Quote from: Call the midlife! on February 13, 2019, 00:16

Quote from: Bossworld on February 12, 2019, 23:12
Someone at work who's seen the project photos on Facebook asked if I've ever had chance to drive the car 

Small update - changed to Borg and Beck discs all around, just standard, vented ones. Old grooved ones were looking scabby and following some bargain Amazon purchases made sense to swap them out for these coated ones. Lots of sets of pads on Amazon for a fiver at the minute, full set of four discs ran me £45.

Changed the steering union and boot out for replacement Toyota items. The part that meets the upper UJ has a double wide spline so you can't go wrong. The rack end doesn't, but I'm 90% confident I either got it right, or within one spline.

Speaking of adjustments, while doing the brakes I brought the tracking in on both sides by twice the width of a ten pence coin. It looks straighter at least.

Will be getting new tyres and a front alignment when the car is back on the road but figured a temporary neutral/toe in stance was safer than a toe out.

Nope, can't find theses bargains discses anywhere on t'Amazon my precious... not for £45 all round?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Check the thread I made in the 'members only' events area. Amazon regularly sells the one remaining stock item at a knockdown price before it shoots back up. There's currently a single disc (different brand) for sale for £1.51 so in that scenario you'd just need to source the other single for a relatively cheap pair. Pm'd you the link




The Borg and Beck fronts can be got for £35 from eBay for what it's worth - I was sent a £5 off voucher for eBay.

Remember you can include the Yaris Verso in an Amazon filtered search when looking at front discs.

All appreciated.[emoji1303]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Car is now running 4 Avon ZV7 tyres in stock facelift sizes.  Rides much better particularly over bumps. 

The brakes are now pretty much bedded in, 150 miles later.  Will start to go harder on them as the weather improves but they feel great.

I'm in the middle of buying components for a suspension refresh.  It's going to have to wait until next winter but I've got some discounts on some parts so far.

Also, swapped the steering wheel out for a Momo boss and OMP Trecento Uno wheel (300mm).  It's a lot smaller than stock, but for someone of my height it makes a massive difference in the drivability of the car.

1 x MOT failure on inside CV boot, let the garage sort that for £100 inc. gearbox oil (happy enough at that).

Had an advisory on a slightly noisy front offside wheel bearing.  I'd noticed previously that the nearside looked to have been replaced.  Fortunately I'd picked up a Japanparts hub brand new from Amazon for £26 a couple of months ago.

Wasn't too bad a job, some of the bolts were welded in place with rust but plenty of penetrating oil and a bit of heat + irwins and they came out.

My poor hand copped for it with the hammer, removing the old hub though.

Long awaited suspension refresh finally complete.

Out with the old (which I'm more convinced than ever have been on 14 years/done 135k miles):



Was able to rescue my rear drop links which were changed roughly 2 years ago, so there's a few quid saved.

On with the new - bought from Tom on here having covered 15k. I've given the bases a quick lick of hammerite. 



I also fitted new 'Japanparts' top mounts which are a sealed bearing, and ever so slightly taller than stock:





Initial impressions are that it seems more compliant on the roads, although I've only had a quick blast to the supermarket and back.  The old top mounts were moving albeit not particularly smoothly, even after packing them with grease.

I'm sure this job is possible with just a breaker bar, but found my newly acquired windy gun made it a doddle.  The only casualties were one of the speed sensor mounting bolts ( found some replacement machine screws in my toolbox which were an exact fit so took the opportunity to get rid of the cable tied effort on the other side), and one of the brake hose mounting bolts (cut a replacement M8 down to size with the grinder).

Car is now SORN'd for winter and up on four axle stands

Done
- Grease clutch pivot fork (famous last words but it looks more accessible now the car is up on all four corners) - Done - Needed two attempts. post cat O2 cable needs securing, looks like the outer covering has been touching the exhaust - Done
- air inlet looks like it needs plugging back in/aligning behind the bumper - Done
- (possibly) fit an aerial/dab splitter - Parking this one for now.  Took the A pillar cover off and noticed the grounding strap wasn't fully on the metal of the body.  Put it back on.  Still no signal for Absolute 80s in the garage but that's nothing new.
- New instrument LEDs - done and much brighter
- speaker upgrade to Vibe components
- New sump (couple of the bolts look really rusty so hoping they don't shear)
- Replace tensioner O ring and clean up the lower block.
- Cleaned exhaust tips, replaced clamps and hangers.
- New fully synthetic oil (been running semi synth from Toyota for the last two or three services)
- New oil filter (Bosch this time)

Fortnightly start up and air con run complete. I've changed MAF for one from a breaker, noticed the air intake from the wing wasn't connected to the pipe to the Airbox so rectified that.

Also cable tied the O2 sensor while the rear light was out, as it's looking a little bit like it's been touching the exhaust in places.

Took delivery of a new clutch slave, figured while I've got the old one unbolted to grease around the pivot fork I may as well change it and the fluid. I've read that bleeding the clutch is a fun task so I've got that to look forward to.

Can't make my mind up on these DAB aerial splitters.

Today, went a bit too far, picked up a new slave for £6 from Amazon so felt I might as well do it rather than just trying greasing the fork.

