i love em1's, especially clean ones!
This build just got a whole lot more interesting!
i love em1's, especially clean ones!
Yeah took care of that bolt by taking it to the shop. Seemed that it had completely fused with the bushings. If i had had the tools i could have taken care of it myself. However that wasn't the case.
Placing the order for the new suspension hardware i need to complete this build. Took a bit to figure out what i wanted to replace and it's less than $100 in total. Just waiting on my buddy to confirm the order and we'll see where it goes from there.
Here is how the car is sitting as of right now.
Today's progress. Front upper control arms removed.
Tomorrow i will begin working on prepping for removing front spindles, and front lower control arms. Not sure if i have a 32mm socket to remove the axle nuts, going to make sure that i do.
Parts are getting delivered tomorrow!
Well the car gods officially HATE me.... after removing the front control arms by hand, didn't use the impact at all. Turned out the nut on the inside of the front subframe that is supposed to be welded in place is no longer there. Didn't realize it until i began bolting in the new Wicked Tuning lower control arm. Went to tighten the bolts and realized that the front bolt was free spinning. Removed the control arm and realized there wasn't any threads at all.....
Just finished undoing all the progress i thought i was making. Front control arms removed, front sway disconnected, and started on removing the linkage to the steering rack.
Still have to figure out how to go about removing the full power steering system in order to convert it to a manual rack. Won't be fun to drive but it'll free up some power. Only reason i am doing this is because the spare subframe that i have lying around has a manual rack already mounted.
Lots to do, whether or not i make it in time for WangFest is up in the air...... Wish i had some help that could help speed up the process.
Nice new clean shiney parts their Jake.
Projects never go as planned especially on older cars ...lots of suprises
Well my mother and step father left. So finally i was able to get back to work on the car. Disconnected the power steering pump and removed it from the car, as well as freed the lines from the chassis. Removed the mid pipe so it's out of the way. Next up is removing the shift linkage and front sway bar.
Should be able to drop the subframe and steering rack today hopefully.
Pic of the prep work that had to be done yesterday in order to drop it. Midpipe removed as well as the shift linkage. No pic of the removal of the power steering pump.
Guess what happened today. Finally.......
FTMFW!!!!!
The reason i had to drop it in the first place.... Notice there aren't any threads.
Haven't really been updating this thread. So here is the last couple of days worth of updates.
ITR rack and pinion arrived! Now i need to find a shop capable of swapping out the stock EM1 for this unit.
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Well i got the parts back from the shop completed on Thursday. So now it's just getting the time to bolt them back onto the car. Also Friday i went down to Suja1 to hang out with my buddy Jason, and some of the other guys. Main mission was to take on modifying my stock EM1 power steering rack, and it all i can say is, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!".
Took a bit to figure out exactly what needed to be done, because him and I aren't too familiar with the power steering rack internals. But after an hour of taking our time disassembling it we figured out what needed to be done. So we got cracking, swapping the ITR rack an pinion into the stock EM1 rack. Only a few surprises here and there, like how the ITR rack has the exact same amount of teeth as the EM1, only that they sit at a steeper angle. As well as the ITR pinion has one more tooth than the stock EM1. Spent a good portion of the day just shooting the shit. After comparing the EM1 and ITR racks, we started working on modifying the ITR rack by cutting off the divider seal like such (example taken from someone else's build):
After that we just had to reassemble.
We had to wait on the welder to come in to weld up all the fittings to completely be rid of all power steering function. I had all but one, which is going to be the hold up for now. I'll either have to mail it in to have him TIG it up, or see them next weekend.
Only other things i need for the rack before i can install is non-powered boots to protect the rack from road debris, as well as new outer tie rod ends. More pics of the finished product will be posted.
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Progress finally being made!
Front spindles and rear trailing arms after i picked them up from the local shop. They finally got them done after i said i wanted to pick them up and take them elsewhere to have the work done.
Front suspension all buttoned up and ready to go. Just need to replace the manual rack that's in the car now with the newly modified EM1 rack with ITR guts. Also need to get new tie rod ends for it.
New rear compensator arms.
Rear Driver side is almost complete. Just need a nut for the upper camber arm.
Plan on having the passenger side all put together after i take an hour break.
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Suspension is all bolted up! Just need to hook up the rear sway bar, might replace the end links though. They're a bit rusty, otherwise i'm going to pull the rear sway out, have the end links cleaned and lubed and sand down the sway bar and give it a new coat of paint. Probably going to do that to both front and rear.
Found out that the nuts for the rear shocks upper mounts are the same thread pitch as the upper camber arm bolt. So i took one of them and used it, didn't need them anymore because the Koni/GC had came with some 15mm nuts already.
Last edited by 20CiviC02Si; 04-29-2012 at 08:21 PM.
Jake how will the ITR rack and pinion help you out compared to the EM1? Is it bigger and stiffer.
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