Project 1995 ABY. Getting an S2 onto irish roads.

[macspring]

Respect for your speed and endurance, mine is static compared to your progress.

Kind regards.

[mcandmar]

Congratulations, nice to see another road legal S2 in the country

Tip on the gear change ball joint, smother it in grease. Mine had dried out like that and the difference a bit of grease made was remarkable, its as smooth as butter now.

Mark.

[irishs2]

Thanks, took it for a 100mile trip yesterday. Enjoyed every minute of it, a few rattles here and there that will definitely get sorted but overall very happy. I also think I am a candidate for homefries.

[irishs2]

In what seems to be popular fashion in recent weeks on the board, I too had to tackle my subframes. With the NCT up for renewal I wanted to get as much done as possible.


First up was the front.



Lucky me had a spare front which I had prepared earlier with POR15.





I also upgraded to cast wishbones with powerflex bushes and new top mounts.



I also wanted to go with Koni+HR, so things like this had to be dealth with.



With my biggest stilson, the longest extension pipe I had used on the car since the timing belt, and some indignified snorts and noises I got the top caps off.

I had intended putting a s/h set of konis in, but during assembly I noticed the one of
the shocks had what I can only describe as slop of about 1" when pushed in and out in the vertical position. The other konis didnt have this behaviour so I put in some new konis and get these s/h ones serviced.








Not all 86 2086SPD2 shocks are the same, as you can see. Different size and id spacer on top of the shock.

After seeing impressive results here on the forums with electrolysis, I treated my suspension legs to some of the same. After 8 hours the rust just powerwashes off.






I also put on the porsche brakes A8 discs, and bambridge mounts with new brake lines.



Apart from the inner rubber to chassis brake lines being siezed, (freeze spray + wd40 works wonders). The job when ok.

Must refit the farb, and new trackrod ends and adjusters and then tackle the rear.

[quattrostyle]

good work there

[macspring]

Nice work. Keep going.

Drop in if you're ever in Dublin ?

Regards.

[mcandmar]

Proper job

As above we have to meet up at some stage

[irishs2]

Yep indeed. I should be totally happy with the car in a few weeks once the backend is done and the interior is cleaned

Any thought on 4 Wheel Alignment around, willing to travel for a good job.

[macspring]

There's a place in Dublin, but that's too far to travel, must be somewhere in Cork, (or closer than Dublin), that know what they're doing and would take an interest doing it.

I presume all bolts/nuts have been opened/cleaned and copper greased?

Kind regards.

[s2_wot]

There is a guy local to me who is excellent. They spent 45mins on the S6 getting here right. It was adjusted for camber and toe on every wheel. (Condron in Tullamore). I'm sure they say "oh here comes this fussy ******, what does he want now?" when they see me driving in.

My experience has been to find a place with a pit rather than a lift for any tracking work and that on a Saturday morning you never get good service.

[irishs2]

Sometimes its difficult to get going again, but over the last week or so I have put in some time assembling the rear end, I also sold an old camera lens that I dont use anymore on ebay and the funds went towards a whiteline rarb. It was going to cost me £30 anyway for rarb bushes. ... lol



Looking very ratty there. But I have learned that rust is lighter than carbonfibre



I consider myself very lucky that none of the subframe bolds were seized, prop came off easily too with a tap of the mallet.


After removing a sensor wire,vacuum lines, and handbrake cables, diff was ready to be lowed.




Boom! Rear diff mount bolt came out easily too, but the mount itself was donefor.


Yep, that cobwebs at the top of the mounts. Still get the heebie jeebies thinking about it.



After the same electrolysis procedure as before, konis, h+r, melye hd top mount, and por15 treatment.




Before and after electrolysis.




Be very careful here, the vacuum actuator gets very brittle. It is held onto that plate by 3 screws, and 15years of weather and rust causes the screws to rust and expand, breaking the screw holes on the actuator. The rear snapped off, but I was able to use a longer replacement bolt to properly secure it to the plate. The joint from actuator to difflock arm was seized on mine. After loads of wd40 and wiggling, and cleaning it is now free and greased up.


Nice clean subframe. New ball joints, new bambridge solid mounts. New diff mounts.
New brake pads, brake lines. Powerflex centre rear diff mount.

If I ever do these again I will fit the diff to subframe before I offer it up to the car. Fitting the powerflex centre rear mount <> diff into the subframe while its attached to the car is a pain in the ***.






Whiteline rarb comes with the poly bushes and new brackets. The poly bush is a different shape and must use the backing plate that comes in the kit. Unfortunately bolts long enough to go through the plate+bush holder are not included. Booo!!
It is also much easier to fit if the legs on either side are pointing to the ground , once you have all the bolts in place swing the rarb up and then torque it up.



Kinda hard to see here, but I replaced the tie bushes with bambrige poly bush. Perfect fit.



Nice and clean.

tomorrow I must fit the driveshafts, bleed the brakes, fit new gearbox mounts, fit new engine mounts. And torque everything up. .. ok maybe not all that tomorrow


I also found out Blackwater motors (audi dealer in cork) do 4 wheel alignment.
I am going to give them a shot at aligning it.

[andy10v]

That looks so nice under there now.

The electrolysis is really impressive, especially on that brake caliper.

The rear diff mount is a pain, its even worse when the driveshafts and the prop are all in, requires a fiar bit of coordination and brute force doing it lying on your back.

[irishs2]

Thanks.

Yea, I was very kind to myself when I got the lift, but it cost about the same as a set of kw variant 1 coilovers..

[S2central.net]

I *really* have to get into this electolysis gig... I hate rust and I love electricity so should be a breeze if I can collect up the raw materials.

[irishs2]

It's so easy Paul, once you start doing it, you would wonder why you didnt do it before.
It's handy to put things into the solution before going to bed, and in the morning the rust is falling off and all you need do is wash it.


Anyway, S2 Driver right of passage number 17. Fuel lines..



Spotted this during the week I thought it was me being to liberal with wd40, but as it was getting worse it had to be petrol.



Fuel lines, that can rust. What genius committee thought of that one.


How these were not leaking I do not know.


Seemingly the previous owner had shares in jublee clips companies. There are another 6 going up behind the front subframe, on one line.


I have a new fuel filter going in. Of course, the rubber mounts holding the filter snapped while I was trying to open them, and the filter protection tray disintergrated while being removed.

So today I went shopping for some 8mm copper nickel fuel/brake line. Got some sass from behind the counter at a local motor factors, pointing out I didn't need all that 8mm pipe, as he was 110% positive that the return was smaller dimension. I said politely, I dont agree, not on this car. Big laugh from the other lads behind the counter, as apparently this guy is almost never wrong, and they pointed out that he was wrong once in 2010, and as it was such a special occasion they made a dated note of it in permanent marker on the wall behind the counter.