Interior swap over complete. The only thing remaining of Nori’s is the non-ripped driver’s seat back (not even the headrest). Everything else was Megumi’s.
100% intact leather interior.
Also changed oil for the first time. It’s usually the first thing I do when I acquire a new (to me) car, but I had to put it off until today for various reasons. Old filter was Mopar; weird. Wix on and 4.5 quarts of 5W-30 semi-synthetic.
Got Megumi’s perfect leather rear seat backs installed in Nori:
Very easy to swap. 4 nuts and out they come.
Nori has driven me to work every day this week so far. He’s doing fine, although he still has two codes (16 and 41) and shudders a bit under acceleration, especially at certain gear + rpm combos like 2nd gear around 2500-3000 rpm. Working that one out.
He also runs warmer than I’d like (a bit to the right of center on the gauge; Megumi ran a bit to the left), and started creeping toward the red—though eventually stabilized short of it—when idling for a few minutes with the A/C on in mid-80° temps. Temp came back down once on the highway. So the cooling system will need some attention.
In the meantime, since I have a baseline, I’ve been trying to take things a bit slower after spending hours and hours over the past 3 weekends. Just trying to do one small/medium thing a day.
Monday, I pulled the seats and vacuumed the carpet. Megumi’s passenger seat was in slightly better shape, so I swapped that over, along with the rear seat cushion. Nori’s driver’s seat bolsters are intact, so it stays, though I might see if I can swap over Megumi’s seat bottom. Rear seatbacks have to come over also.
Gave the dash its first wipe down w/303. More to come.
and I swapped over Megumi’s sun visors that were in better condition:
Yesterday, I addressed the trunk area. Before:
and after:
Trunk liner in better shape, intact weatherstripping, all the correct fasteners, etc. I still need to de-rust the hinges, but it’s looking a lot better back there.
I think some critter took up residence in the trunk for a while prior to my ownership:
Everything got vacuumed out and wiped down.
Next up: Intake manifold swap. Code 41 is VRIS1, and I decided rather than just swap over Megumi’s known-good solenoids, I’d just pull the whole intake and swap it over with its cleaner throttle body, silicone hoses, etc. Getting pretty good at pulling it these days.
So driving home Friday evening, the car took about 20-30 seconds to start as I left the bank (ran errands on the way home). Then, it cut out randomly, and took even longer to start once I coasted into a nearby parking lot. After waiting a minute, I got it started again, and it took me the remaining 15 minutes home without incident. Still—not cool.
The fuel pump and filter are brand new, and the injectors have less than 3000 miles on them, so I suspected something ignition-related. The distributor connector was very suspect (NO idea how it ended up in that state):
Swapped over Megumi’s pigtail (lineman’s splices FTW):
I also put a protective sheath on the wires.
Cleaned the distributor up just a bit also. The bottom screw broke b/c of course it did:
Drill & tap, drill & tap… Sigh.
I also swapped over the crank angle sensor, and got the plug wires organized also thanks to swapping over a whole load of clips that were missing:
Getting there…
…and another pic from work this morning:
Also, not that it really matters, but I daily-drove the green MX-6 for 6 months and didn’t get a single “Cool car!” or equivalent.
The 2nd day of daily driver duty for Nori and I got a rubberneck and thumbs up from a young guy in a W201.
NGL, that felt good.
Well, carried, actually.
Filthy dirty, and brakes in need of a 2nd good bleed, but he made it just fine.
I was stumped by the draggy rear brakes until I looked up rebuild procedures in the Haynes manual and learned about the parking brake adjustment screw. Set them appropriately last night, and no more drag.
He was pressed into service one day early on account of my wife needing the minivan sooner than expected. I hadn’t even done a proper highway test. But he performed admirably.
Next up: Connecting the EGR hoses up correctly, that 2nd brake bleed, and cleaning cleaning cleaning…
Finally.
Spent an hour or so beating on the front brakes before it was time to call it a night. I’ve acquired quite the toolset over the past 2 weeks when it comes to dealing with rust & stubborn fasteners. Still—I think separating the strut and hub is going to be a real struggle. I may save that for a weekend when I have more time and just focus on the brakes for now.
One issue at a time…
Front of the exhaust in, above a rust-treated front crossmember:
Megumi’s EGR valve and solenoid assembly swapped over:
I deleted the EGR pipe and bypassed the coolant lines, just like with Megumi.
Got the new fuel pump in. Some differences between the new and old pumps:
The old one was working fine, so this was preventative.
The fuel tank went on without too much drama, although I did have to undo the right strap to attach the heat shield, since I forgot it goes under the strap.
Got the filler pipe assembly all cleaned up and installed. I used some handy-dandy 3M weatherstrips on the filler plate back:
Got the rest of the exhaust and the subframe on and hitched up:
Struts and brakes on:
A big victory on Saturday was the parking brake bracket nuts came off, all 3 of them. They were totally rounded and disintegrated, but my rounded nut socket, a wire brush on the threads and copious amounts of heat, and they all came off.
No pics, but the intake manifold went back on OK. I decided to swap over Megumi’s fuel rail and injectors, and discovered that the ’94 rear injector rail connector assembly has a different plug, so I had to swap that over.
The lower fuel filter hose put up a fight, but I got it off in the end. Swapped over the bracket also.
I finally got everything buttoned up, and went to start it, and it wouldn’t turn over. Battery was good, so I figured it must be the starter. Fortunately, it’s right on the front of the engine, so I was able to pull Megumi’s off and get it on Nori in about 25 minutes.
And then…he started! Ran really well, actually. I drove him around the neighborhood a bit, and he felt 500% better than down in Florida. Tracked straight, smooth and good pickup.
Got a code 16 and 41. For the 41, I’ll just swap over Megumi’s VRIS solenoid. For 16, I may have hooked up the EGR solenoid assembly wrong. Will investigate.
The other issue is the brakes. He unfortunately has ABS, which just gets in the way and overcomplicates everything. After the test drive, the right front and left rear discs were warm to the touch, where the other 2 were cold. Will have to look into that also.
Still, I was encouraged after an exhausting week and a half.
POR-15 on all the rusty parts:
2nd coat tomorrow. Love the stuff.
Decided it was easier to swap over the whole filler pipe + evap line assembly rather than try to twist off Nori’s fuel hose ends (I cut them to remove the tank):
Needless to say, Megumi’s is in MUCH better condition.
Made another unpleasant discovery also: Nori’s rear brake hardlines have been replaced:
Yet another thing not disclosed by the seller.
Spaceship vibes from Nori:
Feeling pretty good about getting him back on the road this weekend if everything continues to go well.