Back On The Road Again!

[Homestar]

Just thought I'd let everyone know I have the L322 back on the road after the trannie rebuild - smiles all round!:)

Just washed it and it is sitting in the driveway waiting for SWMBO to get home - she has never even seen it yet, so it's getting exciting! Gear changes on it are very snappy and it drives very nicely indeed - heres to hoping for a few trouble free KM before anything else needs doing...:p

Cheers - Gav

[Laurie]

Thats great news Gav :).I hope all goes well from now on.

I've emailed a few shops in the US about 5L40/50E rebuilds, but no results yet. So very interested in what they did (spec wise) with your auto rebuild. Getting a solution for this auto will be big step with peoples confidence in this car. As most I think, would like to re-chip/flash the engine. The R/R engine spec is very mild to what can be done safely with this engine.

Laurie

[Homestar]

Thanks for that. I'll post up the details on the rebuild to let everyone know what was done. I would also be happy to pass the companies details - I will do this when I do the write up.

I still think that long term, a manual gearbox would be the go - I will be persuing this once I save up a few more dollars - Interestingly, I found a gearbox & flywheel in Australia out of an X5, but I have no money to buy it with at the moment:(.

I would love to chip the car now, but I'm too afraid of what the gearbox would think of this...:p I'm a bit gun shy at the moment...

Cheers - Gav

[33chinacars]

Great news Gav to finally have your pride and joy back on the road. Just get in it and drive :):twobeers:

Gary

[jsp]

Treat it nice and you should get another 150 out of it at least :)

I'm a bit concerned about the auto's life if the engine is chipped...... Happy to keep mine standard!

Enjoy it mate :)

[Homestar]

Great news Gav to finally have your pride and joy back on the road. Just get in it and drive :):twobeers:

Gary

Won't get to enjoy it this weekend - SWMBO has taken it, and I doubt I'll see her again today...:p

[fraser130]

Great news Gav!
Mine is STILL away.....been 2 months now to change 2 valves and 2 lash adjusters! With so called experts!
Latest news is the lash adjusters need to come from the UK with a 10 day wait.......

[Landover]

Good to hear you have it back on the road. May you have many enjoyable Km's too come. That's if you can get it back off the wife. I'll keep an eye out for it around town.

[33chinacars]

Won't get to enjoy it this weekend - SWMBO has taken it, and I doubt I'll see her again today...:p


No No dont let her. You will never see it again :tease:

Back to the old girl again :angel:

Gary

[Homestar]

Great news Gav!
Mine is STILL away.....been 2 months now to change 2 valves and 2 lash adjusters! With so called experts!
Latest news is the lash adjusters need to come from the UK with a 10 day wait.......

Geez Fraser, that's no good :( Hope they get it all sorted when those lash adjusters come in. Why did it take them so long to find out they needed them?

[fraser130]

Geez Fraser, that's no good :( Hope they get it all sorted when those lash adjusters come in. Why did it take them so long to find out they needed them?

Gav, I have been asking myself the same question for 7.5 weeks!
I don't want to go into it on an open forum, but this has been a real eye-opening experience.

I recon this is going to be dearer than your tranny, by a good bit too.

Congrats on your car, I'm green with envy!

By the way, I'll be buying a complete cam setting tool kit after this, found a good quality german kit for $315 on Evilbay - wish I'd seen it earlier, the car would be done by now (probably 4 weeks ago!)

Cheers, you lucky so-and-so!

Fraser



Fraser

[rangietragic]

glad your back on road bacicat,was going to chip mine before i drove it,but seems to go better than my chipped disco td5.uses less fuel too.im a bit concerned about the tranny though,even if it seems to drive fine and smooth.i think ill leave it alone.now if only i could get front pass door open,id be a happy camper.ps,sons series 3 is over35 years old,doors still open on it:mad:

[Homestar]

Just thought I'd post an update on my transmission. Although some of you know my tale of woe, I didn't post about it when it happened - I just couldn't bring myself to do it at the time, not everything went well after getting the car back on the road.:( The first time my wife drove it to work, she got half way there, then the car stopped - had no drive in forward or reverse gears, and there was a small 'ticking' noise coming from the trannie...

So, back on the phone to the bloke that built it, and thankfully, he said he would get it sorted. As he is up in Sydney, he made some enquiries within the industry, and asked if I could get the car towed to Airport Automatics in Tullamarine - The RACV took care of that thankfully.

So, trannie back out, and the guy who runs the show there (Chris) gave me a call to say the pump rotor had exploded damaging the housing:eek:.

