Hi Guys,
After 8 years on this forum I have finally bought my very own Syncro. It was cheap but has a very rough body and I was going to wreck it; I have been looking for a Syncro gearbox for my Bay window bus for years.
However after driving it home 800km from Nimbin I think it is too good to wreck. There are some problems to address and obviously I can't remember everything I have read on the posts over the years so I have a few questions that I am sure have been covered before but I am at a bit of a loss with.
A bit of background: When I picked it up the previous owner had been having trouble getting it into gear and had broken the gearstick off. Their "mechanic" had put in a new clutch and they were not convinced that it was right as still hard to get into gear. The mechanic told me smugly that there was a vibration like from a uni joint but the uni joints were fine. Also told me how he didn't like Syncros. I dipped the oil, noted the wrong coolant, started it and headed off thinking " what have I done, how am I going to make it 800km to Sydney?" I went straight to the servo and checked the tyre pressures, tyres looked pretty old but plenty tread. Fuel was expensive so I just put in 20L and headed off.
The trip was uneventful until I got to Grafton and pulled in to a servo for fuel. The drivetrain was binding up so badly I could hardly make it to the bowser. On leaving the servo I headed straight across the road onto a grass area which freed everything up instantly.
I decided to head on trying to avoid any sharp turns as much as possible. When I got to Coffs Harbour I went to Super Cheap (which necessitated going around two roundabouts and turning 90 deg in their carpark) and bought some spanners and removed the tailshaft.
From here on the steering was light, the gearbox shifted silky smooth and the vibration was gone.
The rest of the trip was a breeze, the motor feeling very strong slipping up to 120km/h all the time.
I later noted that the tyres are from 3 different brands, the fronts being probably 5mm shorter than the rears.
My question is; Could the mismatched tyres have been causing the binding alone or does it sound like the VC is too aggressive as well. I don't want to buy tyres until I decide what I am going to do with it. I don't really know where to get a VC from and are decouplers still available from The Lowest Gear? The website doesn't appear to be functioning. Where is the next best place to get one from?
Also, I can't find the drain plugs on the heads for draining the coolant. Could someone help me out with that, I am keen to get the right coolant into the engine. Thanks for any help,
Neil.