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So I spent some time tearing into the WJ's dashboard tonight to install the old Sony head unit I had in my Ranger. I have learned a few things: 1) Jesus, the flash on my Nexus 6 makes the steering wheel look filthy when it's actually quite clean, it's just some leather wear  2) The PAC-SWI-RC I bought appears to be dead. I have +12V at the red and black, and only when the key is in run/acc, but I never get a LED on it and thus can't program it. 3) My laziness from when I took this head unit out of my Ranger has caught up to me. When I sold the Ranger, I put in an old Aiwa MP3 deck I had laying around. I noticed that the Aiwa and Sony connectors were exactly the same, and at a glance they appeared to have the same pinout. So I unplugged my Sony headunit, plugged in the Aiwa, did a quick function test, and sold it. Now, I'm using the wiring harness from said Aiwa on my Sony deck, and yes, they have the same pinout on the +12V switched/constant, ground, and speakers. Everything except the amp turnon, which on the Sony headunit, maps to the "power antenna" turnon. So, despite now having an aux-in and bluetooth, the factory amp only gets powered when I have the source set to tuner. 
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May 13, 2015 07:15
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IOwnCalculus posted:So, despite now having an aux-in and bluetooth, the factory amp only gets powered when I have the source set to tuner. Haha. Surely you can just do a little farmer engineering with the harness, yeah? A little snippy snip, twisty twist?
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May 13, 2015 15:07
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Not going to lie, I thought about just tying the +12V switched wire to the amp turn-on. $5 on eBay gets me a replacement radio-side harness, so I'll just redo it. PAC is convinced that 11.8V with key-on engine-off isn't enough to operate their steering wheel interface so there's more wiring analysis to do anyway.
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May 13, 2015 16:59
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So uh, maybe start the engine and see if the PAC powers up once the alternator is charging? I'm leaning more toward dead myself though, if it won't power on with key on/engine off, even at 11.8V. I did the switched 12V wire to the amp bit when I tied my amp into my stock stereo (tapped into the back seat lighter/power outlet), and never redid it when I put in an aftermarket stereo. No issues. 
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May 13, 2015 18:28
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Yeah, that's step one of the "wiring diagnosis" tonight. Fun thing is the support at PAC went right to "well, you should be starting the car to program it" even though their own directions say to turn the key to ACC. If something going into a car is going to freak out about 11.8V, though, that seems like poor design. Especially because it uses the tiniest loving wires that are a pain to get a good crimp on.
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May 13, 2015 18:33
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So, yeah, my initial guess still seems to be holding true. It was reading at 11.8V last night partly because I'd had the dome lights on for a couple hours while working in it. After driving it around some today, engine-off voltage at the SWI is 12.45, and engine-running is over 13.4. Still no reaction whatsoever out of it.
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May 14, 2015 06:16
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Sent the SWI back to Amazon, got a Metra Axxess ASWC, worked perfectly on the first shot. Spent some time tonight cleaning out the garage since RC racing got weathered-out (it didn't rain, but the wind and dust and threat of rain were enough to shut it down). I've fired up the GMC plenty of times since putting dye in the power steering fluid, and still never saw a drop of dye in whatever is getting on the serpentine belt and then flung all over the engine bay, so it clearly wasn't that. Put another can of dye into the engine oil, fired it up... yep, it's engine oil  LSx folk, is there pretty much anywhere else it could be coming from other than the front main seal? It's definitely engine oil, it's not leaking much, but it is getting onto the belt somehow and getting flung in a line all over the engine bay as a result. I can't think of what else it would be, but it's a bit of a pain in the dick to do since even if you don't take the timing cover off, you do still get to deal with a torque-to-yield crank bolt to get the crank pulley on/off.
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Jun 5, 2015 07:17
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IOwnCalculus posted:torque-to-yield crank bolt What in the name of VEE EIGHT is this crap? Who thought this was a good idea?
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Jun 14, 2015 08:54
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Beach Bum posted:What in the name of VEE EIGHT is this crap? Who thought this was a good idea? The real fun bit is the fact that seemingly nobody on LS1Tech / any other LSx-related board seems to indicate they've ever been physically able to get it the full 140 degrees or whatever it is they ask you for - it ends up somewhere well north of 200 ftlb. Best guess is it's at least partly because the balancer / crank are completely unkeyed. People running superchargers have to drill and pin the crankshaft / crank pulley. The other fun bit is the official GM method for reinstalling the crank pulley is a really good way to trash your crankshaft. They have you use the old bolt first, but the problem is that it has very little thread engagement before you really need to crank on it. So I picked up a flexplate lock so I don't have to dick around with screwdrivers, and a "pulley installer" which is basically a giant piece of threaded rod, a nut, and some washers, so you can get full engagement with the crankshaft threads before you apply any real force to them. Just waiting on the new seals for the timing cover itself before I start taking things apart.
