"Minor Repairs" Day

Did some minor repairs today.

Pulled the driver's seat so I could get at the lever assembly that operates the gas filler door and the rear hatch release. They'd been "broken" since I bought the car, and while I could get the door and the hatch open, I had to hold both levers together, while pulling on the one I wanted to open.

Sure enough, the bolt had come out, and was right next to the mechanism under the carpet. Put it back in place and tightened it down, and one more item crossed off the list.

And since the driver's seat was out, it makes it a whole lot easier to get at the clutch pedal to measure and adjust the pedal height and free-play adjustment.

The pedal height was "in spec", but the free-play was waaaay off.

The car had the clutch master cylinder replaced some years ago when it failed and dumped the contents of the fluid reservoir (standard brake fluid) into the interior, and all over the carpet, ruining the carpet.

I don't think they bothered to set the free-play when they replaced it because it was always a bit reluctant to go into first gear at a stop (typical "crunch" when you put it in gear), and I could always feel it "snag" a bit when shifting. The clutch still feels a bit "soggy", so I'll put the car up in the air on Sunday and flush the fluid and bleed the system like I did for the brakes.

BTW...the fluid that came out of the rear calipers when I did the flush and bleed a couple of days ago was actually worse than what came out of the front!

I'm not putting in the new carpet kit before I leave for Vegas as it's just too much work. One of the guys I met there last year has the same carpet kit, and agreed that it's very high-quality. He also said it's cut very "generously", and he had to trim 4~6" of carpet from the door sill area, and about the same at the top front where it goes up against the firewall. He told me it took him two full weekends, plus an hour or so per night between weekends, to get it installed really nice.

I'm sure the carpet installation will be another whole series of posts.....

Small Block Chevy Time Lapse Rebuild

Yeah, yeah, yeah....I know I've posted this before.

I like it. It's cool. Watch it again.

Pretty low-perf engine they started with. Two-bolt mains, cast iron crank, cast pistons, pressed-in rocker studs, no push rod guide plates (only used with screw-in studs), and a two barrel intake manifold.

But they rebuilt it properly, with an overbore and hone, decked the block and surfaced the heads, installed hardened valve seats and a roller-type timing chain. The intake manifold and carb they used are Edelbrock street performance types, and I bet that little motor just purrs......

Maiden Voyage......

Well....She's back on the road!

Cleaned the windows, and took her around the block a few times.

Brake pedal is rock solid, and the steering wheel is straighter than before I started.

NO pulling to either side, and she tracks straight down the road, hands off the wheel.

So, since things seemed OK, I kept driving her, and went out on the streets around here. Ride is very nice, definitely a bit stiffer than before, but no more floating or wallowing in turns.

Tires barely rub at full lock and going over a bump.

Called the alignment shop and he said "Bring her down". Drove down there, and he was expecting me to drop the car off. Since I didn't make arrangements for a ride home, he said he'd call as soon as the alignment rack was open, and I could wait while they did it.

And he knew quite a bit about the car.

SO...I took the long way home, and enjoyed driving her a bit.

Post alignment follow up to come.....

UPDATE

The alignment shop couldn't get me in today. As the guy said "Fridays are NUTS!".

So, I'm scheduled for a 4-wheel alignment on Monday, at 0800.

There's not much that's adjustable on these cars. The front only has toe-in and caster, and the rear only has toe-in. Since the front adjustments interact somewhat, you go back-and-forth as you're doing them. The manager at the shop is well-versed in "Old Jap Cars" as we both called her, and says their alignment guy has been doing alignments for over 20 years.

This place isn't cheap, but they do superb work, from complete "frame off" restorations, to general body and paint, and collision repair.

Back On The Ground

WELL.....after a several week adventure, the suspension work is finally finished. I still have a few things I want to do, and some more parts to replace, but nothing that's on the "Do It NOW!" list like replacing the top strut mounts was.

And since I had to pull the struts and compress the spring to get the Big Nut on the top of the shock absorber insert off so I could change the strut mount, why not just replace the shock insert and springs with the parts I have on hand?

And since the hub and brake disc had to come off, better check and repack those wheel bearings! Whoops...the bearings show definite signs of wear (they're probably the 167,000 mile OEM bearings) better replace those, too. AND, since I have new brake discs, and the old ones are already off, why put the old ones back on?

Gee...the ball joint boot on the lower control arm is split and spilling grease all over the place. Better replace the boots. AND, since the control arm is now on the bench, why don't I just replace those ratty old bushings with my new Energy Suspension polyurethane ones?

AND...gee, the sway bar is disconnected, and those rubber bushings are (quite literally!) cracked, split, and falling apart, so I'd better install that new kit of end links I have in The Big Box Of Supra Parts.

