ZRX Doug

Ahh..me too on the hiding from physical labor thing..but ya misunderstood. I wasn't suggesting you sink four posts in your drive or garage..just a set of "D" rings to use as tie downs. I do a lot of motorcycle work (usually on other people's bikes) and I don't want to replace expensive plastic if one falls over, so I added two recessed tie-downs to my garage floor to add some stability when they're on the bike stand(s). The darn things proved so useful that I sunk eight more of 'em in around the perimeter of the car work/parking area.

If you own rather than rent your home, consider sinking four (or more) tie-down points into the driveway or garage floor..this is the poor man's frame rack. Once the car is off its suspension and firmly chained down, your come-along will show a lot more muscle. A lot of potential pulling power is absorbed by suspension & tires..lose that factor and things will bend a tad easier. As the other guys said, apply tension in the direction opposite the original impact, and beat the snot out of it with a BFH while it's under tension. Your neighbors will love you..

The problem is oil destroys blacktop, sorta like pouring paint thinner on plastic..it makes concrete LOOK messy, but it puts craters in asphalt.

Two + decades of life as a self-proclaimed mechanical genius (insert smiley of choice here) have taught me the the best hand cleaner is shampoo..any brand. On your head, not your hands, fool! Washing your hair gets ALL the crud out from under your nails and 'twixt the cracks of your knuckles..lather, scrub the heck outta your knucks & nails using your head for the scrub brush, rinse, repeat..anything else takes longer just to wash your mitts than it does to do the whole shower, IMHO.. Dunno what I'm gonna do if I ever go bald.. :-p

Man..if you keep it intact all the way forward to the A pillars, you're gonna have a serious amount of tongue weight, gutted or no. The trailer wheels are just gonna be too far rearward for anything resembling balance with something like 80% of the trailer being ahead of the axle center line. If it were my project, I'd hack it just forward of the B pillars and fill the void with 1/4" styrofoam insulation covered with a layer of fiberglass.

Actually, I was NOT gonna cut my Accord springs to lose some height, that would just make 'em stiffer. The plan is to alter the lower spring mount on the struts to both drop the car a bit more and to remove a LOT of preload from the Honda springs..in my case I wanted a bit more load capacity for towing rather than a height increase. Sorta been put on hold while I scramble at work trying to cover for a co-worker who just quit. I may have time to get to this sometime before December if I'm really lucky..

And all that time I thought Mr. Browne was dancin' with a sweet girl named "Rosie," he was actually doing more of a Billy Idol thing? :-p (BTW, There's a local Ska band outta Grand Rapids, named Mustard Plug that does a tune called "Miss Michigan." Do a google-search for the lyrics..they got Mr. Browne beat. Hands down!)

So, Daeron ya saying dating Miss Michigan is a load of Dookie? :-p (World's oldest Green Day fan, here.)

Clean up all the mounting flange faces really good..a little bit of rust between parts can really throw balance off badly. Do all the u-joints seem to pivot freely and with about the same amount of resistance? It really shouldn't matter which end is which, or how the two shafts are "clocked" in relation to one another..they should both be balanced assemblies, mixing & matching shouldn't cause unbalance issues. You could always try the old hose clamp trick if all else fails..once you figure out which shaft is causing you the grief, put a large screw-type hose clamp (like a radiator hose clamp) on it..tighten the clamp up, take the car for a drive. If the vibes are still there, rotate the clamp 1/4 turn and tighten it up again..keep doing this in smaller increments until the vibration stops or there's a noticable decrease. Like balancing a wheel, only you use the "screw" part of the clamp as a movable weight. If you can't make it completely disappear with one clamp, add a second clamp..

Jeeze..not the "one day gas boycott" SPAM again? Here's a link to Snope's debunking of that particular urban legend. http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/nogas.asp Oh, and I run regular unleaded in my plain ol' EA-82. I feel for you turbo guys..

