Turdbo Neon

Since my last update, I’ve fiddled with the req_fuel numbers and the idle portion of the VE bins and it starts and idles pretty well.  I haven’t tried to put it under load, except for a short drive to the stop sign and back, but I’ll work with that as I go.

Tonight, I got the mirrors on and the turn signal bulb replaced, so the only thing left to do before trying to get the car inspected by the sheriff is to put in a switch for the horn.

I also had to grind down the pin for the gear selector so that the booger bushing would fit properly.

I got a battery from U Pull and Pay in Carthage today, but after trying to charge it for about 3 hours, it still won’t hold a charge. I jumped it off my van, though, and it started up. Sounds better than ever, in fact. I confirmed that it will move under its own power, forward and backwards, but the brakes need to be bled before I do anything serious.

Last night, I got the transmission filled, swapped out the connectors for the speed sensor, secured the heater hoses and put all the intake piping back together.  Once I get a battery, I’m going to give it a test start and see how it does.

Over the weekend, I picked up a new bit of 2 1/4″ ID flex pipe for the exhaust (I crushed the one that was already there when the motor slipped down), some Pennzoil Syncromesh transmission fluid, and got to work.  The new plugs are in, I swapped the coil, and the new plug wires are in as well.  Exhaust is connected solidly.  I removed the old injectors and they were pretty nasty-looking.  I’m thinking that they could be a bit clogged up and I’m thinking about finding something to soak them in so I have good spares.  The new injects looked almost brand-new, and I put them in so that everything seems well-sealed.  I got the BOV connected to a vacuum line, borrowing a bit of washer fluid line from Stinky.  The PDC is also secured, although I only used zip-ties for now.  I’d like to build a bracket in the future, but that can wait until things are running smoothly.

The best part is that the front end of the car is ready for wheels and can then be put back down on the ground.

Why can’t they make the endlink bolt just about an eighth of an inch longer?  Using the jack on the head of the bolt, I was able to thread the nut on and get the sway bar installed on the front.

At this point, I am considering the front end to be put back together.  It could probably use an alignment at some point, but I’m going to hold off on that until I know that I don’t need to take it apart again.

I’m also going to need to start considering tires.

Things are starting to get close now.  The front end is back together, except for the sway bar.  The transmission should be ready to test, except for the shifter adjustment.  A couple lessons learned:

– The steering linkage drops down through the control arm, not up.
– The Energy Suspension sway bar frame bushings have to be slit before installation

The new brake rotors are on, all the ball joints have boots, and the axles are installed.  Once the sway bar goes in to place, the exhaust needs to be reconnected, and the car can come back down to the ground.

Left to do:

• Swap coil
• New plugs & wires
• Adjust shifter and install boogers
• Re-attach turbo plumbing
• Get a battery
• Connect the electrical to the transmission
• Put new injectors in
• Run vacuum line to the BOV
• Reconnect the PDC and secure it
• Secure some misc. wires that are banging around the engine
• Secure the brake line bracket on the right side

The engine and transmission are finally re-mounted in the car and supported only by the engine (and transmission) mounts.  I disconnected the engine hoist and pushed it out of the way on Wednesday night.

The chain took a hunk out of the coil, though, so I’ll need to put one of the spares on.  There’s also something weird going on with the driver’s side CV — the joint closest to the transmission seems to have come apart, and I’m not sure what needs to be done to re-engage it, or if it’s just toast.  I was able to get the 5/8″ tie rod boot from Dorman to fit on the ball joint, however, so I added some grease and put that on.  The only way to do that, for the record, is to pull the knuckle off of the strut, attach the ball joint and the tie rod, slide the axle into the hub, and then re-attach the strut.

On order right now are new Booger Bushings, front rotors, spark plugs (NGK BKR7Es, standard on only a handful of odd-duck vehicles such as the Aston Martin DB7 Base from 1997-1998 or the 1995 Audi S6), and Accel plug wires.

After trying a few different things, I wound up using a reciprocating saw to take off the welded-to-the-car nut that was frozen up with rust, holding the transmission mount to the donor car.  It’s now filled with Windo-Weld and waiting to complete the curing process.

Over the weekend, I rocked the motor forward with a jack and a block of wood so that I could get the front motor mount installed.  It took a little bit of wiggling, but by separating the two pieces of the mount, I was able to then get it lined up enough to push the bolt through.

I also did some interwebs research and found a suggestion of using a 50/50 mix of ATF and Acetone as a penetrating oil.  By putting some of that on the bobble strut bolt, I was able to remove the original bracket.  Since the bushings were completely shot, I sawed apart the sway bar end links and used a couple of those bushings to isolate the strut from the relocation bracket.  Again, I had to do some wiggling of the engine, but I was able to get the bobble in place.  One thing to note is that the K-Member bracket did not have a large enough hole drilled through it for the bottom bobble bolt, so I had to drill that out a bit.

I’ve applied some of the penetrating oil to the transmission mount that is still in the donor car, but haven’t had any luck yet in being able to remove that.  Once I get that out (or get a new one from somewhere), I’ll need to fill it with urethane and let it cure for a couple days.

The Energy Suspension products have arrived from Suspension Restoration and are ready for re-installation of the sway bar.  The tie rod boots are a perfect fit, and I’ve removed the old busted boots already.  Before putting those boots on, I do need to add some fresh grease to the joints.  One of the ball joint boots is okay and does not need replacement, however, the other is torn up pretty bad.  The Dorman Help! generic boots that I got are a close-ish fit, but not really good enough.  I’m going to check the donor car to see if either of the ball joint boots are good enough to re-use, otherwise, I may try to get some from a junk yard.

I’m still making progress, but the main thing holding me up right now is that I don’t have all the parts I need sitting on the shelf.  Priorities now need to be getting a transmission mount, filling that mount, and then tracking down a ball joint boot.  I think I should also replace the rotors while I’m in there, since there was some nasty pitting on the existing ones.  With all those parts on the shelf, it should be a pretty simple exercise in re-assembly.

I was finally able to get the modular clutch unit attached to the drive plate last night.  My first bit of difficulty is that the four bolt holes are not drilled symmetrically.  In retrospect, I should have test-fit the clutch assembly to the drive plate without the transmission, marked the components, and then proceeded with installation.  In this case, however, I kept spinning the drive plate and bolting and unbolting until I found the right position.  The other problem that I had is that if the transmission isn’t at the right angle, even if it’s bolted to the engine, the clutch assembly and drive plate won’t match up.

My current problem is that the motor s still rocked back a little too much, so I cannot get the front motor mount on.  I’m going to try using the engine hoist and a jack to rock the motor into the right place so I can get the mount installed.

The good news is that the “hard stuff” should be done, and now it’s just a matter of getting things reassembled.