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So, I felt the need to pare down my RX-7 collection (7, before this - 5 first gens, and 2 second gens,) and put an '84 GSL-SE that's been in my garage with a worn out low-compression engine for 17 years, and my running/driving '90 GXL with rear seat up for sale on Facebook and RX7club. I pinged a couple of people that had expressed interest in the cars over the years, and one young man who had really liked my '90 responded that he didn't have any cash, but was going to put his AE86 coupe up for sale, or maybe would I be interested in a trade. After looking over the pictures he had, and what had been done to it, I decided it was probably worth more than I was asking for the FC, so the swap was a go! He dropped it off on Sunday:  (departing RX-7 in the background. I wasn't fast enough to get a decent shot. I mean, my fingers in the frame, FFS.)   The headlights do go down. Battery was flat, and I guess he drove with the lights on the last time he parked it.  Genuine Momo steering wheel, and some sort of short shifter.  Axle was trying to escape when they loaded and unloaded the car on the flatbed. The bearing separated. New bearings are supposed to be in the back seat. I was busy Sunday with house stuff, so didn't get to play with it much. I charged the battery, and it fired right up. It's got a Weber 32/36 carb on it, and emissions delete. He did include the OEM carb. Matching wheels for the rear are in the trunk. He has a "D1-style" fiberglass front bumper/air dam, but it was too big to transport, and no mounting hardware, so I'll need to pick that up. I've got some big spare parts for the FC to take him anyway. Somehow I didn't take pic of the engine yet. I'll upload some of his pics from Facebook. It has Cruise control, power steering (I think), power sunroof, and *had* AC. Manual windows, door locks, and mirrors. Sunroof works. Exterior lights work, headlights pop up/down. New muffler shop exhaust New fuel tank, filter, and fuel level sending unit. New alternator and belt. New front main seal. New oil pan gasket. New cam cover gasket. New ceramic pads on front brakes. New ceramic shoes for rear, not installed. 14" Celica "baby Supra" wheels. 2 new tires. Roof spoiler. Rocket Bunny style ducktail trunk spoiler. Fiberglas wider rear over-fenders. Carpet dash cover. Needs: Fix cracked widebody fender. Or remove and fix a lot of rivet holes. Change trans oil. edit: cooling fan shroud edit: I noticed that it has a bracket for the power steering pump on the engine. Need to check the rack and see if it's supposed to have power steering. Drivers mirror - no knob/loose and floppy 1/20/17 mounted pivot assembly correctly. Still no knob, but mirror no longer loose. edit: 11/8/17: edit 11/10/17: water in drivers rear under-seat area. edit 11/18/17: Passenger door panel not near as bad, but still needs some love. edit 11/20/17:
edit 11/25/17: battery hold down missing CHARGE light not working rear differential grinding/noisy edit: 1/26/17
Probably needs shocks and struts Needs front end alignment. Darchangel fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Jun 21, 2019 |
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Oct 23, 2017 20:07
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More photos from the prior owner:            Axle escape:  Roof spoiler, which I assume is still in his garage. 
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Oct 23, 2017 20:33
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I'm definitely going to clean it, and everything else. It's not that bad - the lettering is just stained, I think.
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Oct 23, 2017 20:46
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InitialDave posted:I always think the 2drs look like early Preludes in profile. They do. The Quaalude is a little lower slung, but yeah, pretty much. ishikabibble posted:It's beautiful 20-somethings with not a lot of actual wrenching/building experience. I'd have definitely done a better job with the spray bombs, but then, I've been building model cars since the '80s, and picked up a few small skills with spray cans, and learned the importance of masking. Just a fresh paint job will make a world of difference. For what it's worth, I liked it in the original silvery blue, but I can see that the front end has been replaced with silver parts. Not sure about the fate of the wide rear fenders. I'd rather have bubble flares if I need room for wider tires. I really hope I can get that roof spoiler. I really like the look of those on these and the 2G Celicas/Supras. Speaking of: need to add "strip paint from Celica wheels" to the list. They've been painted grey, but its such a bad job they just look dirty.
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Oct 23, 2017 23:52
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A couple of minor tasks accomplished after doing some necessary work on my house's front door threshold (rotted out). I set out to put a good tire on the left rear, and yank the tire off the axle that needs bearings. I did that, swapping the wheel and tire from the right to the left, and chucking the shredded tire on the left into the backyard. The trunk contained 3 more 13" steelies, two with tires that are worn out but hold air, and one more Celica 14" with a now-slick tire. I hope he still has the 4th Celica rim. The answer to "why low?" is "cut springs", and one managed to slip off the perch one winding, since the bottoms of the springs no longer flatten out enough to seat properly. I may have to get some proper lowering springs. In digging into the trunk, I discovered that one of the torsion bars was disconnected, and the trunk lid would not stay up. The torsion spring wasn't broken, so I wrangled it back into place with prybars and channel-locks. Trunk stays up now! Wiring is sort of strewn around the trunk - not sure what's going on back there. Will have to look at the service manual to see where it's all supposed to go. Nothing else of import in the trunk besides some minor bits and pieces. I'll dig into the stuff in the interior and see what I've got to work with, hopefully have all the bearings bits so I can get the press work done this week and have a rolling car.
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Oct 24, 2017 06:05
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Larrymer posted:Title is wrong, already looks ruined. I think it can only go up from here, holy poo poo. Good luck Is that a challenge? It still has a full interior. Clearly it is not doriftu-worthy.
