My order of Luxeon Star LEDs came in. I decided to order a few to play with, and to rebuild the center mount brake light on the FX. Safety check snuck up on me. I cleaned out the bulb socket in the rear drivers side, corrosion had taken a toll and made bulb dim. I also noticed my first custom LED attempt for center mount brakelight was performing rather pathetically.
It was done the lo-tech way with a bank of “hi-output” LEDs and some resistors for current limiting. Unfortunately the electrical system output on cars is not exactly stable and eventually the LEDs started failing. And these “hi-output” of that time were the brighter of the affordable, conventional size. Since then, a new generation of super hi-output LEDs have had enough development time to come down in price. Continue reading ‘STARrrr’
Author Archive for taro
Page 66 of 88
Oops, opened up that can o worms today. The FX has been off the road in the garage since discovering with all the Thanksgiving rains that there is a leak up top and front. This one is bad because it drips onto the seat and your left thigh if your seated inside. So today I decided to pop the trim to take a look at the top edge of the windscreen. Amazingly the windscreen trim clips are still holding well and it took quite a bit of convincing. I got the top edge off, and then the passenger side. There was a lot of collected crap, and some hidden rust developing. Yuck. So I started on the drivers side. The upper corner, where the suspected leak is, there was a lot of sealant goop in the trim edge groove. Hm, wonder what went on there. The left edge trim is proving stubborn, the clips seem to be imbedded in a lot of goo. The first clip finally starts to work loose. Continue reading ‘Can O Worms’
OK, I’m officially super annoyed at the neighbors on the T street from us. Having the second house tell me not to park directly across from their drive way because it makes it hard for them to back out and they might hit my car. Now who’s fault is it if they do? I’m parked in a perfectly legal spot on a public street, and it’s across from their house, not blocking their view to pull out into street. I park in the spot I do because other idiots don’t know how to drive and cut the corner then swing wide and cream parked FX’s there. I barely contained my urge to say “No, this is a public street, this is a perfectly legal parking spot, you shouldn’t be driving if you can’t back out of your driveway without hitting a parked car on the opposite side of the street, I’m parking here.” WTF! If I were really pissy, I’d get all the vehicles running, I’d park the FJ40 on their side of the street in the space between the two houses who complained to me (and Fabio), and then park the FX directly across the first driveway, and the AE86 directly across the second driveway. See how they like a seven foot tall box blocking their view, and then deal with their poor driving skill getting out of their driveways. Aaarg! Learn to drive, people! But no, I need to live with these neighbors.
Even more reason to get the FJ55 Pig out of the garage and the FX16 carcass out of the driveway so don’t have to park on the street. Which BTW, miracles of miraceles, guy is coming this week to start process of taking the FJ55 away.
OK, I can tell I’m annoyed, I cooked dinner & ate, had some sake, and I’m still annoyed enough that I went out & took a pic. Take a look at this. If you can’t get out of your driveway from house on left onto this street, something is wrong with you. When you are issued a driver’s liscence, that is supposed to certify that you have the basic skill and ability to operate an automobile safely and with competance on public road conditions. If you lack the skill and ability, you should not have said liscence.
Well now, our volume of J mail has gone down, but today got a bunch. What kind of relationships is going on in this household? Since when did Fabio move in? And who’s Juanita and when did I marry her? Or is she a long lost sister?
Oh my, what a day. After my oh so rough day on Atooi (barely made it in time for flight) yesterday, went to Mr. Ojisan for dinner. Only Yuki was there (aside from cooks). Keiko came by after a meeting, then Yuko called and came by. It turned into a nomi-kai. They then called Santa-san (thats whatÂ
people call him), he’s apparently the #2 guy at Tokkuritei. It was quite an amusing night.
Sunday November 1st, I wake in the dark, the sun has not risen yet. What has brought this miracle about? I have a SCCA race at Stadium and I run 1st heat. Luckily did not do anything for Haloween beyond go to The Shack with Fabio for a burger. At least a cute angel served us. So this is the first real event after the engine swap, transmission rebuild, clutch and flywheel upgrade, so this was going to be the test. Fortunately caught the bad injector plug during the test-n-tune.
