On 03/07/2024 at 13:34, AnnoyingPentium said:

 

Quite a low registration number too, which makes it quite an interesting old thing. Shame it's knackered.

 

I know a lass who has a G-reg one in that grey/brown they did. Lovely motor like.

Not terribly low, not a whole pile of cars sold in Kilkenny in the 90s. Logbook says 4th of February 92

Dublin was and still is where most cars are sold 

Something about Dublin regs

Some manufacturers here register their demos in Dublin for the dealers Ive noticed.

Logbook came.

No months long drama on this one.

And I gave it a wash.

Came up suspiciously well but the paint is VERY flat.

Leaked water for hours, because of all the holes the pressure washer forced water into.

And took an inkling one day to give It a quick wipe down inside, so it's less of a biohazard.

Lots of mould came off the headliner.

Not a whole pile I need off it REALLY, but it's cheaper than the Weber kit I was looking at. 

Really just carb and starter will do me for now.

Oh and the grille of course.

They seem very very rare so I do want it.

Can take a blank switch out of this so I don't have to butcher my wiring completely. 

Not entirely sure if they're fogs or spots however, guessing spots.

5 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

Not entirely sure if they're fogs or spots however, guessing spots.

Could be either. I'd probably know if you can do a good photo of just one of the aux lenses.

@DieselMonte  Are you a member of this group?

 

 

5 hours ago, Paws4Thot said:

Could be either. I'd probably know if you can do a good photo of just one of the aux lenses.

 

I'm pretty certain they'll be spots as most jap cars of that age had them in a 'pod' under the bumper and I recall a similar grille with spots being available for my 1990 Mitsubishi Colt.

3 hours ago, Ootohere said:

@DieselMonte  Are you a member of this group?

 

 

I am yeah and the 4WD turbo one.

5 hours ago, skomaz said:

 

I'm pretty certain they'll be spots as most jap cars of that age had them in a 'pod' under the bumper and I recall a similar grille with spots being available for my 1990 Mitsubishi Colt.

I'm not dead certain, because at least one common make of grille was available with either fogs or spots.

2 hours ago, Paws4Thot said:

I'm not dead certain, because at least one common make of grille was available with either fogs or spots.

These are autoplas ones.

Friend with a sunny had the same make on his funny enough 

Your ignition problem sounds like a wiring mishmash with a ballast resistor ignition coil, running a low impedance 7.5 volt (12v when cranking) coil on a permanent 12v supply, I have some recollection of you posting before about this but could be wrong.

 

Could also be running a 12v coil on a permanent 7.5v ballasted supply.

 

 

Editted, apologies I misread your posting thinking the C word was for "coil" and not "carburettor"

Edited 12 July, 20241 yr by J.R.

6 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

 

Editted, apologies I misread your posting thinking the C word was for "coil" and not "carburettor"

There's another word Ive been using too but it's not for a family friendly board such as this.

Moved things around to have a section for parts cars 

 

Carbs on

Can do it with my eyes closed. Couldnt find a gasket set so had to wait to get material and make one.

Gave it a service while I was waiting for the gasket stuff to come.

Oil change plus fuel filters.

Some gunk in old ones but not major like I'm used to seeing.

All looking nice and standard.

Fitted the spots but didn't wire them in yet.

Took it for a run and it drove very well, filled it with fresh fuel plus used an E10 additive.

And took it to a local car show yesterday.

Only gave it a quick wash as it was raining, just to get the dust off.

Going very well so far so.

Had you seen this?

 

 

 

So finally found a way to get it over the pit.

NCT was due end of month, got a date this evening to get it tested, spent yesterday prepping it, cleaning some spots, tightening the handbrake etc.

Cleaned it up nice outside too.

They spent ages looking at it in the test which had me very worried however

Clean sheet aside from the Vin.

Problem there being it's so old it doesn't show the vin on their system, so I've a form to send off if I want to update that.