WHOOPS! The front brake hoses are cracked, and the outer jacket is (really!) peeled off in a few spots! WoW! That's a Safety Issue. Sure glad I bought some braided stainless steel replacements a year ago!  Installing the speed bleeders took all of 10 minutes, so I won't discuss that further, other than to say I was absolutely stunned that all four of the OEM bleed screws came out with ZERO drama.

Otherwise I just would have sprung for new calipers.....

I think you get the picture.

If you've been following this escapade, then you already know that I (finally) got the front finished a couple of days ago. And yesterday I completed the right rear refurb, with relatively little pain.

The plan for the rear was never as ambitious as the front was. It was pretty mach always a straight "Spring and Shock Swap", along with the new rotors. Since I had no idea what shape the brakes were in when I bought the car, I ordered the new pads and rotors TWO YEARS ago, and they've been sitting in the garage taking up space all this time.

Today I knocked out the left side rear suspension, having learned a few things in doing the right side. A small bottle jack I bought last night at O'Reilly Auto Parts (they know me by name now, and the young guys always ask how the car is coming along) proved to be well worth the $25 it cost. It saved me at least an hour of farting around with the floor jack, some big wood blocks, and a jack stand when I had to reposition certain things to R&R them.

Here's the left rear, all refurbed and pretty:

Yep, new cross-drilled rotors there, too! Hey, why buy two rotors when for twice the price you can get FOUR?


And as the sun sank slowly in the West, all four (new!) wheels and tires were on the car, torqued, and ready to support the car, whereupon I unceremoniously pulled the jack stands, and let her drop

Here's the famous Car Magazine "Rear Three-Quarter Shot":

Never mind the mess, it's all cleaned up now.....

SO...Thursday should be an "easy" day, compared to what the last 6 weeks or so has been. I (just) have to torque the lower control arm bolts (one on each side, 80ft-lbs, please), and torque the Big Nut on the left and right strut rods to 76 ft-lbs.

Then it's cross my fingers, and take her for an easy drive around the block. Then I'll recheck the torque on the wheel lugs, check everything else I've fiddled with to make sure nothing bad has happened, and call the alignment shop for an ASAP appointment. I'd really like to get at least some of the interior back in, along with the new stereo, but the carpet can wait, as my friend I met at Supras In Vegas last year tells me to allow a good, solid week-end to install the new carpet.

That means a month, considering how dog-slow I work on this stuff.

Time to hit the showers and then go to bed......

Funny, But Sadly True

Just taking a quick break during the disassembly of the right rear suspension....

Rear Suspension Work

Well, I'm shutting down for the night. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped for, but then that's nothing new for me....

I followed the TSM, and dropped the outer flange for the half-shaft, and as soon as the shock was loose at the top, I lowered the jack, and the spring about fell out.

The upper isolator/cushion was in pretty good shape for being 30+ years old.

 But, WOW...the bottom one was toast!  I'd say it deserves retirement after 30+ years and 167,000 miles of faithful service.

 Had to do some finagling to get the shock installed, and it really would have helped if I'd had an extra floor jack, or a bottle jack, but I finally got the shock installed, and all the hardware tight.

 I also replaced the top bushings for the sway bar end links. They were really shot, and you could rattle them around a good 1/4"!

Some info on the new and old springs for those that keep track of this stuff.

The OEM springs are wound from wire that's .570" / 14.5mm in diameter, and have an overall free length of 14.25" / 360mm.

The new Dobinson C59-059 springs are wound from wire that's .604" / 15.3mm in diameter, and have an overall free length of 12.6" / 320mm.

Bigger wire, and a shorter OAL equals a stiffer spring, so even though it's specified to drop the car about .75", the rate should be higher. I know from my "bounce test" the other night that the front seems a lot stiffer, but I won't know for a day or two until I drive the car.


Final picture for the night I'm going to call "3 Down, and 1 To Go!".....

At this point all I have left to do is a preliminary bleeding of the brake caliper using the MityVac, and recheck everything to make sure all the hardware I touched is torqued properly. I'm playing hookey again from the Iowa on Wednesday (sorry, guys...) so I can get the left rear knocked out. As with the front, now that I've done it one time, the next time will be easier.

Onward...To The Rear!

Tail end is up and on jack stands.

Notice "Inspector Pebbles" checking my work to ensure proper safety standards are being followed!

And yep, I've either got a spot of something on my sun filter, or the sensor in my Nikon needs cleaning.

Initial inspection shows the rear pads and rotors to be in excellent condition, but man.....the rear spring lower isolators/cushions (kind of like a big rubber ring) are TOAST!

Theyre both cracked and split, and it's a Good Thing they're one of those parts I ordered long ago because I suspected they might be a bit worn after 30+ years, and 167,000 miles.

