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Originally Posted by Silver Ghia
The HR was rushed through because of the pedestrian safety concern with the HD vertical front guard 'blades' next to the headlights, when that model was first released.
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lLOL The kidney crushers. Thats what they used to be called! Almost the perfect height!
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Originally Posted by mik
pretty sure the holdens had recirculating ball until much later, possibly the first commodores had rack and pinion, Lh torana`s had rack and pinion, not sure about the earlier ones.
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Yeah your right. The commodore had rack and pinion and so too did the LH/X torana's. Everything else was recirculating ball.
Castle main rod shop do a rack and pinion conversion kit for them if thats the way you want to go.
The 186 was the biggest motor fitted to the HR but you can always get a red 202 out of a HQ/J/Z/X OR VB/C/H commodore. You cold then get the fuel injection set-up off the VK commodore although they are getting harder to get and they heads were different and not that good in the cast ( 12 port head and they used to crack through the intake and give you coolant injection at no extra charge!!)
You can fit up the trimatic to them with a slight massage of the tunnel to make it fit. You can modify the column shifter to accept the 3 speed auto with no real dramas as well, or put a floor shifter in.
The diffs are the old banjo type and LSD's are rare for them now ( i had one in mine and it was rare 20 years ago!!) Best bet is change up to alter model diff if you want an LSD.
Ride is pretty crude in these and the suspesnion used to alway ssqeek on mine even after replacing the bushes and lubing them up. They will wallow a little but a firmer front sway bar will help. Castle main rod shop also offer a chassis strengthening kit to help tie in the front sub frame a little better and stiffen it up.
If you get one with drums, you can use HK/T/G OR LH/X stub axles, brakes and calipers to upgrade it, but be aware that you will need to go to 14 inch rims with this brake upgrade. You might also want to remove the valve out of the master cylinder so you the brakes don't lock on. The master cylinder is a single circuit master cylinder and when brakes are upgraded to discs a seperate booster is installed- usually a VH40 or VH44 type. Alternatively, you can mount a later model dual circuit master cylinder to the firewall with minor mods and run two boosters for added safety. It's a better system than standard and I can tell you from first hand experience that it's not fun when you loose the brakes in one of these cars!
I've got a heap of info on these ( as well as full of ****** so my wife says!!) as well as factory repair manuals. If you need any advice or tips PM me. They aren't a hard car to mod or repair and parts are readily available still. You just need to know where to look.