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S197 3V A horse with no name, a build with no name Build Thread

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Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
Well, thanks to cooler and drier weather and recovery from some lower back/left thigh discomfort this off-and-on project is back on.

I'm outdoors, you know (apologies to some guy named George).
I'm outdoors, you know.JPG

And this is the forward progress made yesterday ↓↓↓ . The yellow container in the above picture now holds an unknown quantity of some rather smelly fluid. That pin looking thing sticking down out of the pumpkin was to hold the cover only a little open and give the oil something to follow on the way out. It was a bit windy yesterday and I wanted all of the gear oil to go into the pan.

Driveshaft disconnected and pumpkin drained.JPG

I'm debating whether to do just the Torsen & gears now and the Magnum XL later, or all at once. All at once would probably put the project on hold due to lead times, doing them separately would cost me another trip through setting pinion bearing preload.

Incidentally, do people who retain the 2-piece driveshaft ever re-use the original 6 bolts and the 3 washers that retain the CV joint? Even for short-term interim use? I would expect if so, installing with sealer/threadlock would be required.



That brand-new looking stack of tires . . . Pilot Sport A/S 3+ for the WRX for the coming colder season-and-about-a-half.


Norm
 
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Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
Don't you have to remove the pinion-side drive flange in order to install the one-piece Tremec-compatible driveshaft, meaning that you've backed off on the amount of 'crush' on the crush sleeve? It sounds like a new sleeve and preferably a new pinion nut as well.


Norm
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
If true, that would simplify some things a bit.

Seems I have to disconnect at least one end of the PHB, which may or may not involve disconnecting the rear sta-bar. Not sure if I can get away with disconnecting the PHB at only one end yet.


Norm
 
1,289
1,113
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Philly Metro Area
If you're doing this on jack stands the PHB may not be able to swing far enough to clear the pumpkin.

You'll have to calculate the angle of the dangle...

Removing both ends isn't that hard.

As an alternative, if have an adjustable PHB, perhaps you can unthread it the turnbuckle portion (after you disconnect one end) that will result in a shorter section that will clear it.
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
I've had the PHB off before, back when I did a little DIY-stiffening of the bushings to support use of the 11" wide Forgestars. It's an easy enough job, but the PHB seems to be under a little preload that's already making me uneasy about removing just the one end.

It might end up being a good time to just remove the springs entirely and do that 1/4" more spring-shimming that I've been thinking about doing for other reasons. See post #25.


Norm
 
1,289
1,113
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Philly Metro Area
By the way, did you upgrade to the 13-14 GT500 13.8" rear rotors? If not, now is the time to upgrade to the GT500 caliper axle bracket since you're working on the rear. Unless you have a set of 13-14 rear calipers, yours will need to be modified by grinding a little to provide clearance for the larger rotor.
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
Still on the 11.8" originals. So far, I'm not having any issues with fade or unusual rear pad wear (it's actually under 0.5mm/event). Not having enough power to get much past 125 mph on either NJMP course is probably responsible . . .

If I go to the larger rear rotors, it'll be for brake balance reasons. Though if brake balance shifts due to running grippier tires, that'd actually be an argument for staying with the 11.8's.


Norm
 
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Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
The Torsen & gears project went off on a "while I'm under there and got it half apart" tangent yesterday. Actually I've been meaning to shim the rear springs up another quarter inch for a while now, mainly for roll steer reasons. I may have mentioned going up a quarter inch, but when it came to cutting steel I had this nice length of 3/8" x 2" already on hand. So now the car will sit about 3/8" higher in the rear (once it's back down off the jack stands, anyway), and roll steer should be around 3.3%, down from about 5.5% (that quarter inch would have put the roll steer at just over 4%). I may still do some minimal axle-side LCA relocating, but only after I find out how the car feels/behaves with yesterday's work.


Norm
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
What a miserable job getting that pinion out turned out to be. Specifically this step . . . nowhere near as easy as the text reads. Must have been edited by somebody who's good at word processing and document layout and not so good at finding where the repair shop was. Maybe what I managed to make work will help others working under similar conditions.

Step 9.jpg

Not having special tool 205-460, I just improvised by substituting the pinion nut - I'm never going to be re-using the pinion never mind its original nut. So far, so good, and then nothing. Like the inner race of the bearing was welded to the pinion itself. So I got a bigger hammer, got about 0.08" progress and then nothing. Hammering was a 'clank' sound the whole time like the pinion nut, pinion, bearing, race, and diff housing was all just one solid block of iron.

Eventually I dug out a can of penetrant that I'd liberated from my Dad's cellar, which he in turn had liberated from the industrial plant he'd worked at. Keep in mind that I've been retired for a few years myself, so yeah, it's really old stuff . . . anybody here recognize the name 'Certified Industries'? Anyway I sprayed a few times, whacked away at it to help it penetrate, and quit for the night.

This morning the first couple of whacks were the same old 'clank', but then started picking up a little bit of a 'clunk' tone. Yup, it was finally moving. I'll let the inner surface of the race and the surface that the inner race sits on tell that story, and let the condition of the nut tell its.

Pinion1.JPG

Pinion2a.jpg
It's supposed to rain later on, so maybe I'll call it good for getting any forward progress on the axle and put a little time into that kitchen project.


Norm
 
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racer47

Still winning after 30+ years
392
497
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
SE WI
That's when you need to break out the fire wrench. A little heat does wonders to loosen things up.
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
That approach was next in line, though the thought of locally heating up a rather complex iron casting even by stray heat hakes me uneasy. I'm really glad I didn't have to resort to it.

Was hoping to at least get the outer races for the pinion installed today but I'll wait for a day that isn't as windy. Dust isn't on my list of preferred assembly lubes . . .


Norm
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
Bought a HF bearing & seal install kit and struggled with it a bit last week, without any real success. Couldn't get the race to start going in 'square', so I just put the job on hold over the weekend. The season's all but over anyway.

Took a different approach today, using the all-thread and some steel plates that I could move around to pull the 'high' spots down. Once the race was basically flush, the steel plate was swapped out for the installer disc. Side note here, until the race was visibly inside its bore, it worked better to not put the disc's tapered face inside the race (none of the HF discs being a perfect fit for this race).

Sorry about the lack of focus. A little lube on the all-thread and between a couple of washers on the wrench side can create quite a lot of force. I'm calling the fact that the steel bent a good thing for guaranteeing that the installer disc would stay somewhere near centered until I could flip it around and use it the "right" way.

IMG_3279.JPG

IMG_3280.JPG
Big race in, now on to the little one.


Norm
 
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Apex3V

Heel-n-Toe Enthusiast
glad to see you're getting through it, when I did it I went through a good amount of HF tools finding out which were junk and which were the real deal. I never had that issue removing the pinion but did have a hard time prying out the posi-trac/gear unit, some WD40 went a long way during the disassembly. Setting the backlash and getting good contact without a doubt took the longest time and was the most intimidating thing of the whole process in my opinion. Looks like you're making great progress and I know you're going to love the outcome!
 

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