Hi Mr B., here are the links to the relevant pages for rack rubbers and engine mounts.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=129
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=574&p=3415&hilit=refurbished#p3415

Todays update is about steering wheels and bosses.
I bought an RX Mazda type steering wheel boss and while the spline is okay it sits nowhere near the right spot, have to modify the horn contact ring quite severely to get it to fit : (

Am also going to make my own steering wheel spacer using the bought boss and old steering wheel to get a better distance to the driver (me).

Also finally managed to win a steering wheel on fleabay, took 5 trys to get the wheel I wanted and then had to settled for a 33cm one instead of 36cm, still it should look pretty cool once I finished the custom horn button. (Pictures when complete).

Cheers
Rob

rob, which RX mazda is it suited to?
reason i ask is coz there are different length ones with the same spline, so u might be better off with the deeper boss of u have the shallow one.
shallow one is off a series 1 RX7.
deep one is off a RX4.

also, the horn ring is a common prob.
i solve it by using an indicator stalk off a Mini, and wiring the horn to the push-end of the stalk (like XD-E-F Falcons were done).
cheers.

Hi Brett
We used a series 1 rx7 on a 67 gt no problems bolt on fitment with no modifications.As you would know later gt's had a differant spline i have not sourced one yet for our yellow car.
As for walter [WASP] he got a rx series 1 also,but we needed to move the indicator stalk down towards the fire wall about 5mm.The roller fould for the horn.We did not have to modify the casing.The only problem was the self canceling needed tabs towards the steering wheel.

greg, yep, the later spline is different.
use a Gemini boss on them. perfect fit.

i made mention of the RX4 unit as this might save rob making a spacer to bring the wheel closer to him.

i put a series 1 RX7 in my Wasp too.
i also did some mods to make the whole thing sit closer to the dash too, as the seats i have in it put your backside about 3-4 inches closer to the wheel, and a Wasp is cramped enuf without any help!
being over 6' tall doesnt help either

Being over 6 foot in a wasp lol.I am also over 6 ft and also carry an extreme amount of muscle in the stomach area.

i was alot thinner when i built my Wasp, and that was bad enuf, but i've been working the mid-section in later years too!
and yep, u feel little chewing on your knees when driving a Wasp.... ahhh the joys!

sorry for the hi-jack rob.... back on topic now!

Hi-jack is okay.

I got one which is supposed to fit RX2,3,4,7 and miata, it was cheap and I think that is where the problem lies.
The boss without the horn ring sits way down, wasn't sure how to move the horn floppy wheelie thing and to be honest it's already to far away (indicator stalk) from me as it is.

I can use the boss I bought but I'm not happy with it and if all Mazda ones have a problem with the horn contact, I'll do some more modifying rather than buy a dearer one which will still have the contact issue.
I guess it boils down to the fact I want to make a GT style horn button, though not a GT horn button (we'll call it a GTS horn button). Still using the original stuff from the sedan.
Really it's not such a big deal as I'm an ex-Fitter and Turner, just that the closest friends lathe I can borrow is hour and half away and usually ends up a whole day (we get talking cars and time ... well).

By the way thanks for the heads up on the contact I thought I had got the wrong one.

I'm a bit nervous waiting for my steering wheel to arrive, I hope it's going to look as good as I think it is !!!

Cheers
Rob

when i do mine rob, i leave the ISUZU horn button in place and just make the horn work as described on the end of the indicator stalk.
also, the normal sedan ISUZU centre piece from the standard horn ring is removable, and is i neat fit on most aftermarket horn buttons, with some superglue to hold it there. looks very GT-ish when done like that too, especially if you use a red button horn instead of a white one.

Update on steering wheel and adapter.
A sneak peek on progress so far.

very sexy! cant wait to see it on bella!

your car is such a mixed bag of updated retro and tired original.

cant wait to see what is next on the project...

hope the rack goes well this weekend. would be there if it wasnt for a family wedding???

In last month's episode ... trouble with distributor.
In today's episode ... trouble with all three distributor's

Not a single one of the three distributor's has a full set of mechanical advance springs. the one distributor I thought was okay but had a dodgey vacuum advance mechanism wasn't so okay.
The dodgey vacuum advance was due to one of the mechanical advance weight springs making it's way up to the top and jamming the vacuum advance arm against the distributor body !!??

In not seeing this earlier I have pulled the carburetor apart four times, cleaned it out two times, checked the fuel pump, broke and fixed the throttle cable, replaced the rotor button and distributor cap, including buying spares, reset the ignition timing five times and lastly replaced the stock coil with a GT40 coil just to make sure that wasn't the problem ... aaarrrggghhhhhhhhh

In the next episode ... pull an old Falcon distributor apart raid the counterweight springs, put one distributor back together and hope it works well enough that the car will run and I can set the idle and mixtures !!!

Oh and the rebuilt rack is a treat.

And a big thanks to Paul for his help rebuilding and fitting the rack.

Whomever had worked on this car before had replaced the worn out original rack rubbers with Escort rubbers!!!

The new rack rubbers from Iglio Engineering are perfect fit.
Add to that the new engine mounts are b****y beautiful as well.

Cheers
Rob

sounds like you have been having fun mate!
I will second the fit and finish of the rack rubbers and engine mounts, they look great and fitted well.
Only too glad to lend a hand with the rack too, just remember one day i will own a bellett and i will be calling in favours!!!!
good luck with the dizzy too, i possibly have one that will fit you can borrow, but the condition is unknown (I assume the florian 1600 ran the same dizzy from the manual i have)

Hmmm .... read tag line again.
Seems I may have an electrical problem.

