• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

1980 242 GT. A reasonable project.

Made some progress with the rear end improvements over the past couple days.

Dropped the rear end out of the car
BYaNJB2l.jpg


Scraped the rust off and freshened up the axle housing. There were superpro polyurethane bushings installed a long time ago in the donor wagon this came from, so getting them out was a minor nightmare.
6xEECPZl.jpg


Pressed in some Kaplhenke sphericals. These went in pretty easily and without drama.
8Gn7oVpl.jpg


951jAMBl.jpg


v2w3QBjl.jpg




Next up is setting backlash with carrier bearing shims--I tried just swapping the shims that were on the open diff and the backlash was ridiculous, so I ended up removing the bearings again and will start from scratch. Getting pretty excited about having this all wrapped up and back on the ground.

c2yeGGml.jpg
 
Damn dude, what a saga. I have to commend you for sticking with it and pushing through another engine build. Thanks for sharing your tribulations & lessons learned with the rest of us!

A few questions:
  • What's up with the hinged contraption on the front edge of your bench the trans is sitting on? Some kind of homemade brake?
  • Can you share what combo of rear upper & lower arms & bushings you're using with the Kaplhenke spherical bearings? I bought some of the first batch of those from Ben but still haven't installed them.
  • What manner of E85-safe fuel hose did you go with, and is there an SAE spec for it?

I'm looking forward to the G265 swap in my 242, along with a fresh-ish ZF rack and a new battery so I can start driving it again. I will look back at your thread for inspiration to get me moving on it again. Just did a Ford 9.75" axle rebuild which got me back into thinking about 8.8" stuff for both of my 240s. Good times.
 
Duder said:
Damn dude, what a saga. I have to commend you for sticking with it and pushing through another engine build. Thanks for sharing your tribulations & lessons learned with the rest of us!

A few questions:
  • What's up with the hinged contraption on the front edge of your bench the trans is sitting on? Some kind of homemade brake?
    Yep, that?s a homemade brake that my brother and I made, initially to assist with fabricating a skid plate for his lowered e28.
  • Can you share what combo of rear upper & lower arms & bushings you're using with the Kaplhenke spherical bearings? I bought some of the first batch of those from Ben but still haven't installed them.
    For both torque rods and trailing arms, I have spherical bearing on the axle side and new Genuine Volvo rubber on the body side. The torque rods are the newer hybrid offering from Kaplhenke.
  • What manner of E85-safe fuel hose did you go with, and is there an SAE spec for it?
    It?s Aeroquip 2556 hose. I?ll take a look.

I'm looking forward to the G265 swap in my 242, along with a fresh-ish ZF rack and a new battery so I can start driving it again. I will look back at your thread for inspiration to get me moving on it again. Just did a Ford 9.75" axle rebuild which got me back into thinking about 8.8" stuff for both of my 240s. Good times.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Chris! Added in some answers above. The getrag 265 swap with the redblock is pretty straight forward, especially if you have all of the swap kit parts in hand.
 
Tom, you will need some preload on those diff. carrier bearings. I built a Dana spreader which worked fine on my 1041 rear in my sedan. Some have tried to drive the assembly in, freeze it, etc. The greenbook recommends a spreader tool which of course is NLA. I'm happy to ship you my spreader if you'll cover the freight and return when done. My 1031 TrueTrac install is a couple years away, probably after I retire. LMK... pics of that device are in my sedan build thread.
 
blkaplan said:
Good work for not giving up on a trashed bottom end!
Click to expand...

Thanks, it's been quite tempting to walk away, but I'll give it my best shot another time.


DET17 said:
Tom, you will need some preload on those diff. carrier bearings. I built a Dana spreader which worked fine on my 1041 rear in my sedan. Some have tried to drive the assembly in, freeze it, etc. The greenbook recommends a spreader tool which of course is NLA. I'm happy to ship you my spreader if you'll cover the freight and return when done. My 1031 TrueTrac install is a couple years away, probably after I retire. LMK... pics of that device are in my sedan build thread.
Click to expand...

