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ExecuDork posted:Does anyone have any general advice for digging out parts under other parts and in tight spaces? Usually there's a correct way to do it, and it often is the only way to do it. I don't know what it is on your car but start googling and youtube searching. You may find that yes, you do have to remove (or just unbolt and lift) the top mechanism and then find out that it's really not all that bad. Other times it's just a special tool or combination of tools you don't own, and then it's easy. The similar mechanism on a Volvo comes out with 3 bolts on each side and 6-8 electrical plugs. And it's got locating pins so you can't put it in wrong. It's still super heavy and not easy to do but way less complex than it appears at first.
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Mar 20, 2023 17:55
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Full Collapse posted:Tangent: Does everybody use plastic timing chain guides in their light duty engines? No, but not because they're doing anything better. Particularly old engine designs with short timing chains and large timing covers let you just not have any guides at all, because the only way the chain comes in contact with anything other than the crank or cam gear is because something has already gone Very Wrong. Or it's the Jeep 4.0, which you would think would fall into that category - but it has a small rubber snubber on one side of the timing cover. Plastic guides on all but the absolute worst designs will outlast the warranty, and in most cases will survive well into the second or third owner, so there's really no reason for the manufacturer to do better. A century of cost-optimizing the automobile has gotten us to the point where the OEMs can build an engine that will make more power, use less fuel, and generate lower emissions than ever before, and it will do that for 150-200k miles; but once it hits that kind of mileage it is done.
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Mar 20, 2023 18:17
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I installed a new PCV valve in my Q5 yesterday. Quick and easy job, now it drives smoother and gets better MPG in addition to fixing the related CEL. Looks shockingly good under there for having over 215k miles on it. Almost like maintenance helps something last longer :-)
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Mar 20, 2023 19:00
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Got the S2000 aligned for the first time since buying it in 2019. The steering wheel had been a bit cocked to the left the whole time but the car drove pretty well. Just had to correct a little excess front toe-out (0.29° total, now zero) and the steering wheel. Camber was in spec as well so all good news and now I have a straight steering wheel, and the front does seem a little less pushy.
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Mar 20, 2023 20:12
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nitsuga posted:I’m praying for that little timing belt. Goonspeed. thank you, I finally got the belt off, and changed the oil seal behind the crankshaft sprocket, and replaced the water pump, and when I was putting the water pump back on a bolt sheared off inside the engine block lol
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Mar 21, 2023 00:06
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chrisgt posted:If you're VW, you design them so the teeth rip off even though the belt still looks perfectly fine. Honda has that feature on the old A20 too. I suspect we learned the same way.
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Mar 21, 2023 07:46
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The boy and I replaced both lower control arms on his V70, adjusted the parking brake, and did a manual trans fluid exchange. Less than two hours for the whole shebang. No bloody knuckles, not even a curse word uttered in anger.  
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Mar 23, 2023 17:48
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STR posted:351M. The engine of "you'll get there, and it'll rip a house right off the foundation, but you won't get there fast". Should have a 9" rear with that combo tho. It do! It leak, too (pinion seal, I think, and it wasn't wet, just a lot of dried grease. At least when I was under there before driving.) quote:Check the kickdown cable and vacuum line for the modulator, the C6 normally doesn't shift hard unless it has a shift kit. Glad to see a 4 bbl on it, the 351M almost always had an autolite 2 bbl. And loose steering is a feature on these, not a defect. It could have a shift kit, it has a kickdown *linkage*, and yeah, a thorough vacuum line check is needed. Looked like a silicone line on the one going down to the modulator. Talked to him yesterday, and it wasn't wanting to start without ether, which is weird with the electric fuel pump. I should order up a genuine Holley refresh kit specifically for that carb rather than the Edelbrock universal kit we got. Also check the fuel filter, I guess. Imperador do Brasil posted:It’s not tofu delivery in an AE86, but the spirit is there! You should still stick the katakana "commercial vehicle" sticker on there, just for fun. Applebees Appetizer posted:Also my Mighty Vac took a poo poo so i decided to buy the Harbor Freight version instead, half the price! Well it was DOA created no vacuum whatsoever and this was after I already had the brakes done wanting to flush the fluid and bleed. Eneded up having to gravity flush/bleed and the POS vacuum pump is going back to harbor freight. Did you get the plastic one or the brass one? I've had good luck with the brass one after my actual Might Vac plastic one took a poo poo after 20 years or so. Full Collapse posted:Tangent: Does everybody use plastic timing chain guides in their light duty engines? They at least need nylon on the sliding surface. Ford has the additional gently caress you of using a plastic oil-pressure tensioner body in the modulars. I don't recall if the actual guide is plastic or aluminum on my Crown Vic. Aluminum, I think.
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Mar 24, 2023 17:18
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Imperador do Brasil posted:The boy and I replaced both lower control arms on his V70, adjusted the parking brake, and did a manual trans fluid exchange. Less than two hours for the whole shebang. No bloody knuckles, not even a curse word uttered in anger. Witchcraft. Or lack thereof, since the curse words are Words Of Power.
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Mar 24, 2023 17:19
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Full Collapse posted:Tangent: Does everybody use plastic timing chain guides in their light duty engines? I'm gonna be honest, other than a full-on sprocket to guide the chain I can't think of anything I'd rather have. I don't want a metal guide surface (maybe the structure of the guide depending on how large and delicate it is otherwise) as a chain running against that is just going to produce shrapnel that will destroy the oil pump and bearings, and don't want fiberglass or gfrp for the same reason. At least the microscopic plastic particles will likely not cause any pump and bearing damage.
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Mar 24, 2023 18:12
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I took it down to the home center and put four sheets of drywall and two sheets of tile backer board in it. No pics but it's great to drive the ol truck for a purpose. The bed being 8'-6" is so nice for sheet goods, the sheets fit with so much clearance. Also it's nice to drive with a purpose as it takes my mind of listening and feeling too hard on the vehicle and worrying about breaking down.
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Mar 26, 2023 05:30
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Darchangel posted:Did you get the plastic one or the brass one? I've had good luck with the brass one after my actual Might Vac plastic one took a poo poo after 20 years or so. It was the brass one, no vacuum whatsoever. Luck of the draw I guess, my HF record with tools must have been too good so the HF gods had to even it out 
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Mar 26, 2023 14:42
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Somewhere around last august I nearly overheated on I70 in Colorado in my '90 Thunderbird. For some reason the rad fan was not coming on, and I spent a long time trying to figure out if the fan motor itself was dead, or if like... the coolant temp sensor was out, or if it was something in the stupid 90s ford computer box. And then the CO winter set in and I don't have a garage, heated or otherwise, just a carport, so I was decidedly not in the mood for doing any wrenching. Finally warmed up enough to hold a wrench here and based on the tests I was able to do I determined that it was in fact just the fan motor that was kaput. I found a stock replacement that even came with the OEM plug so no wiring necessary, just bopping it into the fan+housing and lo and behold my car doesn't overheat anymore. Have some joyride pics from this morning. 
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Mar 26, 2023 23:19
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Hell yeah! One of my friends had a 90 sc in highschool. I always told him if he crashed it, I wanted the engine, trans and rear axle. My goal would have been to swap it in to a 4cylinder fox body.
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Mar 26, 2023 23:22
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wesleywillis posted:Hell yeah! One of my friends had a 90 sc in highschool. That would have been a screamer. I'm no expert but the low end torque with the manual trans gearing feels so loving good off the line. I'll probably never be able to afford to really put in the stuff to wring any real performance out of it but it's a ton of fun to drive just heaving the weight through canyon roads.
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Mar 26, 2023 23:25
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I'll bet its real fun. Iirc, the 3.8 was an option in the early days of the fox body, so that might not have been too difficult of a swap, but they never came with IRS, so putting the rear axle in there would have been challenging to say the least. Especially for dumbass highschool me.
