Started my weekend fun yesterday late afternoon but ran into a few problems that took me longer than expected....but luckily I have plenty of free time the rest of this weekend.
Remember when I said my car was running like shit and had no boost at all? Did I write that? Well, after jacking my car up to work on the p/s rack replacement....I find my hotpipe literally hanging off of the intercooler. I am surprised the car was even able to run. I don't know if this was missed by the guy who did my front conversion or if it got ripped off going on/off the transport tow truck from FL to CA.... I haven't turned it on yet since tightening this down but hopefully that was the culprit. I also put in 2 gallons of fresh fuel (only 91
) and it actually started up a lot faster than it has been. I'd guess the old gas that was in there is probably like 5 years old.
I wish I had started doing the lines on my rack last weekend when I did absolutely nothing. It ended up taking a bit longer than expected because, while it has been painted to look nice and new, it covered up the fact that the hard line fittings were rounding pretty badly. It was tough and I was afraid I was going to totally round them and get stuck with them half loose....but I did manage to get them off for the chase bays braided lines.
"New" rack:
Hard lines off finally:
Braided lines on and torqued down:
Chase Bays pinion to reservoir and pinion to pump lines torqued down:
I started mounting the reservoir and removing the lines from the pump when I found a clamp on the air intake was 100% loose and sliding around. That could be another leak that I had....no picture.
Anyways, the tie rod puller tool I had was too big so I had to make a run to the store and get a different one. I got the tie rods pressed out, broke the torque on the 4 rack bolts, and started to loosen the steering shaft "U"? joint when I look up and see this massive bulbous black widow looking spider in the wheel well. Like literally a foot from where I had been working on the tie rod end on that side. Thoughts start running through my mind of this fucker dropping down next to my face while I'm trying to work and me freaking out, trying to sit up, and cracking my head on the bottom of the engine. It's up in the fender, almost near where the coilover meets the top of the strut tower, so an awkward angle. I tried hitting it with some spider spray but the angle was too difficult. I threw a bug fogger under the car and called it the night since it was already 10pm.
I am now just looking up some torque specs from the FSM for the castle nuts, rack bolts, ps pump banjo bolt, etc. I think I have everything so heading to grab a red bull and get back to work. Hopefully finish the rack install, do my oil change, install the chase bays coolant overflow reservoir and possibly flush my old coolant.
One more fun find...before hitting my battery kill switch I noticed that when my headlight stalk is on "off", the s15 "parking lights" or daytime running lights are on. Its a good thing I keep the battery switched off...I don't know what that guy did to wire them up but I am finding more and more things that are not making me happy.