Yeah, I had one actually in pretty good nick, but the complete romoval and swap was too much of a job on its own.. now would be perfect to swap it, but I dont have the other one anymore.

Grandpa spec dash mat covers it all anyhow lol.

So far today, nothing happening.....

Trying to figure out the best repair method thats gonna last too...

AN I DO ALL THAT AN ALL YOU CAN SAY IS "GET A NEW DASH PAD"????? LOL..

i can give you advice on how to fix it... put an auto back in

i have joint issues so im not too good with long use of manual cars so i always try and have autos

Yeah, lol, I have considered that... but I love a clutch and the extra control it gives me..

and the age old lame-o excuse
"if your battery dies you can push start it"

I really wish I knew about this 3 years ago so I could have done the firewall and box all before I put it in, then Id never have this issue...

Captain Hindsight to the rescue!

WOOHOO, PROBREM SOLVERED!

A mate brought a arc welder around this arvo, so its all welded up, reinforced and reinstalled, I didnt realize how much it did affect the shifting untill I went for the first drive! it feels like a new one again!

heres a few snaps of the repair job.





On the inside, we welded around the edge of the plate thats already there, i happened to find a big washer that sat over the bit of the stud inside perfectly, so that got welded and filled as you can see from the lump in the middle..

on the outside, my mate grabbed a few scraps of steel, and one was a steel bracket in an L shape. that was trimmed to go in the space around the pin where it was cracked, that was welded and filled up the gaps.

so over all, the whole thing is now twice as thick all around the pin on both sides, so i dont think its gonna break again... now the next weak link in the chain... clutch cable...

As usual, I had 2 screws and a screw clip left over too! oh well, it dosnt rattle at all.

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good result and something I'll keep in mind if I go manual in the NF!

any updates?

Not much happening recenty

Im gonna fix my leaking rocker cover gasket tomorrow though. Theres a bit coming up when funding arrives too. Steering rack needs a new boot, rear main has started dripping again, need to fix the gear shifter surround and boot.

I still have a NC in my sights... Once again.. Funding..
I've been thinking about respraying the rims in black or hammered finish steel.
I might even wash it

It looks different with the falcon front on it.. I personally like the fairlane front more, but props for trying something different

Good thread Jacob interesting to say the least. There has been quite a few people who have gone to the manual box in the fairlane however I really cant see the advantage. I liked the way you put pictures up with relevant text regarding the problems encountered. Good work mate. I have a NC2 with just a few mods to make it unique, like lowered 60mm 18" Weld Industry wheels 265 and 245 rear and front. 5% tint. Am about to fit pro-comp leads, MSD coil and dissy cap. Have bought a set of stainless extractors but haven't fitted them yet because I was looking for someone like you that has modified a exhaust so I can ask questions ! like what did you start with, I think you said EF but not sure, where did you have to modify the exhaust to make it fit the Lane ? I would appreciate you knowledge on this as it has been a bit of an issue trying to find out what is the best exhaust to start with. Jacob I have to say that I don't like the front end mate ! The long low front of my NC is what helps to make these cars sooo cool cause mate they are cruisers, long, low and mean Good thread Jacob, well done.

Hey there mate. Thanks for reading.

I haven't updated in a while and the car now has an EF engine with EL XR6 ECU.

Some 17s will be on the way and an XR Head and cam. I also have a Chiptorque mod for the ECU too.

There aren't many Fairlanes in town, none modified as far as I have, so the manual is different here, I want to see another one though and have a look at another job.

With the exhaust I am a little fuzzy on the details, but from memory I started with a setup out of an EL sedan.

I'm pretty sure I had to add an extra 2-3 inches of pipe to the end of the middle pipe off the back of the muffler, I think that is where the main differences are between the fairlane and sedans, I made a tailpipe without a muffler as the one off the sedan had a different angle and it wouldn't fit so I cut it out and welded a straight pipe in.

If you need I'll take a couple of photos and put them up

                 Time for an update.

It has been quite a while. Lots of changes and moving in 6 months!

Moved back to Alice Springs form Port Pirie in October.

Got a nice 3 bedroom house in November. After a 4 year wait on the housing list...

The family has grown, baby boy born on the 6th of December. 

Work is going pretty well starting a mechanic workshop with a couple of mates. Lots of commodores needing repair..

I have been surprised a couple of times how easy they are to work on.
It's cos they break down so much and need engines out lots Lol.

Now.. On to the list of what's happened with the Lowlane.

When I moved back to Alice around september, I discovered what I thought was a leaking rear main seal, and after the firewall and clutch pedal repairs the clutch started to play up a little on the trip back, a week or so later it totally went AWOL and I found the clutch fork had cracked and bent pretty nicely.

At the time I was staying with a few mates on a large block with a shed and small house in industrial area, and we managed to find an EF and an EL fairmont.

 After considering the job and doing a little more research I decided to use the block and head from one and did the full EL conversion complete.

I managed to find an Tickford XR6 ECU from the local wreckers, and as a lucky bonus it already had a ChipTorque chip plugged in.

By chance I ended up with a job for a short time at the same wreckers and the car the ECU was from was still there. A pretty worked over EL Tickford XR6. Full nolathane, slotted and X drilled rotors, body kit etc. And it still has the drivetrain complete.

I called ChipTorque and from the number on the chip it's got a tune for a Crow cam (can't remember the number, I'll find it later), sports exhaust and intake. I lifted the rocker cover and it has an adjustable cam gear so have that engine as a plan in the future...

Most of the accessories and other conversion parts I already had, so I ordered a smart lock bypass and hooked in.

All went quite smoothly with the engine swap. While I was there I looked at getting a factory bracket an pulley to delete my AC compressor totally but ended up gutting it out and essentially making it a really big and awkward pulley bracket. 

