wubba lubb-A-dub dub! (SC AW11)

[ricerocket]

The steering rack itself damaged? That's unusual, I can only imagine a side impact, but even then. Have you pulled it apart yourself yet? It's normally just the plastic guides on the ends of the rack.

took it to a shop, they came back saying that the damage done was due to a poor attempt at repair in the past. apparently the inner gears have been shredded and the housing damaged. dont take that word for word, this was yesterday and im just gonig off crappy memory!

also thanks for the suggestions from everyone else!

[mknz]

Oh bugger

[ricerocket]

I realised I didn't actually post any photos of the steering rack business, so here's a little photodump of that, along with what's happened in the last week!

So first and foremost, the car went back on its second wof inspection and was flagged for still having ongoing play in the steering, at this point they recommended it be the steering rack itself as every other component had been replaced with new parts, along with one of the headlights not opening up all the way.

HEADLIGHTS: Easy fix, the connector on that side wasnt plugged all the way in
STEERING RACK: As mentioned in previous posts, my rack was fairly damaged, so i ended up whipping a used one out of a local "wreckers" car, sent that off and got it rebuilt for $450. owch! Surprisingly they got it rebuilt within the same day so i collected the part the following morning and installed to the car. success!

me.jpg (56.55 KiB) Viewed 3674 times

rack1.jpg (159.8 KiB) Viewed 3674 times

rack2.jpg (234.4 KiB) Viewed 3674 times

rack3.jpg (301.31 KiB) Viewed 3674 times

Then came Friday. everything was installed, the alignment was in desperate need of correcting but today was the day!
I puttered the ol nugget down the road, steering was definitely odd, but he was drivable. it was only 10 mins to the workshop so he'd be totally fine.
I get to the bottom of my street/hill and start to hear a heavy knocking noise in the front, so I pull over and inspect the steering, the jamming nut on the inner tie rod was loose, no problem! tightened that back up and got back on the road, after about 30m the car started to knock again, but worse, so instantly i pulled over and started to inspect the car, couldn't see anything on the rack on a visual inspection so called my partner and he rushed to my rescue with a jack, and tools in hand.
While he was en-route i was picking the brains of some much more mechanically minded people and one suggestion they said rung out. "have you tightened the wheel nuts"
I gave the fronts a nudge, couldn't move them with my hand so maybe? would have to wait for the tools to arrive.
Rescue eventually arrived and up the mr2 went, as suspected the steering was totally fine. As i'm sitting here scratching my head I hear a voice pipe up "Uhh steph, the rear wheels aren't even fingertight"

DAMMIT!
To top that all off, my boss saw the poor nugget stranded and turned around to check on me, he is also a big car guy, he will never let me live that one down.

After the mess of the morning was sorted, he was sent off the North Shore Toyota for his "hopefully" final recheck.
I was at work by this time, so was relying on the photos the techs sent me throughout the inspection.
Then it finally happened
"Steph, bad news, your car needs a serious alignment "

c1.jpg (411.48 KiB) Viewed 3674 times

c2.jpg (442.67 KiB) Viewed 3674 times

and about an hour later, he sent me this photo

wedidit.jpg (64.63 KiB) Viewed 3674 times

WE DID IT, LADS!
I sat at home eagerly waiting the leaky nugget to be returned, and there he was!
He was smol
He was soaked
The technician driving him was soaked
But most importantly

HE WAS LEGAL!

c3.jpg (224.82 KiB) Viewed 3674 times

Did I also mention the technician was soaked? Will need to get some replacement targa seals...

[ricerocket]

And here we go!
First little "celebratory" shoot of the car when there was a break in the rain.

Parked in the right spot

The attachment IMG_7750-2.jpg is no longer available

[Joel]

I parked by #87 for extra attention to detail

[ricerocket]

messed up the upload, but i parked by #11

and the rest of the pics!

