I can't remember who gave me this poster but I like it.
Very nice.
Anyways. The Litronic headlights liked to flicker and not come on sometimes. I researched that problem on this lovely forum and came to the conclusion that the headlight switch was the likely culprit. Cue headlight switch replacement.
New switch in the house!
Next, I started taking the bottom of the car apart. I removed the CV axles, the support braces, the other stuff, the exhaust, the rear bumper, etc. I removed the starter and took apart the intake in order to remove the flex plate bolts. I also picked up an engine support bar and got that hooked up while I was in there. There was quite a bit of oil in the intake so I'm thinking the AOS is the culprit. I have one coming in the mail now. Hopefully, with the transmission out, the AOS swap will be an easy job. Knock on wood with me please.
Half the intake is missing.
While I was waiting for some parts to come in (namely some triple square bits to remove a transmission-bellhousing bolt), I installed the A2D-BKR bluetooth kit for the factory radio. I like it a lot. It's totally invisible and is powered by the radio's CD changer plug on the rear (which I don't have, who uses those anymore anyways). It feeds the bluetooth audio into the radio's aux input. Cool.
The radio knobs were sticky so I cleaned both of them off with some iso alcohol. Unfortunately the shiny finish is now gone on one of the knobs. Looks like some replacements are in order. Also, I haven't had the chance to test my installation because the battery is out of the car while I have the car half apart. I'm sure it'll work great though! (fingers crossed).
A2D-BKR installed! Getting the radio back in was a pain.
Installation complete.
Alright! So I dropped the transmission as soon as my triple square bits arrived. The RMS looks good. I'll replace that anyways. The IMS seal seems to be leaking because I noticed there was a thick layer of oil/dirt on the bottom of the bellhousing. No matter. I cleaned it up and everything looks good.
I locked all the cam shafts and removed the cam chain tensioners. I had a hell of a time getting the one below the A/C compressor off. Swearing at it seemed to help. God knows if I'll ever get it back in without a miracle. Let's hope for a miracle, I'd rather not have to deal with the A/C system, it blows cold as is. I had my old man help with the bearing pulling and bearing installation.
Old bearing is coming out.
Tons of oil sloshed out from the IMS shaft. Old man says that's not supposed to be in there, but it hasn't hurt anything. Likely caused by the IMS seal going bad. So I violated the shaft with some shop towels and got most of the oil out.
Hmm. That's supposed to be dry in there.
Forgive me yellow 986.
We installed the new bearing with no hiccups. The new dual-row bearing was sitting in the freezer for a week. Definitely do that, it makes the installation very easy.
New bearing is in. I'm liking it.
The new bearing sitting pretty.
Looking at the bearing we took out... nothing seems to be wrong with it. Go figure. At least I can sleep easy. So now we're at present day. I've got new CV axles coming in because the current ones are starting to show signs of wear (they're almost 20 years old, so no surprise there). I'm installing new spark plugs/tubes, new low-temp thermostat, new water pump, new AOS, new idler pullies, new A/C pulley, new serpentine belt, new seals/o-rings on everything I've taken apart. I may as well while I'm in this deep. Plenty more I'm gonna do I'm sure,
the fun just never ends with this car. Sunday is my "working on the car day" so I'll try to keep this thread going on a weekly basis. Cheers.
Stephen