1987 Renault GTA :: Gone to a new home

[vulgalour]

Aaaand I'm caught up on this thread too.  Having no proper internet has kept me from a lot of reading and you've been making some excellent progress on this little car, it's great to see!

[PhilA]

I've been trying, despite it being an uphill battle.

 

Rust remover concoction works effectively.

 

 

That can sit in there until tomorrow, where it'll be turned upside down to do the other end.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Quick wipe down, lick of paint. Done.

 

 

Other end is soaking.

 

--Phil

[Felly Magic]

There does seem to be a lot of old Renner lurve on the forum lately, this, Scary's Laguna, and now Luke's back with a Saffy

[plasticvandan]

I am enjoying Renault.

[PhilA]

I am currently not. It's back in the "broken" corner.

 

I get a very bearing-esque howl from it after about a mile of driving at 40+ which is present unless I dip the clutch. Engine unloaded doesn't make it, it's there in all gears under acceleration or deceleration and seems to be roadspeed related. I didn't think to bring the clutch up in neutral, and I've boxed it in with the daily right now.

 

 

Thoughts? Sounds like it's coming from the right side (engine end) of the car but I'm not sure, the exhaust is a bit noisy to make it easy to tell. Input shaft bearing?

 

 

 

Edit: Did think to say, the gearbox oil is up to the filler hole with the correct grade. Or rather, I pulled the filler plug out, stuck my finger in the hole and there was oil there, weekend before last.

[steve_earwig]

As no-one else replied I'll make some daft suggestions so that everyone else can contradict me...

 

If it's road speed-related I don't think it could be input shaft, wouldn't that change with engine speed? Should be output side, diff bearing, wheel bearing or maybe even a defective tyre - try swapping them end to end?

[Asimo]

Noises like this are real hard to chase down. I would expect some change in the sound coming on/off power with a gearbox bearing. Is it the clutch release bearing? The fact it shuts up clutch pedal down might indicate a bit of crankshaft end float - could that make accessory belt noise?

 

And another vote for tire noises, they can be weird. hard to see any connection with clutch pedal though.

 

Good luck

[Rocket88]

plus 1 for clutch release bearing...........

[Taff]

Ohh. Old Greggs is some stale pasties and the like, surely?

 

Pillock.. I get that a lot, people ask me where I'm from, Bristol.. they have friends in Northumberland, so I know them? The Jones family.

 

 

Sure. I walked there daily for a newspaper

 

--Phil

 

Thought I recognised you...

 

That car must really stand out over there, nice one

[PhilA]

That's a good point- I'm still in the era of graphite release bearings that only get "sizzly".. it does have a ballbearing release bearing. I'll jack the front wheels up and have a ear-to-long-stick poke about down to the release fork to see if it's loudest there. That's a likely candidate because it has a "dry bearing" kind of HWWWOOOAARRRGGH noise to it.

 

That also tallies because the clutch may be original, looking at it. I had to replace the thrust bearing. The end-float was well within spec with the replacement. However, that it was so worn suggests someone really loved the clutch pedal.

 

Taff.. you recognise me? Oh no. Where from?

 

 

--Phil

[Guest loggato]

if you just finished up drive shaft related repairs, make sure that your drive shaft nut is tight and torqued, I've had wheel bearings make noise because that large nut wasn't torqued and some wheel bearing designs aren't tight until squeezed by the axle and the nut. it also may not hurt to loosen it, re-seat the driveshaft, and then re-tighten.

 

-Aaron

[PhilA]

A conclusion has been drawn.

After going for a short drive:

 

 

I drove it about for a while and was unable to recreate the noisy bearing. I need to check the aircon compressor oil level but I have a feeling one of the bearings was a bit dry (and probably a bit sloppy after 133,000 miles) from sitting at a bloody stupid angle on the driveway. The rear right wheel was 5" off the ground, with the front corner of the car down in the drain. I've changed where the car is parked now and it seems to be okay.

 

Oil in the compressor needs to be checked with some nonsense special tool from AMC. I need to see if I can find dimensions. The manual is unhelpful.

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Have been driving to and from work. It would appear that the angle I was parking the car was making one of the bearings dry. Parking it at a different angle has resolved the noise.

 

Carpet smells damp. Needs to be driven and aired out more.

 

Did the other end of the driveshaft. No more rust:

 

 

Squirt of black paint:

 

 

Looking a bit better. Next up is repacking it with grease. I have a spare boot here.

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Howling noise returned last night. On the way home from work today I had both the windows open (rare) and upon coming down the street I shut the engine off. There is a sqweepysqweepysqweepy noise that is only related to road speed.

 

I think up on the ramps this weekend and spin the wheels for a listen, because it makes the noise all the way to a halt.

 

Positive note, it hardly leaks oil now.

