fuel

I would be looking at the wiring loom along the column for a partially stripped or broken wire or even disconnected plug somewhere. When I dropped the column of my Diamante to get better access to clutch pedal area to do manual swap, one of the accessory wires had rubbed up against a sharp piece of metal (which it usually wouldn't, but when the column was dropped it went right over it slicing a portion of the insulation off) and cause it to short to ground and blew a fuse. I found the culprit when I put a new fuse in and jiggled the wiring and saw where it was shorting out - but perhaps with SRS airbag wiring it's not going to be so simple to see.

and refitted for final mock up

holes marked and drilled for clutch master cylinder swapped on the manual brake master cylinder reservoir (which supplies fluid to the clutch master)

making some progress on the interior tonight also picked up a Varis handbrake lever cover to go with the Varis shift knob I already had

Bling bling. A few tiny imperfections here and there but ultimately turned out much better than before. Also fitted the new 'Lancer Evolution MR' badge too. Pretty close colour match to the original auto console, it was a GM metallic colour.

Still plugging away at this - just working my way through some smaller jobs in the meantime, one of which is to repaint the replacement manual centre console because it was a bit scratched up: I decided to paint the radio facia surround too as it had a couple scratches and wanted it to fully match the centre console. After giving them a bit of a sand/scuff:

Do you plan on street driving it at all, or just wanting to turn around in a car park without it hopping and skipping away? You really need some kind of differential or slip between the front and rear axles and locking it to be full time AWD will definitely introduce some drivability issues. *edit * just realised I've been responding within a build thread post whoops - though figured this should be in other projects section given its (lack of) age?

keep in mind the Honda 4WD system is kind of like Haldex where there is no center diff and it relies on a viscous coupling or electronically controlled clutch pack on the rear diff to allow and control slip between the front and rear axles. The Toyota 4WD has the center diff in the gearbox in place of where a usual FWD front diff would be, and then spits out two output shafts to the transfer case that houses the front diff as well as a LSD for the center diff.

vette wheels turn up on fb marketplace around me frequently for around $500-600. if you need someone to collect and ship I can help.

Could you obtain some of the later 17" wheels perhaps? A 1990 should technically have the 17" wheels anyway. The last year of the 16" 'salad shooters' was 1987. The 1990 style with exposed lug nuts is one of my favourite styles

no

Americans get confused/love the RHD's - every time I drive the wagon through the states I get lots of stares, waves and thumbs ups etc. Most just can't comprehend that you could possibly be operating the vehicle from the other side of the car haha.

damn that's disappointing - it was a pretty tidy & solid car when I last saw it 15 years ago

so what happened to it?

With just two days to go before I had to leave NZ to head back to Canada, I was able to shoot over to Rotorua from Taumarunui where a BNT had a reputable Dayco branded auto tensioner on the shelf on clearance. I was headed to Taupo on that day to see family for lunch so the extra 2 hour round trip from Taupo wasn't too bad at all. I slapped it back together cleaning up the damaged lower timing cover because the brand new replacement from Amayama that should have arrived mid-Jan was nowhere to be seen. And as luck would have it, just three days after I left this turned up on the front doorstep