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I don’t really wrench in the winter. But my sweetie’s ’08 Prius (she’s the archetypal Prius driver) had a headlamp bulb that was out. I changed it after dinner the other night – the damn thing took an hour because of packaging issues and cold hands, so I was doing nearly everything by feel and visualizing how everything needed to move or how it was aligned. When I was done she was jumping-up-and-down-and giggling happy, and telling me that she was SO IMPRESSED. (She said she likes seeing how my mind works). I mean, it’s just a headlamp bulb but I’ll do anything that makes her that happy. And it did save her $90 and two trips to her shop.
I have to repair the haldex unit on my 2010 passat,the rear wheels are currently not interested in contrib to the rest of the drivetrain. Suppose I have to remove the whole fucking thing or something to find out what’s going on. Any ideas?
Oh,also the front passenger door handle and the rear windshield wiper is made of the same marshmallow/chewing gum substance, so I will need to replace them too.
Haven’t done too much wrenching this week as I’m waiting for a seal to come in, and missed Wrenching Wednesday again for being busy on Wednesday, but I was doing a public service! Enabling a friend to pick up another parsh!!! https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn2r6l4piOD/
The blower motor in my Wrangler is having issues, it works fine on a cold start, but if I shut the Jeep off I get no heat when I start it back up, sometimes. If I drive long enough the blower motor comes back, but it’s usually like ten minutes later, which is not ideal in winter with my windows fogging up.
I’ve already replaced the heater control switches, blower motor resistor, and the blower itself as the heat was non-op when I got it. Turns out it was a series of cascading failures that killed it at first, I suspect the blower motor resistor is getting damp, but it’s freaking cold out and that thing is very inconvenient to get to, so I’m just griping about it on the internet.
I always wonder: was there ever a time when blower motors were easily accessible?
Every one I’ve ever tried to deal with has always been squirreled away in a part of the firewall that’s nearly impossible to get to without removal of a ton of stuff or requires massive contortions and working mostly by feel.
Honestly, it’s not BAD, in the 04 TJ it’s behind the glove box, the physical act of getting to it requires almost kneeling on the ground, ground currently covered in snow and mud…
The earlier versions of the TJ had them right on the firewall behind the ECU, so it was three or four bolts and Bob’s your uncle. So on those? Yes they were easy.
I got the rear suspension (needed a wheel bearing) of the RX-8 put back together Tues night, just in time for SE MI to get 6″ of snow. While in there, I saw that the rear subframe is getting very rusty, the front pinion seal of the diff is leaking (so I topped that up too), and somehow one of the bellhousing bolts that passes through the starter, bellhousing, and into the engine has disappeared. Gotta find another one of those somewhere; they’re quite long.
Anyway, I’m resigned to pulling the rear subframe when weather gets warmer to de-rust, paint, fix the diff seal, and undercoat the rear of the chassis. Nothing too difficult conceptually, but dealing with rust is never fun. For now though, the RX-8’s back out of the garage to enjoy the snowy weather while the RX-7 is back in. Gotta fix a small coolant leak over the turbo, then go hunting for electrical gremlins. I suspect its the ignition switch itself, but have to do a little more testing with the DVM to be sure.
I have to replace the steering rack on my 2007 GMC Envoy, it leaks power steering fluid slowly. The shop quoted me $1000 for this where the car value is probably 3K, I dont have the tools or the patience to do this in the winter (since its my winter beater). I would probably just drive it like that and see how is my budget over the summer. Btw I just enrolled in the membership 🙂
Got a little bit done over the past week.
WRX has some nice 3-way 6.5″ speakers in the front doors now. Turns out the old setup were component speakers (tweeter and main speaker separate), and the controller for one had been damaged. They’re some fancy-looking Kickers that are likely 10+ years old, so I’ve boxed them up for a future date when I’ll rewire the whole stereo setup and get new control boxes.
Gave Cactus some attention today, ahead of taking him to a local pub for their Australia Day car show. Front wheel bearings got some adjustment and a dab of fresh grease. Cactus doesn’t seem to want to have front grease caps, DT and I went through two sets before we even left Dubbo!
I’ve put some of the last spare caps I have on it today, and will clean out and repack the bearings on the weekend hopefully.