The factory shop manual says to remove the rear sway bar end links, remove the rear shocks, and the springs should come right out if the suspension is hanging free, like it is.

As far as replacing the rear rotors with new ones I have, all I should have to do is remove the bracket that holds the caliper in place, and the rotor should pop right off if the emergency brake is released.

I'm not going to replace the rear control arm bushings at this time, as it's pretty involved, and I'll do those, along with the subframe mounting bushings, and differential mounting bushings, after I get back from Supras in Vegas.

Doing all that, along with replacing the steering rack, is probably a several week project at the rate I work at.

She's On The Ground!

Scrubbed all the grease and glop off the power steering hose assembly, and then rebuilt it with the new high-pressure hose, and a length of "SAE J189 Low Pressure Power Steering Return Hose".

And I used the same hose on the short piece that connects the outlet of the cooling loop back to the reservoir.

Then I spent a couple of "pleasant" hours (I must be deranged...) putting everything back together. Actually, it wasn't that bad, as it's always a good feeling putting nice, clean, freshly rebuilt stuff back on the car!

Filled the reservoir and started the car, carefully checking for leaks.

WHOOPEE! No leaks!

So then I ran the steering wheel from lock to lock a few times, and watched all the foam in the reservoir build up and dissipate, indicating the air was getting bled out of the system. Topped off the reservoir, checked all the fittings for tightness after I shut the engine down, and all was good.

Fired up the engine again and bled the brakes by cracking open the speed bleeders, connecting them to a small jar to collect the expelled fluid, and slowly pumping the pedal a few times, checking the fluid in the master cylinder reservoir to make sure it didn't get too low and suck air.

Got a few more bubbles out of the brake system and decided it was bled.

Rolled out one "left" and one "right" wheel/tire for each side (the tires have a directional tread pattern, so there's a "left" and a "right"), got out my new lug nuts and wheel locks, and "hub centric rings", and immediately noticed a problem.

The lug nuts I bought have the correct 1.5 thread pitch for the wheel studs on the car, but the wheel locks I ordered were a 1.25 thread pitch.....RATS!

Fortunately I have more than enough lug nuts, but now I'll have to order some matching wheel locks in the correct thread pitch!

Drove the hub-centric rings into the back of the new rims with a soft mallet, and mounted the new front wheels and tires on the car. Dropped her down on the ground and torqued the lug nuts, and I'm done for the night!

Tuesday morning I'll do the final torquing of the lower control arm bolts, and the large nut on the end of the strut rod, and other than a front end alignment, the front of the car is (finally!) finished.

Say "Goodnight, Gracie".....

"Grease Pit" Work.....

Didn't get much done on the car yesterday. I was on the Battleship Iowa from 1230 to 1715 helping guide a tour from a local radio club down into "The Bowels of the Ship".

Well....not all the way down, but two decks below what most people get to see, where the Transmitter Room is located.

I did make some good progress today, though. I now have the sway bar end links installed, the new bellows boot for the right side of the steering gear replaced, and both hoses for the power steering off the car. I needed to replace the high-pressure hose as the place I originally took it to for smog said the hose was "Leaking fluid and spraying it EVERYWHERE!", and refused to work on it citing safety concerns. I could never find evidence of it leaking any more than a very small amount of fluid, and suspect they really don't want to work on 30+ year old Japanese cars. Oh well....

I pulled both the pressure and return hoses as an "assembly" because they're held together by clamps every 6~12", and by removing two small bolts, they came out as one piece once I had the fluid connections disconnected.

 I found it MUCH easier to replace the hoses (if you're going to do one, you should probably do BOTH...) if I did the following:

1) Remove the air cleaner assembly. This gives much better access to the low pressure return hoses going to/from the loop of tubing Toyota laughingly calls a "cooler". It's better than nothing, and I do plan on replacing it with a real cooler. I had a cooler from a Cadillac on my 1973 Trans Am, and it made a noticeable difference in how the steering felt on hot days when I was autocrossing the car.

2) Slurp out as much power steering fluid as possible from the reservoir, unless you like a waterfall of fluid going everywhere as you're laying on your back under the car when you pull the hoses from the rack. -OR- you can plug the outlet of the pump as soon as you pull the high pressure line. Keep in mind the lines themselves are still full of fluid, but at least you won't have the entire reservoir take a dump on you!

3) Disconnect as much as possible from the top first. Pull the flare nut fitting from the pump, and pull the hose going to the cooling loop.

4) Remove the two 10mm bolts holding the clamps to the steering rack. These clamps holds the supply and return hoses together. Wipe the area down before starting to remove the bolts, as you won't get as filthy actually pulling the parts out.

