I took SWMBO's car to the tire dealership and dragged these along, too.
I finally was able to spring for some rubber to wrap around those Mini Fat Fives I painted almost a year ago! I was there almost three hours and fielded several questions from the somewhat skeptical staff, like, 'eight tires?', 'the tire we're taking off is a 195/60R14, are you sure you want to replace it with the 195/70R14s?'. There was just one guy there who was close to my wavelength; he came out to ask if I'd prefer to only mount wheel weights on the inside rim instead of the painted outside. I appreciated him asking but I asked him to go ahead and weight them wherever they needed weight. More pics!
A quick 'leaning test fit' before we all headed out for our weekly errands.
I had to stack them in the shed so nobody else would decide to appropriate them for their 4x100 car.
I finally got home and with just a little daylight left I set about getting that rubber under my wagon. I've been watching these guys from Australia, MightyCarMods, on YouTube so I got a little silly with the process pictures. One of their "in" jokes is jacking up the car and putting it on "axle stands" for every mod. Even changing the stereo head unit. Maaad!
Jack up your car...
... place it on axle stands...
... remove wheel...
... install new wheel and tire!
Lather...
... rinse...
... repeat.
I adjourned to a nearby park to do some slow speed circles with the steering wheel turned all the way to lock in both directions. Turning right was quiet enough but turning left was producing an odd rubbing sound, like something was rubbing against the textured bit of the inside sidewall. I remembered the piece below from the right front wheel well.
I removed this piece with my Leatherman tool.
It had been attached here to the screw hole in center frame.
While I was in there I also saw where the tread surface rubs very slightly against the inner splash guard at full lock left. That'll do, Dory, that'll do.
Now that's probably more than enough pictures for you normal people. I'll put the gratuitous photos in the next posts!
Yay! Now that you have confirmed shoe fitment, hows the MPFI wiring coming along?
LOL, Did bam-bam delegate smartass duties to you while he was on his road trip? I'm working on that today. My challenge is what bam-bam warned me about; building a harness without an MPFI engine around which to build it. I've only have about half of what the write-ups are talking about here, basically just the engine bay harness(es). This is where I'll need to use the complete harness as a physical model.
As far as me going on about the wheels and tires, well, I've wanted larger OEM alloy wheels and larger tires since day one with this car.
Right now she'll be rolling close to stock but on the future wishlist are:
manual transmission
stereo head unit
a rear speaker solution
tinted windows
roof rack
upgraded rolling stock
From this list from my first post in this thread, I had accomplished only a stereo head unit. Now there's two things down!
Thanks rbw! I may need to take you up on that offer. Most of what I accomplished yesterday was replacing missing connectors that have been used in earlier projects.
this is my favorite picture ...
in my opinion all this wagon needs is some window tint .....:encouragement:
Thanks Chip! Tint is on my 'To Do' list. I really want to get it done but more practical upgrades come first.
On a tip from bam-bam I went out to the nearest Pull-a-Part in search of a muffler and the lower console with shift boot from a manual wagon. Remember this; If bam-bam texts you and tells you where to get something he knows you are looking for, go get it as soon as possible. He has an amazing memory for parts, parts cars, even where to find the cars on the yard.
Here's a little bonus I found on my way to the wagons. Long time readers may remember that on my very first trip to PaP I snagged an almost complete set of rear roof speaker pods out of an Isuzu SUV. (I forget which model but it's the one that Honda re-badged and sold as the Passport.) The only thing I left behind was the pigtails to plug into the pods. Today I saw at least four of those SUVs on the yard with speaker pods. So I pulled these pigtails out of the first one I saw. Now maybe I can get the second pod mounted and both wired up!
Here we have the stock muffler on top with the one that's been hanging under my wagon at the bottom. I believe the muffler at top was installed fairly recently before the Wagon it was on got smashed. It looks too clean to have been under there too long! Below, I think it's an 'universal' muffler welded up to some stock exhaust pipe off of a Hatch or something. They really over-bent it to make that extreme angle to put the muffler where it hangs on Wagons. Had to be a half-assed shade tree job. I sure as hell hope the previous owner didn't actually pay someone for the mess they made under the car.