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Jun 15, 2015 19:48
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IOwnCalculus posted:The other fun bit is the official GM method for reinstalling the crank pulley is a really good way to trash your crankshaft. They have you use the old bolt first, but the problem is that it has very little thread engagement before you really need to crank on it. So I picked up a flexplate lock so I don't have to dick around with screwdrivers, and a "pulley installer" which is basically a giant piece of threaded rod, a nut, and some washers, so you can get full engagement with the crankshaft threads before you apply any real force to them. Just waiting on the new seals for the timing cover itself before I start taking things apart. Yeah, I've been reading up on rebuilding LSes and the general consensus from builders is to use an installer to put the pulley back on. Installer to start -> old bolt if wanted to seat it -> new bolt to torque it home. How much was that flexplate lock?
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Jun 15, 2015 20:47
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Is torque-to-yield where you torque to the point that it's about to fail?
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Jun 15, 2015 21:17
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At least it has a bolt, the 283 is just a press fit ( ) though it does have a keyway.Parts Kit posted:Is torque-to-yield where you torque to the point that it's about to fail? Yes.
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Jun 15, 2015 21:37
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Yeah, I've been reading up on rebuilding LSes and the general consensus from builders is to use an installer to put the pulley back on. Installer to start -> old bolt if wanted to seat it -> new bolt to torque it home. How much was that flexplate lock? I went with this lock, and this installer. Both seem reasonably beefy. I don't think I'll need the old bolt at all during the install, which is good because I'm planning on using it for another 'trick' - take it out, grind the flange around the head down to be smaller than the I.D. of the pulley, and then pull the pulley straight off over it instead of having to pull it a bit, back the bolt out, pull it a bit more, etc. It really feels like GM wants to sell a lot of
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Jun 15, 2015 23:09
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Parts Kit posted:Is torque-to-yield where you torque to the point that it's about to fail? The yield point is where the fastener will permanently change. Bolts stretch when you torque them. Torque to less than the yield, and the bolt relaxes to the original length (elastic deformation). Torque to more, the bolt is now stretched out (plastic deformation). The bolt is not really failed or about to fail, but reusing it will not give you the same clamping force (and then your joint will fail).
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Jun 15, 2015 23:56
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Beach Bum posted:What in the name of VEE EIGHT is this crap? Who thought this was a good idea? Don't you dare blame me for this poo poo.
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Jun 16, 2015 01:17
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Yeah torque-to-yield basically takes the bolt beyond its deformation limit, which gives more clamping force (once) out of the same size bolt as opposed to a larger or higher grade one. Gets the tightness you need for cheaper, at the expense of reusability. E: But then it's a weird size, so you the owner can only find that low-grade bolt at the dealer, at massive retail markup naturally. Cheaper to build, not own. Good old beancounter engineering, that.
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Jun 16, 2015 01:32
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ARP makes a reusable bolt. Which I just realized I still need to order, durr.
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Jun 16, 2015 05:15
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IOwnCalculus posted:The real fun bit is the fact that seemingly nobody on LS1Tech / any other LSx-related board seems to indicate they've ever been physically able to get it the full 140 degrees or whatever it is they ask you for - it ends up somewhere well north of 200 ftlb. Best guess is it's at least partly because the balancer / crank are completely unkeyed. People running superchargers have to drill and pin the crankshaft / crank pulley. Some of the better ones have a thrust bearing as well, which is a magical experience. Kinda like my power steering pump pulley installer tool - I'd always used an assload of washers and threaded rod, etc. Used my $55 thrust-bearing based installer tool which I bought in a pinch because I absolutely had to get the thing back together ASAP so I could make it to the airport to visit my GF... I had originally planned on returning that tool because gently caress, $55 for a loving power steering pump pulley installer?  ... I still own that tool. You can have it if you can pry it from my cold, dead hands. It's absolutely amazing to crank on the wrench and have 95% of that torque actually go into tightening the fastener instead of overcoming friction on the threads and under the head. e: I'm not sure if anyone makes a premade kit for doing this on a Vortec engine but you'd basically just want to look here for a thrust bearing with a high enough max load and a large enough ID to slip easily over the crank snout you're working with, then use high grade threaded rod, steel plates, and various other redneck tricks to come up with the threaded part that applies the force. e2: the Vortec engine crank snouts are mostly 1.485"... nothing in that catalog over 1.5" is strong enough. You'd have to look elsewhere, or just say gently caress it and use the threaded rod trick which works great 99% of the time. kastein fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Jun 17, 2015 |
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Jun 17, 2015 03:48
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Yeah, I'm not going to worry about a thrust bearing. Might slap some grease between the two washers to help them slide a bit anyway. Spent some time sweating on the Jeep today. The front bumper cover is much, much easier to remove than it was on the MS3, and that's even with having to dremel all of the plastic rivets off. The ones on the wheelwells are one-shot rivets, the ones underneath are supposed to be reusable. But, I think the PO's shop used some one-shot fasteners as well down there because I saw no way to collapse them without destroying them.  Installed a pair of Rusty's tow hooks. They fit easily enough but "no cutting or grinding" is a stretch. One hole on each side needed a bit of clearancing to get the bolt through. On top of that, installing the hooks on the outside of the bracket (as pictured in the instructions) might clear a Laredo bumper, but won't come even close to clearing the Limited bumper. I had to flip them to the inside, and cut a vertical bit out of the lower fascia on each side. Hopefully I won't need to get dragged off of anything anytime soon, but now I at least have a front recovery option. I've got a D-ring insert for my rear hitch.
