18 replies to this topic

[mugginz]

I'm guessing there's no non destructive way to get the rubber boot over the dampener but if it's possible without hacking at the boot I'd love to know.

 

[rexy]

Heat the rubber boot a little. They do stretch a bit. Add a bit of rubber grease and go gently at it...

[mugginz]

I think I've got some rubber grease somewhere.  I'll give it a go... but... a new and disappointing development has arisen.

 

The UC front end that has been installed into the car has the engine mounts out of alignment.  Basically the engine would be rotated counter clockwise if I leave them where they are.  From the looks of things it's come from the factory the way it is.  Spacing looks correct between the mounts and the welds look factory to me, just not where they should be  I'll make a jig off the original k-frame, cut the mounts off the UC k-frame, bolt them to the jig and then weld them back in straight.   

 

Nothing on this car is easy

[S pack]

Not an early UC crossmember to suit the OPEL engine is it?

[mugginz]

Na, came with 6 cylinder mounts.

 

I'll take a pic tomorrow and post it up.

 

The k-frames been in the car for a couple of years.  I strung a piece of tape across the mounts to take some measurements to see where the shifter was going to sit relative to the console and that's when I noticed the tape wasn't parallel to the ground.

[Indy Orange]

Dishwashing liquid works a treat ,be careful not to split the bastard where that seem is ,been there and done it.

[mugginz]

Yeh, there's a fair bit of difference between the ID of the boot and the OD of the dampener so I can see it'd be pretty easy to split.

 

Hopefully I wont have to buy another boot after I try the loob

[Rainman]

I have faced this problem since I was a young lad. I cant keep a girlfriend due to this very issue. Please advise if positive result lol.

[rexy]

I think I've got some rubber grease somewhere.  I'll give it a go... but... a new and disappointing development has arisen.
 
The UC front end that has been installed into the car has the engine mounts out of alignment.  Basically the engine would be rotated counter clockwise if I leave them where they are.  From the looks of things it's come from the factory the way it is.  Spacing looks correct between the mounts and the welds look factory to me, just not where they should be  I'll make a jig off the original k-frame, cut the mounts off the UC k-frame, bolt them to the jig and then weld them back in straight.   
 
Nothing on this car is easy

Would be easier to slot the mounts? You haven’t ended up with an odd set of mounts?

[mugginz]

The mounts are too far out of wack for slotting to work unfortunately

[Cook]

On the boot issue I vaguely remember looking into this with my ute but decided against a new one. I thought I read at the time that the shifter was actually in two parts and that's how the boot was put on originally.  Not that I would want to try and take it apart, or am I dreaming? Cheers Ron

[mugginz]

The shifter feels pretty solid so if it's in two pieces then they did a good job with it. It doesn't feel like it would want to come apart.

I gave it a bit of a twist to see if I could move the dampener and it felt like if I wanted to use enough force to move it I'd be breaking something

Edited by mugginz, 18 January 2019 - 08:43 AM.

[308 Sunbird]

Did mine by dunking the boot in hot water for about a minute then sprayed both with WD40- no problems.

[mugginz]

Sweet, sounds like a plan

[mugginz]

So this is what I noticed once the tape was in place

 

 

So I dragged out the old k-frame, gave it a bit of a clean around the engine mount area and then made a negative jig thingy

 

 

Now to cut off the mounts and re-install

[mugginz]

Love that show

[Lc69]

The shifter mechanism and stick (which includes the damper/sleeve) are two parts.
The stick can also be removed from the sleeve so you can cut and shorten if you you feel that way inclined.
It takes some persuading on both counts.

[mugginz]

So Holden's off the hook for the engine mount debarkle.  While removing the mounts I found some signs that this was an Opel front end and some clueless moron has installed the new ones in the wrong place.  I must say they did quite a good job of replicating the look of the factory welds (not exactly a good thing unless you're trying to hide your tracks)