Sweet! Glad you came out.
EDIT: This was just posted to the FB page.
In reply to AxeHealey :
Very cool! I love seeing the tire deflection
artur1808 said:In reply to AxeHealey :
Very cool! I love seeing the tire deflection
Haha! I didn't notice that until I downloaded the video on my desktop and watched it fullscreen. Wow. Not sure if that means I need more pressure or if that is allowing the tires to work better instead of breaking loose from shock.
Also notice the rear wheel moving longitudinally... More to come.
First off. Belated event recap.
Won MR by a lot (something like 25 seconds over seven runs) against Elliott Watt in his stage rally prepped 318ti, and Jake Lippert in a Subaru BRZ. He seemed somewhat familiar... and then he told me that he used to run a Cosworth Vega down with WOR in the Smoke & Mirrors days! Then I remembered... have a hard time with people but I don't forget cars 
When packing up after the event, I saw something and realized it was the reason for the weird oilcan-popping sound I was getting on the highway.
That is the floor behind the driver's seat, right in front of the suspension link mount where it ties in to that crossbeam. Batcave, we have a problem.
With the wind kicked out of my sails, and the cancellation of yesterday's event, I decided to schlep it down to Evan's where I could sit it up on jackstands and give it a good powerwashing to clean off all that Michigan mud, so I can evaluate the rest of the chassis. Also just hang out, eat some food, drink some beverages, watch some Bad Obsession Motorsport, and as it turns out diagnose a wiring issue on my ex-S40.
First, to quote MIB III, we have to get really high.
And maybe use a big prybar to hammer out some of this mud before getting water involved.
Investing in fender liners is probably a good idea.
A lot of powerwashing later...
Should probably take the time to repaint the inner fenders, too.
I like the fact that a rallycross trophy looks like a big old 70s Chevy or a Torino or something. Someone should rallycross one of those 
Gory pictures of passenger side.
This is essentially the rust that killed my '85.
Also crawled under and saw the negative clearance effect my Watts stud has with the redesigned Racing Beat muffler.
Driver side.
Not as bad, but not good either.
That is all the bad news. The good news is, this does appear to be the only rust perforation in the chassis, aside from the right wheelwell, which has been rusted through for about 10 years, but hasn't gone worse. (I fixed the left side at that time) and that right rocker.
So, it makes sense to keep on truckin' with this shell, instead of jumping ship and investing in a new set of issues Given that the problems are rust related and not rallycross related, I feel a lot more comfortable about running the '81 now.
While I am going to be under there, I may as well address some things that have bugged me since I bought the car. Some dumbass jacked the car by the "framerail" at some point. They are NOT strong enough to lift the car by! You can flex them with a prybar trying to lever a heatshield off.
I want to cut the bottom of that channel out, straighten the floor on both sides, and weld in two 6' lengths of 2x2. That should be plenty beefy.
Unintentionally did a 4 wheel burnout all the way across an attempt to cross a 2 lane road today. Now that there has been a sudden shift to the "50 degrees and raining all the time" portion of Cleveland's climate, it is clear that the tires on teh R are dead.
Very fortunately, I bit the bullet and ordered a set of new tires yesterday. Because Tire Rack is freaky fast, they were delivered in under 24 hours.
Mind you, I am going to put off installing these as long as I can, because my prior experience with Blizzaks (VW Golf, WS15s) suggests that they melt when the temps are over 40 degrees. But, the grip is godlike. And now I have a godlike AWD beast, so Blizzaks plus R is going to be like some sort of Voltron of... well... me being annoyed at being stuck in bumper to bumper 20mph traffic because of the people driving $60k SUVs on bald tires and they are afraid of light moisture.
But dammit, I at least won't be contributing to the problem.
I did some awd sideways spinning all 4 action today too when the only option to not hit the person who turned left in front of me was to hammer it and slide into the lane they turned from.
A+ for Voltron reference
Taking Akins Road to avoid the construction on 82 requires a lot of "Hail Mary" road crossings, and the one crossing Ridge is delightfully uphill.
I've come to the decision that I couldn't stand to have any less power than I have now, because I find myself using all of it.
> spend $260 at Summit on new shocks and gear oil and a $20 exhaust Y marked down from $70
* Congratulations! You have unlocked CRACKED OTE TURBO PIPE!
Grr. The Volvo gets jealous when I spend money on the RX-7.
On the Turnpike on the way home from Summit, got a yellow triangle and "Engine Service Requested" on the dash. Okay, I don't have my scantool with me, but work is sort of on the way home from Summit, so I'll detour there. Navigate around the stopped up road construction on 82, and find that I have a whole host of codes in the "MAF high" spectrum. Pop hood, and yes, the over the engine boost pipe has split again, right where I'd RapidFixed it earlier in the year. I'll deal with that on Monday.
