Thursday, September 29, 2011

The continuing saga of BMW brakes...

The hold down clip on one parking brake came loose when I went over a speed hump. It made a lot of nice grindy noises and got chewed up real good (as we say in the South). So, I removed the shoes and hardware from that side. Well, I forgot to remove, or otherwise secure, the shoe spreader that's attached to the parking brake cable. I started in for work and got about 3 blocks from the house when it broke loose and caused all kinds of havoc. I completely destroyed the spreader and damaged the dust shield. I've got the shield bent back into place and all the metal bits cleaned out. Now I have no spreader on that side and I'll have to get a new cable and spreader.

Lesson learned.

Weber Part II

I ended up pulling the intake manifold yesterday. I need to remove smog attachments on the manifold and hoses that run under and around the manifold. I'm going to plug the ones I pull off the manifold. I also need to make a few block off plates for the smog equipment that was attached to the block. I really shouldn't be amazed at how much carbon builds up on a 30 year old car.

Work may be slow for the the next week as we've got a lot of family stuff coming up.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Weber part I

Ed and I installed the Weber 32/36 carb last night while Eric is away at a spa vacation business conference. It looks so shiny sitting on a 30 year old engine. We plumbed it as best we could and had to get the jumper cables out to start the car. Looks like the used battery is on its last legs. The car ran for 3-5 minutes. I had to keep on the gas, as it would not idle. Eventually it did die and we couldn't restart it.

I'll go over all the connections again. The Celica forums have some good information and I'll reread them to see what I missed. It may be as simple as a vacuum line missing.

Monday, September 26, 2011

BMW brakes next...


I wasn’t sure I was going to make it in this morning. I changed the brakes on the BMW this weekend and they were acting up. Nothing like random “clunking” when you’re driving to get the adrenaline flowing. I think I’ve got it fixed. I backed the parking brake out some and the "clunking" seems to have stopped.

I put on 4 new rotors, pads and attempted to replace the parking brake shoes. For some reason the new (and old) rotor won't fit over the new parking brake shoes. I'll call Rock Auto about that today. I put the old shoes on until I hear from them. 

Friday, September 23, 2011

Cage, part something or other

I shanghaied Eric into helping me bleed the van brakes last night. There was a lot of air in the line where I replaced the rear brake cylinder. The pedal is firm now. Now on to the real work.

Ed joined us last night. He'll hold the moniker of new guy for a while or until he recruits some other work mates to join us. We were able to get the plates in for the front down bars and the actual front down bars. Eric really loved the front down bars. How do I know? Well, he spent so much time grinding and cutting on them to get them just right, that's how I know! I feel like we've accomplished a lot with the main hoop, roof loop and fronts in. From there, I expect it will go pretty quick to get the rest in. I'm thinking 3 more work sessions to finish the cage, then a Saturday with the big welder to make it stay.

Now I'm off to research backstay installation. Needs to be at a 45 degree angle, but I want to get the attachment points right.

Plus there should be a package arriving in the mail soon!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Another side project

I had to replace the brakes on the 2001 Honda Odyssey because they were getting squeaky. I put the van on jack stands, pulled the tires and started pulling the front rotors off.

I wonder why they were so squeaky?



Not only that, but the caliper guide pin for the passenger side was frozen. The rubber sleeve on the inside was destroyed and made it difficult to extract. I've sourced one locally and should have it back together before lunch.

And the rear passenger brake cylinder for the shoes is leaking. That's getting replaced too.

The third and final piece to the brake madness is the motvie power bleeder I have does not have a good attachment for the master cylinder, so I'll be bleeding these the old fashioned way.

On the plus side, the $10 headlight lens cleaner kit I got from Harbor Freight worked great in cleaning up the lights.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

More cage

Eric stopped by and helped me get the roof loop cut and tacked in. It was a short session. Next week we're going to move to Thursdays for the foreseeable future. Work will continue on the cage with the front down bars going in next, then the back down bars and the door bars. Then we'll get the big welder (queue Ed) and get it finished. Seems like a little bit of work, but we're slow, so I'm predicting a December finish.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Sketchy carb is here!


I received the sketchy weber from CA. And it is as sketchy as you would expect for $30 shipped. The throttle action is a little sticky from its rusty “character”. The choke is hardwired open. I have no idea about the bowl, as there is no sight glass. It’s a 32/34 DFT and not a 32/36. I haven’t been able to find any good documentation on it yet. I’ll try pulling it apart and checking the bowl condition and then just hooking the thing up to see how it does.