MyE28.com

I had to rebuild the clutch master cylinder and release cylinder on my 1997 Tacoma after the clutch went to the floor on my drive home last week. The culprit:


And the cylinders cleaned up with all their internals replaced:


The clutch now feels better than it did two years ago.

More trouble with the Tacoma. It decided to do this on my way home from work Friday night:




I'm relieved that it happened while I was in the right lane, going 30 mph, considering I was about to get onto the interstate just a block away... don't want to imagine what would have happened at 70+ mph. I got it towed to a shop, they replaced upper and lower ball joints, CV axle, and brake lines, and I was able to pick it up yesterday evening. Today I replaced the lower ball joint and tie rod end on the other side, because they were in rough shape too, and it was probably just a matter of time before it happened again.

Apparently the lower ball joints on the 1st gen Tacoma are like its equivalent of the timing belt on the M20. Check them regularly, and replace if they show any sign of wear, or they will wreck you. I wish I knew that earlier!

I performed the same repair on my wifes coworkers truck. same thing, he was heading to get on the highway. failed right in front of his house when turning. i wenrt ahead and did both sides.

Met up with a friend who brought me the raised speaker grilles for the back shelf that I needed in order to fit the JBL speakers in the rear deck. Pulled that out, cut the ovals in the carpet, and installed the grilles. Put all that back together and installed the speakers. Sound is better balanced now, it used to be too loud in the back.

Replaced the switch on the shop vac and gave the car a quick cleaning while I had the rear seat out. Apparently I'd never pulled the back seat, there was a lot of crumbs and whatnot under there. Found a business card sized calendar from some dentist's office in North Carolina from 2004 too.

I towed this thing home last weekend. It's a low mileage European market 308 GTS QV. It had been sitting in a dirty old shed for at least half a dozen years so of course it was filled with spiders, mouse poop and all sorts of other unpleasant things. I spent most of the weekend after we got it home taking everything out of it and deep cleaning. It needs work but I'm happy to have it.

The first car I ever bought for myself was an Alfa Romeo. It was a positive experience but after I discovered BMWs I never really wanted another Italian car, other than a brief obsession with the Lancia Delta Integrale that didn't end up going anywhere. I wasn't actively searching for anything remotely similar to this. It was one of those cars that just sort of happened.

EuroShark wrote: May 31, 2023 4:42 PM I towed this thing home last weekend. It's a low mileage European market 308 GTS QV. It had been sitting in a dirty old shed for at least half a dozen years so of course it was filled with spiders, mouse poop and all sorts of other unpleasant things. I spent most of the weekend after we got it home taking everything out of it and deep cleaning. It needs work but I'm happy to have it.

The first car I ever bought for myself was an Alfa Romeo. It was a positive experience but after I discovered BMWs I never really wanted another Italian car, other than a brief obsession with the Lancia Delta Integrale that didn't end up going anywhere. I wasn't actively searching for anything remotely similar to this. It was one of those cars that just sort of happened.

I used to poo poo 308s because they weren't the V12 supercars, but shit, it's a Ferrari and a great looking car. If even a base one fell in my lap I certainly wouldn't turn it away, let alone a 4V one. Congrats on a nice pickup!

There is an English guy on Youtube, Number27, that has a 308 that he's been on quite the journey with. He calls it the Influenzo. Cool car, and it sounds lovely now that he's finally gotten the thing running correctly.

I kind of enjoy those vids because he's just a regular guy working on a car in his garage and driveway with hand tools, not someone with bottomless money who just buys a car and sends it off to the expert to fix every problem for them.

EuroShark wrote: May 31, 2023 4:42 PM I towed this thing home last weekend...

Don't get much better'n that.

I'd drive dat bish, If'n it'd hold my 6'4" frame.

Mike W. wrote: Jun 01, 2023 12:40 AM I used to poo poo 308s because they weren't the V12 supercars, but shit, it's a Ferrari and a great looking car. If even a base one fell in my lap I certainly wouldn't turn it away, let alone a 4V one. Congrats on a nice pickup!

Thanks, and same here. Never really thought they were anything too special but I think the issue was that I was seeing the mid-year US spec examples. They were kind of soggy, didn't have the deep chin spoiler, didn't make much power. Not that the QV is a hot rod by todays standards, but 240hp and a 7700rpm red line should be fun.

gadget73 wrote: Jun 01, 2023 8:42 AM There is an English guy on Youtube, Number27, that has a 308 that he's been on quite the journey with. He calls it the Influenzo. Cool car, and it sounds lovely now that he's finally gotten the thing running correctly.

I kind of enjoy those vids because he's just a regular guy working on a car in his garage and driveway with hand tools, not someone with bottomless money who just buys a car and sends it off to the expert to fix every problem for them.

He puts out some great content. I prefer to follow the normal guys with normal budgets as well. None of the last six projects I've purchased have run so this one fits the pattern, and that's the only reason I was able to get my hands on it. I absolutely do not have a Ferrari budget. I hardly have an M5 or 944 budget, but this car was so cheap I couldn't resist. One (or two, or three) of the other cars will have to go to free up time and resources but it was time to shake things up anyway.

