jbrentd's 2nd Chance CQ

[Jaswan]

Jeez, it's no wonder your old shocks were harsh, it looks like you have about a half inch of travel before it's metal on metal

[jbrentd]

Took almost a month to get it from Florida to Alberta.
still waiting for coilovers though

Geez. Bright side is, you won't be waiting on them when the coilovers arrive. I finally got mine as well.

[jbrentd]

Jeez, it's no wonder your old shocks were harsh, it looks like you have about a half inch of travel before it's metal on metal

Yeah, very harsh...they just weren't meant to go that low. I really like the way the BC's adjust for ride height compared to the old set.

[jbrentd]

So, before going through the effort of removing and replacing the master cylinder, I thought I would try adjusting the length of the rod at the brake pedal...as suggested by Dan over on TPP. The thought was that maybe the brake pedal was holding pressure against the master cylinder slightly.

When I removed the clevis pin, I could tell the master cylinder was pushing a little on the rod. So, I shortened the rod by 3 full turns of the clevis. The brake pedal now has a very slight amount of play between where the MC is at rest and the brake light and cruise control switches. And it gets taken up by the return spring. I went for a lengthy drive on a warm day and the brakes never did lock up. Hoping this is a good sign.

[jbrentd]

Spent some more time behind the wheel this weekend and still no sign of the master cylinder not releasing. So, I am going to return it for a refund. The steering felt quite loose and upon inspection, I found the front ball joint nuts needed to be tightened. Much better after that, but I need to get her in for a real alignment soon. Also adjusted the struts from full soft to the halfway setting. Now that the coilovers have settled, I need to adjust them a bit.

I really have missed driving her since I took her off the road a little over 4 years ago. The 3B really wakes up the car...should have come to the US with this engine!

[Cqbolidas]

Quick question, a lot of interior parts has to come out in order to replace rear coilovers?

[jbrentd]

Quick question, a lot of interior parts has to come out in order to replace rear coilovers?

Just a few things. Going from memory here...

Fold down the rear seats and remove the striker posts. Then remove the rear seat side bolsters. This should give you access to the top plastic trim pieces that house the rear speakers and surround the seat belts. Loosen those and move them to the side and you can get access to the strut bearings.

[Cqbolidas]

Thanks, appreciate it

[jbrentd]

Was able to get out in the shop last weekend to adjust the ride height on the BC coilovers. Not quite as easy of a task as the more traditional style coilovers, but not hard at all, especially with the QuickJack there to help. Just had to loosen the top nut and lower strut body ring, then rotate the strut body by the desired amount. Now to get her in for an alignment.



Next thing on my list is to get the AC working. I hope to drive the coupe a lot this Summer and working AC would be really nice. Has anyone ever documented the wiring side of a manual airbox swap with working AC? I can't seem to find much info on this, so I am taking a stab at it.

Swapping the manual airbox and control panel is fairly straightforward, once you have the dash all torn apart. It's the wiring that I am looking at currently. The blower motor controls are plug and play, but AC controls...not so much. I don't think it'll be a ton of work, but just wanted to know if there any good resources out there already.

[jbrentd]

It appears that all of the wiring happens between the T5 going to the AC/recirc switch on the manual control panel and the T10 plug that used to go to the AC programmer. Here's what I have so far. Yet to be determined if this will work.

• #3 is 12v coming into the switch from programmer plug #4 (comes from Fuse S17)
• #1 is 12v going to programmer plug #5 (trigger to the AC relay) and programmer plug #3 (trigger to the fan low speed relay)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jbrentd]

It turns out, only 3 wires needed to be spliced...power to the AC clutch relay, low speed fan relay, and the ECU as a signal to increase RPMs. All of them are fed from the same #1 terminal on the AC switch. The airbox gets its ground from the plug connected to the blower controls and that plug is a direct swap from the auto cc airbox.



After finishing the wiring, I was trying to bump the system on, but wasn't having any luck and getting a bit frustrated. So, I started checking the wiring end-to-end with my multimeter. While I had the AC clutch relay out, I took it over to the bench to test it and 12v to the trigger wasn't activating the coil. So, now we wait for a new relay.