For a little while I've had a bit of an odd grindy noise coming from the rear of the car

After a close visual inspection I think I've found the problem

Hmm, something seems to be missing


Maybe it's a trick of the light or something
Better have a better look underneath then

Nope, definitely something wrong there. I think the bit of wood has been catching on the road causing the grinding. Mystery solved



Although, what's this
Maybe it's the real cause of the noises. NS rear handbrake pad is down to metal. Not sure what happened there. Looks like some muppet probably fitted the shoes incorrectly although they seemed fine

Off to Mr T for a probing for new handbrake shoes then


Further investigation has revealed a rather tired diff which was te main reason for dropping the frame - along with a lick of paint
The diff has 3-4mm of in/out travel on the offside drive flange. I imagine the packer has disintegrated which probably also explains the afro on the drain plug

Further investigations to follow

I like afros - can we have some pics?

Looks a bit nasty under there, I assume this is the UK car? - maybe need to add the rear ARB brackets to teh parts list?

_________________
JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R

It's clean as a whistle apart from the whiteline brackets considering it's 12 years old

Very slight surface dust. An application of waxoil is all it needs

Didn't realise you were going to drop the subframe as well I've also found the Whiteline kit is prone to rust even altho I took the precaution of painting the brackets before fitting them. If you have a Whiteline ARB why is it black? All of mine have been silver

Would agree that the impression of rust underneath is worse than it actually is. My 14 year old UK car looked very similar but got a clean bill of health from JEMS saying they were very pleased with the overall condition of the shell

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

The ARB was powdercoated (or painted, I forgt which) before fitment as every other one I've seen went rusty
This one has too but only where the bushes grab it. I might refit it with some of those 3M brakepad backers

You can buy those brackets direct from superflex if you want new ones they are pretty cheap.

_________________
GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK

Well things continue slowly

First job was removable of the "adjustable" rear arms. These have never actually been adjustable on my car

The adjustment is done with a snail cam bush like this


Which fits in the inboard end of the rear arm like so


Both cams are locked together by the central tube which slides through the arm. When you turn the nut end of the tube the idea is that bots cams rotate pushing the arms away from the frame.

Well, on mine these cam tubes had well and truly seized into the bushes. It took me a couple or three hours per side before I was able to remove the adjusters and release the arms
A very very very Heath Robinson bearing puller was used to do this


The subframe is now ready for prep and paint. I'm awaiting a quote from my local media blaster - otherwise it will have a date with the wire cup and Grinderella


In other news, some idiot has taken my rear diff to bits. That'll never work again then


So far backlash has all been correct but preload is a bit off. Nothing to explain the whining
The good news is that the bearings are all standard NSK taper rollers so far. Hopefully sourcing replacements won't involve Mr T
Need to get the nose off next as it might be the input bearing that's whining away

PS

If anybody is contemplating mucking about like this, can I recommend NOT dropping the diff on your little finger
The swear filter will not let me accurately describe just how sore that it. Apparently I bruised the bone or something

I can also reccomend not dropping a diff on your chest during removal - whilst it only fell about 4" on to me - was like a bear trying to resuscitate me.

erghh - whining - did it have oil

IIRC it mainly whined when you were coasting down? It is probably down to your bent chassis making teh prop shaft have a horizontal loading on teh diff input shaft

_________________
JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R

whines on the way up and down

Steve, while you have the diff apart why not slip in a Cusco 1.5 or Kaaz LSD ...go on, you know you want to

On a more serious note I'd be keen to replace the subframe bushes. You can also get uprated TRD/Toyo bushes if you want to stiffen things up a bit more. A good media blast and powdercoat look like they're in order for the S/F

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

The main subframe->body mounts will be re-used as they're showing very few signs of degredation.
The diff sub subframe will need new bushings as they're showing bad signs of wear

As this is a road based rebuild I'm not going mad, just freshening stuff up to make it last longer

If I start swapping bushes I'll likely replace them with solid versions or I'll fill the compliance voids with high shore polyester to stiffen them. I'd also like to replace the rear control arm bushes with solid versions and make the arms adjustable so I get proper camber and toe adjustment. That'll be for Hannibal the weekend warrior/trackday machine though

Toyota want circa £150 for new input and output bearings

Alternatives are being sort.......

Well, I updated this last week before Rallyday but apparently in my haste I messed something up

So, state of play last Friday



Time for a first mockup build to identify missing parts over and above what I already knew

Nothing obvious jumped out at me

And to bring it up to date

Finally with the rear subframe ready to go some re-assembley can begin. Cue well oiled machinery, clued up operators with the patience of a saint etc etc


Then add me, merely well oiled

I don't really seem to have this re-assembley dialled yet
Honest guv, it was like that when I got here. The big boys dun it I rekon



Er, these came off in me 'and. I barely touched 'em.


And I was just trying to put them somewhere safe when these bits fell out

Ah well, new pistons are only 12 snots ea and a rear seal kit comes in at 25.


Would you Adam and Eve it. This blimmin thing fell off too. Not sure where it came from Although it does seem to be full to the brim with petrol
Could have sworn I parked it up empty.

That's going to need a new fuel pump bracket methinks. Mr T tells me it'll be here on Wednesday

Still it's not all progress in a rearwards direction
Seems that all of these falling off bits have allowed the local underbody fairies to move in. I guess they don't like living in shabby places though so they started to redecorate
You can just about make out where they lost the will to live and gave up to go get well oiled again


And before you ask, no it wasn't unpleasant. Describing this as unpleasant is akin to saying "The Titanic, not the success everyone thought it would be"
Put it another way. Think of a number between 1 and 1,000,000 that you think reflects how unpleasant it was. Then add another 0. Then double it. That's how unpleasant I expected it to be. Now add another 0 and double again. That's how bad it was. And I'm faaaaaaaaaaaar from finished