Evo_Spec's 1994 BP-T RS

[Evo_Spec]

minor updates!

So i finally decided to replace my sticky cup holder that was driving me nuts with one i got from the junkyard about a year ago XD


and i found all this insulation crap in there


nice working cup holder!



so....i've never gotten an alignment since i got my car because i was just going to get it aligned when i lowered my car and well if you've been following my worklog you might remember me getting brand new tires on july 9th last year (2009) well i do a lot of long distance driving between edmonton and calgary (300km ish apart) and well couple months ago i realized the rear tires were kinda worn down, but i didn't think too much of it and rotated them to the front.
if any of you guys remember i was away overseas for 5-6 months, and the car sat, so note that what you are about to see is roughly only 6-8 months of driving on brand new tires with bad allignment -_-
you can see the fabric starting to show


i got really lucky because this is after the long drive so i was obviously clueless about the condition of my tire (even though i checked the pressure and everything before the drive )
luckily where i drove was home and i have my winter set that consists of 2 winter tires and 2 all seasons, so i took the 2 all seasons and put them on the rear.
so needless to say i'm getting all the strut parts together and lowering my car and getting an alignment very very soon.


So the weekend in town was a great weekend for my car, i went to the junkyard to put up some stuff and i finally got a new rad support to replace the old one, just took a little bit of TLC to get the bolt holes to line up right

only damage left (besides everything probably being a little off XD)



so while i was at the junkyard here i thought i would get the strut parts that i need but i thought the parts only came on the ZX2's (they come on all later escorts) so there was only one ZX2 which looked like it had been sitting somewhere for a while before it was taken to the junkyard, and for some dumb reason i didn't look at the km's on it because it was the only ZX2 there so i just pulled the parts in excitement that there was a ZX2 there, funny thing about that was that i wasn't sure if it was a ZX2 so me and my gf were looking all over the car for any indication of it being a ZX2, the door sills, owner's manual, paper work inside the car, and still couldn't find it so i said, "screw it" and started ripping apart the rear while my gf kept looking, and after i pulled off all the covers/plastics she said, "uhh....look up" i was facing the rear of the car and looked up at the rear window expecting to see a spider or something, but instead what i saw was 3 BIG a-- letters that spelt "2XZ" and went, "....for f*** sakes...." and kept wrenching on the car. XD (couldn't see from outside because it was covered with a layer of dirt from sitting so long)

Now i only have a $30 tool kit i got from canadian tire that i have to work will and i don't have a 17mm wrench or socket but i do have the imperial size socket that works and an adjustable monkey wrench which sucks hard (well all the tools in the tool kit do) now the 2 17mm bolts on the spindle must have never been removed before and because the car was sitting so long it was rusted to hell, so there was no way of taking it off with the tools that i had on hand so i sat there puzzled having no way to remove the strut to get the strut mount off and get the stopper seat that i need, so after a little while of me doing random things i noticed my gf was gone somewhere and she came back to me with some thing she made that had to be the most f'd up way of compressing a spring i have ever seen, and it worked and i got everything out without TOO much effort. By the end it started thundering hard and then rain and hail came down and raped me but i was pretty much done and took the parts i needed ran off to pay for the items and drive home.

This is the tool she made, its a hood latch and 2 spare tire hooks (she actually made another one that worked better with a bracket that had 2 holes closer together that she took from a throttle body but i got no pictures because it was raining)


And how i got it out after compressing the spring. (had to pull out fender)


Also when i was in the ZX2 taking apart the rear to get to the strut mounts, there was a baby seat hook that i took off and pocketed in curiosity to see if it would fit the mx3 because i remembered reading about how the one for the mx-3 is rare and has a special thread or something, and well.... it does fit!!! (info in these 2 links http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.ph ... ok#p559314" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.ph ... +seat+hook" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)
this is what it looks like (note i took it from a ZX2, i don't know if one from any later escort works, i assume they would, i'll try if i find one)

[pox]

That spring compressor scares me. Ive seen real spring compressors let go and springs fly a mile into the sky. I could only imagine the damage it could have caused if it colided with a human.

[Ryan]

My mechanic friend tells me about videos he's seen where guys get a strut straight through the chest. Instant death.

But awesome girlfriend for inventing a spring compressor. Mine mainly sits there and whines if the weather is bad, nevermind making tools

I love you anyway, Tiff

[Evo_Spec]

That spring compressor scares me. Ive seen real spring compressors let go and springs fly a mile into the sky. I could only imagine the damage it could have caused if it colided with a human.

well i really wanted my parts =P
either way, the rear springs are really soft and i only had to compress it enough to get it out, it wouldn't of been enough to use it as a real spring compressor

[wytbishop]

I've never had to use a compressor at all on the rear springs.

[Evo_Spec]

I've never had to use a compressor at all on the rear springs.

i think i wrote it somewhere in that long a-- post that the bottom 17mm bolts were rusted in and i didn't have a way to remove them, that's why i had to do that

[AaronTietje]

Nice work getting the springs off

Scary tho, A good buddy of mine took apart some probe struts of mine when I was not home and decided to "just" zip the top nut off with his impact....

