What did you do today to your 3/S?

[sergechronos]

Finished the smaller bushes for the rear subframe just about, waiting on new material for the center pin. MAY drill a hole through the subframe poly and pin to install a zerk for greasing without having to drop the rear end. Started work on the larger ones, hopefully get those done this week.

Probably never make a regular production run of them like this, but may use the rest of the poly making a couple sets to sell. Probably around $200 a set. They wouldn't sell quickly, but then again the time and material cost isn't cheap like this.

[2fnloud]

Made some additions and changes to my battery set up

The batter tender pigtail is now integrated into the electrical system:


The charger connected to the pigtail:


Swapped out the power distro block:


This will allow me to easily connect a 0/1GA wire from the alternator and the factory wiring should I need to step up to a H/O alternator.

[2fnloud]

Finished the smaller bushes for the rear subframe just about, waiting on new material for the center pin. MAY drill a hole through the subframe poly and pin to install a zerk for greasing without having to drop the rear end. Started work on the larger ones, hopefully get those done this week.

Probably never make a regular production run of them like this, but may use the rest of the poly making a couple sets to sell. Probably around $200 a set. They wouldn't sell quickly, but then again the time and material cost isn't cheap like this.

Show me some pictures of what you are doing, I might be interested in a set, like the idea of being able to grease them with the zerk fitting

[sergechronos]

Show me some pictures of what you are doing, I might be interested in a set, like the idea of being able to grease them with the zerk fitting

Be another week or so probably. Still working on the center pin set up. Have measurements written down somewhere of what dimensions I need, somewhere around a 19mm ID and a 22mm ID, both about 3" long IIRC, but have to dig it back out to order. After that, just drill baby drill. Seeing as how the rear end doesn't need to pivot or rotate, not going to shell these. OEM needed a shell because it was just rubber bonded to the metal, but should be fine without. So long as the poly stays lubricated, shouldn't have much for squeaking or anything. Definitely need better equipment if I'm going to try to produce more of these as it is rather time consuming.

[DrGonzo]

Got the car back together from doing the Adjustable cam gear and matching cam swap. Started it up and it runs like absolute shit!! Sounds like a badly tuned and cammed V8... Figured I had the CAS wrong since I am a 1st gen motor. Turned it 180 and no difference. So now I have to put things on pause to figure out what the hell is wrong with the car.

on another lovely note, I had the car under a cover in the shop for the last month or so now since I was really only working on the motor every now and then. pulled the cover off to find this






It seems that the damn expandable foam I used to fill in the towers take a hell of a lot longer to cure than the week I let them sit before mounting them. So the foam forced it's way out under the tower and grew upward!! WTF. Now the fresh paint on the trunk is ruined as this shit does not come off and I probably won't be able to get the tower off now to respray any of it, like I have the time!!

[murphys_law]

Got the car back together from doing the Adjustable cam gear and matching cam swap. Started it up and it runs like absolute shit!! Sounds like a badly tuned and cammed V8... Figured I had the CAS wrong since I am a 1st gen motor. Turned it 180 and no difference. So now I have to put things on pause to figure out what the hell is wrong with the car.

on another lovely note, I had the car under a cover in the shop for the last month or so now since I was really only working on the motor every now and then. pulled the cover off to find this






It seems that the damn expandable foam I used to fill in the towers take a hell of a lot longer to cure than the week I let them sit before mounting them. So the foam forced it's way out under the tower and grew upward!! WTF. Now the fresh paint on the trunk is ruined as this shit does not come off and I probably won't be able to get the tower off now to respray any of it, like I have the time!!

The car is waste spark, so CAS position won't matter AFAIK.

[Bloodlust182]

Pinion and valve body. Looks as though the pin could be removed somehow (didn't want to try it since this is my only rack atm) and that the "top" may be pressed into the bottom. Can't be sure. Doesn't look like it would or could move much anyhow, but if someone knows more on the system and has a hypothesis, that'd be nice. I am picking up a spare rack that is busted as well for the point of trying to see what I can find that might explain the large dead zone on the center of the rack.

Honestly I think that the dead zones develop after wear and tear from use. I rebuilt an AWS rack and set the pinion torque on the tighter end of the spec and I could not be happier with how smooth, controlled, and responsive my steering is. Cant wait to install my refreshed Rear rack, pump, and controller valve and have AWS. Seems everyone is obsessed with removing the fun gadgets that made these cars special while I have been converting to them >.<. My car may be slow but it is damn fun to drive! BTW If you are converting a Rack to manual use a FWD rack for the slight increase in turn to turn ratio (2.8 vs 2.5).

[sergechronos]

Honestly I think that the dead zones develop after wear and tear from use. I rebuilt an AWS rack and set the pinion torque on the tighter end of the spec and I could not be happier with how smooth, controlled, and responsive my steering is. Cant wait to install my refreshed Rear rack, pump, and controller valve and have AWS. Seems everyone is obsessed with removing the fun gadgets that made these cars special while I have been converting to them >.<. My car may be slow but it is damn fun to drive! BTW If you are converting a Rack to manual use a FWD rack for the slight increase in turn to turn ratio (2.8 vs 2.5).

I've considered tightening the pinion slightly more, but I will be doing a second rack that is has the pinion welded and see if that makes a difference.

In my case, most of the nice "extra" unique features were already FUBAR. I would very much like to find a good condition blue 94 or 95 VR4 to keep stock and maintained, but just not worth it with this car. I have planned on trying to get a FWD rack to experiment with as well, but would like to do back to back with the AWD rack. Technically, I would assume no reason why you couldn't manual convert the front rack and keep the rear paws rack so long as you connected the lines some how. Just a thought on my part.

[Bloodlust182]

I've considered tightening the pinion slightly more, but I will be doing a second rack that is has the pinion welded and see if that makes a difference.

In my case, most of the nice "extra" unique features were already FUBAR. I would very much like to find a good condition blue 94 or 95 VR4 to keep stock and maintained, but just not worth it with this car. I have planned on trying to get a FWD rack to experiment with as well, but would like to do back to back with the AWD rack. Technically, I would assume no reason why you couldn't manual convert the front rack and keep the rear paws rack so long as you connected the lines some how. Just a thought on my part.

It would not be possible to remove the power from the front rack and still have the rear power rack operate. The the pressure from the front rack is what signals the rear rack to turn which ever direction that the front is pointing. The system would not work without the front rack having power.

[green-lantern]

Damn Greg, looks like your car needs penicillin. It's got a bonsai tree growing out of it!