Tinkering Since 1999
As per one of the things im going to do with this car is convert the starwars digi dash to an analog cluster. Which is relatively easy, but some people seem to think that repinning the 24 odd wires in the cluster is too hard.
[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28236-1/ma61analogtodigital.jpg[/img]
Thats the repinning, and only 6 wires need to be cut and soldered, the rest are straight repins.
Tonight i had some time before dinner and got stuck into one of the rear trailing arms, preparing them for bigger brakes and the MS123 5stud hubs. After dinner i went back and did the other one in like 10min and took some photos.
Take one stock rear trailing arm:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28152-1/IMG_2822s.jpg[/IMG]
Remove brake lines
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28155-1/IMG_2823s.jpg[/IMG]
Attack with rattlegun:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28161-1/IMG_2825s.jpg[/IMG]
2x 14mm bolts holding the brake calipers on, and 4x 14mm nuts holding the driveshaft to the hub.
Looking in under that driveshaft shows a nice large 27mm nut holding the hub to the driveshaft flange, staked nicely, its probably been like this from factory.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28167-1/IMG_2827s.jpg[/IMG]
Thankfully the staking has a little taper in the counter clockwise direction and the rattlegun makes damn short work of it:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28170-1/IMG_2828s.jpg[/IMG]
You can see here where the slight deformation in the nut is.
And once you pull off the hub and disc, you get something like this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28182-1/IMG_2832s.jpg[/IMG]
Ok i cheated there slightly, thats the predone one, which has also had the guts of the handbrake removed for the R33 brake conversion.
Onto the more interesting stuff, the R33 brake upgrade.
Firstly, the obligatory comparison between the R33 disc (underneath) and the MA61 disc (ontop) Its not a huge difference, and to be honest i dont expect it to really add much in the way of braking effort. That said the little twinpot caliper is MUCH lighter and i do expect that to add a touch.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28185-1/IMG_2833s.jpg[/IMG]
Thickness wise its much the same story, both being 18mm thick.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28188-1/IMG_2834s.jpg[/IMG]
Where they differ on the other hand is the handbrake area. The R33 is a huge ~190mm ID for the handbrake:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28193-2/IMG_2835s.jpg[/IMG]
Wheras the MA61 is a stonkingly 22mm smaller:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28196-2/IMG_2836s.jpg[/IMG]
This will cause some issues with the handbrake, but from some reading most people have overcome this by simply getting extra material bonded to the shoes, 2-2.5mm extra is what i have read so an extra 5mm OD, and then i assume extending the adjustment for all its worth.
Luckily for me my handbrake shoes are rooted anyway, so theyll need to be done regardless, hopefully the rebonding isnt too expensive over new shoes:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28179-1/IMG_2831s.jpg[/IMG]
Now, onto the bracket. I had a very minor dilemma with the fact that the brake rotor is a 5stud rotor and the hubs are still 4stud until the MS123 ones arrive. However, they are the same stud pattern, so the problem is easily solved with a 2lb mallet. I quickly bashed out 3 of the studs and left the 4th to act as a locator along with the central hub flange.
Slapping on the R33 rotor and securing it with a spare wheel nut and then holding the caliper onto the disc (while juggling the camera) yielded this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28197-1/IMG_2837s.jpg[/IMG]
The verniers say a 5-6mm backspace to the stock mounts depending on how the caliper is mounted. In addition the disc when just bolted to the hubs on its own fouls on the back of the handbrake, and wont sit completely flat. This would be a bit of dilemma, apart from the fortunate nature of the already backspaced caliper. What i shoudl be able to do is add a 5mm spacer to the underside of the disc (between the hub and the disc) so as to space the handbrake mechanism away from the disc face, and also as a bonus give a completely flat surface for a brake caliper adaptor.
To test this i pulled a couple of 3mm washers out from my box of washers and installed them:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28206-1/IMG_2840s.jpg[/IMG]
Trust me, thats 6mm.
With them installed and the disc over the top, with the trusty random lug nut holding it all together the caliper spacing was about 1mm positively offset:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28212-1/IMG_2842s.jpg[/IMG]
This seems to indicate that i can just create a caliper bracket which bolts to the back of the standard mounts (you can see me testing a bolt clearance in that picture too), as the standard mounts are not threaded (the threading is in the caliper). That bracket will then bolt through the “front” outwards to the R33 caliper and it should all line up.
