fuel's Lancer Evo IX GT-A wagon

[Camel]

loving the progress on this bro, you'll be manuelling around in this in no time!

[sheepers]

Who's this guy?^^^^^

[Camel]

20 minutes ago, sheepers said:

Who's this guy?^^^^^

Hi old man!

Just adding my annual singular post contribution to OS

[fuel]

Axles are out - a proper pry bar made easy work of it. The driver's side on the left (with the new looking inner CV boot) will be retained, while the passenger side shorter axle on the right is auto specific and will be replaced with a new (aftermarket) one - hopefully it's all good as the $50 for new was more appealing than $200-300+ for used OEM.

Still battling with the rear transmission mount - the three 14mm bolts are in really bad locations access wise. I need to invest in some wobble extensions to get to them.

[fuel]

A little side job - a while back I had ordered new coolant feed & return lines because my M/T IX turbo didn't come with them and I just bent my existing lines to clear the larger compressor housing, even if just temporary. So now with the radiator and intake stuff out of the way it was the perfect opportunity to replace.

 

And just as well as the existing return pipe was getting a bit crusty

[shrike]

Any plans to replace the rubber hoses or are they still in good condition?

[fuel]

yep the turbo feed/return and throttle body feed/return hoses have been replaced because I had a little split in one of the throttle body hoses. The heater hoses seem good so will leave them. Will probably have to replace the lower rad hose because the current one is auto specific but it will probably still work on the manual tbh.

[fuel]

"How many extensions do you need to reach that transmission mount bolt?"

"Yes"

[mjrstar]

I think I did that one from underneath with a ratchet ring spanner..

I had the turbo coolant feed line split on my evo, thankfully it squirted out through the bonnet vent so noticed it pretty quickly. 

[fuel]

5 hours ago, mjrstar said:

I think I did that one from underneath with a ratchet ring spanner..

I had the turbo coolant feed line split on my evo, thankfully it squirted out through the bonnet vent so noticed it pretty quickly. 

that one is the last one I can't quite reach yet - but the other two I got from up top with the long extensions and a swivel. The last 14mm bolt can only be accessed from underneath because the transfer case blocks access from up top, but the sway bar is in the way for my flat ratcheting spanner to get on there, might have to make yet another trip to the hardware store and get a swivel head 14mm spanner - or just slide the transfer case over so I can access the bolt from up top.

[fuel]

The frustration to get these intermediate shafts out was very real. Had to remove the struts to get the slide hammer in there. On the passenger side I even had to remove the brakes and backing plate for more clearance

 

Once the intermediate shafts were out I could separate the transfer case off the transmission and scoot it over a little

 

In order to access the remaining rear transmission roll stopper mount bracket, out come all the extensions again

[fuel]

The transmission could finally be lowered now

 

And pulled out completely. It's a rather large and heavy sucker

[fuel]

And that just leaves the transfer case to now come out. With the transmission out of the engine bay, I was able to lift the engine up and pull it forward and that gave me enough clearance to twist the transfer case 90deg and pull it right out of the transmission sized hole. No need to drop the crossmember like you usually would have to in order to remove the transfer case with the gearbox still in the car.

 

Pulled the ACD and end cover of the existing transfer case apart to check its condition - it is in MUCH better state than the donor Evo 8 RS transfer case. I'm going to swap over the ACD section and end cover over to the Evo 8 RS transfer case. Hopefully there are no issues to mix and match.

[fuel]

I guess it's all downhill from here on out

[fuel]

Also I obtained a Dodge Stealth/Mitsubishi 3000GT spare wheel that does fit over the front brakes

 

 

[fuel]

Cons are it weighs almost the same as the steel spare I got rid of. Pros are it came attached to a whole damn parts car with a literal hoard of parts to go through. I'll be selling off most of it to make some much needed pocket money, but will be keeping some items for myself

[xsspeed]

Philip Westinghouse international man of (mitsubishi) misery 

[fuel]

16 hours ago, xsspeed said:

Philip Westinghouse international man of (mitsubishi) misery 

This green one is a Dodge, does that mean I'm a Mopar muppet now? haha

[fuel]

The 'bitsa' transfer case is back together with new seals. It's the new donor Evo 8RS core section, pinion/output shaft, crown wheel, front diff housing and helical front LSD combined with the original GT-A ACD sandwich section, end case & tail shaft housing which were in much much better condition than the 8RS items. I'll keep all the left over transfer case bits in case I have some issues down the line. I measured the bearings and shims on the ACD sandwich plate end and they were exactly the same width and there doesn't seem to be any side to side play and the halves bolted down with no resistance so I think I'm all good there. Grabbing the tail shaft and spinning doesn't seem to have any more backlash than previously either. 

[fuel]

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: