'85 Merkur XR4Ti Rally Car

Ask John V about the correct flange for the Supra diff. I've got one on my set up and it uses a 1310 u-joint also.

Found it.

http://www.drivetrainamerica.com/neapco-n2-2-799-1-1310-toyota-flange-rectangle/

In reply to GPz11:

Much appreciated, I think I actually had seen that and forgotten- it's easy to get scrambled in a JVL conversation

I do have two perfectly good stock XR4Ti driveshafts here, so I'm waiting to see what it all looks like bolted up before I decide which way to go (1 piece, 2 piece, modified, new, ujoints, etc)

That adapter would be Supra easy, but the diff end is a 3 bolt yoke for a guibo, I don't know how that would work for my application.

Or are you using a MK3 diff?

MK3 diff

Soooo much welding I think I'm getting carpal tunnel in my trigger finger- Saturday I zapped the new rocker panels on right over the original ones, the driver's side slid right on but the other required some persuasion. I think that side might have gotten a little tweaked by a rock or stump or something. Got them painted using the space heater technique:

Today it was raining, so no painting since I've got a workaround for heat but no method for dealing with 100% humidity. I settled for getting the entire interior seam welded:

Hopefully things don't rust too much before it stops raining and I can paint it. As if I hadn't spent enough time welding, I added some bigass reinforcement plated to the coilover mounts of the trailing arms:

I may trim them, it's going to depend on how everything looks bolted together. I was also planning on reinforcing the arms in other places but I'm pretty sure these are bent, so I'll save the effort for when I can get a straight pair of them.

One of the guys made up a ream beam reinforcement kit. I picked up one for my car. I think I paid $70 for it all. Just got to weld it all up.

In reply to GPz11:

I plan to reinforce a beam and trailing arms eventually, but I don't think any of what I have is straight.

Didn't take pictures but I painted all that stuff that was welded Sunday.

On the driveshaft front, I'm leaning towards using a Mustang driveshaft (because they're common) and maybe doing a clever adapter that will let me use a stock differential OR a Supra one.

460Machine makes the driveshaft adapter so does Jeff Herson at Merkur Midwest parts

In reply to GPz11:

I can have one machined locally for probably half what those guys charge, and I need to measure things out to determine whether I can do dual bolt patterns for both diffs.

Christmas weekend progress! Got some heat wrap which navigator/SWMBO applied to the downpipe and new tubular header:

Hopefully it holds up better than our cheap turbo blanket did:

Took the oil pan off, everything in here looks OK as far as I can tell:

Cleaned an reinstalled with a new gasket and some threadlocker, hopefully stopping the leak:

Stuck a new throwout bearing on the T5 and attached it to the engine (that 10 spline input shaft is a bitch to line up!):

Had some plumbing fun:

Made up a little bracket and mounted a sweet handbrake (always referred to by me and my friends growing up as the "rally lever") and a proportioning valve. The red camo grip tape predates my purchase of this car but suits the color scheme I think:

Replaced the inner and outer tie rods up front, failed to photograph. Then went to unbolt the stub shafts from the (very clunky and unhappy) rear axles and discovered that (strike one!) they're Torx when the inners are a regular hex key, (strike two!) they're tight as all hell and broke my Torx bit, and (strike three!!!) they broke the much better bit I purchased to replace that one. Mcmaster has perfectly good replacements for these little berkeleyers for $6/box of 25, so out came the cutoff wheel:

Currently waiting on hardware for the header, stub shafts, and handbrake master cylinder, but it feels good to be at the point where stuff is going back on rather than the endless strip/clean/zap/paint cycle of seam welding.

A picture that might have been cool if it were in focus:

Rally lever rocks! As do the wrap jobs!

Don't forget to change the navigator's name decals too

I've always been curious how useful those hydraulic handbrakes actually are. They seem kinda situational

In reply to Gaunt596:

In most North American events, you're probably just as likely to use it after you miss a turn as you are to use it setting up for one. For $60, it seemed like an easy add on when I'm already plumbing lines through the car.

Hydraulic hand brakes are 'legit' and can make future buyers overlook a whole host of problems such as the car not running or driving or having a title.

Hey look, handbrake plumbing finished:

AN fittings tig welded to the fuel rail:

Rear disc brakes, new axles, and repacked hub bearings:

As fancy as it is, an unbelievable amount of time has been spent fighting the header. There is basically no hardware that actually clears the thing to attach it to the head, even socket head cap screws required some bashing. The gaskets that came with it were garbage, the studs that came with it were made of cheese, and I honestly don't think the company that made it ever actually bolted one to an engine, so I may just run another stock manifold instead- berkeley you header!

In other news, we're looking at a parts car tomorrow, which may solve some of the "where the berkeley to I get that part for a Merkur" issues as well as providing some fun upgrade bits.

Parts car would be the way to go for spares. As long as it is not rotted or bent.

I have a mustang driveshaft and possibly a Crown Vic aluminum one if you need something to cut up to mock up. I think I am closeish to you? West Chester PA.

Thanks Ross

In reply to Ross413:

You've got mail

Mission accomplished! I've made worse decisions than picking up a parts car in a snowstorm I think.

What I really need is the straight suspension and the T5 related bits, but the car also includes a spare stock turbo and manifold, a spare head, a number of other little bits, a nice interior, and this:

Stinger center mount manifold, Holset HY35 turbo, fancy built engine with forged internals and a roller cam, and an MS3 running the whole thing with an EDIS module for spark. It needs to be tuned but runs well enough to drive around. It's almost too nice as it sits, I'm tempted to tune it, throw sticky tires on, and take it to the $2017 challenge.

that looks way too good to be a parts car

In reply to amg_rx7:

Exactly what I was thinking- nice find!

To be fair, there's some rust hiding under there. It could be more of a "some parts for now" car, and if I wanted to cage another shell it wouldn't be the worst starting point. Only way to know for sure is to wait and see!

good god...how do you find something like that for Challenge $$?

Be ready to jump on it in spite of a snow storm?