Ready For the Road

This week was good for shipments. The PCM came back from its tach signal tweaking, the 3" dia exhaust pipe for finishing the exhaust showed up and the bushings and bearings for the trailing arm arrived.

Spent saturday replacing all the bearings and bushings in the RH trailing arm (installed RTAB's for an M3). Having a press does come in handy. The wheel bearing on that side was wore out. Looks to me the whole issue was because the previous owner didn't have the lock nut tight enough on the rear axle so there was no preload on the bearings. I'll replace all the bearings and bushings in the LH side next saturday. Bad news is I broke the ABS sensor off when trying to get it out. (rusted in place) and the rear emergency brake shoes were garbage.

So I have to order some more parts and take things apart again.Finished the exhaust. It turned out well except for that it is louder than I like. I drove it to church and a guy commented on it. I said "yah it's too loud" and he said "I thought it sounded great". I dont' think it is obnixious but I'm going for "sleeper" and the sound gives it away.

Lots of odds and ends to do but the car is driveable now. I think I'll drive it to work tomorrow.

FIRST DRIVE

Well it's been awhile again. Been busy. Very busy. Last saturday I spent ALL day on the car. Actually I did take a break to watch my boy's soccer game but other than that I worked on the car. I put in the radiator, driveshaft, part of the exhaust and a ton of other stuff. I ran the engine until it came up to temp and made sure the electric fan came on. The fan did come on and my daughter said the fan sounded like shaking a box of rocks. The fan blades were definately hitting something. note to self remove the fan and check it.


I put the car on it's own wheels. Was funny to see it down on the ground again. I wanted to take it for a drive but it was dark and I didn't have any head lights. Or a muffler. So night driving was a bad idea. However the next day I backed it out of the garage under it's own power. My wife, my 2 kids and I all went for the first ride together. With no muffler it makes quite the sound. Very strong solid sound but nonetheless loud. Still didn't keep me from flooring it a few times though. Then brought it back home and parked it. No lights, no muffler, no front bumper expired inspection sticker it was just not a good idea to drive it much. So the first trip was only 2 miles. All went well though. Only other problem found was the Tach didn't read correctly.




Tuesday I came home at lunch from work and drove it again. Couldn't resist. Wife and I went on another 2 mile run. I got on the gas even more this time. Man that was fun. However, that night i removed the PCM (engine computer) and sent it away to get the tach signal corrected. I hated pulling it out when it was running and driving but have to have the tach working right. The rest of the week I spent intalling the head lights and turnsignals, few more interior bits, Fixing the fan rub (fan blades were slightly bent and rubbing on the fan housing) and started installing the muffler.


I need some more 3" dia exhaust pipe to finish the muffler installation. Doesn't appear that anyone in town has any so I ordered some off the net. Should be here in a few days. By the end of this week I should have the PCM back and the muffler installed. We'll see how it goes.

Wow where does the time go.

Well since my last post I pulled the motor back out to finish some details. I painted all the heater lines black. They look much better. I also cut part of what would be the battery tray if this were a TI (the battery on my car is in the trunk). This gives plenty of clearance to work on the relocated heater valve if ever necessary. I also remounted the ABS again in a slightly different location getting it a little farther from the header. Let's see what else. Oh I made a heat shield for the RH motor mount. I added some heat barrier to the transmission tunnel and a number of other small items (including new set of spark plugs).

I then reloaded the engine into the car for hopefully the last time!! Whoo hoo. I bled the clutch and it releases easily. I need to clean up a few more wiring looming issues, reassemble the interior, Mount the A/C condenser and do a little suspension work. I'm thinking in a week or 2 I'll take it for a drive. It won't be done but it I feel I deserve a trip around the block. Things that will have to be done after the first drive are rear differential stiffening, New struts, Rebuild the steering rack and perhaps a new sway bar or 2.


More later.