daeron

+1, and same for caboobaroo's comment. Tie rod ends, ball joints, steering rack bushings, and even strut bearings (the rubber bits at the top) can all contribute to this problem, but its most commonly a wheel and tire issue. Knowing you, the wheels and tires are PROBABLY not the problem (I am pretty sure he has mentioned this to me in the past, and I KNOW he has gone through tires in the time we've talked) The HTKYSA has a great walkthrough on inspection your steering and front suspension, one bit at a time. If you are relatively certain the wheels and tires have nothing to do with it, and you feel like throwing a little money at it, buy new tie rod ends and new ball joints, and change them. Its probably time, even though shes only got 100K she IS 20 years old, and so is the grease in those joints. You MIGHT wanna check the steering rack bushings before just replacing those bits; jack the car up, put it on stands, lock the steering wheel, and try pushing and pulling each wheel with all your might, while watching the steering rack where it is bolted to the cross member. If it moves at all relative to the chassis of the car, then your bushings could use replacement. In all honesty, the best chance is that its a little bit of all of the above... but the only way to tell is to tear a little further in.

He didn't literally mean her hair. Keep your nails clean, is the moral of the story. If you have a girl, then you need to. If you do not at the moment, dirty nails significantly DEcrease your chances of landing one.

shawnmcarey@gmail.com I fear nothing!

I could TOTALLY use two of the subaru ~15 spoke style hubcaps.. you can see the top of what I am talking about in this photo of my swiss cheese mobile

I think i remember something about that thread too. I was going to say something, but sometimes (believe it or not) I opt to NOT post, and leave it to someone else

drill them, ziptie them, and they can come off with relative ease next time, or in case of emergency inspections. They can be split enough to get a look without pulling anything off.

Did you change flow direction a couple of times? I just flushed my heater core with a garden hose, and it took four or five reversals for the water coming out to be REALLY clean. I added a chemical flush when I refilled, took it for a good hot run, then cooled down, another hot run, an overnight cooldown, and flushed THAT out today before work. My radiator was still full of ickiness from my headgasket episode, and I was getting the rest of it out (hopefully) I am running water in the tank right now, and no thermostat, and I plan on draining the water very soon, hopefully to find it clean and not brownish, milkshakish, rusty, nastiness... And if so it gets a full antifreeze recharge, just to lube things up. I put a new radiator and a new water pump on the car before the head gaskets started their bubbling, and now they are all soiled, and its high time I finished cleaning that up! BTW, my heat is warmer than its ever been. I am still using AC, nowhere NEAR time to use the heater down here.. BUT I fixed it

try removing the throttle body from the manifold, but be warned that this MAY necessitate replacing the gasket there.. I think mine actually broke at one point, but it was a clean break, so I just re used it anyhow. The gasket was kinda stuck in place, and when I put it together and ran it I didn't hear any vacuum leak right where it broke, so I think I'm OK.. It has run well for a WHILE since this happened, so I'm satisfied its OK... In any case, gasket or no, it makes removing the IAC much simpler

Okay, so the major source of oil on my motor is the power steering pump. Over the last three years it has gone from slow leak to awful leak, and it's high time I did something about it. I have no clue where it's leaking from; the entire back plate of the pump is sodden. I'm GUESSING that a junkyard pump would be in order, but the yards around here have started taking caps off of things like brake master cylinders, radiators, and steering pumps, so I am going to wait until I see a new car dropped off to try and snag one. Any worries about getting the "right" pump or were they all the same? Any chance that rebuilding the pump I have may be a better option? How difficult would it be to temporarily rig the rack hoses together if I take it apart, and can't fix it or replace it immediately? I understand it's simply a matter of plugging the hoses from either end to each other so the rack stays lubed, but is it the sort of thing that can be done quickly, and temporarily, then easily restored to a stock setup? I may just opt to delete power steering permanently, but I also need to check into the condition of my rack bushings. My entire front end is in need of a thorough inspection, plus I want to disassemble, inspect, and re-pack my drive axles with grease, so the front shoulders of my car are going to be getting a massage very soon.

you can go get a photobucket account, upload them there, and it lists underneath each photo a blurb to copy and paste in the text entry field here, to embed the image onto your post. is this for the factory cruise, the dealer installed cruise, or possibly both? I would be interested if it covers the factory installed system.

i cant remember any specific tricks, but when I took the IAC off of the assembled engine I didn't do anything with the power steering pump. I *may* have had to use my, "push on the end of a screwdriver, while I turn the shaft with a vice grip" trick... but I can't remember anything too specific. It comes off, it's just tricky.

fuel pump? check all your light lenses and make sure none of them want replacing... any little interior bits you need? maybe grab a few relays.. the possibilities are endless

First off, how the heck does it work?? I mean, there aren't any cables attached to the throttle drum, how does it regulate speed? Secondly, does it impact fuel efficiency in the negative at all? The only way I could think of that it could work would be through feeding the intake more fuel than it would otherwise at a given air flow, increasing the air flow caused by vacuum.. but I have NO idea if that's even close. IF it is, then it would mean that when cruising, you're burning more fuel than you would be maintaining the same speed with the throttle pedal. If THAT is the case then I want to stop using it now... Any info is appreciated.. and even if you don't know squat, sound off if you have factory cruise control! w00t!

its not THAT epic!! I broke it into nice easy to digest paragraphs, i highlighted the real questions in bold when I could.. no thoughts or answers? :-p

Alot of that is power steering fluid, and ALL of THAT was gone as soon as I took the intake manifold off the engine; those were pics from doing my head gaskets.

yes, you need a brain and some wiring schematics. It IS do-able, but it is far from plug and play. for an 85 digidash, it isnt much worth it, either.. they are amber instead of green and notoriously hard to see in a glare. The EA81 digidashes were apparently really poor quality gauges as well, not to be trusted.

