Northstar rebuild: Will style (Page 75/119)
FieroWannaBe JAN 22, 05:47 PM

quote
Originally posted by Will:
http://www.partman.com/cool...quot-x-1-2-quot.html or one of these: http://www.partman.com/cool...oil-16-1-2-quot.html



Cool find, I've been keeping my eye out for a cooler like that. Thanks for posting.

I am also interested in your anti-dive brackets. I remember reading about your idea a while back. I have some ideas of my own to try on my chump car. I'm interested to see how yours looks when complete. I need to get around to plugging some dimensions into the Lotus Suspension Analyzer program. (If you have any, I can run them for you)

[This message has been edited by FieroWannaBe (edited 01-22-2013).]

Will JAN 23, 10:47 AM
What I have on the shelf ready to install are:

-Upper and lower reinforcement plates which will be placed directly against the body and crossmember.
-Spherical washer pairs which will take up the angle difference. These will go above the lower reinforcement plate on the crossmember and below the crossmember itself.
-Spacers. The spacers are a different thickness at each of the four mount locations per side. They will go between the spherical washer pair and the upper reinforcement plate.

The spacers are cut to give me a 1.092 lowering of the axle CL relative to the body (yes, this will raise the front end of the car by just over 1"). This makes the spacer thickness at the rear crossmember mount location zero. That doesn't mean that mount point is directly against the body... There will still be both upper and lower reinforcement plates and a spherical washer pair between the rear crossmember mount points and the body.

Edit: A picture is worth 1000 words, so I'll post when I get everything set up and organized.

[This message has been edited by Will (edited 01-23-2013).]

Will JAN 23, 11:31 AM
Found a better price on the dual cooler: http://www.mrcool.us/85152t...gine-oil-cooler.html
Will FEB 04, 12:40 PM
The Mule is back on the road as of last night. As I was burping the cooling system yesterday, I didn't really have a good way to judge heater performance. This morning is was about 20 degrees out, and I started to get heat about 1/3 of the way to the point where I previously started to feel heat... so the heater pipe reroute is a success.

I also redid the thermostat hose. The old configuration was a CarQuest 20982 hose with a 1.5" nipple 3" long connecting it to a generic 45 degree 1.5" hose elbow. That was reduced to 1.25 for the cross-cradle pipe with a hose reducer bushing. There was a 17" flex hose from the cross-cradle pipe to the right coolant pipe.

The new configuration is a 1.5 x 1.25 flex hose 20" long from the thermostat housing to the cross-cradle pipe and a 20" 1.25" flex hose from the cross-cradle pipe to the coolant pipe. So I eliminated two clamped connections and a reducer bushing.
Will FEB 16, 05:16 PM
Where in the FSM is the caliper bracket to steering knuckle bolt torque?

I found this post: http://www.fiero.nl/forum/F.../HTML/109048.html#p7
Which says it's 83 ftlbs. That's reasonable, as that's a 12mm bolt... but I can't find it in the manual.
fierogt28 FEB 16, 05:45 PM

quote
Originally posted by Will:

Where in the FSM is the caliper bracket to steering knuckle bolt torque?

I found this post: http://www.fiero.nl/forum/F.../HTML/109048.html#p7
Which says it's 83 ftlbs. That's reasonable, as that's a 12mm bolt... but I can't find it in the manual.



Will, I checked in my 86 FSM and the torque calls for 21-34 ft/lbs. (3C-2 front suspension)

I also checked in the fiero Haynes manual. The "caliper mounting bolts" are 40 ft/lbs. For "caliper mounting knuckle assembly bolt" is 35ft/lbs.

Hope this helps, but I assume you talking about the 2 caliper bolts that mount to the steering knuckle, right? (The Torx style bolts size T-50)

------------------
fierogt28

88 GT, Loaded, 5-speed.
88 GT, 5-speed. All original.

Will FEB 16, 06:01 PM
No, the '84-'87 front caliper bolts to a cast bracket which bolts to the knuckle. The bolts from the bracket to the knuckle are the ones I want.
fierogt28 FEB 16, 07:36 PM

quote
Originally posted by Will:

No, the '84-'87 front caliper bolts to a cast bracket which bolts to the knuckle. The bolts from the bracket to the knuckle are the ones I want.



