Matt's S12

I gotta replace the rubber on the drive shaft support bearing, make that solid.
Install my solid rear sub frame, and install a semi-solid trans mount.

I've noticed that while accelerating in lower gears, that I can feel the trans actually pulling down through the shifter... So I'm loosing torque there and that's no good!

hmm, wonder what could have caused that

rubber mount might be really bad, they tend to shear apart rather easy under heavy load...

I haven't inspected it since I installed it way back when I bought it from you.
It's probably gone soft and might be broken now, but either way it's time for a better solution!

seishukuI'm hoping soon... Seems like every time I get some extra cash, some bill pops up and takes it away!
It's pissing me off... lol

New trans mount!
(https://i.imgur.com/4gPudnP.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/2G4ppUn.jpg)

More noise, but the shifter and trans hardly move now, all vibration dampening is done by the dog bone's rubber bushings.

Now to figure out a fix for the drive shaft support bearing rubber...

SprockCapnI like the new mounting of the fog lights too.

solid driveshaft...

lol ya thats an easy solution man

1 piece shaft

Eventually yea, but I gotta do what I can with what materials I have on hand (scrap material from work), keep it on the cheap.

That mount was a piece of poly plastic we had at work, just happened to have the right drilling and all I had to do was split it and grab a few bolts and hardware.

hmm

I bet the best solutin would be to ship you a lower mi unit out of a car out here.  my time is super limited, but I'll let the other members know.  just grab the front half of the driveshaft, and swap.  the part itself is $18 here...

Oh, if I'm gonna replace it, it'll be with a brand new bearing and bushing ($60 later).
But I have a plan to replace the rubber part, I just need to take some measurements.

Edit:
Actually, there's a separate part number for the rubber piece: 37525-W1010
It's only $10, but I'd rather make a solid plastic piece.

Edit 2:
Hm, maybe not... I guess that's just a rubber cushion that goes around the rubber on the bearing. WTF?

60bucks for both is a pretty good price...

all I know, the ones i remember from out there were pretty rotted together, even though yours is not original to the area, it has suffered thru enough winters to likely be an issue...?

I donno, it looks to be pretty decent enough... It's not BAD per se, just more slop than I would like. I'm pretty sure I could pull it apart with out any issues.

The big problem is unbolting the shaft from the diff... I've tried to get those bolts loose, but I just can't get a wrench or socket on them.

It's 3am here, and I just finished installing the welded diff...
I couldn't get one of the stays to come off, so I was only able to remove one half shaft.
Obviously this made things about 150% more difficult, but I managed.

One of the bolts are frozen solid, I think I may have to replace the control arm. Eek.

the control arm bolt being frozen is normal, even if its in good shape.  the best way I found going about it is to carefully (if possible) grind off both ends of the nut/bolt combo, remove the control arm, burn/press out the bushing, and reinstall with new bushing/bolt.  thats how I've removed them before...

This I also did 2 months ago and it's a big headache. Good luck with it.

I mean the forward bolt that holds the shock bracket on, it's locked solid... I'm going to try soaking it in some pen. oil and see if it'll free it up, otherwise I'll just break the bolt and weld a new nut on the control arm.
Though I do still have the one control arm that I got from you Sterling, it's the same side (driver's), so maybe I'll press out the cut bolts in that and just swap the arms. I donno.

I just drove it with welded diff... Didn't even notice it at first. Tight corners are a little harder to turn, but maybe I'm just used to that with out power steering.
Like Waylon said, just give it a little more gas.

fuck yes hahaha

hey about that sending unit fix... will the gas eat that rubber washer? can you explain it a lil more im dumb hahaha...and what did you do about the other hole how did you seal it? oo oo and where did you get the stuff to fix it LOL,... i need to fix my sending unit or get another and it soo had to get a new one.. Thanks!!!

I was kinda wondering myself if the gas would kill the rubber you used.  I'm sure you could find a rubber/silicon one that is gas-resistant though.

Yeah, it's just rubber and it'll swell from the gas and eventually rot out. But I'm not sure if they make the same parts only in nitrile rubber.

It should be ok for the most part, it's not constantly in direct contact with the gas.

I got all the bits from Menards, but I'm pretty sure most hardware stores would carry the parts.

I just did the same setup on the other hole, it's just one for positive and one for negative on the pump.

good shit I need to weld my diff as well

Got a neat front suspension trick for you go-fast guys:
Take the tension rod assembly apart, swap and reverse the bushings, and flip around the large washers, then reassemble.

What does this do? Well, the two bushings that make up the rod assembly are two different thicknesses, so if you place the thicker one on the rod end (towards the rear of the car) it will push the caster slightly more positive. And the large washers? Well, that will just tighten thing up, keeping things more solid.

Neat huh?

I was getting sick of my S12's high speed stability, so I was looking for a quick fix (seeing if the bushings were shot), and noticed that one was thicker than the other.

Results? Well, let's just say it will return to near straight by it's self now (quickly too), and it's VERY stable at 90+.
I can actually cruise at highway speeds with out having to constantly correct it.

