Vintage Grumble's 1984 Toyota Corolla AE86

[Vintage Grumble]

That thing ^ is now installed, it juuuuuussssssst clears everything, which was lucky/awesome.

 

 

When I got the oil cooler kit years ago, I used the std hoses and made this horrid mess:

 

 

Sooooo I got a sandwich plate like this:

 

 

To do away with the remote mount filter/simplify things, but I cant use this doofer ^ for several reasons, so I will remount the remote filter, and oil cooler (horizontally rather than vertically) and make up new hoses at work, which will do away with the silly loops and about 1.5M of hose.

 

I've also whipped out the gearbox to replace the release bearing, and while I was there I took off the clutch/flywheel as I was going to speedi sleeve the crank, where the seal runs (the machinist ground it down about 0.5mm trying to get rid of the seal groove) as it seems to weep a bit from lack of lip pressure (insert mum joke here (insert mum joke here about using the word insert)) BUT the evil bastards didnt grind the very end of the crank, so I cant get a sleeve on there, so will try the old "shorten the seal spring a bit to increase the lip pressure" trick.

 

Pic of G-Box chilling out:

 

 

AND ANOTHER THING, started setting up the diff today, all was going well, until we got to the crush tube bit, which is too short, so I will have to look into making a solid one, but dont really know what length to start at, so will have to do some research. Double dialed:

 

 

AND YET ANOTHER THING, while I was under the car, I realised my cooling system has started leaking in several places, such as the sensor block on the back of the head, and the thermostat housing gasket, I guess they didnt like sitting around for 4 years? ALSO, my big ass oil drains seem to be weeping a little oil, so may have a stab at sealing them up while I have the sensor block off. Stuff:

 

 

 

 

So yeh, got lots to do in the next few weeks, as I want to take this to merry merry and cut a 20 second 1/4.

 

Regards, VG

 

xoxox

[Vintage Grumble]

I was having a derp moment when thinking about the clutch release bearing being noisy. When the cars cold, everything sounds fine. When its been running/driven for a while, while idling out of gear, it makes quite a loud rooted bearing noise, and when you put the clutch in, it stops. For some silly reason I thought it must be the release bearing, BUT when the clutch is out, this bearing shouldn't be spinning, so cant make any noise. The gearbox input shaft would be spinning tho, and stop when the clutch is disengaged, so i'm assuming its the input bearing that's rooted, which is gay because I have to split the box to change it, and odd because I rebuilt the box less than 5000km ago. Maybe another casualty of sitting around for all those years? Also, this box has a cylindrical roller input bearing, but the other one I rebuilt had a spherical ball? Seems weird to have a cylindrical roller in a fairly low load/high rpm position? Could be why its worn out, skidding from being under loaded.

 

And just because every update should have pics,

 

The van that gave its lyfe, so that I could have its front c/w and pinion,

 

 

The diff drain hole repair what I done,

 

 

Some skids what I done,

 

 

And taken the day I got it, seven years ago,

 

 

Naaaaaaw, sentimental.

 

Regards, VG.

 

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/25550-vintage-grumbles-ae86/page-15

[Vintage Grumble]

New oil cooler lines made and fitted, not quite how I wanted them, but its the only way everything would fit, still looks a lot better than before. ALSO, if my oil pressure happens to spike to 4000psi, I know my hoses can handle it, lols.

 

 

And ripped the box apart to remove the suspected bung bearing, which on inspection doesn't seem to be that bung. WIll slap new one in and see what happens. Everything else in the box seems happy.

 

 

I also shortened the spring in the new crank seal and installed that, so hopefully that wont leak anymore.

 

SO MUCH STILL TO DO.

 

Regards, VG.

[Vintage Grumble]

Well then, found the little locator spring doofer on the clutch fork had snapped, and by the looks bounced around inside the bell housing for a while, so before I slapped it all back together I dug out a spare one, cleaned it up and slapped it in:

 

 

I then spent a piss load of time setting up the diff. Luckily the gear mesh pattern was spot on, because removing the bearing to change the spacer that sits between said bearing and the pinion gear is a cunt (its real close to the gear/have to destroy the bearing to get at the spacer) so that was neat. My fatherinlaw spun up a solid spacer for me (rather than having a crush tube) but we were not quite sure what length it should have been to start with, so I made a few spacers up and had a play with them in conjunction with an old crush tube to get a ball park figure. We then spent quite a while maching the new spacer down 0.02mm at a time and test fitting it, to see what the preload on the bearings was like, until we were happy with it. Set all the back lash and shit and wham, it was ready to go in.