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Mar 26, 2023 23:33
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I left it at home while I bought a new* one.  It's a 1990 Toyota Camry wagon. 2.5L V6, 2MZFE engine. Automatic, front wheel drive. Just over 76,000 miles. Owned for 95% of its life by an older lady who only sold it once she was too old to drive it. There's a sticker that claims the timing belt was done in 2004 so that'll be second on the to-do list as long as there's no major issues.  The front tires are from 1999 so I elected to get it towed to the Toyota dealership where I work. It'll get a full inspection to see what it needs to be roadworthy. I've wanted a 90s wagon for years and this thing was so clean and so reasonably priced that I couldn't say no. More pics to come as I begin to tinker.
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Mar 27, 2023 00:27
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Goddamn that rules. I worked on one about 15 years ago that had over half a million miles. Same combo but in white. It's probably still out there today.
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Mar 27, 2023 00:39
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Those 90s rides rule. My dad had an SC briefly and would drop my brother’s crap shack modded Mustang II much to his delicious disbelief.
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Mar 27, 2023 01:04
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hell yeah.
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Mar 27, 2023 03:04
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Incoming wall o'text. Lexry's starter let the magic smoke out, but I managed to convince it to run a bit again. Until it wouldn't start again in a drive through at 3am. Had to push it out of line. Got pissed after I got the food, just held the button, lots of clicking and then finally KACHUNKwhirrwhirrVROOM. Drove it straight home. Shut it off, it either clicks rapidly or the lights just get real dim and you smell magic smoke very fast. Dicked with it a lot today. Battery terminal brush, since the negative terminal has a lot of corrosion. Car has power, but just rapid clicking, solenoid eventually grabs, car goes almost dead, Lucas joins the party. Turns out the starter is near the top top, and while it LOOKS like I removed a lot, the majority of this is just the airbox assembly and battery - and you really only have to pull that for easier access to one bolt (you can probably pull it without removing anything but the battery with the right combination of wobbles). The starter is even in this photo, the only thing I removed that isn't in the photo is a zip tube and battery hold down. Basically the entire air intake before the throttle body.   Oh. Oh. That's really not good. So negative cable definitely needs full replacement. It's not very long, so should be an easy junkyard find. Dealer offered to order it (and a downright reasonable price), but it'll be a week. I need it reliable sooner. Also some rust converter. I knew old battery looked like it'd boiled before, but I've never had the airbox out - this, never saw the extent of the damage.  Yeah. Things got spicy here. Surprisingly the positive cable seems fine. The negative is in pretty rough shape pretty much everywhere. I haven't put the air box, MAF, etc back in yet. So the car is  It's alive. I know once everything is back in (which requires removing the battery again anyway), I won't have any warning lights. It's in limp mode thanks to no MAF being hooked up. That's for tomorrow me. Also for tomorrow me, one of the drat bolts for the starter cross threaded in the block. It's in enough to make sure it's aligned, and it LOOKS flat against the block with the other bolt, but I need to re-tap that hole so I can run it all the way in. And get a new bolt while I'm at it, I don't trust it not to snap if I try to re-use it at this point. Brand new OEM Denso/Toyota starter: $250 at the dealer. Was supposed to be in tomorrow, but they called at 5pm today. Darchangel posted:It could have a shift kit, it has a kickdown *linkage*, and yeah, a thorough vacuum line check is needed. Looked like a silicone line on the one going down to the modulator. Oh, yeah... linkage, cable... I think mine had a cable, but it was stock. And a little newer. I can speak from experience that if the vacuum line isn't hooked up at all to the modulator, it shifts a lot higher than usual and kicks. If vacuum is weird it can kick a bit too. But a shift kit is likely since it has other work. Admiral Bosch posted:I found a stock replacement that even came with the OEM plug so no wiring necessary, just bopping it into the fan+housing and lo and behold my car doesn't overheat anymore. Have some joyride pics from this morning. That's a BEAUTIFUL Bird. e: oooooh SC?!