Will, I'm lost. Is this a stock 84-87 set-up?? There's not like 20 bolts in that area.

Post a pic of your set-up or a FSM diagram.

Thanks,

------------------
fierogt28

88 GT, Loaded, 5-speed.
88 GT, 5-speed. All original.

Will FEB 19, 10:26 AM

quote
Originally posted by fierogt28:
Will, I checked in my 86 FSM and the torque calls for 21-34 ft/lbs. (3C-2 front suspension)

I also checked in the fiero Haynes manual. The "caliper mounting bolts" are 40 ft/lbs. For "caliper mounting knuckle assembly bolt" is 35ft/lbs.

Hope this helps, but I assume you talking about the 2 caliper bolts that mount to the steering knuckle, right? (The Torx style bolts size T-50)




The listing on 3C-2 is for the caliper to bracket bolts (the T-50 Torx bolts). I'm looking for the bracket to knuckle bolts.

I believe I had seen the 35 ftlbs number previously, BUT I think I tightened these bolts to that number before and they backed off. This time I tightened to 83 ftlbs per the post I linked above... We'll see what happens. Note that once the photos load, the screen is no longer on post #7... look at post #7 for info on the front brakes.

[This message has been edited by Will (edited 02-19-2013).]

Will FEB 19, 12:06 PM
I broke one of the crossmember bolts removing the crossmember the weekend of 2/9.

Got the bolt removed over the weekend. I had drilled it at an incorrect angle and ended up taking out some of the threads in the nut plate. My dad's friend the welder was able to get to the bolt with a TIG torch and weld a 1/4-20 bolt to it. Since I had drilled away the threads about 1/3 of the way around the bolt, it just unscrewed once the 1/4-20 bolt was welded to it.

I essentially only took the threads off the inside of the hole in the nut plate. We were able to use a drill guide bushing to drill the hole for a helicoil centered and at the correct angle. Helicoiled it and it seems to be doing fine. I had to increase the bolt length to 75mm for the forward bolts and 60mm for the rear bolts. I was only able to find 8.8 and 10.9 bolts locally. The manual calls for 52 ftlbs--quite a bit for 10mm bolts--and specifies to use new bolts every time. I'll order some 12.9's so I don't have to replace them every time.

Now, on to the anti-dive block installation:

IT'S ****ING AWESOME!!!!

I should have done this YEARS ago. Brake dive is reduced to almost nothing. When I hit the brakes, it FEELS like a supercar for the first time EVER. I haven't been able to hammer the downhill side of the mountain yet, but I'm REALLY looking forward to trying that once the weather warms up.

Pics of the parts:










I slotted the bolt holes slightly in the vertical axis in the LCA rear pivots. The fore aft position was a little bit off, but they went back together with an about average amount of "persuasion" considering that this is still the 84-87 suspension that doesn't go back together cleanly even with stock parts.

The steering shaft coupling did not go all the way onto the steering shaft on the rack, BUT it went on far enough to engage the pinch bolt.

The diagonal braces that go forward fron the cross member to pick up the rear bolts of the lower radiator support needed to have the holes slotted at both ends.

The caliper bracket bolts I had previously tightened to 35 ftlbs (I think) worked loose. I tightened to 83 ftlbs this time. They're 12mm bolts... they can take it.

The upper shock mounts needed a little more effort to get bolted back in than usual. I hadn't realized that lowering the crossmember would put the shock closer to its droop limit. This means that the suspension doesn't have as much droop travel as it did stock. It also means that the shock's bump travel will not be fully exploited. This would actually be a good thing for cars running lowering springs.

The car also sits 1" higher in the front than previously. This will be rectified soon when I install my Street Dreams aluminum 2" lowering knuckles.

It also needs an alignment.

[This message has been edited by Will (edited 02-19-2013).]