Cactus’ former has some correct dog-dish hubcaps for me, actually took them off his dogs gave them a set off a later ute for water bowls!! I’ll put those on and try to pack the top of the grease caps to keep them on until I get new drums down the line.
The exhaust hangs super low on Cactus, not Hud’s fault as the mount from the pipe to the exhaust manifold is bad so it shifted on him as he was welding it up. I’ve lifted it up in the spirit of the build, using some leftover fuel hard-line!
My latest annoyance is headlights. My ’85 Ford LTD uses quad 4×6 sealed beam headlights. Stock they are horrible, but for years I’ve had Hella E-code H4/H1 units installed. I used to have a relay kit for the lights installed so the lights get full battery power but I had a minor electrical a while back which got the headlight harness too so I removed it and just used the factory wiring. Forward to today and the Hella lights are now pretty pitted from years of use and I decided to do something about it.
I wanted to upgrade to something modern but with classic looks. LED is the way to go. Much brighter plus much lower amp draw so I wouldn’t need to add relays. Unfortunately most aftermarket LED 4×6 headlights look like they belong on a Transformer and don’t appear right on older cars IMO. Enter Holley and their new RetroBright line of sealed beam replacements. LED lighting but looks like normal sealed beams. They seemed to get good reviews so I bought a pair just to replace the low beams (which are combo lo/hi). Installed them and I’m not happy with the light pattern. Big blob in the middle with less of a sharp cutoff than my Hellas. Also the lenses project a weird line pattern on the ground.
So what’d I end up doing? Pulling the Holleys, putting in my old Hellas for now until I buy new housings, and installing a relay kit after all, which I was trying to avoid in the first place.
Oh and I forgot I had another pair of them on my Xmas list to replace the high beams. Didn’t think anyone would get them because they’re pricey, but my lovely wife did. After Xmas I had to sheepishly tell her I should have removed them from my list because I don’t like them afterall and no longer want them. My reward was having to deal with the return =(
Oh, I didn’t need to hear that on the Retrobrights. Bought a set for Dad for Christmas for his ’94 Toyota pickup.
Hopefully it was some manufacturing issue with just that set and not something that is a characteristic across the product line.
I was disappointed too. To be honest I did find a couple of negative reviews of the RetroBrights on candlepowerforums, one of which stating they can’t believe these lights are legal, but I dismissed this as finicky lighting nerds being finicky lighting nerds. But turns out they’re right. I gotta wonder if the round versions of these do better than the rectangular ones?
OK, here’s my dilemma. The BMW X3 had a roof leak in all the torrential rains recently here in CA (along with my house), and now my wife is ranting that if I wasn’t keeping a non-functioning Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 in one of the garage stalls, the X3 would have never gotten wet.
I’ve had this bike since long before I met her, and for a few years it was my daily driver, I didn’t have a car (ex-wife did so there). Where I live I could get away with that. Through my own negligence after buying a Saab 93 convertible (who can blame me), I let it sit too long and it developed a hard knock. To avoid further damage I parked it and promptly moved on with the intent to do a tear down and rebuild, but well, life got in the way.
So now the now wife wants me to get it the hell out of here and I’m just torn. Sure, I let it sit in the garage for years, but it was my baby! Sure, the damn thing tried to kill me a couple of times, but both wives have threatened the same thing, so what gets thrown out?
Oof.
Sucks, man. I’m in a similar situation, although I’m planning on just getting rid of the wife (and with her, my house, garage, backyard, etc etc etc.)
Can you determine the roof leak, fix it, and then tell her (politely) to STFU?
What is a storage unit priced in your area? Can you put the bike in one of those for $100/month?
If only. The storage around here is real limited and they want a premium. Hoping to sort the roof leak this weekend and see if that calms the waters. At least we’re past bulk of the rainy seaso. another few weeks and it won’t rain for months.
Stopgap measure? Throw a 5mil thick sheet of plastic (typically found in the paint aisle at your local home repair store) over the sunroof (assuming its a sunroof that’s leaking) and hold it down with magnets? Remove when driving somewhere?
Be a PITA if you’re using the vehicle a lot, but it’ll be incentive to get out there and fix it.