Pre 93 so old logbook, so not computerised.

But now tested to this time in 2026.

Going fine too.

Finally

Still have the parts car there but nothing else really needed for mine.

Yet

Getting 40mpg to boot.

You're braver than me getting in that pit with the just perched like that!! 

 

Otherwise that looks like a good solid pass. 

Not much new

Fitted and wired in the spotlamps

Usual trick of tapping the high beam didn't really work.

They work in such a way that when the lights are off the high beam gets 12 volts with ignition, and no power on dips, then power with main beams. So simple solution was to use a blank from the parts car, drill it to accept a switch and run it so I can decide to have spotlamps only or at night (when the dips are on) they will come on with the main beam.

Not ideal but useable.

Video of them.

 

They do help give more light but the lights on this are shockingly good anyhow.

Snagged the rear emblem off the parts car, it has little dowels to snap into the boot which mine doesn't have, if I use it I'll just get crafty with double sided tape.

Front emblem on the grille is pretty rough also.

Also fitted my metros which I'm undecided on.

Number plate surround is a bit much I think.

Not a whole pile with this one, not driven much being winter and all, had it out for local cars and coffees, and took it out to carlingford a few weeks ago.

Driving just about perfect, 

Little stretch of motorway and it happily kept up with traffic.

Started chugging slightly as I got home so pulled the fuel filters, again.

Replaced them of course, going fine since.

Cars driving fine, needs clutch changed soon, didn't slip lately but it can and will, plus release bearings been making noise since I got it.

In typical me fashion I've gotten yet another project, making a post for it now infact.

This thing is going pretty well.

Slackened the clutch cable some more and that's stopped it slipping.

Had it up in Enniskillen Easter Monday for a car show, good mix of driving. Had changed coolant and adjusted the timing a little so it was more a shakedown run than anything.

Fairly packed, weather was horrid so made it a bit of a wash. Some nice stuff at it. Just the weather put a damper on it.

Filled up with some e5 since I was up north and got 50mpg on the way back. Very surprised.

Seems to be going well, really hoping it'll do goodwood in a few weeks.

Installed an Oil pressure gauge too.

Fixed up some wiring to the spotlamps aswell.

Only thing I'd like to get sorted is the starter but we'll have to see.

Took the original starter apart to clean it up.

Stripped it down, cleaned it up.

Wasn't great, wasn't terrible.

Put it in there and it seems to be doing a better job.

Flywheel doesn't look wonderful on the teeth mind.

Waiting for paint to dry on the mx5 and another car I kept busy doing little things to this.

Popped the rear fog lamp lense off and polished it.

Pulled the original spare out and put a serviceable one from the parts car in.

Did clean it first.

Took the oil cap off to clean it up.

Just wire wheeled it to death and gave it some metal Polish.

Also Tinted the spotlamps. Before pic

I had a fair bit of time, you might realise.

Got some bare tools organised and set up for it. Gonna pull the dizzy and coil off the parts car to keep in it, maybe ott But I'm not wanting to be stuck on the side of the road soon.

Re the flywheel teeth, they do take a bit of a hammering from the Bendix starter pinion, not usually too much of a problem if only the leading edge.

Don't forget to add the mandatory small coil of fencing wire to the spares kit 😄

Been meaning to update.

Didnt make retrorides yet again, this time was a vacuum leak on the carb.

Could only get thin gasket sheet locally, tried it.

Worked.

For about 5 miles.

So got it back to the shed and took the mx5

Ill post some stuff in that thread.

Trying to get some thicker sheet just have to wait.

Also changed the oil and air filter ahead of that.

One good thing is while subaru hasnt made anything for it in 20 years, Toyota still makes some parts for their older coronas etc.

I work at a toyota garage now so was able to cross reference aftermarket numbers back to toyota oe numbers, and so ive got decent fuel filters, exhaust mounts, condensors, etc from it.

