TE38 Project

Headers are on

2007-05-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks back, I bought some chromed Doug Thorley headers for the wagon. 4-2-1, no 02 sensor. Nice work. The guys at the muffler shop were admiring its quality.

I finally got the old headers off, put the new headers on, and had them weld the flange to the end of them so it would connect to the catalytic converter. They're awesome and my wagon finally sounds nice and quiet.

Now that it's quiet, I'm hearing all sort of other noises. I need to find out where all the vibrations and squeeks are coming from. haha...

Some updates

2007-04-10T21:10:00.000-07:00

Life's been busy so the cars have, sadly, taken a back burner... until recently.

I'm having a friend build a lot of new billet aluminum parts for the wagon. Billet dash panel for the radio area, billet cover for the instrument cluster, billet vents to replace the old cracking plastic exterior vents, and a billet grille for the front. I can't wait to get 'em!

I've been having more wonky issues with the carburetor, the gas gauge is more misleading than ever, the front end pulls to the right and shakes occasionally, the clutch is almost completely toast, and one of the mounting studs on the bottom end of the exhaust manifold broke off, leading to a "massive exhaust leak."

Oh. And a while back, someone hit and ran on the front right fender. Lovely.

But I'm working on all that now. Clutch will probably go in later this month - it really has to or the car won't move much longer, and the manifold and carb should be getting serviced soon too. I found an interesting bit of information through the C.A.R.B. site saying that the Doug Thorley 513-Y headers for the 2TC motor are, in fact, C.A.R.B. exempt. So... I'll probably just get those instead of fixing the old beat-down exhaust manifold.

Lighting

2006-04-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hrm... I thought I had posted *several* times since my last listed blog entry... So here's a few notes to catch up:

In mid-November, I got a new bubble shift knob for the Wagon to replace the one that was stolen back in April. Exact same brand, size, and color! Big thanks to Chris and Takako in Okinawa!

The Wagon's lip was cracked back in August by a tow truck. I recently sent the lip down to Jesse of Fleet Color Auto Collision Repair for repair. They've finished it up and is currently in transit to me! Can't wait to get the lip back on the wagon. =)

On March 30th, I wired up the fog lights and installed new sealed lamp 7" Sylvania Silver Star headlamps. They look great! I took some pics, but they need to be resized and uploaded. We'll see when I get around to that. =P

Maintenance

2005-12-29T16:16:00.000-08:00

Just a mental note... some maintenance is needed:

Front brake pads (and rotors?)
Clutch
Transmission and differential fluid change

Notes...

2004-08-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

Just a few notes to get this blog rolling...

I need to:
------------------------
Make new billet gauge/radio bezels
Get an alignment
Fix driver side door lock
Fix broken bolt on exhaust manifold
Buy new fuel sender unit
Hook up the cheapo tach
Buy new headlights
Hook up fog lamps
Buy a dash cap
Find a center console
Replace rear window/weather seal
Fix fiberglass air dam
Install rear seat belts

Finished:
------------------------
Replaced water pump
Replaced leaky slave cylinder
New starter
New exhaust gaskets
Put the back seat together
New Hella 121 fog light covers
Ran new fuel lines and fuel pump
Started reinstalling interior trim pieces
Replaced brake master cylinder
Replaced voltage regulator
New battery
Replaced windshield and weather seal
Installed the correct carb
Had the "new" carb tuned
Made new wiring harness for carb
Fixed the dome light
Replaced missing/damaged dash panel
Removed all the extra wiring under the dash
Replaced and fixed HVAC vent hoses
Replaced spark plugs, spark wires, cap and rotor
Replaced distributor points
Replaced coil
Replaced clutch master cylinder and hard line.
Replaced stolen bubble shift knob

Wiper Arms

2005-09-02T14:09:00.000-07:00

Today I'm getting someone at my work to media blast and powder coat the wagon's wiper arms a nice semigloss black. That's really going to make it look better.

Hopefully tonight I can also get Will to help me buff out the car. The paint could use some help for now, but eventually it'll need to be repainted. I'm still considering doing the two tone theme...

New clutch master cylinder

2005-08-06T00:09:00.000-07:00

So Thursday after work, Will and I pick up the clutch master cylinder from CarQuest. At $80, it was expensive, but the only place in town that could get it overnight. Autozone could order it for $29, but would take a week to get here.

I took the new part home and get ready to install it. I've done this before. It should be easy, right? Unclip the linkage to the pedal, remove two 12mm nuts that hold it to the chassis... and the 12mm fitting that holds the hard clutch line.