[Evo_Spec]

Nice work getting the springs off

Scary tho, A good buddy of mine took apart some probe struts of mine when I was not home and decided to "just" zip the top nut off with his impact....

i did that knowing what i was doing, so i stood on the spring and impacted the bolt off and the strut shoots about a foot or two, quick way to take apart a strut XD

[Evo_Spec]

update!

so i finally got around to soldering my EDM signal wiring harness together (the right harness is the first one i made and is a little short to the side marker, should of did it the way i did the left harness =/)


but i didn't have shrink wrap or electrical tape so i improvised, with hot glue! (and packing tape over it just in case)


so lengthened the right harness a little and wrapped the wires


EDM signals installed! also finally got my hands on a passenger glass headlight, yay!


how it looks at night, i freaking love it! (all LED's)



so here's a more major update!

pile of handling goodies! (picture taken before i got front mounts, the rear's are a little rusty but they'll have to do =/)


i picked these up from a member on here damn near about a year ago XD
all i needed was mounts and rear strut parts which i put off for a long time (and also went to Japan for 6 months =P)

so i wanted to protect the parts from any rust (or further rust) and make them look pretty so i started painting everything up (painted the rear mounts the day before and forgot to take pictures)


here's the fronts all finished up


lookin pretty damn good to me! (you can see the painted rear mounts and little parts where the paint got past the tape =/)


the rears look great!


All done! (quite sad that the dust boot covers the green on the front strut, debated paint the upper perch but thought it might be too much and i really wanted to put it together )

the one rear dust boot is kinda wonky from sitting in a position too long, i assume it'll be ok, hopefully straighten back up


so their just sitting like that waiting to be installed, will take more pics one i do get around to installing them

[Dark_Rider2k3]

Nice on the struts!

and I agree, it's a shame the green is hidden. Oh well though..

[Evo_Spec]

Nice on the struts!

and I agree, it's a shame the green is hidden. Oh well though..

thanks! i might mask it off and paint a green rim on the upper perch (or whatever its called)

didn't actually think people read the posts all the way through =P


Minor Update (without pictures, figured pictures of wires wasn't exciting for you guys)

So my cousin (previoous owner) had an remote starter installed in the car and i never got around to hooking it up since i did the swap but when i was randomly going through the manual i found out there was a function for a turbo timer, which saves me from having to sit in the car waiting for it to cool down.
So that's what i did yesterday, i researched which distributor wire it was the signal wire on here but couldn't find anything so i finally signed up on CP (after lurking for a while) to search for it and found it in about 10 min (a lot more BP support there) and so i extended the signal wire from the remote starter and then pulled back some insulation on the signal wire on the distributor plug and spliced it in, then soldered it all up and finished it with electrical tape.
It worked strangly at first and so i thought i might of spliced it in the wrong wire but i double checked and triple check CP to make sure it was the yellow/blue wire, it was strange because the turbo timer would work but the starter would start it and then grind the starter and then kill the engine and retry and kept doing the cycle (well i stopped after the 2nd time) then i found out that the starter needed to be "tach learned" so i did that and now my starter works great!
It's already getting cold here so having the remote start is very handy.

[Dragon1212]

Nice on the struts!

and I agree, it's a shame the green is hidden. Oh well though..

thanks! i might mask it off and paint a green rim on the upper perch (or whatever its called)

didn't actually think people read the posts all the way through =P

AND WHY NOT!? They're looking good when I repair my knock on the passenger back strut I might do the same.

[Dark_Rider2k3]

that's an interesting turbo timer/remote starer setup!

[Evo_Spec]

so the moment you've all been waiting for!

the new strut/springs are put in!
but i'm going to tease you first with pictures of the work to put them in, then you can see the finished product

i love it when people do the job right in the past, makes me not have to work so hard


ran into a bit of a snag when i took off the driver rear strut, the steel brake line broke and a lot of brake fluid leaked out and i had no extra brake fluid so i couldn't try to bleed the rear brake but the brakes still worked when i had the pedal to the floor so i drove it to the store like that (scary driving with crappy brakes) but unfortunately stores don't sell it pre-bent for our cars so i used some pliers and flare out the end, and well, it worked great, there's no leak, but i'll probably replace that in the near future, just don't have the time right now


didn't know the studs on the ZX2 mounts were shorter than the mx-3's so instead of bolting on the strut then bolting the seatbelt, you have to bolt them together (like a strutbar =P)


rear installed, looks pretty good, but the green still isn't that visible, oh well, it was a nice thought


you can see the difference in springs here (dead coils)


a car's ride quality tends to feel shitty when your riding on 4 different kinds of struts, good thing is that riding on the new springs don't feel bad at all! in fact it's nicer because it levels out faster =P


here's a picture of my boost gauge which i think turned out awesome


i finally found my CF eyelids that i left at my friends house that i took off when i had my accident (just a mock up, need to find good tape that'll hold it on, 3m outdoor tape wasn't so good)


haha ok, no more teasing, here's the shot in the garage after i was done at 3 am in the morning


and the much awaited pictures


the reason why the rear wheels are different is in my previous posts which you should of seen if you've been keeping up with my worklog, the condition of my old tires were down to the cloth so these are the replacements until i get new shoes all around.

so all that needs to get done is an alignment and new rear steel brake line (may as well do both sides if i'm doing one)

[wytbishop]

I'm going to go ahead and BEG you to replace your front bumper. Pleeeeaaaaaase!!!