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Jul 5, 2015 21:33
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IOwnCalculus posted:Spent some time sweating on the Jeep today. The front bumper cover is much, much easier to remove than it was on the MS3, and that's even with having to dremel all of the plastic rivets off.   I dread the day one of my front turn signal bulbs burns out. 
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Jul 6, 2015 22:12
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opengl128 posted:
Yup, I had mine off too many times to count. On top of that whoever installed the CAI (PO or their shop) didn't know about the second set of fasteners halfway up the front of each side, so they just undid the rearmost ones and broke the gently caress out of the tabs on the bumper cover. I never could find a good solution to repair it, and the bumper rarely was properly aligned as a result. On the WJ, I just ziptied everywhere I ground out a fastener. Should make it much easier to remove next time. Also something something Chrysler product 
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Jul 12, 2015 09:18
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IOwnCalculus posted:Also something something Chrysler factory zip ties
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Jul 12, 2015 21:49
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I'm calling it a factory approved repair method. It's holding up fine so far. Got the passenger side engine mount replaced before deciding I needed to take a break until sunset to avoid killing myself from heat stroke. Took three hours to do it, including pulling the battery and tray to get some more access, and a few attempts at jacking up the engine to get everything lined up. I'm pretty sure it was the worst of the three mounts in terms of failure:     It's hard to see in the pics but there's definitely an angle to the through hole that isn't there on the new mount.
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Jul 26, 2015 19:51
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Wow, that looks way more dickish to get aligned than a 4.0L non-WJ motor mount or a Subaru EJ25 motor mount, which are the only ones I've really experienced. Getting the through-bolt back in must be a party.
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Jul 27, 2015 17:32
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The through-bolt was actually the easiest part once I figured out my jacking errors. I put the Jeep on ramps so I wouldn't keep bashing my head getting under it, and put one chunk of 2x4 on my main jack... which I would later realize would top out about an inch short of where I needed it to be. The real problem is the upper pair of bolts that holds the mount to the block: They face directly into the upper corners of the framerail / mount bracket, and DaimlerChrysler never saw it fit to drill any sort of access holes to actually get tools on the loving things. So, especially with the mount collapsed and the engine leaning even closer to the framerail, you can't get any sort of ratchet on the upper rear. The upper front you could maybe get one on if you have a good universal joint... but I don't. There's barely enough room to get a 15mm Gearwrench on them, and the only way you're actually getting the bolts in or out of the mount is with some careful jack adjustment and some swearing. Trying to thread my arms and hands around the front suspension and exhaust while keeping the wrench on the bolt consumed the most time by far. The only thing that saved me was that the torque spec on these bolts is only 45 ft-lb, which is thankfully reasonably easy to do even with a wrench in those tight conditions. Once I got the mount bolted to the engine, I just had to grab my little HF aluminum jack and a longer 2x4 running vertically up to the mount itself to raise it up. I got lucky in that the whole thing pivoted perfectly on the first attempt to get the through-hole in the mount lined up with the bracket. On the scale of "motor mounts loving suck", this was definitely harder than the Mazdaspeed3 (which was pretty much easy-mode, and that car loved to make every repair a pain in the dick) but easier than the mounts on my C10 (which can eat a bed full of dicks). I did decide to put off doing the other two mounts (driver's engine and rear mount) until next weekend, since the Jeep is probably going to be parked all week anyway. Working early in the morning is soooo much nicer when the pavement hasn't had a chance to get hot enough to burn you yet.