Jeep LJ update:
Door seals were installed. This might have been the easiest, most trouble-free thing I have ever done to this jeep. Totally worth it.
I took the tailgate seal off, removed the old channel, and put it back on with 3M exterior automotive tape. The tailgate now closes somewhat properly. All the doors on the jeep are hopefully weather-proof now.
I installed the backup camera! And it work(ed)! For one day. Putting it in reverse triggered it properly on day 1. On Day 2, not so much. No idea why it won’t trigger any more, but I am putting the blame on the cheap Chinese Android head unit and its software. Plan B is acceptable – I put the icon for the rear camera on the home screen so I can hit it manually when I need it.
I’m getting down to the nitty gritty – If I can get a warm weekend, I’ll try to get the trailer hitch and back bumper off and take it to a shop where they can weld on the replacement rear frame crossmember.
Here’s a conundrum:
I had a high school buddy pass away unexpectedly last year, and in cleaning out his house and giving away his stuff, I am about to gain possession of a decent Mig welder (Lincoln Electric Power Mig 180). I’ve taken one lesson and I showed some promise at welding – I could lay down dimes fairly well. I have no clue how to properly set the dials on a welder.
So should I weld on that frame crossmember myself? Laughing in anticipation of the answers…
I haven’t brought this up in a while, so now that you are half moved to California, I suppose it’s as good a time as any.
When should I start your search for a first gen RX-7 for you?
Just really mundane home fleet stuff.
Wife’s WK2 desperately needs front rotors and calipers. I replaced the rear calipers last winter because they were seized up.
And now the front ones started seizing up and we managed to warp the rotors. Salt just eats calipers. Which reminds me, if there is one thing I absolutely despise, it’s road salt.
I can undercoat the body all I want, but can’t do much to keep calipers free from salty water.
My ’05 Frontier XE will need a battery soon, it’s been barely cranking over the past few months. But miraculously, it still starts. Oh, and the 2.5 has an insane amount of blow-by. I wish it just died already, then I could swap in a VK56VD. It would be fun in a manual 2wd Frontier body.
The Super Cub C125 is on winter break on account of the snow piles outside, along with the TW200 and a project Honda CG clone that took me ages to find.
2004 Chevy Siverado 1500 standard cab, short bed, 4.3 V6, auto.
Battery is 22 months old. Checks as good by several sources, alternator output is good. No identifiable drains on system.
Battery goes dead in two days.
WTF?
What happens if you disconnect the battery terminal overnight?
Basic but truthfully but I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks. Next time it warms up enough to go outside I’ll hook up the charger, get it started and give it a try.
No identifiable drains doesn’t mean “no drains.”
But I’m going to level with you; every electrical problem on these that wasn’t an obvious burnt module or broken wire ended up in my bay. (‘Sokay, I refused to do the spider shit. Still easily the worst fuel injector design ever.)
There is no ‘starting point’ after checking for voltage visible drains nor any common failures, and you don’t have the required tools to check the rest. (Literally the minimum’s a True RMS DMM, high sensitivity DC clamp ammeter with capacitance, 2 channel oscilloscope, and a Tech2.) You can pop the RAP fuse and see if that helps any, but all that really tells you is that it could be literally anything attached to that – which is everything but the ECM.
Well, the Forest Service Chevy, which is currently my daily driver, has learned a new trick: the windshield wipers no longer return to the park position when you switch them off. They just stop wherever they are. I assume this is a limit switch or something inside the motor, and since the motor makes funny noises in the cold anyway, and is now 34 years old, it’s probably due for a replacement. Time to hit Rock Auto again…
This is my first post in the members section since I finally sprung for the membership. Yeah I know, what took me so long…
Anyway. I did a little wrenching yesterday on the 924. Long story as short as I can make it: It’s a rescue from 16 years of sitting. Got it going pretty good in late ’21; May of ’22 I was in a car switch so it sat for about four weeks. Out of nowhere it’s now running terrible. I tried a few simple things, no dice, so took it to My Guy in September. He had it until early December and basically said “I have no idea, take it back for now and we’ll revisit it in the Spring.” This was after throwing a reman fuel distributor at it from Australia.
Old 924s run on K-Jetronic and I’ve learned just enough about that setup to be dangerous. In any case I did some forum surfing (forums are apparently still a thing, thank goodness), and all signs pointed to a leaking cold start valve, because the plugs were wet and black. So I sourced an NOS one off eBay and put it on. Started right up on new plugs, and the longer it ran, the happier it was. I may still replace the warm-up regulator just because, but it hasn’t been this happy in a long time. I’ve not road tested it yet but unfortunately we’re in the throes of winter here so it’s staying in the garage for now.
It kind of irks me that it’s been out of commission since last summer for something so simple, but on the other hand I was pretty charged up that as of now it appears I made a correct diagnosis and fixed it myself. Let’s hear it for small victories.
Well that’s just a damn fine job of research and diagnosis!
Well done. Guys like you make me feel insecure about my gearhead pretensions, as you logically and calmly figured it all out yourself. I’m not worthy.
Years ago, while driving the 993 I’m currently working on (see below), it just cut out on me. Fortunately got it off the road okay, but checking everything over gave no indication what was going on; it simply wouldn’t start. I threw up my hands and had it towed to my guy b/c what else was I really going to do at this point?
So what did the problem turn out to be? The DME (digital motoring enjoyment or whatever Porsche’s name for the fuel pump relay is) relay had gone bad. A $20 part that literally just slots in. Felt so stupid.
Do not feel insecure, my friend. I have an expression I use at my company, “Learn one thing a day, teach one thing a day.” I am probably not much of a wrench, I’m usually happy to turn jobs over to other people because I usually don’t have the time or the inclination. But I can perform under duress or when I feel I’m out of options. Drop a driveshaft in Turn 1 at the Glen? Yeah, I can probably fix that, I didn’t come all this way to not run two days.
Sometimes all it takes is an analytical mind. What makes the most sense? In any case, your experience with your 993 is now implanted in your brain. And someday some fellow 993 owner is going to have the same problem and you’re going to say, “Hey just change the DME relay” and blow the guy’s mind. 🙂 Every day in this hobby is a learning adventure.
My next task is to make a new battery box for my electric trike. With the body off of it, I have nowhere to mount the 1.5 kWh battery, and need to make two boxes that fit underneath the back of the seat on the left and right side. I used to have both 750Wh batteries mounted underneath the boom held by the body shell, but once the shell was removed, the weight distribution shifted causing it to dive during hard braking, and the battery pack would be the first thing to hit the ground, whereas before it didn’t dive during hard braking and if it did the floor would have protected the battery.
Hello all. I’m typically not the posting type but armed with my t-shirt and bumper sticker, I feel more able to come out of the digital corner and interact. As for wrenching, I’m deciding what to do with my late father’s MkV R32 track car that is experiencing its “VW of a certain age” issues. Electrical gremlins, shedding interior bits, and overheating are all in play, along with some new oil pukage, but it could still see a track if I could get the time (and disposable income) to get at it.
That’s awesome! What shape is it in?
Well I have to get the Ferrari out at the weekend, as it’s not been run for four weeks. I usually try to drive it every two weeks or so, but since getting back from Wales for the holidays it’s not been out.
It’ll be fine I’m sure.
I met a guy on the weekend who has a 488 GTBS and a California. I teased him about the reportedly high running costs and he said they’d actually been fine and reliable. Is your Mondial the classic maintenance nightmare Ferrari that requires you to remove the engine for belt changes, etc?
No, all the Mondial apart from the later t can have the belts and clutches done with the engine in situ. The belts on mine were done a year ago as part of the purchase price.
I looked into it before I bought it and at a specialist the servicing is very reasonable indeed. I think the yearly is £350 at the one I use. I was talking to a guy whose 360 I parked next to at Caffeine and Machine. He was telling me he had to replace both engine ECUs at £2k per bank…..
Didn’t you guys give up the ECU as part of Brexit?
Sadly yes.
Just don’t even. It’s too painful to talk about. Especially if like me you have no recourse to a different passport because you were the first one in your white trash family to even HAVE a passport.
I had no idea that a bad joke about the European Currency Unit would touch upon a sore point. Live and learn, I guess.
I’m the first one in my family to get a passport and to get a university education and I turned out just… Ah. Let me get back to you on that one.