The old slave wasn't in bad fettle, though interally, behind the piston and spring there was some visible corrosion, presumably from 15 years of water getting into the fluid.  The hard line and the bleed nipple unbolted easily, shows the difference in comparison to brake bleeders that take the brunt of the weather

• emptied clutch master reservoir
• changed clutch slave
• greased everything
• refilled and bled system

The stuff that came out was a filthy consistency so it certainly needed doing, clutch feels light again.

But... IT STILL BLOODY SQUEAKS! If you play about with the pedal it's about at the point of engagement so I'm lost as to what's causing metal on metal squeaking. Removed the boot to grease the pivot pin, the slave is new and the contact point on the fork also got new grease.

Don't know what the top prongs of the fork connect to but guess that may be the ultimate source, in which case I'll just have to live with it as the clutch is only 6k old.

Bleeding - not as hard as people make out, with one exception. I let the system get completely dry, as I wanted the master cylinder emptied.  Whoops.  Couldn't get anything to draw through from the master cylinder, was about to look into bench bleeding it.  But, I unhooked the cotter pin from the clutch pedal, detatched the rod, and manually actuated it by hand (wear padded gloves).  Took about 20 goes, but it got fluid down the system again, and then was able to bleed as normal. 

What came out



Emptied and cleaned



Before greasing pivot


After

Decided to tackle the noisy clutch again.  Had shot some white grease through the opening in the boot but decided that was a stupid ploy - won't know if it's caused any issue until the car's back on the road in March.

This time, unbolted the slave but left the lines attached.  Tricker than it appears due to the lack of flex in the hard line.

Took the boot off again, shone the torch up using a mirror (could really do with a smaller, non-bathroom mirror and it didn't seem that the grease had got to where it needed to be.  Really moved the fork about this time, used cotton buds to get any remaining gunk out of the visible pivot pin.  Regreased using cotton buds and really poked it around.

Put everything back together, surprisingly the boot went straight back on, even in the difficult corner.

It's now silent.  I've tested it four days in a row and it's still silent.  I daren't celebrate just yet, but it feels like salvation is around the corner.

--

Also noticed the DAB aerial grounding adhesive thing wasn't fully on the metal behind the A pillar trim so I've put that back down.  I can't find any conclusive opinion as to whether the aerial splitters are any good so I've parked that idea for now.

Changed my instrument LEDs - see thread https://www.mr2roc.org/forum/index.php?topic=68725.new#new



Decided on my speakers, then also decided rather than keeping the original wiring (where the woofers piggyback off the tweeter connector), I'd just lop it off and use BT jelly crimps to the new crossovers.

Speakers ran me £34 from Halfords after a couple of discounts, looks like they'll fit ok but I'll need to find a way to secure the tweeter to the door card.  Was a bit of a struggle finding somewhere to secure the crossover and I'm concerned about water ingress but I guess we'll see.

https://www.halfords.com/technology/car-audio/car-speakers/vibe-slick-6-component-car-speakers

Speaker swap finished

Mixed results.  Did as close to an A/B test as possible by having the original kit still on the driver's side, and although the Toyota kit is undoubtedly 'muddy', and my new ones clearer, the Toyota one has more low end to it.

I suspect, that the crossovers are potentially cutting the lows off the door woofers too.  Not the end of the world as I have a sub in the bins, but certainly sounds different.

First time out I reassembled the driver's side and had no sound at all.  Connected up the tweeter to test, still no sound, turned out I'd not fed the cable properly into the metal teeth of the jelly crimp.

I've tucked the tweeter terminal connections under the half moon plate by the top of the grab handle, so I can easily undo them if I ever need to take the door cards off again.

Luckily the door woofers are quite nicely covered by the new plastic rings so I'm not concerned about water ingress on them.  I made some little splash/drip covers over the cross overs, by cutting up a self-seal food bag lol.

I did have to use a coping saw to take a portion out of the new plastic adaptor rings as the speaker terminals were fouling them.  Also found it a little tricky to line up all four holes, almost like the adaptors would be better with 16cm speakers rather than 16.5 but I believe they are just different naming conventions for the same thing.

Speaker adaptors came with some adaptor wires which I checked would definitely fit the MR2 connectors, but I've lopped them off as otherwise you're left with a redundant wire where the tweeter used to take its feed from. 

Will do a more indepth write up for others to find in the future, but here's the pics

Took the tailpipes off on Friday night, bought replacement clamps and rubber hangers on Saturday, polished up the tips and re-fitted this morning.  It looks like exhaust gasses/vapour have speeded up corrosion of the clamps - these clamps lasted 3 years.

I added a smidge of RTV sealant to either side of the rings, we'll see how they fair this time out.  The driver's side went on OK; the passenger, well, I know levelling a TTE is a dark art but perhaps due to the newer exhaust hanger I struggled with the passenger side.  I know the clamp does a good job of getting everything pulled in together and tight but I'm not 100% sure that the connection and the gasket is as straight as it should be.  Guess we'll see how these fair.

Also had to re-use the better condition exhaust hanger as the one at the top left of the engine bay was well and truly done for.

