LittleRedSpirit

Cheers Jake, but wont need to trouble you as they are pretty close to perfect on both diffs. The only thing that's a bit shit about this diff is I detected that one calliper slide has play which gives a little noise right as the car stops, Ill just swap over the calliper I think.

To achieve this swap in australia, you need the following: Lights from t18 series 2. Headlight brackets from a dx ke70. Gaurds from a ke70 panelvan, as well as the chrome bumper form it. Bonnet and beaver panel from early ke70 panelvan. Headlight surrounds from a dx ke70. Grill from a dx KE70. You can get a few different grills with awesome C badges and the like, I have a couple in my collection. I actually have 2 sets of this front end, more or less. If I find another bonnet and beaver from a pano that completes the set. I have 4 sets of lights and trims, 8 grills with different badges, 2 sets of gaurds, one bonnet, one beaver, one chrome bumper with endcaps and brackets. Its taken 3 years of fairly intense searching to collect. No nothing is for sale except for a couple of grills. As for doing the conversion, it fits directly bolt for bolt perfect on a slanty radiator support panel. Flat front is a bit more difficult to convert as it wont bolt in and line up automatically.

Diff is fixed! Its very quiet, completely silent below about 75klm/hr, and makes a tiny whine above that, just like youd expect of 4.5s. Loving it.

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/showthread.php/25019-KE70-Active-Aero?goto=newpost

OK. Progress! Today I collected the diff housing, freshly cleaned of course, and the freshly assembled centre with the 4.5s from diff lapping. I get their full warranty since I had them clean the housing as well. They removed the baffles and everything and did a wonderful job of cleaning it. No more sand I tells ya! The post mortem on the whiny gear set in the second diff revealed symptoms of low oil in the diff for a long period. The teeth were exchanging metal back and forth from crown wheel to pinion and vice versa. They evidently had gotten very hot and were black at the edges. Thankfully the 4.5s lapped up and assembled perfectly, the lsd was fine and the bearings I supplied were all correct. A bit of a rundown of expenses to freshen up a t series, provided your lsd is in useable condition: Rear wheel bearings, Koyo - $95 a side with retainers and seals included. Bearings for the centre, unsure of brand but were japanese made - $200, there is 4 of them, 2 pairs. Diff lapping to refresh worn gears - $105 Sealant - $13 If you need a crown wheel and pinion a new one is $500-$600, different ratios are different prices usually.

Silvertop and Blacktop are very similar. Same VVT system, same camshaft duration, they are the same thing in general terms I guess. Having owned both its more or less the same to drive, perhaps the blacktop is a bit better at high rpm, and the silvertop more grunty in the mid revs. More specifically the blacktop has more lift on the inlet cam I believe, larger exhaust ports by about 1/8 of an inch, larger inlet ports and bigger bore itbs, thinner, slightly lighter conrods, a lighter flywheel, hydraulic timing belt tensioner and a 1 tooth longer belt, slightly higher compression, its just a touch more highly strung I guess, but still very reliable. Google Bill Sherwoods pages and have a read and look at the images. I think silvertop rods are the same as gze rods, wheras blacktop rods are different and refined with na in mind.

Today's instalment of the diff saga... I decided to get diff lapping to build it. I asked around, and they are widely regarded as the better diff people in Brisbane. They quoted an average build labour fee of $385. I was a bit shocked by this. I decided f@$k it, its a long term expense so may as well do it once and do it right. I dropped them the complete whiney as f@$k centre, new bearings for it, a better condition tailshaft/pinion flange, pinion seal, crush washer and they already had he diff gears after lapping them. They rang me back tonight at 5pm to say the centre was all ready to go. Pretty damn fast turnaround. Only 2 hours labour to pay for aswell so only $200 plus the lapping and the housing cleaning fee. Wonderful. I will collect it tomorrow and re-assemble on saturday. I just have to go get the bearings pressed on and off the axles. I noticed that both diffs have the same splines on the axles. So both the same series. Vernier Calipers will confirm whether its a zenki or kouki style once and for all tomorrow.

Love the driveway hairpin. :lolcry:

I bought the axle bearings for both diffs today. $400 later. Ouch. Got a call from diff lapping, the 4.5s are ready. $105 for that. $40 to clean the housing for me in their bath. Then I guess hopefully tomorrow I can swing by diff lapping and collect the gears and the housing. Then I will drop off the gears, pinion seal, centre bearings and the centre with the broken gears to the mechanic to build the diff centre again. Ill drop off the new bearings and axles and retainers with the mechanic I usually use and he can press them off and on for me. Then I'm back in business with a overrated 4.5:1 TRD 2way limited slip rear end.

