Half empty?

Never seen this happen before, but it’s one of many things that can happen to an old car. 
Can’t be driving around not knowing if I’m actually going empty so I had to investigate.

Think twice before tossing.

It was a bit sticky and wasn’t making great contact so the side mirrors were moving intermittently.  Some folks would just throw it away.  Since it looks to be in pretty good shape, it’s best to try to renew it with a good cleaning.  It turned out pretty good.

Lack of maintenance or defect

Broken distributor rotors is not something I ever see.  So when it occurred to the gray door stop, it came as a bit of a surprise.  I don’t know if it was a defective part or maybe it’s my lack of attention.  I’m usually pretty good about maintaining all the vehicles.  But having to take care of 2 4AGEs I may have changed one, but not the other.  Luckily the breakdown was less than a mile from home.  It was just a long walk.

AE86 Tech #86-36: Find balance

Now that it’s up and running it’s time to get things balanced.  Just like carburetors, throttle bodies will also require the same attention to detail.  This also requires the same tool that carburetors use: synchronizer.   

But I'm sure most already know where the adjustments are located, let’s just take another review.

The throttle body butterfly adjustment screws.  There’s 8 screws that adjust the throttle butterflies.  Don’t necessarily have to use all of them.  For my setup I just had to tinker with about 3 screws.  Use this to set the initial idle speed and to balance out large differences in airflow.  It doesn’t have to be perfect but just close enough to use the next adjustment.

The throttle body screw, this is similar to your factory throttle body idle adjustment screw.  There’s only four you’ll need to adjust. Just like the butterfly adjusters above, you may not have to adjust all.  Use this to fine tune and this should get your balance spot on.  If you can’t get the flow to match up with the screw, go back to previous.

Once set, you shouldn’t have to adjust them again.  Unless you remove one or more throttle bodies, then you’ll need to check the balance.  If you’re lucky, you won’t have to adjust.  So it’s best to remove throttle bodies connected to the manifold as a whole assembly.

Work shirt

Just noticed I wore the appropriate shirt to work on the corolla.

Gold makes things look pretty

Saving an AE86 Trueno | Juicebox - Unboxed #1

When I see classifieds full of fanboys parting out their cars cause they're getting out of the 'scene'.  It's nice to see at least some who are willing to make an effort to put a car back together.

It’s feeding time

AE86 Tech #86-35: Vf

What to do today

Good day for a pleasant Sunday drive.

NST: The unicorn edition

A few months back, AE86 parts vendor NST decides to put on a group buy to commemorate the up coming 8/6 day.  Usually i’m not one to buy much of anything since I have pretty much everything I need to build a Corolla.  Except for this unicorn.
 

It's that time again

Hmm what's in the box?

AE86 Tech #86-34: Proper closure

Like all things Corolla, stuff keeps wearing out and parts keep getting more expensive and harder to obtain new.  Door hinges are just an example.  Years of use, the bushings wear out and the door slowly begins it’s sag until it becomes difficult to open and starts to close.  Let’s try and remedy.

Living under a tree

Flickr Tags: ae86

I’m sure at one point in it’s life, the grey goose had lived under a tree.  As you can see it’s accumulated quite a bit of junk.  In it’s 32 years of life, this is probably the first time the fender liner was removed. 

 

Finnish Toyota Corolla GT's with original sound II

Fins got mad love for coupes.

Corollas and Coffee

Back in the day, Club4ag is where AE86 enthusiasts would meet.  But as the evolution of the scene and Corollas progressed, the baton was handed to the AE86 Nights.  To my dismay, AE86 Nights didn’t happen for 2017.  Who will take the baton for the next generation of Corolla owners?  Behold the Café 86, will this be the corolla event for the next group of Corolla owners?

Backyard dreams

Nothing fancy, just a lot of dedication, resulting in excellence.

Leverage

Flickr Tags: AE86,Toyota,Corolla

While putting together the Black Ice, one small detail I notice while doing the conversion.   The e brake cable guide profile is slightly different between the SR5 and GTS.  The profile on top is SR5 and the one below is GTS.  The SR5 looks to be slightly shorter than the other.  The handles themselves were of equal length using my eye and sitting them side by side.  It seems that SR5 handle would provide a better mechanical advantage to locking up the rear brakes.  The down side would be the extra travel for the brake handle.  Though I never heard of such conversions, I'll probably give this a try since I've both on the work bench.  If I don’t like it I can revert back to the GTS setup.  As to when is anybody’s guess.

Code 6

Not too long ago, Grey Poupon decides to drop a diagnostic light bomb.  Even though the car is operationally sound,  the check engine light stares me down taunting me.  It must know that smog season is coming up and wishes to antagonize me.  Utilizing the special service tool, aka paper clip, to pull the code from the ECU, the blinking lights inform me that I have an ignition signal issue.  Grey never had issues like this before, usually it’s cars that come by the cave that have this issue.  It usually ends up with me replacing harnesses and/or distributors.  But just when I was going to replace the distributor with a spare in the back, I find out the definitive cause of code 6.  Fortunately, didn’t have to replace anything just soldered everything back together and now everything is good.

Not surprised.

In the process of getting the cage installed.  I took upon myself to remove the windshield.  Since it was already cracked I didn’t have to be extra careful during it’s removal.  But all that didn’t matter since whoever installed did a pretty shoddy job.  The end result was a tremendous amount of rust that accumulated in the windshield channel.  But I'm not surprised with all other shoddy work the previous owner(s) had performed on the car.