Aaron's build thread.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:56 pm

Series8217 wrote:The only thing I've noticed that severely affects on/off throttle behavior on the 88 is the loooooong bolt that holds the lateral links to the rear knuckle.

Those are both tight, very tight, with locktite, and held with 2 nuts on each. I learned the hard way of those loosening up. It feels just like that, but not nearly that bad.

Series8217 · Post by **Series8217** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:48 pm

Did you tighten them again? The polyurethane will cold flow a bit and make your nuts loose regardless of loctite or double-nutting.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:54 pm

I'll check them again, I have not re-tightened them since their install.

The Dark Side of Will · Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:39 am

Aaron wrote:I'll check them again, I have not re-tightened them since their install.

When was the last time your car had an alignment?
What you describe could be toe out at the rear.

Also could be a wheel bearing going bad.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:36 am

Car was aligned very recently, with the new tires.

The Dark Side of Will · Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:46 am

Have you done enough shake tests to eliminate worn ball joints, worn tie rod ends, loose wheel bearings, etc. at ALL FOUR corners?

jelly2m81 · Post by **jelly2m81** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:34 pm

Aaron wrote:My front bushings need replacing, but other than that, the suspension components are all good. Too much engine.

Dude, I had a random tendancy for my one 88 to have random tracking at higher speeds.

I replaced the old bushings in the front and the inner tierods and now it tracks straight and true, and handles better than ever.

jelly2m81 · Post by **jelly2m81** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:37 pm

Aaron wrote:Car was aligned very recently, with the new tires.

Ya , but since then it's been smashed and on a frame machine to get straightened, true?

Even if anything in the suspension is questionable, replace it. The forces of the weight of the car plus speed acting apon the components are far far greater than any of us can ever apply while checking stuff.

Series8217 · Post by **Series8217** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:37 pm

I had a Timken rear wheel bearing give me that symptom too.. after 500 miles of use. Piece of shit...

Make sure you check EVERYTHING regardless of how recently it was replaced or tightened.

Fierostore ball joints last ~2,000 miles.

p8ntman442 · Post by **p8ntman442** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 2:51 pm

2000k miles thats 3 swaps.

The Dark Side of Will · Thu Oct 09, 2008 10:46 am

Series8217 wrote:I had a Timken rear wheel bearing give me that symptom too.. after 500 miles of use. peice of shit...

I just had EXACTLY THAT happen to me (well... not *exactly*). I installed a Timken bearing in my Formula and within about 2000 miles it was loose as a goose. It seemed to happen overnight as well. I parked the car in the garage early in the week, rode my bike to work all week and when I pulled the car out on Friday it was all over the road thanks to a sloppy bearing.

I bought a National unit to replace it. I'm having the preload fitting tack welded to the center sleeve to prevent a loss-of-preload failure on this one. I think that's what happened to the Timken, and I KNOW that's what happened to the hub before the Timken. The Timken makes a ringing noise that would indicate to me that the bearing isn't bad... it just loosened up. The hub before that fell apart when I took the knuckle out to modify it for full camber adjustment.

I've read on the Fiero Racing List that people have gotten the E-bearing '88 front hubs to be durable by disassembling them, repacking with high temp grease and tack welding the preload fitting to the center post on reassembly.

I may have to start a "wheel bearing tech" thread...

EDIT: YAY I can post here now!

Series8217 · Post by **Series8217** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 5:13 pm

Did you take any pics of what you tacked? Isn't the axle nut all that adjusts the preload?

The Dark Side of Will · Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:50 pm

I will take pics. It should be getting done this week.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 2:10 pm

A little bit of an update.

I completely cleaned out the new door. It had been stored outside for at least a year, and it was dirty. Also, the door rods (Lock, opening, etc), were bent and not operating smoothly. I bent them all back straight, cleaned them, and well oiled/greased/WD40'ed them. Everything there operates smoothly now. I then removed the window and dew wipes. Cleaned the window, and having it tinted to 15%, and ordered a pair of Stew's dew wipes. Cleaned out the window tracks, and regreased them. I haven't put the window back in, but everything operates smoothly. Panels get painted this week. Oh, I luckily still had my old lock cylinder, so I swapped that over too.

On to the more entertaining part. I did a logged, WOT run from a 2500 roll in 1st, to midway through 4th on the highway. In 1st and 2nd, the A:F is steady at 11.5. Through 3rd, it rises and holds at 12, then in 4th it starts at 12.5ish, and with RPM smoothly drops itself down to about 11.5 by 5500rpm. I'm going to do what Shaun said, and tune for 4th, and the est of the gears will work themselves out. It's just hard to do 4th gear runs, but I can get it to about 5500-6000 without too much difficulty, so I've been doing that. And in the past, the MAF adjustments haven't changed from 6k to 7, so it should be ok. I am going to try to get to the dyno next week.

Jinxmutt · Post by **Jinxmutt** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 6:09 pm

The Dark Side of Will wrote:
I may have to start a "wheel bearing tech" thread...

That would be nice. I think we need a tech thread to document 88 wheel bearings and possibly detail the machine work required to swap in the Achieva wheel bearings.