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I'm fixing to do the 2 year repack the front wheel bearings. Trying to get pumped up with pre-workout, and by coming in here. Waiting for it to cool off. That sun is so bright!
If it's been 2 years already, why not wait until the fall?
Installed some 50's in the secondary no. 2 air bleed position today. Undoubtedly an improvement with the secondary transition, although I don't expect it be anywhere near undetectable (the glitch that is) until I get the tapped main air bleeds in. The secondary venturi cutting has also made some good progress - aiming to finish them up within a week, hopefully...
Wow, how many miles are you putting on that thing? Mine only got repacked when I replaced the rotors and new bearings. Now, I only put a few thousand miles on it each year, so I doubt I'll need to do it again any time soon.
Maybe 150 mi per month? I spun a bearing on a porsche that I had. Besides, I'm giving my apartment manager a big middle finger when I work on my car. How much would a car payment be? It took me 3 1/2 hours to do one. And I have to re check the bearings after they settle in. So that's going to be 4 hours per bearing. I get a kick out of keeping a 37 year old car running!
fr wheel bearing replacement per repair pal is about $140 parts and $140 labor. Rockauto has the wheel bearing for a trivial amount (less than $15). The $280 seems sky high.
Got my Nikki back on and all the hoses hooked up after 3+ months on the bench rebuilding it (albeit very slowly). Now a starting issue. Starter solenoid clicks but won't turn the engine over. Battery voltage is good, voltage doesn't drop when cranking (or trying to). Cleaned battery leads, no luck. Oh well, will track down an exhaust leak and then circle back to the starter.
If it's been 2 years already, why not wait until the fall?
I was doing the front wheel bearing clean/inpect/repack. Had to remove the two bolts that hold the steering knuckle/axle shaft to the shock struck. I mixed up the two bolts. They would barely start to go in, and then it was like they were cross-threaded. The two bolts' threads look the same! When I swapped them, they easily went in? Why? Are the threads different?
Moved the 7 to the top of the project list. Finished one project, starting the next, this week. Interior reassembly, then engine/drivetrain & suspension install/upgrades.
Yesterday I put a new-to-me heater core and my SEM coated dashboard back in.
I decided to coat it black because the medium gray it originally was didn't work with the new black carpet. It was an opportunity to unify all the colors around the vents and switches too.
That is the fabric sample for the seats. After I get my door cards and rear back with fresh vinyl and ribbed details (think 1980 Porsche 911), I'm going to bring my seats in to be stripped, blasted, coated, re-foamed, and reupholstered. I'm going with 2010 VW GTI OEM fabric.
I am going to be replacing my water pump gasket this weekend. I have a oem gasket ready, should I apply some RTV also or is just fine to just use the water pump gasket alone? Also I've read on here that the lower radiator hose should have a spring in it to help it from collapsing when pump is pulling up the coolant. I am using a set of racing beat silicone hoses should I put a spring in there? My old lower radiator hose never had a spring in it.
I am going to be replacing my water pump gasket this weekend. I have a oem gasket ready, should I apply some RTV also or is just fine to just use the water pump gasket alone? Also I've read on here that the lower radiator hose should have a spring in it to help it from collapsing when pump is pulling up the coolant. I am using a set of racing beat silicone hoses should I put a spring in there? My old lower radiator hose never had a spring in it.
Thanks,
Ernie
A light film of silicone(so light it doesn’t have much color)on gasket sealing surfaces will insure gasket sealing.
The only time I've seen a spring type lower radiator hose on these cars it was collapsed. I just use the OEM style hoses which are not spring reinforced and they have yet to fail me. I would not add a spring to the RB hoses.
Like GSLSEforme said, apply a thin layer of sealant on the gasket. I use the Permatex blue stuff for coolant applications.
Replacing rear pads and rotors after I started hearing a god awful dragging noise. Looks like one of the slides on the caliper got stuck and caused the top end of the inner pad to drag until it was gone. Just about every single bolt and nut is stuck, I guess 37 years in the rust belt will do that. But I figured I'd better rebuild the calipers, so it might take a little longer than what I thought was a weekend brake job.
Got to a point in the interior restomod effort that I could (should) start it up, so I took it for a drive. I am loving the newly-wrapped steering wheel and the non-musty smell of the new carpeting. Pic of the car wearing the newly-restored wheels. They look pretty much the same as before but less flaking and corrosion, more mirror shine.
Originally Posted by gdare
Replacing rear pads and rotors after I started hearing a god awful dragging noise. Looks like one of the slides on the caliper got stuck and caused the top end of the inner pad to drag until it was gone. Just about every single bolt and nut is stuck, I guess 37 years in the rust belt will do that. But I figured I'd better rebuild the calipers, so it might take a little longer than what I thought was a weekend brake job.
Patience and penetrating lubricant are your allies in this battle.