Some light drizzles driving to Aloha Stadium, but doesn’t look like anything to be concerned with. It’s looking to be another hot day on the asphalt. Sign in, car teched, and then park the little red Corolla, dubbed “Nemo” by a spectator for it’s little flappy gas door. I walk back to the pit to grab my cooler and air guage. As I’m walking back, I overhear a guy talking to his friend, “I’m gonna be sick if I get beat by that hachiroku.” Oh yeah, something has suddenly become my one and only goal. I’m not angry or anything, we all smack talk, it’s a friendly rivalry kind of thing. But now I have to uphold the honor of all the ugly duckling AE86 “Hachiroku” out there.  I take a good look so I’ll know who he is and what car he’s driving. When he goes back to the lineup, I see that he is driving a N/A Subaru Imprezza sedan in my same class. I don’t recognize him, this should be good! Continue reading ‘It was a Good Day’
Just got back from the HIFF screening of this movie, english translated title being Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl. This unabashedly over the top ridiculous blood gushing piece of bizarre entertainment. From much of the same creative talent that brought forth Tokyo Gore Police, Machine Girl, Meatball Machine, so you should know what to expect. Some of the initial camp didn’t click too well, when you see it trying too hard, but it settles down feeling more, how can I word it, natural? That should be about the last time the word natural should be associated with this movie. You just need to go for the ride and let it flow. Do not question how goth lolita, ganguro extreme, emo wrist cutters, kabuki mad scientist, naughty nurse, sumo gimp, samurai skelleton armor janitor, St. Francis Xavier, cameo by director of Juon, all comes together, because somehow just as with Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, it does. I actually found the “plot” of this film to be pretty cohesive, simple, and easier to follow than many of the other gorefest films I mentioned. And the sexual content is actually fairly minimal, esp in comparison. But the absurdity content is not, which is a good thing. I’ve seen other reviews complain about the low production values, they missed the point. I don’t have much complaints with the directing, there was maybe a scene I felt went on for too long, but in all the roller coaster ride worked well. I like the soundtrack, added to the absurdity of it all. I have to say I really enjoyed this movie. For fans of Japanese cult films, over the top gore fests, highly recommended for mature immature audience. For people who don’t get this kind of stuff, they’ll find much to be offended. I can’t believe with this title and all the promo materials that there were people who thought this was going to be a horror movie….
Got correct clutch slave and came home straight from work and installed. Then decided to look at engine slugishness. I started unplugging spark plug and when I got to #4 there was no change in engine smoothness, which meant cylinder 4 was not firing. Nuts. I could see plenty well that it was getting spark. I shut er down and pulled the spark plug. Completely dry and no smell of gas. Looks like something wrong with injector. Left to go meet the boys for ramen at rocket ramen, Yotekko-ya.
Got home, pulled out the multimeter, checked the wiring diagrams and service manual, and went out to take a look at the #4 injector. When I pulled the plug, it became obvious there was a problem. The pin contacts had come out of the connector. Well this would explain things. Just to be sure, I metered the injector to make sure it wasn’t burnt out. Pulled the boot (unfortunately cracking it in process), carefully pried out the retaining tabs, reinserted the contacts, put boot back and plugged it in. Now the test, how’s it run? Aaah, smooth. Buttoned things up and went for a test drive. Now this is what I was looking for! Rev response was snappy, power was what I was expecting. I was not hallucinating driving it yesterday and feeling kind of let down that it didn’t feel very strong. It would be with one fourth of it not running!
Looks like I might just make it to the SCCA event on Sunday, although the clutch won’t have much break in miles on it. See yah at the races!
OK, most of my Toyota’s are pretty good about this, but some designer/engineer was napping when they designed the clutch master cylinder in the AE86 Corolla. After all the engine and tranny work the past weeks, discovered the hydraulics were quite crusty and leaking. 
It was something I was intending to address from way back, but finally got the parts. So I figured this was going to be a quick and easy job, on the FX if you were motivated could be done in an hour. Not so here. For some reason someone at Toyota decided to put one mounting stud into the engine bay, behind the brake booster. In order to squeeze in a wrench and move it, you need to unbolt the brake booster from inside the foorwell. In order to gain easy access to those bolts, you need to remove some dash trim and drop the steering assembly. Sheesh. It’s done now, and then I discovered the clutch slave I bought is the wrong one, looks like its for the SR5 4AC model that has the slave mounted on the opposite side of the bell housing! Nuts! Looks like I’m not going to make the event this Sunday.
Oh my throbing middle finger…. I think every begining mechanic should be required to have and use a torque wrench. For some reason everyone seems compelled to over torque oil drain bolts. I guess since they are large bolts they can tolerate quite a bit of overtightening, but if you look in FSMs (factory service manuals) the torque spec is quite low, typicaly in the range of 15 ft lbs or even less. So I was out in the garage tonight, the heat is finally bearable, and was slowly putting things back together with the swapped engine. Figured I better drain the engine oil. Put the small 3/8 breaker on it and tugged at it. Ugh. Alright, fine, I’ll use the 1/2″ 20″ long breaker. I’m working at an awkward angle, so the bigger bar should make it easier. It works, eventually, and suddenly, unfortunately. Going in the pull direction is usually a good habit, but didn’t save me this time since my arms were extended and the angles were wierd. My middle finger met metal car. Amazingly I did not drop the bar, but I was cursing up a storm. Owwie! This was a good one, owwie!
That was it, I could barely muster removing the drain bolt. I’m done for today.
Oh wait, this engine was out of the original FX and the last person who worked on it and did an oil change on it… was me!