1986 MX72 Toyota Cressida Build "Joby" Part 11

3/9/14

Limit straps installed. Bottom is bolted to the upper arm bolts and the top is fed through slots cut in the floor of the trunk and held in place with crossbolts. Not super ideal but hey it works.

3/18/14

Ever since I bought the car the HVAC controls have been very hit or miss. There are four fan speeds: Auto, Off, Low, and High. Off obviously worked, but Low never did and High was intermittent. Basically to have any fan at all I'd have to use Auto which varies in speed depending on the temperature in the car. So I overheard somebody talking about a blower motor resistor pack. I'd never heard of it so I googled and low and behold it could be the issue. So I looked it up at work and it was a whopping $12. Discontinued. One left in the country. Bought. Installed. Fixed. Here's the old one. Several broken connections, deteriorated metal, and generally garbage condition.

Here's the new one. So shiny and functional-looking.

SUCCESS!

3/31/14

Just ordered one of these pretty babies. This comes after freaking myself out by scraping my subframe while shuffling cars around my driveway. I figured my oil pan could use a little extra protection.

4/7/14

I swapped out the front parking light peanut bulbs for some LED's and holy god are they bright. And awesome. I did the same on my MR2 (euro dual bulb housings ftw) and it just looks awesome.Tomorrow my skid plate should be arriving, but more importantly weather permitting I will probably be putting the car in the air and pulling the diff out to investigate my clunk. I'm almost positive it's the spider gears. I'm going to bring the diff into work and have one of the mechanics look at it (the guy restores vintage Land Cruisers, so he knows a thing or two about diffs). The fix will consist of either new shim washers to get proper clearance of the spider gears (like $10), or a spider gear kit with new gears (like $165, with only two left in the country last I checked). So hopefully I'll be rid of this awful rear end clunk relatively soon.

4/8/14

I got the diff out today. I think there are some clearance issues with both the spider gears AND the ring/pinion. Neither are terrible, but I think a combination of the two is leading to too much play. I'll be taking it in to work with me tomorrow. Hopefully one of the techs will be able to help me sort it out. Also, this came in

4/14/14

Long story short, talked to guy 3 hours away about buying his axle. Arrange time/place over facebook chat. I show up, he's nowhere to be found, not responding to messages. Time wasted, kinda pissed.So, I ordered $25 worth of different sized shims and stuff to re-adjust the stock diff to eliminate the clunk. Looks like I get to learn how to clearance a diff. Hooray.This evening I started working on the diff. Keep in mind I've never done anything like this before so this is all new to me. I started by removing the retaining lock things for the diff carrier adjuster bolt things (yeah there's going to be a lot of that sort of language in here. Sue me.) and then removing the two caps that hold the diff into the 3rd member. I was careful to mark everything so it all goes back exactly the way it came apart. Here's my workspace:

Here's one of the races for the big diff bearings. Both of them looked great.

The bar that the spider gears ride on is held in with a little pin that is staked in the housing. That took some persuading to remove, but once I figured out it only comes out one way, I got it.Here's one of the offending articles: the passenger side axle gear adjusting shim. This one is pretty much exactly 1mm thick. I don't recall the thickness of the ones I ordered, but it was over 1mm which is good.

And the left (driver's) side shim washer: 1.01mm

So now as far as that goes, I'm waiting on parts from Toyota. They were all in a warehouse in California so it will probably be Friday or early next week before I see them.I did however have a pinion oil seal (two, actually which as it turns out was a good thing) and nut already from when I rebuilt the axle last summer. I never used them but now I can! So basically I used a punch to un-stake the pinion nut and my steering wheel puller to pull the flange off. Unfortunately when I put the oil seal in I forgot to put in the bearing oil deflector so I had to destroy that new seal getting it back out. Luckily I had accidentally ordered two pinion seals last summer so I had a spare. So now the pinion is all back together and shouldn't need to be re-adjusted since I never messed with the bearing. Here's the new seal:

So now we wait on shim washers. I also ordered a dial indicator with magnetic base from Amazon so I can check my backlash and such. Also in that order is some awesome DEI gold heat reflector tape that I'm gonna go crazy with in the MR2 engine bay. Woo hoo!

