New owner of 544/1000

[minneSNOWta]

Welcome. Car looks in good condition for sure. Let us know how the ride feels afterwards.

 

[dammitjim]

So far it's 1000x better. I found one of the control arms was slightly bent and replaced that as well. It gets aligned in a couple days, won't know if it's completely sorted until then.

 

[dammitjim]

Here's an update on the reconditioning of 544. It had a number of problems from sitting for several years but most are now sorted out.

New tie rod ends, ball joints and driver's control arm
New timing belt and tensioner, fixed oil pan screw that was contacting the belt
Redline fluids in the transmission, transfer case and diff
Replaced/bled brake, clutch and PS fluid
New KYB AGX rear shocks
Raised up the GC coilovers from stupid low to a little lower than stock
Radiator fan was hard wired to run constantly - solder/shrink wrapped wires back to their original location and reconnected temp switch harness. It warms up normally now /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Treat the heck out of the leather on the top of the back seats. It was stretching the stitching there and is coming around.

Next up:
Replace frozen rear calipers
Alignment
Paint detailing
Fix power mirrors and intermittent wipers
Paint door frames
Replace driver's foglight cover

Some quick cell phone pics as it sits now:

 

[ScreaminE]

Good work! I'm pretty jealous of those KYB's.

 

[dammitjim]

I have mixed feelings about the AGXs. With the Ground Controls the ride is fairly stiff. I haven't messed with the settings much though.

More wins today. I pulled the rear calipers apart and the only problem was the pivot slider pins sticking. I got those free and now the rear brakes work fine. I'll pick up some new pins and pads soon but for now this is a huge improvement.

Finally got enough fixed to feel ok with spending time on the dirty paint. A few hours with a clay bar and an orbital polisher and 95% of the funk is out of the paint. It cleaned up alot nicer than I expected. No pics today because my cell phone pics suck and I finished after dark.

I disassembled and cleaned the mirror switch but no joy there. It was dirty enough that I thought that might be the problem but it wasn't. There is power to the lighter, and AFAIK those are on the same fuse so the hunt continues for that problem.

 

[dammitjim]

If it was a daily driver I might look into changing them but as a third car/toy the handling and adjustability is a plus.

 

[maroonmetallic]

Im sure I have a spare mirror switch & set of mirrors to see what is broken. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[dammitjim]

Cool, let me know when you want to meet up to try them out. If you have an extra wiper relay handy I'd like to verify if that thing is causing my intermittent wipers to work intermittently.

 

Love that body color grill. Is that a '92 option or a jdm thing? looks way better than the chrome crap on mine that i just picked up. Thanks and im sure that question has been anserwed a million times but ohwell.

 

[dammitjim]

I don't know, maybe someone else can answer this? I've seen others with a white grill though it's entirely possible the PO painted it.

Related question - my white wheels don't have a polished lip. Were stock 92 white wheels all white or white with a polished lip?

 

[GSX_TC]

92 grills are paint matched to the car. 91 grills are chrome

 

[dammitjim]

I picked up a mirror switch and wiper relay from maroonmetallic and those solved my inop mirror and intermittent wiper problems. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Had some success with the alignment. They were unable to adjust the rear eccentrics but got everything in spec or very close. It doesn't pull anymore and drives straight down the road.

The car is pretty much sorted at this point but I'm on the fence about whether or not I really have the time to keep a 20 year old car happy.