1976 Opel Manta coupe. A long haul project. More parts acquired

[Snake Charmer]

18 minutes ago, dome said:

Yes, yes it does!

Funny, I never noticed a propshaft spring when taking mine apart.

The spring sits in the propshaft sliding joint against the gearbox output shaft. Most people don't expect to find a spring in there and they end up on the floor being  found after the car is back together and drives okay. This spring preloads the short propshaft in the axle extension housing against the pinion shaft thrust mushroom (engineering porn!). Some cars work OK without the spring, others knock like buggery over bumps and it's the short propshaft floating around on the donut mounted bearing hitting the extension housing and thrust mushroom. 

[sutty2006]

I too did not see a spring...... this may be something I’m going to have to source 🤔 

I’m fairly certain my 16v doesn’t have one, and that’s fine. But like you say, some are ok some are not. 
 

edit. Just had a look on Edelschmiede website and they supply the spring for 4 and 5speed transmissions. €9.95, plus €18 postage! So I’ll save that until I need a few more bits. 

[Snake Charmer]

I probably have one somewhere, I'm sure a pal of mine in Scotland will have one. Do you still need the carb bits? I might have to go in that storage shed this weekend.

[sutty2006]

I’ve bought a linkage off a known breaker of mantas. It has the throttle cable with it too. Wasn’t cheap but needed to make sure I could get one. Hopefully going back up tonight for a bit more. 

[sutty2006]

More work done today. Stripped and cleaned the wiper linkage spindles. Fitted the NOS motor and bench tested it. Works a treat. 

[sutty2006]

Had another opportunity to go up to my unit for an hour or so. Came away feeling like I’ve taken a step backwards. Clutch cable is wrong, going to need another new one. Then decided to start putting some wiring together. Connected starter motor up to a battery to see if anything works at all...... then found the ignition switch and key missing. Bugger. Spent 20 mins looking around for it, but I can’t recollect it ever having one. So going to have to source one of those too. Left the unit feeling beaten. 
 

have another picture. 

[Skizzer]

Have a like for the picture.

Old cars live for finding new ways to fuck with your mojo. Don’t let them win.

(Says he supportively but entirely hypocritically.)

[Matty]

Have another like for moral. Very important that you and Dome get these finished. I'm living my dreams vicariously through you two at the moment so no pressure 😁

[Snake Charmer]

@sutty2006 That photo brings back a lot of memories,  good & bad! I'm not being picky, I don't remember ever seeing an engine earth connected where you have it. I may be wrong, I think they went directly off the block near the front to a captive nut under the chassis rail in front of the suspension crossmember. Looking good though, easy to get disheartened with projects and I've been there many times, even ones I'm paid for!

[Low Horatio gearbox]

While its  feels demoralizing Sutty you are making progress  and it's way better to find out these snags now  than at the last minute, especially with the clutch cable. Far easier now than when its nearly all buttoned up and you have to take bits off, out or apart (again)  Have a like especially for such a nice clean engine bay.

[Rocket88]

Does it have a steering lock?

[sutty2006]

8 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

@sutty2006 That photo brings back a lot of memories,  good & bad! I'm not being picky, I don't remember ever seeing an engine earth connected where you have it. I may be wrong, I think they went directly off the block near the front to a captive nut under the chassis rail in front of the suspension crossmember. Looking good though, easy to get disheartened with projects and I've been there many times, even ones I'm paid for!

I think you’re right there. I couldn’t remember where it went, and remember when I built my red one back in 2007 it didn’t even have an earth cable, so it found it’s own earth through the original clutch cable so I chucked one on there. Will have a look for the captive nut in the chassis, if it’s there I’ll relocate it. 
 

a good friend of mine is looking for an ignition switch now, complete with key. The whole thing is missing, which explains why the steering lock has never come on while moving it around. 

[junkyarddog]

It's all just part of the fun*of putting an old car back together, we all have been there,but you will get it done.

 

[Rocket88]

1 hour ago, sutty2006 said:

I think you’re right there. I couldn’t remember where it went, and remember when I built my red one back in 2007 it didn’t even have an earth cable, so it found it’s own earth through the original clutch cable so I chucked one on there. Will have a look for the captive nut in the chassis, if it’s there I’ll relocate it. 
 

a good friend of mine is looking for an ignition switch now, complete with key. The whole thing is missing, which explains why the steering lock has never come on while moving it around. 

If you're not too concerned about total originality, lose the lock completely, and hide the whole thing under the dash somewhere? Do you have the door keys?

[dome]

2 hours ago, sutty2006 said:

I think you’re right there. I couldn’t remember where it went, and remember when I built my red one back in 2007 it didn’t even have an earth cable, so it found it’s own earth through the original clutch cable so I chucked one on there. Will have a look for the captive nut in the chassis, if it’s there I’ll relocate it. 
 

a good friend of mine is looking for an ignition switch now, complete with key. The whole thing is missing, which explains why the steering lock has never come on while moving it around. 

