Yet Again - Murphy Lives!!!!!!

[Sonicfrog]

All Done... almost!

 

Last night I got everything together and turned the key.... no start, as in no starter. I figured the problem was the neutral saftey switch. I wasn't sure where the circuit was, so I posted the question here last night. This morning I got the answer (two black striped wires on the shifter) and as soon as I closed the curcuit,voila, Murphy started :banana:. I did have to move the disty over a tooth, but I got the timing much closer this time because I had the good sense to mark the disty before I tore everything apart. I had some pretty mean TOD forat first, but I drove her for a while and the TOD went away. Man I love the way the FT4WD shifts.

 

Here are some issues I had to deal with during the rebuild process:

 

After installing the new dual core radiator I found there was not enough room to mount the fan assembly onto the water pump. I solved the problem by cutting about 1/8'th of an inch off the studs that hold the fan blade to the chutch. I still may have bent a few rad fins, but I got the fan on OK.

 

Each time I've worked on the engine, I've had to deal with the increasingly brittle PITA blow-by hose that runs right behind the A/C compresser - the one that ends in a tee fitting that goes to the PCV valve. I scraped the factory hose and replumbed that side completely. The new hose runs from the valve cover, angles back toward the master cylinder and gently curves around the disty back toward the PCV valve. The tee is connected just before the valve, and the third leg slope right up to the plastic air suction manifold. It's pretty. Here is a pic. The hose runs behind the disty.

 

 

I noticed a vibration while driving in normal AWD mode. It starts around 20 MPH. As soon as I felt it I knew exactly what it was. The driver side rear half shaft boot had been frakked up since I bought the car 1 1/2 years ago. With the old crappy 3 spd A / T the car was always in FWD so the axle never had any stress on it. With AWD the axle was showing just how badly worn it had become. I removed it tonight and my suspisions are confirmed. It's in really bad shape. I will get a replacement tomorrow, then I will be officialy done with RX'ing the GL-10.... for now!!!

[Sonicfrog]

Murphy Lives!!!

 

It took a while, but I got the back halfshaft installed. Makes a huge difference. The wagon, thanks to the lighter transmission and the RX springs in front, handles quite well. That FT4WD tranny must be much lighter that the auto 3 speed. It's hard to explain, but the car just feels lighter.

 

Tomorrow I will install new plugs, wires, and disty cap / rotor, then I am off to San Diego. I am curious to see the difference in gas mileage of the 5 speed compaired to the crappy 3 speed auto tranny.

[Sonicfrog]

I'm back from San Diego. Everything went well. Mileage is up from 19 to 24 MPG. The engine was running a bit rough on the trip down. I replaced the plug wires and that took care of most of the problem. There is still a bit of a knock eminating from the driver side. Either that cam is off a tooth, or i may have lost a valve spring retainer during the HG job. While I was putting the cam assy on, one of the rocker arms was crooked. Instead of taking the cam assy back off and starting over, like I should have done, I turned the cam and the rocker arm snapped into place. That could have caused one of the retainers to pop out. I'm gonna do a little teardown this afternoon to see if I can't find the problem.

 

On the way down I ended up driving through some nice thunder storms. The Full Time 4 Wheel Drive worked great, even driving through some pretty mean downpours.