 

1986 MX72 Cressida Wagon Build "Joby" Part 10

1/21/14
Pretty pretty snow pics

And one of the MR2

2/3/14
Got a call back from Coilsprings.com over the weekend. They are starting to design my springs. Apparently they tested the stock one I sent in and the rate was like 140lbs/in or something stupid like that. They asked if I was REALLY sure I wanted 400lb/in and I explained how the car currently handles like overcooked pasta and that I was used to driving an autocross-prepped MR2 on a daily basis, he laughed and said "OK that makes sense". There are only two issues at this point. One is that it will probably be around 4 weeks before I see the springs. The other is that the new springs will only be 8" long, which means they will come unseated if the axle is at full droop. So, I've been looking into limit straps and I think I'm gonna go with these:
http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/LIMIT-KIT.html

Basically you weld those mounts to the chassis and the axle, then pick what length you want, and it will keep the axle from drooping too far. Normally this job is accomplished with getting shorter shocks, but even the Camaro AGX's I have are too long to keep an 8" spring in place at full droop.

Also the starting problems haven't been sorted yet, but the weather has been so bad I haven't had time to look into it much.


2/8/14
Got a new ignition switch from RockAuto for super cheap thinking that could be the source from my voltage drop. The part I got in won't fit. Close, but no.

Top is stock, bottom is the Airtex part from Rock Auto. the mounting tab is in the wrong place and it won't mount up. I have messaged RockAuto to make an exchange.


2/20/14
I have been going through the car while it's been down to try and figure out my starting problem and I think I've figured it out. Keep in mind electrical systems are super hard for me to wrap my brain around, so don't **** on my slowness. I aced everything in physics until the chapter on electricity which I failed. Just saying.

OK so here's how I see it. The relay that the PO bypassed is in fact the starter relay. It has four wires:
white- steady voltage from the battery when the key is in ACC
black- goes to the starter
black/orange - power from the ignition switch (only actually sees like 11.5volts for some reason)
red - grounds through the alarm system

The issues:
1. the alarm system on this car is really messed up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it goes off for NO reason.
2. the black/orange wire only sees 11.5 volts. This is even with a brand new ignition switch so I am going to presume this is normal and is usually enough for the relay to click

I think the reason the PO bypassed the relay and jumped the black/orange wire straight to the black wire was because the alarm was dying. Every now and then the starter would kick from the 11.5 volts, but not reliably. I think the reason the relays I've tried to put in haven't worked was because of the wonky alarm acting up. I jumped the black and white wires to each other, turned the key to ACC, and the starter would spin if I hit the clutch pedal so I think my logic works.

Right now what I am thinking I'm going to do is unplug the alarm computer box (lots of people ditch it anyway). I'll take the red wire that grounds the starter relay, and ground it, bypassing the immobilizer. Then I should be able to have a functioning relay, allowing for the proper function of the starting system. Here's the wiring diagram in case you were curious

Also just to make it even more confusing, the pinout on the actual relay in the fuse box is not in the same orientation as what it looks like in this diagram.


2/25/14
The fix worked and the car starts up perfectly every time using the relay as intended.

I also got billed for the springs so I'm guessing the end is near and I hope can expect them in the next week or so. 


2/26/14
Springs were at my door when I got home from work today!

So naturally I got them on as quick as I could. Here it is!

Here's the "before" height just for comparison

Naturally, the giganto-sidewall 195/70's rub in the front, so I may well be ordering some 185/60's off TireRack here soon. It also desperately needs an alignment, the panhard rod may need to be adjusted of the axle is off center (if it is, it's not by much), and some limit straps for the rear axle as well. Also one of these:
http://www.xcessivemanufacturing.com/ONLINESTORE.html?cid=60&step=4&pid=349

But yeah I'm pretty happy with how everything looks (and drives, holy crap). Once I get the smaller tires and skid plate, the front will go a touch lower I think.


3/2/14
Swapped out the 195/70's on the front for some 185/60's. They don't rub anywhere near as bad anymore but at the same time they don't look quite as nice, since they don't tuck up into the fenders. Oh well.

That did drop an inch of ride height just from the change in sidewall though. Here's a Lego samurai standing under my frame rail. There's about a finger's width between the sword and the frame.

And the front mudflap. It scrapes if I take a turn too fast haha. It's about 1.5" off the ground

The oil pan is currently around 2.5-3" off the ground. I'll definitely be getting a skid plate with my next paycheck. 

1986 MX72 Cressida Wagon Build "Joby" Part 9

12/4/13

Scored some finds at the junk yard
Less-cracked fan shroud

Door molding in halfway decent shape

My starter relay had at some point been replaced with a straight jumper wire (probably because they are retardedly expensive from Toyota), so I replaced that with a relay from the junk yard and have had zero starting issues ever since.

Suspension work will begin later this month in all likelyhood, so stay tuned.


