Ryan's IROC Thread

[FUBAR]

I have checked them and they do seem BF Goodrich's in the right size, but at a smidge over £700 for a full set of 4 the Kumho's were a much better option being £400 less.

i'll just have to hunt around.

[FUBAR]

Done a bit on the car today, I changed the electrical and vacuum brake release switches for the Cruise control system, but when testing the system is still non responsive so managed to remove the CC Module from the dash (which is a little tricky but easier than I thought once I'd worked out where the bolts were for the bracket)

Replacement Control module now ordered from Rockauto, should be here very quickly
Hopefully that works.

[FUBAR]

Well, today (yesterday) was a great day for working on the car with Ian's help!

We got the stock Panhard bars removed and the stock trailing arms and sway bar removed to be replaced with Spohn tubular upgrades.  of course all of the mounting points were painted with POR-15 and all of the hard-to-reach areas once the suspension parts are reinstalled:




We also got the rebuild of the diff done, many years overdue (I know!) but this thing is in perfect condition, the Diff oil is at least 11 years old, having never been changed by either myself or Rocky during UK ownership to my knowledge, so its been in there since Wisconsin... despite that fact the oil was very dark, but overall the same consistency as the replacement 80w-90 oil + a full bottle of GM LSD additive as per Martyn's (and GM's) instructions (received a while ago) which it was replaced with which is good, No grittiness or bits in the oil at all.



I decided NOT to fit the T/A Performance Girdle cover because this would require me to remove the bearing caps from a 100% perfect working rear end in order to fit a "shiny thing" cover, I decided not to mess with something that isn't broken and just paint the cover black at some point when the rest of the axle gets painted.

The reason the Caps need removing is because when the Aussies make the bearing caps for these Borg-Warner 9-Bolt rears they just snap the castings off at the mouldings (see pic above) with a hammer or something which means there's not a flat surface for the girdle bolts to mate too.  Nicely done, lazy gits...

The new Spohn and BMR panhard bars and POR-15 painted sway bar with new Poly bushings and end-links were remounted (pics tomorrow)

Tomorrow will entail, fitting the Spohn Trailing arms because POR-15 had to dry today, and if my Rockauto order arrives fitting the new Cruise Control computer.


Other Car-related jobs to follow this week...

[FUBAR]

Oh and we found a cunning use of the Borla Dual exhaust for aiding with the sway bar painting (with a bit of electrical lighting circuit wire!):

[ianjpage]

Was a good days work, nice to see that the car is so pristine underneath still!!

[Incursus]

Just lined the floor of my shed with tiles like those

[FUBAR]

Some pics of the rear suspension job finished, the axle will be full painted over winter.
The front sway bar also still needs to be removed and its new Spohn end links and bushes fitted.

[FUBAR]

I also did another job that often gets overlooked:

After 26-27 years all of the foam "seals" on the air ducting for the dash has perished and either disintegrated or turns to a solid sticky mass the second you touch it, so I ordered some (Frankly HUGE) sheets of self-adhesive 6mm and 12mm foam off of ebay to redo them:

Before:


After:



I also re-did the foams around the speaker grills and the windscreen vents:


and a bit to grip the centre vents as well so they don't point skyward all the time anymore:


(If anyone (nearby) wants any 6 or 12mm thick self-adhesive foam for a similar job or any other reason TBH let me know as I have loads left)

[Andy]

The reason the Caps need removing is because when the Aussies make the bearing caps for these Borg-Warner 9-Bolt rears they just snap the castings off at the mouldings (see pic above) with a hammer or something which means there's not a flat surface for the girdle bolts to mate too.  Nicely done, lazy gits...

Hmm, I wouldn't have been so worried about the surfaces being perfectly flat. The girdle bolts *should* have a piece on the end that takes up for any out of squareness that the caps have. Add to that, you really only want to be putting about 5-10ft lbs of forces through those bolts anyway.

The big advantage with the girdle covers is the increased amount of oil you can fit in the case, this all helps with the cooling effect.

[Roadkill]

Nice work !  Well done !

I did the same thing on my dashboard vents, too . . . albeit mine aren't used anymore . . .

[Cunning Plan]

Looks like some good upgrades and maintenance.

For my interest, how does the Anti-roll bar that runs parallel under the axle work?



In my mind, the axle is a ridged tube, that is already connected and is a massive ARB by design. Surely the ARB stays at the same angle as the axle and has no effect on the suspension?

[FUBAR]

see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_liGnV3PTiQ

[Cunning Plan]

see:

Ah wait, I did not notice that your bar is angled forward to connect to the bottom arms, from the pictures, it looked like it was a straight ARB that connected only to the Axle!  My bad!

[FUBAR]

Shiny Things alert!!
I've spent a little bit of Cash with UMI Performance recently having done some research with the various companies that do these bits I decided that this one was the best design.





Now this is done there are 3 more Handling improvement items left that I want to fit to the car:
1 - Subframe Connectors (need to speak to Richard about getting these fitted, its been 10 years nearly!!)
2 - Spohn Crossmember mounted torque arm.
3 - New poly bushes for the rest of the stock suspension pieces.

[Incursus]

[Jo]

Looking good.

[Roadkill]

Rizla-clearance !

Let's hope your motor mounts never go soggy.