HB + Mazda 24v V6. Now sold and gone to a good home :-)

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HB + Mazda 24v V6. Soggy rear axle bush questions....

Postby yoeddynz » Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:11 am

Welcome back to Vivadom. I have much to tell you so please sit down with a cup of tea and read on.

The new balljoint has so far been behaving well. Along with the balljoints I had shipped over from the motherland were some new front upper arm bushes. The ones on the car were most likely the originals and they were buggered. So two weekends ago Hannah and I spent the day at work and doted on the little Viva.

While I set up the new plenum chamber lid in the mill Hannah removed the upper arms from the car. Because these bushes can often be quite tricky to remove Hannah machined up some pressing cups that locate properly inside the edge of the bushes and another that locates neatly against the arms. With these the bushes pushed out square and the new ones pressed in easily. You can see how stuffed the old bushes were- two of them were not even bonded into the outer sleeve anymore and free to wobble about.

Hannah and her new favourite toy...

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Big vice makes it easy.. (sadly no press at work but luckily they were not as tight as we feared)

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The old knackered bushes..

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Workshop owner working on his Nash metropolitan in the background..

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I also continued on with machining my new idle air control valve that I had started making the night before. Its to replace the existing iac which was very noisy because I attached it to the underside of the plenum chamber. The iac I have been using is the original Mazda item stripped out from its home which was cast into the throttle body. Because its a pulse width modulated type it vibrates as the solenoid bit switches on and off really quickly. Not a problem in a solid casting but noisy when mounted to a boom box of a manifold.

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Old one near its location bolted under the plenum chamber..

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new pipe for hose to remote iac..

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So my new one is remotely mounted down near the fuel line. It still makes its sound but is no where near as noisy. Luckily its only active during warmup. Now I could have just bought a bosch iac or similar but I like making these sorts of little items. More fun. Plus I have loads of throttle bodies with these iacs as spares.

Another thing that I should have done ages ago was fit my new Mazda thermostat! The engine never ever got up to proper working temp. I had fitted a brand new Tridon brand thermostat but once pulled out and tested against the new Mazda item it showed me why I was so cool running. The Tridon one would open quicker and stay open till 77 degrees against the Mazda one that would shut bang on 82. I have heard bad things since fitting the tridon one about them. The Mazda one is so much more nicely made.

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Results? yeah! The engine runs much hotter, gets to temp quicker and does not yo yo up and down. I have also discovered since replacing it that I had set in the wrong resistance value for the the temp sensor and hence the tuning adout.

I have not found a definite answer yet but I think these engines run around 95 degrees.

Onto the new plenum chamber lid. I have been meaning to build this for ages after having discovered that the old 4mm thick lid flexes in and out loads from the engine suck. It also created a strong reverberation at certain revs that boomed through the car.

Dave (avengertiger) sourced me a piece of 6mm alloy and I finally set to work. I wanted raised ribs this time so milled the outside edges down with the old 6 toothed milling head that is missing 5 teeth.... thwack thwack thwack....

Last friday night I stayed in and carefully and slowly (no feed or coolant on our old mill) milled out the ribs while listening to Jim Mora.

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On Monday it got coated with some wrinkle paint, which took ages to go off due to the cold. When the paint was cured I scrapped it off the raised ribs...

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Then fitted it on Tuesday when back at work. Its so much quieter and I think looks much better :-)

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Last edited by yoeddynz on Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: My HB evolution continues- now Mazda 24valve V6 powered.

Postby yoeddynz » Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:15 am

Oh- some photos from the weekend trip south to Hanmer Springs for an oldschool.co.nz meet. The Viva drove so well and I'm sure it now running at a proper temp helped with economy too. In fact on the way home I mainly cruised except for some very fast driving through the buller and and over Golden downs range. Even with that we managed to return 40mpg (7L/100km). So stoked with that especially as fuel just keeps going up. Its still running a bit rich on cruise and the overrun fuel cut needs to be back on so there is more to come. Economy aside it was such a blast and the roads south were great. I forgot how beautiful a drive it is down through the centre of the South island.

Hannah having fun..

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Re: My HB evolution continues- now Mazda 24valve V6 powered.

Postby StefanM » Fri Oct 04, 2013 5:56 pm

yoeddynz wrote:Shitty shitty Quinton Hazel balljoints!!!!:doubt: I replaced a slightly worn Lockheed one last year sometime with a QH item and then come the cert 2 months ago it was found to be sloppy. So I replaced it with another new one and its already gone sloppy!

I have located some new lockheed items in dear old Blighty and just paid for them tonight. Hopefully next week I'll get them.

I took apart a QH one and a lockheed unit for a looksie. The Lockheed one is much beefier and has a strong coil spring to keep it under tension. The QH one relies on a little piece of rubber pushing down on a plastic bush. Just *Bleep*. I have since heard that QH stuff was quite often poor quality.

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I have also ordered some new bushes for the front upper arms from the same supplier. Total bill 182 squid - ouch.

This evening however was lovely and on my way to pick up Hannah I got a nice photo near Nelson port..

