I think it’s Time for a Wagon 1988 740 Turbo

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by Dan

They get brittle and crack at drain neck from flexing, replace don't clean

Okay that’s what I’ll do. I just wanted to make sure the new aftermarket ones weren’t known to be exceptionally horrible or something.

The stock starla system arrived from FCP today. Very impressed with the mufflers and hardware. I installed it this evening. So quiet compared with the old nasty rear muffler...



Now I need to decide if I want to cut up my dust shields to
Make the QSRCs fit or pass them on...

[DET17]

Originally Posted by Coupid

Now I need to decide if I want to cut up my dust shields to
Make the QSRCs fit or pass them on...

No way around this..... if your wagon is lowered more than 1.25 inches, per Ben, you benefit from the QSRCs. I'll testify they made a huge handling improvement with my lowering springs.

[Duder]

Great job with this car so far, nice to read about all your progress! I would rock it.

Glad to hear Starla is treating you well...

[redblockpowered]

Not the nicest solution with respect to time spent working on the car, but you could pull the dust shields off completely and try the QSRCs to see if they're worthwhile. I'd suspect that they are, based on feedback others have provided, but have never tried them myself.

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by DET17

No way around this..... if your wagon is lowered more than 1.25 inches, per Ben, you benefit from the QSRCs. I'll testify they made a huge handling improvement with my lowering springs.

Yeah I'm sure it will make a huge difference and I'll ultimately make the right decision and go for it lol.

Originally Posted by Duder

Great job with this car so far, nice to read about all your progress! I would rock it.

Glad to hear Starla is treating you well...

Haha that is a classic, thanks for the kind words!

Originally Posted by redblockpowered

Not the nicest solution with respect to time spent working on the car, but you could pull the dust shields off completely and try the QSRCs to see if they're worthwhile. I'd suspect that they are, based on feedback others have provided, but have never tried them myself.

That's probably the right way to do it. Really I'd like to have a spare set to modify and keep the originals as is. Like you say all that pulling the front end of the car apart to get to the shields a few times is very time consuming. From a quick glance around the internet my best bet is probably pulling a set of shields from the JY...

[Coupid]

No photos to share but I wanted to flush the brakes since according to the records they hadn’t been since September of 2017. It went easy and really improved pedal feel.

I did it with the car on the ground and simply turned the front wheels to either side to access the nipples. The power steering system didn’t really seem to appreciate that. The car developed a shudder through the wheel on tight right turns at low rpm.

For some reason I didn’t replace the ps and alt belts when I did all that work on the front of the engine. The power steering fluid looked horrible. I starting flushing the reservoir with Type F ATF. It was pretty brown to begin and after a few flushes it was getting close to red. I replaced the belt as well. The alternator belt oriellys sold me was too long either because they messed up or since the denso pulley is marginally smaller than stock.

Either way I’ll be back there tomorrow to get a shorter belt (10x1000) and another quart of ATF so I can do a few more flushes.

When I started the car and turned the wheel back and forth in the garage it felt about a million times better so we will see!

[Coupid]

Yucky old belts pictured above.

Belts are all sorted and PS fluid is fully red after 4.5 flushes of the reservoir.

[whatshouldido]

as always nice work !

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by whatshouldido

as always nice work !

Thanks!

My do88 and IPD lower brace arrived yesterday.

After a few false starts at trimming the rubber on the mounts I got the intercooler installed



It’s a super nice piece, hoping it will be nice and covered in dirt by the time I have to smog so it doesn’t stick out at all.

The lower brace installed very easily as you would expect

On the shakedown run to the grocery store



Can’t wait to get it out for a longer drive to see what it is like

[PCH]

Clean!
Take it up to Camino Cielo for some fun curves

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by PCH

Clean!
Take it up to Camino Cielo for some fun curves

That’s on my to do list. A week from tomorrow I am taking it on Targa 805 up in Bradley, CA

On the grocery store run last night I noticed the defroster and sunroof switch lamps weren’t on. Emilia and I went to Orielly’s this evening and bought some sylvania 2721 replacements. Interior bulb replacement was a great way to introduce an 18 month old to the joys of working on cars

Let there be light:




I wish they had the little blue colors so the light matched the other switch lamps but this is beyond functional.

