lower arms...

next up in my repair list... lower arm bush... its been vibrating even since 6 months ago... each time wanna do alignment mechanic sure complain cannot do coz "goyang"... initially planned to save up and go for some stiff SuperPro bushings... complete front set cost Rm540 set me back... i need to budget some for other stuff... in the end i decided to go conventional with rubber bushings...

so, here are the shopping list...



lower arm left and right side...



main lower arm bush...

i took this opportunity to change the tie rod end as well...





old lower arm...



new lower arm... use back the old bracket which mounts to the lower subframe...



during installation, mechanic also discovered my badly worn satay bush thread...



in goes the new set...



overall fairly satisfied... steering no longer vibrates under hard braking... but one thing i not satisfied is the badly done alignment... steering does not straightened itself and obvious "yiik yiik" sound from the front suspension strut... i guess its due to the tired front absorber and/or worn out top mount bush... need to change that and redo my alignment nicely...

driveshaft problem... again...

remember my last experience with broken right side drive shaft (the shorter one) last year December??...

http://kahchai1985.blogspot.com/2008/12/rh-driveshaft.html

yes it happened again a couple of weeks ago... obvious symptom is ur steering will automatically jerk to the right vigorously each time u accelerate... during that sunday i went to my frequent spare part shop to inquire the price of the drive shaft... lady luck was not on my side that day... the last junction turning to the shop, i heard a loud snapping sound coming from the drive shaft... as soon as that happened, i lost all drive... the bearings had disintegrated from the constant velocity (CV) joint.. in other words, the drive shaft is spinning freely but the wheel as no drive... bought my drive shaft for Rm145 and left my car there overnight... on monday i pushed my car to nearby workshop to get it changed...



my disintegrated ball bearings jz dropped out...



changed to this one... hopefully this can hold much longer than the previous one...



as removing the drive shaft from gearbox will drain out some gear oil, the mechanic topped up the drained oil with his el-cheapo gear oil, which i presume has higher viscosity... now my gear change no longer smooth as before...

cylinder head project v1.1...

couple of months back bought a cylinder head from SIC forumer... complete set including valve springs, rocker arms, and camshaft... plans to rebuild this valvetrain nicely hoping to optimize the cylinder head flow efficiency...

took my sweet time dismantling the parts out one by one... as i didnt have valve spring compressor, i took the cylinder head to my mechanic to remove it... he taught me a very simple and effective way of removing the valve spring... put the cylinder head on a wooden block... position a spark plug opener on top of the valve spring... use a hammer to knock on it until the valve spring retainers come loose (fly out)...

another important thing is to document each and every valve with respect to their cylinder... no idea why but my mechanic said each valve is unique to its valve seat at the cylinder head...



bought some steel brush with some ron97 shell fuel as detergent... lolz...



after some hard cleaning job... here is the outcome... some stubborn stain still remains at hard to reach area... have to buy more fuel and soak the whole cylinder head with petrol overnight to remove the stubborn stain...





next up... still deciding whether i should send it to professional for port and polish job or jz DIY... this is also a good chance for me to learn how to do top overhaul myself...

to be continued...