Thread: RRC 1990 ls1, t400 & LT230 conversion

Sorry guys its been a while since the last update.

got the basics sorted on the rangie a while back and took it for a run up the street. soon discovered a gearbox issue as it when to shift into second gear, literally locked up all 4 tyres and tried to eject me out the windscreen. figure its trying to pick 2 gears at once and acting like a transbrake.

it was pretty gut wrenching at the time and the thought of yanking the box out was too much so it got pushed in the corner for a while as we`d pretty much missed winter anyway.

so, christmas holidays have come round and we have some time up my sleeve and all the weekenders are broken so i have to fix something. first up is the rangie.

We got stuck back into the wiring. needed to make a dash and centre console up and reinstate the power windows.

first up the dash, we are going to run a digital gps speedo so didnt need to fit that in the dash panel and given the huge amount of trans oil in the box i figure the area of most concern is water temp as this will not see much air flow for the type of driving its going to be doing so water temp got prime position.

next up was to make a centre console panel.


inc diff lock/air compressor switch and 2x12v outlets.

installed panel, mounted the bottom on a hinge so it can tilt forward to give more access to the wiring panel if needs be.

dash panel tilted forward, 2 plugs separates the whole panels wiring for removal if req.

then behind the shifter is the new power window switch panel.

so all thats left with the wiring is to buy an oil temp gauge, i got mixed up and ended up with 2 water temps and no oil temp gauge.
conduit some of the wiring over fiction points but most of it will be left open, just cable tied together for ease of tracing.
reinstate the dash pad and radio.
then its just a case of getting the box to do its thing.

have bought a B&M shift kit and new modulator to put in and see if it does anything to help. If not the box is coming out.

till next time.

Its looking awesome.Wish i had the ability to do this sort of stuff.Keep the pics coming.

Well its been a while since the last update so here it is.

We decided to tackle the gearbox ourselves rather then forking out nearly $2000 without knowing what needed to be replaced. I paid off. We had a donner box that had a cracked case to grab parts from that we picked up for about $100 that was said to be rebuilt. We opened the donner box up and it had new parts all through it but was not put together very well.

This is what the original box looked like inside.


i`m no gearbox specialist but we made the assumption that these 2 bits are actually meant to be one.

along with some bent retainer clips, completely stuffed out friction plates and lots of bits that looked to be have been overheated heavily.

So we bought a book for $30, spent about $68 on a full seal kit, $20 on a spring clip was damaged and a carton of jacks and the old box was built.


We stuck some fluids in it toady and gave it a whirl. works like a dream. over the moon is an understatement.

even drove it down the road to get some fuel.

so moral of the story is, dont be affraid to give **** ago yourself. with a book and a couple of youtube vids, i`ve saved a considerable amount of coin and have learnt an absolute ****load in the process.

Ok the above post was about 6 weeks ago.

a week ago we went over it and just tidied up bit and pieces like mounting the computer, some gauge sensors, replace side and rear mirrors and had it tuned by Mitch @ WA Performance as it olny had a startup map in it.

This car is so nice to drive now with power to boot.

Last night we decided to give it a crack offroad in this stormy weather we are having in Perth. It work flawlessly. Im very happy with the outcome. Spins all 4 wheels easily and no breakages.

BTW here is a quick video of our test run.
http://s144.photobucket.com/user/AK6...53585.mp4.html

Its a good feeling when you drive it to the servo for fuel for the first time haha, i have similar pics from my build.

Yes it is.

What speedo are you using? i have been using a speedo app on the iphone for now, but have a nice VDO gauge, just havnt quite worked out how to drive it yet but i can get a GPS speedo drive for it.

Originally Posted by cal415

What speedo are you using? i have been using a speedo app on the iphone for now, but have a nice VDO gauge, just havnt quite worked out how to drive it yet but i can get a GPS speedo drive for it.

Yep same here with the speedo app. We only need it to get to where we are going.

Oh BTW the Turbo 400 isnt too bad at highway speeds. Sits at 3200 rpm at 100kph in 3rd.