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Oct 24, 2017 20:34
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Just for comparison, these are the only two AE86s currently up on Craigslist in the area: https://dallas.craigslist.org/mdf/cto/d/aeobo/6356543095.html  Got some good mechanical bits, but interior is stripped, and LOL no AC in Texas. Body is meh. Those are the wheels, I have, only not crappily painted. https://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/d/ae86-gts/6359027040.html  Better interior, but front end mangled and motor seized. I was trying to sell my FC for $2500, the prior owner of my AE86 put it up for $2750. I feel like I did OK on the deal, other than the FC was pretty well sorted out mechanically, and I knew all its quirks.
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Oct 24, 2017 21:50
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At least that one is clean, painted, and pretty much ready to race, looks like. Not sure I like the smooth front and rear, but nice tinwork. SR20? Eh. Uh... https://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/pts/d/1uz-trade-sale/6336302324.html   And I just sold my GSL-SE for $1000, so there's just this cash, lying there. Dammit. What are the chances I could sell a RA20 for $1K without the engine?
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Oct 24, 2017 22:34
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BlackMK4 posted:Well, Celicas have started going to the moon so I would think you might even get more than that. It helps that this one is about 70 miles away from a major population center (Fort Worth), I guess. poo poo. Now I'contemplating just how much trouble I would get in. I bet the rear end would fly apart instantly. then again, you have to have traction to break a diff...
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Oct 25, 2017 00:44
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Larrymer posted:Buy this. But holy poo poo, that wheel offset. Yeah, those are far from fitting. Might work with bubble flares or something, I guess, but as is, looks like a roller skate. Did some cleanup work on the rear axle and wheels last night. I needed to get the bearing retainer off so it could be on the axle before the bearings are pressed on, and didn't want to deal with this greasy mess:   Never mind that grease and brakes are never a good combo. Thanks to Purple Power and a pressure washer, I've now got this:  While I was in there I pressure washed what I could reach of the chassis, fuel tank, and wheel well. I got the retainer out, and it's pretty mangled. Ordered a new on, and the gaskets this morning.  Axle:    Yeah, that bearing generated a little heat before it gave up. Still need to get the outer race and seal (that ovbiously wasn't sealing all that well) out of the housing. Fortunately, courtesy of the prior owner, I have 2 sets of rear axle bearings and seals, 1 set of ceramic brake shoes, and a drum brake hardware kit.  While I was degreasing stuff, I took a stab at cleaning up the back side of the two Celica GT-S wheels that were not on the car. They were absolutely covered in grease and grime on the inside.  I did the first one just by spraying with purple cleaner and scrubbing. For the second one, I decided to scrape off what I could first. After a little scraping.  After a lot more scraping:   How long was your axle seal weeping, bro? After a whole bunch of scrubbing and power washing:  Thank God. I hate handling super greasy stuff. It's just unnecessary. Used to be orange, too. Time to buy some aircraft stripper, if I don't have any already. Did a little damage to the front side, too, between the cleaner and the power washer. No big since I intend to restore them. 
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Oct 25, 2017 20:39
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The one in the picture is bald, and the other one has steel showing. Because doriftu, one presumes. Never mind one of the steel wheels has a tire with plenty of tread, but a sidewall puncture, and another was the one in the pictures on the left rear, that apparently exploded. I could have those removed, but I think I'm going to try just cutting them off. Once the bead wire is cut, it shouldn't be too painful. Right? Probably will be no more progress tonight - I need to get the threshold back under my front door, and I'm tired as is. More on the weekend, I hope, if not Thursday/Friday. I'm kind of itching to take it for a ride, really.
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Oct 25, 2017 22:07
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Applebees Appetizer posted:So what are your plans for it? Full restoration? Tofu Delivery clone? Drift Missile? No drift. Just make it decent and drive for now. Bibendum posted:I'm curious about this too. I assume since you are even bothering to touch that axle you just want something to cruise around or run errands? Or do you just want it moveable until you start digging into it? And what was the previous owners plan? Crazy color scheme and body kit but still putting time and money into a 4ac engine? I'm hoping you've got a sc22 with a bad body for a swap. I hope this doesn't come off as sounding critical, I'm just used to seeing SR5s get parted out to fix GTSs. It's stock as hell. I drove a bone stock '79 RX-7 for years. I can deal with old slow Japanese cars. I do want it functional first, regardless. I already have the bearings, and the retainer was all of $7 from Toyota. All he did to the 4AC is yang the emissions stuff and slap a Weber on it. I like the coupe, and as far as I know, there were no GT-S coupes in the US. What the heck is an SC22? slothrop posted:Why not a 4age/4agze? Are they available/plentiful in the US? Available yes, maybe. Plentiful, meh. Expensive because of SICK DORIFTU INITIAL D BRO? yes. I get one result when I hit up the local craigslist for "4AGE", and it's keyword spam in a JDM engine importer who doesn't actually have any 4AGEs. Unless very luck, it would almost have to be a FWD engine conversion from the later Corolla. There is a HUGE drift tax on AE86s. Boaz MacPhereson posted:I can't believe you scraped that much gunk off a loving WHEEL. That's the kind of garbage you clean off old engine crossmembers. Ugh. I've always liked that style of wheel so I look forward to seeing the restoration. Glad you're keeping them. Yeah, someone had a super leaky axle seal. Those wheels are pretty beefy: 14x7, from the Celica GT-S (aka "baby Supra" wheels). Previous owner put 175/65-14 tires on them, which is a little stretched. I think I'm going to go with the stock Corolla GT-S size of 190/60-14.