If I was going to do anything carbon, it would be actual carbon fibre. Tempted by a restored Japan bonnet but not really worth it I don't think, ke70 bonnet is pretty light anyhow.

Took a couple of photos today.

Just come and build mine with me when I put it together bud. We can do yours at he same time. Ill go see my mechanic to get the bearings pressed on, and the bloke in the next shed is the diff jedi, then Ill be putting it back together at the shed with the housing in the car. cbf pulling it out, I might buy a creeper though. or a hoist...

Diff saga continues. Pulled the centre and axles out of the second diff today. Took about 15 minutes all up. Getting good at it. Axles overrated, brakes overrated, wheel bearings rooted completely on one side, gonna change both and be done with it, lsd is overrated and appears to be another trd 2 way. Took the whiney gears to diff lapping, they are absolutely worn out beyond lapping or anything. Oh well, I have a bit of time to get the gears I need for diff number 2, as the 4.5s should be ready tomorrow, then they go off to be coated and then built into the centre with the lsd. Then I can chuck it all back together and drive, hopefully it will be the quietest diff I've ever owned. It appears I got all the leaves out yesterday, as only about 3 or 4 tiny fragments came out of the diff, and I cleaned the housing out pretty well while it was in the car. I might even splash out and get a one piece tail-shaft made so I can start tuning the pinion angle properly. Id also like a lighter unit to spin, and a smaller diameter one to clear the exhaust resonator, which rubs the tailshaft rear half as the car rises. Just FYI, an OEM japan made KOYO wheel bearing kit is $92 plus gst per Side! I'm getting 4 sides to do 2 diffs, ouch. On the plus side it includes seals and retainers for the seals to run on. That is great because mine are rooted from the sand in the first diff, and always leaked. I'm yet to measure the axles but I think they are both kouki judging by the bearings. I need to find my vernier calipers to confirm the axle thicknesses to be sure. My original housing is in the diff bath at diff lapping tonight, and will be flushed in the morning, so hopefully it comes up overrated with absolutely no contaminants.

The diff isnt at the shop yet. I have to wait till next week to find out why it whines.

OK, TTT stacks are fitted, I individually removed and cleaned up the throttles a bit, not perfect but a bit better than they were. I also fitted the crank pulley which was not easy to remove initially. With a little help from Terrys body weight on the bar we got her done. So it drives awesome and pulls cleanly up top, the whistling is gone that it used to make with the smaller opening, so I can't wait to hit the dyno and test the results and maximise the gains from the hardware. The stacks are much larger, about 70mm long, tapered inside, and 46mm at the narrowest, compared to the old ones that were about 30mm, and 42mm diameter and straight instead of tapered. Seems quieter at idle too. Feel bad for the blokes next door, spent all arvo tidying up a car then the reversed it into their rolladoor frame as they were leaving. Dang alcoholics. When I left they were driving around with one another on their traybacks threatening to smash one another? lol. Could have done without the Garth brooks turned up to 11. I love everything about this rear end except the damn whine. Its too loud even for the stereo to hide. Just ruins good tunes.

What an interesting afternoon. I've discovered there were a few small issues with the diff which led to it becoming noisy. The wheel bearings were seizing and one was rough as guts like the balls were smashed. The rhs axle had 4 mm of end float, I honestly cannot explain why, its a mystery. It looked fine when it came out. All the bearings in the centre seemed fine, however the pinion was MISSING 2 TEETH! lol. I pulled the carrier out of the housing, looked in and saw the teeth sitting in the bottom, no other metal fragments, just two whole teeth in there that came out of the pinion! Its weird because it never lost drive, had a major bang or significant event that killed it, maybe it was all the reverse roll starts I did recently when the battery was shitting me. So once that was pulled apart, I pulled the whole other disc to disc rear end out of my AE86 and fitted that to my AE71. I decided to use the brakes that were already on it instead of swapping them over the the ones I had been running on the first diff. They were new rotors and new pads, and not a leak from the calipers, they seem to work better than my other brakes. So with that rear end fitted it was time for a test drive, the diff is definately an lsd, locks so tight it feels like a new one. The ratio is 4.3 which is a fantastic bonus, when one door closes (or snaps off 2 teeth, lol) another door opens I guess. The weird thing was when I changed the oil in the new diff two leaves came out. WTF, f@$king Boonah bush mechanic spec. The thing whines loud as f@$k between about 45 and 90 klm/hr, but is quiet before and after those speeds, I think ill just go see my diff guy and get him to pull out the centre and adjust the crown wheel and pinion so its a bit quieter, I'm going to get him to fit a new pinion seal as well so may as well sort it properly, then I can check for more shrubbery in the housing at the same time! It doesn't have much slop, less than the first diff, feels like a tight rear end except for the whine. So that took all arvo, I might have to go in tomorrow to change to the shiny new trumpets and fit the new single row crank pulley. Cheers to Timbo for dropping by and helping me bleed brakes. Your car looks overrated mate.

