Sam's VN

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still working on this area, too busy:
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Still need to cut dust cap to cover up the HID light and allow its associated cables to come out, ala passenger side
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Starting to take shape:
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Jets!!!!!!!!!! :S with terrifying wire spaghetti!!!
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I decided today I was going to get something done on this car, so I did. I picked something easy and simple - the battery box (lol) - and it took me most of the day to do because I'm pretty fussy with random things and didn't exactly have everything I needed.

I started by deciding where I wanted it and immediately hit a hiccup..
http://www.squaredarches.com/phpbb2/...&t=2542#p27141
One of the mount points was right on top of a chassis rail (the one the fuel tank strap is bolted to).

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Scavenging for some spare metal to make into a bracket led me to a spare VN ECU in a box in the corner. I took the memcal cover off and used that to make a bracket to fix both the chassis rail problem and the height difference between the mounting points.

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I decided four tech screws would be plenty to hold it to the floor pan, thinking about the forces that'd be applied under accel/braking and considering the solid mount on the opposing side I was happy with that. I triple checked the position and mounted the bracket to the floor.

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A quick test positioning..

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Drilled the hole in the bracket for the mounting stud

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I realised one of the supplied mounting rods would require shortening because of the setup of my little bracket so I got onto that with a hacksaw.

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I figured it'd be easiest to drill the holes in the box (positive, ground and vent tube) before it was mounted to the car so a bit of guesswork followed and I drilled three 7/8" holes to suit the same grommets I've been using to cable through panels in the wiring relocation (the Moroso-supplied grommets weren't big enough to comfortably get 0AWG through). I drilled a fourth hole in the boot floor for the vent tube outlet at the same time.

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The little bit of rust-coloured stuff was annoying me to look at, so I popped the grommets out and sprayed the local area with grey primer just for my own peace of mind.

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Final fitment of the box was actually quite an annoyingly fiddly process, and God help me the next time I need to get the battery out of the car - those mount studs actually do not mount solidly enough not to turn, so the nylock nuts that fasten the battery down actually just turn the studs when you try to undo them. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I'll probably get the nuts under the car welded in place, and the studs welded into those.

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I wasn't happy with how the battery was free to slide forward and back even with the hold-down bracket firmly in place, so I found a very conveniently sized piece of wood to chock it back with.

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Unfortunately not enough thought went into cutting the carpet and a patch of floor is visible :( but it's not the end of the world.

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I'm pretty happy with the way it looks in the boot so far - I sat the lid on loosely to get a better idea of the final finish.

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Battery box aside, here's a few pics of the front end just for an idea of where it's currently at.

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looking good mate. glad its you with the wire nests though...it would frustrate the hell out of me haha

Put in another hour or two on this tonight, didn't get that much done but here's a couple of pics anyway:


I wasn't happy running the wire through the big obvious hole in the rear firewall so I gave it its own grommet

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This is how I plan on securing the power cable along the sill. If the room is there I'll wrap it in convoluted tube between mounting points to reduce rubbing on the cable insulation over time/kms.

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I used my last two 22mm grommets on the vent tube - I can't do much more around this box until I get more. Turned out neat enough I guess.

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coming along well lad, well done for having a crack at it yourself ;)

cheers, appreciate the kind words :)

Diff is finally in at a shop - the housing is acid bathed, I'm picking it up empty tomorrow to take it in for powdercoating and I'll get my new nolathane bushes pressed into it while it's out and about. Progress!! Just in time to go away with work again next week so this will all stall again :(

Going to have to get some better photos, and needs a bit of tidying up (and a belly full of oil) but it's a step closer to fitment!!

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A smashed off stub in the minispool that came out

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A bit of a twist in the non-snapped axle's spline (which you can actually barely see in this photo)

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So I have a little painting and attention to detail to go on with before she goes back in, and I'm going to ask Harrop what grade of oil they recommend then buy the best I can find (within reason), after all you only have to fill it once if all goes to plan :)

I have next week off work so I'm really hoping I can get it running again.

Today's progress:

Tape-and-spray job on the diff cover. Primer then gloss black. Came up OK I think!
Filled the diff with some Castrol GTX 90 mineral oil for its 300km gentle run-in.
Fitted new handbrake shoes, adjusted with a bit of guesswork.
Watched some plans I drew up for a mate's sub box coming to fruition making a mess all over my shed :p and now there's dicks drawn on the windscreen and back window of my 5.0L in the sawdust..... this is why we can't have nice things :p



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Mate took a couple of photos of me struggling to fit my new handbrake shoes. These things are more of a bastard to change than I had ever imagined. If there is a trick to it, I do not know it. :)
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I put in some work on the battery box today, been hurting my brain as to how to wire that end up for a while now so I decided it was time to tick it off the list.

I'm going to cut the screws off short but I don't have the right tool for the job at the moment so that's been put on hold.


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Unfortunately the battery terminal popped right off the end of the cable as soon as I was done taking photos, so I'm going to need to find a way to make sure that doesn't happen! Any tricks/tips welcome, I really thought it'd have been in there tight enough but the sharp bend in the cable just put too much strain on it and it wiggled itself out when I moved it.


Here's a pic of where my isolator switch is going to end up that just isn't cool enough to go on display in the thread so it gets a link: http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...N/SAM_1952.jpg



And here's a couple of pics of everything from last night all said and done.


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Also spent an hour or so this morning hating on old cars while adjusting my handbrake cable to correct spec. While this was happening I made the horrible realisation that the tailshaft bolts I painstakingly installed last night have to come out again because I still have to swap clutches :(

Feels like I'm getting somewhere finally! Long way to go on the wiring yet, though.


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both of my stub axles had twisted input splines when i pulled my smashed 4.11's out recently. supposedly very common.

Diff came up nice. I've never seen one done in white before but it's very clean looking. Great build

As someone who is doing an LS1 into a VL I enjoy reading your thread mate, keep the updates flowing!

Diff's actually silver - just a lot lighter than it looked on the colour swatch :p I like it though.

Adam007 - thanks for the kind words! More coming I assure you - I have a week off work to play with :)

Little bits of progess, got a negative battery terminal that should let me finish that area off. Also earthed a cable for the battery so the boot is pretty well taken care of.

Got a stud through the passenger side of the trans tunnel hump that gives a nice short run to the starter motor under the car, and a grommet next to that for some 4GA to the alternator.

Test fitted the sill panel and it doesn't fit. Need to clearance it around each tech screw I used to hold the 0GA in place.

Couple of other bits and pieces but that's the main stuff.

hi good writeup. Am putting LS engine in VK. Is the vl k frame best to use? Is it different to the vk one? What steering rack did you use? I see everyone seems to have problems with clearance in this area so I want to make it as easy as possible.
Dave