1989Quest
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Posts posted by 1989Quest
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TD05-12A Turbo
Three Piece Air Damn (passenger side)
APEXI S-AFC
AEM UEGO
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They gonna find you, HOMEBOY! Project justice at work...
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Lol, I just got a bill for more than $147,000 on Friday. I was in rough shape at the start of the year. I spent almost a month in the hospital and had to have a major abdominal surgery. My insurance covered $10,000...go life!
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My car got pounded from the rear at a red light last year. Luckily there wasn't significant damage like in your case. The Farmer's agent came out to assess the damage and the first words out of her mouth were, "my brother loves these cars." That was a relief! I knew she was on my side after that. She suggested my bumper be sent out for complete refurbishment and cut me a check for more than the estimates I initially procured. I hope this works out well for you. Oh yeah, x2 on the leaving extra space and watching the rear view!
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Also, be sure to start the bolt by hand so you don't cross thread them. Good luck!
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I got this idea from Ryan's sway bar thread. I almost posted this in there, then remembered where I was.
You're in close proximity to the crystal clear waters of Lake Minnetonka where Prince and his crew play basketball in full club attire then drink from the aforementioned waters while eating pancakes following the game.
Here (possibly NSFW): http://vimeo.com/1720918
Edit: Sorry for the OT post, whenever I see/hear Minnetonka the first thing that comes to mind is the Chappelle show skit.
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I purchased longer than stock bolts for the rear. If you can get the bracket into the tab, apply a continuous force on the sway bar towards the front of the car while using a pliers and the longer bolts to pull the bracket into position.
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My initial post was just meant to inform others that may not have a ton of suspension knowledge (such as myself) and are trying to determine what, if anything they would like to do to try to improve their car's handling. Because of the simplicity and affordability this seems like a no brainer to me. I believe that a rear MK1 bar with bushings can be had for $120 shipped on Ebay right now. I also noticed yesterday that he had an auction with both bars and bushings for $240 shipped.
Since this has started to turn into a strut tower brace vs. sway bar debate I thought it would be beneficial to mention that I have the MK1 front and rear strut tower braces. Assuming that anyone is unfamiliar with them, they are rectangular shaped bars and connect the strut towers. They look pretty and are highly visible but in my opinion they made little if any noticeable difference in handling. I agree with some of the previous posters that it seems marketing is the driving force behind producing them. Maybe other strut brace styles are more beneficial...I'm not going to find that out though. Had I known that the braces would provide an insignificant benefit for me, I would have saved my money and purchased the sway bars and end-links. Possibly just the rear bar but I won't know until I get the front one on at a later date. Oh yeah, I rarely drive it like I stole it, but after getting the rear bar on it certainly provides more encouragement to do so.
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After I had mine installed it made a noticeable improvement. If a huge 500lb object in the car is more steady and doesn't wobble around you get better handling characteristics.
Is it possible that your stock mounts were worn and that is why you noticed the improvement?
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Glad you like them, I have the Suspension Techniques bars myself, noticed a big difference.
The same can also be said about poly engine mounts, huge improvement in handling.
Hmmm, I might have to look into the engine mounts. What is required for installation? I assume the engine must be lifted, is that correct? Do you have a link for these?
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This is one part of my car I've never really addressed, so this thread and this input is valuable. I mean I did the suspension thing a few years ago, but I never got around to "tuning" it for drivability and handling. I'll be sure to pick up a set of these sway bars.
I believe Addco and Suspension Techniques also manufacture sway bars for Starquests. I don't know the specs for those or type of material either manufacturer uses. I do believe that the MK1's are 25 mm for the front and 21 mm for the rear whereas stock might be ~21 mm for the front and ~18 mm for the rear. I am unsure as to what specific type of material the MK1's are composed of.
From what I found online (you, or most everyone may already know this):
larger bar diameter4/smaller bar diameter4 * 100 = percent change in stiffness
*Note: the "fours" are exponents
Assuming that my numbers are right for the stock diameter, stock vs aftermarket bars are solid (99.9999% certain they are) and composed of the exact same material (doubtful in my unprofessional opinion). So, on paper the front would provide a ~200.86% change in stiffness (two times stiffer) and the rear would provide ~185.26% change in stiffness (1.85 times stiffer). In the real world, the rear felt like it tightened up significantly and was very noticeable.
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strut tower braces don't do anything on these cars.
I agree. I can't say I noticed much, if any difference following the installation of my strut tower braces.
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Summary: Get larger diameter sway bars, poly end-links, and poly bushings. They are fairly simple to install and you will notice significantly better handling immediately!
I picked up a set of MK1 sway bars a while back and never got around to installing them because of some fairly recent health issues. My car had a hydraulic problem with the clutch so D_Venable came over today to help me with it. After we resolved the clutch problem we decided to throw the sway bars in. One of the mounting points for the front sway bar bushing seemed to be stripped so we decided to leave the front bar for a later time. We did wrestle with the rear bar for awhile and got it installed.
I've put about 10 miles on the car since then and all I can say is wow! When compared to my stock sway bar setup that has one year old Mitsu components it made a huge difference in the responsiveness, handling, and predictability in general. My car isn't heavily modded. In terms of suspension I have stock springs (130,000 miles on them), one year old KYB's at all four corners (~15,000 miles on them), and F/R strut tower braces. I don't have the aftermarket front sway bar installed yet and did not use poly bushings (just the end-links on the rear are poly). Still, in my opinion this is one of the best affordable mods for a Starquest. Especially in terms of suspension. Another thing worth noting is that the rear sway bar alone seems to provide much more of an improvement in handling than front and rear strut tower braces. I can't wait to see how the car handles with the upgraded front bar.