I dont see any reason why this should be overly hard.
While i was out there before dinner the angle grinder with a sandpaper disc made very damn short work of the Nissan logos on the calipers:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28221-1/IMG_2845s.jpg[/IMG]
and
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28224-1/IMG_2846s.jpg[/IMG]
So off to source some 5mm spacers i go. Next project is to look at the camber eccentric bolt conversion for the suspension subframe.
I headed out to RallySA yesterday, and came home all geed up to do some work on the car, but without being able to turn on the air compressor and really get stuck into the engine bay i settled for doing this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28089-2/IMG_2803.jpg[/IMG]
Was basically a matter of sitting there with a few screwdrivers and sockets and figuring out which screw came out of which area to release the whole shebang.
Finally got it all out and this was the pile of screws and bolts to go back in:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28098-2/IMG_2806.jpg[/IMG]
Dash looks half decent, and will get a clean up and sprayed black in the near future:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28092-2/IMG_2804.jpg[/IMG]
And there was a crap load of other stuff which is probably going to be ditched.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28095-2/IMG_2805.jpg[/IMG]
Unsure about the heater core at the moment, as im not sure if ill be able to reuse that box or if ill need to get a manually controlled one for the manual controls.
The annoying bit was disconnecting the hundreds of wires which go into making the climate control work. So glad all of that is gone.
The old starwars dash is also out:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28101-2/IMG_2807.jpg[/IMG]
Awaiting me playing tracing time with it and the analog dash to figure out what needs to be repinned where in order to make the analog dash work.
I then got stuck into removing the cowl, and looking at what was under there:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28107-2/IMG_2809.jpg[/IMG]
Honestly i was expecting the worst, to see rust at the bottom of that area and lots of crap filling it up.
But it really wasnt bad at all:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28116-2/IMG_2812.jpg[/IMG]
No visible rust and i poked around a bit with a screw driver and couldnt see anything either.
So then without having much more time or stuff to do i got the engine ready for removal:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28086-2/IMG_2802.jpg[/IMG]
And treated the rust on all the under dash bracketry:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28080-2/IMG_2800.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28083-2/IMG_2801.jpg[/IMG]
Seriously, i dont understand why Toyota didnt bother to paint those bars, in every Toyota ive had they have been rusted to all hell.
Sunday rolled around and brought with it some glorious sunshine. In addition to a few other progress bits which i wont post up until they are finished, i got stuck into the drivetrain.
No interim pics, but the engine bay now looks like this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28122-2/IMG_2814.jpg[/IMG]
With the 5M unceremonially dumped outside. The W box is sitting underneath the front bumper:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28125-2/IMG_2815.jpg[/IMG]
As Gav was around we decided to drop the rear subframe so i can get started on the camber bolt mod for it. After a bit of shifting stuff around and undoing some bolts it came out nicely:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28128-2/IMG_2816.jpg[/IMG]
Toyota wernt kidding around when they wanted to attach the snout of the diff to the subframe
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28131-2/IMG_2817.jpg[/IMG]
8xM10 bolts, 2 in each side AND 4 on top. Makes me wonder what the engineers were thinking when they thought a single snout bolt on the MX83 was a good idea.
In addition the rust conversion from yesterday turned out quite well:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28143-2/IMG_2821.jpg[/IMG]
Its had a second coat and waiting for it to dry.
I bought a present for the car as well:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28104-2/IMG_2808.jpg[/IMG]
12 cans at $1.50 each, quite worth it I think as the cans seem to do a much better job than the concentrate.
Next on the agenda is finishing off the subframe disassembly, testing the LSD, and starting the subframe mod for the camber adjustment. That should keep me busy until my 5 stud MS123 hubs arrive, and then i can start putting together the rear brake upgrade. While all thats happening ill be waiting on some shocks from the US and on some local suspension stuff for the front.
On the interior front im not going to do a huge amount for now, mainly checking the heater core and starting the manual heater control conversion, and also repinning the dash loom to use the analog dash.
That should keep me busy for now.
