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Mike K's '79 242 Barn Car Revival

You caught me several too many drinks deep in Miami :oops:

I was just there, you're excused! Not a cheap town...

I have Friday off work so might kick this off.

I also put in an order enquiry for some nice fresh foam for the Recaros at Capital Seating and man does that stuff add up :omg:. Had to move that one on down the priority list.
 
Had the day off work today and enjoyed a great first day on the car for the year. It has been in a neighbors garage for probably 4 months now and it started up no problem, didn't even have a tender on the little Odyssey battery. Cool. I started burning the old studded yard tires off in second gear then remembered I only had 2 lugs nuts per wheel on and settled down and brought it into the garage. I've been really into the truck project lately so had been feeling kind of 'meh' on getting back into this car. One hit of boost in second gear cleared that all up!

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While it was hot I dumped last year's oil, which had all of ~1,600 miles on it. Came out perfectly clean and the mag. drain plug was clean so appears the new motor is happy. I had Joe Gibbs LS30 in it last year and am going to try Red Line this year.

While it drained I jotted down my hit list over the next few weeks, in no particular order.

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Once we actually looked at it there was a lot more room around the bellhousing than we remembered, so decided to pull the transmission and not mess with pulling the engine. Actually pulled the box off the adapter plate first and it was easy as pie.

The old clutch setup has seen up to 25psi on this car and never slipped before, so it was not a disappointment. But the disc is gettin thin!

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Old setup was an RSI lightened flat flywheel, and a mystery clutchnet PP and disc. Weighed 26lbs total. New is a Yoshi billet steel flywheel and a clutch masters FX 400 PP and 6 puck disc. Weighs 25lbs total.

Flywheel is purdy

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The new PP is considerably bigger than the old one. Notice the clutch cable hanging it's head in defeat as it prepares to be banished from my engine bay for all of eternity.

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Now time to figure out how to set up the hydraulic release bearing. Put bellhousing back on

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and measure distance between the transmission surface of the bellhousing and the fingers of the pressure plate.

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Maths to determine the distance between the block surface of the bellhousing and the face of the release bearing.

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Measure, thread the bearing out, measure, thread the bearing out, measure, thread... you get it.

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I've actually never had the transmission split from the bellhousing, so I didn't realize that the adapter plate is two piece, with this separate centering ring.

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We were very happy to see that everything was going to fit and clear the bellhousing. The only mod required was to open up a small notch to clear the anti-rotation pin for the bearing.

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Plenty of room and a nice big window!

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should be able to get the transmission back on tomorrow. Then it's on to swapping pedals and plumbing hydraulics. I think that's where the pain will come in; it looks like I'm probably going to have to move my fuel pressure regulator, which will mean making new lines which will mean waiting for more -6 hose to come in blah blah.
 
Got it all back together. The transmission went in very easily which was nice.

Setting up the bearing and doing the transmission side was the enjoyable part compared to swapping over to the hydro pedal and master. I really hate under the dash work and so does my back.

Used a hole saw from inside the car to make the hole for the master cylinder.

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The hydraulic slave bearing requires a pedal stop to prevent over throwing it. We did it within the pedal box by welding a coupling nut to the pedal

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Then used existing holes to bolt a piece of angle steel to the inside of the pedal box. Lined it up and ended up with a good adjustable pedal stop.

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I got lucky and the Wilwood master even fit in around my fuel pressure regulator. Is it convenient? no. But I didn't have remake the fuel lines and relocate anything so that was a win.

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Making up the hydraulic line was straightforward. So basically once I was done wrestling around inside the car with the pedal is was bled and ready to go. It's nice because the m46 bellhousing has such a big hole for the clutch fork you can look in and inspect the slave bearing visually.

The only problem I have is the wet noodle firewall panel. The pedal is now lighter than with the old cable setup, but the master cylinder is torquing over a surprising amount. I might go down to a .625" master to try and reduce some of the force. I think I'm going to have to consider pulling the dash and reinforcing the firewall.

put the car back together and swapped over to a 740 driveshaft support. I used a bracket I bought last year from Jao

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but the slots didn't line up, so I had to drill holes in it for it to work. I also need to space it down from the body for more clearance around the bearing cage. Next time I'd save $60 and build one...

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For some reason after doing all this work the car has been difficult to start. I'm not getting any sync loss but it's like it takes forever for it to catch a spark and fire up. I've never had trouble starting the car before, so it is something that changed with the clutch/flywheel. I did reset base timing but it didn't help. The car runs and drives fine otherwise.

took it for a short ride and it feels good. The clutch is a lot different, and it's definitely not a stock clutch. The engagement window is very short, it's fairly grabby. Takes a little adjusting to but it's not too bad. The pedal feel is a lot better than with the cable.

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I also got some of this stuff delivered, for when I decide to spend some time on the interior.

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If you want a firewall reinforcement bracket, I could whip one out for you. Ask Harald how it's working on his car.
 
Awesome work! Hydro clutch seems like where it's at!

thanks, yes I'm happy to be rid of the cable and the fork and adjusting the thing every 2 weeks so I could get the car into 1st gear!

If you want a firewall reinforcement bracket, I could whip one out for you. Ask Harald how it's working on his car.

I think we might have talked this before, I feel like I saw a picture. Is it small like the bolt area of the MC or does it distribute the load further out on the panel? The issue is the side towards the center of the car where it's flat near the brake booster, there's just no support. The other side is close to the edge of the panel so it's stiffer. So it ends up kicking the master out towards the fender by a not insignificant amount.
 
Mike do you have any pictures of the housing where the lines are coming out?
 
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Mike do you have any pictures of the housing where the lines are coming out?

the housing of bells? I don't think I took one but lemme check. I used the rubber bellows from the clutch fork and snaked them out through there, worked perfect.

I'll get ya something
 
I'm curious what you would change about it if you had the chance.

make it invisible :-P

I want it for function, but I love the 'full open view' of the engine bay without it (applicable to all strut braces really). Hence why it keeps being pushed down the things-to-buy list. Actually looking at pictures now and the cross portion is set way further back than I thought it was. For some reason I pictured it right across the middle. I wonder if the coils would hit it.

Wonder if I'll be able to feel a difference with one vs. with just the strut tower braces I have now? Tell you what after 5 months of only driving my tired old SAAB the 240 sure feels sharp.
 
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