Bargain-bucket MR2

[The Arch Bishop]

As promised, back to the bucket!

It was time this weekend to change the knackered driver's side front wheel bearing. With the one purchased from TCB.



I wasn't expecting this to be a piece of cake, and I was right in that respect. There was no cake, only hammering.

First job was to get the front end jacked up in my rather tiny garage, remove the wheel, caliper and brake disc. Other than being a bit tight for access, this went swimmingly.

So to the bearing assembly itself! I was prepared for the four bolts that hold the assembly to the hub to be an absolute nightmare, but with my Bergen sockets and enough leverage, they spun off surprisingly well!



Now I admit that I hadn't read-up on doing this job before hand, so I expected the old assembly to drop off the moment I undid the last of the retaining bolts.

Ho. Ho. And indeed, ho.

As it turns out, this is well known as a pig of a thing to separate, as the two parts corrode together becoming as one. After the best part of two decades, my hub was established, settled and in no mood for some amateur to some along and upset the status quo.

Cue a healthy 30 mins or hammering, knuckle removal and suspected finger dislocation (it's alright now, I accidentally whacked it again which seems to have sorted it) before I doused it in more PlusGas and gave in for the night.

This morning, I attacked it again before, after a further 45 mins of hammering it about and swearing, I noticed a tiny gap forming.



Ah ha!!! A weakness!

After even more hammering and wedging with screwdrivers, it eventually gave in and dropped off! 



What I sorely lack in skills, I attempt to make up for with persistence!

So with that off, I've cleaned the inner face with some emery cloth and given it all a good wipe down. While I'm at it, I'm going to dunk the brake disc shield in some Bilt Hamber Deox solution and see what's left of it afterwards. The mounting holes currently stand at 2 and a bit with plenty of metal that can still sandwich between the parts, so while it's not the best and a new one would be ideal, I'll repaint this one. I'm not made of money after all.

I'm also going to paint the caliper while I'm there with my usual rust-killer/Hamerite combo. It's seemed to have lasted really well on the rear calipers, so may as well!

Once that's all done, I can put it back together which I'm expecting to be significantly easier...

[delhusband]

Always enjoy reading what you're up to with the progressively less buckety bucket 

[The Arch Bishop]

Always enjoy reading what you're up to with the progressively less buckety bucket 

It's still at a similar amount of buckety, but less of the bargain as time goes on! 

[The Arch Bishop]

Slow progress, but I have been whittling away in the garage over the last week. Job one was to dunk the brake disc shield in some Deox-C solution to get the rust off, after which I'd give it some rust killer and a coat of satin black. However, what came out of the bath was as frilly as your Nan's antimacassar...





In all honesty, I could have painted it up and sandwiched what was left back on there, but the chances of it dissolving further and causing problems wasn't worth the bother. They're not an MOT problem anyway, so in the skip it goes!

I fitted the new bearing assembly using a bit of copper grease (it's a cheap unbranded bearing from TCB so I may be replacing it again sooner rather than later) and a wooden drift to get it started and then tightening the bolts in sequence until tight. I would have torqued them to the correct 74NM, but I couldn't get the torque wrench in there so just went for doing them up pretty damn tight!

While I was there, I also gave the caliper a few coats of Hydrate and a couple of coats of Hamerite to match the rears. The rears have held up really well considering it got used over the winter and they clean up still, so expensive caliper paints may be better, but this does the job. I also did the disc centre while I was there.

Caliper is fitted just for painting at this point;





Waiting for paint to dry and I'm also away for a few days, but then I can get it back together and back on the road!

[Chilli Girl]

Well done for all the work Lee. I must admit I do enjoy people's progression and great results, I've learnt a lot thanks to you and others.

[The Arch Bishop]

Should have updated this before now, but I've managed a fair bit of tinkering over the last few days, so a bit more to report.

I did get it back on the road. for all of about 5 miles. Basically the wheel bearing sound was very much still there after all of that. Nnnnnnfffffffrrrrrrrr......

So on Friday, I asked Mrs. Arch Bishop to drive it for me while I sat in the passenger seat and pinpointed the source of the sounds. And how amused she was with me using strange hand cupping on my ears like some sort of BFG wannabe... But..... The sound was clearly coming from the passenger side front. "Oh glorious days! I get to do all of that again!"

So yes, I have to strip the other front bearing off as well.

Good times.

Oh, and the driver's side brake disc was red-hot, so the brakes had an issue as well.

The next day, I jacked the front up and confirmed both issues. The passenger bearing sounded like it had square bearings. The left hand side wouldn't turn easily. Giving the disc a tap would get the brakes unstuck but putting the brakes on would bind it up again. A new one on me....

So into the garage it went. Yesterday, I stripped down the driver's side hub and checked everything out. The sliders were new when I was sorting the first MOT. I pushed the piston out with a few pumps on the pedal and found that to be in great condition, so no problem there. Greased everything back up and reassembled but sadly no improvement. So I sacked it off for the evening and went and cooked a lovely steak instead.