Also:
- Removed oil filter
- Removed sump - top tip, if you're scrapping the old sump anyway, use a hammer on the sump drain plug to break the sealant between the sump and engine.  I'd put a couple of scraper blades through it as recommended by Carolyn but hitting it really speeded up the process.
- Cleaned up the edge and fitted new sump.
- Fitted a new Viton o-ring to the chain tensioner.   The block has oil on it so I'm guessing it was leaking from there again but I'll find out for sure when the car's back on the road.  The old o-ring seemed quite sloppy.



All that's left is to:
- Fit the new oil filter
- Make sure that the sump drain plug on the new one, is correctly torqued.
- Add oil
- Put the car back on the floor, and rock back and forth to re-engage the tensioner.

I tried turning the wheels with the car in 4th but it didn't activate the tensioner.  Noticed that as one went forward, the other looked to be going the other way - is that the LSD in operation?

Good progress. Was interested in the speakers. 
Give them a good working for a while and then I'd be keen to have a listen including the subwoofer. 

As for the wheels turning in opposite directions, yes that's the LSD 

I really need to get my exhaust off, clean it up, open it up and repack it, and sort the clamps. And wrap everything properly.

Quote from: shnazzle on February 16, 2020, 18:47Good progress. Was interested in the speakers.
Give them a good working for a while and then I'd be keen to have a listen including the subwoofer.

As for the wheels turning in opposite directions, yes that's the LSD

I really need to get my exhaust off, clean it up, open it up and repack it, and sort the clamps. And wrap everything properly.

I think they're sounding a bit better (have treated myself to a quiet 10 mins in the car listening to music the other night) but yep sure, will need to try and make it out to some kind of meet in 2020, 2019 was a quiet one for me

Thanks for confirmation on the LSD, thought I was seeing things at first.  Probably could try and turn the crankshaft but I prefer the rock it back and forth approach so I'll do that when it's grounded again.

My biggest fear with the exhaust would be undoing/redoing where it connects to the cat, but I recall you've had a replacement more recently than me?  Either way given the age of them, and the cheap price, it's worth renewing the rubbers, clamps and gaskets if nothing else.  Curious to see if the silicon makes any difference, there certainly wasn't any on there from new.

Last night:

- New Bosch oil filter fitted - I now own an oil filter strap wrench so no more knocking a screwdriver through the old one to remove it next time:)
- Torqued the sump plug to 37nm (was slightly lower)
- Filled up with Castrol fully synth Magnatec C3 - have been running with the Toyota semi synth for the last couple of services
- Reinstalled dip stick
- Dropped car back down, rocked back and forth in fourth, heard the click (though always like to worry about it, so will inevitably end up taking the chain tensioner back off just to prove it had done it)

All ready to rock and roll on 1 March.  I may quickly clean and re-seal the headlights before it sees the light of day again, but frankly I'm looking forward to putting all the tools away!

I've noticed a little corrosion on the battery terminals, which I guess must have happened from being left on trickle charge/conditioning.  Also slightly concerned about the underside rust but we'll see what Mr MOT man says in the spring.

Started her up again yesterday.  Haven't had chance to do the headlights so that'll certainly wait while it's warmer.  Put all the tools away which is my most hateful part of winter maintenance!

Drove back and forth between the garage and drive way, doesn't seem to be slipping but will only know when it's out for a run (hopefully this Sunday unless we get some more terrible winter weather).  I took the clutch pedal out by half a turn of the rod which has improved the bite point; perhaps I've just got used to driving the Mini again after three months.

Clutch seems fine and in an attempt at a clean sweep of tempting fate: the action is great, it's not squeaking and it's back to being very light.

Transpires my DAB issues must be the 12v to 5v USB adaptor I've got hard wired via a fuse tap. Not really sure what alternatives are out there though.

It still takes longer to crank on a hot start (and that's with it being cold outside today). Does anyone have any thoughts? All I can think of is something like the charcoal cannister or an earth that's affected by heat? I swear blind the starter motor noise changed when they did the clutch but don't know enough to make an informed judgement.

I did have issues with hot starts sometimes and that turned out to be the nut holding the power connector to the starter motor was just not quite tight.

Quote from: Topdownman on March  1, 2020, 18:58I did have issues with hot starts sometimes and that turned out to be the nut holding the power connector to the starter motor was just not quite tight.

Cheers mate I'll check that one out

Well, it's the end of the road for me as an MR2 owner. 14,000 miles in four years is probably less than expected and I've enjoyed doing this project (save for the difficulties caused by rusty bolts). Had some fantastic runs out through the Scottish Borders too.

'Tiny car' is now in the hands of his new owner, complete with black hard top and other than TTE banana, TTE exhaust and badge changes, pretty much back to stock. Crystal clear new headlights on too.

Thanks everyone it's been great fun

Go well sir. Thank you for all your contribution, company and generosity.

  Fair play you have in your time done some great work on your 2 and have good input in the club.
must be  hard to see it go to new owner when you now have such a spot on 2.

the new owner should be well happy with it for  sure

at least for now you still got the other 2 to look at may be the odd drive out.

stick with us and pop up some comments from time to time too.