Saw a block-and-long-U-bolt lifted F250 pickup with four super-expensive external-reservoir Fox Racing Shox dampers across the back axle. Too bad the outer two were at the inboard 1/3rd distance stock Ford locations where they do little to moderate roll, and the other two were installed on either side of the differential housing. WTF?!?! The money would have been better spent on a real off-road coil-and-4-bar rear suspension and TWO Fox dampers.
(0)Archive for the 'car' Category
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A note to the girl with the giant Kardashian-wannabe sunglasses who while trying to tailgate me on the LikeLike onramp in her 9th-gen Civic sedan went sliding into the outside curb in full-lock understeer on dry pavement – your salesman lied to you when he told you that the Honda Civic is a sports car. …oh, and guess what? I wasn’t even out of second gear!
(0)Whew, been working on the rally FX the past week to get it ready for the SCCA display at the First Hawaiian Auto Show this weekend. I went at the paint with the DA polisher and had to find some new polishing pads for it. Time for a plug for Pak Shak, an auto detailing supplies shop right off of Sand Island Road. The dude was very knowledgable, and helpful. He knows his stuff and gave excellent suggestions, and never tried to push anything. I picked up a backer and some pads for my Porter Cable. If you’re picky about country of origin of your tools, you can get from them German made polishers, although you will paya good premium. Anyway, after a full day of work, the paint had quite a shine, probably not seen since it left the dealer! I can’t imagine doing this without power tools. And micro fiber towels. What the heck did people use before these? They work awesome! If you’re not doing anything this weekend, come check out the show. I’ll be working the SCCA booth on the second floor from 7PM on Saturday. You can check out the most awesomest FX16 in Hawaii. Or possibly the last of two in this state that hasn’t completely rusted away anyway, yet.
I’m glad my old car predates the higher mandated door height for passenger vehicles. Even with the door beams and side airbags, it’s probably not as safe as a current car in side impacts, but at least I can actually see out the side of my car. Also, aesthetically my car doesn’t look all “gangsta” with tall door sheetmetal and tiny windows like a gen2 Scion xB or Chrysler 300. My sills are around 20cm (8″) below the Scion tC parked next to me. That’s like barely below my sight line!
I think the only roadster I frown on is the Saturn Sky. Granted, it has an Aisin (Toyota) tranny and 260hp out of a 2-liter D/I turbo I4 which is more than some of my Z3 forebearers – it’s still so… okay, I can’t use the “G” word here, but yeah, you get the picture. Arturo Junior’s yellow one was weaving in and out of traffic this morning. I guess you really can’t get away from that user demographic when it comes to Saturns…
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The plastic hose that feeds the rear windscreen washer in my M Coupe turned brittle and crumbled after 11+ years of sitting on the exhaust manifold side of the engine compartment. If you’re familiar with bike stuff, it’s the same hard plastic material that Magura used for their hydraulic rim brake hose but with very thin walls. The barb fittings on the connectors were 6mm, so 7/32” vacuum hose would work, but the outside diameter was rather large. I found some black butyl rubber 6mm hose at Tokyu Hands with fairly thin walls. They also had some silicone hose, but it seemed too floppy. In particular, I was concerned that the silicone hose wouldn’t stay put on the barb fittings without some mechanical help. Two meters of the butyl tubing was 602-yen (about $8 USD at 77-yen per $1 USD). I ended up using all but around 60cm. Continue reading ‘BMW M Coupe Rear Washer Hose Repair’
Today while in back of a Lexus LS560, I was reminded that Toyota never uses the same font for any of the rear badging on their cars. I remember our Camry V10 wagon had “Toyota”, “Camry”, “V6”, and “LE” in 4 different fonts and pitches.
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Finally pulled the broken CV shaft from the rally FX. Well now, 100 hp by current autostandards is no huge supercar figure, but 100 horses is still 100 horses. It seems it’s still enough to shear an axle shaft apart. There might have been some kind of flaw in the metal. Actually the right hub seems to have all kinda of problems. Thats the side I blew the shock and strut top mount bottoming it out. When I went to take the half shaft out, I discovered the main hub axle nut was loose again, and in fact had sheered the safety tabs on the cap. The bottom ball joint also required barely a push on wrench to loosen and after I took off the castle nut for the steering arm, I put the extractor on the joint and as I tightened it with my fingers to line it up, the joint popped loose. Nuts! I pulled the hub assembly and I’m going to take it to Ken to replace the bearings. I’m going to also order the ball joint. New, not reman, Empi CV shafts are on order but it’ll take close to 2 months.
Oh, and while were on the subject of the rally FX, I’d like to give a shout out to Pacific Paradise Towing. Used them twice now and really like them. It’s a small family run service, dude is really cool. They cover island wide, in addition to standard truck (nice & aircon) they also have a flatbed if needed. They take credit cards. Their number if you ever need a tow is 677-8850.
Scion iQ just passed on King Street. Small. Orange. First one I’ve seen here. Already saw one in Onomichi in September.
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Holy cow, I suck at welding. After four days, I finally got the exhaust downpipe to cat section welded to where it doesn’t leak too badly. Just a bit of muscling and I got it installed, fits pretty well. It does get a bit close to the CV boot, hopefully its not a problem. The relocated O2 sensor just clears too. It certainly wont win any beauty contests, my welds are ugly, with many welds on top of welds, but its together and working!