tw2's 4th mr2

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tw2
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tw2's 4th mr2

Post by tw2 »

I didn't know whether I wanted to start another thread but I figured the last one got almost 26,000 views so must have interested someone. So the old car was written off by someone not looking at the roundabout. It's deregistered but since I had replaced almost everything I am swapping everything over. Old car is 1991, new is 1993. I am finding Toyota changed heaps of tiny little excruciatingly annoying things so it is a bit more challenging than I anticipated.

So far I have
- swapped the seat belts (new car's ones didn't retract properly and were gross
- taken the seats out for a proper clean
- removed all 3 stock amplifiers, both subs and boxes
- re-wired the speakers so they are actually all in phase
- replaced B pillar speakers, fronts will be later on as I will eventually pull the doors apart to replace seals and repaint handles
- fixed windscreen wiper linkage (flopping all over the place) and replaced wipers/arms from the old car
- replaced not working tacho and put boost gauge and LED's in to replace the dull blue LED's a previous owner installed
- replaced the whole shift assembly with my plain black boot and knob too
- removed some remains of an ancient alarm system
- swapped over the suspension, whole strut housings with eibach and koni's
- rear whiteline swaybar
- re-engineered the swaybar reenforcement plates for the 93 (uses M10 hardware rather than M8 and the middle hole is about 5-6mm out

It is generally driving ok but the tires are garbage and it needs an alignment. It is a worry when you can spin the rears in an N/A. I have some 17" PF01's in boxes waiting for RE003's.

Prorities are
- wheels/tires/alignment
- A/C which is proving a pain as the fittings are not always the same requiring some lines to be transplanted across
- remove vinyl, all stickers and respray bumper, fenders, mirrors, door handles, bonnet, spoiler, maybe right door, rear bumper and left lower "intake" panel
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Thomas, 91 G, 05 E55
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by tw2 »

Steering wheel will be transplanted soon. The red stiching boot and knob have already found a new home. Stereo replaced. Power steering makes A/C so much more difficult to work on! The manual steering car was very easy. I will swap over the ABS hubs, axles and add ABS in due course.
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Thomas, 91 G, 05 E55
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tw2
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by tw2 »

The harvest is complete.
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by Benckj »

Good update as was wondering how you were getting on. Thanks for sharing.
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by WairoaboyNZ »

Superb write up and photo descriptions. You've certainly been busy, thanks so much for sharing

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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by tw2 »

Thanks for the comments. Old car is gone.
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I posted this on mr2oc. Unfortunately new car died 2 weeks ago while driving down my street. Got towed home, thanks AA, now it cranks well but won't start. It might start for 1 second and immediately die, other times not even catching. Battery is pretty new and very high capacity.

Checked:

All spark plugs, copper, bit worn but colour good
I have spark at plug 1, didn't check the others
Swapped in a good distributor and rotor from old engine, no difference (didn't swap cap and leads as they are not compatible but look fine)
Checked NE is continuous to ECU, not grounded, also two other wires but I couldn't find the fourth one at ECU end
Tool off return fuel hose and fuel gushes out when pump is running
Hooked up fuel pump to a battery in the cabin just to make sure it is not an intermittent wiring issue- no difference
Removed timing cover, checked crank and cam gears are correct and they are
Checked ECU, dome, tail, gauge and a couple of other fuses as per BGB
Checked both sides of ECU, no capacitor problems and I swapped a good ECU in just in case- no difference
When I bridge TE1 and E1 I don't get check engine light- it won't light up at all even to flash no codes
When accelerator held down, no difference so idle valve shouldn't be an issue
Swapped EFI relay, Ignition relay and the other large black one next to them, no difference.
12V is present at batt wire for ECU and the other two with ignition on.
Cold compression good and consistent across all four.

I give up.
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Thomas, 91 G, 05 E55
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by tw2 »

So now I am going to swap the engine/trans from my old car in. I was planning on doing this eventually anyway as they are both rebuild and everything is in excellent condition. I was hoping to diagnose the issue with the car first but maybe I will find it while I am going through everything during the swap. The fuel tank and entire fuel system will also be swapped over. I will also delete the cracked charcoal canister and get rid of a pile of other useless rubbish.