Dave: unsure on the Kelsey controller, and to be honest i havnt had a chance to look at it. Also isnt the Enduro on the 8th?
I probably wont be driving or crew, but probably going to be Media.
Anyway, after that slight excursus, back to trig and strut angles.
Last night i sat down with a pen and paper and a scientific calculator and made some pretty diagrams with numbers on them. I made some pretty bodgy assumptions, such as the LCA being horizontal, and when the LCA is horizontal the stock camber is 0deg, neither of which are particularly true. But on the other hand it does let me treat it all as a right angle triangle.
If anyone is interested in the maths its basically “Given strut angle (90*-AoI) and LCA length, solve for other sides”, then “Given shock length (from part A), and LCA length, solve for strut angle” then subtract strut angle from AoI to give effective camber.
Now with my bodgy assumptions i came to the rough conclusion that i would have about 0.9 deg negative camber with the MX83 suspension bits.
And then i woke up at a ridiculous time this morning, given that my wife is on an ambulance shift and had to be there by 7, and went out to the garage to test it. I basically dropped out the strut quickly, and then put the strut top onto the MX83 strut and bolted that in. Now i buggered the thread on the already stuffed steering arm at UPullIt getting it off so i had to just let it sit together to see if it worked. Onwards and upwards with the jack.
I took a measurement of the hub to guard distance on my Cressida for a
rough guide, and jacked it up to that height (350mm).
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28052-1/IMG_2789.JPG[/IMG]
Breaking out the inclinometer i measured the angle:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28055-1/IMG_2790.JPG[/IMG]
1.3deg negative camber, not bad at all for some bodgy trig. Now the 0.4deg difference im putting down to the stock camber not being 0 when the LCAs are parallel to the ground.
I then had a bit of time on my hands and went and got the spare out of the Cressida to just have a quick test fit:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28058-1/IMG_2791.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28061-1/IMG_2792.JPG[/IMG]
Looks about 1.3neg too:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28064-1/IMG_2793.JPG[/IMG]
I cant jack it up any higher, because i havnt removed anything from the other side, including the swaybar, so if i try to jack it up higher the swaybar just binds up the chassis and lifts the entire chassis off the stands. Ooops.
Thats about it for now, i might get a chance to fiddle later if i go home early from work, as the stupid workmen are drilling again and i cant hear myself think.
Spent most of the weekend out at UPullIt getting bits for the Supra. But first i rolled it into its home for the next little while:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27957-1/IMG_2757.JPG[/IMG]
Making good friends with the Sprinter now. I also hooked up a battery so i could see how the electrics were, and given that nothing went smokey i went further and hit ignition and was happy to see that pretty much everything i had expected worked. Aircon is a bit weird, but thats ok, because im ditching the automatic AC and going to a manual setup. Digi dash worked, but im not entirely sure that ill end up using it. Power windows worked, but a bit sluggish, which could be just the battery being low.
So onto the bits that i got at UPullIt:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27963-1/IMG_2760.JPG[/IMG]
Picked up an analog dash, which should be relatively compatible with what i have, although it will require rewiring completely to work. The CelicaSupra guys have a whinge and say its too hard, but with <20 wires to swap around im sure it will be fine.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27984-1/IMG_2767.JPG[/IMG]
Picked up a fuel pump bracket and the lines associated, to finish off what was missing in my fuel tank, as well as an analog level sender. Which ill need if i use the analog dash.
Onto the suspension, i picked up everything for both of my options:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27966-1/IMG_2761.JPG[/IMG]
MX83 Cressida steering arms, and RA40 tie rod end tubes.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27969-1/IMG_2762.JPG[/IMG]
GH Sigma (left) and MX83 (right) lower control arms.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27975-1/IMG_2764.JPG[/IMG]
MX83 struts, and hubs.
I also found another Cressida with a black interior, so i picked up a few things which i had missed out in my car. Adding to my big pile of black bits:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27987-1/IMG_2768.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27990-1/IMG_2769.JPG[/IMG]
Bonus boot carpet:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27999-1/IMG_2772.JPG[/IMG]
Plus there was an EF with a trans cooler hanging out the front, so that came with me too. If i stick with power steering ill end up using it as a power steering cooler:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27981-1/IMG_2766.JPG[/IMG]
Also some pretty pics of the engine which will be powering it:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27978-1/IMG_2765.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27993-1/IMG_2770.JPG[/IMG]
VVTi 2JZGE, pretty standard atm, and ill have to do a bit of cleaning up of the wiring loom and sort out what the other ecu plugs are.
