Getting Rid of the Gas Smell

After the slightly colder weather forced me to roll up my windows for the first time since the car has moved on it's own, I realized that the smell of gas from the trunk was nearly coma-inducing. I temporarily fixed the issue by sealing up the speaker holes in the rear deck. To attack the actually problem, I inspected the vent tube in the trunk. As with all early 02s, the tube just runs from the filler neck to a little hole at the rear of the trunk to vent outside. As with many early 02s, the little grommet that holds the tube in place and prevents fumes from re-entering the trunk has disappeared. Not satisfied with merely fabricating a new grommet to replace the NLA one, I mimicked the later 2002 models' carbon-fume-capture system.

First I bought a bottle of fish tank filter activated charcoal, some 3/8" - 1/4" tubing, a few 1/4" brass fittings, some JB Kwik, two brackets, two 3"-5" plumbing hose clamps and a quart-sized paint can.

Next, I drilled a hole in the lid and the can.

I then glued the fittings in from the inside and filled the can with the charcoal pellets.

I snapped the lid onthe can with the above orientation.

While I was waiting on the glue to dry, I pop-riveted the brackets together. I later expanded the 90 degrees bracket to be a little more obtuse.

I bolted the bracket to the existing hardware in the trunk.

Next, I cut the vent tube off just a few inches from the filler neck.

I then ran the tubing as seen above. The bottom tube runs to the original exit hole, but sticks out a bit further.

E21 Rear Brakes and Some New Bearings

After one of the orignal 1600 CV boots cracked I realized that I needed to upgrade to the much more abusable 2002 halfshafts over the weaker 1600 units. A bolt pattern difference required the swapping of the passenger side stub axle, which led to bearing replacement. Marshall Lytle (with the blinding white aura) brought over his expensive and awesome BMW bearing installation tool.

I also took the opportunity to fix and adjust my emergency brake handle. The thrust bearings really tighten up the movement in the handle.

Also, Jay managed to detain/entertain himself.



Sort of Custom Air Cleaner

I never really liked that the Weber carburetor's K&N filter had a lot less filter area than a stock air filter. The stock air cleaner setup also offers use of the cold-air "snorkel". While I'm not entirely sure how much efficiency and/or power the slightly colder air gives the engine, I like utilizing the stock setup. Also, even though I'll be swapping this all out for the EFI manifold in a few months, I like the aesthetics of the stock equipment, too.

So, Jay and I cut a big hole in the underside of the stock air cleaner and cut an adapter plate form a piece of ahem found flat aluminum.

Rear Spring Pads and Some Serious Camber

I noticed that my rear wheels seemed to lean in quite a bit, giving me way more camber back there than I need. Since 1600s and 2002s have no camber adjustment built into the suspension, I was informed that ride height was the only means of adjustment. Grice had a good used set of "2 dot" spring pads, so I swapped tehm to find that my existing spring pads were really thin and kind of torn up. I also found that my existing pads had no "dot" rating.

Before:

After:

No more ridiculous camber and no bottoming out when backing out of a driveway.

Trigger Wheel Blues

A few weeks ago, the car started runnng horribly. Backfires and stumbling at idle pointed to a timing issue, but EDIS is known for being all but bulletproof. After rewiring the ignition system and swapping out the ignition module, coil pack, plugs and wires, I moved onto the carb. After two carb rebuilds, a few new fuel filters and a strong consideration of the use of goat's blood, chicken bones and a witch doctor, I was at my wit's end.

As a last resort, I pulled the crank pulley off to check the trigger wheel up close. To my surprise, I found that the wheel was loose.

The JB Weld had finally let go. I readjusted the wheel and added a nice, thick filet of JB Weld to resecure it.

After weeks of poor idling, the car now runs smooooothly again. On to air conditioning and EFI!

Battery Mount

Tom Rafalski made this great underseat battery mount. the battery is a Miata-sized WestCo dry-cell unit. The cable is made to mount the battery on the passenger side, but I only figured that out after I already grounded the batter on the driver side. The mount is really nice stainless steel with a CNC'd hold-down and it came with all the cabling and hardware. Watch for these at http://www.02again.com/ soon.

Readying for Another Roadtrip

A few weeks ago, the car developed a pretty serious misfire and idled like a drag car. I mean that in the worst possible way. Every symptom felt like a timing mishap, which meant that my distributorless ignition system would have to have a fault somewhere.

So, Jay and I dove in.

First, Jay rewired the entire EDIS harness. I originally wired it in another car and the harness looked like a third grader's science project. Jay did a great job replacing it and, though I'm glad that it's really solid now, the car retained it's Rain Man-esque stutter. After buying a new coil pack, we again saw no change.

Finally, we noticed that the clear fuel filter had about a teaspoon of bottom-of-the-tank rust. After some advice that a lean condition can cause a backfire, Jay pulled the top off of the carb and gave the jets a quick cleaning. Instant improvement. I ordered a rebuild kit for the carb and cleaned the whole thing out this afternoon. The result is that the car runs as it should; smooooooothly. I can only imagine how electronic fuel injection will run. Stay tuned for that.

It's good to know that the electronic distributorless ignition system (EDIS) hasn't skipped a beat in three years of operation. Even with a carburetor, it's really worth running.

UPDATE: Roadtrip Fail.

About 20 minutes into a roadtrip to Wisconsin, the car began overheating and running rough again. I cleaned the carb twice before conceding defeat and packing everything into the Toyota. I am currently working with a few local guys to root out the problem.