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I hate to tell you this but they are both QH joints.................The one you refer to as Lockheed is an 70/80´s QH while the other might be modern QH.
The genuine Lockheed joint does not look like that at all.
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Re: My HB evolution continues- now Mazda 24valve V6 powered.

Postby yoeddynz » Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:35 am

A long overdue update on here. A few of you will know the latest from whats been posted on retrorides. A month or so ago I removed the 2.0 litre V6 and refitted a 2.5 with an extra 50bhp. So it now has the full fat 200 plus bhp. Which is a giggle! :D Its proving to be pretty economical too- maybe does about 2-3 less mpg on a long run. Totally worth it for the extra ooompfff!

So today I was looking under the Viva on the hoist today and the rear axle bushes are a bit soggy/flexy/yucky/tired/slack/complient/useless....

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I can get new superpro poly items (expensive though) but have read that they dont last that long in this application. Are these shared with anyother car and are they being re-made by anyone? I have replaced all the other trailing arm/top arm bushes with new oldstock GT items. I think a bit stiffer than the standard ones. Just never did these ones at the time due to not having them.

Interesting reading what you have said about bushes Paul. I have noticed a clunk due to the holes in the body mount being a bit oval due to wear. Now under hard braking then accelerating the bolt clicks back then forth.

I have also noticed that my prop has been hitting the tunnel under really hard 1st/2nd acceleration. I will replace the bushes first, maybe then longer, if available, bump stops then if still hitting I will have to chop the tunnel area out and raise it?
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Re: HB + Mazda 24v V6. Soggy rear axle bush questions....

Postby bikingnutcase0 » Tue Apr 07, 2015 12:50 pm

Hi Alex, I've looked at bushes for mine, I decided to save up for superpro.

They are the same as used on a Jensen Healey sportscar (it used Vauxhall magnum suspension all round), and I have sometimes found stockists list Jensen Healy but not Viva/Magnum. I've also found Superpro offer a kit for Jensen Healey featuring everything in the Magnum kit, but also the shock-absorber bushes too. Strikes me as odd as AVO list the same shocks for Jensen Healey and Viva/Magnum.

I tell you what I did see a while ago which intrigued me, was a thread on using two-part polyurethane rubber to make your own! You can get the rubber in different shore hardness grades, which opens up some options for altering their performance, and you can dye it any colour you wish! - http://www.rodsnsods.co.uk/forum/tech-f ... ost1605914

Also As I said on YouTube I greatly enjoyed the feature by Matt Farah of "The Smoking Tyre" on yourselves and your car. And house :D

To Other Viva Forum Members, here is a link to a Youtube show featuring Alex and Hannah and their lovely V6 Viva- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwpJmIvSfDs
Biodiesel- Come in and smell the future!
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Re: HB + Mazda 24v V6. Soggy rear axle bush questions....

Postby yoeddynz » Sat Jun 27, 2015 10:29 pm

Oh sorry- late reply here. I'm sorted now on bushes. I just have to fit my new control arm bushes and its all done.

Also..cheers for posting up that link. It was a good day that- showing some Americans a fine little Viva. Matt really genuinely liked the Viva. He had never seen one before and was very impressed with the way it drove and handled. :) I think that you tube video is now the most watched Viva vid too. Yay- go the HB. Better than all the latest vids for the new 'Viva'

Ive just had to buy 4 new tyres. The insides have worn out due to bad alignment. I had zeroed the front camber but was too late. Possibly also too much Toe out which is scrubbing them off. So I'll get a MOT on Monday and then get a full alignment done. Will replace them last control arm bushes beforehand.
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Re: HB + Mazda 24v V6. Soggy rear axle bush questions....

Postby AccieMad » Sat Jul 04, 2015 8:19 pm

To start off I'm a purist. I like to keep stuff standard, I was upset when my new headlining material didn't match, exactly, the old one. but each to our own. Its only a bit of metal and we all have our take on classics.

I have to say though that the engine engineering and fitting in your earlier post is truely a thing of beauty. I don't think vauxhall could have done a better job.

Hats off.
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Re: HB + Mazda 24v V6. Soggy rear axle bush questions....

Postby yoeddynz » Sat Jul 11, 2015 9:57 pm

Cheers! :D I too like tidy original cars but this one had a naff engine from the day I bought it and I knew I was going o drive this car a lot so had to get something with a bit more poke. Its just sort of evolved now.

What till you see what I put in the HB estate.... (actually..he he...Im not sure yet what Im going to fit into that so for now it will hopefully just run with the standard engine)
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Re: HB + Mazda 24v V6. Soggy rear axle bush questions....

Postby yoeddynz » Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:20 pm

Wow! Six months or so since I last wrote about the Viva. This is not because nothing has happened. Things have happened but nothing big. Lots of little jobs, some of which have made a huge improvement.

