Wanted to start a thread for my newly imported zed, but it's really hard to think of a name :-P

 

Put the number plates on at the weekend so this is something of a rebirth for it! Swapped the wheels over from my old zed as the ones it came with had a terrible offset, needed 10mm spacers to get over the front stock calipers and thus only had 3 turns on the nuts.

 

Tried to take it for a drive, but the front right wheel was catching so badly I only made it to the end of the road and back! Was then too late to adjust anything. Bit surprised really as it doesn't look that low, might need to stiffen the dampers. So not a great maiden voyage :-P

 

 

 

Wheels are filthy bit didn't have time to clean them.

 

Plan on driving it around a little bit just to check everything is alright before starting some proper work!

Under your gear shifter there are two rubber boots. They are supposed to interlock and then press into the top of the transmission tunnel. If they've popped off you get quite an audible transmission noise.

I know the feeling, group buy on gearboxes?!

 

Interesting.. :cool:

As usual my pace on managing to get anything done is dictated by the car being at my parents until our garage is built so I can only work at weekends, but then I want to get this driving before I do the garage so that's hardly rocketing along either! But I have been putting my old zed back together ready to sell which has taken some time.

 

I picked up another gearbox a few weeks ago and am just having to hope that it will be ok. Even if it's not perfect, it will do. So I pulled the broken gearbox out Saturday, started to fit the new one Sunday but then found out that as it's an NA box it won't fit over my aftermarket clutch! Or flywheel either for that matter which is a bit odd as you'd think it was same size as a stock TT that I've read will fit in an NA. But there you are.

 

Could have ground it out but as I had the bellhouse of a knackered TT box to hand I decided to swap them over. Not difficult, just time consuming making sure all the surfaces are clean etc, and messy as the new box hadn't been drained before it was removed! I didn't know so there was a LOT of oil! After doing that, managed to get the box in the car with a couple of bolts but not everything else reassembled yet.

 

I didn't mention it before but moving the car on the ramps made me think of it again. Something in the transmission was knocking/banging on takeoff and when on/off throttle on both my old car and my new. Gearbox and prop have been transferred between the two, I can't see how it could be the gearbox so I don't think the new one will make a difference, and it's not the prop, it's one of Jim's one piece ones and has only done a few thousand miles, joints are still solid.

 

So I guess it must be the diff coincidentally on both? You wouldn't expect a 50k mile diff to have worn so I might do the bushes whilst it's half apart anyway. I'm hoping I'll be able to finish it off next weekend, fingers crossed.

 

As an aside, sorry for lack of pictures but I'm generally a bit dirty when working on cars so I don't want to pick up my phone, don't know how you guy's get so many all the time!

Well after a 3 day weekends spending about 12 hours a day underneath my zed:

 

New gearbox in, much quieter and shifting well :thumbup:

 

Diff bushes and oil changed :thumbup:

 

Replacement brake master cylinder fitted and all good :thumbup:

 

Front tension rod bushes changed and horrible vibration gone :thumbup:

 

Rear suspension raised up slightly so much more even now :thumbup:

 

Was soooo nice to be able to drive it! To be fair I don't think the diff bushes actually needed doing, but I took the diff out to have a good look and then I thought well I've come this far so might as well do them now anyway. Mistake! Fronts were a doddle, but the rears took almost a day to get out! Sorted now though.

 

Gearbox is actually still a bit rattly in 2nd and 4th (nothing like the old one that was worse in those gears but very noisy in every gear!), but after a quick bit of googling and the realisation that my last zed was the same I think I've realised what it is! I transferred over my gearstick assembly so the rubber boots must be perished, hence both cars made the same noise with different gearboxes. Simon did reference it in an earlier post but to be honest I didn't really know what he meant at the time :whistling: so I've ordered new boots.

 

One last observation that I think might help a few people, when I was removing the old box I realised that with my new divorced downpipes I couldn't get the starter off, not enough clearance to get it over the top stud. I did briefly try to remove the downpipes but that proved too much of a pain, could only fit an open ended spanner on two of the nuts and nothing else, and it just slipped immediately. Not too much of a problem as I could squeeze the box out without taking the starter off, but if I was doing something else that required starter removal and I couldn't do it without pulling the box or downpipes I'd have been pissed! Well when the box was out the car I just removed the stud and replaced it with a bolt, goes in and out easily now :cool3: well worth doing if you're fitting downpipes IMO!

 

Hardly the end of the journey, still lots I want to do but that's the major stuff out the way and I can drive it now!