[lasersooby]

Very nicely done, car looks immaculate, great work

[MIKEP]

Looking great well done .Hope to see you on a run soon. Great to have another AWesome AW in the mix

[ricerocket]

Very nicely done, car looks immaculate, great work

Thanks!
still a few missing bits to collect (in particular the C pillar plastics) along with figuring out the headlight alignment as they don't quite line up with the bonnet, but it's getting there!

Looking great well done .Hope to see you on a run soon. Great to have another AWesome AW in the mix

will absolutely be joining the club and attending some events! Didn't fix this nugget up to not show him off!

[lasersooby]

Very nicely done, car looks immaculate, great work

Thanks!
still a few missing bits to collect (in particular the C pillar plastics) along with figuring out the headlight alignment as they don't quite line up with the bonnet, but it's getting there!

Looking great well done .Hope to see you on a run soon. Great to have another AWesome AW in the mix

will absolutely be joining the club and attending some events! Didn't fix this nugget up to not show him off!

Hi mate, on the SW, there are fibre washers that go in between the housing and the actual body on the top where this housing is bolted to the body, hope this is not too gibberish
I started putting my one together and found the height variation if the washers were not installed or were not of the right height. They are a pain in the backside to remove during dismantling and most of them (in my cases) just disintegrated. Had to measure them up and make some packers to raise the retractor housing at th back. I will take some pictures and send them to you.
The car looks really good mate

[ricerocket]

Hi mate, on the SW, there are fibre washers that go in between the housing and the actual body on the top where this housing is bolted to the body, hope this is not too gibberish
I started putting my one together and found the height variation if the washers were not installed or were not of the right height. They are a pain in the backside to remove during dismantling and most of them (in my cases) just disintegrated. Had to measure them up and make some packers to raise the retractor housing at th back. I will take some pictures and send them to you.
The car looks really good mate

Please do! I think i know what you mean, theres some rubber adjusters that you screw in or out right?
i'll have a play tonight! Its totally annoying given all the work that they dont sit right hahah!

[mickeyduck]

will absolutely be joining the club and attending some events! Didn't fix this nugget up to not show him off!

Great to see you have joined the Club Steph. And great to see Joel's once immaculate AW restored to such a great state! Glad it ended up in the hands of someone who loves it as much as he did. AWesome effort!

[lasersooby]

Hi, check the following images for the rubber adjuster and the fibre washer for the head lamp mechanism.
Rubber Adjuster:

Fibre Washer:

Let me know if you require any more images.

The fibre washers are pretty thick (will measure it up for you in the weekend if you want.

Good luck

[ricerocket]

Very small update: but things are happening!

Of course this will be a very slow process, as all I got is the gearbox, so need to make a list of sc specific bits for the conversion (and then either hunt them down, or get stuff made up) so have no idea in terms of timeframe, but still, its something to tinker away with!

So if anyone has a spare set of sc manual conversion bits and bobs lying around, i'm on the market

[ricerocket]

Very small little update but this plate came up for sale and I simply couldn't pass it up!

Prior to this, the plate was just cable tied to the front as the oem mounts had since long rotted off. So this time I made a little bracket to affix to the tow hook on the front. Seems people are a little divided on the legalities of this, but given its still forward facing and isn't obstructed in any way (topped with asking a couple police friends) I think it'll be fine as it is

I strapped some black rubber to the bottom of the plate so if it does droop in any way, it doesn't scratch up the paint

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE

121811179_368104791000845_2993913422289573915_n.jpg (307.5 KiB) Viewed 3262 times

122038008_398935434598035_6818248425587280068_n.jpg (263.53 KiB) Viewed 3262 times

121785805_3315721295217705_1701109313373881296_n.jpg (179.15 KiB) Viewed 3262 times

122055712_1263297680681472_8089410427428087689_n.jpg (205.21 KiB) Viewed 3262 times

121784892_362536915095097_8967174244259694474_n.jpg (317.06 KiB) Viewed 3262 times

121705203_660517734483839_6042265072029437076_n.jpg (280.5 KiB) Viewed 3262 times

121672582_1562746710579137_6047778671629349499_n.jpg (363.1 KiB) Viewed 3262 times