kev

Cool! Glad you are getting it out a lot this summer. I'm jealous, I've only driven mine once this entire season. Haven't been to any shows except Import Carlisle, but that was with my other cq. Something about paying $30+ to sit at a car show in the hot sun all day that hasn't sounded appealing to me this year. But the outcome is that I haven't been driving the car at all as a result. Carlisle Chrysler is this weekend but $70 to bring your car to the show...ouch!

Welcome back! I agree with you on the FB vs SQC topic. I lurk on FB but hardly post anything. I find it amazing how many basic questions are asked, which are answered in detail on this site, but people don't even bother to look. Then when I go to reply with a link to a thread on here, the response gets auto-blocked because it contains a link.

They are linked from another photo site. I really need to buy one of these regulators for my driver quest before they go out of stock again. Unfortunately, that means more delays on getting back on the body work.

I honestly don't remember how to remove the webbing from the mechanism....sucks getting old. You can see the aluminum straps that I put in the mechanism to keep it from springing all the way back after the webbing was removed. I really think that it was a simple as puling the webbing to its extents...but I might be incorrect. Yes, getting those white inserts out is a pain. A good pair of pliers to grab it on the sides and slowly wiggling side to side. Sometimes with a little help from a small flathead screwdriver. I loved pulling parts from these cars in the junkyards. It's too bad that they are practically nonexistent in the yards anymore.

I'll check. I had to buy some a few months back. M5 for sure, but don't remember the pitch off the top of my head. it's the standard pitch though. I bought them at tractor supply. Stainless steel. They were far too long but I cut them to size.

Great to hear! It was sitting for a long time.

Yes, it is easy. The hardest part is removing the rearmost portion (vinyl) without snapping all of the clips (slide it forward) Although MKS sells 3D printed replacement clips if you do. Once the vinyl piece is out, there are just two philips screws at the back. Remove the sunvisors and the doom light/mirror assembly and the headliner comes right down (same process for any year).

It took me years to acquire all of the parts needed to do this swap and technically I'm still not done because I've been looking for a better set of the lower B-pillar pieces that go next to the back seat. Mine have a few rips in them. Every time I thought I had enough parts pulled from junkyard cars or acquired from members here, I realized I forgot other parts. I know that I pulled items from three different cars, I bought a bunch of items from a member hear in Columbus (drove eight hours that day to get them) as well as bought individual smaller items from other members on here. I don't have enough photos to put together a complete tutorial and, after looking at my own pictures, my mind is a little hazy on all of the little details. Obsolete..if you decide to capture photos, I'd be happy to help put together a good thread. kev

I found some more. Sorry, this is so disjointed. After looking at these photos, I remembered more needed parts that I missed in my list a few weeks ago. Headliner. Notice the grab bar on the passenger side. If you look closely, you can see that the lower part of the A-pillar looks different than the red 83 shown in the post above. Fuzzy picture but you can see the two clips for the headliner side rails B-pillar covers....they are different than an 87-89. These are from an 86. Don't forget the coat hangers. As said above, the lower portions are different too (not shown). Here are the headliner side rails and A-pillar covers (ignore the beige items) This is just a photo of two sets of manual seatbelts that I had. One was from an 83, the other 86. I ended up using a combination of the two. If memory serves me correctly, I used the straps from the 83 but the mechanism from the 86 (The 86 mechanisms were a slightly different design. These are the brackets for the uppermost portion of the door panel. Yes, there are white square inserts behind these that you need too! In my post above, I forgot that there are actually two brackets needed. The larger one and the smaller one below (although, the smaller one may be the same from an auto seatbelt car...I don't remember off the top of my head). Center console pieces. You need that tray that goes where the seatbelt levers were. You also need the power mirror switch and trim around it. The switches appear to look the same but the mounting holes are different between an auto and manual belt car!