1st 5er wrote: Jun 01, 2023 8:49 AM I'd drive dat bish, If'n it'd hold my 6'4" frame.

I'm worried about that as well. I'm only an inch shorter than you and I have no idea if I'll be able to drive it comfortably. At least I'm not staring at the top of the windshield frame like I do when I drive an Alfa Spider.

EuroShark wrote: Jun 01, 2023 12:22 PM

Thanks, and same here. Never really thought they were anything too special but I think the issue was that I was seeing the mid-year US spec examples. They were kind of soggy, didn't have the deep chin spoiler, didn't make much power. Not that the QV is a hot rod by todays standards, but 240hp and a 7700rpm red line should be fun.

kind of funny how "supercars" of yesteryear are comparable to boring crap like minivans in the horsepower department these days.

Did this last weekend. Friend needed the fancypants valve body in my wrecked Mark VII to send back for a re-calibration for his car so he didn't have any down time while that was done. I gave it to him on the condition that I needed something to put back in that transmission just so all the parts were there if/when I needed it for a core.

The Mark VII I'm driving has had a lousy 3-4 upshift since I've owned it. I also had the original valve body out of my parts car that was missing one retainer clip. That one had a shift kit installed incorrectly (not by me), and I lost one of the clips when I went through it in an effort to figure out what was wrong. Found one of the spring and valve assemblies installed backwards, but at the time I did not know and thats why it got the fancy valve body in the first place.

Friend brings me down a valve body out of a transmission that got destroyed from a U joint failure and I robbed the clip I needed from it. We put the shift kit valve body in my working car. When the original came out we found one of the check balls jammed in the plate. Some input from the AOD valve body specialist said that particular check ball was related to releasing the forward clutch, which has to disengage in overdrive. The problem I had seemed like a dragging forward clutch, so that tracks perfectly. Car now shifts better than it has since I've owned it, my parts car has a complete core transmission with the valve body out of my driving car, and my friend has the valve body he needs to get his car how it should be. An all-around success I'd say.

Argggg. Bought a Nissan Xterra a few weeks ago. Super clean, ran like a top, 107K on it. A little short of 3K miles into vacation in Rocky Mountain NP, we came back to the car after a short hike, turned the key and nothing happened. Broke out the meter and battery checked out good. Everything seems to work, but no crank. Not even a click. Got towed out of the park, 40 some miles to the hotel, free, thanks AAA. I was able to get it to crank by jumping hot to the start relay, but it didn't start, I just confirmed that the battery and starter work. Much research and troubleshooting later I have a guess as to what's wrong. An electronic module of course, a few calls to dealers suggest there's either very few left, all on the east coast, or NLA and discontinued. But I'm still guessing.

Tuesday I go pick up a U Haul truck and car trailer to tow it home to the tune of over $2K. Argggg.

Argggg is right. BTDT
Thankful last time we were close enough to home that getting a rental, thank you AAA, driving that home and then returning with Burbie and trailer made the most sense.

Mike W. wrote: Jul 30, 2023 10:11 PM Much research and troubleshooting later I have a guess as to what's wrong. An electronic module of course, a few calls to dealers suggest there's either very few left, all on the east coast, or NLA and discontinued. But I'm still guessing.

some form of security system I'm guessing?

gadget73 wrote: Jul 31, 2023 10:02 AM

Mike W. wrote: Jul 30, 2023 10:11 PM Much research and troubleshooting later I have a guess as to what's wrong. An electronic module of course, a few calls to dealers suggest there's either very few left, all on the east coast, or NLA and discontinued. But I'm still guessing.

some form of security system I'm guessing?

No, I think it's the Intelligent Power Distribution Module, AKA IPDM, which is a fusebox with a bunch of relays and lots of electronics that is known to be a problem child. It runs a lot of things but I don't think security. Easy to change if I had one, but I don't.

ah, so not something you can just bypass. Was thinking maybe it was a crank / ignition interrupt that involves reading the chip in the key sort of thing. Any chance its fixable? If its something where solder joints fail or relays die maybe someone has posted a DIY repair for it.

gadget73 wrote: Jul 31, 2023 11:23 AM ah, so not something you can just bypass. Was thinking maybe it was a crank / ignition interrupt that involves reading the chip in the key sort of thing. Any chance its fixable? If its something where solder joints fail or relays die maybe someone has posted a DIY repair for it.

No, not as far as I can tell. The starter relay itself can apparently be a problem, but I bypassed it, got it to crank and still no start.

On a lighter note, got the truck and trailer, got it loaded and ~350 miles under our belts. So progress on the way home. Lots of progress at gas stations too, last fillup was 27 gallons for 200 miles. A whopping 7MPG. Tank before might not have really filled though so it might be actually pushing 10. Maybe. Maybe not. Semis get 6-8. Hauling a lot more than I am.

Home, for a few days now. Decompressed a bit, dealt with some things, researched a ton and tore into it today, trying to figure out my no crank/no start, even with jumping the starter relay.