5) Disconnect the flare fittings at the rack, making sure you have a drip pan, and/or plenty of paper towels (see #2 above!). Undoing the return line first will allow you much better access to the high pressure line.

6) Pull both hoses together as an "assembly". This will allow you to look at them out on the ground so you get a better idea of how to install the new ones, and give you a chance to easily clean off all glop that's covering all the various bits and pieces. Mine seemed to come out easiest from the bottom, but YMMV!

7) Put your new hoses together using the old clamps, and route them the same way as the old, dirty, filthy rotten ones were. Tape up the ends of the new hoses to keep crud out of them!

8) Install your new, clean hoses as an "assembly". Fill the reservoir with Dexron or equivalent, and bleed the air per the TSM.

If you try and do them one-at-a-time, you'll be pushing, pulling, and fighting the old hoses out, and the new ones in, and using more than a few choice words. I spent probably way more time than I should have looking at how these were installed in the car, what held them down, how they were held together, and what had to be removed to do this the easiest way I could.

Face it, I'm "lazy", and I'd rather spend some time figuring out the "easy way" (as long as it's also "correct") to do something before I start on it, rather than have a D'OH! moment half-way through the job where I see a better way of doing something.

There's NOTHING in the TSM about removing/installing the hoses other than the cryptic "Remove the high-pressure hose", and "Remove the return hose".

When I saw how they were clamped together, and the clamps not only held them together, but held them in place, I figured it was easiest to just call them an "assembly", and pull them out together.

 

The connections on the right side go to the steering gear:

 and those at the upper left go to the pump, and fluid cooler:
 

Monday I'll scrub all the glop off the hardware, assemble the new hoses, and put it all back together. Then it's down to putting the wheels and tires back on, dropping it to the ground, and doing the final torquing of the suspension bolts, which requires the weight of the car to be on the suspension.

Then it's on to the rear, where my friends who've done this before assure me that even at my snail's pace work speed, I can swap out the springs and shocks in about 4~6 hours.

Then to the alignment shop, and a week of "shakedown" cruising to make sure it all works right!

NEVER Forget.......

Loose Ends......

Always seems to be that the "last 10%" of things to get done on a project always take more than 10% of the time!

Spent the whole day (so far....) farting around cleaning up various bits and pieces of The Great Front End Rebuild.

Like the bellows boot that covers the inner workings of the right side of the power steering rack and pinion gear.

The boot was torn in half when I bought the car, BUT unless you were looking right at it, or the wheels were turned full lock to the left AND you were looking right at it, you didn't notice it. The only evidence at the time was a few drops of liquid under the right side of the car. The boot had been ripped long enough that dirt and grit got at the seal on that end of the steering gear, and wore them enough that now it drips.

I have a rebuilt steering gear waiting in the box in the garage, but I'm not going to swap it out until I get back. Yeah, I know I'll have to eat the cost ($85) of another 4-wheel alignment after I change it, but the one in the car now doesn't leak much fluid, it'll be another "Big Deal" to swap it out, and it's NOT a safety issue, as the inner tie rod ends are (still) tight, and there's no slop in the steering, so the dirt only got to the outermost seal.

The "hardest" part of swapping out the bellows boot today was removing the outer tie rod end, and getting it back in exactly the same position it was in so that it didn't throw the existing (unknown quality) front-end alignment off.

I painted a stripe on the inner tie rod end, and used the "Edd China Method" of removing and replacing it.

I counted the turns until it came off, and then screwed it back on the same number.

Simple and effective, and will work more than "good enough" to get me to the alignment shop next week.

One more item crossed off The List.....

The last thing I really have to do other than doing the final torquing of the lower control arm bolts and the strut rod nut, is to replace the power steering high-pressure hose. This is the item that my "original" smog test place said was "Spraying Fluid EVERYWHERE!", and refused to smog the car on safety grounds. Even though I could only see a very few, very small droplets of fluid, I grudgingly accepted their decision as I had a power steering hose blow on me once. And because that car (another Toyota Celica, no less!) also had a cracked exhaust manifold on the same side of the engine as where the hose was, the fluid lit off under the hood with rather spectacular results. One of my neighbors saw it happen as I was coming down the street and said he thought they were filming some kind of action/adventure movie, and I was part of the special effects......

So, yeah, that hose has GOT to be replaced!

And while I'm down under the car in GreaseLand, I'll also replace the return line.

I was planning on starting the hose replacement Saturday, BUT "duty calls", and I've been asked to help provide some help escorting some visitors on the Iowa, so this gets put off (le sigh...) until Sunday.

On the plus side, I've lost 12 pounds since I started actively working on the car (again), and I can now bend over and touch my toes again.

Which might come in real handy if The Hildebeast sneaks in to the White House this fall.....