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Mar 27, 2023 04:30
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Yes indeedy, with the Mazda 5 speed(same thing they used in the Rangers/B series, although geared differently). I love and hate it... There hasn't been anything *really* wrong with it. It was pretty meticulously kept and had a full engine rebuild by the original owner at around 195k and it's around 215 now. Trying to do my part to take care of it while not just keeping it as a driveway queen. I paid for new synchros and bearings a few months after I got it, that was almost as much as I paid for the car. The shocks are starting to weep although the two-setting selector still works on all four corners, theres a leak in the brakes somewhere and I think also in the power steering pump... And parts are hard or expensive to find. Nonetheless it's easily the coolest car I've ever owned or likely will own. Anyway. What the gently caress exactly happened there? Your battery *boiled over* and corroded a bunch of poo poo? Good lord.
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Mar 27, 2023 23:51
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Night Danger Moose posted:I left it at home while I bought a new* one. I think thats one of the best cars cars Toyota ever made. Reliable as gently caress and also a surprising amount of fun to throw around. Also it doesnt look bad in that late 80's boxy way.
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Mar 28, 2023 01:33
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Looks that way. The old battery showed signs of boiling over at some point (and it left me stranded out of nowhere about a month and a half ago, couldn't even jump it though my jumper cables got really hot and it started boiling - once I got it home my charger just laughed and refused to touch it), but I didn't pull the plastic tray under it when I changed it, so I had no idea the extent of corrosion. Whole reason I went in this time was to do the starter (no corrosion on it, but definitely crispy, ohmed out to 0.01 ohms between the output on the solenoid and the body). I need to make sure it's not overcharging - the new battery doesn't show any signs of boiling yet, but I've noticed the negative clamp can get very toasty, while the positive one stays pretty cool. There was TONS of corrosion on the clamps before - I cleaned it up as best I could with a screwdriver and wire brush, but I didn't have a proper battery terminal cleaner with me at the time. One of those "I'll fix it next week" things that kept getting pushed off. With how that body ground looks (the super crusty one, and I'm pretty sure that's the main battery to body ground), and the PCM doing the voltage regulation, there's a decent change it's overcharging. Probably what killed the old battery (a just barely 2 year old Interstate - 2 months out of warranty by the sticker on it). I'm hoping that battery support unbolts (even if I have to drill out the bolts). If it's spot welded, I'll probably need to find a new spot for that body ground, or at least clean the hell out of that one. I'm pretty sure that bolt will be snapping off (though it's been soaking in PB Blaster for a bit, I keep hosing it down in more PB, and I'll try to ugga dugga it out with the impact on the lowest setting). Worst case, bolt snaps, tray welded in, I go after it with baking soda and a wire brush until I'm down to bare metal in that spot, drill it out, new one goes in, liberal use of rust converter on everything. All of this stuff is hidden under the airbox and battery tray anyway, I don't care how it looks. My dad had a couple of Thunderbirds, though his were 84 and 89 IIRC, and not supercharged (I don't remember what engine they had - think the 84 was a 5.0, 89 probably a 3.8). Can you convert to the non-adjustable shocks once the originals die? You can always make your own brake lines if it's the metal ones leaking, Ford power steering pumps of that era ALWAYS whine and leak (and a new pump is available from Rockauto anyway - tons without variable assist, one with variable - I assume yours is variable since [a] 90 and [b] sounds like it's fully optioned), and if it's the body to caliper lines leaking, it looks like Rockauto has all of them on hand (even for rear disc, though those are mostly showing (only 1 remaining). I'm sure there's Thunderbird-specific forums where you can probably track the shocks down eventually, or someone can recommend someone to rebuild them - those seem to be the hardest to find parts I looked up aside from the radiator (holy ouch... Rockauto has one, but $330). Night Danger Moose posted:I left it at home while I bought a new* one. I have a weird thing for that era Camry. Really nice find! randomidiot fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Mar 28, 2023 |
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Mar 28, 2023 01:44
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Blessedly the radiator appears fine. There are definitely performance *options* that people run that I suppose one day I will have to start considering, but the Tokico 2 positions are no longer manufactured and it's just something that I think is pretty cool to still have even if they're slowly going. Sort of the biggest bottleneck of the whole car is the brakes - they're pretty undersized for how heavy the fuckers are. Most people do spindle/hub swaps to later mustang parts which not only lets you run larger discs and calipers but also obviously increases aftermarket availability, but who knows when I'd be able to find or afford the stuff for the whole swap - Also the ABS system in the 89-92 models is pretty archaic and expensive to rebuild from what I understand. Ah well, such are cars, I suppose. I have mostly come to terms with just driving it the way it is. The only modification on it is a considerably larger air intake which looks and sounds nice. Maybe in a year or two I'll see about new headers, since those actually are available still, and everyone says the stock ones are undersized.
