The MR2 Owner's Club of New Zealand

Finally got round to replacing the rack-ends and tie-rod ends.

Old parts:


New parts:


I'm surprised how easy it was to remove and install everything, took me about 3 1/2 hours, including removing the undertrays.

Interesting...

How hard was it to crack off the inner tie-rod ends (closest to the rack)? I gotta pull Bree's off and replace for a WOF...

I used a 12 inch crescent and a 19mm spanner, although it will take some elbow-grease. Nice double post too .

Quick update, I have managed to source an electronic speedo drive for my turbo gearbox, and a water temp sensor. I am now on a time limit of two months, so I will have to use what I've got instead of buying new stuff for now. Also found out the rod for the clutch slave is exactly the same length as the one from the turbo, and the NA slave cylinder fits the turbo box, so I'm confident it will still work the same. And since I have a Gen 2 NA head, I'll be using that for now as it saves me from trying to make bits to fit the Gen 3 head on. Very close to having the money for the short block build, hopefully it will be done in the next month or so.

Another quick update, thanks to Glenn at the Hamilton spanner day, I bought a complete Gen 3 NA engine, cash with a swap for my old engine and gearbox. Things to do before getting the engine: Swap the fuel tank for the turbo tank, get the hubs back from the mechanic's and swap the speedo drive for the electronic one. Hopefully I will be able to get the car running the weekend following picking up the engine (which turns out to be Easter at this stage ).

IT LIVES!!!!!!! On the turbo ecu too. Video and pictures to come. A few jobs to do though, like swapping the NA shifter cables for turbo ones (using the turbo gearbox, can't select 5th and reverse yet), and do the lube. Idles at 1500-1800 rpms too, mostly because theres no cold start injector anymore.

Found out the clutch didn't disengage, so I took the clutch rod out and added 20mm (thank PureAdrenalin for helping) and put it back in. Now its about half way into the travel it disengages. It seems to idle better with a small vacuum leak, but I have to check the AFR's first to see if it makes a difference and whether I need to put a valve on it to open at idle and close when the throttle is opened. Took it for a short drive around the block this afternoon, still drives remarkably straight after new rack-ends and tie-rod ends.

Pictures as promised:

440cc top feeds from a 7M-GTE went straight in.


Half way through modding the loom, had to relocate the throttle based wires because it's in a different position.


All done and bolted on.


New rack-ends, tie-rod ends and ball joints, plus adjustable caster arms from the turbo I scrapped.


Engine in the bay.


Proof that its running the turbo ecu. That pot off the loom is for changing the water coolant temperature, since there is no hole in the casting for it to screw into.


YouTube clip I took this morning:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48eYrytJKKY[/youtube]

It's good to see the old girl alive again Putting the engine in in almost complete darkness using only a torch was pretty LOLz but it came together well. Yay for Toyota interchangeability! We have a gen3 running on gen2 NA ECU, Yours is gen3 NA running on Gen2 Turbo ECU...

Starting to see too many conversions down here now

Been taking it for a thrash recently to see what the engine is like. It has alot of torque down low, so it's quite driveable. Higher up in the rev range I can feel the power band kick in at 5k rpms up to about 6.5k rpms. Haven't hit the rev limit yet, I might on my first clubsport event on Sunday though.

Yesterday EssDub and I did some tweaks and now it idles without a vacuum leak. Bled the brakes again, great bunch of air in the front right caliper, the pedal is very stiff now. Still some minor problems like no fuel guage, and no brake lights that I will get round to doing soon.

Did a clubsport event today. Lifted off to go round a sweeper and the backend went round. Just touched the curb coming to a stop. It was during a practice in the morning, so the time didn't count. During each run I was getting a feel for the car, and sliced 2 seconds off each run. We did 3 runs and my best time was 2:05.5 on my third run. Still near the bottom of the list, but I had heaps of fun. EssDub took some videos of my action, and I plan to edit and upload it to youtube sometime soon. Also have to book a slot at Diesel & Turbocharger to check the afr's and see what power it makes.

Video editing ended up being quicker than I thought:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Fp46mM18Q[/youtube]

Picture of the car after the event:

Spent this weekend fixing up the little problems on the car, like swapping the oil pressure sensor for one that works, making the stop lights work (turned out to be a fuse missing), swapping wheel nuts, a new set of front indicator bulbs, and fixed the fuel guage in the dash. Essdub gave me a stock gen 3 NA dash, which I had to swap the wafer wiring on the back, and swap the voltage guage as well. Still have to put in the fog lights and the side indicators, plus I have ordered a new distributor cap and rotor. I also painted the wing mirrors black (used matt black bumper paint), here's the result:



And no, those plates aren't legal if your wondering .

Quick update, found out the radiator fan wasn't working, started overheating in the garage. Re-wired the fan back in and it turns on and off with temp now . I now have a speedo problem which reads too low, so a speedo corrector kit from Jaycar will fix that. If not, I will use a Link to fix it after my engine rebuild, and to get more power .

Turns out my speedo problem is the contacts on the plugs, just have to clean them. Installed the foglights too. That overheating problem gave me something else to fix. One of the coolant hoses on the radiator has a pinhole leak in it, so I will take the radiator out to replace them. Will also swap another fan in to replace the broken air-con fan. I'll wire that one onto a switch so I can use it if the radiator fan doesn't work for some reason.

Looking very nice. Like the two tone paint job.