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Jul 27, 2015 18:11
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No photos today because I was too busy pouring sweat everywhere to pick up the phone. Replaced the drivers mount and the transmission mount. The drivers mount was pretty much the opposite of the passenger; no problem on the four bolts holding the mount to the block but all kinds of hell on the through bolt. There's even less room on that side to get the engine to pivot upwards instead of just lifting straight up. I did have to pull the oil filter, which was fine since I was due for a change in 200 miles. You could maybe get away without it if you have an 18mm ratcheting wrench, but I don't know how you'd get a torque wrench on it. The old mount was in similar condition to the drivers side. Transmission mount was easy by comparison. Just had to keep lifting the transmission to get it to unload the center bolt and swap it out.
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Aug 1, 2015 21:47
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Both the Avalon and Ion need mounts. The Avalon needs them a bit more, since it's automatic and constantly stresses the rear mount. The Avalon will probably go to a shop for them. I'll probably do all but the rear mount myself on the Ion.
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Aug 2, 2015 06:19
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Working on the Heep tonight. Why yes, that is a new upper radiator hose.  The old one?  Yeah, look at where the lower clamp mark shifted to. Best I can figure is either the hose started failing and loosened up, or the failing engine mounts let it pull a bit. I drove at least 200 miles, including a lot of offroad trails, on that. I went with a flex hose to replace because the one that failed is only about one-to-two years old, and was a Dayco that supposedly was a perfect fit. It was at least half an inch too short, and it also had a habit of getting sucked flat when the engine cooled back down. The flex hose is a teeny bit longer and has a spring in it. Here's the 'carnage' from my latest adventures - a thin coat of mud everywhere, and a few more dings on the transmission crossmember:  Disregard anything that looks like a fluid stain up front, I had already yanked the upper radiator hose and drained some coolant. Also, you can barely see it in the pic above, and barely in this one - seems like my rear pinion seal is seeping the tiniest amount? Worth worrying about?  Unrelated to the above, nothing like cleaning up, taking a shower, and sticking my head out in the garage to get blinded by red and blue lights. Guess someone down the street had one hell of a domestic disturbance 
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Sep 2, 2015 06:22
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Someone offers a better clearanced crossmember, sits pretty much flush with the frame I believe.
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Sep 3, 2015 06:30
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Yeah, IRO makes one. But I don't think I could keep the factory-style TC skidplate (which has definitely seen some rocks already in the short time it's been on), and I think the $400 I would have to spend to replace both the crossmember and the skid would be better spent on a lift.
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Sep 3, 2015 07:00
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 Finally yanked the drat step bars off. My wife was pissed off at them thanks to constantly burning her leg on the CK trip (her side was in constant sun for a lot of it) and they hang down too drat low. I'd say about half of the damage you see came from that last run alone. They're going off to the scrapyard when I finish with a few other projects that are also leaving me some recyclable metal.
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Sep 11, 2015 06:38
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Was hoping to hang my newly wired shoplights tonight. Instead, the left rear window regulator failed. Snagged a replacement and put it in, went ahead and ordered the other three since if that never-used window regulator is going to fail, the rest must be close.
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Oct 3, 2015 08:51
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The garage is still a mess, and I need to sort out the final cable arrangements, but at least now it's a brightly lit mess. Also spent ten minutes correcting two remaining issues with the door I worked on. I realized as soon as I finished the other night, that I forgot to clip the regulator cable to the door. Also, two of the door panel clips broke. Got a bag of 50 delivered today from Amazon for the cost of two from the dealer.
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Oct 5, 2015 06:00
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So at some point in the last few days, the WJ's air conditioning went from "it doesn't blow enough air but at least it's cold" to "gently caress this poo poo why isn't it cold". Just to screw with me, it did so intermittently. The cause ended up being the coil that engages the clutch - when probed with a multimeter it only showed 4-7 ohms of resistance, but when you hit it with a full 12V it only passed 0.01A. Lesson learned, don't bother resistance-checking coils anymore - skip to the jumpers with banana plugs and check the actual draw. One new coil (and a lot of swearing at snap rings and snap ring pliers) later and the A/C is cold again. I can't figure out why the gently caress my back is so goddamned ruined today, though. And just because the Jeep likes to gently caress with me, one of the pulleys on the tensioner was making a racket, and the upper radiator hose I put on recently already failed. I keep getting drat lucky with the cooling system on this thing - it was actually spitting a bit of fluid by the time I got home but it still wasn't enough to actually run low. I do think the system isn't sucking back in from the overflow tank very well so next on the list is a radiator cap and a new hose from the tank to the radiator.