This is gonna sound dead-obvious, but have you checked the local phonebooks under "Bearings?" Dunno how it is in the rest of the world, but here in Detroit there are at least five shops I know of that sell nothing but bearings, and they usually have no problem sourcing an "impossible" part using either stamping numbers or the ID & OD of the races. It's pretty much the only route to go if (like me) you're into mixing & matching motorcycle wheels & axles, steering head components & such. Usually MUCH less expensive than an auto parts store, also. Like I said, Detroit may be a bit more source-rich, since we're sorta swimming in job-shops for the auto industry, but I'd expect any decent sized city to have at least one bearing wholesaler..give it a shot.

Heat. I've never run across a fastener that doesn't change its mind about being stuck once it's been warmed up with a propane torch.

Man..talk about a junkyard adventure. I found a pair on an '87 Accordian (heh-heh) that had a hundred-fifty some thousand on the clock, pulling 'em was pretty simple with no drama..just unbolt the strut nut, and the spring shoots the strut down safely..it's got nowhere to go (assuming the suspension is still intact). Once the strut nut's loose, just unbolt the upper control arms (easy access under the hood) and the suspension will drop far enough to extract your new springs. The only problem I had was finding a Honda with a pair that weren't broken..took eight Accords before I found one with both springs intact. Go figure. And a steal at under seventeen bucks for the pair as well..neat! I think I'm gonna see what I can do about cobbling up a pair of adjustable lower spring perches before I add these to Sue's suspension..riding around with the rear suspension jammed against the upper stops doesn't really sound like a lot of fun.

Okay..I did the search & read all the posts about Accord springs..seems that they're actually a touch too tall and a touch too stiff by and large. Cutting a coil will just make 'em stiffer.. But, as I said "Champagne taste, beer budget"..so I'll look for a high-mileage set that appear to be somewhat clapped out.

My personality & tastes*? While I try to figger out if I should be offended or flattered, I reckon I'll hustle on over to the local scrapyard and grab me some Honda springs.. *(Champagne taste, beer budget..personality I just borrow from my dog when he's not using it.)

Well, got the trailer hitch situation sorted out okay..now I'd like to get the rear of the car to sit at stock height when there's a couple hundred pounds of tongue weight hanging off the back end. The car's an '89 4x4 GL wagon. Is there a stiffer spring on a different model I could swap in, or is there some other cheap & cheesy trick you guys can recommend? I don't mind a little bit of added ride height when it's unloaded, but it tends to wander when the rear is sagging under load.

Go to your local auto parts store, they'll have pre-packaged 7/16 exhaust studs & nuts that are actually made of a material that won't snap on removal when it ends up corroding. Cost is maybe three bucks more than the threaded rod, the studs have a small diameter hex cut on the end for a wrench, and there's no cutting involved. They're sold under the "HELP!" products name, retail for around five bucks for a set of three studs/nuts/washers per pack, and look something like this. I'd still advise drilling to the proper size before letting a tap anywhere near a piece of expensive aluminum.. But hey, I'm just an idiot with a low post count.

If you're in Ann Arbor, you might consider making the trip into Detroit..I was just at Parts Galore (junkyard on Eight Mile east of Hoover) chasing down some Mopar stuff, and they had a couple Loyales and a Legacy in stock that I noticed, maybe more Soobs, I wasn't really looking..bring tools, they let ya pull your own stuff..all the cars are on stands, and most are on pavement, so there's no wriggling in the mud..and the prices are dirt CHEAP!! FWIW, I agree with RAuger33..a local exhaust shop is probably the most grief-free way to deal with it, but if you wanna go for the absolute cheapest price and you've got the time to blow, salvage yard stuff is likely the route for you.

Oddly enough, I now have complete confidence in Sue..a friend moved out of state and left all his Mopar stuff behind..he knew I was into the same things, so when his ex-landlord told him he was gonna toss all the junk in the garage out, Tom told me to head over and grab what I wanted.. I went by today, and "what I wanted" turned out to be 990 pounds of landscaping pavers (bricks)..The soob made the 20-odd mile round trip with the full load in style..didn't give me any grief stopping at all, though she did tend to wallow a tad in the curves. She's going back tomorrow to do the same thing with a load of cinder blocks and a complete 318 engine..if the car survives this torture, there's no way my measly little 900lb trailer with it's 150lb or so tongue weight is gonna bug it.

