G.T. Fieros

Greater Toronto Fieros
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 9:36 am 
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Single again

Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:26 am
Posts: 292
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
And the fun continues.
I hate the look of the factory antenna on the car. So, I removed it and filled the hole.
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While that only took a few minutes, the wiring would not.
I chose to mount the PCM on the rear trunk wall. The location is ideal as it's out of the way, hardly noticeable and easy to get to.
You'll also notice the routing of the wires. I like this and after some new loom, it's there to stay.
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A rat's nest that's being tidied up.
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I added a new hole in this location. Using a grommet, I passed the wiring into the cabin.
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On the inside, I chose to leave the C203 as-is since it's small.
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Here's the start of the marriage of the Fiero harness to the Ecotec harness.
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Because the C500 was rather large and bulky, I've chosen to just cut the wire off the connector and attach as needed.
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I will however use wire labels to indicate the circuits.
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I used a thick piece of lexan to make a simple mounting surface. This now holds a lug for the main power as well as the BCM. Fuel pump and A/C relays are off to the right side.
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I've also joined the fastback tail light harness to the 84 harness. Despite not being plug and play, this was very easy to do. I removed and discarded the 84 turn/stop relays and used the proper colour wires for the left and right turn signals. These wires are hot and will keep the turn signal bulbs illuminated at all times! This is solved by cutting the white feed wire on the brake switch. This cut separates the feed to the turn signal/hazard circuit that caused the turn signals to stay hot. After the cut, the signal lights work like normal. I then ran a light blue wire from the brake switch to the tail light harness so that I could have working brake lights.
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Since I was there, I added the back up light circuit from the F23 trans to the tail lights.
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Here's my pile of excess wire so far.
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While visiting my friend, I obtained these seats. I think these will find their way into my VW. Thanks Joe.
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 07, 2015 6:40 pm 
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Single again

Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:26 am
Posts: 292
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Since we had a long weekend here, I took a few hours and built an aluminum bumper for the front of the car. To match the rear bumper of course.
As with all things I do, a simple model was created. Yes I know, it's upside down in this photo.
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Here's the Mitsubishi CNC laser cutter at work.
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The CNC press brake is a necessity for great looking bends.
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Here's some of the parts required to build the front bumper.
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Clamped and ready to weld.
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Since the Fiero bumper is slightly curved, I too chose to mimic the bend. A one inch spacer in the middle is all that's required.
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Side by side photo.
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Some gravel guard in behind the bumper to keep it nice.
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Voila! Front bumper installed.
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The turn signal brackets got the black paint treatment as well.
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Honey comb energy absorber installed and fits nicely. This is the one for the GT style nose.
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And lastly, the bumper cover went on.
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It was very hot here and I didn't want to start adjusting body gaps. That can wait for another cooler day.


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 5:36 am 
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Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:26 am
Posts: 292
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
A minor update.
As you know, this was a notchback car under going a fastback conversion. When looking down the side of the car at the belt line, the line itself didn't seem straight, like it should. This is not right and I didn't want to live with ugly body panel gaps. I had to see what was not quite right and the cause of this dilemma. I seen two issues that would easily fix this.

One, after I installed the T-top H frame, the drip rail was sitting a little too low. This was interfering and causing the fastback to not sit low enough at that point. The front did indeed have to come down a little.

While not easy to see, here I massaged the drip rails and hammered them up to fit in the pocket of the fastback.
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A little spray paint as required.
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The result is a better fitting fastback. It now sits lower in the front, where it should, and it lines up a lot better.
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The second part to address was raising the rear of the fastback slightly to level everything out.
Several well placed laser cut aluminum washers did the trick.
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Voila, a straight body line.
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I'll have to raise the rear bumper as well, just not today. On another note, the wiring has been coming along nicely. This was very easy to wire up and interface with the Fiero harness. Now it's not all done, but it's close. I'm not too worried about adding all the BCM functions at this point, but rather focus on engine management. In reality, if I was to install the fuel tank, it would start.

Here's the ODB2 diagnostic port in the stock location.
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El cheapo scan tool at work.
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No diagnostic trouble codes. Nice.
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That's all for today, I've had enough.


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:33 am 
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Single again

Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:26 am
Posts: 292
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Since I had to raise the fast back up some 6 millimeters, I ended up with a gap between the bottom of the tail lights and bumper. So off came the bumper and I raised the upper mounting pad. This was easy since the holes were slotted in my favour. I know, I'll have to recondition the tail lights.
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While the bumper cover was off, I also trimmed the aluminum bumper mount a little for clearance.
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I chose to repair the corner of the trunk since everything was exposed.
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Lastly, HP Tuners was used to remove VATS from my PCM. This was very easy to do.


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2015 3:50 pm 
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Single again

Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:26 am
Posts: 292
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
It must be nice that all of you are enjoying your rides. It seems like I'm the only one actively working on my car! Lol.