Thank you for offering! I'll take a look and let you know.


Stiggy Pop said:
missed this car.

Your garage... whoo boy. I covet.
Click to expand...

The garage has definitely been its own project in parallel with the car, although it seems to have progressed more with less effort :lol:

When I bought the house
9I0cwLGl.jpg


K0cKOzYl.jpg



Then I made it brighter
rF6OhDvl.jpg



Then I coated the floors with polycuramine after a thorough wash, acid etch and crack filling.
bST2y2Tl.jpg


pMyoqUhl.jpg


EDPCeA5l.jpg


3BLTuGol.jpg



Insulated the walls and added a 60K BTU natural gas heater.
BOVcYiVl.jpg



Finally got around to mudding the drywall after it had been up for a year or two.
DxJONw5l.jpg



Bought a bunch of rolling and wall-mounted cabinets
UKKywe2l.jpg



Then primed and painted the walls and ceiling.
urel3Fml.jpg


cI8TNYUl.jpg


Figured out a simple, but more attractive method for window and door casing, as well as a chair rail to divide the colors.
QR1SSOJl.jpg



Got the rest of the cabinets up and painted the staircase the most subtle color I could find. Garage basically ended up like this. Always more to do, but done enough for me to focus on the 242 for a while.

DeEMFpbl.jpg


OghUgE5l.jpg


pJe43OFl.jpg


gEx5KTwl.jpg
 
The Full Banana said:
Thanks, Chris! Added in some answers above. The getrag 265 swap with the redblock is pretty straight forward, especially if you have all of the swap kit parts in hand.
Click to expand...

No, thank you! Yeah I think I have everything I need for the 265; I got the bits from Karl after he decided not to continue with the '92 245 project. It's been low priority for a while now but definitely looking forward to getting that done.

Good idea on the sheetmetal brake. And thanks for the other responses too.

Keep us posted on the rear axle work. I found it was very easy to damage shims during installation on the one I just did, but that was with an aftermarket kit in an axle that isn't supposed to require a case spreader. I had luck with a method I read... which was to set up backlash with zero preload so everything just slips into the case, then add equal thickness to both sides to set the preload while maintaining backlash (+0.006" to each side in my case but not sure what that value would be for the Dana 30 / Volvo 1030 or 1031).
 
I moved into my place, filled the garage with my cars and crap, and continue to work on cars in my Dad's garage down the road :rofl:

Good move to get it set up up front, I'm really wanting a workspace like that lately!
 
Kudos for sticking with it, really admire your tenacity on this engine stuff. The shop also looks killer, really nice place to hang and get some work done.
 
The Full Banana said:
I'm in the middle of building new door panels, so i'll share some photos of that once I have it wrapped up. A combination of suede, textured hdpe, and gloss black aluminum. Not to the finish line, but I'm happy with how they are coming along.
Click to expand...

????

(you made me go back and catch up on your thread now you gotta answer to it)
 
Alex Buchka said:
Kudos for sticking with it, really admire your tenacity on this engine stuff. The shop also looks killer, really nice place to hang and get some work done.
Click to expand...

Thanks man. I’m looking forward to reflecting on this in a couple months after dyno tuning and thinking about how worth it it all was (fingers crossed).


Stiggy Pop said:
????

(you made me go back and catch up on your thread now you gotta answer to it)
Click to expand...

After the car is back down on the ground, I’ll be finishing up that project... that got sidelined by garage project this summer and then the engine this fall. The driver door panel is about half done, but this starts to give you an idea.

SGjkA7tl.jpg
 
Last edited:
Spent some time in the garage today and got the differential set up.

Yz0b217l.jpg


After getting the backlash set and new bearings pressed on, I tacked the 12-tooth trigger wheel to the carrier case.
xk9tgnNl.jpg


qKmQNGSl.jpg


Tag adhered to the axle housing for future reference, and threw the aluminum cover on with a paper gasket. I'll need to come up with a very small gasket spacer for the speed sensor to clear the trigger wheel.
a6FGo7zl.jpg



The whole unit should be back in the car this weekend sometime.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top