If your friend turns up a complete column I might be interested in what you don't need-i'm considering going EPAS on mine. 

Once I'm further down the route of deciding on the engine I'll give you first dibs on anything I don't need. Sadly I can't find anyone who's put a Duratec in a Manta so I may just have to buy an engine and box and see if it fits🤷‍♂️

[Snake Charmer]

I should be able to find you a switch and key if the one you get falls through I have a couple of columns too. From memory the bottom bearings have a habit of falling apart plus the bottom bolt is a shear bolt. I think I have two columns with pedal boxes still attached to part of the bulkheads cut out of Ascona's, trouble is it's penned in all this lot!

Edit: I can see two complete columns, I should have keys to copy and quite likely matching door locks.

[sutty2006]

Wow, you have more spare parts than me! Do you still have a manta then? 
 

A good friend of mine has dropped an ignition unit off complete with working key (now that I’ve pushed some gt85 through it as it was slightly seized. Jobs a good un. Hopefully have this fitted soon. 

[Snake Charmer]

1 hour ago, sutty2006 said:

Wow, you have more spare parts than me! Do you still have a manta then? 
 

A good friend of mine has dropped an ignition unit off complete with working key (now that I’ve pushed some gt85 through it as it was slightly seized. Jobs a good un. Hopefully have this fitted soon. 

You can't see half of what's in there let alone the loft! I'll post a sneak photo of the Manta later, it's in the Carcoon at the moment.

[sutty2006]

Awesome. Be great to see it! 

[Snake Charmer]

1 hour ago, sutty2006 said:

Awesome. Be great to see it! 

I climbed in and took photos as it was raining, really needs the top off but then you have to vent it to keep the damp out but you get the idea, a rusty Manta Coupe with a V8.

[sutty2006]

I think you need to make a thread on this and get it in the main section. Ya know, drown them with manta porn..... lol

[Snake Charmer]

21 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

I think you need to make a thread on this and get it in the main section. Ya know, drown them with manta porn..... lol

Manta build blues depression more like!! 

P.S. Yes, I should start a thread and stop imposing on yours. 😁

[sutty2006]

A small amount done today.
 

Filled engine with oil

then fitted the throttle linkage and clutch cable

Fitted the ignition switch. Connected battery up to see if ignition comes on. Nothing. Attempt a crank (oooooo errr) and it went click then nothing.....just smoke out of the dash. Ignition switch locked open in the crank position inside the sealed part so that’s busted. Two more switches now en route. 
 

also attempted repositioning the earth cable. Unfortunately it’s too short to reach the block. Disappointing as it’s bought from a company that make parts for the manta, so not pleased.

 

[sutty2006]

So while I wait for a new switch I took the plugs out and made sure it spun over. And to get some oil round it. 

[sutty2006]

More has been happening on this.

 

ive got another ignition switch and fitted it. Then cleaned up all the earths and we now have the engine turning over by the key. Grand. 
 

but I didn’t have any ignition lights. I thought long and hard about the parts that I’d been using. Wiring loom came from a blue berlinetta (that the drivers front wing came from). That model was a 78 which had a 6 dial clock. My original clocks were phased out after 12 months. 
 

original 

and the later ones

 

so I knew I had a shit load of clocks up the unit so I went up this morning to look, and found a set of the 6 dial clocks. Bingo! Fit them in and connected up the battery and you guessed it! Ignition lights came on. Happy with that. And only 7k miles different to the original clocks. Do I strip the older clocks and put the original mileage barrel in? I think it’s worth it. 

[Snake Charmer]

It is possible to fit a 6 dial dash to a base model car by swapping the plug pins around and adding the extra plug for the tacho.👍

Going well, keep up the good work. 😎

[sutty2006]

Yeah I thought it would be fairly straight forward, however somehow I managed to break a couple of pins off the back of the clocks…..no surprise really as the whole thing was covered in rust, and I did what I could to resurrect it with parts from another dash. I’ll keep hold of it for now, just in case. 

[sutty2006]

I’ve started to strip the two dash clocks down. Aim was to swap the barrels over but they are different. The original tachometer won’t fit in the later clocks. So it’s time to wind the mileage back to match the original one. 
 

 

[sutty2006]

I was unable to swap the mileage barrels over, they look slightly different. However the newer barrel roll pin came out far enough for me to attach a battery drill to, and put the miles back at half drill speed. Took the 7k off pretty easily. Then I broke the speedo needle off. Bugger. 

 

so that’s now in surgery. Can’t get the needle off the old clocks, they’re well tight, so I’ve had to fix this one using a cocktail stick on the back to keep it in position. 

[sutty2006]

And aside to the clocks being sorted, I’ve been able to thumb a lift off my apprentice up to my unit. I had had a new fuel pipe from pump to carb made up, and put the tank end into a gallon tub. With the fuel pulled up to the carb, it wouldn’t run. 
 

there’s spark, so it has to be timing. I pulled the dizzy out and turned it 180 degs and tried again, and it fired into life!

 

I can’t seam to upload videos though, too big. Any ideas how to change that?