Jan 05 - When you start to do one thing...

But then you wind up doing another.

I did that today.

I went out to the car to work on the steering.  I've really been wanting to put that to bed.  Just all of the physical mounting of the hardware.  It feels like it looms over me.  Been wanting it done!  :-D

So my son comes out to help me on the car.  I'm like I really want the steering done today.  He's like ok.  But there is only so much I can have him do while I'm there too on the front of the car.  So he goes to start working out the last of the shifter install.  Cables, adjustments, working out what needs to line up where so we can actually shift gears.  As it was, the cables were connected but we couldn't row through the gears.  There was too much out of spec on the alignment of things.  I hadn't had time to work it out yet and wasn't going to today.

Then I went to the store for more hardware (nuts/bolts/etc).  I come back and he has this idea of shifting the car into reverse to get the max travel required and then we'd see where things lines up to see what all we needed to do.  Made sense to me so I jumped in and helped out there a bit.  Then back to the steering.

Long story, short, I didn't get the steering all lined up and tacked in like I wanted, but we did get the shifting done.  To the point, that I lack a very minor adjustment to one of the cables throw, and need to source a couple of the clips that holds the cables to their mounts.

So I can neutral the car and shift most positively through most of the gears.  I think it'll try to jump out of gear in a couple of them, hence the slight adjust still needed.  But too, it may just be that once I get the proper clips on there, it may hold it well enough that taking the slop out of it will better engage the gear and I'll be done.

So I'm very glad I was able to pretty much check that one off now.  So I'm not so fussed that I went to do one thing and then it turned out to be another; as long as I (we) made progress and got another chapter down.  I'm happy!  :-)

Had to cut an 1 inch and  3/8th's out of it and then it was able to throw the levers like should.

 

Views of both sides of my weld.

It was easy to line the part up as there is a hump in the middle of the plate that allows you not to lose place.

I mounted the shifter back into the car after I cut it and took the grinder to both parts for a nice bevel.  I put a piece of thick sheet metal under the tab piece to keep it lifted from the top of the tunnel as I welded the two back together while it was in the car.

Then I removed it again and flipped it over to make a final weld across the bottom of it.  Ground it smooth and called it a day.

Installed back into the car for the last time and hooked all of the rods up to the shifter.

All the way into reverse from the lever.  Pretty nice.  It works like it should.

Here's how far I did get with the steering.  It won't be crooked as it is in the picture once done.  It wasn't being supported anymore in this shot.

I did mock up the new location pretty well.  I do have a beginning on some supports.  It's not a waste of time.  I got some things figured out that needed figured out.  I got some progress in there.  I did hose up my rack so I'll be going back to my buddy's place for another one.

If you're into 3rd Gen and newer F-body GM cars, then he's your man!
http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/

Check him out.  He's started from his garage out back of his house and has grown over the years to something pretty good sized.  :-)  I'll be hitting him up for some dyno time this coming spring I'm sure.

I just got a notice from eBay, I won the bid on the electric power steering pump!!!  I'm gonna go pay for that sucker and get it in here!!!  I'm doing the 2000-2005 MR2 Spyder one.  There's a very nice install write up on that from a guy with a Red Fiero.  I'll have to look him up again so I can give him props here.

Jan 02 - They don't make them like this anymore

I've had a few people asking about my coil over suspension.  They're really good quality and the company who made them, did a very good job at making them a bolt on application for the 84-87 Fieros.  The rear setups are here for reference of those who may be interested in how they're made.  Hopefully enough can be gained from the pictures to help others out in their own fab builds for themselves.

As much as I don't like rust, it may actually help here in seeing the contrast of the different elements and help distinguish the parts.  :-)

These are 27 spline S-10 Blazer front hubs from the 4x4 (of course).

The end of an S-10 4x4 Blazer axle actually pokes out more than is needed here and has to be trimmed to fit center caps on the wheels once mounted.

These photos should allow to be zoomed into.

Jan 02 - Steering into the right direction

I've read up quite a bit on the power steering scene on the Fiero forums and such.  For what will work best for me, I'm finally getting together. 

I'm also using my original 95TA steering wheel, so I have a different angle need from those who are keeping their Fiero steering wheel.  (I wanted my buttons on my wheel for the tunes, I still like to use them.)

I need a steering rack from an LS1 F-body (98-02), check. 
I need to cut the original mounting locations off of that rack, check. 
I need a plate to make a mount for the rack to mount to, check.
I will use the 2000 - 2005 MR2 Spyder electric power steering pump assembly (includes ECU and reservoir), on it's way from eBay.

I've cut off the tabs on my rack and the drivers side original Fiero rack mount from the cross member.  I'm basically looking over what WCF says to do overall for the physical install bit, and what Spoon over at Pennock's forum is saying about the MR2 electric power steering unit.

I've copied a couple of pics from VWvortex forums for the wiring illustrations for this setup as well.

So today I got all of the cutting done.  Still need to drill a few holes, make a baby bracket and put it together, but I had to POR it once I was done that far along so it'll set up overnight. 

Here's what it looks like now.

Jan 01 - Shift into a new year

I know that might sound like I'm stealing it from Nissan, but not really. An old ad campaign that they once had. What I'm talking about is my new shifter. Ok the shifter isn't new, it was rusty and I got it cleaned up with the help of my son. But once that got freed up, then we installed the new shift cables I got in from Rodney Dickman. Got everything attached up and connected it up. Only thing I'm missing now is the clips that hold the bushings on the shift cable for the bracket where it connects on the transmission side.

I tried printing some clips on my 3d printer which I will still pursue but they're only temporary until I find the proper metal clips.  It looks like the ABS won't hold up to the pressure and it'll allow the bushings to slide out of the bracket.

