"Hope you get a kick out of this read."


Yes, I did! Is this yours?



There are still a few Opels around in this country. Last year there was a Manta for sale in our town! Similar to this one.



Walter Roehrl (passengers act as lateral g-force indicators):

 

Mine was a 67 (no difference though) and red w/flat black trim, just like this one.
The best part about the car was that to get into the rear seat, the front seats hinged up from the front, bottom of the seat. It made it much easier, but better still, lots a' room back there for you and your favorite girl at the drive-ins.
Besides the lack of power, the worst thing about the car was a transverse leaf spring front suspension. Made it a little tricky on bumpy surfaces.

I'm also familiar with the later 1900cc Mantas. Basically the same chassis as the GT's. The pistons were very heavy in those engines and the stroke was quite short. It could have been a much better engine, as I often wonder what the Opel engineers were thinking?
We used the larger pistons from a 1900CC Opel to bump a Volvo B20, 2.0L engine up to a B22 (2.2L.) The results were okay, but nothing to write home about. But it can be done.

 

There:

 

Back to the CD4E transmission. To remove the transmission you need to drop the subframe. This guy did just that in his backyard:
The Ford Contour project | Alec Irwin.com

 

I actually liked this bodystyle better than the earlier ones, and it had either a 1500cc or 1700cc engine too. I'm not sure if they had upgraded the front suspension or not, though?

It's not that uncommon to have to drop the front sub to replace a clutch or trans in a modern car. My wife had a '95 Saturn w/5-speed trans. The clutch always seemed high to me and I dreaded the day I'd have to do the clutch in it. Fortunately, that day didn't come before the oil pump let loose and the engine blew. But we got 10 years out of that used car, which wasn't bad. We donated what was left to charity, who parted it out and made some money on it.

 

I did a little research. It appears the Kadett B series had the leaf spring. the Kadett C was upgraded to coil springs. The C was the last rear wheel drive Kadett. The D generation was the first front wheel drive Kadett. Do you remember the Pontiac Les Mans of the eighties? That was a version of the Kadett D.

I knew that many fwd cars require major operation to get the tranny out. And that is one reason why back yard mechanics has become so difficult. Hats off to Alec Irwin in the link!

 

My sister had a 1989 Pontiac Lemon. I hated that reject parts bin creation.
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The Pontiac LeMans nameplate was revived in 1988 as a rebadged Daewoo LeMans 1986 to present (2013), a subcompact car sold in the North American and New Zealand markets until 1993 as a captive import. In North America, three-door hatchback and a four-door sedan body styles were offered.
The Pontiac/Daewoo Lemans was a rebadged variant of the Opel Kadett; Opel Kadett Combo (European markets); Vauxhall Astra Mark 2, Vauxhall Belmont, Bedford Astravan, Bedford Astramax (Britain); Chevrolet Kadett(1989) (in Brazil); and the UzDaewooAuto Nexia (in

 

Indeed! A real mongrel only GM could fabricate!