Well the racing debut of the red chalk monster was less than stellar. After scurrying about during the week to buy and mount tires then getting alignment on Saturday, today was the long awaited resumption of the Hawaii SCCA Solo II autocross. There had been a long hiatus due to the Hawaii State Farm Fair occupying the same space, but of course I do this stuff at the last minute. Things were looking good and the car was running decently. So I thought. I’m scheduled to run first heat and arrive just in time to sign in and get set up. Spirits are high, everyone is eager to race after the long time off. I’m pretty amped to go too since this is going to be a new experience driving a different car and setup. Continue reading ‘Hachibroku’
Archive for the 'car' Category
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With the soon to come cell phone ban during driving, we’ve been talking about the other stupid things we’ve seen people doing while driving. I’ve seen someone reading a news paper, someone curling eyelashes, Risu witnessed someone eating a bowl of cereal. About a week ago I saw someone trimming his toenails! So what about all these people?
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This past Friday was on a push to get the AE86 rolling again so could move it out of garage for planned work on J’s headlights. I’d earlier glopped on some cast iron weld to fill up the crack on the exhaust, and after some name calling got it all back together. However while I was in there, I started taking off the EGR system. A rather superfluous system which in more cases than not is malfunctioning by this age anyway. It’s pretty straightforward. Unbolt the bung from the exhaust, find a transmission filler plug from the myriad of transaxles in Root’s Toyota salvage yard, and replace the bung with that. Then unbolt the other bits that hang between the bung and the intake. The only little thing is a bit of fabrication to make a cover to plug the intake hole. Pulling out the barstock of mystery millitary surplus metal, I traced out what I needed to cut. Just about the right size. Continue reading ‘Mystery Metal’
The start
This sunday was the frenching fun on J’s Chevy. Frenching? In kustom car talk, that’s getting rid (actually covering) the chrome headlight rings, bringing the body line all the way flush to the headlights. A project to christen the newly set up air compressor and dedicated eletric outlets! I kind of anticipated this taking a while, so we planned on J showing up at 9:00AM. Soon after 9:00 was when J sneaked in, I didn’t hear the sled pull up! Anyway, we made a shopping run to Napa and City Mill for some supplies so it wasn’t till past 10:00 that we got the car into the garage and ready to start. First the headlights need to be removed. Polished rings are a snap fit and pop off. The main bucket that houses the entire light assembly needs to come off. The plan is that assembly is going to be mounted on the backside of the body metal instead of the front. So we go to start removing the bolts that hold the buckets on. Continue reading ‘Frenching Fools’
Testing the mask
Buzz packin'
So tonight was my second attempt at fixing the crack in the AE86 exhaust manifold. Being only a welding monkey, MIG was easy, but going back to the big old school buzz box stick welder was a bit harder. It takes a bit more skill to strike the arc and keep the stick at good spacing. What I was trying to fix is the all to common crack in the stock cast iron manifold for these Corollas. This lets nice buzz packing fumes go where they’re not wanted, like the front of the car! On Sunday (after wrestling with getting one last nut off on Saturday) I had my first attempt at welding the crack. I had to monkey around with the welder, get used to the blinking on and off of the helmet, and try not to get the stick stuck to the manifold. Continue reading ‘Welding Monkey’
The AE86 Corolla has a cracked manifold (like almost every other stock one) and it was causing me to catch some buzz when I drove it around last Saturday. So I decided to attempt to weld the hunk of cast iron. I’d done it before for practice on a different cracked manifold, and it’ll be a good test of the new fancy electro helmet! First things first, I have to take it out. No problem, I figured, having done it number of times with the FX. Pulled out the trusty can of Kroil and gave all the nuts and bolts a good squirt. Fzzzt…. Ooops, there goes the last of the propelant. Oh yeah, RWD layout is different. Fortunately they all are pretty loose (although makes me wonder about others), except one nut on the backside of the manifold to downpipe junction. It’s a long stud so requires a deep socket, but is angled in such a way that the socket can’t fit on it. WTF? Toyota is usually pretty good about not designing things like this. And there is too much stuff all round to fit a open end in. Eventually undoing all the rest, wiggling things around, I barely fit a wrench in there, and again it’s loose so after much contorting get it out. Took much longer than expected, too late to grind and weld, oh well, guess I’ll have a beer. Prob gonna have to disconnect the steering shaft when I reinstall, what a PIA.
Brake in the metal working sense. The current FX came to me with the spare tire well filled in with a sub woofer tub. The hold down spindle was chopped out and the tub hammered out. 
The plan to restore the brackets for the spare has been idle in my brain for a long time, then working on J’s door handles inspired me and I finally decided to tackle the job. My plan was also to properly relocate the battery in the well, instead of the hacked cracked plastic box bolted to the speaker board (which is no longer there). Just after noon, J got to my house just as I got home from picking up some supplies. I explained what I had in mind to him and we started taking a close look and making measurements. J suggested instead of my idea of cutting out a large piece of the bottom of the well, to just take the center spindle bracket and weld it into the existing FX’s well and leave the bashed out well as it is. Less work. That’s the nice thing about having more than one brain looking at a problem, alternate views and ideas. The idea looks like it will work, and instead of trying to find space to relocate the jack bracket, if I flip the spare over, there’s a nice spice within the spare that I could just use a strap. Continue reading ‘J the Human Brake’
I thought back-up sensors on a Mini Cooper was bad. Today at Costco HK I saw a new Mazda CX-7 with FRONT sensors! If you can’t see what’s effing in front of you, YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN’T BE DRIVING!
(0)The AE86 lives again! To sum up, couple weeks ago, decided I better get off my duff and get the AE86 Corolla running and safety checked. I had ordered a complete new set of shiny rotors and performance brake pads because although it had passed safety, the brakes have been scary weak from the moment I picked it up. So I got those changed out and feeling pretty good, when I discovered the water pump had sprung a leak. Ran into some difficulties with that in that the new replacement part was too tight a fit, but I eventually got that together. So I thought all was good. I rushed over to the 76 station by my house, to later be informed that the car did not pass. One high beam was out, the horn didn’t work, and they didn’t like the bubbling tint on the driver rear quarter. Continue reading ‘It Lives II’
Ok, looks like I have to apologize to Italy, almost. That water pump for the AE86 installed last night is correct, almost. I mic’ed it along with the new Japan one I picked up and the shaft measures the same. Must be Italian metric, just a hair too big. Taking a file to it, coating it with oil, and it finally went on. I sure hope it doesn’t become a problem to remove in the futur
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