer case to arrive, it should arrive any day now. Its been 4 months without a car :(. I wouldn't mind normally but this isn't the first time i've had a car off the road for at least 4 months haha. 

 



Still sitting in the same spot unfortunately :( I can't wait to get it out.

Nice one, PS, regarding performance central man, I get alot of spam email through advertisers replying to my ads.  I am sure it'd give most people the ****s, maybe need to make it a little hard to get access to peoples emails so bots can't spam people.

This weekend has been huge. I had all the parts I needed and decided to get to work on the Manual Conversion.
 
To get the car ready for towing I put the clutch brake pedal back on. The foot rest is off at the moment as I am hoping to adapt a full alloy pedal set from a ZZT231 Toyota Celica ZR model.
 
 

 
 
 
The gearbox was all ready to take to my cousins house. I had it all strapped up on the plastic pallet. The piece of wood helped support the transfer case. That thing is heavy as.

 
The Tow truck driver from Nationwide Towing was the nicest i've ever met. I was really worried about the front bar getting smashed as the tow points are about 1 inch higher than the bottom of the lip. I mentioned to the driver that i'd be more than happy to give him something a bit extra to take a bit of extra time to ensure it doesn't get damaged but mentioned it wasn't necessary and he promised me it would be intact and undamaged. He was correct, it arrived without a scratch.
 
Looks awesome on the back of the tow truck. Will be a photo for the wall :)

 
 
I arrived at my cousins house and started unloading the gearbox using his engine crane. Everything went as planned so far with regards to removing the transmission. We had to disconnect the steering knuckle, remove 2 power steering lines, remove the wiring loom and remove the crossmember bolts. Those are some very tight bolts.
 
Before you know it, I had a 193kw 2wd go kart hahaha. Now the real Challenge starts removing the manual
 

 
 
Once the wheels were off and the engine was hoisted up I needed to remove the rear crossmember. Its great to see the engine out. That Auto Tranmission was huge, not only extremely heavy but very hard to work on, there are bolts hidden away everywhere.

 
 
 
 
I have to admit I am not a dog person but my cousins dog was keeping me company throughout the last 2 days. I loved it. He was extremely scared of the impact wrench and made some attempts to bite it and nearly me in the process doh haha

 
 
Before you know it the 2 were separated, goodbye
 
One thing I noticed was on the left hand side of the image, the turbo brace has some adjust-ability on the block, you can see that there is 3-4mm distance between the top of the bracket and the turbo exhaust. I loosened the bolts and pulled the bracket so it was flush with the turbo. When I took the dump pipe off I noticed that bolt was just sitting there half wound in. I'll do it straight away.

 
 
Here we have a 3sgte auto pressure plate, i'm sure these are similar to the ones on a rav4 auto. Didnt take much to undo the nuts and remove the pressure plate

 
You will notice the pressure plate spacer. its quite easy to miss and if its not removed it will cause the flywheel to touch the gearbox housing. It just slipped off nice and easy.

 
Here we have the leaking rear main seal. I'm not sure if I can tell the source of the leak. The leak was very small but enough to be of concern long term. I wonder what the chances are like that the plate surrounding the rear main seal could have been leaking

 
I had some free time while I decide what to do with the Valeo Clutch, I am thinking of getting an exeedy clutch instead of the Valeo brand one I have at the moment.
 
I decided to battle the rear sway bar. This was the easiest job i've ever done. I've done rear sways on previous cars and nearly all have involved dropping the fuel tank straps and squeezing the bar through the smallest spot possible. The bar came out really easily.

 
As you can see there is heaps of room to remove the bar.

 
comparing the stock one next to the Cusco rear 19MM rear sway bar.

 
Here is the sway bar installed. I was curious to see that the Cusco kit provided rubber boots instead of nolathane like the whiteline kits. I am still very impressed with the kit. Looks great.

 
I keep the protective packaging bag in place till the bar is all lined up and bolted in so there is less chance of scratching the suspension.

 
More progress will come this weekend. I still need to drill out the 32mm Master Cylinder hole, mount the manual shifter and run the clutch lines. The engine and gearbox should go in this week. I am hoping to rebuild the power steering pump if I can get the parts required this week. The master cylinder rebuilt kit arrived last week so that will get fixed up this week too.