BXProject

[smiffy]

Yeah that box had a well noisey bearing / shaft.
It still took some serious stick though!

Yes it was noisier than it should have been, but it was not bad enough to worry about. It certainly did do it's job well, I once did Bristol to Doncaster in 2 hrs, and 20 mins, with a stop for petrol (I'll leave you to work out the AVERAGE speed)

[David]

I once did Bristol to Doncaster in 2 hrs, and 20 mins, with a stop for petrol

That's 185 miles in 2hrs 10 (allowing a reasonable petrol stop). average 85mph.

Not easy to achieve, but not impossible assuming the road was clear and you had the opportunity to hold 110mph+ for most of the journey time.

[docchevron132]

The intelligence is great in this one!

Do remember though David, that a fuel stop for Smiffy involves a trip to the loo to empty out 300 pies, followed by a coffee, followed by a nap of about an hour!

[David]

So he actually managed 185 miles in 20 minutes of driving.... Impressive!

[docchevron132]

Thats Smiffy!

I once remember coming back from, er, Doncaster or somewhere up north with Smiffster in his Cavvy, I do believe that he was asleep for the majority of the M5, which would have been fine, but he was driving!

[smiffy]

That ZX went surprisingly well...

[Bx Bandit]

Right then, just to prove exactly how great our Doc is:

He said, the layshaft was noisy on the ZX box and mentioned probably bearing related: Bearing was fooked!!!

He also suggested I errrr....'check my nuts' for the rumble that was coming from the tizzydee in 5th!: Nut on i/p shaft was loose and the spline is fairly worn!

So you were right on both counts squire! I didn't risk removing the gear and bearing that i wanted to keep so I visited a gearbox workshop in Caerphilly. He removed them from one shaft and pressed them onto the other shaft all for nowt! So I owe him a cider or two! I bought an i/p shaft seal from main stealer as GSF seemed to think that one from a Saxo (I think) gearbox would fit!
So I can now rebuild the gear box with the 'longer legs'!

[docchevron132]

I'm amazed anyone at GSF can remember what a fucking BX is TBH.
They certainly dont keep anything mildly BX related anymore.

[Vanny]

i want a longer 5th gear in my BX I had a TD gear, it was borrowed and never returned GRRRRR

[docchevron132]

I can provide you with a TD top gear set if you want one Vanny?

[Vanny]

is that what i need for me valver?

[Philhod]

Called in at Rigby's this pm, to pick up the new brakelight switch. While I was there I asked John to check out if they had any BX spares they would like to dispose of.

He said they have some but he will check details and let me know just what they have.

Also had a go in the new C3 Picasso. Very impressed to be honest. Not that much smaller than mine really, the driving position is even better. The best bit was it really shifts with the 1.6 HDI 110 and will average 58 to 62 mpg.
I tried the Exclusive which has a full glass roof like mine and £15000 on the road, they had some offers that could bring it down a grand. Given 4 and a 1/4 for mine and it's under 10K

[docchevron132]

is that what i need for me valver?

Depends what you want to do to it really mate!

If you want longer legs on the motorway then yes, fitting a TD top gear set will make it somewhat lower revving at speed.

BUT, if you like arseholing up through the gears to attain a mahoosive speed then sticking said gears in it will make it rather slower to pick up in top, given that the gap between fourth and top will be higher.

Easy enough to do if you want, I did consider it, then decided against.

[Vanny]

I ONLY want it to be less revvy in 5th at 70-80mph. As it is it sits kinda on that 4k range when you can actually hear the engine saying (in a sweat soft voice) 'oh please just 500rpm more and i can FUCK RIGHT OFF whooo hooo' and there has been more than one time where i have given in and ploughed through to 7k without even noticing (too busy listening to the engine singing its love song).

Will dig out the numbers, but i guess if i could get it below 3500rpm in 5th at 72mph and not have any effect on the rest of the gears then i would be happy. All the track work i do i very rarely get upto 5th so it shouldn't effect that too much.

[docchevron132]

Sounds like a TD fifth set will be fine for you then.
IIRC it'll mean 3000RPM at 70MPH.

[Vanny]

laughing, so you got one? what else do i need? seals and shit?

[docchevron132]

Yeah I got a set, the rest of the box is mullered though.
As is the box in the car now.
I really must get another one!

Dont really need owt else mate, although I seem to remember the shaft will need grinding as IIRC the shafts are thicker on the valver, although I may have that confused with the TD and NA box, it's been fucking ages since I arsed around with BE3's.
I'll check.

[Bx Bandit]

Odd but true.........this is what I've done to the box I've put on the TD.

The original plan was to use the diff from smiffys ZX and keep the rest of the box standard. As it turned out I did it a little different. I used the Xantia 2.1 ratios as a guide and in keeping the BXTD box standard aside from the diff, then 3rd and 4th ended up quite a bit taller geared, whilst 5th was almost exactly the same when compared to the Xantia 2.1 box.

As most of what I do is local driving, but wanted the taller diff for the motorway, I ended up using the orig BXTD 1st & 2nd, the ZX 3rd & 4th and the orig BXTD 5th. Pottering about is really easy, often leaving it in 3rd or 4th where previously I would of needed to change down. 2nd to 3rd is quite sweet and 3rd to 4th on the TD is a little odd, but get it right and into 4th hits the sweet spot of around 2.5k rpm and she's off again. The downside is of course is that it doesn't have the rev range to make use of the gearing and you soon need 5th which takes the revs low enough to let the turbo wind down. But, cruising on the motorway is now so much quieter.

If I have the option (and can be bothered) I may look for alternative 3rd and 4th ratios somewhere between the orig BXTD and smiffys ZX, but on the whole I'm pleased with the result.

I'll be doing the 5th to my box Vanny, would be worthwhile I rekon. Does anyone know if the synchro cones are bespoke to the 16v?

[docchevron132]

Nothign in the 16v BE1 or BE3 box is bespoke to the 16v, except the diff.

[Bx Bandit]

do that mean I can use synchros from a td box to go on a 16v box dude?