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Oct 10, 2015 17:12
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This is the most disassembled my CR-V has ever been since it was first put together: Did the transmission filter on it, which is external and on top of the back of the transmission. I don't think there's any way to get access to it underneath. Access from the top just requires removing the airbox, which is quite easy (remove the inlet hose, remove one easy access bolt, pop off two rubber grommets, done). Only downside then is you're reaching way down in there and you're still blind on the lowest portion of it. I also discovered there is no point in trying to remove the lines from the filter barbs in the vehicle - the hoses are drat near fused to them. However, they came off perfectly easily - one barb from the "fluid warmer" (heat exchanger between ATF and coolant that sits on top of the transmission) and one barb that I think goes right back into the transmission. Had to chuck the old filter on the bench vise and pry / pull like hell to get the old lines off, but they came off undamaged. It also looks like the dirty fluid seeping onto the bottom of the transmission was coming either from one of the spring clamps loosening a bit, or the crimp on the factory filter failing slightly. Either way I replaced all of the clamps with worm-drive stainless clamps and slapped a new factory filter in there. Next time I'll make sure to order new hoses along with the filter. It was also the first time I got to really try out my Astro Pneumatic hose clamp pliers and holy poo poo they were a loving godsend. I actually wish I'd had some fresh spring clamps to put on instead of worm clamps, but I've had poor results in the past when trying to reuse spring clamps. Changed the oil in the WJ too - I really wish it was possible to get that filter off without splashing oil everywhere when it hits the track bar / drag link / tie rod arrangement. Need to rotate the tires on both but I think I'll let Discount handle the Honda since it could use a rebalancing too. WJ definitely needs the tires balanced but I need to investigate some noisy brakes first. IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Nov 2, 2015 |
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Nov 2, 2015 19:33
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IOwnCalculus posted:Changed the oil in the WJ too - I really wish it was possible to get that filter off without splashing oil everywhere when it hits the track bar / drag link / tie rod arrangement. Need to rotate the tires on both but I think I'll let Discount handle the Honda since it could use a rebalancing too. WJ definitely needs the tires balanced but I need to investigate some noisy brakes first. Any way you can rig up some thin cardboard to route the oil to the pan? Every time I change the oil in the Mustang I make sure to get a chunk off a cereal box. Drips all over the steering rack and other poo poo if I don't. If the route is really stupid and cardboard won't really work, you might be able to rig something up with some doubled-up aluminum foil or something.
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Nov 2, 2015 20:41
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I keep thinking of buying one of those moldable funnel things for it. The first bit of oil that comes out of the filter is fine since it travels down the body of the filter and drips off ahead of it all, but when you finally get it all the way off the gush that comes next just splashes in every direction. The other annoying bit is it drips right on the threads / clamps for one of the tie rod ends which manages to hold on to a surprising amount of oil, so it'll drip now and again for a few days.
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Nov 2, 2015 21:24
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Decided to take the short-week off of work and get some time home alone to get the garage in order, and then start working on poo poo. Refresher, the LS1 is pissing something onto the serpentine belt and flinging it all around the engine bay in a line. I put UV dye in the power steering fluid first, didn't get any hits, then put it in the engine oil and it started lighting up. So I figured the front main seal is doing it. (click for huge pics)  Took out the battery, intake, throttle body, radiator hoses, fan, and water pump. The lower left bolt for the throttle body took some extra work, the threaded insert is spinning in the plastic intake manifold. Luckily GM saw fit to put some very thin hex flats on the back so you're not completely hosed, just grab an open-end 15mm and hold it still.  Vaguely closer and now I'm not so convinced the front main is doing it. The crank pulley (especially the back half where the factory A/C belt would've been) is dry and clean. Enhance!  Yeah, that looks perfectly clean, and I don't see any way for oil to get from the timing cover to the belt either.  But this sure looks messy over here, so now I'm back to power steering pump. In both cases, the black crud by the crank and by the power steering pump wipes off quickly so it's the same stuff... but there's none on the inside area of the timing cover, just further out where it steps up. There's also a lot more of it under the pump. None of it lights up with a UV light, does that dye eventually break down? The buildup goes all the way down the front of the engine, but only on the driver's side. Passenger is clean all the way down. IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Nov 24, 2015 |
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Nov 24, 2015 00:58
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What's it taste like?
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Nov 24, 2015 02:41
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Chicken, I suspect.
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Nov 24, 2015 02:45
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