Got the dash mostly reassembled. It's a 3D puzzle of "what option does this plug go to that the car was never equipped with" and "what screw was missing before I took it apart" and "how does this go back together again". The screw on the left side top of dashboard behind the windshield vent was a stubborn bastard but it finally went in.
Rear plastics SEM coated. They are all in pretty rough shape so I'm looking out for another set, any color. I'll SEM coat it to match the rest. But these will suffice for now.
Put new weather stripping on. I spent a week waiting for those retainer clips to arrive and when they did I discovered the seal has them all ready to push into the door. Oops lol I guess I have spares now
Yesterday I returned from a short camping trip with the SA. Over 500 miles engine running good and strong down to California and back (have yet to sort out the exact total). Road tripped with a friend in his Alfa 164S which ran into a couple issues on the way home but we made it back safely. And hey, it's the first time I've topped 20mpg (nearly 25 to be exact). Seems like I have the primary circuit on this modded Nikki running pretty good now - still working on cold starts but it's getting better. Cruising mid to low 13's on the wideband the whole way, just where I was hoping for.
Noticed a few things as well on the trip. Here's a short list.
- trans makes a fair amount of noise under light load when cruising at 70mph. Only light load though, accel and no load are quiet. Oh yeah, this is another "new" transmission as well. Got it for the grand price of free and it's so far the best out of the four I've used. Not perfect, but good enough that I'm no longer concerned about finding a replacement soon.
- still need to improve the steering and handling characteristics. Above 70mph if there's any cross-wind it's a tough time keeping things straight (got an alignment just before the trip and it didn't improve much). There's also still a bit of a deadzone in the steering, and now that everything other than the pitman arm and box have been revitalized, the origin of the slop is pretty well narrowed down.
- needs new suspension. I drove a while on some gravel roads and my worn struts were really starting to become apparent. Next on the list for the car are some BC coils.
- something with the alternator belts is screwy. I run an FD alt with the dual pulley and yet on this trip I just couldn't get the belts to stay quiet. Particularly on the drive back any time the clutch fan would engage they'd start squealing, only above 3k though. Belts were replaced right before the trip and are as tight as I'm comfortable with (re-tensioning them over the course of the trip), so I'm not really sure what's going on. Something spinning (I've been thinking it's the alternator for the longest time) also sounds like it's got some bearings going out, so that needs to be looked into. Quite likely the two are related.
- it'd be really nice to have AC, sort of wish I hadn't sold my two kits from parts cars (this SA never had it installed).
- need to replace the t-stat which I was already aware of. Temps had me a little concerned sometimes, and it definitely wasn't a cooling capacity issue because eventually the t-stat would un-stick itself and things would become a-okay. Hopefully can do that tomorrow.
- switched to Castrol 20W50 from Valvoline 10W40 before the trip. Running strong as ever with no noticable changes.
I've finally gotten around to doing my bushings as well. Before the trip I managed to replace everything in the front - sway bar bushings, tension rod bushings, control arm bushings, and end links all with black poly from Energy Suspension. I was truly surprised by what I found in the process. Not only were my control arm bushings far from functional, my control arm ball joints were completely shot. I'm talking 2+ mm of vertical movement, zero grease in what was left of the boots, ect. I replaced the control arms with some better condition ones from a parts car and my-oh-my there is a lot less clunking and things are a bit more responsive. There is one curious thing though. After doing all this work I'm stuck with some positive camber, and I just can't figure out why. I thought the control arms for SA's vs FB's might be different lengths but they're the same part number. Only other thing I could think of was something to do with my tension rod installation. I tightened them down (torqued to spec, ect.) with the suspension loaded up, so it doesn't really seem like that should be an issue but...? Open to suggestions here. It appears that I have more wheel gap in the front than rear (although I'm not sure if it was like that before or not) and that the front just isn't sitting as low as it should. Not sure about it all. Camber is within spec (barely) according to the folks at Les Schwab, but it still seems odd. It does however seem as though it's settling a little bit as the miles get put on.
I also had a chance to replace all my tie rods and my idler arm as I mentioned earlier. Things were a little stiffer for a short time but now it's just good and tight feeling. Quite happy with the Moog products. I discovered right before the trip that the Carter P4070 fuel pump has a electrical terminal retainer clip that I never installed - alway thought those connections looked a little sketchy. Installed that and still no issues so that's well and good. Also replaced the front wheel bearings, rotors, and pads prior to the trip as well. I'll be re-checking the preload on those bearings now that they've settled. Oh, nearly forgot I installed the RB airbox and K&N E-2700 filter. Not sure about performance gains but it sure sounds nice when I open up the secondaries. Easily heard over my exhaust, although the untrained ear may not tell them apart.
Sometime soon I need to install my new u-joints as well as the rear sway bar and end link bushings; I didn't have time before the road trip.
I think that's it for now. Often times I wish I made a build thread for this car; just so many things I've done with it and still plan to do... Eh, I'll attach a couple photos below from the trip.
Last edited by Benjamin4456; Jul 17, 2020 at 10:57 PM.
