Positive Ape

wicked, but seat looks very canine

maybe you could do a tech thread showing how you cleaned up your wheels? Looks like a good system you use and my wheels could do with the same love

hey, istep, are you the same istep that used to post on Vorb? Just interested to know

<chuckle> manlymanman has girlish hands <chuckle>

ok, so some things have happened over the last couple of months. First up, here's a pic of the new door mirror Yay. After that I tried my best to solve the electrical problems by chasing down the earths, but to no avail - earths were good. So I called up my resident mechanic again, Justin, and he bowled around one Sunday morning to have a look. Now, being a professional, he actually tests things, none of this "ask on an internet forum and have a go" stuff, which was quite a revelation. The problem with the front indicators turned out to be a faulty earth in the bulb holders. Both of them, left and right were stuffed in the same way. So he pulled the earth wire out and jammed it in alongside the bulb - problem solved. Next up was the wipers/washer/aircon problem and this took a lot more work to find. I printed out all the wiring diagrams so we could see what was connected to what. The first clue came when we discovered that all the wiring under the steering column had been cut at some time. Either from an alarm or a hotwire attempt we weren't sure, but it got us (Justin!) thinking about possible short circuits and the consequences of. As we traced everything back we realised that the accessory relay was a common factor in all the non-operational circuits. Everything else we could test, but we couldn't get to the relay because it was behind the fuse block. This is the fuse block that sits way down in the driver's footwell so at this point Justin said "pull that relay out and get it tested" and he went home -lol. I couldn't blame him, there were plugs and wires all over the place, but eventually I got the fuse block out and the following day I confirmed that the accessory relay was stuffed. Fuse block in situ After buying a new relay I put everything back together and, to my great relief, it all worked so that was great progress on the way to a WOF. Fuse block after I took it apart to check it Now I'm just waiting until I can clear a few things out of the shed before I have a look at the wheel bearing. Thanks for reading -Positive Ape

I love it. What a great barn find!

Sweet, powersteering is go! Putting the rack back in was a bit easier than taking it out, but it was pretty nerve-racking when it came time to test my handywork. I failed on the pics, but there isn't much to see. Just murky undercar shots. I also replaced the broken drivers-side mirror with a secondhand one I bought some time ago. Justin reckons it has an earthing problem because there is quite a long list of electrical gremlins, including front indicators, wipers, washer, and power mirrors. Next step will be to track that down Wannabe, just get hold of some 300zx wheels and swap me! Need to have legal tyres though. The only reason I need to swap is that I'm not allowed to spend any money on this project while the house is unfinished. And I wouldn't get too excited about this project - expect 6 monthly updates and no pics! Muncie, good to hear that you used to have one. I thought I wanted NA for insurance and fuel consumption purposes (am hoping to use it as a daily) but TT would probably be better for smiles per mile

hey, ho, an update after six months of nought. my mate Justin gave me some serious encouragement to do something to this beast, so today I cracked out the spanners and attacked the steering rack. 2 hours he reckoned, and I would have it out. ha ha. I started at 11 and had it removed by 5. That included one trip to Supercheap to buy a flare nut spanner that didn't work anyway. Tomorrow I will attempt to put in the replacement rack that has been sitting in the shed since the last update. I followed the instructions on this helpful step by step guide http://www.pexcom.com.au/z32cms/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.243 pics to follow Esprit, today I finally understood what you mean by Kingstars! I thought you meant the wheels, but you mean the tyres. Are they shite?

Yeah, my mate likes the wheels too. They probably look better than the 16 inch originals, but all I can think of is the added weight and the added cost in tyres. Oh, and the increased fuel consumption! Sadly, I'm a bit of a purist...

Well, I finally got a project up on Oldschool! We moved back to NZ in Feb and I bought this very soon after, but it's been sitting at my mate's place while I organised somewhere to store it. Now it's all warm and dry I can fix the issues that are preventing it from getting a warrant. These being: leaking power steering rack play in left rear wheel bearing electrical gremlins that are stopping the wipers and washers from going Some pics at home in the new shed Is anybody interested in a swap for these wheels? I want to put some standard wheels back on, so I'd swap them for a set of standard alloys with good tyres. These wheels are pretty massive, rear tyres are 255s and fronts are 235s. Rears are warrantable, and the fronts are new. front wheel interior isn't the best. Would like to rip out that electric seat one day and put something lighter in. Something that would give me a tad more headroom would be good too This car is base model, two seater, non-turbo spec. So no t-tops, manual trans, no hicas, no airbags, no cruise control. Quite a rare beast because of that I think. It was also made in 1989 so it has a very low serial number. From memory, it's 1000 and something. Needs a bit more low I suppose, but that's not really on my to-do list. I have lots of other "projects" in my life at the moment, so the plan is to just get it on the road and enjoy it. Oh, apart from ripping out the air-con, I think I might do that, oh, and swapping the wheels if that can be done cheaply chur

what carb does it have? I fixed the auto choke on a twin-choke downdraft weber once. Out of a Capri II GT. Weber specialties was very helpful when it came to fixing the offload valve (a little paper diaphragm thingy that sucks opens the butterflies a tad when the engine fires). because the diaphragm was broken the shaft had turned and was stopping the butterflies from closing. as for mk 5s, well they still seem pretty bogan to me. but I'm 37. I guess if you are under 30 you won't remember how bogan they used to be so they will just seem nice and classic. It's weird how that works

Very cool car I reckon Matt black looks cool I'm a fan of the straight "C" pillar on these facelift ones, is that weird? My mate had one of these when we were at varsity in P.Nth in the early 90s. One Saturday we decided to drive to the horse races in Hastings - such a fun trip. We had the beetles greatest hits on tape and we kept rewinding "I am the walrus" -lol I had a Mk 1 cortina but these are better cars because you sit much lower and the interior is so much more classy/comfy Anyway, yeah, maybe put the chrome trim back on? Doesn't it have some that goes down the sides?

Oh no!! This is probably my favorite thread on the whole site so I follow every update. It's just unbelieveable how many things have gone wrong

word. 2ZZ?

plug gap. Mechanic possibly didn't check the gap when they put the new spark plugs in.

My 5 door GT had a different gearbox. At an indicated 100kph it was only doing 2700rpm. Since your car is NZ new I thought it would be the same. Ah, maybe a facelift/non facelift thing? After my car started jumping out of 5th gear (groan) we sourced another box and it had the lower ratio like yours does.

Just to throw my 2c in... I'd go pinto if it was me. I know 16v twin cam is better in theory, and probably just as fast around a racetrack, but I prefer mid-range torque over top end madness. If you want both then I guess turbo 4age could work, but it sounds a bit dodge. Ha, I can actually comment on this since I have actually owned a pinto (2l twin choke weber version) and a 4age. The pinto was better. 4age was a bit of a let down, since passengers looked at me funny when I dropped down to third and redlined it just to pass a car

Hey, Esprit, just encouraging you to have a quick squizz at the engine. Don't give up now!

Yeah, me too. Who woulda thought a sigma wagon could look so cool when slammed.