 

 

 

SOOOOOO I slapped that in and everything else back in the car, filled everything with the appropriate fluids, and then started it up and checked for leaks and funny noises, of which there were none luckily. Sooooooooo I put it back on its wheel and went for a drive, and then DRAMA. As soon as I got to the end of the drive and turned tightly, the diff head started making horrid fucking noises. Its sweet as a nut in a straight line, but by hoki, when you go round fairly tight corners at lowish speeds while lightly accelerating/deaccelerating it makes the most fucking grotty noise. Strangely, if you do this while coasting with the clutch in or out of gear, it only makes a gently whirring sound, pretty much as you would expect an LSD to do.

 

It pretty much has to be the LSD nugget, either the clutches or the spider gears, but for the love of sally, I cant think what would be wrong? It looked mint when I had it apart, and I put it back together exactly as it came apart. A bit of a mystery it is. Fucking gay also, because now I have to pull it back out and try work out whats gone wrong. Even gayer is the fact i'm spozed to be driving it to Auckland on Friday night.

 

On an up side, it was fucking sweet having an LSD again for the few k's I drove it. Layed down some sweet 11's. Its also the first time the car hasnt had a mega diff whine while i've owned it. And the lower gearing is quite nice also. 4200rpm at 100kmh. And my speedo is now 40kmh out at 100, ha.

 

But yeh, any tips/info/ideas on whats gone wrong with the diff would be lovely.

 

Regards, VG.

 

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/25550-vintage-grumbles-ae86/page-16

[Vintage Grumble]

OK, now my car was a factory LSD car, so the axles are slightly shorter than a non LSD car, BUT, do you have to shorten factory LSD axles even more to suit a TRD LSD??? I'm thinking this may be the problem?

 

Edit: The axles are definitely not the problem. Guess i'll have to pull the head out and strip it. Dumb.

[Vintage Grumble]

So me and my father + brother in law had a think tank/muck about with this last night, and couldnt think of anything else it could be, but the nugget. So I pulled the head out, and all looked good, nothing had moved or come loose, and no metal sprinkles in the oil. I then pulled the nugget out and stripped it down, and as far as I can see its all good? I was hoping to find a blatant fuck up on my part, so I could fix it quickly/easily, but no, everything looks sweet. I'm going to try get a hold of fair dinkum toyota rebuild instructions for the LSD to check everything is in the correct way, but theres very little that could be done wrong, so i'm kind of at a loss as to what could be wrong?

 

Tho, this may be the problem, seems I put fabric softener in rather than oil? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

 

If I cant sort this out quickly, no drag day for me

[Vintage Grumble]

What are you doing in here? NAUGHTY!

 

Also, cant order parts if you dont know whats wrong. And it seems to be impossible to find a rebuild manual for these. Fuuuuuuuu.

 

(Edit: A post by another member has been deleted, i'm not talking to myself)

[Vintage Grumble]

OK, so I now know whats wrong. After looking for ages on the net and finding cock all, I remembered that J5 had gifted me a whole bunch of old toyota/trd brochures he saved from an ex toyota dealers building, when his boss started a new company in said building.

 

 

Inside the TRD LSD one, theres an expanded view of the unit, which shows the washers that some fuck face has left out of the head.

 

 

This would let the pinions separate too far, and cause the gears to skip, creating the horrid noise i'm hearing. Soooooooo all I need to do is somehow work out how thick these are meant to be, and whip up some new ones. I have no idea how to work this out tho, ha.

 

I remember the guy I got this diff off, telling me he had the LSD checked, and then built up by a mechanic, and he had it as a spare for his rally car, but never needed to use it. SO I would assume the mechanic forgot to put the washers/shims back in.

 

What a twat.

 

Also, big thanks to Mark at Manawatu toyota for sending me scans of hilux units, which also shows the missing shims.

 

Regards, VG.