Dropped the 4.5s at diff lapping today. Should be done in a few days. He didn't think they were very damaged at all. Will swap the diff tomorrow. Yet another diff swap! Might go back to a stock rear swaybar and stock rubber bushings and put in the new handbrake cables while I am under there aswell. I'm a bit over sliding now with a bit more grunt in the mid revs. I pray the diff I put in holds its oil as its sat for a long time, might have to put in 2 new axle seals as well. I'm gonna pull an axle out to see if its a zenki or kouki rear end anyhow, because I want to know which it is. I might fit my rebuilt brakes to it aswell since the other diff has to come apart to begin with. Will be a big arvos work.

Is the throttle butterfly wandering a bit?

Ill chat to you about it when I see you next week mate. Terry (Mungi Mods) is the man to see. Have you purchased some wheels yet? Terry Reckons 8.5 goes good under minimal gaurds. There is a little room behind them that the perfect offset would fill. Mine are 8 inch -6 rear offset / -8 front offset. You could probably have much the same fitment with 8.5s at +5 rear and +-0 front.

Clean the carb. Use copious amounts of carby cleaner, spray some in and let it soak, then start or crank the car and once it pops and fires and begins to run, cover the hole on top of the carb almost all the way to give a tonne of vacuum and try to suck all the grit and dirt out and through the motor to get rid of it. Once you do this, the car will tend to stall. Wind in the idle and mixture screws and reset them to the factory positions in the manual. There are a certain number of turns from fully closed to set it to and see if that idles then. It should be better, unless you have other issues. If its idling high its getting extra air in there from somewhere, most likely a crack or vacuum leak in the inlet. If it keeps running when it is turned off its probably got a coked up combustion chamber which is easily fixable by spraying about a litre of water vapour through the carb slowly with an ironing sprayer while the car is running, it will stuble a bit but just don't put so much in at one time that it stalls. This is a great trick for cleaning the inside of the motor, similar idea to how water injection keeps everything clean. Rev it as you do it so it wont stall and it will blow a lot of crap out of the exhaust as it does it.

Just got the box from Techno Toy Tuning. OMG. I love their parts. Will have to do a fair bit of work before she is back otr. Swap the diff, trumpets, remove and clean the inlet properly, fit the crank pulley, have a good look at the waterpump and see whats going on with the tiny little leak its sprung. I made some calls, I'm going to have my 4.5s lapped and coated then rebuild the Kouki Centre. I already have the bearings so this will probably come together for under $500, and it should be awesome when done! The 4.3s will eventually be put into the other diff if needed and sold if not I guess, so that I can buy an MA61 Diff centre for the f series in the other car. I'm also having my housing bathed at the diff shop to clean it better still and then repaint it myself this time so I know no shit goes inside. Might look at doing wheel bearings too if funds allow at the time, Kouki Bearings are very expensive.

Machu Pichu is amazing, it was lost for centuries and was rediscovered I think By Hiram Bigham last century, apparently it was the summer home for the indigenous royals, there's is a royal quarter there with ornate perfectly fitted stone buildings, and a peasants settlement that's not so well built. Most food used to be carried up the pass from the river valley below by peasants as the gardens and terraces could only have supported about 1/4 of the people who once lived there. They did do a lot of smart stuff however. The place has running water from a mountaintop spring, which flows first through the royal area, then down into the rest of the place. The terraces have a bunch of different sized stones below for drainage like a real garden bed would these days, they knew what they were doing in so many ways. I find it fascinating. I wonder how many more of these types of places there are undiscovered in the jungle down there. I think they even carried the soil up from the alluvial valley below for the terrace gardens.

Oh hey I mean no disprespect, i think the nose would look awesome with some more sculpting, rear end looks awesome though, just a bit square on the front for my taste, but a terrific job done none the less, did you build it from scratch? Are those dirt bike dampers in the rear?