 

Phil

[Noel Tidybeard]

tyres? i lost a similar noise after new tyres

[PhilA]

tyres? i lost a similar noise after new tyres

Anything is possible. The tires on the car (all 4) are still fairly new and it sounds more like.. Not tires though. I'll whip it up on the ramp this weekend if there is time, now the ramp is working again.

 

Phil

[vulgalour]

Have you done anything with the brakes?  Could be dust sheild related.

[PhilA]

Have you done anything with the brakes?  Could be dust sheild related.

I'll check them, they are definitely in range of rotating parts, and as such, suspect. Thanks for the reminder.

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Yesterday was a bust. I had a short while this morning so I went and threw the car up on the ramps, had a poke and a wiggle.. no load, the right hand tripod is slack and grindy- unsurprising, the boot has completely split. Replacement time.

 

Left hand side, boot has split, doesn't feel particularly slack and the wheel bearing doesn't have any play that I can feel but it sounds like the race cage inside has broken up. I didn't replace this side.

 

Jacked up on the nice pneumatic thingy, gave it a whirl. Oh yeah, that looks and sounds healthy...

 

 

I guess I'll be ordering some new bits then. Also, annoyingly, the circlip that holds the gear lever ball joint in has made a bid for freedom and escaped, meaning the gearshift is now more mobile than it should be. Need to get the car up on the ramp, let it cool off and then reach up there and measure up. Evidently it didn't seat quite right with the new bushing.

 

Lots of grease to clean up (joy) and it should be a bit better under there with some new bits. I never replaced that wheel bearing because it was ok.. guess it's given up after a good while. Tripods don't last without grease either. Just little strange, I've never had a wheel bearing make that noise before.

--Phil

[PhilA]

Finally had a quiet afternoon, jacked the car up.

 

 

Started pulling it all to bits. Clamped the spring up and pulled the strut out.

 

 

All came apart with relative ease.

 

 

Need to redo the CV boot also. Gotta get some grease for it.

 

 

Bearing doesn't feel horrible but it's definitely rough. Gonna get the hub pushed out at a local engineering place. Got a replacement bearing in.

 

 

--Phil

[Fat_Pirate]

I really enjoyed the vid of you driving - somehow I missed it back when you first posted it.  We should all do videos like that - it's like a virtual ride in another 'shiters car.

[PhilA]

Complete with squeaks and rattles.

 

Elastic band on my tripod, set phone to record, seatbelts holding the tripod in place. Fairly easy.

[Felly Magic]

I've been watching 'Motor Week' clips on Bootube recently and they did seem to like the 'Alliance' series. They seemed to do more in depth reviews of cars on that show, with no to camera in car stuff like proper Top Gear did. Stuff like economy runs, 0-60, and also mid gear acceleration, and surprisingly for a car show, handling and braking tests

[PhilA]

Still waiting on the wheel bearing to be done.

 

Had the pressure washer out so I attacked the subframe and suspension.

 

 

Much better. Also cleaned the wheels for the first time since I got the car. That'll be, uh, 7 years. Formula 409 and an old toothbrush.

 

 

Looking much better all round.

 

Going to get some CV joint grease, proper zipties and redo the joints with new gaiters.

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Picked up the hub with new bearing. $45.03 later, I'm glad I didn't try because there's evidence that the old one was a proper fight to remove.

 

 

I clipped the rings off the gaiter. That was fairly easy.

 

 

The boot came off after a bit of a fight. I have new boot, with new metal clips and new grease. It looks much like the old one, but with fewer holes.

 

 

Cleaned up and... err. The last CV joint I did years ago came apart with a bit of a twist and some grunting, this one.. I can't see a way of taking it to bits other than it coming out of the shaft itself.. and that looks like an unlikely candidate. I don't really want to have to pull the inner joint out because that involves getting gearbox oil everywhere and generally being horrible. I do know that end of the joint with the little tripod that goes in the diff joint does come apart and is technically small enough to get the small end of the boot over though....

 

 

 

Is that the only way? Manuel was unhelpful when I asked him. Hayulp!

 

--Phil

[artdjones]

Those outer joints don't come apart. Undo the inner boot from the gearbox, then the shaft will pull away without dripping oil,as most of the joint stays in the gearbox.Put a big zip tie around the three outer bearings of the tripod(to stop them coming off and dropping needle rollers all over the floor). Then take off the snap ring that holds the tripod on,remove tripod,slide the old boot down the length of the shaft,and slide the new one on.Then reassemble.Oh,and don't wear your

best shirt,the grease on the tripod is filthy

[Noel Tidybeard]

or use a stretchy boot and a cone

[PhilA]

Ok, that's what I'd figured. Ok. I'll pull the shaft out. It's been out before, but that was only to change the bearing race on the inner boot. The outer boot was "ok", more the fool me.

 

Stretchy boots are expensive here. Plus I already have the proper one, bought and everything.

 

Phil

[Noel Tidybeard]

cant take joint of a 19 neither