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Mar 28, 2023 02:07
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Yeah, hopefully you can find some NOS shocks when they do go. Otherwise rebuild or modify it to take a regular shock.  e: guessing it's 3 channel ABS? 2 front, then a single channel for the rear, like what Ford did on the F-150 for way too long? It's better than no ABS.. sometimes. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 11:45 on Mar 28, 2023 |
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Mar 28, 2023 02:21
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Yesterday I was able to get the Camry into the shop and up on the lift to get a good look. Was quite clean, but I got a small list of things to do to it: both front axles, left front control arm has a cracked bushing, exhaust is held together with rust and tears. There's a small coolant leak somewhere? We'll give it a harder look when we do the plugs manifold gasket. While we were there we did a compression test on the front 3 cylinders, I'll do the back 3 when I do plugs and wires because you have to take the intake off and I wasn't ready to get that involved last night. The plugs were completely dry, and quite old. That's on the list. The three we pulled out looked very good though.  Booty booty booty booty rockin' errywhere  Compression test was good. Between 150-160psi per cylinder.  Face hidden to protect the boyfriend. I really like how the steelies look, I took off all the wheel covers. I might just clean those up and use them, that gunmetal colour on them is really cool.
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Mar 29, 2023 00:20
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Night Danger Moose posted:I really like how the steelies look, I took off all the wheel covers. I might just clean those up and use them, that gunmetal colour on them is really cool. Glorious wagon! I like the steelies too but it must be said those wheel covers are still cool as poo poo. Speaking of Toyota wagons, today I summited the documents and paid Hoegh Autoliners:     1997 Toyota Caldina GT-T manual. As it was purchased off a lot in Japan (through a friend of a friend's dealership there) they noticed the radiator (which had already turned that brown-used-to-be-black color on the radiators from this time) was leaking. The dealership we originally bought it from replaced it at no cost because that's JAPAN. I expect minimal things besides a fluid check, but who knows. KakerMix fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Mar 29, 2023 |
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Mar 29, 2023 02:19
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KakerMix posted:
Never knew these existed. Celica GT-4 but in goofy wagon form is pretty neat.
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Mar 29, 2023 15:08
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Night Danger Moose posted:Yesterday I was able to get the Camry into the shop and up on the lift to get a good look. Was quite clean, but I got a small list of things to do to it: both front axles, left front control arm has a cracked bushing, exhaust is held together with rust and tears. There's a small coolant leak somewhere? We'll give it a harder look when we do the plugs manifold gasket. While we were there we did a compression test on the front 3 cylinders, I'll do the back 3 when I do plugs and wires because you have to take the intake off and I wasn't ready to get that involved last night. I learned to drive in a Camry of this generation - except due to being birthed in the bizarre alternate universe known as the Button Car Plan it had a Holden Apollo badge on it. I loved that car - it earned the nickname "MacGyver" on account of me getting it into scraps and it somehow managing to always pull itself out. Anyways, I was reminiscing and then caught those HORRIFYING bumpers - man, the US DOT 5MPH regulations are guilty of some horrifying sins. Take a look at these bumpers by comparison:  
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Mar 30, 2023 02:55
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Gave it it's first wash in a long drat time. Winter was loving hard on everything here. the roads are crusted with salt and gravel. the box behind the rear wheels and the bottom of the doors have been sandblasted and the hood has a poo poo ton of rock chips. I'm susprised the windshield survived so far.  Diagnosing a slow crank. one of the batteries wasn't contributing at all. Old busted:  new hotness:  A new clockspring is $300 and junkyard ones are all junk, so i just put the original non-cruise control one back in, and did the hackiest hack on the buttons and jammed them into the pre-exising holes. The ford 5 buttons all share 1 feed and 1 signal wire and just have different resistance between them, so i guess i have to stick with the stock buttons for now. I'll probably integrate them nicely at some point, i want to do a 05+ dash panel swap though. The bug soft button is wired to the horn. I'm going to label it "start" so if someone other than me tries to start it they honk the horn. 