Please bear with me on these out-of-focus shots. These were pictures I took blindly from the other side so I could see what was back there. This is the hack job done to the rear flange of the exhaust pipe just behind the rear axle. I have to assume that whoever hung the previous muffler lost the stock bolts with the captured springs. They were replaced with one 1/2 inch bolt into the stock "nut" on the other ear of this flange while this ear had it's "nut" burned off and bolted through with a 9/16 inch bolt and nut. No springs which didn't allow it to flex which led to the loose joint at the muffler and the exhaust leak(s). Morons.
Fortunately, I had a moment of clarity at PaP and decided to bring the bolts and springs home with me. I guess I learned something from not getting those pigtails all those months ago! Here's me trying to see if I'll be able to catch a thread with a replacement METRIC 8x1.25 nut. I thought I might not be able to get it done.
This would've been easy with two people; one to hold the nut and the other to compress the spring and turn the wrench. Instead, I used whatever I could think of to get the muffler assembly close enough to the exhaust pipe to catch a thread. What I was actually thinking was 'why the hell haven't I bought any C-clamps yet?' Lacking the most obvious way to overcome my problem I grabbed zip-ties and the largest pair of channel lock pliers I could lay hands on. A pair of zip-ties around both sides and both flanges got things close. Then I slipped a zip-tie around the pliers and clamped the bad ears close together with the zip-tie to hold it clamped. Totally rigged. See, it's not shade-tree mechanics I have a problem with; I come from a line of shade-tree mechanics and hope to one day be at least able to fix my own cars. But even if you have to use whatever you have on hand to work there's no reason for a careless or sloppy result.
And speaking of a result that's not careless or sloppy, here's how I left it.
So this happened...
Fresher engine.
bam and Hoss.
Dory mid - swap.
Pulling the motor and protecting that blue wrinkle.
Dad aka QC.
Dory waiting for her transplant.
It was a good day at BamTech Speed Shop. Got to meet prennro and pelonmb in person. Got to turn wrenches with the two men I admire most, QC and bam-bam. No, it was a great day!
There were 10 wagons in the yard last weekend at one point.
She didn't quite make the Sunday mark. I had an EACV issue that i didn't resolve until Monday. It's running now, though. Just need to patch the shifter hole and button up the dash.
So, how do you feel about working on St. Patrick's Day, bam?
I like the green clover eye patch ...
I knew bam was a pirate @ heart ...
Glad the Dory is back running ...
Shuck as fare as patching up a hole .... It just better ventalation and weight reduction ... He'll Scrappy had holes for years til CTI gang did some fancy zip and tuck on him..!
I was thinking today that I ought to go ahead and make an update on the end of the Auto-to-Manual / DPFI-to-MPFI swap. I had been waiting to get the final piece to that covers the hole in the floor but It's been weeks so I ought to just go with what I've got right now. This will re-tread some ground that's already been covered I'll share the photos I have.
Now here's a hole that needs filling... (...that's what she said!)
Here's the fresher engine installed before the valve cover was switched back to my wrinkle blue one.
I think this was when we had the EACV issue. It apparently gets power from the other side of the harness on and '89 and the project harness I started and bam finished was from a different year car.
I couldn't decide which of these shots looked better so you get both! Here bam is fixing a Wagon-specific pedal cluster. In the foreground are the ones that couldn't pass muster. In truth, none of them "passed muster" in that they were each broken but bam picked the least broken set and welded them up where they were broken and reinforced them where they were most likely to break in future.
With my VC installed!
Don't ask me why but I was looking for something useful to do so I sanded down my battery tray while it was out and sprayed it with primer to inhibit future rust. Here, bam has sprayed it black before installing it.
Have I mentioned lately that bam just plain DOES NOT do things half-way? It's just not in his character. The night before I was planning to go and pick up the finished car he and QC drove Dory on a short errand. Driving less than five miles bam heard a slight stumble and investigated. He found bubbles in the radiator which is no bueno. So in addition to the swap, the car also got a new head gasket. He caught it _way_ early so no harm was done. Thank you bam!