I’m starting to get excited about installing the QSRCs again (and cutting the dust shields) but at this point I might wait until after the rally.

[Coupid]

My shifter seems to be moving around a lot more that it used to. I replaced the mount with a meyle HD unit from IPD. I didn’t do the rubber mount conversion until November. Is it possible that the meyle already failed? I pulled the cross member out last night to inspect and I could move the center part fore and aft with my fingers.

I have a Febi one on the way from FCP just in case.

[Coupid]

Installed the new Febi unit and went for a test drive. The shifter still moves more than I would like when I hit bumps in the road but it doesn’t move around when I accelerate or brake like it had been doing. Glad I replaced it and I can’t believe it failed so quickly. Well I sorta can since the suspension is stiff and it lived part of its life with two ancient engine mounts as partners but still...

I took the opportunity to get a new coupler for the turbo to hot side ic pipe since the original was pretty mangled and oily:

[Coupid]

So last night I went to leave town for the Targa805 and only made it about 8 miles. The car felt great heading up highway 154. As we crested the grade, I tapped the steering wheel and said “nice work”. Immediately the car lost power, the rear wiper turned on and the radio had a bunch of static. After some tense minutes spent partially blocking a lane of the highway, I had the car towed home.


My wife wisely counseled me to take her Mazda3 and still go on the drive. Glad I did, great people roads, and cars.


Will need to spend some time diagnosing but thinking it might be the radio suppression relay, main fuel pump or coil?

[Coupid]

Quick update, that was an easy fix... I’m an idiot
upload img

[John242Ti]

Oops. BTDT with my original 242. Was the other end, tho. Took a curve a little too quickly and car died. This happened right after the wiring harness had been replaced by a shop. So, I firstly thought there was an issue with the work. Popped the hood, and, sure enough, coil wire was about an inch from the tower of the coil.

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by John242Ti

Oops. BTDT with my original 242. Was the other end, tho. Took a curve a little too quickly and car died. This happened right after the wiring harness had been replaced by a shop. So, I firstly thought there was an issue with the work. Popped the hood, and, sure enough, coil wire was about an inch from the tower of the coil.

Yeah exactly, I had done so much work on it recently I figured the radio suppression relay got some power steering fluid on it or some connection at the fuse panel was loose from the heater core job...

[Alex Mcknz]

It seems like everything is going well with this build. I can't wait to see how this project will turn out.

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by Alex Mcknz

It seems like everything is going well with this build. I can't wait to see how this project will turn out.

Thanks Alex!

I got the cup holder armrest, strut tower brace and new carpet installed in the last week. Loving all three upgrades!





So in order to restore my faith in the car I took it to go pick up our cat from the vet last night. It was 80 miles roundtrip. The car did great and our cat is okay after they pulled a handful of Easter ribbon out of his stomach. It was a pretty drive.



Since I still wasn’t happy with the amount of movement from the shifter and I had a clunk in reverse I wanted to tear into the u-joints and driveshaft carrier and bearing. Holy crap! The carrier has totally failed:




New 3 3/16 ujoints and 1.75in diameter carrier are
On their way from IPD. Hoping to get it all back together to join the SLORolling crew for a drive this weekend.

[Coupid]

Oh man that was a pain. The carrier bearing support was totally shot. The u-joints were in good shape so I didn’t touch them.

My driveshaft is a little different than all the other ones I have seen so I couldn’t just knock the carrier off and pull the bearing. Over the course of a few days I cut it off later by layer.


Installed the new ones in the car last night and it cured a few clunks and more of the shifter movement so I am happy.

[Coupid]

Deferred maintenance log day 279:

I pulled the throttle body off for a clean and new gasket. It was pretty yucky and the gasket was super fried.



I couldn’t drive tonight but it sounded nice when I fired it up. More to come when my parts from Roy and Adam arrive this week