On the way home, while crossing 82 on the way to detouring around it, I hit a gap in the asphalt so hard that it mangled at least one of the front wheels. Shakes like a mofo on the highway. Just lovely. And neither of the rear wheels are very good either. Wonder if I can straighten them out with a sledgehammer well enough to work as winter wheels, or if I should bite the bullet and have all of them straightened out professionally.
It was supposed to be so simple.
Remove jack and jackstands from trailer box, pack trailer box with things that I still want to keep but are in my way, take trailer to Batcave-Annex, jack car up with room to actually walk around it, drain gear oil. remove front struts.
I got the first bit done okay, but draining the gear oil turned into a kind of pain in the ass because my 3/8-1/4" stubby ratchet is nowhere to be found. And I kind of LIKE that ratchet. Also it was my only 1/4" ratchet and I needed it for my 3/16" Allen socket so I could remove the drain plug in the rearend that I still pat myself on the back for installing. So I spent a long time checking the same drawers in the toolbox over and over again, checking the floor near where I was working, trying to remember what I was doing the last time I used it (10mm and 16mm sockets are not accounted for),and I have no idea what that would have been. Checked all my tool bags, checked all the shelves, checked the workbench. Complete infoshrug.
At this point, Mr. Bowel Voice was telling me that it was time to go home, so I used Vise-Grips on the socket to get the drain plug out. The gear oil is kind of milky. Yuck.
sil80 want is very bad. I have a hankering for a Bayside Blue Sil80
In reply to MrChaos :
Same. With a V8 swap though.
slowbird said:In reply to MrChaos :
Same. With a V8 swap though.
honesty a turbo k swap for me.
In reply to MrChaos :
My Q's has never been beaten when it rains!
Today, fixing teh R's OTE pipe at work:
Rapidfarked.
RapidFixed.
I'm not going to install that bolt. Internet wisdom says just leave it out, and I can see why.
Went to Ace to pick up some Allen wrenches and appliance epoxy.
Then this happened.
At the other end of the car, popped the drain plug back in and the fill plug out, and grabbed the pinion yoke to check for play. Play it has. This could be the horrible buzz/vibration when over 70 and not accelerating. And so:
Going to take to work and thoroughly clean in the parts washer and inspect the bearings. If they're okay, then I'll adjust the bearing shims down .002" or so. My bearing shim set and dial calipers are at work...
After cleaning all the gear oil out, "feels a little loose" turned into "WOW that is loose". Booger-measuring with a dial caliper consistently got me .007-.009" of end play. Unzipped the stack, bearings look hazy but not flaking or burnt looking. Probably unavoidable given the imperfect contact that large roller bearings have and the fairly high demands I am putting on the bearings speed-wise.
I think the inner races were never fully seated, or not seated square, and everything has settled. And people say I'm not an optimist.
The first shim I removed from the stack measured .008". Perfect for a first cut! Brake clean, fresh grease on the pinion seal, reassemble, and there is a small amount of preload. Perfect, ship it.
If the bearing stays looseness-free after this rallycross, I will pull the pumpkin out and recheck pinion depth, since that .007" had to have come from SOMEWHERE and the pinion may have retreated forwards. If it develops looseness again, I might bin the lot and take up needlepoint.
it seems like you keep having dif issues.
In reply to MrChaos :
Yes, going back a very long time. With great traction comes great breakage. At least I am no longer splitting housings up the back like cracking an egg. If I manage to do that with a backbraced 9", I'm going to sell all my cars and go into breaking crowbars in a sandbox, which I'd probably be good at.
Today, broke my fluid pump 2 quarts into the 3 quarts of Lucas 85W140 gear paste (it's way too thick to really call "oil") that I am trying in an effort to make the rearend be more polite. And forgot to buy new driveshaft bolts since my old ones are getting worn out, after however many dozen transmission and rearend R&Rs.
I did get the front end assembled, at least, with the new 14" 250lb springs to replace the 12" 225s.
The threaded collar is actually resting on the strut ear, and there is about 1/4" of preload.
Honestly it sounds like you almost need a fabricated aftermarket housing and aftermarket 3rd member. Or go to to the stronger but heavier dana 60/14bolt.
The 3rd member is 100% aftermarket, which is part of the problem. Quality control and general quality in the aftermarket is garbage compared to OE. You shoulda seen what an effort it was to be able to keep the throughbolts from stretching and failing! I worked around that by only torquing the (Grade 8 1/2-20) through bolts to 60 ft-lb.
I don't need a boat anchor so no need for a 60 Honestly, I never had gear or bearing problems with the Mazda 7", just axle housing issues.
In reply to Knurled. :
toyota 8.4? those have aftermarket housing availible and trusses
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