Sheeze, what to do? The Drive Shaft Shop wants OEM shafts to work with but I’m not sure if the ones I got left are. I don’t see the typical Toyota part # stamped on it, but it kind of looks OEM because the shaft has machined down sections that the aftermarkets don’t seem to bother with. If I can find them in stock, I could go through Toyota, but thats a pretty penny, anywhere from $800 online to $1400 at Toyota Hawaii.
Author Archive for taro
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While I was finding price for new cv shafts ($1400, ouch) I went over to check out the Scion FR-S aka Subaru BRZ aka Toyota GT86. It being the second day available to general public it was fairly busy. Took the automatic out first since the standard was on the road. Finally being able to sit in one, the first good thing is the seat is a nice fairly snug fit. Not anything close to astronaut cockpit fit of Dave’s M Coupe, although that means it’s pretty easy to get in and out of. Not luxe like leather, but the cloth is grippy. Didn’t notice any weirdly placed seams that bug my butt like the Yaris. Recline, fore-aft, seat height and headrest height adjustment, all manual. Telescoping & tilt adjust wheel. Can gets good driver position as opposed to Yaris monkey arm ergonomics where I can’t get quite comfy.
Darn, just got a call from The Drive Shaft Shop (yes that’s their name) that they received my shafts. If it were a crusty old guy he would have been saying, what the heck you sending us this krap? We can make ya shafts for these, but don’t come back cryin to us when you break the joint instead. The guy was actually very nice. He advised me to find original Toyota Oem shafts, that they are far better than aftermarkets. If we used these there is a good chance the joint would fail. They’re the experts so im going to have to go looking now! Sheet, expensive lesson there, FedEx 2 day was not cheap!
So this is where I’m at with the battery relocation. Pulled out the mounts for the spare tire & jack. A little hammering on the tire mount bracket to reshape to fit, some zaps with the welder, and they’re secure. BTW, you see stuff about filling up a hole with welder using a copper backing plate? It’s not as easy as it looks. Maybe if the materials are shiny clean metal. I tried & failed pretty miserably. Putting ill fitting patches in back from scraps cut from putting the battery in made it all better.
Got under the rally FX this afternoon, yeah, that don’t look right. I’ve now done this so many times that with the impact gun, it took me longer to air up the compressor, jack up the car and put it on stands than it took me to pull out the CV shaft. 
Is it supposed to do this? I suppose the good news is that the splines did not strip so I don’t need a new hub, which would be harder to find than the shafts. Although these shafts are getting hard to find through common channels too. Last time I ordered from Napa, the one they ordered from the mainland was the last one they showed in stock. Empi make all kinds of shafts, although they seem to be known for VW parts. Unfortunately it looks like these new proudly manufactured in China in ISO9001 facility shafts still cannot handle the stress of rallying. It actually may not be a fault of the manufacturing and the specs of the OEM shaft are simply not high enough to hold up to the abuse I’m putting it through. Continue reading ‘Snappy’
Unexpected late day at work on friday threw a monkey wrench into my plans. By the time I got fome & dinner was done, it was well into the evening. I wanted to finish the battery relocation by Saturday’s race. No heavy fabrication to do, but I ran into a snag that I didn’t have a 6mm bolt long enough for the battery hold down. Luckily I made it to Home Depot just in time & they just barely had a bolt long enough. So this is up front where the battery used to be. Mounted a power post I picked up from West Marine.
I routed the extension 2 gauge wire through the fender well to the power post. Things finally came together pretty well.
 The rubber terminal covers is a bit ugly, but oh well. Hidden under that second cover is actually a honking 150A fuse. Wow, the spare actually does still fit, as will the OEM jack!
Didn’t run into any major roadblocks at this point, but it was 2:00AM by the time I finished & cleaned up. Yikes, I need to wake up at 5:00 to get to the rally cross early enough!
In cutting out the big ol hole for the battery box, I over shot on this edge. 
I was left with plenty pieces of sheet metal to make a patch with. It’s always nice to patch with pieces of same metal, when the pieces are different thicknesses it can get tricky getting a good heat and speed in welding without blowing holes in the thinner piece. Continue reading ‘Patchy’
The Ckuckster brought over his little speed demon over to do some welding on the shock towers. He’s converting from torsion bar to coil over, which means the shock mount will be supporting the weight of the car, which it wasn’t originally designed for. For a little peace of mind he decided to complete the welding on the seams of the mount. 
 A little clean up and he went to town with the welder. Scat slid by just as we were starting and laid down some metal also. No fabrication needed, so it wasn’t anything too difficult. Continue reading ‘Of Shocks and Batteries’
Weekend started with finishing off the front end grill area of the Scat Sled. We knew what we were going to do so the work went faster. Chuckster showed up in the morning so getting the turn signal patch cutout, flattened and tacked in was done by lunchtime! The patch was soon fully welded in and by the end of the day all the center seams were also welded, and there was still daylight left! Movie here.
I wonder if for every dozen packs of Leffe Blonde they get one of the Brune. The Blonde is being carried by many supermarkets now, I first saw it at Foodland. But then one evening I spotted a sixpack of the Brune. Unusual, but I had a full stock of beer already so passed. I have never seen it again. Fast forward a few months, I see that Safeway is carrying the Blonde also, and then wonders of wonder I spy a six pack of the Brune. I do not make the same mistake & grab it. Turns out it won’t even scan at the registers!
Anyway, on to the beer. This Belgian abbey ale pours a dark brown with a moderately strong head that persists. Can immediately detect aromatics and alcohol, even though the content is only 6.5%. There’s a fairly strong spicyness then a subtle roastyness and a pretty smooth bitterness. There’s a bit of the syrupy going on. I actually prefer this beer as it warms up, it seems to mellow it out. Not huge ABV numbers, but for some reason these Leffe’s kick my butt! 3 out 4 monatsic monkeys.