Now as I've said many, many times in this thread, I am very much an amateur mechanic, and as such, every day is a learning day. I had a flick around on that there interweb for probable causes with. The only one I hadn't really a clue on was the possibility of the pads not sliding properly in the spring clips.

So I took everything back off and started again. Sure enough, when I took the pad carrier part of the caliper off, I couldn't get the pads out. They were wedged into the spring clips. After a bit of levering, I removed the pads and the spring clips to find that where they fit in, the carrier had quite a bit of corrosion.

I set about the carrier with  a flat blade and wire brush and carefully cleaned out the recesses;





As per the above images, the spring clips fit in the arrowed bits on both sides. Any corrosion in the bits arrowed mean that the spring clips close up enough to nip the ears of the brake pads meaning they won't slide.

So the spring clips and carriers were carefully cleaned up;



and everything put back together;



And it was a result! Brake no longer binds and everything working as it should. So the moral of this story? Pads should fit easily into the carrier. if they don't sort it out!!

I've a feeling that I should probably do the rest of the calipers on the car as i do get a fair bit of brake dust.

With that done and feeling like a boss, I started stripping down the other hub to get started on the other bearing. That one is also very comfy in its 20 year old home and not coming off without a fight, but I've already made progress and have saturated it with Plusgas in readiness for a sustained attack tomorrow.

In custard tart news, I haven't really seen it. Mrs. Arch Bishop borrowed it a few weeks ago and has basically claimed it as her own. Fair play. She's a convert. 

Although she has demanded a ICE upgrade, so a new double DIN DAB set up (with some better speakers) is on the cards. It looks like I'll be busy over the Summer!

[The Arch Bishop]

And the bearing is off! Still took about an hour of hammering action, but I'm getting good at these! 

Just need to wait for TCB to open tomorrow and I can get a new one fitted. On to cleaning up and painting the brake caliper...

[Bossworld]

Don't suppose you remember how the speed sensor connector clips into the hub?  I inadvertently shattered my nearside when replacing the wishbones, so had to replace the cable.

I now need to change the driver's side hub/bearing (MOT advisory) and with your pics/wisdom in mind, the only thing I hadn't thought about was how to properly unclip the speed sensor without it shattering into a hundred pieces again.

[The Arch Bishop]

Don't suppose you remember how the speed sensor connector clips into the hub?  I inadvertently shattered my nearside when replacing the wishbones, so had to replace the cable.

I now need to change the driver's side hub/bearing (MOT advisory) and with your pics/wisdom in mind, the only thing I hadn't thought about was how to properly unclip the speed sensor without it shattering into a hundred pieces again.

Yeah, the first one I did was an absolute arse to try and disconnect, until I worked out you have to poke a small flat-head screwdriver into the back of the connector to release it. There's a slot there to do this. This time I did it first time.

[The Arch Bishop]

Don't suppose you remember how the speed sensor connector clips into the hub?  I inadvertently shattered my nearside when replacing the wishbones, so had to replace the cable.

I now need to change the driver's side hub/bearing (MOT advisory) and with your pics/wisdom in mind, the only thing I hadn't thought about was how to properly unclip the speed sensor without it shattering into a hundred pieces again.

Yeah, the first one I did was an absolute arse to try and disconnect, until I worked out you have to poke a small flat-head screwdriver into the back of the connector to release it. There's a slot there to do this. This time I did it first time.

Here you go - took a quick pic while I was in the garage;



De-crudded the pad clips and then started to paint the last caliper tonight - 2 coats of Hydrate and then Hamerite tomorrow.

I also managed to grab the last hub in stock at TCB at lunch time. That's due to arrive tomorrow so I may have a fully working bucket again by the end of the week! 

[The Arch Bishop]

And we're back on the road!

I've done a fair amount over the last few evenings with the new bearing being the first job. Although it was the same price as the unbranded one from TCB, this one came in a branded box (Optimal - made in Germany). Again it seemed of decent quality, but I had a 'mare trying to get the ABS sensor connector to stay on it. The tab just wouldn't lock, so I filed down the bit on the hub just enough to get it to stay - whether it stays on there is another matter...

With the front end up in the air, I decided to strip down the caliper on the driver's side so I could clean up the pad clips in the same way as the passenger side. This went well enough. I also sorted out an error I'd made when fixing them last time - not hooking the dust seals over the lip on the slider bolts. You live and learn! The sliders were still in mint condition so no harm done!

So with the front end all done, it was time to see if I'd finally gotten rid of the hugely vocal noise the car had...

Success! Quiet as a mouse now for the first time since I've owned the bucket! Not a massive surprise - the bearing that I took off felt like it was full of shrapnel and glass. You could turn it by hand but it was like turning a ratchet - really notchy! It couldn't have been far off seizing. 

Not content with that, I backed the bucket into the garage as I thought I'd give the rear brakes a going over in the same way as the fronts. I also needed to do an oil change.

