at long last... '76 Opel by Isuzu

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2012 11:08 am

so this morning I took the steering out of the car:

but the parts that came with the car are not the ones that are worn out. :cry:

all the looseness is in this joint here:

so now I need to find parts for this. I'll need both sides of that joint (rod, and nut). anybody got any ideas?

ctmandu · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:13 pm

yea to bad i got rid of those parts last year. anyway call todd he will have it. make sure you get one of these.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1976-OPEL-ISUZU ... 96&vxp=mtr it a big help.

remember in germany 80% of parts swap over just not motor or trany...
http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_sop=10&_ ... tt+c&rt=nc

and then from down under all will work with no or little mods
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/Vehicle-Part ... 513&_pgn=1

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:28 pm

ctmandu wrote:

yea to bad i got rid of those parts last year. anyway call todd he will have it. make sure you get one of these.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1976-OPEL-ISUZU ... 96&vxp=mtr it a big help.

remember in germany 80% of parts swap over just not motor or trany...
http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_sop=10&_ ... tt+c&rt=nc

and then from down under all will work with no or little mods
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/Vehicle-Part ... 513&_pgn=1

yeah, I figure the Aussies would probably have something, but I was concerned about the difference between lhd and rhd. not sure if they use the same parts.

mrflibbles · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2012 2:32 pm

i would assume the rack ends would be similar just the rack itself is different?

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:16 pm

this is the joint I need:

doesn't seem to come apart any farther than that.

mrflibbles · **Posted:** Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:42 am

we generally call that part the rack end, at least where i work we do!

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Sat Oct 13, 2012 10:35 pm

mrflibbles wrote:

we generally call that part the rack end, at least where i work we do!

got any extra laying around? If I can't find anything in the junkyard that will fit, I'm gonna have to get it from somewhere...

so anyway, I decided that while I was working on this whole steering problem, I should put the engine in place so I could start hooking things up.
so I got it off the stand

right about here I'm a bundle of nerves

and then, here it is, back where it belongs after almost 25 years, sitting in its home.

put the plate on the back

flywheel

clutch

then this

well, would ya look at that!

a brand new (old) 5 speed! it just jumped on in there!

then I put the driveshaft in

next project, I get to figure out where all the bits and pieces go.

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Sun Oct 14, 2012 9:55 am

mrflibbles wrote:

we generally call that part the rack end, at least where i work we do!

I just ordered the ones off rockauto for an 81 I-mark, we'll see what that does.

john · **Posted:** Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:11 pm

Where did you find a brand new transmission?!?

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:27 pm

came with the car.
lots of spare parts did, many of them new, but the whole thing's been stored for so many years, this stuff was probably readily available when it was bought.

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 16, 2012 10:08 pm

well, not much to report over the last couple days, been back to work. not getting a lot of time on the car, but a little every day, so it's progressing, just slower. I've been tring to figure out where everything goes, but it's hard when it's been sitting for so long, and I wasn't the one who took it apart. I think I've got most of it figured out, but I'm getting a little stuck on a couple things... maybe someone here can help?

this thingy, what is it, and where do the 2 lines go that are coming out of the side? pretty sure the lower one goes to the oil pan, but the other one? this picture was taken from the front of the car on the right side, you can see the battery tray in the foreground.

these 2 wires, I can't figure out where they go. they are under the intake manifold on the right side near the motor mount. on a (probably) related note, I don't recall seeing a temp sender anywhere. where should it be?

this is an interesting project, for sure. being an a/c model, it has things that were not on my old car, so I'm not quite recognizing everything the way I hoped I would, but it's being a lot of trial and error to see what fits where.

I also noticed that my master cylinder's still leaking, so I just ordered up another one instead of messing with the old one again. my parts should be coming soon.

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 19, 2012 7:18 pm

so, those 2 wires, the one with the round terminal is hot when the key's on, the other one doesn't seem to do anything. no voltage, and if I ground it, none of the gauges move. I got a battery and tried to turn over the engine, but I think something's hooked up wrong. a wire to the voltage regulator fried when I turned it to the start position.

nothing inside the car works either.

on a positive note, this was sitting on the table when I got home:

look what I found inside!

so I took one outside and screwed it on the old rack

looks right to me!
so I'm going to pull the guts out of the old rack and put the new one together with whatever parts I can use. I got my new brake pads too, so I'll put them in soon. between all that and the electrical work, I'm going to be busy.

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:08 pm

so, over the weekend I built the rack. here's where I started:

I used the new housing, rack, and ends, and the old pinion. the boots were toast, so I used the ones off another rack and pinion I had hanging around.

got it in, and got you a pic:

in the meantime, this showed up:

inside was the:

man, I love new stuff!

and some new pins, so I could put my new pads on

so I did that. now I have new linings on all 4 corners, new wheel cylinders on the rear, and

wait for it...

...

...

new master!

so I got into the electrical stuff. started by fixing the toasted wire

the starter wasn't working, so I tore it apart

yeah, I need a workbench. but when I got the starter back together, it still did the same thing. I think the solenoid's bad.
so I'm going to be fighting with the electrical stuff for a while, so things may be slow.

Camshaft · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:13 pm

Good progress pal, always nice to see activity in the Isuzu forum. Car is coming along very well; all of the new parts are awesome. Must have cost a pretty penny back in the day - those all look like dealer items. Somebody really loved this car.

john · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2012 3:21 pm

The wire with the rectangular white plug on it is most likely the power wire for the electric choke.

opelboy76 wrote:

these 2 wires, I can't figure out where they go. they are under the intake manifold on the right side near the motor mount. on a (probably) related note, I don't recall seeing a temp sender anywhere. where should it be?

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:05 pm

john wrote:

The wire with the rectangular white plug on it is most likely the power wire for the electric choke.

opelboy76 wrote:

these 2 wires, I can't figure out where they go. they are under the intake manifold on the right side near the motor mount. on a (probably) related note, I don't recall seeing a temp sender anywhere. where should it be?

there is a round, 4 prong plug that goes to the carb that includes the choke among other things. it was a little confusing because there is an identical one in the area that goes to the trans, but I'm pretty sure I got them going to the right places.

cdtpf60 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2012 6:36 am

on gemini's those are sender wires...there should be a water temp sender on the inlet manifold(under the front water gallery)...plus a oil pressure sender on the block below the inlet manifold.
the white plastic plug(there should be another)
the black one goes to the distributor

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:47 pm

I looked up the coolant temp sender on rockauto to see what it looked like, and it does look like it uses this same type of connector, but I can't find it. maybe I'll have to give it another look. where on the distributor does that other one go?

I got a little time on it this evening, but not much, so I decided to start in on the trunk, since I'm waiting for a manual so I can figure out the wiring.
this is what I started with:

so I went around it with a wire wheel trying to find the worst of it. turns out the subframe's pretty bad, too.

so I cut out the big part with a grinder. I'll get the rest of it later.

but it looks like I'm going to have to do this panel first. this is the rear panel, as seen from inside the trunk looking backward.

that lip at the bottom edge of the panel, the floor sits on top of that, so I need something to weld to. looks like I'm gonna need another car door.

jwebb2876 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2012 1:27 am

You're a brave man, tackling rust like that

Guess you'd have to though, I'm guessing there's not many Geminis over there.

It's coming along nicely, keen to see the finished product

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 26, 2012 4:28 pm

pretty sure this is the only one in town, I'd be willing to bet it's the only one in the state. honestly, this is worse than I thought, but it's also the car I wanted, so I brought this on myself.

at long last... '76 Opel by Isuzu

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