This is the custom cabin sealing job bam did to keep out gases, etc. This is what i need to replace with a patch from a junkyard manual wagon.
Well, that's all of the swap-specific photos I have on photobucket right now. I'll see if I have any more to upload and make another update then.
Comments
I finally was able to spring for some rubber to wrap around those Mini Fat Fives I painted almost a year ago! I was there almost three hours and fielded several questions from the somewhat skeptical staff, like, 'eight tires?', 'the tire we're taking off is a 195/60R14, are you sure you want to replace it with the 195/70R14s?'. There was just one guy there who was close to my wavelength; he came out to ask if I'd prefer to only mount wheel weights on the inside rim instead of the painted outside. I appreciated him asking but I asked him to go ahead and weight them wherever they needed weight. More pics!
A quick 'leaning test fit' before we all headed out for our weekly errands.
I had to stack them in the shed so nobody else would decide to appropriate them for their 4x100 car.
I finally got home and with just a little daylight left I set about getting that rubber under my wagon. I've been watching these guys from Australia, MightyCarMods, on YouTube so I got a little silly with the process pictures. One of their "in" jokes is jacking up the car and putting it on "axle stands" for every mod. Even changing the stereo head unit. Maaad!
Jack up your car...
... place it on axle stands...
... remove wheel...
... install new wheel and tire!
Lather...
... rinse...
... repeat.
I adjourned to a nearby park to do some slow speed circles with the steering wheel turned all the way to lock in both directions. Turning right was quiet enough but turning left was producing an odd rubbing sound, like something was rubbing against the textured bit of the inside sidewall. I remembered the piece below from the right front wheel well.
I removed this piece with my Leatherman tool.
It had been attached here to the screw hole in center frame.
While I was in there I also saw where the tread surface rubs very slightly against the inner splash guard at full lock left. That'll do, Dory, that'll do.
Now that's probably more than enough pictures for you normal people. I'll put the gratuitous photos in the next posts!
Gratuitous pics start now!
The notorious soda can. No moar low!
As far as me going on about the wheels and tires, well, I've wanted larger OEM alloy wheels and larger tires since day one with this car.
From this list from my first post in this thread, I had accomplished only a stereo head unit. Now there's two things down!
Looks good Todd.
I've got a single slamber sitting on a stand if you need measurements.
Technically, the head is off it and the intake but I can pretty much put it close to give you measurements needed.
just be clear in the text what measurements you need.
in my opinion all this wagon needs is some window tint .....:encouragement:
On a tip from bam-bam I went out to the nearest Pull-a-Part in search of a muffler and the lower console with shift boot from a manual wagon. Remember this; If bam-bam texts you and tells you where to get something he knows you are looking for, go get it as soon as possible. He has an amazing memory for parts, parts cars, even where to find the cars on the yard.
Here's a little bonus I found on my way to the wagons. Long time readers may remember that on my very first trip to PaP I snagged an almost complete set of rear roof speaker pods out of an Isuzu SUV. (I forget which model but it's the one that Honda re-badged and sold as the Passport.) The only thing I left behind was the pigtails to plug into the pods. Today I saw at least four of those SUVs on the yard with speaker pods. So I pulled these pigtails out of the first one I saw. Now maybe I can get the second pod mounted and both wired up!
Here we have the stock muffler on top with the one that's been hanging under my wagon at the bottom. I believe the muffler at top was installed fairly recently before the Wagon it was on got smashed. It looks too clean to have been under there too long! Below, I think it's an 'universal' muffler welded up to some stock exhaust pipe off of a Hatch or something. They really over-bent it to make that extreme angle to put the muffler where it hangs on Wagons. Had to be a half-assed shade tree job. I sure as hell hope the previous owner didn't actually pay someone for the mess they made under the car.
Please bear with me on these out-of-focus shots. These were pictures I took blindly from the other side so I could see what was back there. This is the hack job done to the rear flange of the exhaust pipe just behind the rear axle. I have to assume that whoever hung the previous muffler lost the stock bolts with the captured springs. They were replaced with one 1/2 inch bolt into the stock "nut" on the other ear of this flange while this ear had it's "nut" burned off and bolted through with a 9/16 inch bolt and nut. No springs which didn't allow it to flex which led to the loose joint at the muffler and the exhaust leak(s). Morons.