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Oct 26, 2017 18:33
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Still waiting on the axle retainer plate to do the axle bearings. Supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Degreased the engine bay. It needed it badly - it had a leaking front main seal, valve cover, and oil pan when the preveous owner got it, which he fixed, but that still sprayed oil all over everything.   It may not look all that bad, but I assure you that every surface in there will make you dirty and slippery. Even the underside of the hood was practically dripping. After some quality time with purple cleaner and Mr. Power Washer:    Also went after the baby Supra wheels:  Now clean:   And then did the second one:  The guy I traded with brought all the spare parts he couldn't bring with the car originally, and likewise, I loaded him up with all the FC spares I had. I should have gotten a pic of his 4Runner loaded down with all the RX-7 crap. Here's what he brought me:   A full set of spare front struts, springs, spindles, and brakes, another original steering wheel, an e-fan, and a pair of drilled/slotted front rotors. Also got the front bumper:   After I finished up the other stuff I was doing for the day, I decided to see how the bumper fit, and look at what bracketry I'll need to fabricobble. The first thing I discovered is that it won't fit with the OEM USDM bumper bar. So I took that off - after a whole mess of banging, bashing, and swearing, because 2 of the mounting bolts, that go through the chassis rails, rusted on the portion that was inside the rails. Not the number of tools required to convince the damned thing to get off:  The fit on the bumper is not terrible, but it will need a lot of tweaking on the passenger side:  (yes, the can of WD-40 is holding up the bumper.)    Driver's side is much better:   In somewhat related news, the dud who put down cash on the GSL-SE RX-7 actually came back with a U-haul truck and trailer, paid the rest, and took the SE home:  I haven't seen the garage that empty since I moved in. edit: astute readers will note that my Crown Vic is parked beside the AE86 in some of the pictures, which mean my '70 Cutlass is not parked there, meaning that it *moved*. For the first time in like a year. A fresh battery (from the Corolla) and some gas down the float bowl vent and it started right up. An immediately began peeing gas out of the mechanical fuel pump, but it ran and moved enough to get it out of the way so we could extract the GSL-SE. I'll need to move it back at some point. Darchangel fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Oct 30, 2017 |
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Oct 30, 2017 16:25
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Garage2Roadtrip posted:The wheels are looking great, nice refurb. I love how similar they look to Starion wheels. They look so much better without the lovely paint on them. I love the Starion wheels as well. There's a dude here with a first-gen RX-7 that's been converted to 5-lug with them, and it looks fantastic. I've even seen them on second gen RX-7s, but they need a little more fender thanks to the more positive offset. I think I'm going to mask off the machined portions and paint the insets either dark grey or black. I did that on a set of first-gen RX-7 "plus" wheels, after sanding the machining marks smooth and polishing, and they looked great. 
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Oct 30, 2017 18:06
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Lightbulb Out posted:It's amazing how much worse the car looks with that teal paint instead of the original silver. Agreed. Just Sunday, when I opened the door and my wife got a glimpse of the original ice silver/blue, she said "Ooo, pretty!" I wonder if I can get that poo poo off with copious amounts of paint thinner? It is just spray paint. Applebees Appetizer posted:I had baby supra wheels on my Soarer back in the day, one of my favorite stock wheels ever. Those look like the 15x6 wheels from the "L" (Luxury) Supra. Mine are the 14x7s from the "P" (performance). No idea why they didn't make 15x7s, which would have had the nice dish of the 14x7 with a usable diameter. Decent 14" tires are almost non-existent. I really like those wheels, though. And yeah, I'm really thinking about removing the fenders. If I had wide wheels to go back there that would *fill* the fenders, I'd probably repair and keep them on the car. The down side is filling two billion pop-rivet holes.
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Oct 31, 2017 16:29
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Heh, going to definitely get the paint code off the car. Toyota had 4 different silvers, plus several grays, and several light/silverish blues. Jesus, when did the cheap-ish paint from TCPGlobal get to be $200+/gallon for single stage?
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Oct 31, 2017 16:49
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Garage2Roadtrip posted:If you're lucky they're SHP wheels (8" front, 9" back). I have a couple sets of both, and the SHP ones look pretty rad with the lip/offset polished up. Oh, those are gorgeous. I've coveted those since I saw the widebody Starquest turbo twins at a new car show back in the day. The entire car really. I know the engines aren't the most fabulous (and really should have been a 4G63) but the widebodies are near perfection in a stock '80s Japanese car. Why, yes, I am following Garage2Roadtrip's 1UZ Starion thread, thanks for asking.
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Oct 31, 2017 17:33
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One thing I did learn while cleaning and such: the Corolla has all it's AC bits except the condenser and drier. The compressor is there, and all the hoses. Woot! Condenser is like $100. Need to add that to the to-do list up there.
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Oct 31, 2017 18:42
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pr0craztinazn posted:I've never seen someone put work into fixing the 6.38" rear on a SR5 before. The car will be surprisingly fun despite having all of 50whp; I dyno'd my '87 4AC powered AE86 and wasn't surprised by the results. They sold GT-S coupes from '85-'87, but hatches are far harder to find thanks to drifter destruction. All I'm doing is replacing a roached bearing on one axle, which is way, way cheaper than literally any other option. I may pull the pig just to change the oil and confirm gear ratio/check the gears, which will cost me all of maybe and hour and some gasket sealer. Do you normally replace an entire rearend when the bearings go out? I won't be drifting the thing, so there's no reason to replace the axle unless I bump the power up, which right now is probably not happening. My first love is my RX-7. This is just a dalliance.