First picture is of what is left of the Bellett mechanical advance springs from THREE distributors !



So pirated some from an XE distributor.



After cleaning, new mechanical advance springs and checking everything.
This is what I put back into Bella.



Guess what, she no run !?
No spark.

My guess is that somewhere in the wiring is my problem. Tomorrow is "chase a fault in the wiring".
The one thing I'm really not that good at .... AND DISLIKE.

Thanks mate.
I'm pretty sure that the problem isn't in the distributor now, just have to find which side of the coil the problem lies.

"Have to charge battery again"

Cheers
Rob

Well at least it's nice and clean!
Yeah, it's not much fun chasing those faults. After getting home from Adelaide (and 5700 km), the next time I went to drive Doris - no deal! After much chasing, problem turned out to be a bad contact in one of those little dizzy wires!
Then, the day before the Gulgong run, Betty melted a set of points! That turned out to be a bad coil. Just a little warning on the GT40, it may be a bit harder on points due to the increased voltage.
And hey, I admit to stuffing myself up in the past by putting the coil wires back to front! Sometimes it's the simple things!

Eaaaaagcch !! Chasing wiring problems...way out my league. Even ask a good electro mechanic. They seem to be iternally patient people. Thanks for putting up links on rubbers and mounts Rob. Great to know theres someone in the district close by that can do these. Again finances are still delaying the plunge to do these But the opportunity is getting closer. Some heavy duty 3 mill flat rubber cut to size have replaced the original rack rubbers. Not perfect but they seem to be doing the job for the time being. In fact this stuff has been used in a few front end places as a temporary fix.

Btw, How did you replace the engine mounts ? And the rack for that matter ? I'm guessing it CAN be done without removing the engine out of the bay ?? Might sound like a silly question. Perhaps you can fill me in on this on our cruise next week, Weather permitting, and hopefully your ignition.....fingers (and everything else) crossed.

Good luck, B.

Not a problem Mr B.

for others, engine mount and rack done at same time by jacking engine up with piece of wood under the sump.
If you don't the rack's concertina's catch on the sump fins and won't slide in or out.

Wiring turned out to be a wire that had pulled loose when I was mucking about with my race tacho.
The carburetor problem was a float set too low.
and of course you've all seen the distributor problem.

Had to sneak up on the tune as one thing needed to be fixed and adjusted to get the next increment on each

Hot-spark electronic points conversion is fitted and working (that's what the GT40 coil is for, has to have minimum 1.5 ohms primary resistance).
Engine seems to have lost it's intermittent miss at idle as well !?

Cheers
Rob

Ask Josh about that intermitten miss at idle. Turned out it was his old coil on his Bellett sedan some years ago..

Me. i said i never had a Bellett with a faulty coil do that. Oops!!

Found the intermittent miss (cute she was ; )
New coil so that shouldn't have been the problem (touch wood).

Fouled plugs and too cold a range for the amount of fuel that was going in at idle.
Apparently I will need to run a return line to the tank from the carb like Ford did to bleed away the excess fuel at idle.

Runs nice when the amount of fuel and air is balanced !!??

Hopefully will have everything except the fancy horn boss finished for the weekend cruise.

Cheers
Rob

1st, couple of Q's.
what fuel pump are u using?
and what fuel pressure?

reason i ask is that ive never had to run a return line, even on the race car and Wasp, and they use with a big pumps and twin DCOE webers (on the race car) and DHLA dellortos (on the Wasp), so i find that hard to understand why u'd need too, and this sounds like a case of too much fuel pressure at idle.
where people get caught with fuel systems is they confuse PRESSURE with FLOW RATE. a high flow rate is great, but high pressure (psi) isn't, unless the carb can handle it. some carbs, namely competition holley's, will just take 8psi.... the street ones, maybe 6psi on a good day. but............... a big holley, at full song, needs a big flow, maybe 40-50 gallons per hour.
weber's tho, of any type, won't get anywhere near that psi without flooding probs.

i've always used a pressure regulator, as weber's won't cop any more than 3-4psi at the needle and seat.
have had this prob with DCOE webers, as they are bad for this, or they bleed fuel badly, and the 32-36 DGV i had on my PR20-fitted gemini engine, with an electric pump, never had this prob either, again, with 3-4 psi at the carb.
honestly rob, weber's are the lowest-psi-handling carbs i've been around, and even some mechanical pumps can produce more than this, so i'd be trying a regulator first.
even one of those round, in line jobs with the "turn and click" setting arrangement on the top of them is better than nothing. "purolator" make a cheap-ish one that'll work fine.

cases in point:
even tho it's on a holley it's still relivant, was only last weekend.
the falcon i raced has a 650 4 barrel spreadbore. it used to have a mechanical pump on the side of the block, and pumped 5psi. it was running out of fuel, as it only pumped 22 gallons per hour, and we needed at least 40.
we put a big holley electric pump on it. pumps 7psi and 67 gallons per hour.
carb now had 6.5psi. we hoped we'd get away with it.................................
was fine when i few revs were in it at race speeds, but when idling around behind the safety car................... it would bleed past the needle just enuf to flood the primarys......... so a quick rev would clear it.............. then flood again.
now it's getting a regulator, set at 5psi.
another was my Wasp. when i first build it, i put the same 7psi pump on it that it still has. great on the highway with revs, but idleing around home....... forget it. one of those "purolator" ones i mentioned was bought and set at 3.5psi....... prob solved. now runs beautifully.