First off. The brake master cylinder started weeping out the back and down the front of the servo taking all my carefully applied spray can finish with it. Damn. So I ordered another seal kit and stripped the master. Right in the very first bit of the bore was a little bit of surface rust. enough that it had been wearing away at the last seal and it lost its edge. I gave the bore a hone, fitted new seals and applied rubber grease inside the bore at the end after it was assembled. Hopefully no more wearing.

So that was exciting.

Here's some photos of the excitement...

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see that seal edge all rounded off...

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Next up was to replace the front control arm bushes. The original ones were knackered. All squishy and deformed out of shape. These take all the loading when the brakes are applied. They stop the wheels ending up in footwells under hard braking plus they set the amount of castor. Quite important things. I should have replaced them years ago. I had the bush kit sitting in the boot for ages but it was just one of those jobs... always on the back of my mind, knowing full well it will be easy and make a difference. Instead I did an engine swap or two. Oh well.. better replace them then.

The decision to finally get around to replacing them was made much easier by finally having a hoist. So up the car went and fueled with a cup of tea and a big dose of enthusiasm it was off with the control arms.

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The state of these!...

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But the new bushes were the wrong size!!! Listed for an Viva HB but blatantly much bigger in all dimensions. Not even a chance of fitting.

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So back on with the old ones and ring the suspension place I got them from, then the distributors. The bushes are for a Torana! Same designed front end but bigger to take more weight. Oh. But they located a set the right size internally and I'll have to turn down the outers. They can send them and I just swap the bits over. Off the phone, car off the hoist and my tea was cold :-(

A week or two later I finally picked up the bushes. Country life now dictates I don't go to the big smoke that is Nelson as often. Once home I hoisted the Viva up again, off with the arms, another cup of tea and remove the dust sheet from the old colchester lathe. I have not machined poly for maybe 20 years since doing my apprenticeship. Very sharp tooling was needed. I had to use some old thing called HSS! I even had to grind the edge on this oldschool tooling. The result was smooth and the size was now right.

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Here's some soft swarf..

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Then in with the new bushes. Down with the tea. Still warm. Yay!

While the car was up I noticed the front tyres were unevenly worn beyond salvage (Actually noticed ages ago but was ignoring due to $$$). So with car now armed with a lovely new pair of bushes I drove to Nelson, had some lovely new Falken tyres in 185/60 13 size installed and then got a full wheel alignment done. The fella at the new place I took it is well known through the Nelson car club for knowing his onions and he spotted as I turned up an excessive amount of toe out. That will be the cause of the scrubbing. I was also running a touch too much negative camber on the front. I couldnt get it any less so before I took the car out I took another mm out of the slots on the top arm allowing him to adjust it. Also a bit less castor was ordered as I felt I wanted nicer turn in, less weighty steering and I would deal with the old car/side wind float. When I picked the car up it was instantly better! He said the wheels needed 20-30mm of pulling in via the tierods to correct the Toe out!!! I could tell when I lifted off the accelerator in town and the car would roll further that there was a heck load less drag now. Sweet. This will equal better economy- not only fuel but tyre wear!

Job two I have been putting off...

This..

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Doesnt look so bad and Ive happily ignored it. But no longer. I did this..

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Then it was all gone. This made me happy.

Third job I have put off. This one has been bugging me, and Hannah even more, for a long time. Self cancelling indicators. Or lack of. Ever since I fitted a new steering wheel boss for my uncles old Motolita wheel I have not had self cancelling indicators. Because I never did that 20 minutes extra work in fitting a little ring.
I had kept the ring from an old Viva steering wheel. I cut it down, drilled two holes in the current wheel boss then glued the ring in place with JJ quickweld epoxy. Just in case. Hey wow. A throughly modern car. No more telling every single person who jumps in to drive the Viva that the indicators don't self cancel.

Its often those little things in life eh.

Here's some photos of the proceedings..

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Oh and I did this too. I gt sick of the slightly sticky throttle body. The butterfly gets sort of jammed shut and makes it hard to squeeze the throttle open gently when pulling away. I added an adjustable stop to the pulley so I could crack the butterfly open ever so slightly avoiding the jam..

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That is all for now. Im going to have a play with the ignition timing table that I had retarded a while back trying to chase that low speed vibration which I now know is the long single piece driveshaft.

With the ignition timing back to where it should be my quest for better economy will improve. I did an oil change last month and went through the my Scottish book of mileage and fuel usage. I have some stats here..

7374 miles I drove with the 2.0 litre KF V6. Over those miles it had averaged 29.14 MPG. Not bad at all considering how much of a thrashing that engine has had.

Then I swapped in the 2.5 litre KL v6. I have since done 5689 miles with this engine and overall it has averaged 28,1 MPG!!! So with the extra 50 or 60 bhp that bigger engine offers I was pleasantly surprised at that. I figure it being its not having to work so hard to shift the car.

I am still chasing more economy from the engine but realise it will never be modern car amazing when I am trying to push a brick through the air. But its fun trying..
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Re: HB + Mazda 24v V6. Soggy rear axle bush questions....

Postby hbpeter » Sat Dec 26, 2015 3:35 pm

Amazing how you make all this sound so easy! Brilliant work.

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