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Nov 1, 2017 16:00
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pr0craztinazn posted:That was not meant to be an attack, just more an expression of surprise since the smaller Toyota rear axles do not tend to get much love. Oh, I didn't take it as an attack, but I'm not, like modifying it or anything. Just fixing a (non-existent) bearing, and the dude gave me a 4.10:1 third member. Since mine is a manual, it should have 3.909:1 so a tiny bit more acceleration would be neat. These are so easy to deal with since they use a third member like the Mazda and Ford 9" rears. Sure, I'd love to find a GT-S or Supra axle, mainly for the rear discs, but $$ and labor. This thing will do until I decide to repower it. I wonder how much work a Mazda axle would be? Bolt pattern would be an issue unless using a GSL-SE rear. So, speaking of the rear, the axle retainer and gaskets arrived. I was initially irritated, as there appeared to be only 1 of each gasket, but there were actually two in each bag, stuck together perfectly. In fact, they were so stuck together that I actually got 3 of the axle retainer gaskets.  Axle retainer is considerably less mangled:   While I was out in the garage, I rigged up a pulling tool (my cheap-rear end dent pulling slide hammer fitted through the center hole of a gear puller) and yanked the outer bearing race and remains of the seal out of the rearend. Compared to fresh versions:  And cleaned the paint off of one of the baby Supra center caps:   And then the other one:  The sides have a little scuffing, so I may paint that lower non-shiny portion.  Stuck one on one of the cleaned wheels for the full effect:  Examined the fuse box after getting some reference pictures of the box and the fuse position sticker that goes on the cover (mine doesn't have a cover) and discovered a fuse in the wrong spot, which when moved fixed the dome light and clock, and presumably the cigarette lighter, since that's what the fuse is actually labeled for. Basically, it's +12V constant for all those things. Stupid thing still won't start since I washed the engine bay. Since it's carbureted and won't even cough on starting fluid, I suspect an ignition issue. Just haven't had time to look at it. Starter and battery are good and strong, though. It spins over like a champ. I also noted that the baby Supras really should be using shanked flat washer lug nuts, and all I have is acorn-style nuts for the original steel wheels. Guess I better get some of those before ruining the wheels - or losing one. edit: I'm going to have to do a bunch of sanding to get that curb rash off of the wheel. It doesn't help that the slightly stretched tires let the rim hang out there unprotected on both sides.
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Nov 2, 2017 16:13
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Updates to the list: Missing AC controls faceplate. 11/2/17: Actually, it's missing a chunk and painted over. Also, the temp control lever is missing. So, the entire control assembly needs to be replaced, then. Dome light not working 11/2/17: lights after replacing CIG fuse, but only when switched to "ON". DOOR still not working. Door switches? It's cold-natured - maybe a choke on the carb? 11/2/17: carb has electric choke. Must need tuning. Once it starts again... edit: I noticed that it has a bracket for the power steering pump on the engine. Need to check the rack and see if it's supposed to have power steering. Darchangel fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Nov 2, 2017 |
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Nov 2, 2017 16:20
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Dagen H posted:I suspect there's water inside your distributor cap, causing the no-start. I'm leaning that way myself, though I did discover that Toyota does actually put a gasket there, which is nice. May not have been up to withstanding a power washer, though. mekilljoydammit posted:I wouldn't bother with an RX-7 live axle unless you really want to, but it's pretty trivial to have the bolt pattern redrilled to 4x4.5". Yeah, I know. I just figure an FB GSL (disc brake) axle will be easier to find than a 2G Celica Supra or AE86 GT-S axle. For me, at least, since I have several already. Olympic Mathlete posted:4x100/114.3 has the coolest wheel choices IMO. Those are all exceedingly cool, and I wish I could remotely afford anything vintage JDM. I will most likely have to go with repros. Rota has several vintage style rims, and several companies make Watanabe-style wheels with the right fitment. I like the Watanabes, but of course they've been done to death (with good reason.)
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Nov 2, 2017 18:35
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InitialDave posted:Hahahahahaha. gently caress that, try finding 4x110. Holy poo poo, no lie, but damned if I didn't just discover that several of Rota's vintage-style wheels are available in 4 x 110! In 15" wheel sizes, even! http://www.rotawheels.com/product/aleica http://www.rotawheels.com/product/flashback http://www.rotawheels.com/product/grid-concave http://www.rotawheels.com/product/os-mesh http://www.rotawheels.com/product/osr http://www.rotawheels.com/product/rb-rb-rear http://www.rotawheels.com/product/tbt loving hell, this one is available in 18x8.5 w/ 4x110: http://www.rotawheels.com/product/roku OK, I'm done, these are the wheels: http://www.rotawheels.com/product/shakotanshakotan-2  Or maybe the OS-Mesh: 
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Nov 2, 2017 18:51
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A new contender appears: http://www.rotawheels.com/product/wired 
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Nov 2, 2017 18:57
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Loads of people poo poo on Rota wheels but conveniently forget that they're reproducing lots of designs you physically cannot buy from their original manufacturers. And for that reason, those people can go choke on a bowl of dicks. That’s basically how I feel about it. Not all of us can afford vintage or full race spec rims. I don’t need forged titanium wheels, but maybe I like the look, ya know? I’m just dong street stuff, so who cares? Never mind that a lot of the vintage wheels never came larger than 14”, which is poo poo for tires nowadays.
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Nov 2, 2017 22:07
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Yeah, I heard something of the sort, along with "reps are bad, mmkay?" Yeah, sure moneybags, easy for you to say. I group those dorks with "git gud" online gamer trash. Some of us have bills and/or something like a life.
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Nov 2, 2017 23:33
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Ordered mag-style lug nuts for the Supra wheels from eBay.
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Nov 3, 2017 05:25
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Got some stuff done on the AE86 this weekend, and found some more broken stuff. First, add to the to-do list: Passenger mirror - no glass Drivers mirror - no knob/loose and floppy Rear seat back hinges and latch strikers missing Rear wiring is routed incorrectly Rear deck panel board is trashed. Carpet on it is iffy. I wanted to figure out why the dome light now worked, but not with the doors, just when turned "on". I pulled the rear seat so I could look at the wiring back there, and access the rear of the door pins to test, etc. Now, the wiring in the trunk was just sort of sitting there, and came up from behind the rear seat in the middle, which didn't look right to me. So I pull the seat, and note a few things. 1: this is not correct wire harness routing:   2: the door pins are not only not connected, but the two inputs in the harness are *connected to each other* - with the plug and wire cut from the pins themselves. Note the red wire in the center of the second picture. Yes, of course they're just twisted under the tape between the two plugs. The whole thing is then just looped around right there and then goes up into the trunk, and just lies there in the trunk floor.   After unplugging everything and pulling it all back into the rear seat area, I looked at where the retainers on the harness are, and Googled a few pictures of AE86 coupe trunk areas, I got it all back in correctly, as far as I can tell. Most of the retainers had the pegs broken off, but the pegs were still in the sheet metal, confirming locations.       Note that the trunk and fuel door release cables were also routed incorrectly along with the wiring. I've no idea how you manage to pull that crap out and pay exactly zero attention to how it went. I mean, the harness retainer clips have tangs specifically for holding the two release cables. It's not rocket surgery. The dome light and "door" light in the dash now work properly. So does the buzzer, however I unplugged it, because it was sounding even with the key out. Need to investigate that. Likely a stuck "key-in" switch. I also vacuumed up all the usual detritus and dust/dirt while the seat and side panel were out. 3: the rear seat backs were basically just sitting there, retained only by gravity and the security hasps on the backs. There were no hinges at the bottom, pr stickers at the top. At least the actual latches and buttons are still there. The outer hinges are still available from Toyota USA for $30 each, and the center hinge appears to be available from Japan for $36, as are the strikers at $23 a piece. Fortunately for me, I found a dude on eBay selling the hinges and safety latches, and after a few messages back and forth he was able to locate the strikers as well, and was willing to throw them into the auction, which was Buy It Now for $45. Done.  Other than that, the rear seat is in good condition. There's a spot on the base where someone either spilled something that hardened, or burned/melted the synthetic cloth, but I can live with it. Needs an overall cleaning, but the entire car needs that. Lots of greasy spots all over. Someone didn't wipe their hands much while working on it, and parts were stored inside. Next up was the AC controls. The faceplate was broken, and someone apparently painted it black, for some unknown, likely stupid, reason.  The paint is thin - you can still barely see the markings if the lights are on:  You'll also note that one of the levers is missing. I was really hoping that the pivot had just broken (common on these, apparently. It's just a plastic clip) and the lever was chilling back there somewhere. To get to the point where you can see the mounting screws for the faceplate, you have to remove the binnacle surrounding the AC controls. To remove that, you have to lower the glovebox, and move/remove the bezel around the instrument cluster. To remove *that* you have to remove the lower driver's side dash. Geeze! Basically, I had to dissassemble half of the dash just to get to the AC controls. There are also two hidden fasteners on the cluster bezel: the headlight and wiper switch have nuts on them like old-school shafted radios. You have to pull the knobs off to get to them. I had to look that up. So I got the controls loose, and sure enough, the pivot clip was missing and both of the levers on that side were just flopping around.  They go in that round spot with the rectangular hole, one on top, and one on bottom.   You can see on the bottom lever what the clip is supposed to look like. And with the lever in place:   Somehow, I completely failed to take a picture of my repair, but it was and 8-32 machine screw of appropriate length, a nylock nut for same, and two small fender washers. I put some plastic rod into the rectangular slot to keep the screw centered (not completely necessary, but I hate half-assing stuff), a washer on top and bottom, and the screw with locknut through the assembly. Tighten until they don't wobble, but still move freely. A little Teflon lube to ensure continued smooth function, and it's good. I squirted some of the Teflon lube into the cable ends while they were exposed, for good measure. Next up was the faceplate. I basically scraped that off with an Xacto scraper blade in my #5 handle, then dealt with the copious amount of adhesive with WD-40, a plastic scraper, and then cleaned up with green cleaner. Goo-gone would have likely worked as well for removing the adhesive, but I'm out at the moment. Didn't take any pictures of the sticky mess, but here it is all clean:  And with the light pipe reinstalled:  And back on the controls themselves, and installed:  Amazingly, the faceplate is still available from Toyota, for $18 (plus $10 shipping.) Dudes are selling them on eBay for $40, but ToyotaPartsDeal.com is my boy. Ordered, and should show up some time this week. I do have all the knobs for the sliders, and everything works the way it should at the right setting. Checked all the bulbs in the assembly while I had it out. While I was in the interior, and getting a pic of the odometer for my records, I noted that the "MOMO" stitching on the steering wheel was pretty nasty.  I decided to do something about that. It's not critical, but clean stuff is just so much more pleasant to work with. Test clean with Simple Green showed promise:  So I went full steam ahead. Simple Green, a toothbrush, and a clean cloth brought me to this:  Much better. It's hard to see in the photo, but it also took the shiny off the leather around the stitching, so I need to go back in and hit it with some mink oil and/or leather treatment. It also occurs to me looking at that photo that I need to get a steering wheel adapter with provisions for a horn, and a horn button. Add that to the list.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:02
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While puttering about, I did notice some rust on the car:  Passenger rear wheel opening, at the front. The other wheel opening is fine, and nothing elsewhere. Must have had a plugged drain there or something. And a shot of the quality 6-1/2" speakers that were (barely) in the rear deck:  I pulled the axle outer race and remains of the seal out of the axle housing  And got the old bearing inner race and retaining collar off of the axle.  I took the time and a borrowed trailer to go get the hydraulic press I bought from my sister's fiancee's estate like 9 months ago, and pressed the bearing on to the axle.   Still need to get the locking collar on, but it needs to be heated first. I'm just glad I remembered to slide the axle retainer on *before* the bearing.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:29
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Oh, yeah. The stupid thing started and ran on Saturday like it had never had a problem. Probably means I still need to investigate the ignition.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:31
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Video of start and run, with revving. Stock 4AC engine except for Weber carb, emissions (and cat) delete. Muffler shop exhaust and muffler on stock manifold. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ1MR98TQbg Carb needs tuning, and that possible ignition issue.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:39
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Larrymer posted:Big FU to previous owners, holy cow. Nice work. Applebees Appetizer posted:Yeah this car is PO.text for sure. At least it's easy to work on, I would love one of these cars for a project. At least it's not been "lightened" for doriftu, other than the AC condenser, and I suspect that may have been damaged in whatever accident took out the front bumper. DJ Commie posted:I have a spare Momo center horn button and contact plate that should fit your adapter if you want it, freeeeeee! Oh, hell yes, please! Though I'll still need an adapter - this one is solid aluminum. No hole for the OEM contact thingy to go through. Though it does have a hole in the side of it for... something.
