Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Lifted

I got some more work today.

Started out by getting the car on jackstands.



Apparantly, yesterday I inadvertently pulled one of the washer fluid lines part way off. It spent all night leaking on the floor. Happy happy joy joy.



Right down to business. Out came the front subframe, wheels and all.



I can now lift the front end of the car off the jackstands with one arm.





Oops, snack time again.



Some of you may have noticed, (or not) that there seems to be orange cups here and there. They are actually empty gatorade mix cans. I have a whole bunch of them, and Im keeping bolts in them. I have each one labeled for where the bolts came from, front suspension, rear suspension, body, interior, etc etc.



Ok ok, back to work.

I pulled the ABS sensors out of the knuckles. Wont be needing those. One came out ok, the other broke after a little persuasion.



Then I pulled the struts off. They are most likely garbage, but I nay end up reusing the tubes if I end up going with inserts.



Before calling it a night. I pulled the knuckles off the lower control arms. I will have to get those cleaned up later.



Almost forgot. I got the spec V wheels pulled of, they are officially for sale. For right now they will be pickup only, because shipping with tires on them would be obscene. If they don't sell in short order, I will consider shipping them.

If anybody has any 15" nissan alloys to trade for them, I would be very interested.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Getting naked.

Man, Ive kinda been slacking on the updateage.

I got the steering rack torn down the rest of the way.

1 inner tie rod off.



And the other.



End cap removed.



The actual rack piston removed. One of these days I will get around to machining the fluid seals so the rack can slide freely while retaining semi rigid bushings.



I got my order of POR 15, plus I picked up some bug and tar remover to help get up a little more of the stuff in the interior



Before I can get to cleaning though, I need to pull the wiring out.



Body wiring harness, check.





I decided to also pull the steering column, as it was no longer connected to anything. This way I wont run my back into it anymore. That thing is sharp.

First you see it.



Then you dont.



All the work made me hungry. MMMM Juicy twists and Mountain Dew.





Back to work, yuck, bug and tar remover looks like poop.





Thats better. Still not perfect, but hey, its good enough for the girls I go out with.



Now its time to tackle the dust. Im guessing this car has seen a dirt road before.

Before



After





Yuck, look at that water. 18 years of dust in a bucket.



Finally moving out of the interior. Its time to give the engine bay the same treatment.

Started by pulling the fender liners.



Not much left of the one.



Look, hidden treasure, I mean mud.



Then I pulled the bumper cover. Man that thing is heavy considering its just a cover.



Then the fenders, check the mud on the floor, icky.



She looks kind of sad.



Engine bay wiring harness, check.



While I was working on the wiring, Gage and John took it upon themselves to remove the rusty battery tray.



Drilled the spot welds for the air box bracket, wont be needing that.



A little surface rust under that batter tray, stupid acid. Nothing a little POR 15 cant handle.



With the wiring out, I went to town on the brake lines. This car had ABS, and all the lines need to be re run. All for the better, it was a fuster cluck anyway.

So much less clutter.



Look at all that junk.



After a little simple green and a quick scrub down. Its all nice a good that the previous owner wanted to paint the engine bay, I just wish he had done a better job. In a lot of places the paint is just falling off.



Before calling it a night, I decided to put the front bumper on a diet.



I pulled the front lip and all the associated brackets, along with the grids that fill the DRL holes. Then I pulled the license plate frame retainers. Then I discovered the support for the top of the cover. For some odd reason, Nissan wanted to make sure the center of the bumper cover was the strongest part of the car. It has no structural value, all it does is keep the center of the cover from sagging. I figure this cover will get trashed sooner rather than later anyway, so out it went.

The only things Im keeping are the brackets that hold the cover on the car, and the foam support.



Thats it for now. I hope to get some more done tomorrow.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Power steering? Who needs it.

Removing the power from my power steering rack. I used a box on the floor so as not to make a giant mess of the work bench.



First things first, I pulled the supply, return, and crossover lines off the rack.





Then I pulled the bellows boots of to expose the inner tie rods, and the rack piston.



Then I pulled the cap off the steering shaft. I was careful not to damge the bearing in the cap.





Then I pulled the rear cap to remove the pressure relieve valve.





At this point I called it a day. I failed to bring home the proper tools to remove the inner tie rods, and the end cap from the rack. Without them I cannot dissasemble the rack further, and it will have to wait for another day.