Lipinhu's...

[Lipinhu]

Hi folks

Never opened a thread in this subforum, but i´ve decided to start doing something in the car, otherwise, i'll probably lose the interestet once i had the car parked for about a year. So, here is my thread and i'll hope to get it updated every once and a while.

By now it will only be about little things I have to do on the car. The big part, will come in a year or so, no rush and depends on my savings though.

Last saturday was quite a day. Things started bad, as we took all the morning to take out the wheels. YEAH IT'S TRUE. I´ll explain: i got my rims painted, and I thought that at that shop some comon sense it's used, but when they got coated, the center diameter is reduced a bit, BUT I NEVER EXPECTED OR THOUGHT ABOUT IT, and when i got the rims in the car, they didn´t slip in, they were kind of forced. When the time to take'em out came, they didn't want to. After lots of hamering and some silly engineering, we loosen the bolts and head to the nearest roundabout. Two laps and it was it. The wheels came loose.

Now to the work.

Work sheet:
Brakes mainly: caliper rebuild kits, new rotors and pads all around, brake fluid and bleed.
Gear shift lever: Replace the rubers.
L/f turn signal: didn't work properly.

Pics later, as i need to do some reducing work. They're not good, but it was the only camera arround, so....

[Mux213]

Whow, thats one way of getting wheels off

Sounds like you got some nice work ahead of you!

[Lipinhu]

The pics are here. As I stated before, they arent in that good shape, but... here they are.

Wheels off, finally.




Rotors and calipers out. New OEM rotors were used. Rebuild kits for the calipers, the fronts were quite easy to replace, the rears gave a litle more work because of the hand brake components, with time everything went to its place.




Replacing the rotors. Here, the fronts were a bit more tricky. I knew that there was a bearing somewhere and I dindt want to F**k things up. Went nice. Rears are very simple.




Me, putting everything to its place.






Rear rotors.


The "sanding job" in the mintex front pads. 5 seconds with a bench grinder.


Amazing how everything... just work.


This is the gear shif lever, as you can see, its damn dirty. I was surprised because, some of this apearence was inside too. One inside rubber was missing, the other was worn out, so there was no much precision when shifting, now its like new and shining. Unfurtunatly, this was the last picture taken, damn batterys. Cant show you the rest of the work.


Forgot to mention in the last post (work sheet), that other little things were done in the engine too. Oil, spark plugs, filters and stuff.

Thaks to the friends involved who, besides of the work done, had allways good humour and make it a pleasent day. Thanks to AEU86 too.

PS- When working on cars, always be sure where the camera is.

[Mux213]

Whow! looking good!!!!

I better get cracking with that how to video before nobody needs it anymore

[Lipinhu]

Hi

Today was a heavy work day. Recieved the prothanes this week, and today i went to Rasteirinho's garage to replace my 21 years old ones.

I had in mind change all the bushings, one piece at the time. I started off by the rear end. The sway bar was out like butter and replacing its bushes is very easy, as the parts came out I cleaned them up. Next was the panhard bar and bring out the bush on the chassis end was quite a challenge, not the rubber but the metal outter ring, but with my silly engeniring he was out.

The 4 links were the most pain in the ass i´ve ever had while working on cars, keep in mind that I had te rear end standing in simple tripods, and work underneeth the car can be painfull, i mean, there's not big gap between the floor and the car and arrange yourself to give you some room to work its just impossible, specialy when you need to aply some strengh on tools to loose the bolts, and this ones (8 bolts FU*K*NG tight, and there is the gas tank, panhard member, exhaust, the freekin axle...) at the 4 links were just crazy, once out, another insane thing, the links didnt want to came out (the rubber wasnt that weared) so I used the tool i loved most today: the hammer. It took me 567876 times more taking the 4 links out than anything done today. As the prothane bushings they slide in just fine and tight, but that grease they supply just stucks to the hands so much that between parts i needed to wash my hands. I started to work on the car at 10:30 and finished at 19:30. I´m soooo tired, looks like I got beaten by a bunch of gangters.

So, for now I only have the rear end done, the front end i'll try next week, and i'm pretty sure it will be easier.

As the drive of the car, I feel the rear end very bumpy. I had koni special with oem springs, but i think it´s yet soon to say something because I want to have all the bushings in place and figure out the final result.

It's a shame that i didnt took any pictures, but I promess you, I´ll never buy another Canon. I´ll try to get a borrowed cammera to fill a bit my topic.

By now, this is the possible report. Hope to get everithing done next week.

[Mux213]

Hey Filipe,

Sounds like you have a fun day!

These things always take more time then you think

The 4 links are the worse indeed... But I think they front will have some interesting challenges as well

[Ivan141]

In my experience, getting the metal bushing out of the panhard rod was the hardest part of the whole bushing replacement procedure. So it's all uphill from here! You will notice a lot more driving sound from the polyurethane bushings, cause they transmit a lot more vibration to the chassis. Just keep in mind that that is nothing compared to the amount of vibrations a solid heim-jointed 4-link setup would induce. Sacrifices must be made (and you get used to it pretty soon).

[banpei]

Ivan141 Wrote:Just keep in mind that that is nothing compared to the amount of vibrations a solid heim-jointed 4-link setup would induce.

That's something I don't really like to recall.

[Lipinhu]

Quote:You will notice a lot more driving sound from the polyurethane bushings, cause they transmit a lot more vibration to the chassis.

Yeps, i´m expecting that. But mind that i´m in Portugal, not Holland. Roads here looks like the ones after the world war, there are lots of big crates and the sanitation covers are never leveled with the pavement, portuguese drivers have slalom challange every day. If the prothanes, or any other suspension component, survives portuguese roads, they survive pretty much everithing. So, vibrations tend to be more agressive and obviously less filtered. Now I hear something like metal noises and frequences in low rpm ranges (mostly from the center console). But still very drivable.

I would never consider the solid heim-jointed setup, metal on metal would definetly ruin the porpose of any street car.

[NoHachi]

Mux213 Wrote:Whow! looking good!!!!

I just cannot get over this remark of yours with the picture of the big butt right above it...roflol :mrgreen: :mrgreen: