It all goes downhill at once!

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Barry
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It all goes downhill at once!

Post by Barry »

Heres what is wrong with my car at the moment:
Both front struts must be blown
Wheel bearing going bad
Strange, Strange noise from driver side axle or diff or something unknown..
Shift cable getting really tight
The whole front end is falling apart, littlrally. The upper engine mount is cracking the sheet metal in the fender(ill get pics). I guess poly insert and polly fill and popping the clutch and chirping gears every day for 5000 miles takes its toll.
Radiator support is falling apart. The spot welds are just popping apart. Weirdest thing. I can move the support by kneeling on the bumper. It was not always like this.
Abs light is on again... Probably a wheel sensor.

Thats about it.

My guess is that the wheel hop is really taking its toll on its beat 175,000 body. Ill be pulling the front clip off for a full re-weld and gusset.
I have already modfied a h22 prelude shift cable to work on my car, just need to weld some more and install.
Im looking into koni front shocks and im going to peice together some coilovers. I need to do some calculations and select a shorter cartrige so I can go lower and still retain decent suspension travel.


All within the same week. Nice
A white 95 z26 came up on craigslist today and I almost tried to buy it and swap all my stuff over on to it. Ill guess Ill give this shell another chance


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woody90gtz
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by woody90gtz »

That blows balls. I havent been beating the piss out of mine too much yet, but the struts and/or mounts are noisy and annoying. Hearing your problems makes me wish I went ahead and seam-welded the unibody like I thought about. One thing you can look at is structural foam. OEMs have been using it for years, and it can help stiffen things up, as well as sound deaden. The big drawback is it is heavy.


91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
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IsaacHayes
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by IsaacHayes »

Damn man. I know mine probably isn't sound at all. I've never heard of the mount area breaking... My firewall area probably will, damn water leaks tore it up pretty bad before I knew about em.


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3X00-Modified
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by 3X00-Modified »

And here is my red car with 325k on the clock and all I got is a bad RF wheel bearing and a little strut noise, and a bad alignment... But I still get 24-27mpg average on it :)

Until I get a day to get my ass organized I don't think I'll be able to fix anything yet... I've been fighting with the service companies to get some damn internet at my house and its really pissing me off right now, and I haven't had 5 min to unload anything I have in the garage so I have a huge mess of boxes out there still.


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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by Asylum »

It's almost October, Barry.

About time to put it away anyway. AND make it better/meaner! :runsies:

Besides, you are getting too close so now I'm going to have to fall off my wallet and keep the 3t40 ahead of the dreaded 5 speeds. :evil:

:Bravo:


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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by woody90gtz »

Oh and I almost forgot, a 14-pt cage will stiffen it right up if you don't want to do the structural foam.

My car just went from 62,000 to 127,000 this weekend when I swapped in my 95Z cluster.


91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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Barry
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by Barry »

Damn jon, 325? Thats incredible.

Im gonna tear it apart today and start welding and reenforcing. Im thinking this could be part of my wheelhop issue too. So many spotwelds are broken.

No foam or roll cage, im just gonna weld it all back together. Maybe gusset the upper mount a little, I have a idea for that.

BRING ON THE AUTOMATICS! :burn:


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Barry
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by Barry »

I spent most of the day today welding this peice back together and the front end is solid again. I found more cracking and tearing of the sheet metal as I pulled the coolant tank and the upper motor mount. Its all welded now and so is the rad support.

Picture of screwed up area
Image
Shining a flashlight in the fender shows the crack
Image
Its hard to see but heres another crack coming across and up the shock tower
Image
Infront of the mount theres a kink/crack
Image
Heres the crack from inside the fender. Look closley to the left of the bolt. Thats the same one that is on the shock tower.
Image

Heres the other motor mount bolt. Notice the crack infront of it
Image


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Barry
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by Barry »

Gay spotwelds broke off the rad support, letting the bumper move downward.
Image
Anotehr view of shocktower crack
Image
Top crack from the fenderwell
Image
Welded the peremeter of the bracket. Offers much more surface area than GM's crappy 4 spot welds
Image
Welded the seam on the frame rail together. Its actaully 3 seams.
Image
Image
Welding shocktower crack from inside
Image
Heres how it will sit tonight
Image


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Barry
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by Barry »

So im hoping by welding it all back together it regains its strength. I hypothsize that all these cracks formed from the top spot welds breaking. Once the mount can flex, then it will crack everything else.

Im confident this will elminate the issues.

Now for the other issues........... :evil:


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woody90gtz
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by woody90gtz »

Looks good. My engine mount is already fully welded like that, but I didnt hit the whole frame rail seam. That will be sweet if it cures your wheel hop.


91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by 3X00-Modified »

I'm almost thinking that looks like it was there before... The kink in the rail almost makes me think that car was in a front end collision before. Can you see signs of the radiator support being replaced? What do all the spot welds look like?

The cracks yeah could be from the wheel hop, but that radiator support welding looks like my red car, and I had that replaced, it looks as if the stock welds were drilled out and then the new support was welded back in filling it the hole, hence the bubble gum blob of a spot weld... typically there is no bump were a spot weld is, so that's why I think it was re-done at one point. Either way your fixing it right.

And yeah my red car has over 300k on it, obviously the motor only has about 80k on it now... that's the original 3400 I put in it for my first engine swap, and the trans has been rebuilt, but the last time I did that was just before Bfest 06... so that's got some miles on it.

I can really say the only factory item on the car that I have never touched is the rear axle bushings... Other than that its eibach KYB and 92 front sub-frames and so on... so yeah not as many miles on that, but the car has driven 325k or so. I bought it at 74k.


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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by Asylum »

It does appear that the car has been hit at one time.

I know mine was years ago and now I'm going to have to examine it closely when I pull the engine over the winter.

Although with the automatic (FTW!) it's likely not as stressed.

Good job on the fix though. I wish I knew how to weld, LOL!

:beer:


Eric

Asylum Motorsports
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'91 California Quad (Gone with just a bit of "Seller's Remorse".)
'92 3500 GT gone and not really missed. It was fun. Documented 13.47 N/A.
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by woody90gtz »

Mine was hit in the front as well, you can tell by the driver's frame rail kink and the top part of the radiator support was welded in. There was still a sticker on the back side of it. I think that's why I've had a hell of a time trying to line up the headlights, etc. I'm out of adjustment and need to a few holes to fix it.

This makes me want to weld up the seams in mine now. Would have been a lot easier like this than it will be currently. haha
Image


91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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Barry
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Re: It all goes downhill at once!

Post by Barry »

^^yeah thats the time to do it, I wish I had.

The car was hit, but on the driverside. I guess they replaced the whole rad support as a result of it. That explains my messed up bumper/headlinght/grill alignment.


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