...Except that hard clutch line fitting WOULD. NOT. COME. OUT! Soaked it in Liquid Wrench and yanked on it till it was almost stripped. Figured it wasn't coming off, so we need to do whatever it takes. Besides, it was getting dark. Vice grips! Clamped that sucker down incredibly tight... didn't budge. It just sheared off big chunks of the fitting. So, we take a torch and heat the the housing. No luck.

So I get the bright idea to just cut the hose, walk over to Autozone, rent their tube flaring tool and get a new fitting. Except, trying to flare a 30yr old metal hose wasn't a good idea. Just cracked the metal and leaked fluid everywhere.

So, thanks to a tip from a neighbor, today I went to Pep Boys after work to find that they do indeed have various lengths of hard line... pre-flared with the fittings and everything. The only ones they have left that will fit my clutch cylinder are 60" long! (I only needed about 36") So, I took it back to the house, disconnected the old tube and fit the new one. Thanks to my expert bending skills (which I didn't know I had), I bent the tube around on the firewall and made it fit gracefully.

Will and I bled the line and it works like a champ. Got to do a bit of crusing around tonight. I love that wagon. I hope it lasts for a while this time. I think next is a new clutch disk tho...

Now what...

2005-08-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

On the way home today, the clutch master cylinder started going out. Leaky leaky! CRAP. Well, it's on order. Will be here tomorrow. Cost: $80. Frustration: Priceless.

Wagon's back!

2005-08-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

So I finally put aside some time to troubleshoot the wagon. Back when I was driving it daily, it was getting harder and harder to start and would idle like crap. Long story short, I had suspected the distributor, but wasn’t sure. It seemed related to ignition. I’ve replaced cap, rotor, plugs, wires, and even the distributor points.

It looked like it was getting fuel, but the spark seemed weak. This is based on my “expert” opinion by cutting fuel, pulling a plug, crank the starter and letting the plug arc to the chassis. Realizing this wagon is 30yrs old, I didn’t even bother really “testing” the coil... just replace it. It’s $20, there’s an Autozone 200yds from my house, and if the coil wasn’t the problem now, it probably would be in the future.

While poking and prodding around, we took off the cap again to check the gap on the distributor points. Made sure that was set correctly, put everything back together, crank it... No start. ARGH!!

I’m out of ideas, out of cars, and out of time, so I drop it off at Le-Toy Motorsport - a local Lexus / Toyota specialty shop that I take all my cars to. They’re getting to know me pretty well. Anyway, I call up AAA to cash in on one of my 4 free tows I get per year and have them take the wagon down to Le-Toy. Oh, but when they drop it off, they crack the corner mount clean off the wagon’s fiberglass lip. ARGH! So I need to call them up and try to get some money out of them. Hopefully it can be repaired since I’ll probably never find another one for a TE38.

So I drop off the wagon and the Le-Toy guys look at the car for about... 10 minutes. The spark plug wires or cap (can’t remember which he said now) were on backwards. He turns it around and it fires right up.

I’m guessing that the original problem was the coil since the plug wires certainly weren’t the problem when I stopped driving it. So... I’m happy to be rockin’ the PimpWagon again! I missed driving that thing.

WTF...

2005-04-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

So today is the first day of my new job! I go running outside and both cars have been broken into. They snagged the bubble shift knob and the brand new squash air freshener I just got at Super Autobacs a week ago.

DAMMIT.

Down time

2005-05-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

So the wagon hasn't run in a long time. I suspect the distributor. It was getting harder and harder to start, and when it would eventually start, it idled like crap, but at speed, it ran fine. When it wasn't starting, it was acting like it was either getting no fuel or no spark, but it has both. I noticed that when it would eventually start, if I messed with the distributor, it would run more smoothly. I opened it up and the inside of it looked like a nightmare. Filthy and grimy. I cleaned it all up, but it didn't seem to help too much. I bought new points for it, only to remember that you need a special tool to install points correctly. So it sits. Again.

I'll probably take it to Le-Toy Motorsports this coming week. Le-Sigh.

Kuma-XL and I have been talking about a V6 swap into the wagon. Now that would be nice. My first choice is a 3800 series V6 and tranny from a late model Firebird/Camaro. Cheap, reliable, and 200hp. Easily had with wiring harness, ECU and all peripherals for $500 on eBay.

Starter Wiring

2005-03-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

Back in October, I rigged up the new starter with a momentary on switch wired up directly between the starter and the battery. The problem was that I only had enough wire to barely poke the new switch through the firewall... it didn't make it all the way up to the dash. So I'd have to put the key in, put it in the on position, then reach under the dash by the clutch pedal to reach the starter switch to get the engine to start.

Well, last week I finally got some extra 12ga wire (was supposed to be 10... doh!), extended the wires, and mounted the switch in a very nice position on the dash. Looks very cool now.

Some day, I'll end up putting up a TE38 gallery for all these pics. =P

She's ALIVE!!!

2005-03-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

Today, I set aside the whole afternoon to seriously troubleshoot the wagon's carb. I've suspected for a while that the culprit was the fuel cutoff solenoid on the back of the carb. But for one reason or another, I haven't had the chance to figure out exactly why this "new" junkyard carb wouldn't work. Everything looked in great shape, but for some reason, no fuel was getting into the engine. The wagon has an aftermarket fuel pump, there's fuel pressure up to the carb, but no fuel getting into the engine.

First things first... yesterday I had the battery recharged since I drained it most of the way by forgetting to disconnect it while it sat for 3 months. So I installed the freshly-charged battery and just for kicks, tried to start it one more time. The familiar sequence of events happened: I put the key in, heard the fuel pump come on, cranked it a bunch, but no starty goodness.

Except one thing was different! As I got out of the car, I noticed a really strong gasoline smell... Oh snap! I forgot to tighten the fuel lines when I reattched the carb yesterday. The pump basically pumped fuel all over the intake side of the engine. So I had to spend a few minutes cleaning all that up. Don't want to pull a Victor and set my engine bay on fire due to a fuel leak. hehee...

Well, I knew that it wasn't going to start as-is, but at least I knew the battery was good now. So, on to the fuel cutoff solenoid. I restripped the mystery wire coming out of the back of the solenoid, spliced it in with a nice thick long piece of wire. With the key in the "on" position, I touched it to the negative post on the battery. There was an audible click-click every time I touched the wire to the post and took it off. So that meant that the solenoid was in fact working. I then wedged the wire into the negative battery clamp and tried starting her up.

It took a good 7-8 seconds of cranking before I could hear that the engine was starting to turn over on its own. A few more seconds of keeping the pedal mashed and holding the starter down and it finally roared to life! Well, more like sputtered to life, but it was working! I had to keep the pedal floored for a minute or two until it warmed up enough to keep itself running. I went back to the engine bay and turned the idle screw just a touch to bring the engine speed up enough that it didn't want to die.

I couldn't tell what the RPMs were at idle. Unfortunately, in all the wiring mayhem, I completely disconnected the aftermarket tachometer. It never worked in the first place, but at least it used to light up. I'll try to get a wiring diagram for it so I can hook it back up.

After getting it nice and warmed up and making sure that everything was working correctly, I turned it off and wired up the solenoid the right way. I butt spliced the new wire into the solenoid's short lead, grounded it to the same ground that the fuel pump was using, and tucked all the wiring into the carb's wiring loom.

Sure enough, it fired right back up, so I put Drew's car seat in it and we went for a drive around the block.

I'm so excited!!

So many wires!

2005-03-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days, I've been slowly yanking out all the extra wiring that the last owners left behind. Between the partially missing alarm and enormous sound system they yanked out, they left behind probably 300 feet of crappy wiring. Not to mention all the other odd little electronics they were attached to. A bunch of relays, switches, the alarm siren, a passive crossover they left in one of the doors... the list goes on. So I've been crawling underneath the dash tracing back all these mystery wires to make sure I'm not snipping or yanking stuff that's needed. I even took a pic of one of the three piles of wires I removed. I'll post that later. Ridiculous.

In any case, I've cleaned up some of the existing wiring in the process and made the over head light work, correctly routed the heater/vent ducting, and reconnected the wire for the seatbelt sensor. And now I can tell how the fog lights and tachometer are supposed to be hooked up... so those will get fixed soon.

One thing at a time...

Hopefully tomorrow I can work on the carb a bit more. =P

Vent trim and carb

2005-03-11T08:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I repainted and mounted the side vent trim on the outside of the car near the hatch. Looks SOOO much better with those on there now. I'm becoming convinced that everything looks good in bumper paint. hehe...

I also put in the carb intake spacer that I forgot to install. Hooked everything back up and now fits much better. Once I get the battery recharged, I'll try starting it up.

Pics, as always, are coming soon.

Carb Install

2004-12-16T23:17:00.000-08:00

I started installing the new carb today. Removed the old POS and spend a bunch of time cleaning up the "new" one. I decided against doing the rebuild since I'm short on time and long on not having a car. I pulled the carb from a car that just arrived at the junkyard. It appeared to be in good working order, so I'm not TOO worried about it needing a rebuild... yet.

Amazing how everything goes back together nicely when you're actually using the right carb.

I'm just having problems with one thing. There's some kind of sensor or solenoid that stick out of the back of the carb with two wires coming out of it. From looking at the wiring diagrams, it might be the Primary Fuel Cut Solenoid. The problem is that I can't figure out where one of the wires is supposed to go...?

More wiring problems. Great.

Other than that, things are going well. I should be done in the morning.

Junkyard stuff

2004-11-28T22:25:00.000-08:00

I actually found another TE38 Corolla wagon. Unbelieveable. I got the rear seatbelts that I needed, a few fiddlybits, and a new glove box liner. Rock on.

Carbs... bah.

2004-12-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

Well, my wonky carburetor is finally on its last legs. I almost couldn't get to the kid's school to pick him up today.

No problem, I have another carb ready for a rebuild, right? I pull it out of its box and notice that this "working carb" "just pulled off of a working car" is missing vital parts. So no hot rebuild action for me today. Just staring at a useless carb.

So tomorrow I'm going to go to the junkyard, try to find another 2TC carb with the right parts on it and rebuild it tomorrow.

BAH I SAY!

new battery

2004-11-12T21:43:00.000-08:00

Last night, I went to return the rented movies and the battery literally popped and fizzed. After a month of being overcharged when the voltage regulator went out, it finally died.

Now it has a new Die Hard battery in it and all's well. I hope.

Then today, I went by the Mitsubishi dealership to pick up something and the sales guys swarmed my wagon to find out more about it. One guy offered me $1000 on the spot to buy it. Ha!

Surprise!

2004-11-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

Surprise, surprise!

I was bored, sitting in traffic last night staring at the steering wheel in my wagon. It's some odd looking Momo wheel with a big triangular vinyl center piece with no detail on it other than a small "MOMO" stamp embedded in the bottom point. In the past, I idly wondered how it came off, but now that I was bored in traffic, I just pried it off to see what happened. Lo and behold, it looks kinda like the Momo Corse - black anodized center with a rounded top - but without the bezel around the horn button, more like the Monte Carlo. I did a brief bit of poking around on the 'net to figure out what model steering wheel it is, but no luck. It's probably a very old model. Oh, and the horn button has the old school katakana TO-YO-TA logo! Very very cool...

I'll eventually get around to taking a picture of it.

HA!

2004-10-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so after several trips to Autozone, it wasn't the alternator. Again, they stayed consistent with not giving me the right product to begin with. I took out the alternator and found that the new one they gave me was too big. So I returned that got the right one.

I got it home and noticed that my damn battery was hissing. Then it occurred to me that the alternator has an external voltage regulator and that I should probably check that. I walked back over to Autozone, got the $20 part, installed it, and everything works fine now. I'm keeping the new alternator though. I just haven't had a chance to put it in yet. So if thing goes out (as I'm sure it will), I'll already have the correct one on hand.

Now the alternator?

2004-10-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I think the alternator is starting to go out. At least that's the theory so far, since I haven't had a chance to check into it. I was coming home from work the other day and as I rounded the last corner, the "CHG" light came on. Since then, it still runs fine. I don't think there's any drop in power and the battery isn't dying, so I'm not sure what the deal is. It might just be yet another electrical short in the system. Go figure. =P

I started looking at Kragen.com for replacement alternators. It looks like the usual amperage coming out of them is 40-45 amps. There was one alternator on there that was 50 amps, but it was the cheapest by almost half the cost. That kinda worries me. Ehh... we'll see if it even needs to be replaced.

OEM Starter

2004-10-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to putting in the starter today. Good thing I stayed home from work - it took almost all day to finish! Apparently when the last starter started shorting out and arcing badly (big sparking mess), it wasn't just the starter that fried. Apparently there is now some bad wiring between the starter and the ignition switch.

I installed the OEM starter and when I tried to start it, nothing happened. Nada, zilch. So I took it out, hooked it up outside the engine and tried again. Nothing. Then I started ohming out the wires to make sure none of its wiring harness was damaged. Everything seemed good there. When I jumped the positive lead to the battery, suddenly it worked. So there must be some damaged wiring between the starter and the ignition switch.

So in the mean time, I wired up a high amperage momentary-on toggle switch that serves as the starter switch. It works great, it's just not pretty - yet. The good news is that now I can drive my car without push starting the damn thing.

OEM goodness?

2004-09-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

After going through 4 AutoZone starters, I broke down and ordered an OEM starter from Jeff Watson at Champion Toyota in Texas for a big discount. The only drawback was that I had to wait for it to get shipped to me. It went out on Monday and got here today. Hopefully I can get it in tomorrow.

Next up is a carb rebuild and brake cylinder rebuild.

Slowly but surely...

F'ing starter!

2004-08-31T22:21:00.000-07:00

The GODDAMN starter is going out again. WTF is up with me and starters?! The S13 is on its 4th and now the TE38 has killed its 2nd one since I've had it. I'm SO tired of this bullshit. I'm off to sulk now...