Pretty cheap too.

Now have a lift and all too.

So long time and a lot of progress here or there.

Went up on the lift to do new ball joints, tie rods and a wheel bearing.

Wheel bearing was a siege in 100 different ways.

As were the ball joints (Kept getting sent wrong ones)

Basically decided "I am not taking this apart again", so knowing the flywheel was grinding worse and worse i began stripping the parts car down.

Don't love having it in bits as its yet another shell to go on a pallet.

Before that i rolled it down to the wash, and gave it a good cleaning.

Even though it is beyond rotten I felt a bit bad tearing into it, anyhow.

Stripped suspension off of it and dropped engine as a unit, split all on the pallet and got the flywheel.

It was grubby and oily but in better (not great) shape

Both cars the clutches were "ok" both have oil leaking from the distributor down into the box, and what was causing the clutch in mine to occasionally slip.

Decided to strip the parts cars suspension to clean up for mine, bushes being 30 years old and 90k mile on them, were well past it.

Knew i needed anti roll bar bushes for mine, like everything else cant get new rubber ones.

However, there is a man in a shed in the US called DRW bushings who does bushes for all the older subarus. So i ended up buying the full kit for mine.

Not cheap but shipping and customs from the us isnt either, so i only wanted to do it once.

Bushes came quickly for being made to order, and the other side of the pond. Fella was extremely pleasant and helpful to deal with.

Bushes all fit perfectly, all numbered so almost impossible to mix up, plus theyre not as hard as powerflex or such. They feel a lot like a slightly firmer oe bush. Got mine in black to keep a nice standard look.

Noticed sump was leaking this while so dropped it, cleaned strainer also. Again while im in there.

Primed and painted sump, resealed all fine.

New clutch kit, probably mentioned before i won a new old stock subaru disc and pressure plate a while back, nice to put it to use.

Cleaned the flywheel up myself as couldnt get anyone easily to machine it.

Got gearbox in on my own not easy but lifted it up and put it on myself. Made a clutch alignment tool with an extension and lots of tape.

In the bushes kit there were small shifter bushes which have transformed the shifter, it was really nice before but now it is extremely nice to use, very tight and direct.

Back on its wheels this evening, no exhaust past the cat and needs checking and torqueing all the bolts on the ground but i did get driving it a little. Clutch feels very good but does need adjusting. Suspension and steering feels superb, very fresh.

Still have to do rear suspension. Gonna do the same and strip the parts cars to refresh.

This way i have serviceable arms etc from mine as spares.

So shouldnt have much to worry about from the front for a while. Rear isnt too bad but id like to have all the suspension stripped and painted anyhow. Ill clean up and schutz underneath it too.

I do want to gut the cat from the parts car to use on mine, being pre 95 it doesnt need one to pass emissions once its running well.

Have that nice backbox too but itd require basically having a catback pipe done up to make any use out of it.

Exhaust restricts way down after the resonator for no real reason. Backbox i got is the same size as the pipe between the cat and resonator.

Facelift ones like mine are catted, preface is not and that brings power down from about 55 to 50.

It is nippy for what it is but a "cheap" 10% bump in power would be nice.

Unlikely as it may be, should we ever meet, please remind me to lay on the floor and admire the paint job on yer sump 👍

It’s nice to see the love you’re giving this little Scooby 😎

Gaz

Not much else

Stripped rear suspension out of parts car. Siege removing the bushes, found they had a metal sleeve that will not come out of the wishbone bushes, so cant fit them.

Then moved onto the trail arm bushes, found they weren't right so cant fit them either.

Also this. Thank god i stripped the parts car FIRST.

So leaving the rear suspension be for now. Touched up some undercoating

and refitted the exhaust, shockingly all the gaskets were totally wrong so i used exhaust paste FOR NOW.

Few small things to finish up and alignment, but it is basically done and driving fine.

Payed far too much money for an nos clock for it too.