[Vintage Grumble]

Yeh so nah, I got the car back together, the LSD is still a bit cranky, I think the spacers I made must need to be thicker (left 0.4mm clearance fo the spider gears, prolly needs to be more like 0.2mm?) but cant be assed soring it out by trial and error/I dont want to remove and refit a diff head 10 times, so will try get the correct spacers out of TRD. That should be fun.

 

Made it to Auckland sweet as, but found the rear main seal was leaking like a bitch when I got to the drag strip, which is a bit poo's, as it's quite the mission to replace. Will have to pull the crank out and sleeve it prolly, only way to sort the problem proppa like. BUT it ran well all day, and made it home again, so its alllllllllllllllllll good. I want it all sorted by Feb, so I can go to hampty downs, but cant be fucked starting on it just yet, kinda over rolling round on the floor for a bit.

 

Best of the day was 15.1 at 148kmh, not bad for full interior, fat driver, and on wanli budget tyres.

 

And because every post should have a pic:

 

Regards, VG.

[Vintage Grumble]

New year, same ol problems, and an oil leak is one. I just got the car out of the naughty corner, jacked it up, and had a nose at the oil leak. I was hoping it was from the drains on the back of the head, as that would have been an easy-ish fix,

 

 

But after jacking up the car, and poping the clutch fork boot off, its pretty clear the rear main seal has shat its pants big time,

 

 

Which is mega gay, because the only way to fix this properly, is to remove the engine, take out the crank, have my spare crank cleaned up, and install that. Dang.

 

Also, I cant get any info from anywhere on what thickness the missing spacers in the LSD should be. The father-in-law has a new TRD LSD head for a AE92 in his shed, so I will measure the backlash in that, and try replicate that in my head, assuming they all have the same amount of backlash in the spider gears, that should do the trick.

 

And because i'm not happy about having to do all this work, a few pictures from a happier time, to cheer me up.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the respective photographers for those pics, rippa.

 

Regards, Apple Crumble.

[Vintage Grumble]

Got the box n shit off, and the spring in the seal had come apart. So now I have to decide if I do it all properly (remove crank and so on), or just buy another seal, shorten the spring, and this time loctite it together, and give that a hoon? hmmmmmmmmmm.

 

Also, the gearbox oil is quite sparkley (its only done around 1000km since I had it apart/cleaned it out) and the box was quite loud when the oil was hot. I have a feeling when I rebuilt the box, there was one bearing I could not find anywarr, so reused it, and I think it may be shitting its pants, so yay, yet another thing that needs doing.

 

Regards, Fuuuuuuuuuu.

[Vintage Grumble]

Ok, so i'm a lazy slob, and have decided to try the easy fix (Get ready to LOL at me when this fails) so I have got a new seal, shortened the spring a smidge, and (what I forgot to do last time, which very likely caused the spring to come undone) then preloaded the spring backwards, put a dollop of loctite on the end, and then screwed it together. I "preloaded" the spring so that it will try and screw itself together, rather than apart, like it would if you screwed it together from its resting position, if that makes sense? WISH ME LUCK PEOPLE.

 

I've been a bit lazy, but have the gearbox+diff out and apart, and will get stuck into them tomorrow night. I'm 99.9% sure the bearing I may have reused is causing the noise, and i'm glad I could be bothered to pull it out, as it runs directly on the shaft, so if it turned to shit in a big way, it could very well damage the shaft.

 

The mono nipple bearing thats making a fuss,

 

 

The diff looks to be OK, so will make up the new spacers and chuck it back together (for the 3rd time, gah) and once again, hope for the best.

 

The other bit of bad news, is that one of my beloved pro mesh has a crack in it,

 

 

 

This is why my tyre fell off while I was doing some circle work. I'm a bit pissed about the condition of the rims, as they all look like they have been fixed multiple times (you can see evidence of welding on all of them, and the pictured rim has a bead of weld around 3/4's of the entire rim on the inside of the outter lip) and the above rim is quite bent also, I wish the seller had been a bit more up front about their condition, but I guess thats the risk you take on old rims. I'm going to weld it up for the time being, and when I can afford it, re rim the outers of the whole set.

 

Onwards and sidewards.

 

Regards, VG.

[Vintage Grumble]

Finally got this all back together today, and I was pretty damn happy about it.

 

 

It was a case of 3rd time lucky for the diff and gearbox, they both seem sweet as, which is awesome, as I am well over removing/rebuilding/installing them, so yeh, fucking choice.