I decided to drop the cradle in order to make room to work. I never liked the look of the stock hinge boxes and they've already been removed. I was thinking of bullet hinges at first but why not use what's already there? A couple pieces of 1/4" steel, and re-purposing the original hinge, you can end up with something nice.

Take the original hinge, and cut it off at the bend.
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Tack weld the two parts together.
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Lay down some welds.
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Grind both sides smooth.
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Drill some holes through the spreader plate.
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3/8"-16 nuts on the backside.
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Tacked in place and you end up with assembly.
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Place weights on the decklid to keep it in place.
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Add spacers as required to keep the decklid centered. 1/8" was a perfect gap.
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Note: I added an 11 gauge reinforcing plate earlier on as an added precaution. (I thought the factory sheet metal in that area was too thin).
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From the bottom, you can see how this is going to fit. If you look closely, you can see that I have to taper the end to match the contour of the firewall.
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This is the spreader plate. There are two rectangular slots under the rear window ledge and these just slide into place.
I chose to silicone the spreader plate in place. Just in case I need to remove the hinges, the plate will stay put.
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While the silicone was curing, I wanted to temporarily bolt it down.
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Here's the new passenger side hinge, painted of course.
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I can't leave the driver's side out.
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The firewall looks way nicer without the ugly, stock hinge boxes.
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Decklid closes well without binding.
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The louvered vents fit well and the gap is nice. I still need to install the hold down bracket though.
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Last edited by Lunatic on Sun Oct 11, 2015 6:29 am, edited 3 times in total.

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2015 8:57 pm 
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Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 11:41 am
Posts: 241
Location: Peterborough Ontario
looks real nice and clean


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 06, 2015 6:57 pm 
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Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:26 am
Posts: 292
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
A small update; I installed polyurethane bushings into the rear control arms.
Here's a simple tool to pull the old rubber bushing out.
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Bushings installed and control arms painted black.
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At this point, I'd like to give a big "thank you" to Pete, aka cam-a-lot. He found a fuel tank from an 88 and let me know about it. I just had to go for a drive and check it out. It was very solid and complete too. What a score! All I really had to do was hit it with a wire brush and give it a few coats of Tremclad rattle can paint. Since I have the sending unit out, I decided to check the resistance of the fuel level sender. Of course it's old and not accurate any more. I'll need to address this before I reinstall it. Oh, and a more suitable fuel pump is in order too. That's all for now, the paint fumes have gotten to me!
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 7:40 pm 
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Fieronut

Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:56 pm
Posts: 822
Location: Toronto
Nice work so far.

We need to hook up one weekend, I got the adapters off the car. ;)


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:07 pm 
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Guru

Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:24 pm
Posts: 727
Location: Just North of the GTA, Ontario
VERY nice, as usual!

Adam, pm sent :)


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 11:08 am 
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Single again

Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:26 am
Posts: 292
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
As mentioned earlier, I knew I needed to address the Fieros original fuel sending unit. Lets face it, I'm working on an older car here and parts deteriorate over time. I had options though.
1) Use the original sending unit. There was no way I was going to just clean the original rheostat and hope for the best results.
2) Buy a new sending unit. That's a viable option.
3) Get creative and make something newer, and better, fit.

I chose option 3 of course.

Here's the stock Fiero sending unit sans fuel pump.
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Remove all the old parts as most won't be reused. I will however keep the float arm and float though.
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Here's the bare fuel return line. Yes, I removed the original Fiero sending unit bracket as I'll use one from another GM vehicle.
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One the left, the Fiero. On the right, 1989 C1500 Suburban.
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Why the Suburban unit? Simple.
A) The rheostat and wiper are made of stainless steel.
B) The range of operation is 0-90 Ω, just like the Fiero.
C) Because I already it. Recycling at it's finest.

Here's the Suburban rheostat.
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Removed from the fuel line.
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I removed the C1500 bracket.
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Then TIG welded it onto the Fiero sending unit fuel line.
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Onto the other modifications required to make this work.
The Fiero float arm needs some minor grinding.
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This clearance is needed to fit the Fiero float arm into the C1500 plastic pivot.
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Here's a close up of the upgraded design.
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I had to slightly enlarge the inner diameter to allow the Fiero float arm to fit.
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Factory float installed.
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Now lets assemble this Frankenstein.
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Onto the fuel pump now.
Walbro GSS341 to the rescue.
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The end result of my efforts, see for yourself. Close to 0 Ω indicating empty.
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Float around the half way point.
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Float at the full mark or real close to 90 Ω.
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 3:06 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:00 am
Posts: 22
I love this thread but I really wish it was also a bunch of separate build threads. I often have trouble finding things in the future. I remember that I read something somewhere but can't remember where, or find the details I'm looking for.

All is well though in our Fiero community. It seems that with people putting in this kind of effort the Fiero will never die.

For that reason I'm seriously considering building a full tube frame for mine.

.


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2016 8:03 am 
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Single again

Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:26 am
Posts: 292
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Aaron88 wrote:
I love this thread but I really wish it was also a bunch of separate build threads. I often have trouble finding things in the future. I remember that I read something somewhere but can't remember where, or find the details I'm looking for.