I got another clutch fork and welded it up with some reinforcement plates to strengthen it up, it's pretty beefy now so now hopefully the only problem I may have with my clutch is the cable.. Touch wood..

I hooked up the Smart Lock bypass and the wires for the BBM to the ECU loom. BBM solenoid and vacuum lines hooked up simple, 
Taking help from BenJs write up I swapped and converted the injector loom from the NA to fit the BBM manifold, All pretty easy as well. Thank god for FordMods!!

The size difference in the lower radiator hoses to the water pump I managed to fix with an interesting (and probably dodgy) mod. I had either the EL or a random VN lower hose that fitted inside the NA one quite snug. So I slipped on the other  hose with a bit of silicone, cut it off flush with the water outlet and used a bit more silicone and put the NA one over, making sure the inner one didnt slip. Done up with a hose clamp and it still hasnt leaked yet!

It took a little timing play and a replacement fuel regulator, unfortunately only a standard one off the donor cars, but it fired up and hummed along very nicely.

The ECU chip doesn't quite know what to do with the standard engine, but it runs sweetly without it anyway. Just need to get a 300Kpa regulator... And then that engine from the XR6.... >:)

Engine swap complete..


Next I went on to the rest of the car.

I swapped over the outer handles and side mirrors.

I stripped out the parts from the fairmonts that I needed to do the complete interior conversion.

I swapped the door trims for the fairmont units, very nice and smooth now. They look so much better than the boxy early ones.

I got all the electric windows functional again and swapped out the drivers central locking actuator so that it now locks all doors from the drivers door without triggering a spastic open, shut, open, shut, (x infinity until unplugged) cycle of all the door locks.

The back seat from one was pretty schmick so that got fitted up as well.

I went a little bogan and had 5 subs hooked up in the boot (jus to be fully sickest bro!!, we had a random burst of amps, subs and boxes given to us at one stage).
But now there are 2 10s in a box mounted tight behind the back seat, and a single 12 in a small box I can easily move for pram or shopping room..

I pulled the complete dash out of the best one, as well as the handbrake, floor pan hump and centre console for a conversion that is next on the list.
 
Now overall, it looks a lot neater inside, a little smoother on the outside and goes heaps better!!

Although it is a little sad looking now on the paint and panel side of things so a bit of body work and a new coat is needed.

==========================================================================

Around a month ago it started to play up, not liking idling and running like it was always out of fuel.

I discovered a massive vacuum leak under the air box.

The EL bottom half is a little wider than the EA unit, so when I installed it, it bent the 2 lines to the carbon canister over a little too far, and the rubber grommet split on one line.

I fixed this with some fuel line, and a couple of plastic line joiners.

(details on next page in the airbox mods photos post)

I discovered the engine likes having one port of the ISC blocked off too, that made it stop the rev hang it had developed.

And as a final wierd issue, I was playing around with timing and found it was far too advanced, so I reset the base idle and now it will rev out nicely again. 

Now it's just down to an annoying battery drain problem. 

I got a new battery a week or so ago, and didn't drive for 2 days... Totally flat battery...

Have done some investigating, testing battery draw and trying to isolate a current, but it's proving tricky so far...

UPDATE: I discovered that the wires to the alternator plug were backwards, and was causing a constant drain through the regulator.. problem solved

Now the best part, I had a look through my phone last night and found all the photos I had taken during this process. So I just need to get to a computer and I will upload a heap of photos for your viewing pleasure..


Well. Thanks for reading. And watch this space!!! (or the one below..)

Last edited by Lowlane7 on Sat Jan 04, 2014 6:37 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Unfortunately, the engine has had a major sad.

While driving (read: spirited sideways action) back from the IGA I sunk the boot in and got a huge sputter and several HUGE pops.

After lifting the rocker cover I found the timing chain guides broken in the usual spots, and the chain itself can be lifted by about 3 links and can almost swap a tooth on the cam gear. The balancer and the cam still line up timing wise, but the dizzy is about 90 degrees out.

I'm guessing the tensioner has packed it in and the chain has jumped a tooth or few on the timing gear.

EDIT: AUX SHAFT FAIL!!!!

So over this weekend I'm going to get on to the photos for this.

Then on Monday I go and sort out getting the engine from the XR6...

Last edited by Lowlane7 on Wed Jan 01, 2014 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

So, first Round of photos...

The repairs to the bent clutch fork.

This is what it was like.. as you can see, not running at optimum performance.


So I found some pieces of scrap steel and started some minor engineering adjustments..





After getting it to fit nicely I welded it all together.


This was the best shot I could find of it fitted and finished. I drilled and ground out the hole in the plate to match up to the hole in the fork to fit the rubber block back through.


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Last edited by Lowlane7 on Wed Jan 01, 2014 10:37 pm, edited 3 times in total.

The EF Engine swap....

Just a couple of what went in, and some prep..

This was the engine ready to go in..


Cleaned up Gearbox and Engine Bay




And the trusty old 3.9... so long and fare well, it got donated as a practice engine at the local Uni.


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Last edited by Lowlane7 on Wed Jan 01, 2014 10:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Engine in place,



Fitted the dizzy, had to go in on an almost backwards to miss the A/C compressor.


And the custom fuel line adaptors, credit to BenJ for the idea!


I swapped the ECU coolant sensors

to this setup

so that the EF/EL upper thermostat housing can fit the EA housing, and I was still able to plug everything up easily. Only the black plug was contacting the housing.

Everything else was bolt on and pretty simple and the next day I finished off the details..



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Last edited by Lowlane7 on Wed Jan 01, 2014 10:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.