JLarson's build thread

[onzedge]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Let me know when. And I'll try to meet you there.

[JLarson]

9/21/2018 - In Which Our Hero Arrives At Rusty's Garage

Left work early on Friday and drove from NE Philly out to the Pittsburgh area to meet up with Rusty, as planned. Drive is pretty easy, lots of long virtually empty highways, and even with a couple stops for coffee/food/fuel/toilet, I arrived at Rusty's Garage around 7:40.

Rusty and the missus were kind enough to have burgers and fresh corn waiting for me (excellent), and after a tour and jawing for a bit, we started working on the car.

I actually expected to only get the car in the air and drain the differential, but once we started knocking out tasks, we just kind of kept going.

Rough list of tasks:
-Drained the diff
-Removed rear portion of the exhaust
-Removed V-brace
-Removed rear swaybar
-Marked axles and driveshaft using metal stamp and paint marker
-Disconnected axles and driveshaft, using bungie cords to keep the axles suspended
-Disconnected the differential and lowered, using a jack (almost forgot about the breather hose, Rusty spotted it in time)
-Removed differential cover
-Removed OEM hardware from diff cover, and transferred key components to Z1 diff cover
-Checked internals of the differential. Rusty showed me how to check backlash. Mine was about .0027
-Prepped the mating surfaces of the differential cover and the differential, put the sealant on, and put the new cover in place.

We wrapped up a little after midnight. Everything went pretty smoothly, no hiccups.

[JLarson]

9/22/2018 In Which Josh and Rusty Destroy A Bushing

7 am came a little too quickly, but after reinforcing myself with coffee and a delicious omelette courtesy of Chef Rusty's Grill and pleasant conversation with both Rusty and his wife Chris, I was ready for another round!

-Finished prepping the differential by cutting off a couple of the fins which will interfere with the Fast Intentions exhaust. Again, the sort of thing I wouldn't have expected, and glad Russ did! I'm sure it's much easier to do when the differential isn't already installed.
-Went after the bushing. I'll spend a little more time on this particular topic. First, do not waste your time with the Z1 Bushing Removal kit. I guess it might work as an act of desperation, or on a lift with a lot of room for a breaker bar + extension, but the kit works by applying tremendous force to try and push out the bushing. We did give it a try, but quickly went with Rusty's actual plan - an 18v drill and a hole saw.

At the first application of the hole saw, the bushing employed its squid-like self defense mechanism and sprayed Rusty down with black goo. Undeterred, Rusty cut the core out of the bushing, set its guts on a shelf as a warning for future bushings. I'd guess it was probably about 20 minutes to cut out the bushing core using this method. Do not expect the hole saw to be good for much after this.

The OEM bushing is surrounded by a metal collar, which Rusty removed using an impact gun and an exhaust tool. Maybe 1 minute to remove by this method. We took a few minutes to celebrate this victory with pictures. Because the OEM bushing hole is not truly round, Rusty used a grinding tool to remove some of the burrs and remnant material from inside.

-Installation of the new bushing came next. Again, Z1's instructions are not awesome. They recommend installing the bushing with a rubber mallet. This is a bad idea, for several reasons. First, you have very little room to swing the mallet. Second, the bushing is fat and the hole is thin. Third, as previously discussed, the hole is not perfectly round, and the bushing will try very hard to go any direction other than straight. If you try this method, expect to spend a lot of time working at it for fairly minimal results. Practice your swear words.

The solution was that the z1 bushing has a sort of groove in the surface on the differential-facing side. Rusty matched a large diameter socket to that groove, and using that socket, 2 metal plates, a length of all-thread, and some nuts, he made a bomb! Oh wait, that's MacGyver. He made a bushing installation tool! The bushing was forced into place, and there was much rejoicing.

At this point, it was pretty much just reversing what we'd done so far, and by a little after 2 pm, we had everything reinstalled, new lube in the diff, and the car on the ground. Total work time was about 10 hours, and Rusty guessed we could've dropped a couple hours off if we had lift access instead of ramps + jack stands.

[JLarson]

9/22/2018 - In Which Our Heroes Go For A Cruise

Next phase (after cleanup) was test drive, and Rusty toured me around some of the fine and winding roads of western PA, ending in the Ohio Pyle park. Very pretty area, and apparently ideal for whitewater rafting! Back to his place, said goodbyes and thank yous to both Rusty and Chris for their hospitality, and then it was back to my side of the state.