A man after my own heart.. On topic, you might have a bad accelerator pump? fuel filters? Can you check the level of fuel in the bolw of these carburetors at all? I am a carb novice, I just had to post about datsuns

the IAC is the cylindrical object on the front of the throttle body here and here It can be removed from the TB with a couple of obvious screws, taken apart by two obvious screws, cleaned and easily re assembled without any guidance. Check the contacts on the plugs of the thing to make sure there isnt any corrosion, as this can cause faulty function as well. The MAF unscrews from the tubular housing by four screws, and is easier to clean with the unit in hand. Be careful with it, though; those two wires are tiny heating elements, and if you break them you need a new sensor. If those get tweaked and you don't seem to have a happy idle, then the next step would be to try cleaning the TPS (throttle position sensor) but we will jump that fence when we get there.

I'm knocking on 150K hard.. interesting to see that photo of my gauge cluster from this past february. I am more sure than ever that my alternator needs to be replaced with the 90 amp again...

never had a problem getting anything in my timing belts, and I've been coverless for over a year now. the belts themselves are going to be due for a replacement sooner than I want to believe, though..

Sounds right, the screw I was warning about is on the passenger side of the TB, and i cant recall which way it faces, but it runs somewhat front to back of the car. As for the diodes, I couldn't walk you through replacing them, most people just get a new or remanufactured alternator.

Okay, so I just started delivering pizzas in the GL-10 again, and its time to get the girl in better shape than she's been. I am cleaning the car, and doing alot of routine maintenance and preventetive stuff, and I have a few points to relate, and invite comments on.. along with asking a few questions at the same time. First up is a reinstall of my 90 amp maxima alternator, didn't think I was going to need it but now I want it.. I am adding a few auxiliary power circuits. Anyone know what kind of wattage a single filament tail light style bulb draws? I need to get an idea what kind of amperage the silly car topper is going to draw because I am dovetailing the wire for that into a switch in my car. Hopefully in all this wiring madness, I will also pull the stereo out and get the front speakers wired up again. IIRC, the gray pair of wires were the ones for the front channel.. I abandoned the stock speaker wires for the rears, and have left the front unhooked. If/when I get around to this, I will take detailed photographs of "how" I installed the stereo, because a couple people have asked me about it and its something of an accomplishment. I bought some cheapo radiator flush solution, and tomorrow while I swap the alternators I am going to swap the heater core hoses, and run with them backwards for a couple of days. Come Sunday I plan on blasting the block with a hose, draining, then running the solution through and draining again, restoring heater hose orientation. The core has been gummed up for a while, and I am not just putting up with it for another winter like I did last year. Winter isn't TOO brutal here, but when driving is my job you better believe I want a quick defroster. Any thoughts? I have nastiness in my almost new radiator, because I still haven't flushed the crud out completely from my bad headgasket episode. The water was muddy from bubbling; I have flushed a couple times but only with fresh water. This time its for real. Once I run the chemical flush through, I am going to rinse freely, then probably run for a little while with clean water before draining and replacing with pure anti-freeze. I want to get a good shock treatment of pure anti-freeze to help dissipate any issues caused by using pure water for the last year. I am also thinking about taking the air handler box apart and cleaning the heater core, and AC evaporator coils.. but thats something of a project. I know I get major results cleaning the crud from the coils of my window-mount AC in my bedroom every year, so I am wondering how dirty these could be. I DO smoke in the car, as did my brother before me, so they can't be too pretty. I've also noticed a bit of squeakiness that seems to accompany the steering wheel action.. I may be wrong, and I'm going to do an underbody chassis/suspension inspection soon anyhow, but where in the steering column might there be a carrier point that could use a little lube?? any ideas on this? Obviously I am going to investigate thoroughly myself, and I know to check the little U-joints in the shaft, but I thought I would throw it out there to see if theres anything subtle I might want to attend to. Finally, My power steering pump has leaked very badly for some time, and its gotten worse lately. I haven't even LOOKED at this yet, so for all I know it could be a loose clamp or fitting, but it leaks down from the back of the pump and all over the engine; most of the oil leak "gunk" that has built up in six months is based on ATF from the power steering pump. What might I be looking at, and how difficult might it be to rebuild this pump or reseal it in some fashion? The steering pump is not covered in the FSM fragment that I have, so I am kind of in the dark on this. Any chance that a fresh JY car might have a good steering pump, if it looks OK? IF you read it all, thanks. Any answers, advice, or comments are welcome.

Sea Foam Deep Creep FTW, it makes PB Blaster look like water. GREAT idea, though!

for some reason, I HATE going ANYWHERE without a bunch of small spare parts.. Fuel pump is one major one, along with spare old belts, dist cap and rotor, pressure regulator and MAF sensor, lugnuts (because i have them.) Any parts like that that you can brainstorm, and have spares of, bring em. Basic toolkit is great, too. Eyeball the job and make sure you have the tools needed to set it up in RWD in case the axle goes kerplunk. Good luck.

thats a DAMN nice rig!!