Deutsch Hose

Published on May 10, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

Received my order from Belmetric.com. Prompt processing, shipping and reasonable rates. They specialize in metric hardware, of which hose was what I wanted. Hard to find metric hose, usually just end up buying the closest sized standard size hose. Hose stretches so you can make it work, but usually if the OEM used spring type clamps, they won’t clamp tight enough. This is for fuel lines, so even more so I wanted the correct size. Thus these lines from German company Flennor. There seems to be some noise about timing belts from Flennor not fitting correctly. I guess we shall see about the quality of these hoses. They look fine.

And I should probably not mix languages, that titled would actually be German Pants.

Beer Is Good – Sam Adams Noble Pils

Published on May 6, 2017 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

Part of Sam Adams latest variety pack, of which I did not buy as it did not have much I was interested in. Pours clear medium dark yellow with medium head. Hop forward aroma, bitterness that lingers throughout. Hint of citrus note. Clean mouthfeel.

I can’t say this is one of my more likeable pilsners, no skunk funk and not overly floral, but still a bit more hoppy than I’d like.

2.5 out 4 noble monkeys.

 

Pump It Up

Published on May 6, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

Haven’t gotten the new hoses yet, but I put back together what I had and replaced the worst condition hose with the closest non-metric last night. Put some gas in and fired it up. Pump is definitely quiet now. Driveability is harder to determine, there does seem to be more power. The standing start freeway merge gets pretty nutty when you bang it all the way to 7500 before shifting, it makes the tires burnout when you drop into second. Unfortunately the dying out when clutching in coming to a stop came back. At first I though it was cured, but alas no joy there. There should be half a tank of gas now, despite what the gauge says. That’s another common problem of Corollas of this vintage, the gas level senders go bad. I tried taking it apart and doing the bend the armature trick, which helped. Oh yeah, another little rant. Finding the fuel sender gasket is proving to be impossible! Found an aftermarket, but it’s dubious that its the correct size. Finally found somewhere to order it from, it’ll be a $6 experiment so no big loss. It’s not available separately from Toyota, you need to order the entire sender, which isn’t cheap. So for now it’s back together with the slightly torn original. It’s not too critical as its not under a lot of pressure and does not seem to be leaking.

Anyway, if I can solve the stalling at occasional stop problem, it’d be pretty nice.

3D

Published on May 6, 2017 in car and Gear by taro. Closed

RI found out Ckucky just got a little 3D printer, and I had the perfect small project for it. Every FX I’ve owned has a problem with the headlight aiming. What it is is there is a ball and socket joint at one corner where the plastic socket piece cracks. Junkyard doesn’t do much good as chances are more than good that they are all cracked, if you can even find it. Haven’t tried Toyota parts, body parts this old generally aren’t available anymore. I’ve just used zip ties till now, it kind of works. Continue reading ‘3D’

Fueling Woes

Published on May 5, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

Started looking into the driveability issues with the rally FX. First off I learned that the Air Flow Meter for the 20v engine is not the same, even though it plugs in. Supposedly a Camry one works, so I got one and it seems to run a little better. Unfortunately even in this Internet age, I can’t find the specs for the 20v AFM.

Next up was the fuel pump. After the rallycross, it seemed to have gotten noisy, but the other night when I went for test drive it was quiet. Well, I pumped out what gas I could and then worked on dropping the tank to get the pump out. Ordered replacement Denso from Amazon, it’s actually listed for LandCruiser but guys are using it for AE86’s and Corollas, physically it’s identical. When I finally got the pump out, what the heck? The strainer teabag thing looked like this, totally gone! So somewhere along the way it disintegrated and who knows where the bits ended up. I’m sure the pump is not happy about this. I just hope there isn’t pieces stuck in the lines somewhere.

I got the pump changed, with new strainer. I found a source for metric sized hoses and am waiting for those to arrive in to replace the hoses on the gas tank. I’ll post on those and where I got them when they arrive.

Ruff Stuff

Published on April 26, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

The ongoing saga of the rally FX, I was able to put the repaired transmission back in and made the event. Unfortunately had engine driveablity issues, at one point on my last run it stalled out and would not restart. At the end of the day, it did start and I got home under my own power, so that was good. Waiting on a replacement fuel pump ordered from, yes, Amazon. In the meantime, the parts I ordered from Ruffstuffspecialties came in. No, they are not a brand of questionable prophylactics, they sell parts catering to off road vehicle fabrication. I got a bunch of their “bushed DOM sleeves” in custom length of 2″. My plan is to fabricate replacement engine/transaxle mounts with these. The one I welded solid seems to be creating too much stress. In fact when I crawled under after the event, the bracket had come loose from the bellhousing again. No damage to the threads, but this just wasn’t going to work. The bracket was also deformed and not sitting flush.

Continue reading ‘Ruff Stuff’

Beer is Good – Sam Adams Fresh As Helles

Published on April 25, 2017 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

Pours clear medium telliw with medium head. Fairly strong floral hops aroma. Some grain flavors come through. Thankfully hops bitterness is controlled and pretty low. Medium mouthfeel.

For a “hop forward” beer, its not horrible, I personally give it a little over 2 out 4 helle monkeys because my dislike of strong hop beers. Others might like it more.

 

 

Not Excellent Saturday

Published on April 15, 2017 in Uncategorized by taro. Closed

Got the FX together in time, got to Kualoa ranch. Looks like there had been some rain earlier, but course was dry. Weather was clear all day, blazing hot in the sun, but pleasant in the shade.

Did decently well in the morning runs, the FX was still having random bogs of no power. Every once in a while itll die when coming to a stop and clutching in. Trying to figure if its ECU, which Ive had to do the infamous capacitor replacements. Also noticed the valvetrain still clatters like a diesel, even after the rebuild. Ive read that VVT on the 20v at this age starts to go and sounds like that, maybe its that?

And then on my last run of the day, it completly shut down. Starter would turn engine, but it wouldnt run. Roll starting didnt work. Towed back to pit. Put in the hig battery and it started, but i noticed a pretty loud humming. Seems the fuel pump is going. It runs and im almost home, picking up dinner at Saigons, so its not dead, but better change it. Not really surprised, in the past it sat with old fuel. The 20v injectors were clogged badly when i sent those in for service. This will be fun, have to drop the tank to change that.

Ted’s to the Rescue

Published on April 13, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

Told Ted’s that I have event on Saturday so they came through and repaired the bellhousing. They actually had it done yesterday. I picked it up today and spent the night installing. I tried something a little different in my arrangement of jacks, hoist, and straps, it didn’t seem to make it go that much better. And then I ran into a snag getting the CV shaft to go back in, the spring clip on one side was a bit too open. FInally ended up grabbing a clip from another shaft. It got really late so I didn’t quite get everything together, but all the difficult stuff is done.

Coral Trout

Published on April 8, 2017 in Food by taro. Closed

Found at Don Quixote yesterday, what is labeled as “Coral Trout”, place of origin listed as Christmas Island. Interesting, there were a couple other fishes from there too. Guess they’re experimenting on bringing in fresh fish from varied sources? For a while was seeing some out of the usual from Japan. This one is quite vividly colored, got a couple comments in the check out line. Thankfully for the internet, learned that this is a pretty highly regarded food fish found in western pacific, so I went for it and bought one. At $14/lb it was not cheap, but not way up there like they sometimes charge for something like Nabeta.

Cooked it for dinner tonight, Chinese steamed black bean style. I can report it was good. Firm moist white flesh. The skin is thick though, might be interesting broiled. Steamed the skin was kinda rubbery.