£350 per year is not bad at all. And it’s now MOT, tax, and ULEZ/CAZ exempt as of this year, right? I think I remember you saying that it’s an ’83. I just paid £360 to tax my 2001 Saab. Still, could be worse.
Yeah when it’s forty in March it will be. Road tax is a racket though because the DVLA don’t update the rolling exemption the following April for the previous Jan or something. So it won’t be tax exempt until April 2024 when they roll the exemption over for cars built before Jan 1984.
Plus you have to apply at the post office in and send your logbook in. It’s a ballache.
Man, that whole string of words reminds me vividly of my first car-oriented job. One day in particular.
Worked with Chuck Sparks, who worked on Italian and English exotics. Lots of old classic Jags, Rolls, Ferraris, Maseratis sitting around the fenced in lot; you know, exactly what you’d expect in some quiet town in north Florida. One day I’m sitting there and a doctor rolls up in a 308 GTB, his wife followed in some nondescript doctor’s-wife’s-luxury-appliance-vehicle. He talked to Chuck, complained that it wasn’t running right and could he take a look at it. Chuck assured him he could and off the Dr went.
Hour or so passed and Chuck said to me “lets go drive this thing to lunch and see what’s going on with it.”
It stumbled a bit, had a bit of a miss, and Chuck goes “ahh, I think I can fix this.”
“Yeah? What’s wrong?”
“Well, the Dr just drives it to work on Fridays, he doesn’t drive it like its supposed to be driven.”
“And what’s that mean?”
“It means it needs an Italian tune up”
and then Chuck proceeded to damn near scare the shit out of me. Banging the engine off the redline, slowing with no brakes and just downshifting, driving like a god damned madman. We got to the Waffle House for lunch and I thought I was gonna be sick from his driving.
He gives me a minute and then asks “Hey, you think its running better now?”
Took me a bit to focus on what he had actually said and think about the engine’s sound and how it differed. It sounded happy. No misses, no stumbling.
We did a basic maintenance service on it later and replaced a gasket on one of the banks of carbs as one of them had started to leak air, but all it really needed was someone to drive the doors off it.
Probably not the problem you might be facing, but it reminded me of a good memory.
This is the thing. People think old Ferraris are made from fresh pasta and Sophia Loren’s eyelashes. They’re not. They’re built to be driven, and driven hard. Someone said to me recently “you gotta remember test drivers and F1 drivers would have flogged the prototypes to death at Fiorano”.
The problems come when you DON’T drive them, which means mine comes out usually every other weekend even if it’s just to go and get groceries.
MMMmmmmm…. Sophia Loren…
Sorry, you were saying something?
Its that way with just about any vehicle that is manufactured at large enough scale that there is an assembly line. If they don’t test them to destruction at the factory then their customers will, and that’s a good way to lose customers.
I also hear you on not driving. Same for any vehicle, really. Just the more tightly tuned they are the quicker they go to shit. Thankfully I’ve done preventative maintenance in only owning old US iron, but even still…
I still like the video of the Ferrari driver whipping around on a test track, doing donuts and whatnot and you see him pull off in a cloud of tire smoke and then :POOF: there goes the engine.
I wanna say it was on Top Gear? There may be many of them out there.
Just got back from a trip to visit family in Florida, where I worked on Porsche 993 to get her back to roadworthiness after years of sitting. She’s driveable again! Sooo cool.
However, changing the oil was/is a total pain…you have to remove a fair amount of underbody HVAC plumbing to even access things. But after that, things got even harder.
I got the main filter off eventually, but it’s like the secondary filter has been welded on. I tried 3 different wrenches (original cup, then a strap, then a spring-loaded one) to no avail. I’m sure the lack of torque – she’s on jackstands, so I’m reduced to using just arm power as I work laying on the ground – is a contributing factor, but damn this thing will not budge.
Any good suggestions? I’m leery of puncturing it via the old-school screwdriver method as I worry I’ll end up just sheering off the casing/having an undriveable car. Huibert, are you out there? – I feel you might have some experience here…
Never had good luck puncturing an oil filter.
I’ve had good luck with these type of filter wrenches: https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7769018
And I’ve had good luck using a cold chisel against the lip of the filter and VERY VERY CAREFULLY using a hammer to smack it around till it starts to turn.
It likely isn’t the threads that are seized, but the rubber. Can you get in there with an X-acto blade and cut the rubber? Once the filter is off you can clean it properly.
Sadly, it’s tightly recessed way the hell up there so there’s only like a 1/4 of an inch at the bottom to play with at all. Otherwise, I’d have tried my jaws style wrench around the middle too!
Those three-jaw filter wrenches are super handy.
You can coat the ends in Plasti-dip or similar to generate additional grip.
NEVER punch the oil filter. EVER. They are flimsy metal and if you punch it? It will just tear, tear, and tear some more.
If the secondary oil filter feels like it’s “welded on” then chances are it’s quite literally epoxied on. This happens with aged oil filter gaskets mixed with old motor oil more often than you want to know. The ONLY way you are getting this fixed?
Remove the oil filter housing.
You need to do this anyways as it’s going to leak otherwise. Any and all seals on any and all cars will fail over time. If the oil filter’s that stuck, then those seals have to be assumed bad.
Some quick searching on the Interwebs shows me that you need to get in there anyways. On the 993, it’s a combined thermostat and oil filter housing, and the console unit is going to need O-rings on the lines replaced. Looks to be 3 bolts for each.
Thanks as always for your sound advice! Looks like next time I work on it, time for the housing…
(that and replacing what I believe are broken odometer gears)
Quite welcome! I’m not a 993 expert by any stretch, but it doesn’t look too bad. However, soon as I saw that it’s a combined thermostat and oil filter housing I’m like “… oh, shit, yeah that has GOT to come out anyway.” Since you’re almost certainly in need of a thermostat too anyways.
But when they get that bad on any car, it’s always take out the housing time. I know a lot of guys that refused to do that, and just chewed on the filter for hours. Literally just cutting at it with side snips over and over. Incredibly stupid. Me? Pop the housing, and oh hey look now I’ve got access to fill it with penetrant! And if that doesn’t work, vice and the big fucking hammer of cooperation. 😉
Broken odometer gears are a VERY common malady on Porsches, that I DO know. It’s a VDO thing. Shitty plastic gears that turn brittle and shatter. I’d recommend doing the speedo drive gear (transmission side) while you’re at it since it’s the same plastic.
Your last is a very interesting comment since the odometer on my 924 doesn’t currently work. I didn’t know there was a separate gear for the odometer v. the speedometer. I was dreading taking the cluster out to have it repaired. You just saved me some trouble, most likely.
Learn one thing a day, teach one thing a day…
I’m waiting for a very important piece to be delivered to improve my car. It’s the grille badge, I’m waiting for the grille badge.
This is also my problem.
Is there a grille badge dearth right now?
I mean, I haven’t seen mine yet. I have a dearth. Dunno if there is a general dearth.
Of grille badges in general? I don’t know.
Of Autopian grille badges? Possibly. 🙂
Though I think it’s less of a dearth and more of an anticipatory excitement.
Me too! And a T-shirt. Any word on when those will be shipped out? I haven’t gotten any kind of notification about them. Weren’t we supposed to get an email or something when they shipped?
Last I heard the badges were going to be ready “soon.” I’m assuming they will ship everything together once those are ready.
Depending upon their dimensions, I might find a place to put one on my custom electric microcar/velomobile thing. It’s going to look like it came out of some post apocalyptic sci fi film and the badge will probably work with the aesthetic I am going to go with.
I’m too cheap for the grille badge but, speaking from experience, the bumper sticker is an improvement:
Very nice, what’s the story with the Saab?
Thanks! I’ve owned it and used it as a daily driver for about twenty years. For the last ten years it’s also been my 24 Hours of Lemons race car and this last year it took on additional duties as one of my Lemons Rally cars. I don’t always drive it, though, as illustrated at the very end of this article:
https://24hoursoflemons.com/blog/index-effluency-win-24-hours-lemons-top-prize/
Likewise! 🙂
I have no wrenching problems. My short block will be picked up from the machine shop tomorrow or Friday, I will spend the weekend putting it back together, then gathering the rest of the parts I need for my truck to work again.
