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The Rwd 2Az-Fe Thread.


LittleRedSpirit

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  • 1 month later...

Ok, been doing more work on the front end.

 

I went to see my friend Shauny Vidler at the brake shop and reconditioned the ra40 calipers. We measured the rotors, and they were over a mm from spent so they still have most of their life left. The pads are about 60% but well worth using up.

 

I wanted to learn the finer points of rebuilding brake calipers so I got Shaun to demonstrate on the first one and I rebuilt the second one, its not really very hard. You just clean it all up really good, buff the caliper parts on the wire brush to clean them up. The pistons were pitted so they were replaced all together. There are only 2 rubber pieces on the ra40 calipers, the dust cover and the seal.

 

Bloody glad we did this as there was a teaspoons worth of slime in each one. One of the bleeders was blocked as well.

 

I took them all back to my shed. Carefully taped up the wheel bearings, and then blasted the bits of the rotors, hubs and brackets that you see. I also cleaned over the different pieces with brake cleaner and wiped them all down. The calipers, brackets and hubs have been painted with charcoal metallic hammer tone enamel like everything else underneath the front end that I've messed with.

 

As soon as my t3 bearing top plates arrive Ill build the coilovers for real and get them into the shell for an assessment of how my wheels will fit the car. Ill have to work out how much clearance the thing will need for the tyres. I'm considering not running my xt 130 lcas because I have some with camber bolts to try, but I'm not too sure If I will get enough negative camber without the xt arms. I have camber plates for it also but even so I might not be able to get the amount I need. Ill have to see once its together. I cannot wait to build this thing!

 

Before:

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After the rebuild but before paint:

IMAG1493_zps4d6ed841.jpg

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IMAG1490_zps17f90d27.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Been rocking this project every day this week. Suspension is almost ready to fit to the car, I spot welded the spring perches today so they cannot spin. I also have got the f diff installed and arranged to have the spacers I need made for the bottom bracket. I also have the Bigport n t50 combo removed from the car and put aside. I'm going to have a mate teach me how to rebuild engines with the 16v since it is completely unknown condition and has sat for 10 years. Shell was rolling for the first time in a year and a half!

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Been rocking this project every day this week. Suspension is almost ready to fit to the car, I spot welded the spring perches today so they cannot spin. I also have got the f diff installed and arranged to have the spacers I need made for the bottom bracket. I also have the Bigport n t50 combo removed from the car and put aside. I'm going to have a mate teach me how to rebuild engines with the 16v since it is completely unknown condition and has sat for 10 years. Shell was rolling for the first time in a year and a half!

 

Sounds like that engine i bougth off you many years ago matt :P Rust in the bores and everything, yet it served me well for a few yrs.

 

Nice progress on the car. How good is hammercoat paint!

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Yeah I just want to learn how it works in there, and my friend has a wealth of knowledge. That old motor, I barely even remember owning it, haha.

 

I suspect most things that arent shiny silver will be grey or hammer-tone grey. I like it. The aluminium pulleys have a grey anodising on them, looks smart but subdued, and the engine and inlet manifold is obviously silver aluminium coloured. The mounts are light silvery grey. I sold the powder-coated cross member the other day as someone needed one and I have the one in the car to use, so I'm toying with stiffening it and the rack mounts somewhat since its not painted nicely yet. Ill silver ceramic the headers too. Trumpets are silver, the throttles Ive rubbed back with the buffing wheel as far as possible and even lightly soda blasted them to remove the damn engine lacquer the importers put on them. Ill still probably lightly soak them in some degreaser for about 4 minutes to etch them back a tiny amount and even out their colour. The radiator is silver, so with the silver metallic paint on the car that I will be ising it should be a pretty clean ride. Oh the wheels are silver. The interior will be red and black, what little of it there is.

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Got the front suspension and the quaife rack installed now, very happy with it.

 

I can turn full lock and nothing collides, its actually got a lot of clearance.

 

Popped on the gaurds, and even with the xt130 lcas it doesnt poke, however the rears need about an inch of cover added.

 

One really interesting thing I noticed when removing the original front suspension from the shell, its got adm ae86 struts with slotted rotors and lucas pads installed. The shocks that were installed were trd green 48511-ta001 tarmac non adjustable 1600/980 damping rate. Very nice! Also, the springs installed were trd blue and uncut. I also removed a pair of camber bolts and the cusco tops.

 

I used the cusco camber tops together with the ra40 strut coilovers made from the 6kg hsd kit, ae86 standard steering arms and xt130 lcas. Bolted together with TTT 35mm RCAs, ra40 tie rod ends and tubes, nolathane control arms bushes and the quaife steering rack. I'm pretty happy with it as its sitting now. Most likely Ill keep a stock front swaybar as I prefer that. Had to slip a washer into the setup to space the needle bearing top hats away from the camber plate and to activate the needle bearing in the tops with the load from the top nut. Works great.

 

I also removed the old steering wheel and boss kit. The original wheel from the car is tiny, seems like a joke, its about 220mm diameter! I have now fitted my prefered autotechnica 300mm wheel with my own boss kit. I also centred it all.

 

Next up is to drop in the engine and box and see how the suspension sinks, then try to estimate how much to raise it to get it where I want it. I'm planning to use more travel and droop than previously. A more all round capable style suspension system.

 

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Looks like this rack that I pulled from the ae86 has been reconditioned at some point. I'm not surprised someone has done something to it, its 3.33 turns lock to lock which is unlike any other ae86 rack I've ever heard of. I believe standard are about 2.95 turns lock to lock. It did achieve a lot of lock. Will have to call them and investigate on Monday and see what's up, it has a serial number so I might be able to find out explicit info.

 

IMAG1556_zps077da17b.jpg

This image shows the tein ae86 added caster tops next to the cusco standard caster type. If you use the caster added ones in a ke70 then its actually correct caster for a ke70.

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I think for it to work you need to drill the lca mount hole out larger, but thank ʞ©$ɟ they guy didnt know that.

 

www.whiteline.com.au/instruction/Z201_KCA4(size).pdf

 

Judging by this he used the wrong sized ones as the bolt was the same thickness as std. Therefore no adjustment, but they would work on it if you drilled the hole out. I don't like the idea of using them on an lca junction.

Edited by LittleRedSpirit
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So I split the Bigport n t50 apart to investigate whether things were rebuilt like the seller claimed or not. Once you look past the ten years worth of dust from sitting, the thing is actually rebuilt. I could see a new head gasket, clean oil (as in never driven on), new oil pump gasket, freshly sealed sump, new welsh plugs, I removed the top cover and saw that the shims and buckets were immaculately clean and the cam lobes have assembly grease on them. Its definitely rebuilt!

 

The one shit thing is that they installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge and when they screwed the brass sender in they over tightened it and cracked the raised mounting bit where it threads in. However when It was removed the broken bits fell out and revealed plenty of thread to screw it into anyhow, so I don't think it will affect anything at all.

 

On top of all this, the clutch was some heavy duty repco unit with a yellow pressure plate, and its also brand new and never driven on. Thank ʞ©$ɟ I had a look before starting it, as there was a huge ball of grease sitting on the input shaft as if they over greased it to shit! If it had ever spun it would have flung out onto the friction surface and ruined it most likely, so a good catch there.

 

All in all, between the suspension and the engine package, this car is ʞ©$ɟing great! I'm going to keep the motor and put it in a car some day, since I probably never will bother to rebuild a 16v unless its to learn about them, so it will be nice just to hold on to. Plus I drove Rians rebuilt one the other day and I was quite impressed by its manners and performance.

 

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