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That is very similar to how mine looked after I was "gently" rear ended while sitting at a stoplight last year. On my car, the bottom of the bumper cover and the fender had little or no gap depending on which side of the car you were looking at, and as you approached the taillight the gap between the fender and bumper cover increased. After being repaired, the gap between the rear fender and bumper cover was constant. I suppose in your case that it is possible the bumper is just sagging and is not a result of a crash.
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heres the secret for cheap poly endlink bushings... get the set from autozone for $13. all the set comes with is 8 bushings and 8 washers. they were in stock everytime i looked, its just the energy suspension generic pack. take both endlinks off the swaybar. leave one all stacked up on the bolt and take one apart(and preferrably take a wire wheel to all of your old hardware). lay the stock set along side the the new stack you create to see how much of the center spacer you need to remove to keep the same distance between the sets of bushings on each end. its about 1/4". grind the spacer down and trim the "nipple" or raised area on the new bushings where its appropriate. $13 + a very small amount of labor will get all the performance youll need.
Thanks for the tips Jesse. This will come in handy when I install these.
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yep, I hope to have it running and on the road within 2 months. I should be getting a call about the title soon, and the motor is at the machine shop getting bored out .030 and the pistons/connecting rods assembled, so I should have that back within a week or two.
Suspension will hopefully get buttoned up this weekend, weld perches onto both rears and mod the pass front strut. Plus I gotta get a measurement for custom rear brake lines.
Then I need to build the bumper supports for both ends, mount the radiator, mount the intercooler, finish the floorboards, do a couple patches in the engine bay, route the 89 engine harness in and get it connected to the 85 chassis harness, finish interior panels, rear seat boxed in for battery and sub(s), swap drivers door, locate good hatch struts, get speakers, install radio, etc.
the main thing I want to do though is get it on the road, I can do without a radio for a while, as that can be weekend projects after it's running.
That is quite the list. It is going to be a sweet car once you get those "minor" details completed!
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Your car is gonna be nuts! You have to give me a ride in this thing when you get it back on the road! BTW, what kind of exotics did you smoke before you put it away last year?
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Wow Derek, that is some impressive work! Are you going to have this on the road by spring/summer time?
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end link kits are 6.99 for the front and 10.99 for the rear at autozone, and as far as my local one is concerned, they have them in stock.
Do you happen to know the part numbers for the end links? Does anybody know the Energy Suspension part numbers for the bushings?
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well I'm looking at upgrading and finally getting txt/data but i cant decide on a phone. i have used and love the droid more than anything else they have to offer. but everyone is telling me that they are coming out with a whole new line of phones in December. i cant find anything on the Internet to support this but has anyone herd anything about it what are the phones supposed to be like?
also does anyone have the DROID what do you think of it?
This might help:
http://www.mobiledia.com/carriers/verizon/page1.html
Edit: Or not, it looks like the Q4 phones on mobiledia are all available on Verizon's website. Might want to hold out a little bit and keep an eye on that website.
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My vacuum caps on my wastegate keep cracking from heat. I've used the HELP brand that you'd find at Napa, Autozone, etc. but I'm tired of replacing them every few months. Is there a better type of vacuum cap to use?
I used these and haven't had any issues with them deteriorating or popping off in about 7500 miles of driving. They are fairly soft because they are made of silicone.
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PM sent
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An oil change.
http://mitsustyle.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24213
There ya go, hope you can make it. Even if you don't dyno, it's a good time for all, cheap food and soda.
I will probably come to this if I am able to.
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electrical help...headlights, horn, and cigarette lighter dont work.
in Virtual Mechanic
Posted
I know this is an old thread, so I hope to see at a minimum a combination of 2-3 comments pertaining to how old it is such as "bringing this one back from the dead" and hopefully at least one clever original comment.
All jokes aside, there has been a lot of excellent technical information from other members in this thread which hopefully solved your problem along with assisting many others in the process.
At the very least I'm hoping that my experience with what sounds like the same or similar problem may be of benefit if anyone else finds this thread and is in need of a solution.
I encountered head lights that only worked for a brief amount of time after turning them on. Then, my horn and cigarette lighter would not work either. The light for the lighter socket also went out if I recall correctly. Those problems were resolved when I fixed my cigarette lighter by properly securing it.
The lighter socket has a small internally threaded ring that screws onto the back of the lighter cylinder which secures the assembly in place. The ring on mine came unscrewed and the assembly was not secure.
This single issue seemed to be the root cause of my persistent problems. Presumably, this was causing a short in the wiring. After threading the ring onto the back of the cylinder the problem went away.
To thread the ring onto the cylinder is simple and straightforward but can be somewhat challenging as there is limited space. The good news is that it is not necessary to tear apart the dash or console.
I removed the ash tray completely and was able to get a portion of my hand into the vacant area. I moved my fingers down the wire running behind the lighter until I located the ring. Then, I worked the ring up the wire to position it into place on the back of the lighter cylinder.
At that point I was able to thread it onto the back of the cylinder which secured the lighter assembly in place. Following that, my problem ceased to exist.