Plus on the downside of the weekend was finding a touch of rust here:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27996-1/IMG_2771.JPG[/IMG]
As a bonus its in the removable cowl, so not in the body which is nice. Ill cut it out and a bit of fibreglass and things will be all good.
So onto the suspension. Currently i have a few options, but the one which appeals to me is using the MX83 struts at the front for the 5stud. However, the kingpin angle is different between the MX83 strut and the MA61 strut, with the MX83 giving positive camber (signfiicantly) if used with the MA61 lower control arms.
The MA61 LCA is 295mm eye-to-eye and the MX83 LCA is 330mm eye-to-eye. Which is all well and good on paper. However, going from the GroupA cars the Supra works best at about 4-5deg neg camber on the front (and the AE86s seem to support this with 6deg neg working really well).
I havnt figured out what the static camber will be with the MX83 strut and LCA, so that is first thing to do on the cards. If its looking to be too high, then ill have the following options as i see it:
Thats about it for options, but i guess the first thing is to figure out the effective king pin angle and get cracking with some trigonometry and figure out what the camber adjustment is.
I had a bit of time on my hands tonight, so i wrote out a complete spec of how the car will probably end up:
[B]Drivetrain[/B]
2JZGE VVTi
Lightweight Flywheel
HD Clutch
F-series LSD
Stock Rad, AU falcoon fans
Oil cooler
[B]Front Suspension and Brakes[/B]
MX83 Cressida struts, steering arms and hubs
R33 GTST Calipers
BA Falcon rotors
GH Sigma LCAs
RA40 tierod ends and tubes
SW20 Rear Shocks (AGX or ExcelG)
Otomoto Coilover kit, with 6kg springs
S13 cambertops
Modified S13 strut brace
[B]Rear Suspension and Brakes[/B]
MS123 hubs
Unsure on brakes, maybe R33 again
Ford Focus Rear AGX, or VB-VP Commonwhore ExcelG
Aurora rear springs 4kg/mm
Rear harness/tower bar
[B]Interior[/B]
MP3 USB Headunit
6x9s in the rear “doors”
Otomoto Steering Wheel
Celica manualised climate control
Carpet (maybe from Knox)
AC removed
Celica analog dash
Maybe an alarm
Thats about it, not an overly complex setup, but only parts from 14 different cars involved 🙂 Hope to pick up some of those parts on the weekend.
In a probably completely vain effort to create a thread which will rival Babs’ Hako thread im going to document nigh on everything that im doing.
All in all ill probably fail.
After cleaning up the BIG pile of parts and sorting them into the shelves in the garage space which the car will occupy (probably on the weekend when i can call on some other grunt to get the car maneuvered in, i started on the rust.
Remember this rust in the spare tyre well:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27940-1/IMG_2747.JPG[/IMG]
Well Mr Rust, meet Mr Rust Converter
[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27946-1/IMG_2749.JPG[/img]
In this case in a wanky bottle called RustBuster.
Simply splash some onto a rag and wipe over all the rusted surfaces, allow to dry and a little while later it looks like this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27949-1/IMG_2750.JPG[/IMG]
No rust left.
A little application of rattlecan silver and voila:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27952-1/IMG_2751.JPG[/IMG]
Yeah, i was sick today, couldnt be bothered doing much else, over the weekend ill get the car shifted in next to the race car and start looking at suspension and maybe pulling out the dead 5ME.
So before i hustled off to work today i spent about 15mins ripping out the interior of the car. Not particularly hard when its all unbolted and just sitting there.