12/5/13

Well, that didn't last long. Last night the fan must have caught part of the shroud, destroying the shroud and breaking a blade on the fan. Time to make an e-fan setup. Probably gonna get some universal thermostat controller from Summit and some e-fans off something in the junk yard that I can ghetto mount.

 

 

12/10/13

Yesterday I picked up a Volvo electric fan (same great fan motor as the Taurus that everybody and their brother uses, but thinner and with a easy-to-grab relay box) and the front struts off a junked Cressida. Tonight I began the process of tearing them down and getting them ready for the coilover conversion.

First I set up some heat in the garage so I didn't freeze

 

Complete stock strut:

 

Spring removed

 

Here's the stock-sized Sensatrac shock that came out next to the SW20 MR2's KYB AGX (for the MR2 rear) that will be going in.
The stock shock has a body length of 15.5", whereas the MR2 shock is 14 3/8" long, so the housings will need to be shortened 1 1/8". Also, the gland nuts that come with the MR2 shocks are a much coarser thread than the Cressida ones, so I'm going to have to reuse those.  

Here's the housings with the stock spring seats removed. I didn't bother grinding the weld flat since I'll probably be removing that section of the tube to shorten it, so as to keep the brake line tabs in the same place.

12/16/13


Ground off the welds from the stock spring seats. Currently looking for somebody with a miter saw to cut a section out of the housings.

I'm also currently emailing back and forth with a representative from CoilSprings.com about getting custom springs made. This will be roughly comparable in price with my previous idea of using Volvo parts. However, due to the fact that Rsport International has not been responding to my emails in over a month while most of my emails to CoilSprings.com are replied to within a matter of hours, I think CoilSprings.com may be the way to go. The only issue with the custom route is that I have to send in one of my stock springs, so downtime and shipping cost are a factor. However since I was planning on making my own urethane bushings for the four axle links, I suppose the timing could work out.

Oh and I forgot to mention that I picked up a fan controller, though I'm still unsure as to how the wiring is going to work. It's a Flex-a-lite model #31147. 

Here's a link to the instructions pdf with the wiring diagram
LINK

My issue is the way the Volvo fan is wired. It has one large + wire going into the relay block, one chassis ground, and two wires activate the fan when they are grounded. One is high speed (probably for when the AC is activated on the Volvo) and one is low speed. I will only be using low speed right now. This controller, as with pretty much every controller I've seen, switches hot wires, not grounds, so I'm just not clear on how I'm supposed to wire this.


12/17/13

Confirmed: the controller works by connecting the two terminals at a certain temperature. I can just use it to control the fan ground. This should work great.

 

So I removed the mechanical fan and broken shroud, and tried to see how things fit. It's going to take a LOT of work to get this setup to fit. I'm still not sure how I'm going to do it. This fan, though thin by OEM standards, is still quite thick. And the Volvo radiator is quite different in dimension to the Cressida one, so getting everything to fit is turning out to be a real chore. I was getting some ideas until it started raining >.<

 

 

12/21/13

Fan is installed and wired and works perfectly as I planned, comes on and turns off appropriately all by itself. Except for one tiny detail. I forgot that I should be pulling power from a switched source, because when I turn the car off and the radiator stays hot for a little while, the fans still turn on and off while the car is off, which will probably end up draining my battery.

 

 

12/23/13

My problem now is that the car won't start. I think I either blew my starter relay or my wiring for my neutral safety bypass is messed up because I don't even get a click even though the battery is fine. And I don't think it has anything to do with the fan, the only wiring on the car I had to touch was just connecting the power wire to the battery, and it started fine multiple times with the fan working, but yesterday morning it wouldn't and I had to push start it.

 

 

12/29/13

It wasn't the neutral safety wiring, it was the starter relay going bad (the one I pulled out of the junk yard) so I replaced it with a jumper wire like it was before. Less than ideal, but whatever.  

Today I finally got the front coilovers built. Lots of pics below, so slow connections or mobile users beware...

Started by making a cut in the housings

This end contains the threads for the gland nut

The housings needed to be shortened about 1 1/4". Measure twice, cut once.

A little de-burring

 

Test fitting

 

Needed a little extra trimming

 

That'll do

 

Getting prepped for welding

 

Mitchell getting it ready to tack

 

Mitchell did a great job welding them up. Note: the shocks were not in the housings for the welding. It's a good way to ruin your brand new KYB's.

 

Primered

 

Painted and assembled!

 

Now for a non-rainy day to put them on!