The rears weren't too bad as it turns out, but they do bind due to something not being right in the handbrake area. I popped the cable off of the worst offender to find that the wheel turned without a problem and would spin for days, but cable on and adjusted up for 7 clicks on the handbrake, and the brakes drag. Nothing is seized that I can tell - the cables move just fine. The handbrake arms on the calipers are perfect.... Odd... Still, least the handbrake actually works really well, so perhaps I shouldn't moan.

Final job, oil change which was fine. Not a great deal to report on that really other than the oil that came out was pretty clean, as you'd expect after only 3,000 miles. I honestly thought I'd done a lot more than that. I'll have to rectify that over the summer and whack some decent miles in!

No pictures this time - nothing interesting to take pictures of!

[Topdownman]

Good work!

Glad to hear it is working well now.

[The Arch Bishop]

Today was just a good old clean up for the bucket as it was looking pretty rough after the Winter. Now it still looks a bit rough, but at least it's shiny and rough!

Pictures (one day I'll take some of it somewhere other than just on the driveway - it does go out honestly)!

[Chriss]

In regards to the ABS sensor connector not staying on, is it possible to use a cable tie to hold it together?

[The Arch Bishop]

In regards to the ABS sensor connector not staying on, is it possible to use a cable tie to hold it together?

That might just work, but to be fair, I've driven to work this morning on the worst of Sussex roads and all is fine, so fingers crossed! I'll keep it as a back-up plan!

[Chilli Girl]

Today was just a good old clean up for the bucket as it was looking pretty rough after the Winter. Now it still looks a bit rough, but at least it's shiny and rough!

Pictures (one day I'll take some of it somewhere other than just on the driveway - it does go out honestly)!

Looks great Lee, good effort.  Will I be seeing it at Ding Day I wonder?

[The Arch Bishop]

Certainly not this year, but one day!

Both cars are going on the Owners Club stand at "For the love of cars" show at Hickstead in mid-August though. Should be good!

Both cars ready for Summer this year, unlike last year! 

[Chilli Girl]

An early facelift and an early pre-facelift, great pair together.

[The Arch Bishop]

An early facelift and an early pre-facelift, great pair together.

Psssssst..... Still prefer the pre-facelift.... 

[The Arch Bishop]

Well it's been a while, dear reader, but the silver bucket hasn't used for a few weeks due to a small snafu in the floods we had a couple of weeks ago. The bucket and I fear no weather (other than blizzards - I'm not a mad man) so set off back home after work after a day of torrential rain. about 4 miles into the journey we came across a stretch of flood water across the country lane. It wasn't too deep, so into first gear and keep the revs up. Ahoy skipper!

Within seconds, this bravery was rewarded with my legs being pressure-washed with dirty ditch water.

It would appear that my bucket had sprung a leak.

The journey home was fairly unpleasant, with every roundabout depositing a fresh trickle of cold water hiding under the dashboard, down my trouser legs.

We made it home without any electrical issues - a surprise seeing as the water had been sprayed quite liberally around the back of the dashboard.

Back home, it wasn't difficult to find the problem;



This had a small cut in it when I changed the steering UJ, but it clearly hadn't survived!

I ordered another one which arrived the other day, so this afternoon, I set about changing it - basically removing the UJ again. THis also gave me another crack at straightening my steering wheel - it being crooked having made me a bit twitchy with the old OCD.



I made a few marks, which didn't really help but allowed me to know what was straight.



Having been done last year, the UJ came off easily enough, and the remainder of the seal was recovered for the bin;



and soon everything was back in place;



Haven't had time to drive it yet to see if it's anything approaching straight, but I've left the trim out so that I can have another go and then re-grease the UJ.

Hopefully, I'll have dry feet next time the heavens open...

Custard tart has been been involved in a custody battle between my wife and I in the meantime obviously!

More soon hopefully!

[StuC]

Custard tart has been been involved in a custody battle between my wife and I in the meantime obviously!

We have a perfect solution to this problem.

[The Arch Bishop]

Custard tart has been been involved in a custody battle between my wife and I in the meantime obviously!

We have a perfect solution to this problem.

Is it divorce, because I rather like my wife!

[StuC]

Custard tart has been been involved in a custody battle between my wife and I in the meantime obviously!

We have a perfect solution to this problem.

Is it divorce, because I rather like my wife!

Nope... we have a yellow one each!!

[The Arch Bishop]

Custard tart has been been involved in a custody battle between my wife and I in the meantime obviously!

We have a perfect solution to this problem.

Is it divorce, because I rather like my wife!

Nope... we have a yellow one each!!

Nah, two MR2s are enough for us!

Went out to see if the tiller was straight and it was still crooked, so I had another go and got it to a respectably straight-ahead position.

With that sorted, I greased up the UJ again and put the frunk back together, shattering a few push pins in the process. Luckily, I've ordered stuff from Mr. Sloan before, so I had a collection of MR2 fixings to replace them with!

Job done!

[Topdownman]

Surely that is a custardy battle?


I'll get my coat...