Then, I’ll be able to my truck to start tackling the problems I’m dealing with in the rest of everything. I won’t have to start putting a metric shit-ton of stuff into storage using a Miata, I’ll be able to take my dog for rides, I’ll be able to tow either of my boats and my trailer to safe places, and generally prepare for an impending divorce.
Wrenching problems? I aint got no wrenching problems. Its every other aspect of everything that sucks right now. At least I can look forward to getting my truck back together, though.
Probably gonna have a small engine swap get together when its time for that. Current tentative date is the 18th of Feb. Probably in Dunedin, Fl.
Not gonna be at my place, but could probably invite a few people over if you wanna help wrench? Will have to talk to the owner.
An engine-swap get-together sounds epic!
A group of automotive friends from the Grassroots Motorsports forums try to do a monthly get-together to work on someone’s project. The idea was “One Weekend a Month” as in one weekend a month on everyone’s shit until everyone is done and everything was running and wrapped up. Life happens and shit falls by the wayside, but we’ve been pretty successful.
Sometimes we just meet up to hang out and not turn wrenches.
Its a good thing.
“EJS starts on April 1, so I have a few months”
I don’t want to stress or alarm you [further], but really you have two months: February and March. There is about a week left in January but you’ll need some time to get from the new digs up to Moab, so that seems to be a wash. March 32nd will be here before you know it!
Aw, crap.
Crap, you’re right… I might not have medical clearance to get back out in my garage for another 6 weeks. Maybe I will just pack all the parts and my tools and work on it during EJS? Painting it is pretty much out of the conversation now as well. I am going to need to have a hyper focused two weeks of wrenching at the end of March. I wish I could find a shop near me to do the gears and locker but no one will even return my calls. I ordered the tool to dial in the “lash” but the fact that I am not even sure that is the correct term tells you my confidence level. I need to start binging youtube videos and find the FSM on my computer. Send me links if you have any you recommend for the Chrysler 8.25″.
I bought a 2001 Saab 9-3 Aero this past Sunday. It’s in very good condition overall, with only a few minor bits and bobs that need sorting out. Most of the things on my To Do list are upgrades. I bought an aftermarket steering brace to help reduce torque steer. I was going to tackle that first, but on the ride home from buying the car, I discovered that only the front right and rear left speakers are working, so I want to take care of that first.
I will be installing new 6×9’s in the rear and 6.5″ components up front, with the woofers in the factory door locations and the tweeters going into the factory dash locations, which will require custom brackets (since the dash speakers are 3.5″). I will also be installing a class-D amp to power the speakers, which will be connected to the factory head unit. Rather than replace the factory head unit, I will be upgrading it with the amp, an aux input, and an add-on DAB radio unit with Bluetooth. Since 2 of the 4 existing speakers aren’t working anyway, I will be running new speaker wire to bypass any potential factory wiring issues.
Also on my list is an investigation into my non-functioning rear parking sensors. I can see parking sensors in the rear bumper, but there’s no noise when I back up close to something.
We’ll see how much I can fit into the upcoming weekend though. I’m hoping to at least have a full set of functioning speakers by Sunday.
What the hell, Doug? Why haven’t you emailed me about this Saab yet?
What can I say . . . been busy with the day job and the family. Just pinged you something. I need to get some writing time in soon.
Okay, Doug, I’m gonna give you a list of commandments.
These are not simply my commandments. These have been developed over in depth discussions with some of the best Saab shops on Earth. Not “in the US” not “around me.” $0.75 a minute international calling and lots of it.
THOU SHALT NOT install any aftermarket steering brace which is not the Abbott Racing Viggen Rescue Kit, because they are all cheap anodized aluminum junk that just fucking bends and breaks and does damage along the way.
THOU SHALT NOT attempt to “just” install aftermarket replacement speakers in the front door cards because uh yeah those literally are only subwoofers. From the head. No, seriously. You can’t do what you’re thinking. It is not possible.
THOU SHALT use only Eibach or Abbott Racing for lowering springs no matter how damn cheap or expensive anyone else is. Like, seriously. Even H&R got a hard ‘nein.’
THOU SHALT not fucking do one wheel burnouts because holy shit will that destroy your transmission instantly.