I found a few more photos. These were from an 83 that I pulled the A-pillar panels and headliner from at a junkyard. Sorry, the photos are poor. This is the lower A-pillar trim clip. Note that this cannot be used on an auto-seatbelt car for there is a reinforcement plate in the way: This is the upper clip which will be needed to install the A pillar trim on an auto seat belt car: When you remove the philips head screw and clip, this is what you will see. Make sure to remove that white square plastic insert! The holes are there on an auto-seatbelt car but that is it. Not sure why I didn't take photos of the clips on this site which were much better viewable. This car had an unmolested door panel barrier. But notice the plastic tray that goes behind the seatbelt mechanism. Get those white inserts for the seatbelt mechanism in the door too! For the non-auto seatbelt headliner, these are the clips for the side rails (2 per side). You need these! In this case, it is just a sheetmetal screw into the body...no white plastic insert. Again, the auto seatbelt car will have the holes for the sheetmetal screws making this part easy. But in this area, there will be three M6 studs that need to be cut off. BTW, yes, that was a factory sunroof on an 83...pretty cool! Too bad it ended up in the junkyard. I thought I had more but this is all I could find. I remember spending several hours and the junkyard pulling all types of little clips and inserts off of this car. It still had so many useable parts on it but when I went back two weeks later for more, it was crushed.

Good to hear. Although, I don't know what the manual switch gives you. By the time you realize it is getting too hot and need to flip the switch, it may be too late. Remember, it takes a bit of time for the gauge to register the increase in temperature. Why not buy two new 'primary' t-stats, install them, connect them together and then to the secondary fan only and keep the primary grounded at all times. Or vice versa for that matter (like techboy mentioned). This way one would be on for sure and the other would have to have two t-stat failures before it would stop working. Another thing that I never really experimented with is that the automatic cars have a better secondary fan. It is closer to the primary fan design. I never really noticed this until recently despite owning two automatic cars over the years. Someone mentioned it on here and the light bulb went off in my head haha. There had to have been a reason why the automatics had a different secondary fan than the manuals. On a similar note, I never understood why the AC condenser was a different design between autos and manuals as well. kev

I just made a new post in the FAQ section linking to this. If anyone sees some good threads and recommends moving them to the FAQ, let me know. I've been trying to do this as I see them, but I'm sure I have missed a few.

Link to techboy's post regarding removal/installation of the rear spoiler on the hatch:

Oops, it's three per side. MB198555 per the parts manual, Qty 6

There is no difference between the ECU from an auto car vs a manual car. What year is your car? If you have an 87, an 88/89 ECU is a good upgrade for it.

Pretty cool! It's two for side, if memory serves me correctly. I'll run through my photos to confirm.

Sounds good. I'll get you those photos of the A-pillar. They are on a drive in my office which is in the basement. It's just that I physically can't go down there at the moment, for I broke my leg. I have to collect all of these photos and see if I can develop a good thread on what is needed for auto to manual belt conversion. I know that I don't have photos of the removal of the three studs on each side of the roof nor the removal of that plate at the rear upper doorway, but I might have enough to describe the process. Plus, it's been around six years since I did this, my memory fades on some of the details (gotta love aging).

For now, immediately unplug the wires going to the t-stats and ground them (well at least to the secondary that you know isn't functioning). This will make the fans run at all times when the key is ON. Don't drive it any further until you do that...you know you have a t-stat issue and it isn't worth cracking the head. Yes, replace the t-stats and consider at least what techboy has provided (ground the secondary fan). I, personally, would just leave both grounded and running all the time. One of my cars has been running like that since 2002 (two owners later, it still is wired the same). If you insist on using the stock t-stats, connect a wire between the two t-stats....thus if either one fails, the other will still turn on both fans. The factory electric fan setup is a design failure on our cars IMHO. You can address this easily by what we are saying without altering the stock appearance of the engine bay. Also, the 'mod' I suggested isn't a mod. It's simply resorting to the much more reliable setup on the earlier model starquests (83/84). I've never had a cracked head on a car running the factory earlier model clutch fan setup. You would need the fan shroud out of an 83/84 starquest and the clutch fan itself out of the same years or from any 80s Montero or Mitsubishi pickup (they had the same fan but a different shroud). The only difficult thing is that the later model radiators had the three brackets brazed to them to mount the electric fans (two small ones on the bottom tank near the t-stats and one larger double bracket on the top tank in the middle). Just a little heat from a propane or MAP torch and the brackets come off the radiator without damage and could easily be soldered back on later down the road. The clutch fan shroud simply bolts on with the four bolts on the sides of the radiator (same ones used on the other sides of the electric fans). For the clutch fan itself, just remove the four bolts holding the water pulley pump. Remove the flat plate over the pump pulley and bolt on the clutch fan. The water pumps all have provisions for clutch fans even for electric fan cars (they have the 'nub' that protrudes into the fan to engage the clutch). The 83/84 models used studs instead of bolts on the water pump connection. Studs make it easier to mount the clutch fan but I simply reuse the four original bolts. I should note that the 83/84 clutch fan shroud is two pieces. You bolt the lower half on the radiator first (the radiator doesn't have to be out of the car or even disconnected). Then put on the clutch fan and, last, bolt on the top half of the shroud. The top half is easier with the upper radiator hose disconnected but you can still get in there with it connected. Again, don't even start the vehicle until you get that secondary fan working (Ground the wire...takes less than two minutes)! I can't stress this enough! Take this from a guy who has been driving these cars for over 30 years and has cracked many cylinder heads (yes, I've cracked a head without ever noticing an increase in temperature on the stock gauge). I'm so paranoid about this that I've wired the fans to ground on the day of purchase of starquest in the former owners driveway before driving it home....he looked at me like I was crazy! kev