Nope. Antifreeze (and water) will sink to the bottom of a drain pan. (Oil floats.Think Exxon Valdez) Coolant will be the first thing to come out when you drain the oilpan, and it'll show up on your dipstick as a milky whitish goo..sorta like someone poured a half gallon of vanilla ice cream in there. FWIW, if you suspect you have a blown head gasket and you MUST drive anyway, there's an old trick that will minimize the risk of coolant in the oil..just turn the radiator cap to the first notch so it won't hold pressure, or remove it completely. This will stop pressure from building in the cooling system, which in turn will help to slow or stop a coolant leak into the crankcase. Just remember to keep an eye on your temp guage, as non-pressurized liquids boil a LOT sooner than pressurized ones. It can get messy underhood with the cap loose/gone, so wrap a rag around the filler neck to contain the spray..

Yeah, you can feel it alright..when I bought my 1100 back in '99, it was 'sposed to be a street toy and daily transportation..it ended up replacing my drag car in the end..there's nothing that feels quite like a fast bike, it strains the arm muscles to just maintain your position on the bike under hard throttle. The accelleration of a stock sportbike is outrageous, and the top end is just scary..mine's one of the slower musclebikes out there, but in the current state of trim it'll run a low ten second quarter mile and top out at just about one seventy. That Gixxer thou' in the ad would eat me alive, and a ZX14 Kaw or a Hayabusa would do the same to the Gixxer.. Scary-fast, whacky-fun!

Thanks for all the thoughts..I just replaced rear brakes/wheel bearings about a month ago, fronts were done at the end of last summer..I wish I'd found this place before I sank all the cash I did into the rears (new drum, new wheel cylinder, shoes, bearings, etc). I had no idea there was a disc brake swap possible on these little cars up until a couple weeks ago when I wandered in here.. At any rate, the brakes on the car are great, tires are fresh, and stopping a measly thousand pounds (actually about 880, after I figured out the weight of the trailer) doesn't worry me too much..towing in and of itself doesn't scare me, I've been towing racecars & bikes pretty much as long as I've been driving..I was just wondering if there was anything special to worry about with the Soobs. (and fishing for a used hitch a little, too.) :-p Sounds like it'll be fine..I'll let y'all know wha' hoppens after the first trip, assuming I survive it.

Yeah, the rust thing worried me a lot..but she seems to be solid enough in the rear bumper/tiedown hook area..I've used this car to yank stuck vehicles outta ditches & such for the past ten years, seems to be rock-solid back there. The weight doesn't worry me too much..as you guys have mentioned, I've already gone beyond what the trailer is gonna weigh with passengers/cargo inside the car, never had any brake or overheating issues. (Picture five 200+ pound guys and their bowling equipment crammed in a GL..amusing thought, ain't it?) What I was wondering about was more of a vehicle stability issue while towing..I used to have an old Dodge van that was rock solid until you put a trailer behind it, then it'd wander all over the place. I'd just as soon not deal with that issue again.

It's almost time for me to start dragging my streetbike to the race track, and for the first time ever I'm without a pickup truck to toss the motorcycle in.. I've got a light trailer (figure right around 1,000 lbs loaded), but I've never used my Sube to tow with..it's an '89 GL wagon with D/R, seems plenty capable of handling this amount of weight..brakes, tires, suspension are all in good shape. I guess what I'm asking is have any of you guys encountered any particular problems towing with these cars? Oh yeah, I'm also trying to find a used hitch before I end up building one, posted on the "stuff wanted" page. (Sneaky way to get more attention for the want ad, huh?)

Yeah..walk it to 'em. Any towing caused by their mistake is their responsibility. Such is the law.. Did you get a new right front hub, or at least inspect the old one yet? It makes sense to replace it now while they've got it torn down..half the job is done already. (Assuming the hub's damaged, don't see how it couldn't be judging by your first video)