 

Its got no WOF/REG atm, so have only done about 10km in it, but decided to check if the rear main seal was still being a huge homo, and fuck me sideways with a rubber goat, its still being a huge homo.

 

 

Oh well, 66% is still a pass I guess? Depending on how bad its leaking will determine when I take the engine out to sleeve the crank, may paint the engine bay while its out or some shit. Meh.

 

Next is WOF/REG, then new exhaust, then hopefully I can afford some semi's and go do some events in the slut.

 

Regards, your friend in Jesus, VG.

 

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/25550-vintage-grumbles-ae86/page-17

[Vintage Grumble]

Had the car booked in for a WOF, but the night before found it had major brake imbalance left to right on the front. Pulled the callipers off, they checked out fine, refitted them, still being a dick, so then pulled out this doofer (as it was the only thing that connected the left and right callipers) and it had a bit of smut in it, but not too bad at all.

 

 

The top part splits the front left to right, and the bottom just heads straight out to the back. I think the bias front to back is done in the master cylinder, so assume this thing is some sort of safety valve, as it joins the front and back circuits. Anyway I cleaned it out, put it back in, bleed it up, and wham, no different, still locking up the right front, and feeling weak on the left. Was a bit FTW at this point. So before I did anything else I changed the pads (which all looked the same, and perfectly fine btw) left to right, and then bam, it starts locking up the left/opposite side. So at some point one set of pads has got the aids. So now I just have to get a set of pads and we should be good to go for a WOF. Strangely I cant find "SRP" branded callipers anywhere, but i'm hoping the pads are a generic four pot deal. If anyone knows anything about SRP brakes, i'd be thankful for info.

 

Retards, VG.

 

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/25550-vintage-grumbles-ae86/page-17

[Vintage Grumble]

Got pretty new pads, brakes now work perfectly.

 

 

Got a new set of lights, in pretty good nick,

 

 

And it achieved WOF.

 

Much dorting has been done. Needs new exhaust sooo bad tho, so thats next.

 

Kingstars are disgustingly bad tyres, and they dont get better with age. Never buy them. Never.

 

Regards, VG.

[Vintage Grumble]

While I wait for an acceptable time to use a drop saw, heres what i've been doing this weekend.

 

Washed the old girl, so its nice and clean when I set it on fire,

 

 

Ordered a pile of exhaust components,

 

 

Pulled ol rattley off, and tried to visualize the new system,

 

 

After a bit of pissing about, got it half way done, and hope to finish it off today,

 

 

The worlds most unsetable welder was being a bit of a dick (just dont know how to drive it) but have found a setting that works, so everything is going well so far.

 

Old set up was all 2 1/4", one chambered resonator (told the dude that I didnt want chambered, only just noticed it is chambered, ha) and one muffler. New set up is all 2 1/2", with 2x hot dog resonators, and 1x offset resonator at the back, all non-chambered and non-louvered, so may be a bit loud, but should sound nice.

 

Regards, VG.

[Vintage Grumble]

This actually went to plan, which is nice for a change.

 

Did lots of cutty cutty, weldy weldy, and then into the paint shop, for a coat of satty B,

 

 

Then slapped it on the car. Like a fucking glove.

 

 

 

Shitty pics, but it come out fairly sexy. According to my face and my phone, its no louder than before also, which is a bonus! I cant really hear what it sounds like over the dort, so i'll just assume it sounds fucking ace. Dont have a tip on it, unsure if I will bother, looks pretty chur as is.

 

Too much eh.

 

Regards, VG.

[Vintage Grumble]

Went to a motorkhana/autocross thing today, bit rusty at the ol driving, but it was a lot of fun. Kingstars on the front were quite painfull/I hate understeer, but had the best sounding 4AGE there, and thats all that matters really.

 

 

 

 

[Vintage Grumble]

 

Now that i've put you to sleep, good day.

 

Regards, VG.

[Vintage Grumble]

Got these the other day, nummy.

 

 

Big thanks to Mark for hooking a brother up, chair bowl.

 

Also, got the results from the gymkhana/autocross, didn't do too bad considering the tyre's I had and how poorly I was driving, GONNA FUCKIN OWN THOSE CUNTS AT THE NEXT ONE.

 

Regards, VG.