Got down to the point where it said it was lacking voltage from the Tranny ECU, so I bypassed that with a jumper and it started! Wow. Except not wow, means a tranny probably, it's in the tranny and part of the valve body. Removed the jumper. I now had key on voltage where I didn't before. And it starts. Runs great. So how does it now have power where it didn't before, after backfeeding it? Dunno, back to the drawing board.

There's some info on it, and generally nice guys, but like always some don't read anything besides the title and the last post, but overall there doesn't seem to be a high level of knowledge in the forums. Not like BMWs, let alone Mye28. Like I should be surprised by now.

Oh, and a 660 mile day, with a U haul E450, with 7,000 pounds of truck and trailer behind it, is like a 1,000 mile day in a BMW. Brutal. Ran fine, but a beast.

Not my car, but working on an 89 Mustang for a friend. She asked me to check the seat tilt because it dropped her without warning. Latch was a bit rusty, needed some oil and its fine.

Driving it home was a sketchy experience. Steering is very loose and the brakes were garbage. It sat for 3 years so the rotors were good and rusted. Cleaned that as best I could and made sure the pins weren't stuck. Not much help, but I did discover the front brake hoses are original and cracked, and one was wound in a pigtail. Back drums were way out of adjustment but in serviceable condition otherwise. Fixed the adjustment, now it stops OK-ish. Inner tie rod ends are wasted and the front sway bar to frame bushings are gone so it makes horrible banging noises. Hoses, sway bar bushings, rack mount bushings, and tie rod ends on order. It really could stand a full suspension and brake overhaul but money isn't unlimited. 100 bucks in parts will make it not actively dangerous to drive in the meantime though. It also needs tires really badly, they are 6 years old with flat spots.


Thats basically my plan this weekend. Humidity is supposed to drop and the weather ought to be pleasant.

That mostly went well. Didn't do the rear brake hose. I could have applied more pressure but it was a pure gamble whether it was going to come off, round over, or be seized to the line and twist the end off. I didn't feel like messing with brake lines so I let it be. Flushed a full quart of brake fluid through it until it changed from black coffee to ginger ale color. Stops good now. Steering parts were a gone as I suspected, but that came apart politely. Still needs an alignment but I got it close enough to get it there.

The 08 Mustang in my garage that my friend is working on is a different circus. He bought it with a blown engine. Two view ports in it, one is up in the V under the intake, one down low by the oil pan. Replacement engine is in, stalled for lack of one O ring for the coolant port seal. He's finishing that up today after a trip to the parts store. 3 bays of my garage are currently occupied with Mustang and dead Mustang parts.

My new workshop (Gruntled HQ) is no longer the project, but the place where projects happen!

One of the first was to finally replace the fluids on the 911. It's been 3 years and 3000 miles since I changed the oil and filters! Ugh. And more than that since I flushed the brakes.

Oil sample was sent off to Blackstone to see how bad it was after 3 years. My bet is the #s will look great.



It only took me 4 tries to bleed the clutch properly. This is what happens when so much time passes between services...my memory already sucks .

I like that flooring. Is it the "puzzle mat" format that locks together ?

08 Mustang is gone under it's own power. Now I just need for it's viewport engine and all the junk that came off the junkyard donor to go away so I can have my other bay back. Also the floor needs cleaning.

gadget73 wrote: Aug 24, 2023 11:38 AM I like that flooring. Is it the "puzzle mat" format that locks together ?

Yes. Racedeck.

Trying to finish up the oil pan replacement on the family Volvo. The same spawn that banged the Mazda managed to catch the lip of a manhole cover and do this:


In his defense, it is poorly marked in a very-dark parking lot and not really that high - I'm guessing the shocks are tired enough on the front and he was going fast enough to compress them a bit.

I'd never used a chemical sealant, so I wasn't very confident I'd done it right, but guessing the work I did to make the used replacement a good sealing surface helped:


I did the job just before I left town for a week (to bring back my "new" E30), and it appears to have sealed up fine. Unfortunately, the oil level unit must have some hairline cracks, as it's dripping. . I'll drain the (new) oil, pop in the replacement that's coming from Amazon sometime today and put the oil back in. I probably shouldn't have trusted the oil level sender...

I've done a lot of little stuff to the E30 since I got it home - raised the coilovers (scraping the driveway ), replaced the 12V/cigarette holder, brake light switch, turn signal switch (these were all dead), every bulb in the cluster (the tach was dark, so I bit the bullet and replaced 'em all).



Unfortunately, another 40-yo-car thing reared its ugly head



Luckily, Race German makes a tab replacement kit. It's a little unnerving to take a sanding disk to the cluster, but it worked great

re-wrote the tune on the Towncar. It requires a coin cell in the tuner to maintain the program, and of course the coin cell died. This causes all of the tune parameters to change to wingdings instead of numbers and it goes brain dead. Friend has the software to re-write it so he came over and did that for me. Now it can move out of my garage under it's own power.

Changed the overhead console in the truck to one with the factory garage door opener. I don't park it inside, but now I can pull the boat out and shut the door without having to get out of the truck. Yay for lazy points.