I'm overall quite pleased with the modifications. The change in gear oil has resulted in quieter and smoother shifting, and the bushings (in conjunction with the metal subframe bushing collars and poly transmission mount) make for a more solid feel which is very apparent both in a launch and during 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. A lot of drivetrain slop is gone, and my acceleration has improved. I'd like to compare the feel of the poly bushing to a solid bushing at some point, just curious how much of a difference that would make. This concludes my update for now, though I'll be adding some pictures shortly.

[Rusty]

Here's my collection of pictures.

[Rusty]

And more.

[Rusty]

And one more.

[JLarson]

Well it's been a while since I've updated this, having gotten through most of the desired mods on my list already. This weekend kicked off another round, mostly small stuff.

1) I'd been experiencing a judder from my front rotors during high speed braking for the past year or so, finally decided to take care of that and decided to do brakes at the same time, so I picked up a package from StopTech.

2) I've experienced the axle nut click for a while now, and since I was going to be in there anyway, that was an obvious choice.

3) I had picked up stainless steel brake lines from z1 more than a year ago, and they've been collecting dust in my garage. This was a good time to add them in.

4) Finally, it's time for a brake fluid flush!

I got a late start, around noon. I've got to get better power run to my garage since I constantly trip the breaker there, and I set up the QJ in my driveway instead, near ample power access.

[JLarson]

Things started off smoothly. I had nothing frozen up; my caliper bolts came loose easily, and my rotors required only moderate persuasion with a dead blow hammer. I was naturally suspicious (see picture of me looking suspicious).

Removing the axle nut was interesting only in that it requires a 32mm socket, which I did not have. My wife was very fortunately shopping for groceries near an Autozone, so a quick text message solved that problem (my hardware angel delivered swiftly).

You can see the deformed cap sitting on the axle nut. This was quick and easy to replace. Lubed up with fresh grease, maneuvered the new one in place, bent the cotter pin appropriately, done.

Edited: here's the link to the DIY. FIXED: Rear axle click clunk noise

[JLarson]

I'd already freed the calipers by the time my wife arrived with the socket, so I was ready to release my brake pads quickly and easily!

Brake pads, why for you no come out?!?! The frigging pins in the calipers were so warped and covered with brake dust and corrosion that it was a multi hour process to get them loose. It was complicated a little bit further by the learning curve -took me a few minutes to figure out that I actually needed to take those pins out to release the brake pads. So that's something I know now.

What I ended up doing was removing the cotter pin, pushing a drill bit through the bottom while unscrewing from the top, then once one end came free, gripping with needle nose pliers and pulling. Is there an easier way to do this or a better trick? It worked, but it was a very tedious process. This part should not have (but did) take me multiple hours, and it's not my first brake job.

Getting the fresh pins, plates, and brake pads in place was comparably easy. No pictures, you all know what that looks like I'm sure.

[JLarson]

At this point, my in-laws showed up with my nephew, so I had about a 2 hour break (there was also a brief but torrential downpour during that time so it was convenient). Moved my stuff back in the garage, wrapped the sensitive parts of the QJ in plastic, and walked my nephew through basic weight lifting. It went well - he almost fell down stairs after squats, so he did it right.

By now, it's way later than I'd hoped, and I haven't started the stainless steel lines. I gave that a quick attempt, but I'm having trouble breaking loose the existing lines. Ok, losing daylight, that's going to have to wait for another day.

Put the rotors back on, calipers in place. Ran through the DIY using the Motive Power Bleeder and the Longacre bottle. Simple! Maybe I should've used this kind of setup for bleeding my clutch? Hmm. Experienced people welcome to chime in. (DIY here - DIY: How to Bleed Your Brake Fluid Using Motive Power Bleeder 0117 (AK370Z))

Pics of finished product, front and rear. Don't mind my stock rims, they'll be replaced when I go to something wider for FI.

Bedded in the brake pads yesterday. Drove to work today. Everything does what it should, the way it should. Feels firm and responsive.

[bunk]

Nice productive weekend!

[Zingston]

That suspicious look is so "wtf is going on here??!!" LOL

[JLarson]

Originally Posted by Zingston

That suspicious look is so "wtf is going on here??!!" LOL

It had gone so well up till that point that I was justifiably concerned

[Rusty]