Beretta.net

Im just trying to give u lil encouragement not trying to tell u what to do I know life is busy at times

Just spent a bunch more money on Beretta parts. I wanted to send it to a fiery grave when I was leaving for Bfest...but I missed it while we were out in Denver. So the POS will be running again soon.

Got all the stuff I ordered and started tearing out all the AC stuff I'm replacing Thursday before I got hijacked to help a friend with his car. He has a daily driver '80 Malibu that had a probably ~250hp crate motor.

He had a friend build him an engine and it only lasted 50mi before we tore it back out. Leaked water into the oil because the head bolts weren't sealed, flexplate was on backwards so the starter chewed it up and had rockers ticking. Pan and rear main were leaking oil and so was the tstat housing. Tear down found a couple head bolts and flexplate bolts loose. Cam bolts weren't loose yet but it had no loctite so I'm sure they would have. So I bought gaskets after work Friday and spent 6pm Friday - 11am Saturday straight through the night to get it done. Now the heads, intake, cam & rockers from the new engine are on his crate bottom end and we can tear down the other and do a 400hp build on it over the winter. Current setup is probably just over 300hp or so and he's all smiles with how much faster it is. Cam sounds pretty damn good, too.

This pic says it all though. The look on his face is priceless! Here we are pulling out the 50mi disaster. haha

Jeff's car is still running good. Glad someone's is! haha Tiff's car is in the body shop because someone backed into her and scraped up the front bumper cover and fender.

Beretta is still in pieces while I wait for some parts to come in. All the AC stuff is out and I discovered a problem with my struts while I was unhooking the tie rods to take the rack out. But with the new rack & new mounts it should handle better...it's always been a little underwhelming in that department. Got all the fittings I needed to redo the lines to the master cylinder as well. A couple of them rounded a little with the master swap so I'm just replacing them all.

Is that JD bottle for coolant overflow?

Yeah, he saw it on a rat rod and thought it was cool.

I thought you guys may have placed it there, but there was the option of an overflow and it was in the right place.

Steering rack is alot easier if you just pull the brake booster out! (quick tip for anyone who has to do one in the future) My strut mounts should be here tmo and my rack heat blanket from Cack should be here soon too. Inching closer...

I've replaced the rack through the tie rod hole in the wheel well... Talk about FUN! lol.

That's what I did here too. And I did it that way on my 95 without removing the booster and let me tell you, it is much easier this way. You can keep the dust boot on the column intact. I cut mine to get to the lower pinch bolt on the 95 and didnt want to do that again.

Just replaced the strut mounts tonight. Earlier this week I diagnosed the main steering creak coming from the driver side strut mount. And when I looked it over I noticed the angled spacer was missing for both. As I was replacing the driver one today I noticed the spring was also seated in the strut perch incorrectly - likely the main cause of the mount being shot already. I got the KYB/Eibach combo from FlatBlackTerror Mike here on Bnet a couple years ago and never thought to check that they were assembled correctly. So as a side benefit it should improve handling as well! Without that angled spacer the strut shifts as it turns and screws up camber I'm sure.

AC stuff is done. New condenser, drier, hose, evaporator, expansion valve and the compressor was new a few years ago. Just gotta charge it.

I also got my new master cylinder bench bled. I did away with the rubber hose bleeder kit I used last time and just made up steel lines with the correct flare nuts. SO much better. Just waiting to install my rack so I can install the booster and install the master. The new rack is all ready to go too...just waiting for my Q4 heat blanket for it before I put it in. It should be here any day now from Mr. Dethloff.

Im jealous. I'm actually thinking my whole life has been waisted after looking at all these beautiful vehicles on this site. Woody I love the Beretta. Mine sucks.. I'm prolly just gunna go my buddies GTZ and maybe slowly build it and just drive mine to the ground.

Another setback. I went to the doctor today to get some rust dug out of my eye. He actually had to dig a hole in the cornea to get it out. Says I should be healed in 3 days and back to normal in a week...but not a fun experience. Watching tweezers dig in to your eye made me queezey.

It's amazing how fast eyes heal apparently. I basically feel fine already.

Got the steering rack in without the damn heat blanket. I bought it 3 weeks ago but it's still not here yet...so I'll just put it on when I get it...some day. Hoping to have the car driving tomorrow. I actually get a full day to work on it.

I also took apart the defective Lumina master for shits n giggles. I just wanted to see how the built in proportioning works. The springs in the Beretta/Lumina masters are different, but I can't really feel any difference in spring tension by hand. It's hard to say. But I'm guessing that must be the difference.

That last pic is exactly how I do it lol!