 

 

 

1/9/14

The intermittent starting problem reared its ugly head again today. It started up great this morning, but when I tried to go to lunch it just gave me the "click" and wouldn't turn over. I was so pissed I may or may not have punched the rear quarter, and then subsequently had to push the dent back out lol. Anyways, when it came time to go home after work it fired up fine first try. So tonight I went through and cleaned the - cable end and battery terminal as well as the existing chassis ground and added an extra ground to the intake manifold. I also cleaned the + terminal and cable end at the battery and at the starter. Hopefully this will fix my issue. Hopefully.
Either way, reving that big old 2.8L six up to 6500rpm on the way home TOTALLY makes up for any electrical frustrations. Good lord, dat noise.....

 

 

 1/10/14

The other night when I was under the car cleaning up the wiring, I also added a heat shield sleeve to the speedo cable, since it's sorta touching the exhaust. I used a spark plug heat sleeve like these

 

I think it must have already been brittle from the heat, because last night my speedo stopped working. I put it up on a lift after work today and found that there was a break somewhere in the short cable. (The speedo cable is two pieces, a short section about a foot long connects the transmission to the long cable that goes up to the dash)
So I ordered a new short section for like $12 and it will be here on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Also, I got my urethane from McMaster-Carr in today. Pretty much ready to take this thing down for suspension overhaul as soon as I get the MR2 fixed.

 

 

1/13/14

I got the car up in hover mode today, all 4 corners on jackstands. My awesome girlfriend was nice enough to take some pics while she helped me out.

I held the brake caliper up out of the way with a bungie cord and removed the hub

 

Removing the upper strut mount bolts

 

Ready to come out

 

Gone!

 

Adios, POS.

 

So pretty!!!!

 

Mmmmm T3 goodness

 

 Also removed the control arms

 

Old rubber bushings out, new urethane bushings in

 

Turns out it's way easier to put the bushing in and THEN the metal sleeve

 

Bushings in, taking the arms with me to work tomorrow to get the old ball joints pressed out

 

 

And have new Moog ball joints to press in

 

On to the rear end

 

Access panels for the top of the rear shocks

 

Not a whole lot of luck with the screwdriver holding the shock still.......

 

........so I had to improvise..

 

I got the Camaro KYB AGX's in but I didn't take any pics. Here's one of the four axle links getting its bushings removed WITH FIRE

 

 

When all else fails, fire and a BFH should get the job done

 

Aluminum tape on one side to hold the urethane

 

And here's the urethane poured into the arms. I'm only doing two at a time and poured the rest of the urethane into a solo cup. I'll probably use sections of the remaining cylinder as side pieces to keep the arms from sliding laterally on the metal sleeves. Holes will be drilled in the bushings for the sleeves to fit through, obviously.

 

 

 

1/14/14

I took my control arms to work with me yesterday and used the press in the shop to pop out the old ball joints.

 

Old vs. new

 

So after work I got home, reinstalled the control arms (now with urethane bushings and new ball joints), and now the front end is done.
I also removed the upper rear axle arms, burned/chiseled, and otherwise removed the old rotten squishy bushings and filled them with urethane as well.

 

Today, I took the lower rear arms I did two days ago and finished them up so they are ready to go on the car. According to the literature that came with the urethane, it reaches 90% of it's final physical properties in 2 days assuming 70-something degree temperatures, so I just left them inside for two days to cure.

 

 

I used a 3/4" auger drill bit. It worked beautifully.  

Then the metal sleeve from the original bushing goes in. Here it is next to one of the old bushings. Some I could just push out with my bare hands. Others stuck to the bushings and had to be cut out and cleaned up.

 

The sleeves were like 1mm over 3/4" so I purposefully used the 3/4 bit so as to make it a tight fit. I just hammered them down into the holes and they are in there nice and snug

 

And there you have it. Custom home-made poly bushings ready to go back on the car.

Oh, and I sent out one of my rear springs to CoilSprings.com today, so hopefully in a few weeks I'll have some sick nasty custom lowering springs for the rear!

 

 

 

1/15/14

Borrowed Mitchell's spare AE86 sway bar to see if it would work on this. The answer is "sort of". It bolts to the axle ok, but the ends don't extend forward enough by about an inch. This is good and bad. I can probably get a huge aftermarket AE86 rear bar, but I will have to make custom end links and/or brackets on the chassis. Not impossible or particularly difficult, just another thing to have to do. Good to know though. A Godspeed AE86 bar can be had for like $100 on ebay, I can hit up McMaster for hardware to make my own adjustable links, and chassis bracketry can be modified/reinforced or replaced with a custom piece pretty easily.