Fortunately, I had a moment of clarity at PaP and decided to bring the bolts and springs home with me. I guess I learned something from not getting those pigtails all those months ago! Here's me trying to see if I'll be able to catch a thread with a replacement METRIC 8x1.25 nut. I thought I might not be able to get it done.
This would've been easy with two people; one to hold the nut and the other to compress the spring and turn the wrench. Instead, I used whatever I could think of to get the muffler assembly close enough to the exhaust pipe to catch a thread. What I was actually thinking was 'why the hell haven't I bought any C-clamps yet?' Lacking the most obvious way to overcome my problem I grabbed zip-ties and the largest pair of channel lock pliers I could lay hands on. A pair of zip-ties around both sides and both flanges got things close. Then I slipped a zip-tie around the pliers and clamped the bad ears close together with the zip-tie to hold it clamped. Totally rigged. See, it's not shade-tree mechanics I have a problem with; I come from a line of shade-tree mechanics and hope to one day be at least able to fix my own cars. But even if you have to use whatever you have on hand to work there's no reason for a careless or sloppy result.
And speaking of a result that's not careless or sloppy, here's how I left it.
thanks for thinking of me yesterday.
Lol, to tint or not to tint. As hot as it gets here in Summer tint is not just a style choice. Thanks!
Fresher engine.
bam and Hoss.
Dory mid - swap.
Pulling the motor and protecting that blue wrinkle.
Dad aka QC.
Dory waiting for her transplant.
It was a good day at BamTech Speed Shop. Got to meet prennro and pelonmb in person. Got to turn wrenches with the two men I admire most, QC and bam-bam. No, it was a great day!
I did not think it was happening this soon.
Ought to be running by Sunday. You know I never stop 'til bedtime.
one project at a time. Way cool.
So how many wagons where out n the waiting room for support ..?
She didn't quite make the Sunday mark. I had an EACV issue that i didn't resolve until Monday. It's running now, though. Just need to patch the shifter hole and button up the dash.
So, how do you feel about working on St. Patrick's Day, bam?
Todd might not be used to that.
And, this is why we need a South East Meet at Bams House... He already has the biggest gatherings of SE wagon at his house..
A little moisture around the dipstick hole is what got him in the shape he's in, familywise.
I knew bam was a pirate @ heart ...
Glad the Dory is back running ...
Shuck as fare as patching up a hole .... It just better ventalation and weight reduction ... He'll Scrappy had holes for years til CTI gang did some fancy zip and tuck on him..!
Now here's a hole that needs filling... (...that's what she said!)
Here's the fresher engine installed before the valve cover was switched back to my wrinkle blue one.
I think this was when we had the EACV issue. It apparently gets power from the other side of the harness on and '89 and the project harness I started and bam finished was from a different year car.
I couldn't decide which of these shots looked better so you get both! Here bam is fixing a Wagon-specific pedal cluster. In the foreground are the ones that couldn't pass muster. In truth, none of them "passed muster" in that they were each broken but bam picked the least broken set and welded them up where they were broken and reinforced them where they were most likely to break in future.
With my VC installed!
Don't ask me why but I was looking for something useful to do so I sanded down my battery tray while it was out and sprayed it with primer to inhibit future rust. Here, bam has sprayed it black before installing it.
Have I mentioned lately that bam just plain DOES NOT do things half-way? It's just not in his character. The night before I was planning to go and pick up the finished car he and QC drove Dory on a short errand. Driving less than five miles bam heard a slight stumble and investigated. He found bubbles in the radiator which is no bueno. So in addition to the swap, the car also got a new head gasket. He caught it _way_ early so no harm was done. Thank you bam!
This is the custom cabin sealing job bam did to keep out gases, etc. This is what i need to replace with a patch from a junkyard manual wagon.
Well, that's all of the swap-specific photos I have on photobucket right now. I'll see if I have any more to upload and make another update then.