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Nov 7, 2017 01:45
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Shrugs Not Drugs posted:just a thought... I kind of think that's sort of what it's for: a spoke mounted button with a coilly cord. Cord goes into the center then out the side and down the column, with appropriate slack. DJ Commie: PM sent, after I realized you might need to know where to send the horn button. Proper lug nuts came in:  Verified that they're nice snug fit on the wheels.
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Nov 7, 2017 22:59
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Ordered and recieved an owner's manual from Rock Auto. It's for an '85, but there should be almost no difference. I looked for an '87 manual, then any AE86 manual, but. probably due to popularity, they're rare, and start at like $50 for a beat up copy. You can find FWD Corolla ones all day long for $10. Surprisingly, no one has scanned a copy and put it on the web. At least I was able to find the Service Manual and Electrical Troubleshooting Manual in PDF form. While searching, I noticed that Rock Auto had the '85 manual, specified RWD, and all for $18. The picture in the listing as a badly photoshopped image of the FWD manual:  Note that the car on the cover is clearly not an AE86, and the really bad edit to make the "F" an "R". Took a gamble and ordered anyway. It was correct, and the one I got has tha correct cover:  No idea why they use that janky image at Rock Auto. No idea why Bishko only publishes the '85 manual for RWD, but all of the years for FWD. I wanted an owners manual to reference a few things, one of them was the layout of the fuses in the various fuse panels, and what they were for. This info is in the manuals for my wife's Kia, my Crown Vic, and I believe my former RX-7. I'm incredibly disappointed in Toyota - that info was severely lacking. Apparently, the ONLY place to find the fusebox layout is on the cover of the fusebox, which I don't have for the one in the kick panel. That said, it's got all the other usual handy info on how to operate everything in the car, and where stuff is located. I learned that you can disable the trunk release by the driver's seat by turning the key in the trunk lock counter-clockwise, for example. So if you need an AE86 Owner's Manual: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/toyota,1985,corolla,1.6l+l4+dohc,1274880,literature,owners+manual,909 For the To Do list, I discovered from the manual that the clock should not be displaying with the key off. This may be related to why the door open buzzer sounds even with the key off and out. There's power on the 12V accessory circuit when it shouldn't be, it seems. Will have to investigate that. Also, the door lock lever on the driver's side door does nothing. Heading to Horror Fraught to pick up a bearing seperator kit to use as support to press the bearing lock collar on, since my borrowed arbor plates have cutouts that are too large on all four sides. I'll be buying a set of straight-edged plates shortly, as well. Only about $50-60 on eBay for some 1" x 4" or 2" x 2" plates, depending on size.
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Nov 8, 2017 17:13
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Hardware for rear seat backs procured: And bearing splitter so I can press the locking collar back on.   Hopefully will get that done this weekend, at which point the car will be mobile, then I can slap the front turn signals back on and go get it inspected so I can register it.
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Nov 9, 2017 20:35
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Larrymer posted:This is a good thread with a bad car getting less bad. I dig it. Thanks. I like making cars work after some dingleberry has let things go. Every car I've ever owned has gone this route. Fix all the things the PO let go - make dome lights work, glove boxes, all that little stuff that people ignore. Fix any actual drivability issues. Bring maintenance up to date. Then start working on cosmetics, and while I'm at it, add features that weren't optioned. I've done that with my Cutlass, both my RX-7s, my Cherokee, and my Crown Vic. Stuff like power mirrors, power windows, power locks, automatic headlights, convenience lighting, security systems, rear wipers, etc. The car is solid, it just suffered from a bit of neglect, and the beginnings of doriftu disease (wherein a car is ruined on the altar of sideways driving, yet inevitably drifted very little.) At the very least it will get keyless entry, probably power mirrors if I can find some. Ditto power windows. Already has cruise if I can find the control stalk, and AC.
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Nov 10, 2017 01:01
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Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:Interesting on the trunk lock. I know Honda used to put a key lock next to the interior trunk release handle, but all you have to do to get around that is get to the cable (just yank up the doorsill trim and it's right there). On my Saturn, there's a switch in the trunk lid that disables the (electric) release. I'd prefer it if it just disabled the interior button and not the keyfob trunk release, but I disable it when I park at home at night (not the best neighborhood, the interior release button is always-on, and I have an amp + sub + a lot of stuff for work back there). Oh, yeah, I'll get to it. First place to check, since it's got aftermarket wiring in there. Could also be the ignition switch, though the gauges and dash indicators aren't on, so likely past that. Dannywilson posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Okd3Oyii7E Good stuff. I'll admit to have really listened to only one Warren Zevon piece (you know which one.) So, the FSM says to heat the axle bearing locking collar to 302F before pressing it on, presumably because it's an interference fit, as opposed to the actual bearing's "tight" fit. Spcifically, it says to heat it ot 302F in an oil bath. Well, I don't have a stove or oven in the garage (maybe I should by a hot plate some day?) and I definitely don't want to heat up petroleum in the kitchen. I've no desire for my food to taste like the underside of a car - I get enough of that working on them - so what's to do? It didn't say "petroleum", and I presume it's just so the thing heats evenly, so:   It seems to have worked:    And the bearing separator as a pressing platform was adequate as well. While I was waiting for the bearing to heat, I decided to install the rear seatback hinges and strikers. Discovered some not great news when I opened the door:  It's hard to tell, but that's standing water in the underseat area on the driver's side. It rained quite a bit earlier in the week. It's drained to the level of holes in the side that go through to the rocker. That's about 1/4" deep. I could pull the rubber plug there and most of it would drain if the car were level. So now add to the list figure out where that leak is. First thing I'll check is the sunroof drains. No one ever cleans those. I once had to do that for my sister in law, because here Acura Legend was raining in the back seat. A quick blast with the air compressor usually takes care of it. Other than that, basically the windows are the only other thing I can think of. Anyway, after locating 7 x M6 and 4 x M8 bolts of appropriate length (protip: grab ever loose bolt you see, and keep every bolt you remove when in the wrecking yard) I've got seatback mountings:     Not shown, but the driver's side striker even has the plastic trim to hide the bolts. One of the things I find about this car interesting is that the blue vinyl covers on the rear wheel wells are exposed when the seat and all the trim is in. On the SR5s, there is not an additional seat bolster that goes there. I might want to carpet that later. Annoyingly, I need to find that leak before I put the seat back in. I'll install the new rear axle seal and axle either Saturday after the WannaGoFast 1/2 mile event, or Sunday, and then take it around the block (if it still starts...) I'm quite excited. I plan to pull the driver's side wheel and brake drum to check how messy it is on that side, clean as needed, and replace the axle seal on that side if there's grease in the drum. I *might* pull the third member to check the gears, and change the lube. I do have a 4.10:1 third member I can put in, which is slightly better than the 3.909:1 mine should have. Rejoice! It's about to move again! Though I'll have to be careful - the only tires I have are bald or worse. Time to abuse the credit card for another pair of tires.
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Nov 10, 2017 17:01
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Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:The gauges and indicators wouldn't come on until the ignition switch was in the run position; radio would be powered by the accessory circuit. So if the radio is backfeeding the accessory circuit, only other accessories would have power (.. such as the clock, I don't think there's much else on that car that would have power in accessory). But it sounds like you already have an issue with the ignition switch anyway, right? May as well check the radio, and if that's okay, throw a new ignition switch at it to get the key-in reminder to work properly. Not sure if there's anything wrong with the ignition switch. I've got the wiring diagrams, so I'll spend some quality time with it and the car. Trunk was dry. I'll start with the drains, then see what the water hose reveals. Magnus Praeda posted:You need to listen to more Zevon. This: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUb0C0iI_GE, for example. "Hit somebody!" That's awesome. quote:As for your oil bath, technically that peanut oil will go rancid and break down eventually (though it's not like you'll really notice the smell given where it's going). If you have to do it again, use mineral oil. It won't go rancid or break down but it's still food-safe (since you can ingest it for things like constipation) and it won't make your kitchen smell like a quick-lube. I didn't even think about mineral oil. Duh.
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Nov 10, 2017 22:13
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I rather enjoyed Slap Shot, despite not being a sports person. Hockey has enough action that it keeps my attention if I happen to watch it. Strategy bores me (because I'm no good at it. Seriously, me and strategy games, no good. I get murdered every time in Starcraft. Quickly.) Oh, holy poo poo - go Google "zerg rush"! I momentarily spaced (heh) on the game's name, and Googled it, and was very surprised. So, in AE86 stuff. Didn't get much done. There was the 1/2 mile event on Saturday, so not a lot, then. At least the forecast rain didn't appear on Sunday, and the temp was mild if overcast. Made for a kind of depressing day, and I had to basically force myself to go outside and do *something*, thanks to a mild case of SAD, or possibly sadbrains. Of course, that meant that things not going right tended to annoy me more than normal, and boy... I'd let the battery charge on my smart charger since Friday, so it was raring to go, at least. On Sunday, I tried to get it started, and it would spin over like a champ, and cough a bit, but never really start. That "progressed" to the started going "clunk", and the entire car losing power when I tried to start it. In my experience, that's usually a bad battery terminal. In my zeal to fix that, I mangled it. The positive terminal was one of those clamp-on lead terminals, with the OEM ring terminals using one of the clamp's bolts, rather than the actual cable being clamped in, thank God. I managed to strip the cast-in nut out of the lead on that one, so decided to go get a lead free OEM-type terminal from O'Reillys. That got me powered up again. Checking spark with my spark-lug-with-a-clamp, I got nothing. The distributor/coil is getting power at least to the connector. Then the whole thing took a poo poo, and the car has no power at all. Still good at the battery, the under-hood fuse box, and one fuse in the foot well, but nothing in ACC or ON. Frustrated all to hell, I gave up on that, and proceeded to the rear axle, since it's not going anywhere without that no matter how well it runs, and I want it on the ground so it doesn't look quite so non-operable. I suspect the ignition switch, but I need to remove the column cover, etc. to get to that. Later. So, on the the rear axle it is. I did do a little work on Saturday after the races. I pulled the left drum and axle to check it's condition, change out the axle seal since I had one, and put in the new shoes. It was plenty messy on that side, too:    Nowhere near as greasy as the other side (and, it's probably not actually grease. More on that in a moment.) Axle out, and it's still not awful, though the shoes are soaked.   