10th AE restoration project

[fidelity101]

TUESDAY: New wheel bearings, new front lower control arms w/ poly bushings, I removed the stock control arms and found out that they had poly bushings too but these were more aesthetically pleasing.
I also decided to do front endlinks, original ones were toast. Again, poly bushings.
 

WEDNESDAY: Rear suspension time!!!!! But there is a catch. I have more goodies!

Because this, is going to replace the beat up subframe (delrin bushings installed) and because of that I need a fancy adjustable camber bar because were already this deep and I am pretty sure that this piece is required because the delrin bushings for subframe.
 

These hubs are loaded! Drilled rotors, new calipers, hawk pads, DTSS eliminator delrin bushings, new wheel bearings, new bearing seals, refurbished endlinks again and with once more, polyurethane. (notice a trend here?) lower control arms painted (nicer) and with can you guess? Yes poly bushings.

Time to swap the differential in and bolt the axles to the differential, the diff bushings are stock and appears to be great so I am retaining them.


THURSDAY! (has not really happened yet) but re-assemble the rear end and then find time for alternator swap (run dual alternator/wp/crank belts) and clean up the factory grounds and loop them with some new low resistance wires and a little turbo R&R to replace an intake manifold bolt that I forgot, it is the 1 bolt for the LIM does not share with the non turbo… so I never installed it – Because I’m used to working on NAs… oops!

[fidelity101]

Well no updates from summer snowdrift means that brown santa screwed me, wheel spacers came in on Monday. I had everything ready to go for a Friday alignment…

But anyways, with the rear sub frame assembly on the car just a little alignment here and pry bar there and then lower the car onto the assembly. I have done this so many times on the ground in cold months in a non heated garage on my back with two terrible floor jacks. I think this method now shaved me a few hours of awful labor.


And then install the rear knuckle assembly



Here is a good view of all the goodies 100% together, looks much different here than the rallycross car but actually quite similar.



AAAAAAAAAND The spacers fit like crap and don't even fit on the front so they are getting returned this has been a very frustrating experience just to run larger tires. Makes me wish I just got the stock size and called it good. I made the rears fit but the fronts I am going to have to go with longer studs and different spacer or something else. Stoopid shit…
I did find my vacuum leak though! The PO only hand threaded in the OMP plugs on the block, it idles much better now, It has an intermittent hunt still between 500-1000 rpm, but a twist of the variable resistor helped take that nearly all out but may take a look at the TPS one more but it now runs a lot better at off throttle.

But at least everything is together in the back 100%


Even managed to close up a big exhaust leak on the factory DP to mid pipe area, the car is much quieter now but it was not very loud before.
After that, I did the alternator double pulley upgrade and then I oriented my wheels the correct way!


Oops…

I am using my cheap autozone spacers right now for alignment purposes since they are within same size of the spacers I need to run. Right now it has a .5”(almost 13mm) in the front and 15mm in the back but for just swapping a steering rack and replacing the entire suspension the alignment was not all too bad.



Next up, fix the solders on the stock radio, when you touch the power nob the front speakers can turn off or turn on and perform the ground clean up, passenger side power window is very slow going up when it reaches the ¾ mark so that may require some small attention. Friday is scheduled for a full detail so expect some nice photos to be taken in some sunshine (Michigan permitting) and not at bad timing either, dream cruise is Saturday! But I will actually be racing (rallycross) but there is still much work to be done on that.

[fidelity101]

And with a final detail there is no real update but the project is basically done! I have a few things to tweak and sort out (grounds mostly) and just enjoy it! Factory radio is being rebuilt by a friend of mine (front speakers cut out when you wiggle the power/volume knob) and it is time to shop for some cassettes!

[need RX7]

Looks much better than when you got it!

Now you just need to get you some 10AE fender badges  .

[fidelity101]

Yeah that is the goal, also to clean up the 10th AE shift knob I have.  I found the part numbers for the badges but I am not sure if you can still order them and if you can they are 99 dollars each and thats with my discount.

[murz]

Wow, amazing work man! You did it all so fast too, congratulations man, can't wait to see her again!
Just little details now!

[rallybill]

Sure would be nice, to see these together..

[fidelity101]

Soon! I have been chasing down a vac leak/boost leak. Doesn't like to idle well until it is warm. its damn close. I have/had the 3800rpm hesitation a bit so I have been cleaning and looping grounds but its 95% gone, sometimes I can still feel it.

TPS adjustment at the ECU is next, then swap TPS and re-adjust and see.

When I was cleaning the grounds at the ECU I found coolant on the floor so that would explain why I thought it was burning coolant (no visible leaks) but that is going to be a winter project.

[fidelity101]

I have been chasing and cleaning and looping all ground points to get rid of the 3800 rpm hesitation and poor throttle tip in and stalling while cold issues. it runs and drives much better but still with idle adjustment and idle enrichment it is poor on the low throttle and the car doesn't have it characteristic rotary smoothness until it warms up. Idle is still intermittent good. The turbo inlet duct is cracked about .75" long at where it mounts on the turbo inlet, a replacement one arrives later this week and then I can re test the idle and possibly more TPS adjustment.

I always thought this engine was burning coolant too but when I went to clean the grounds at the ECU I found this:



Yes that is coolant and thus heater core failure, the WORST job on this car. This car is going into storage soon so this is future Kevin's problem so right now it wont be driven the 1200 mile journey to LSPR and back in a few weeks.

but in better news I dropped off the 10th AE shifter to a local shoe repair place and they cleaned up and fixed some of the stitching on the leather boot. I also had a friend of my re solder some contacts on the OEM radio and now I can listen to cassettes again!!!!!!!! (legit excited,  no exaggeration - I love vinyl and cassettes)


Also I went autoxing for the 1st time in this car sunday, did okay lots of driver error and being rusty behind the wheel. I took 60th out of 110. 2nd in class. Hopefully some good pictures soon though.