All is well though in our Fiero community. It seems that with people putting in this kind of effort the Fiero will never die.

For that reason I'm seriously considering building a full tube frame for mine.

.


Thanks for loving this thread and I'm certain many others do too. Perhaps an index or table of contents on the first page might help? Maybe in the future I'll look into that.

I agree, all is well and alive in our Fiero community. Some, like me, would rather innovate and utilize non-Fiero parts in order to achieve a working end result. We need to stick together and keep this community going. So even if I add one little contribution that helps another member, then I'd say I've done my part. That's what we're here to do, help each other out! Right?


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2016 8:49 am 
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Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:26 am
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Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
In today's episode, we'll hack up a new set of rear struts to make a pair of coilovers.

Monroe strut in it's virgin form.
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This end cap is too large in OD and must be removed.
Note: I kept the strut shaft in the retracted position in order to avoid damage.
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Using a zip wheel, score the offending material. Don't go too deep!
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A little difficult to see but use Vice Grip locking pliers and fatigue the metal by rocking it back and forth.
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When done correctly, you'll end up with four little stubs.
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Just grind those off flush.
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Onto the spring perch.
Lightly score the perimeter, just above the weld.
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1) Using a hammer, give the spring perch a whack. It'll come off quite easily.
2) You can see the parts that have been removed from the strut.
3) My struts were powder coated. Despite the fact that the outer diameter was smaller then the threaded sleeve that I plan on using, I still had to strip the paint. Using a sanding disk, this made my job easy.
I will paint these on the next warm day.
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Here's one threaded sleeve installed. These are 2" ID x 5" long. I have many of these laying around but you can find them at your local speed shop. Remember some struts are thicker, Koni perhaps, and might require a different inner diameter.
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I also have several adjuster's here as well. I'm not liking the fit of the gold one. It's a little too loose for my liking.
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The small threaded holes are there to keep the sleeve secure to the strut and keep the sleeve from turning. Short set screws will find their way into there.
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The two piece silver adjuster's fit way nicer and I think I'll use them.
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The springs are used. They'll need to get sand blasted and painted. They are 300 lbs, 12" long and have an ID of 2.560".
The poly ring fits into the top of the spring to avoid squeaking.
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To those swapping an 88 cradle into an 84-87 chassis, this is for you. As you may or may not know, the 88's have the strut towers closer together. When installing the 88 cradle into the 84-87 cars, one must position the struts to match the location of the 88. Since these measurements may be difficult to obtain, I mapped them out for you.

Note: I measured the strut hole on the strut tower "without the strut installed" to get an exact measurement!

The 84-87 cars have a rear strut center to center measurement of: 1021.80mm or 40.228"
The 88 cars have a rear strut center to center measurement of: 959.64mm or 37.781"

With this information, 1021.80 - 959.64 = 62.16mm total.
Divide that in half = 31.08mm This is what you'll have to move "each strut" closer together.

When looking "DOWN" from the top of the 84-87 engine bay, (and standing behind the rear of the car facing forward), the new 88 strut shaft location will be:
INWARD (31.08mm) or 1.223" (1 1/4" is close)
FORWARD (25.4mm) or 1.000"

These measurements are "per strut". You'll have to move both struts!

With this information, I made a pair of these.
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The small ring will secure the upper strut bushing. The larger ring will locate the spring and keep it from moving.
These need to be welded but first I have to install the cradle and make sure everything is perfect though.
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The red bushing is the one I need, four actually. Since I didn't have four good ones, I went to Napa and got a set of poly end link bushings. They're almost the perfect outer diameter. The inner diameter is too small and will be opened up with a drill.
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That's all for now. Time to install the cradle.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 8:55 pm 
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"FORWARD (25.4 mm) 1.00 inches"

It's interesting you measured it at one inch. At the knuckle its 30.2 mm more forward. See my CAD drawings of the 88 rear left knuckle on top of the 87 knuckle.

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 6:24 am 
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Single again

Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2013 11:26 am
Posts: 292
Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Aaron88 wrote:
"FORWARD (25.4 mm) 1.00 inches"

It's interesting you measured it at one inch. At the knuckle its 30.2 mm more forward. See my CAD drawings of the 88 rear left knuckle on top of the 87 knuckle.



Hey Aaron,

Thanks for the model overlay views.
When I mentioned one inch forward, that's the relationship of the "new strut position" in relation to the existing. As seen from above.
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By viewing the 88 rear knuckle casting, it's also easy to see the lower trailing arm hole is not inline with centerline of the bearing and upright position of the casting itself.
This will contribute to the castor position of the strut as it can only pivot so far due to the design.
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Here's a nice, clear side view of the rear suspension on an 88. These are the angles that I need to replicate on my 84.
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While I did measure an 88 at one time, I still need to install my cradle, and suspension, and see exactly where I need to be. Ideally, I'd like to be bang on with those measurements of the 88.

Perhaps we're both right. I'll recheck this once I get everything back in.


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