Operation X

I’ve been under the car for 3 days now. I think it’s finally fixed but not drivable just yet.

Here was the progression of my weekend. I got the trans out pulled the leaky bearing/seal and looked at both parts to see what may have caused the damage. The only thing I saw was this.

It doesn’t look like much but it feels pretty rough.

I looked through my parts and found another. (probably a mistake, actually in hindsight it was a mistake) It was smooth and looked like it was up to the task.

So I installed it with the acdelco bearing and it leaked as bad or worse

So I pulled it back out a second time. I had to bite the bullet and get a new assembly.

I got it installed and back in the car.

It sits with the drivetrain all intact just waiting for me to finish up everything else.

Well sense the cruise was postponed (Rained out) I decided to get it off the ramps and back on the road. The clutch works now. The pedal seems to be a little sticky but I already has a replacement waiting to be put in. As soon as the cruise is rescheduled I’ll do all those things that I planned on.

When you haven’t driven your car in a week it looks different when you walk up to it. IDK what it is. It’s kind of a weird nostalgic feeling.

Well my weekend ended with the sweet smell of antifreeze last night when I tried to use the defroster. If it’s not one thing it’s another. You would think that eventually everything would stay fixed lol

Maybe this will be a good time to clean up the dash a bit. It should be some good pictures. lol

Over Thanksgiving I managed to fix my heater core. It’s really not that bad of a job to replace. I bought a genuine ACdelco so that I don’t have to do it again, hopefully.

I did have to disconnect a lot of stuff. :-\

New vs Old:

New gasket FTW:

Another thing happen to me over the holidays. I was at the Flea Market picking up my niece and this guy pulls up and starts talking to me about if I had T-top shades for my car. I’m like “well, no I don’t have those.” Kinda confused about the question but I tried to make small talk about me cutting them into the car and how you can really find those because they usually are trash when they go to a junkyard.

The man proceed to ask if I wanted a pair… I said “Sure!” If i don’t use them I know people that could. So I drive out to his home nearby and he has all kinds of older cars. he sold his 30th anniversary edition and had a few extra parts.

The nice thing about this is that he also had rear leather seats that he made someone take. Hopefully, the guys still has them. He will be calling me if the guys still wants them and I’ll be getting them free of charge.

Here are the freebies from this guy. He just kept pulling stuff out.

In other news,

I’ve taken my driver seat and made a cribbed platform to mount it to.

It’s not the most comfortable seat in my house. I’m almost inclined to make an office chair out of it. But it could be a good gaming chair. I’ll probably leave it as is except for making the base look nicer

More gopro stuff:

I got another camera, Gopro Hero action. This one will be in the danger zone like behind the front wheel or other or low to the ground stuff. It’s one of their low end cameras.

So far I’ve got the overhead mount in front and the inside camera. I’ve rendered a few videos with dual setup.

A little maintenance time.

The Duracell AGM has bit the dust. I stepped up to a Red Top Optima. I had a real time getting that 78 series duracell out. I’m never going to put a 78 series in there again. That was pure hell.

I also managed to change the oil in the miserable cold.

And the corolla still sits waiting on me to finish pulling the motor.

Believe me, I don’t try to be busy all the time. It just happens

I noticed a big screw probably from the work going on under the carport found my tire. I pulled it out to see if it leaked and it does.

I had to pull out an old tire to sit the car on while I get the hole fixed. Everything is fixed now. The old wheels are back in a pile behind the house lol.

Hopefully before the cruise I’ll have a whole list of things done maintenance wise.

I finally bought some stainless brake lines for the 99+ front brake swap that I’ve been running for some time now. I can finally put all the lines back where they are suppose to be.

I got a rebuilt alternator to replace the Duralast POS that can’t hold more than 13.5v when its “warm”. This summer would have been shitty. This new one is rebuilt by a local place. At some point I’m going to get one that operates fine at low RPMs. 650 rpm without a smaller pulley doesn’t even get up to be able to run and charge the battery.

I like the fact that it’s a Delco Remy housing. It makes it look more stock.

I’m working on getting things lined up for the cruise. I’ve got a few maintenance things I want to do as well as a few changes to my setup in the car.

This weekend I installed the stainless brake lines so that I can reach my 98+ calipers. The old setup had them sorta bend over and floating in the mount without a clip to hold it stationary.

Old setup:

My rotors were a little warped so I had them turned as well.

I got fancy and decided to swap out the lugnuts to something more attractive.

Stainless lines installed. (FYI to anyone 98+swapping. these work. It also take a little bit of adjusting to keep them from rubbing the tire when its turned all the way right or left.  It’s doable with a 17in rim.)

All bled and buttoned up:

There was a couple things I failed to update before the cruise. It’s nothing serious but I do like the result.

This biggest thing is my push button start. I’ve finally resolved my issue with voltage drop. The 12v constant from the ignition is susceptible to voltage drop if there is an extra length of wire. As you can see below.

I ran the 12v supply wire to my power block coming from the battery where my amp and power locks are connected into.

Since then there is no issue with starting. I can push the button with confidence lol

the other things were maintenance things. My plugs were overdue for changing.

And the day before the cruise the car got a well deserved washing