8/6/10

ill also be here tomorrow! if youve got a corolla and are in norcal, better show up!
gotta few things to do to get ready for this meet and for the drift event coming up, so back to work..

August 17th

Adrian and I will be there.

John won't =(

Update 08/13/2010: Adrian will NOT be there--that asshole!

Just kidding on the asshole part haha.

rear end woes

sorry i didnt update like i said i was going to.

i did finish the last job, test drove it and everything was fine...here it is sitting afterwards.

back up to pull the diff:

old 4.3 out and everything..

now, for the nightmare. my plan was to put in the 6 month used 4.778 with all new koyo bearings. this is a long story. skip the text enclosed by stars for a too long; didnt read version below.

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just recieved it back here from nikki hes a great guy that ive known for a while and he really knows his stuff when it comes to setting up diffs, he did my cousin's and friend's before and they are perfect..

i was pretty excited. but i shouldnt have been. as soon as i take it out for a VERY QUICK test drive...its HOWLING like crazy! I pull back into my garage almost immediately. FUCK! i was so frustrated. the howling was so bad it wasn't simply something you can live with in a track car. i immediately knew it was the ring and pinion. but just to be sure, i took it on over to weir performance in american canyon.
i talked to spence for a bit and he told me that it was most likely the ring and pinion...i was calm and let the guy who sold it to me know. he was responsive and so i was happy about that. spence told me that i could keep it as a track only car, but theres no way i wanted to do that, the howling was just way too bad.
i called up nikki and let him know, and he also agreed that i could keep it as a track car, but he could take it back in one more time to be absolutely sure that it wasnt a setup problem.

Took it back to nikki, and he vigorously tested the ring and pinion setup and checked over his work. yup, everything within spec. backlash was set to .006in in multiple spots, 13 inch lbs preload on the rear pinion bearing, and good gear mesh. gears didnt look great though so he double checked the runout and the backlash...no good! the r&p was infact bad. it was worn unevenly! nikki fixed a little bit of the runout, and set backlash back to .007in still within fsm spec to maybe have it be less loud.
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TL;DR VERSION: 3rd member recieved back, hows like crazy. r&p suspected to be bad. return to have the setup double checked and it checks out good, the problem is in fact the r&p, diff re-setup to looser specs but still within factory limits.


i tried this new setup today, it still howls pretty bad but i can see it being liveable as a track car. but thats not what i wanted however. i bought a r&p that was supposedly only 6 months old and 'didnt howl or whine at all'. not happy with this setup at all, but buying a new r&p and paying second installation is going to run me 455 dollars. going to be very hard to afford. i have asked the guy for my money back for the r&p, and ill be waiting to see if he will come through. hopefully he does as he is a nice guy and has been responsive so far. but i dropped the question finally just a few minutes ago now that i know for sure it was the r&p, and you never can really know how people will act once you want your money back.


if the guy gives me back my money, i will buy a new r&p, and have it re-set up.
if he does not, i will RUNIT the way it is. according to nikki, it is possible that the uneven wear will fix itself with these new settings, but unlikely, the most will probably happen is the howling will slightly be reduced. if i hear the gears getting worse, i will pull it and buy a new ring and pinion asap.

i will keep people updated on what the guy says. lesson learned. just buy new when it comes to important things like this.

so yeah thats what ive been doing for those past days i didnt post. dealing with that nightmare of a rear end...

Backtrack

Got a chance to post.

-Last Saturday I was excited to put on my front bumper.



Bye Bye Chuki Bumper... hello BN.







Excuse the front wheel fitment and the lack of a aftermarket rear bumper. I still need to make some custom lower fender brackets, since the stock ones are hella flimsy. The bumper is making my fender flare out a bit.

-So this past week we were testing out a new clear "Tran-star" a European clear.

Results:





Looks sweet and the customer was definitely happy too.

-Friday morning: So I was rearranging cars around and when it came to moving my co-worker's Low-rider down the drive way and next to the gate, I practically failed:

1) Didn't know how to use the hydraulics cause the car was tripoding on the driveway. So no traction since the wheel was just spinning in the air.

2) Car Died on me cause the battery was weak. Not only that, the car is hella long it took up half the street and driveway. So embarrassed since hella people had to drive around. Felt stupid.

3) Since its an old car, the way you open the hood is a little tricky and obviously I failed on opening the hood and being able to charge the battery. So it was stuck for a while.

But I got the car up by using the car pusher, shit is so heavy and it sucks being the only one at the shop in the mornings too.

The Low Low:



The Driveway:



I hate this driveway.

k sleep. Fishing tomorrow with the Pops and Uncle at 5AM.

Stoked!

I was finally able to get my bumper painted and my lower tail light panel. Can't wait to slap them on tomorrow morning before I head down to San Jose to see my lady.



Hope this shit last. My Co-workers were joking around saying that they give it a week that the bumper will last on my car. (shit knock on wood)

At Work!

It's 7:00AM.

chad bro chill

Been super busy lately looking for housing in san jose so i got stuck from doing work to the car...but i finally found a place only a block from school. im excited about that. so today i got some work done.

changed front wheel bearings

 dropped the transmission and pressed a new throwout bearing on

changed the rear main seal and pilot bearing..

the old rear main was leaking like crazy, the old pilot felt like grinding metal to metal when turned haha. the balls of wet newspaper are what i used to get the pilot bearing out. what could have taken 5 seconds if the local parts store had a smaller slide hammer pick took 1 hour using newspaper. fuckkkk

well ok a little bit of this work was from the past few days of this week (front bearings).. but most of it today. just have to put the transmission and driveshaft back up and everything will crusin cooooool

but. heres my special surprise. COPPED this shit yesterday in sf from a dude named martin, he knew gaylord and chris (BATTLESWING, old school corolla crew)

4.778 ring and pinion, BAM ROBOCOPPED DAT ASS MOTHERFUCKER

 so ive got some more work to do in the next few days...cant wait to shakedown this setup. expect another post soon, weve all been having somethings upcoming with our cars.

one last thing, i know its not that much, but we hit 1000 views the other day! the counter was put a few months after we made the blog but some of those 1000 views are ourselves when we go on to post hahaha.

BUT NONE OF YOU GAYS COMMENT! LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! TELL US HOW WACK WE ARE! TELL US HOW RAD WE ARE AND HOW WE MAKE YOU CREAM YOUR PANTS! TELL US HOW WERE DOING IT WRONG! theres no way all of us from team Jameson have solely accumulated 1000 views, i dont check this shit everyday! but i will if you guys comment! thanks for reading!