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Mar 31, 2023 23:54
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More like what was done to my car today Looks like someone either sideswiped or turned into my car sometime overnight. The door took the majority of the hit, not sure if the fender is damaged or just scuffed a bit. I guess it could have been worse but luckily they missed the rear quarter panel. Dropping it off at a collision shop on Wednesday. I think what bothers me the most is I just made my final payment a couple weeks ago and was looking forward to not having any car expenses for a while. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XPnT66S2fU
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Apr 1, 2023 18:13
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Hot wired the truck to get it back in my driveway after living on the street for the remodel.  To do: Column out to replace lock cylinder (thanks drat kids!) Replace horn button (again, loving kids) New water pump Coolant flush Oil change & Spark plugs Need to find and install new power steering pump for: Hydro boost switch New master cylinder Bleed brakes Finish retro air AC install Need to clean surface rust off a lot of poo poo Probably get it registered again lol
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Apr 2, 2023 23:53
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Get hosed lovely gas strut - that's the last time you'll trick me by seeming like you're going hold Also why the gently caress is the dipstick on this car so hard to read? I think it's about near the full mark but it starts running down before you can get a good reading and there are always bits of oil that go way up the stick. Would it have killed them to put a nice bit of texture like on older cars? 
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Apr 4, 2023 05:40
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in school i was told that you read the highest spot where it goes all the way across the dipstick, so the part that goes way up the stick doesnt count cant help you if it's super low viscosity and runs down the stick as you try to read it tho
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Apr 4, 2023 06:22
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I think what he want is some knurling between full and empty to either give the oil something to stick to and some contrast to make out the oil on the shiny bare metal. It's a small thing but I agree.
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Apr 4, 2023 08:59
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Went to test n tune at O'Reilly Raceway Park  Still struggling with the 60ft,but it's making good power and pulling on the back end. My cousin is still babying the new trans in the Chevelle, but he is down to the mid 10s. Making progress.
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Apr 4, 2023 11:58
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Just a bit of timing work on the boy’s Del Sol. Surprisingly hard to find the actual reference point info for the base ‘94 engine so it took a couple of tries to get the timing just right after replacing the belt. The cam was a tooth off because “flat” doesn’t always mean “flat”, sometimes it means “flat in relation to this unspecified-in-the-literature reference point”. 
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Apr 4, 2023 16:44
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What about the mark on the bottom near that sharp thing? Looks like a classic timing mark to me. I know nothing of your engine though, and yeah the only timing marks I've had complete confidence in are the ones on timing gears where the marked teeth mesh together.
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Apr 4, 2023 17:12
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Imperador do Brasil posted:Just a bit of timing work on the boy’s Del Sol. Surprisingly hard to find the actual reference point info for the base ‘94 engine so it took a couple of tries to get the timing just right after replacing the belt. The cam was a tooth off because “flat” doesn’t always mean “flat”, sometimes it means “flat in relation to this unspecified-in-the-literature reference point”. ahhhh, those stupid engines. Who in the hell thought it was a good idea to put the two stupid flat marks??? If you buy the gates kit, the documentation is pretty good, so is alldata. Honda used that nonsense for at least another decade. Easy timing belts to access (for fwd) but yea, I always hated those marks.
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Apr 4, 2023 17:56
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