Quote from: jvanzyl on July  4, 2023, 15:57I see your progress with things is glacial like me..

tell me about it, was supposed to have been back on the road and sold by this Spring time. I've still to finish undoing all the "doing" I did for the turbo build and put it back together.
It's currently got semi standard suspension on the front and Meisters on the rear.
But that's all academic seeing as it's sat on axle stands 😂

Slower going today. Two trailing arms off (albeit faster than when I took the passenger side ones off).





Spent some time trying to pull the passenger side drive shaft out- can anyone remind me the way you get it out? I seem to remember @shnazzle  telling me to just whack it with a cold chisel or something a few years back.. not sure if I remembered wrong?

Had another go at the drivers side suspension arms- unfortunately the nut furthest to the front rounded and despite my best efforts remains in place.







Turns out my beloved Irwin grip nut set doesn't reach up to 17/19mm. So I've ordered the "expansion pack" which should do the trick but it'll only arrive next week.

Any way- managed to get the drivers side drive shaft out with relative ease, which was nice. But the passenger side remains in place! You can't whack It through from the gearbox can you.. 

@jvanzyl

John, I've  not removed the rear arms, but recently removed/ replaced the front wishbones. The horizontal fixing on those is secured by a non slip nut and requires the bolt head, not the nut, to be turned to best remove the fixing.

Quote from: Joesson on July  5, 2023, 20:56@jvanzyl

John, I've  not removed the rear arms, but recently removed/ replaced the front wishbones. The horizontal fixing on those is secured by a non slip nut and requires the bolt head, not the nut, to be turned to best remove the fixing.

Thanks    I did turn the bolt head but when it came to holding the nut in place it rounded unfortunately.

Victory today!


Next up is the clutch release cylinder... (according to the manual) but it's behind the front engine Mount- so I think I'll remove that next and then do the cylinder.

So my nice Irwin grip nuts arrived yesterday... like a muppet I've already broken one.  Basically going to have to cut the nut off.. 




But on the plus side I've finally found a solution to lifting the camper!





Yes sirreee, a yellow lab is all you need. They are surprisingly strong and obedient when laying under 3tons..

But in all seriousness I just discovered that you can turn these things horizontally and with the extension plates they can then reach the Jack points at 1.6m apart.

Looking forward to being able to get round to the jobs I couldn't/wouldn't do before.

Exciting, I am sure you will have the car finished very quickly now!

(Labs are good with spanners).

Quote from: Topdownman on July 11, 2023, 12:13Exciting, I am sure you will have the car finished very quickly now!

(Labs are good with spanners).

lol - well maybe not quickly but a bit more safely at least!

Today I FINALLY managed to get the stupid rusted, rounded seized nut off... will need to find a new one.






So now I can refurbish the whole set, and do the CV boots... oh and then get back on track for the clutch (turbo build).

Quote from: jvanzyl on July 11, 2023, 12:42lol - well maybe not quickly but a bit more safely at least!

Today I FINALLY managed to get the stupid rusted, rounded seized nut off... will need to find a new one.






So now I can refurbish the whole set, and do the CV boots... oh and then get back on track for the clutch (turbo build).

I've got quite a few spares.  Let me know the specs and I'll have a look.

Quote from: Carolyn on July 11, 2023, 14:08I've got quite a few spares.  Let me know the specs and I'll have a look.

Thats very kind of you! Thank you! I'll have to go and measure the other (un mangled) side and come back to you!

Started refurbishing the arms.

Continued work on the arms. Used my compressor and spray gun for the first time. My gosh it takes a while to clean the thing up...

Anyway- I've done several coats of the derusting stuff... I'm not sure if I've been doing it right and whether you keep applying and brushing till the surface is smooth.. but I'm bored doing that now and thought stuff it let's just do the primer.

Will see what it dries like tomorrow.

And I thought my work bench is messy!

Back to the messy workbench this evening. Managed to get 4/6 of the arms wet sanded (600 grit) down. Definitely some high spots!

Will hopefully get the other two done tomorrow and then give them all another cost of the primer.

In terms of colour, I'm planning on oem black. I was thinking I might go with the grey blue- but I can't find the can.. so black it is!

Finished sanding first primer coat.. I'm still suspicious of the rust converter I got.. and then I discovered that one of the suspension arms has a slight bend!    This would make sense of the messed up rear crash bar I discovered a while back.

So options are to put out an appeal for a suspension arm (see wanted section), buy a replacement from Japan (will get full set for £330) or spend even more on those hard race things. Not keen on spending more money for a while due to the quickjack expenditure.. so will see what the wanted section dredges up!

Try J-Spec.

Quote from: Carolyn on July 18, 2023, 19:41Try J-Spec.

Good shout- I'll call in the morning.

Right J-spec came through.
They're slightly more expensive than eBay but I'd prefer to support and actual MR2 breaker.

In other news I started on the cv joints.


Got one end all nice and cleaned up ready for the boot but then the little circlip thing pinged off into the corner of the shed (a bad part- no chance of recovery) so I'm going to have to find another one of those then! 

Right! I have completed 3/4 of my CV boots. Awaiting delivery of circlip and suspension arm from @J-SPEC circa Tuesday (thank you! ).

Having been through (most) of it so far, I'm realising why it's a job done infrequently. But if I were to do it again I'm sure I'd be neater and get less of it on me.

A good job well done, John.

Quote from: Carolyn on July 23, 2023, 18:59A good job well done, John.

Thank you!

Todays update.
Got the two bolts holding the clutch slave cylinder off.

Took off the front engine chassis Mount.

Took off the bolts holding the starter motor in place. Unplugged the cable but it's left in situ for now.

Was a bit of a mission trying to get access to everything. But certainly happy I've taken out coolant as it means getting to the second starter motor bolt was significantly easier!

Are you taking the engine out, or just the gearbox? 

Quote from: Carolyn on July 24, 2023, 14:50Are you taking the engine out, or just the gearbox? 

Just the gearbox... have been following the workshop manual, so I'm fairly sure that there are things I probably didn't have to do. The coolant had to be drained anyway as I'm renewing the radiators and I struggled to get to the gear cable linkages with the coolant pipes in the way.