I started a thread on this topic in Randy's forum on FB, but I'll post it here as well. There are a few 'Report to Moderator' messages that came up yesterday stating that Bill, Caliber308, passed back in October. They appear to be from his wife, Gwen. She said that she was interested to see if anyone wanted to buy his car and provided a phone number. Is there anyone here close to Bill who could confirm this news? I'd like to get a confirmation before I share the number. Most know that Bill and I had a bit of friction over the years, but it is always difficult to hear about the passing of such a long-standing member to our community. My condolences to his family. kev

It looks very promising! I wish there was a photo of the rear, for it looks like a KYB pump as well...which wouldn't surprise me, Hyundai utilizes a lot of the same Suppliers as Mitsu. I agree that the pump shouldn't care the type of hydraulic fluid, especially AFT. It should 'pump' it fine and the seals will be fine. I have spare stock PS pump mounts if you would want to modify?

To do a 'proper' auto to manual seat belt conversion, you need a ton of parts: * Both manual seat belt mechanisms which include the belt mechanism, the trim clip that goes into the door card, mounting bolts (one on each end), and the upper latch. * The rear corner upper door panel trim (the small piece that runs up the side of the window in the back) mounting clip with screws (zinc plated bracket shown in the photos above) * The rear corner upper door panel trim (the small piece that runs up the side of the window in the back) - This is all you really need for the door panels themselves because the original auto seat belt door panels can easily be modified as shown in my photos above. Although, I just remembered something; the 87 on up cars large upper door panel has a hole in it to accept the rear corner upper trim. This will be visible with the manual upper door panel trim. I did some vinyl repair on mine to 'close the hole'. If you happen to have access to the main upper door panel on a manual car, it is beneficial to utilize them. They will also have the belt guides on them, which is the next item below. * The door panel seat belt guides with two screws each - not really a necessity, as seen in the photos above * The plastic A-pillar covers WITH clips/hardware * The manual belt main headliner (sunroof vs non-sunroof, as required for your car) INCLUDING the two side rails WITH side rail clips/hardware - Note the rear vinyl covered headliner is not needed - it is the same between manual or auto belts * Upper AND lower B-pillar covers (i.e. sides of the rear seat) - they mount the same as the auto belt covers. * The clear plastic inserts for the door panels to keep water from getting on the seat belt mechanisms. * IMPORTANT: The seat belt latch on the driver and passenger seats depending on what year car you have vs the year of the donor belts car! In my case, I used seatbelts out of an 86 with 88/89 seats - no issue. But if you have 87 seats, the latch will be the wrong size. There are also some differences on earlier model car seatbelts. Before you do anything, make sure your manual seat belts 'click' into the latches on your seat! Also note that on 87 seats, the seat belt latch is approximately six inches forward from where it really should be (I honestly don't know if it can be moved back or not, I haven't done a manual belt conversion using 87 seats). You make the determination if that is acceptable to you or not...just make sure the belt latches before you go any further! * 85/86 style center console tray * 83-86 style power mirror switch with trim plate for the center console * 83-86 style rear center console without the seat belt holes This isn't the easiest of conversions, to be honest. You need a lot of parts to do it correctly and modifications to the car body are needed. Some people just leave all the interior trim go and not install the rear upper portion of the door panels. This will allow use of the manual belts but the missing trim will be noticeable along with the auto belt track.