I think I am going to find a lot of problems with this car. The previous owner(s) mechanics are an embarrassment to their profession. I wonder where the main ground strap is??
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Oh wait here is one of the secondary ones with OEM wire joiner :roll:
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Here it is, attached to the body by... some sort of faeces...
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by GDII »

This might be why it won't run? No grounds, no go!
1990 SW20 MR2 G-Limited (GEN4 3SGTE Installed)
2000 AE111R Corolla Wagon NZ New Daily
1996 AE101R Corolla Sprint NZ New Selling Soon
1990 EP81 Starlet XL (Sold)
1990 EE90 Corolla XL (Sold)
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by tw2 »

GDII wrote:
Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:34 am
This might be why it won't run? No grounds, no go!
It had good grounding, just done terribly wrong!

Found lots of oil leaks and the whole cooling system was coated with rusty, grimey crap. I don't think this car was subjected to to many coolant changes. The overflow bottle came out with large red chunks, I threw it in the bin immediately and installed the overflow from the old car.
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Not bad right? Luckily I have new ones.
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Yummy!
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At least these are not too bad in terms of leaking.
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At least I have somewhere to finish up the last bits of the turbo kit before I install it, if that ever happens.
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by tw2 »

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Now to clean some things up
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by tw2 »

I replaced every coolant hose. I also replaced every coolant pipe except the two under the bonnet as they are terrible to get out. Entire fuel system is replaced, not a single line or component remains from the car. I even installed the old car's fuel filler pipe.

I am also going to go ahead with ABS install. Received my 2005 MR-S ABS/ECU unit from Japan. While I was under the car I installed my front to rear brake line I kept from the wrecked car as a 4th line for proper 4 channel ABS. Most of the discussion is here https://www.mr2oc.com/threads/spyder-ab ... st-6848092

This week I will get the dust shields swapped on the rear hubs (non-ABS 93 to ABS 91) and see if the wheel bearings need attention. Then I can put the rear suspension and driveline back together and see if the car will start.
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by Benckj »

You certainly have your work cut out for you. Makes me tired just thinking about it.
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by tw2 »

So my ECU was and still is the issue. Swapped in a friends one and started immediately. I had all the capacitors replaced and the damage to the board repaired. It looked like a very good soldering job, like it came from the factory quality. Still won't start. They are going over the repair once more but unless there is something obvious to go on, the ECU is junk. Then either buy the one on trademe or link plug in.

As for now I bought some new swaybar end links from twosrus a few years ago. The quality is garbage as the threads strip well before the BGB torque is reached, they are good for one use only. I already replaced the front ones with some decent ones from trademe, now I am waiting on new OEM rear ones from Japan.

Going through my millions of photos to try and transplant my alarm over to the new car. There is already a mess of an alarm in there which hopefully explains why one door light doesn't work. All the wires are black so hopefully my pedantic labelling and photos will be enough to get the job done.

New wheel bearings in the 91 ABS knuckles and 93 brake dust shields swapped over.
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by GDII »

Seems the 92 ECUs are starting to fail now. That's frustrating.

I bought some BNT universal swaybar links and they are fine. Quite beefy with rubber boots. I had some custom ones made but they ended up wearing out too fast. It was a fun experiment though.

The LINK is the best way to go for your future plans. Just need to make sure you buy the right one as the ST185 ones work on the 89-91 but not the 92-93. So you need the ST205 one for the 92-93. You can't use the LINK plugin on a GEN3 3SGE as it has 4 plugs. But then you also need to make sure it's all pinned right regardless.
1990 SW20 MR2 G-Limited (GEN4 3SGTE Installed)
2000 AE111R Corolla Wagon NZ New Daily
1996 AE101R Corolla Sprint NZ New Selling Soon
1990 EP81 Starlet XL (Sold)
1990 EE90 Corolla XL (Sold)
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Re: tw2's 4th mr2

Post by tw2 »

I don't even remember what I have done since my last update. The OEM toyota swaybar links don't have enough thread for aftermarket swaybars so that was fun. Ordered some adjustable ones from primemr2. Got front ones too but the ones that are on there are fine currently.

PrimeMR2
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OEM
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I don't think I would ever notice eliminating preload and putting 70kg in the drivers seat to mimic myself. I just adjusted them to the shortest which was slightly longer than OEM to counteract the mild lowering of the car and eliminated unloaded tension.
Last edited by tw2 on Tue Jul 19, 2022 2:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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