The pile of bits which came out looks like this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27898-1/IMG_2733.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27916-1/IMG_2739.JPG[/IMG]
Stripped out car like so:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27901-1/IMG_2734.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27904-1/IMG_2735.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27907-1/IMG_2736.JPG[/IMG]
All in all very damn good, really not overly concerned about it being a complete headache anymore. Only a mild one 🙂
Pretty much everything was all neatly boxed up and sitting in chinese food containers or icecream boxes, neatly labeled so that i know where they go. So now i have eleventy billion little containers with “Glovebox screws” and the like on them, all of which contain the same screws 😆
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27925-1/IMG_2742.JPG[/IMG]
Only things which i really found were something, probably oil, spilled in the passenger side:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27910-1/IMG_2737.JPG[/IMG]
A bit of surface rust in the spare tyre well, which is pretty normal.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27928-1/IMG_2743.JPG[/IMG]
And a cat or something has had its way with the roof lining:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27934-1/IMG_2745.JPG[/IMG]
Other than those things most of the interior can go back together relatively easily. Ill give the carpets a good wash, and maybe try to dye them black before they go back in, and everything else should just go back in easily. Im considering getting some dry ice to take out all the sound deadening, especially that nasty tar stuff, but im not sure if i can be bothered at this point.
Other things in the car apart from the interior are a little worse:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27919-1/IMG_2740.JPG[/IMG]
Engine is completely seized, even the breaker bar with a 3m exhaust tube extension couldnt budge it. Ohwell, time to find a new one for a case or something.
Its also missing a tailshaft, which i should be able to get at a wrecker or something, and i couldnt find the locknut key in any of the little boxes, which was a big bummer. Not sure if i can get one from a tyre shop or if i am going to have to weld a normal nut to each of the locknuts and go from there…
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27922-1/IMG_2741.JPG[/IMG]
Not overly keen on welding as they are quite nice rims 🙂
On the upside of it all the fuel tank is already out:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27931-1/IMG_2744.JPG[/IMG]
Which means i wont skimp on putting a decent fuel pump in it now 🙂
Edit: oh yeah, i almost forgot. I found that there is absolutely no engine number stamped anywhere on the body, which makes re-registering it a lot easier with another engine.
Interestingly as well it was also silver at some point, the red is exterior only.
After much umming and aaahing [SIZE=”1″]about 5minutes really[/SIZE] i snapped up a Supra in Wangaratta for use as a project daily/weekend thrasher/khana/other car, similar to what Clive has his R32 for, but for the things i cant be bothered or cant take out the race car for.
Thanks to some great kindness on the part of morerevsm3 on PF, who offered to transport it over from Wangaratta to Adelaide for free, it arrived today, and i finally got to see what sort of a basket case my $500 got me.
Oh and the hillarity of getting into the drivers seat to back it off the trailer and suddenly facing the roof was all good. Oh and going to steer and finding out that the steering wheel wasnt bolted on, we got it into the driveway. After chatting all the afternoon (much to the consternation of my wife) i pushed it into the carport, and had a quick squiz.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27879-1/IMG_2727.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27889-1/IMG_2730.JPG[/IMG]
Importantly no rust in the tailgate, they are always prone for rusting there. No idea how this one survived without it.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27892-1/IMG_2731.JPG[/IMG]
Interior in the car, well sort of. All in boxes. Interestingly enough this car still has an uncracked dash and good door trims… IN BLACK. Which is about as rare as hens teeth.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27895-1/IMG_2732.JPG[/IMG]
I wonder why it doesnt run, thats high on the agenda.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/27886-1/IMG_2729.JPG[/IMG]
Oh and the Simmons, which will be going on the race car soon.
All in all its not bad for the money i paid, need to assemble the interior, and refit the fuel tank (since its sitting in the boot), but im not going to complain much at all, especially as most local people wanted $3k for stuff with rust in it.
The “big” problem is the engine, as i cant just slap the 2JZ in it and take it anywhere near regency. Instead what ill have to do is put a 5ME back into it, and then get it registered before putting the 2JZ into it. All a good excuse to sort out the suspension and other bits.
List of things to do are:[LIST=1]
[]Refit interior of supra
[]Rebuild engine
[]Pass regency
[]Otomoto coilover kit for the front
[]R33/BA brake upgrade
[]VP rear shocks
[]SW20 front shocks
[]6kg front and 4kg rear springs
[]Sort suspension
[]2JZ VVTi
[/LIST]
I have a 2JZGE VVTi waiting in the wings for it when i finally get it sorted. Should be a good ride.