Some quality time with purple cleaner and my pressure washer got it much nicer:  Huh. I think I put that upper spring back in upside down. Need to watch that and make sure it doesn't contact the adjuster when I reassemble. At any rate, the bearing in the left axle felt fine. Rolls smoothly, with very little side-to side play. Grease seals are intact ("permanently" lubed bearing.) I'd previously had a little trouble getting the right axle slipped into the diff, so I decided to take a closer look at the splines. Yep, they suffered a little damage, either when it came out, or from hamfisted attempts to shove it back in. Possibly when they flat-bedded it to my place.  Kind of hard to see, but the chamfered ends are mashed out so the spline groove is obstructed a bit. Here's the unmolested left side axle for comparison.  And here's the right-side axle partially restored using a couple of triangular files. The grooves to the right of the spline in the center are done. Grooves to the left are still buggered.  We'll see if I did it right when I go to put it back in. Saturday morning, I wandered out side to this:  Nuts. Definitely not oil, not water, and that pavement was definitely clean last night from all the power washing. Taste (not really) and texture test said brake fluid, and yeah, the backing plate and hardware was wet from the cylinder down.  Right side in the picture mainly. It didn't capture well. I guess that's why there was a wheel cylinder assembly in the rear brake and bearing parts that came with the car. The right side seems to be fine, or at least not leaking just from gravity. Since I had to undo the brake line anyway, I decided to clean the backing plate up. Actually needed to get it partially out of the way in any case, since I had new gaskets for the housing ends. I'd scrubbed it a bit blindly, and power washed it from the other side when I did the front side, but it was still messy. Didn't get a pic of the mess, but just imaging the usual layer of oil mixed with dirt to form a gritty past covering the lower half of the backing plate. Here it is clean:  And painted:  I use Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy for chassis bits. It's tough (epoxy enamel, duh) and the gloss helps keep stuff from sticking. I've used it successfully on several of my cars. All the hardware cleaned up, plus the new gasket.  I have gaskets for the axle retainer as well. While that was drying, I moved on the right side. Since the system is already opened, go ahead an pull the brake line on that side.  This side was about as greasy as the other. I'm leaving the brakes assembled as a reference for the left side. Yes, I've been there before. For the record, I hate (hate, hate, hate!) drum brakes, and if I can find a GT-S axle that's not $rape, I'll buy it. On this one, I decided to release the parking brake cable and work on it somewhere that's not on the ground. At this point, I like to say that there is a certain Toyota engineer, that I want to kick repeatedly in the balls, for designing the barbs on the end of the cable housing. Homeboy decided that "three" was the appropriate number of the counting, not four, and not two, unless thou dost proceed to 3 (five is right out.) Because there are three barbs, you can't, say, squeeze two at a time with pliers. I assume that the proper Toyota tool J-stroke-3677758938-B or whatever is a tube or some-such with the exact diameter to squeeze all there just right so you can pull it through, but gently caress you home mechanic. A 1/2" box-end wrench *almost* does it, but I could only get two at a time through. I probably should have measured and made a tool out of flat bar of something, assuming I have the right drill size, but I cheated (after getting *very* angry) and used a Dremel cutoff wheel to shorten the barb that stuck up the most, at which point I could get the two I could release through, *then* release that third one. Holy poo poo I fought that for 45 minutes or an hour. At any rate, I won, and here it is all cleaned up and up where I can reach it easily:  That's the remains of the OEM black paint (I'm amazed that they painted it from the factory, really,) not dirt/grease. You may notice a bit of "not round" down there at the bottom. Looks like the prior owner was up to speed when he lost the axle. It's ground down quite a bit. I'm not sure what's up with the curled up outside edge of the backing plate seen in the previous picture. Clearancing to get the drum back on?   I trimmed back the ground-down bit a little more to make sure that the drum cleared.   I also straightened out the edge as much as possible with pliers, then a bodywork hammer against the drum. That actually worked fairly well. I neglected to get pictures, but it looked 100% better. You can see a little of that in the two pictures above, which are after pliers but before hammer. And painted:  I could have just slapped everything back together after degreasing the insides and changing the pads, but I don't work that way, at least on cars I care about. Particularly if I might be working on them again. I like everything as clean as is practical. Less mess just makes everything easier to deal with. And painted, because rust is my mortal enemy that I cannot abide. I might be able to put this poo poo back together this week. Getting off work at 6 plus winter plus time change makes doing stuff after work a pain, and I haven't got the garage habitable for cars despite removing the major obstruction (AKA, an non-op RX-7) that was in there. I long to be able to roll poo poo in there to work on. Soon. Need to build some custom shelves on the left side like I've already done on the right, then reorganize. And then, one of those Danmar short two-post lifts. I only have a standard 8' ceiling, and no way to make it taller due to the design of my roof, not to mention the garage door. Next house will have a shop, or room for one...
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Nov 13, 2017 17:38
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I forgot to mention that I did figure out the clock on and buzzer issue. That was pure dumbass on my part, plus a little bit of old car worn out. I was not actually turning the car all the way off. The damned key will come out with the ignition in any position, and I had failed to notice that it has a button to push to get the key all the way to off since it''s a manual. Once I actually turned the ignition off and removed the key, the clock turns off, and the buzzer stops unless the key is actually in the ignition. So small victories. Of course, now the buzzer doesn't do anything at all, and neither does the rest of the car.
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Nov 13, 2017 17:43
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