Dec 30 - Go fast pedal works!

I'm pretty excited bout this part.  I like to mash it a lot when I'm driving.  One of my favorite things in the world is an accelerator.  :-D  Always brings a smile to my face.  And this one is now in the books to work the throttle.  It's not got the final fastener hardware on it yet, but it does work and that's more important than pretty!  :-D

I've also gotten down to the last of the positioning of the vaporizer box (water to air intercooler) whichever you like to call it.  :-)  I think I should make a slightly premature shout out to frozenboost.com from whom I bought my unit.  It's a type 4 on their web site.  I haven't plumbed it all up yet to verify that it doesn't leak, etc., but the welds on it look very nice, so I suspect it's a good unit.  It has 1/2 NPT tapped ends on it so I can plumb up the heat to it.  :-)  Can't wait.  That'll be fun!

You can see the flex hose that connects the vaporizer to the intake elbow was still not trimmed yet in this image.  I've still got an inch I can lose off of that hose and it'll get me closer to my radiator hose from the water pump, and it'll give me more room over to the right where the elbow or 180 will go for the air filter to attach to. 

(my red T-shirt was reflecting in the vaporizer in this image)

I also need the room to the right as this is where I will mount my solitary fuel injector into the air stream.  So by the time it mists out and hits that intercooler (vaporizer) and it's heated, we'll get all fumes from that fuel.

If anyone has any experience making their own fuel rail for a fuel injector and can lead me a but I would appreciate it.  I'll be making the single injector thing next.  Well, next major fabrication job.  I've got smaller ones (some I've which I've done before and will have to re-do them now), the steering for example.  So that should go faster this time as I've done most of it before.  Always quicker second time around on the same job ya know. 

But yeah, I'm looking for folks who have actually made their own fuel rail, injector setup, the whole deal.  Thanks.

No arm chair quaterbacks need apply.  :-)

Parting shot:

Was thinking about trying to get my last chance at getting the power steering pump in the back, on the motor.  But this shot just proves I've got to give that up and move it to the front.  I'm just gonna spin it with an electric motor.  It'll be fine.  1 Horse I think it enough.  Constant RPM.  Unless I find out there is something to the rack behaving differently at varying speeds, then I'll look at it.  But I doubt that's the case on these PS units.  One less set of hoses to route from the front to the back then too.

:-)

Take care.

Enjoy!

Ya only go around once...

As far as most of us know...

:-)

Dec 24 - Clutch is good me thinks! On to the intake (for now)

I got an email back from V8 Archie.  Sounds like I'm good to go on my clutch.  He was saying that it being an open diff it'll give power to the one that isn't there (least resistance) and until I can put it on the ground with the axles in it, I won't know for sure about my clutch.  But based on what I do know about it already, I'm feeling 100% better about it.

Pics of the clutch master and line install.

For some of the other things that have been done or are in current stages of production.

I've got some shots of how it's starting to look for the intake, which I haven't completely decided just yet.  The water to air intercooler is the part that will become the fumes vaporizer box.  I'll plumb hot exhaust gases through it and back into the intake manifold (plenum), EGR style so that I can make fumes on demand.  I have a video explaining all of that if you want to see that or hadn't seen it yet.

 

 

The first way around makes for a tighter fit of everything, and I do like where the fuel injector would go in that case, but I don't know that I could route all of the cooling lines where they need to go and avoid some things with that vaporizer being in that position.

The second way makes for plenty of room of routing everything, but the fuel injector gets put into a position that I'm not too happy with.


I have the new intake elbow that needs a little metal clean up around it before final fitting.  I have the test position of the water pump and alternator hanging there to test fit for bracketry to be made if it all goes well.

You can also see a fitting location (typically for NOS) on the intake elbow, that will later be used for hydrogen injection.  Once that gets added my gasoline mpg will go anywhere form the hundreds of mpg to infinity as I could run on straight hydrogen at times.

Dec 23 - Clutch line is in now - my bad

So I talked to Justin over at TFS (The Fiero Store).  He told me that there is only the type 2 line sold any more as you can make a couple of bend adjustments to it and it'll work on the type 1 lines.  So I did that and got it installed.  Yay!  Thanks Justin!

Now on to the rest of the Fiero clutch saga...

So I've bled the master.  The line.  And got back to the 6 speed and it was looking good.  I got good pedal feel.  So I shifted the tranny into a gear and then bumped the starter over (no fuel) to see the output shaft turn.  Nothing.  I pressed the clutch pedal and released it a couple of times.  Nothing still.  Went back and pulled the bleeder out of the line and depressed the + shaped button on the connector that goes to the TO (throw out) bearing to release any extra pressure it may have holding the clutch in place of me.  Nothing there either.  It's not hooking up.  Of course I bled it again after that little stunt.  But if anything bad would have happened from that I may set myself into the normal thing that people complain about, nit the one where it won't hook up.

I see plenty of people talking about the opposite.  Where you press the pedal all the way in but can't get it to completely free up.  I definitely don't have this problem. So I've put an email out there to Archie of V8 Archie as he has done a ton of these.  I want to see if he's seen this before.  I'm at a loss for what to do next on this one.   I was wondering if there was a dust boot on the face of the TO bearing that I may have left in there?  I didn't remember seeing one.  Of course I took the one off of the splined input shaft to install the tranny.  I don't know.  I'll see what others have to say next and see what I may need to do.  If there is a dust boot over the face of the TO bearing I'll be feeling pretty crunchy.  AND have to drop the cradle separate the motor from tranny to find out.  That will suck!

Anyway.  Keep up the positive responses, it helps in nudging me along in times like these.

Thanks,
Coop