The Semi-Unofficial Pistol-Forum Car geek, gearhead, hot rodder, and vehicle thread

[CraigS]

To any and all who have turned a wrench at one point in their life, you will understand the following:

FUCKING DORMAN!

*sigh* how fucking hard is it to take an OE part and MEASURE it correctly? The fucking mounting holes for these upper control arms are spaced wrong, by about half a bolt width.
I can't send 'em back because I bought 'em almost a year ago, when they were supposed to go on the Stratus, but then it got wrecked before parts went on.
So we're installing all the bits on the kid's car.

I am with you. For me it started w/ a firewall mount starter solenoid in our old Ford van. It was mounted at a spot where it was doubled sheet metal. OK drill new holes. Crap, the edge of the top layer was turned up forming maybe a 1/4 inch flange I guess to provide additional rigidity. The bolts will now work but base is wider than the OE so should I mount it so it's all cockeyed w/ one side flush and the other side on the edge of the flange? OK, hammered that flange flat cause it may need to be grounded to operate. I don't remember exactly why but now the small actuator wire was too short. Crap, it has like an 8/32 stud sticking out to mount it on but the end doesn't use a nut it just slides onto that stud and friction of the threads retains it. Nobody has a wire end like that so I have to use a couple of butt connectors to splice a short piece of wire in so I can retain the OE connector. Should have been a 5 minute job was over an hour due to trips to the store for supplies. Today I'd probably have all I needed on hand but back then working in the driveway I didn't.

[JRB]

Turbo shipped off today, going to get a billet T04E 57 trim compressor wheel stuffed into its little Hitachi CT26 compressor housing. An old and common upgrade since the late 80's, made even better more recently thanks to a much lighter 5-axis billet compressor wheel that also features a skinnier center 'root' and thus more blade area for a given compressor diameter. Should be good for around 300awhp on pump gas if I make the fuel system changes to support it. Not sure about that, so I might stick to the ~240-250whp or so the stock ECU and injectors can support relatively safely.

[0ddl0t]

Oh man that sure brings back memories. A 60-1 ct26 with 10* clip was my first turbo upgrade and I still remember the amazement I felt discovering not all psi are created equal.

I eventually snapped its shaft running an extremely fun, but ill-advised, 20psi 400rwhp race gas tune at a HPDE. When I saw what my mk3's spy hunter smoke screen had done to his formerly vibrant yellow paint, I was sure the driver of the brand new Modena was going to bust my nose!

[Welder]

Just got back from a 6 hour round trip to pick up the Miata, then to return the Uhaul car hauler. I was skeptical at first, but the Uhaul hauler is actually a very simple, effective device. Even has a little D-ring dead center forward of the deck for hooking a winch to, which I used with a 1.5T come-a-long to get the car up on the trailer. There was absolutely no drama about the entire experience, and my '11 V10 F450 averaged 9.2 mpg on interstate set at 70. Not too shabby considering the powerplant and truck.

[Joe in PNG]

About 20 years ago, I drove to a conference at the Lake of the Ozarks in a little 4cy manual Dodge Shadow. While there, I came across a good deal on a 78 Honda 750A and bought that sucker.

And didn't really think about what I was in for with the drive back to Florida. Happily, it had a trailer hitch, and I was able to get a small enclosed U-Haul.

But I did have a couple of days of work to get back home. Almost like pedaling a bike, but with less ability to stop suddenly.

Had I known what a dud that 750 A for Automatic was, I wouldn't have bought it. Dang thing needed a good half hour to warm up even on a Florida summer day.

[0ddl0t]

Uhaul car haulers are super handy, but be aware their decks are kind of short (148") so many long wheelbase vehicles won't fit and it doesn't give you much room to move a nose-heavy vehicle around to dial in the tongue weight for a light duty pickup/suv tow vehicle.

Example: A 5,000 lb 144" diesel sprinter van on the 2,200 lb car hauler will be exceeding the max tongue weight of every class III and most class IV hitches (to say nothing of most 1/2 ton trucks' payloads).

[hufnagel]

So, I dunno how to classify this one.
Is it a fuck up? Just bad luck?
So we got back on the car today. First order of business: install new rear struts.
kid's inside the car, ready to thread on the nuts. I'm pushing the strut up. He shouts "you need to push it in farther!" It's as far as it'll go. "The studs are like an inch below the plate!"
WTF?
I pull them out, look at them, and scratch the bald spot on my head.
Poke me head inside the car, and yep there's no way those studs will make it. WTF #2
Then it hit me. "Go grab one of the old rears from the pile."
I'm right... the rear top hats are different between sedan and convertible. there's an extra reinforcement in the convertible. in hindsight, makes sense.
So did i fuck up and order wrong parts? Yes and no.
See, these are all bits that were supposed to go on the wife's Stratus last year, to make it into my winter beater. Well, that car got totaled like 2 weeks after I got everything delivered. So I decided might as well just put all those parts on the convertible, since they're all (mostly) the same anyways, and the convertible needs them.

So the current plan is, call the manufacturer and confirm the spring rates between sedan and convertible. if they're the same, or at least not massively different, I'll pull the top hats off the old struts, clean them up, and install them on the new struts. new top hats are like $30 (or more) for the set, delivered.

At the very least, we got everything else for the rear installed, so once the strut problem is solved, tighten the cross member mounting bolts, tighten the upper control arm ball joint, set the knuckle to ride height and tighten all the control arm bolts, it's install the struts, install the sway bar, , reassemble the brakes, install the wheels, reassemble the rear interior bits. Then it's off to Firestone for a Lifetime alignment, and we're back to driving it. Still a list of other things to do: rust mitigation/repair, paint and install new fender, replace top, replace power steering pump eventually, install new condenser/power steering cooler (they're integrated!), repaint all that needs repainting. we have a couple years more work on this car easily.

[hufnagel]

Oh and during our reassembly of the rear, the kid managed to lose one of the 8 bolts holding the tension strut pockets in place. 10 minutes of searching and cleaning of the garage, and we didn't find it. So I gave him the look



handed him the impact gun with the proper socket, and sent him out to the parts car to steal one of said bolts.

[hufnagel]

Uhaul car haulers are super handy, but be aware their decks are kind of short (148") so many long wheelbase vehicles won't fit and it doesn't give you much room to move a nose-heavy vehicle around to dial in the tongue weight for a light duty pickup/suv tow vehicle.

Example: A 5,000 lb 144" diesel sprinter van on the 2,200 lb car hauler will be exceeding the max tongue weight of every class III and most class IV hitches (to say nothing of most 1/2 ton trucks' payloads).

as much as I hate using the 20' closed deck, it gives me exactly that ability, to dial in the car's position on the trailer to set the tongue weight exactly as I like it.



I've had multiple people comment about how far back the car sits on the deck. what they fail to take into account is the 12,000# winch, the group 34 battery, and the 5 tires in the basket that is actually forward of the front edge of the deck. I've got a LOT of weight (conservatively, i'd say 500#) of weight sitting on the leading edge of the trailer deck.

[hufnagel]

Did some more research.
Turns out the manufacturer lists the "correct" rear struts for the convertible as being usable on the sedan as well. So I went ahead and disassembled the old struts, cleaned up the mounting hats, and installed them on the new struts. we'll put them in tomorrow and HOPEFULLY get this damn thing on the ground finally.