Luckily it was repairable, and he got it all sorted - Rhys (Furious Performance), to his credit paid for the repair in whole (quite a bit as well...), and said he has no idea what caused the failure, as the part was brand new. Chris also couldn't put his finger on the cause, as there wasn't much left to look at - the rotor was in about 20 pieces.

So, back on the road again... for a while. Just before new years, SWMBO was driving back from a few days at her folks place, when a noise started coming from underneath... The car still had drive, so she drove it off the main road, and parked it up safely. RACV was called again - they sent a young bloke out to look at it who said "I don't know anything about these, it will have to be towed" - der!!!

Anyway, RACV got the vehicle back from Traralgon to Tullamarine FOC, and got SWMBO, her Auntie and the dogs home - best $143 I've spent on the 'Extra Care' package...

Anyway, going back one step, I knew Chris wouldn't be at work, but tried the number anyway to see if he had an emergency contact - he answered the phone (it was diverted to his house) and I filled him in. He asked if I could get it to his workshop, and he would pop over to lock it away safely until he was back from holidays - he even gave me his mobile number in case he wasn't at home when I called to let him know how far away the car was - great service.:)

So, he was back at work this morning, and gave me a ring at 10am. The new issue was the head of one of the torque converter bolts had broken off, and that what was rattling around in the bellhousing. 3 new bolts and it is back on the road - he apologised and said it may of happened because the bolts had been in and out so many times recently...

No charge for the new bolts or his time, and hopefully everything will be fine now. Not to take away from what Rhys has done, but if I had known this guy existed in the first place, I would have got him to rebuild it in the first place - he knows these boxes inside out - from the Commodore, and he is on my doorstep.

So, if anyone needs any transmission work done, I cannot recommend this guy highly enough - easy to deal with, fast turn around, friendly and knowledgable. His customer service is first class, so again - Thanks Chris!:) You can get hold of Chris at Airport Automatics - 03 9330 2940. Tell him Gav with the Blue Rangie sent you!

P.S - When he took the Rangie for a run, he came back with the biggest smile on his face, he said he wouldn't mind owning one, and might have a look around to see what he can land one for - another convert!:p

Cheers - Gav

[Laurie]

Gav
That's great news !:clap2:
Is the box uprated or still stock ?

Laurie

[Homestar]

Hi Laurie, the box has had a few mods done. The valve body now runs Sonax seals which work better as the valve body starts to wear - the valve body is made from really soft alloy for some reason. 1st and 2nd frictions are uprated, as are the 4th and 5th frictions. The torque converter has been strengthened during its rebuild, but not sure exactly what they did to it.

Hopefully I will get a few KM out of it now.

But, after all these problems, it will take some time to gain any real confidence in the vehicle...:(

SWMOB has now put her full support behind a manual conversion, so I am going to press on with research on this. I have a good idea how I am going to do most of that, but there are still some issues to works through - the main one being electrical - if you just unplug the loom from the trannie, the car thinks it is in 3rd gear - sport mode, so obviously you can't start it like that, so I will have to trick the system into thinking it is in neutral all the time. I need to get my hands on a wiring diagram of the trannie to do this - still looking for one.

Everything else should work - there is room for the clutch pedal assembly behind the dashboard, I can get a 5 speed manual from an X5 that will pretty much bolt straight in. All the fiddly stuff like gear linkages, etc will take some time though.

Once I have all the parts together, I'll start a thread up on the conversion, but I would imagine it will be later in the year before I start.

Cheers - Gav

[rangietragic]

bacicat,did you look at one in melbourne somewhere,dk blue with cream leather,about 194,000 kays,a young woman had it for $35000.had a couple of dodgy door locks,which i only found out about after id bought it?

[Homestar]

Hi Rangietragic, yes I did look at a Dark Blue one from a woman - in the Richmond area. It had a few small issues, I can't remember about the door locks - the drivers window didn't work, but she said she was taking it to Ritters to get it fixed.

The car drove well, and I couldn't fault it mechanically, but the spec wasn't what I was looking for and it had a few too many K's on it, and I found the one I have now, which fitted the bill - same colour though.:)

Have you been to look at it? If it is the same one, I would be offering well below the asking price - the one I'm thinking off was first advertised about 6 months ago.

Cheers - Gav

[rangietragic]

i think this one was in ringwood east.got it for $31000.only gripe is with the door locks.beautiful to drive and economical.

[Homestar]

Sounds like a different car, but sounds good all the same.:) Hope the door locks aren't too bad to repair.