I should have taken a lot more photos and did a writeup on the manual seatbelt conversion. At the time, I was just trying to move my project forward and wasn't as diligent it taking detailed photos. I know I have some photos of the A-pillar mounts, at least on a manual belt car (the donor vehicle), but they are on a hard drive that I don't have accessible at the moment. But if you have the proper upper clips for the manual a-pillar trim, it will make sense. You don't use the lower clips.

This piece here will interfere with the upper door panel trim on a manual seat belt car. If you want to use the trim, it will have to be removed. Here it is with the manual headliner and manual b-pillar panels: The upper door panel trim near the manual belt upper latch will not let the door close until you remove the curved sheet metal above. Note that this car didn't use the seatbelt clip on the upper door panel...it will work fine without it. Here are some views of the mounts. You will need the upper door panel mounting clip. It is one large clip in lieu of two on an auto seat belt car The lower belt mount. The tapped hole is there already on an auto seat belt car. Just need the bolt (in fact, the bolt might be there as well...I forgot if it was or not) The clear plastic to go behind the belt in the door is a nice to have...will prevent water from going on the seat belt mechanism.

Found some of them. Here is the modification to the door card. Mark the cutout of the seatbelt clip on the card (it will be smaller than the cutout on the door panel itself, as you described). Here is how I cut the vinyl Fold it back and glue it. Here you could see the difference in the upper panels between the manual and auto belts car. I had one of each so I used the manual one for a template...but it's easy to simply eyeball once the belts are in jplace. Note the manual belt upper trim needed to accept the belts! That trim will interfere with the sheet metal on the upper rear corner of an auto seat belt car!

Yes, you will run into some issues on the A-pillar. The auto seat belt cars had some extra sheet metal tacked in on the lower area of the pillar that prevents installation of the lower clip of the pillar trim. If memory serves me correctly, I had to modify the lower mount of the trim slightly to get it to fit correctly and, obviously, that lower trim mount wouldn't be used. You do need the upper clip from a manual belt car to properly install the trim too. I know I have photos of this but I can't access them at this moment. You will run into issues if you keep the auto headliner. It won't mate right with the A-pillar covers. If you swap headliners, you will have to cut off three 6mm studs on each side. You will also need the b-pillar trim. There is also a piece of sheet metal on the b-pillar corner that will need to be cut off and removed to accept the manual belt headliner and b-pillar trim. Again, I have photos but I'm struggling to access them at the moment. Yes, the cards have the notch in the back of them for the manual belts but you DON'T cut the vinyl to the extents of the notch. Measure the plastic insert clip on the manual belts and carefully cut the vinyl to size in the middle of the notch. I actually don't remove any material, I slice the vinyl such that it can fold back and clue to itself on the backside for added support. The insert clip then pops in there. It is close to the size of the notch but is smaller. Just take your time and think through it. The upper door panel on a manual car has a catch for the belt to ride through it in the rear. I'm assuming that is what you mean by the two additional screw holes? That isn't really needed, to be honest. If you have the catch, then sure go ahead and install it. Just line it up where the belt crosses the panel, drill two holes and pop it in there. The clips for the rear vinyl headliner panel are specific. MKSmotorsports sells replacements created via a 3D printer. Headliner Panel Retainer Clips - MKS Motorsport Mksmotorsports also sells door panel inserts via the same method Door Panel Retainer Clips - MKS Motorsport The issue with your hatch is most likely because the hatch isn't aligned with the body. They tend to 'slide' themselves back with time. So, it is trying to unlatch but the latch brackets are all wedged into the latch. Also, the rear carpeted panel is known to get bent up and cause some interference as well. Get your hatch to align with the body first. If you still are having issues, remove the rear carpeted panel and take it out of the equation for now. If you still are having issues, there are minor adjustments to the latches and latch brackets as well as the rods.