THOU SHALT check those back calipers weekly because they seize up if you sneeze on them.
THOU SHALT NOT ever, ever, EVER fucking install the Taliaferro solid trans mount in a non-Viggen unless you want shattered teeth both in your gearbox and your skull.
THOU SHALT NOT install those crappy ass polyurethane bushing kits from Powerflex and the like and only order the uprated kit from Taliaferro.
THOU SHALT NOT neglect the PCV refit kit if not already equipped because that’s how you get scored cylinder walls at best.
THOU SHALT immediately drain whatever $3 a gallon brown “power steering fluid” was last installed and replace it with Pentosyn or equivalent because seriously you do not want to know what those racks cost.
THOU SHALT ONLY INSTALL WHEELS WITH THREE SPOKES. Look man I don’t make the rules. I consulted experts and they assured me that wheels with more than 3 spokes will cause it to burst into flames.
You left out the commandment against using cheap two-stroke oil. The great thing is this holds true even for the four-stroke models, as they don’t like the stuff, either.
Man, we do not even get into oil discussions with me. Remember that video where Valvoline made a custom oil for David’s Metropolitan?
If they’d sell that service, I’d have a lifetime subscription and an entire 3 ring binder of very specific recipes.
Group buy?
Thanks for the wisdom, especially on the mechanical stuff. I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t buy the Abbot Racing brace, but I have been thinking about selling it and spending the extra cash for the real deal. The one I bought is unopened, so I might be posting that soon on the UK Saabs forum.
As for the speakers, I am not installing “replacement” speakers as mine didn’t come with speakers in the doors (nor the amp that powers them). I will be running new speaker wire from the woofers through the doors (which I know is a pain in the ass from past installs on non-Saabs, so I expect the same difficulties) to crossovers which will be mounted under the dash or in the kick panels. The tweeters will be wired to the crossovers, and then I will run wires to the amp.
Yeah, see above, re: from the head. There’s no output. So what you’ll actually want to do even for a non-amp car (I have the amp, don’t ask what hell that is,) is treat those as front full-range and the dash as tweeters with a high-pass. Or take the front output, amp, and balance. Why they did woofer only blows my mind, because the acoustics are actually set up for those to be full range speakers!
I just don’t get it.
Well, maybe I do. On the 9-5 it has front door full range. Probably something to do with that. (Same head unit.) Actually running new conductor to the door locations actually shouldn’t be even remotely hard on the Saab though. Looks hard, but it’s super not thanks to the accordions and lots of open space in the door.
Ultimately, I’m going to be putting in an Alpine iLX, though haven’t decided which yet. Too many other things that need done first, like rebuilding the transmission.
Hey, hey, hey it’s wrenching Wednesday! Would still like to hear the Jeep Yoda’s (DT) take on the spacer, isolator, spring debate from last week. But I have another dumb question I have been pondering this week as well.
Do you need to mount your winch control box to the winch itself, or can I mount it externally somewhere that it will be out of the way. It has both a wired and wireless remote it that matters. the wires connecting the box to the winch are much longer than they need to be, but it came with a bracket to attach it above the spool.
Offer is still on the table if you need help getting ready for EJS now that you are at least in the same time zone. Planes, trains, and automobiles are all options on the table and I am hoping the doctors give me a green light to resume wrenching early next month.
Pretty sure you could mount it wherever the wires will reach, as long as you can keep those wires safe. They make relocation kits for at least some of them, if you need extra wiring.
Yup, what Drew said. Shouldn’t be any issue to move it where it fits better.
It claims to be waterproof and comes with a cover, but I would rather tuck it somewhere that random people walking by can ess with it and it is out of the elements. Once I get the bumper on I will have to see if the wires are long enough to tuck it away somewhere and I will definitely look into a relocation kit.
Winch control box should be strictly low voltage, low amperage. They should just be operating relays inside the winch power distribution box. As long as you have adequate WEATHERPROOFING (which is not waterproofing, damnit,) it’s no different from wiring up any other sort of low current switch that operates a relay. Match the wire gauge, splice properly, and you can put it wherever you like. Or just wire it to upfitter switches. (Don’t delete any fuses though. Relocating is fine, but match amperage and location.)