Tommy. Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 Nice work Andy! Great attention to detail especially with the head swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyb5 Posted October 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 After wrapping up my manual swap, I drove down to Stevo's place in CT and he worked some magic for me. He removed the CEL and 4k rev limiter associated with the manual swap, remapped the throttle to make the car easier to drive smoothly, and turned the boost up to about 15/16 PSI with corresponding changes to fuel/timing as well. Boost development is very stable and holds steady to redline at ~6500 RPM. Between the manual and revised tune, the car is a blast to drive.Since then, I've basically been driving it, enjoying it, and taking some much needed time away from working on my car. Had a good time at SCD even if the weather wasn't ideal.However, I have recently been back at it and taking care of a few issues as they've popped up. I had a transmission bracket bolt snap in half, so I drilled that out and replaced it. Kind of a pain in the ass to repair, but it actually was not as bad as I expected. The forecast for the last couple nights showed weather dipping below freezing. Since I was running straight distilled water as coolant, this was a big problem. Since I needed to switch to Volvo 50/50 mix, I decided it was time to install my do88 all-aluminum radiator. I decided to use a -98 style thermostat cover to resolve the overflow line issue (see earlier post about this) Got that all buttoned up and went to replace my worn out, leaky, power steering rack with a remanufactured rack from rackdoctor.com and new OEM outer tie rods and a new OEM 05+ PS reservoir to eliminate a few different leaks. The old rack was pretty nasty and I was so glad that I was replacing it:This is where things got ugly. After I got everything taken apart, I was presented with this horror showSomeone who had worked on this car in the past had cross-threaded the return line and the fitting was effectively destroyed when I removed it from the rack. So after exploring a few options, including a call to Hussein (thanks for picking up H!) I dejectedly decided to order a new OEM return line and re-assemble all my old components until I got the new line in.This tuned out to be way, way more work than it should've been. Getting the steering column U-joint back on the rack in the car proved impossible, so I had to drop the rack/subframe, remove the u-joint from the car, and hammer it back on then re-install the subframe back in. So that was a shitload of wasted time and effort, which was really frustrating. On the plus side, I was able to fix a loose turbo drain tube and re-route my shift cables from in front of the steering column to behind the column where they belong. This helped smooth out the shifting a bit. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad850 Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Seems like you've been dealt a lot of shitty cards with that car. I know how it feels lol. I did the same thing with the cables too! They are harder to mess around with than you would think. Anyway, nice work man. I wish I got things done as quick as you 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy. Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 Love the progress. Good work Andy. With the shifter cables the way they were, how did the shifting feel? I'm pretty sure mine are routed properly but am just curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackT5 Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 It seems there's always somthing with these cars...I'm thinking of a new rack for my 2000R. The steering feels sloppy as F. It's like there's a dead spot at 12:00 and it's not so bad when you're driving slowly, but once you get on the hwy it's a bit sketchy. You can move the wheel back and forth slightly and the car isn't affected. Makes it hard to get a feel for the road.IDK if it's leaking but soemthing isn't right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBoy8 Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 I love that you're sticking with it, despite everything that's been popping up, Andy. Nice work!How was the removal of the steering rack? I may look into doing mine on the wagon after winter, as it's leaky and has a slight slop to the right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldponcho Posted October 20, 2015 Report Share Posted October 20, 2015 Having recently completed a rack replacement on my VR, I'll go ahead and comment it's a pain in the ass. Not a whole lot of room with the bevel gear and sway bar in the way. If I EVER have the need to do it again with an AWD, I'll drop the whole subframe and not just the rear. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kampman Posted October 20, 2015 Report Share Posted October 20, 2015 Yep, doing it on an AWD car is a pain without a lift. I replaced the rack in my XC last winter with the car on jack stands and it sucked. Replacing it might be easier in a FWD car since there's not as much stuff in the way.Sorry to read you had so much trouble Andy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyb5 Posted October 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 Thanks for the words of encouragement guys, I really do appreciate them. Tommy, the shifter had a slight notchiness to it that is now gone. Hard to describe more accurately than that.Mark, my rack now has a bunch of on-center slop. However, both of my inner tie rods are totally shot too so that may be part of the issue. I do suspect that the stock rubber subframe bushings aren't doing any favors for steering response either though.Honestly, the rack wasn't bad to remove. I did remove the sway bar because I had planned on replacing it with another one I had cleaned up and putting in new poly bushings. Unfortunately, I ordered the wrong size bushings so that didn't happen either The hardest part was removing the u-joint and the line fittings. The u-joint was easy once I used an air hammer to drive it upwards. The fittings were problematic because initially I didn't loosen the front subframe bolts and couldn't sag the subframe enough to turn the wrench. After I loosened the front bolts, there was plenty of room to work. Now, that being said, it was very easy to remove the subframe. The picture of me working on the u-joint was taken about 10 minutes after I decided to remove the subframe. Getting the rack/subframe back into the car was a bit of a fiasco due to late night frustration/exhaustion but whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy. Posted October 21, 2015 Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 Just drink a beer. or 6. It will make everything better. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyb5 Posted November 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 On October 21, 2015 at 10:37 PM, Tommy. said: Just drink a beer. or 6. It will make everything better. Truth. Plenty of beer has been consumed, and all is better. Old rack came out easily New one went in with no problems. Had to use bolts/nuts instead of the OEM studs on the rack because the rebuilt rack didn't have the brass bushings to hold the studs in place. Put a whole bunch of new OEM parts in too - PS return line, outer tie rods, steering column u-joint, and 05+ PS reservoir. The 99-04 reservoir swells up and leaks over time, the revised 05+ reservoir doesn't do this. The line locations are different between the 2 reservoirs - you can use the 05+ feed line that runs between the pump and reservoir, or you can trim the factory hose to fit. I trimmed my factory hose to fit. The return line works fine. Replacing all the steering components made a noticeable difference. On-center sensitivity is improved, there is less bump-steer, and steady state cornering is more stable. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apeacock Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 still itching to swap my wagon, everyone else is doing it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babyclaude Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 1 hour ago, apeacock said: still itching to swap my wagon, everyone else is doing it! Come to Troy, NY, where we can swap your wagon in a couple days. It's like we've done this before.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy. Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 26 minutes ago, babyclaude said: Come to Troy, NY, where we can swap your wagon in a couple days. It's like we've done this before.... You guys still have a door there for my parents xc wagon lol Hey I drove to Massachusetts to swap my wagon and I'm from the Midwest. Just ask Tom and Brandon. Haha 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Dastardly Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 (edited) 2 hours ago, apeacock said: still itching to swap my wagon, everyone else is doing it! Auto V70R wagons are lethargic. They really need a 6 speed. Mine will never have one... Hmmm $1500 for manual in my beat A$$ R or $1500 into suspension and brakes on the M3.. Edited November 9, 2015 by Dick Dastardly word filter because I am a cheapMotherF**ker this year 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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