I'm sure new bushings would be a bit stiffer and would help out, but I'm cheap. Even though they're only $10 each.

Matt, did you ever find anything out for that driveshaft issue?  I'm looking to improve my car's performance quite a bit in the next month or so, and will need to either get another driveshaft, or get a one piece, unless your fix could work for me too.

Or you can run with these new amazing bushings that bart sent me, I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm not off for a few days, but I think I might swap them sometime soon to see.

XanoMatt, did you ever find anything out for that driveshaft issue?  I'm looking to improve my car's performance quite a bit in the next month or so, and will need to either get another driveshaft, or get a one piece, unless your fix could work for me too.

ArroOr you can run with these new amazing bushings that bart sent me, I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm not off for a few days, but I think I might swap them sometime soon to see.

It was raining a lot here just now, so I figure "hey, why not make a pit stop at the old mall parking lot?"... Well, I guess either I really suck ass at drifting, or my tires have way too much grip.

It was an old worn cement parking lot, so it's really rough, which doesn't help much. Heh.

matt, asphalt works best, i stick to cement in rain, light snow, and dry conditions with my super bald tires.

gotta hit up like a huge asphalt kmart parking lot or somethin.

That's what sucks, we don't really have any big open parking lots that I could just rip around in... At least none that I wouldn't get in trouble with.

And they are all the crusty cement lots here too, hardly anything is asphalt.
It sucks, because I'm trying to get use to this welded diff, and I'm somewhat afraid of spinning out, though it's not as easy as I was thinking.

seishukuI'm somewhat afraid of spinning out

Oh, trust me, I don't have grip issues in rain... The only thing these tires aren't sticky in, is snow.

I'll probably toss on the alloy rims with the junk tires (nearly bald from the burnout pit last year) and try again later.

On another note, I need to put the other radiator fan on I have, I hit 200F in no time with the fan on, just screwing around for a few minutes.

Power steering redux:

Oh well, those are still o-ring seal fittings, and not the correct saginaw type fittings that it should have (I'll get those later).

i pretty much learned to drift in the rain in a low power car, its so easy to stick it where you need to, even dropping the outside tire in a ditch  but, definitely smoother surfaces are easier to control the car on

howre you liking the ps? the s12 doesnt have much angle stock, you could put some lockwashers on the inners to increase angle and effectively, quicken the ratio, aswell. i put some on mine a long time ago and they help out.

im curious how long the welded r180 will last with your power levels, i havent broken mine yet though with a stock ka

I do kinda miss PS, but I *just* put it back on and I'm still getting used to it again.

With my style driving, I haven't really needed more angle. I might do that when I rebuild some of the front end (new bushing and ball joints).

Well, the way I welded the diff, it should transfer more of the energy to the diff housing, since I didn't just weld the gears together, I also welded them to the housing.
So I'll probably strip the ring gear or pinion first, but I'm fairly sure I'll destroy the transmission before that happens.

It begins...

I must've missed something where is that from?

Full S13 rear suspension (minus coilovers) I picked up from Jay.

looks promising, lets see if you can pull it off

It'll be interesting, since I daily drive the car.
I don't think it'll be TOO hard if I do a little at a time.
Leaving the stock suspension in place, working the S13 adaption around it, since I plan on adapting the chassis to the new setup.

I got an idea of how I'm going to do it in my head, but the sus needs a little work. Brakes, rotors, ball joints, otherwise it's in pretty awesome shape.

I didn't realize that the R200 was so big, compared to the R180.

Interesting info about S13 rear brakes, they're the same model caliper as the S12, but the caliper bracket (the part with the slide pins) is a little different.
It's mount pads are flat compared to the S12's, which are raised (about 1/2"), and the S12's bracket dips in a little near the piston in the middle.

However, S13 rear rotors are identical and so are the pads.

So that means we can use the Z32 rear brake conversion just like the S13, it's just that we would have to space out the caliper to get the same alignment (washers or a nice aluminum spacer).

I think the only probably would be that the Z32 rear brakes might have the same stopping power as the stock S12 fronts, so I donno how that would work out. Heh.

seishukuFull S13 rear suspension (minus coilovers) I picked up from Jay.

not to mention, z32's having a drum ebrake, so would have to go hydro somehow

That's true.
Though IIRC someone on here mounted a drum backing plate to the IRS control arm, by drilling and tapping it for the proper bolt pattern. I still don't know if I would trust it, but I suppose it works.

Good luck on the rear end conversion. That is definitely a project (but well worth it).

Oh yea, very worth it.

And hey, if I don't end up doing this on the S12, I'll build up a super gokart or buggy on it!

Taking some preliminary measurements, it's actually not too far off.

While the two suspensions have the same track width, the front mounts on the S13 frame are about 5" more narrow than the S12, and the front mount to axle center line has a difference of about 3.5".
Which completely misses the torque box for the front mounts, it does seem to nicely line it up with a rear cross support on the unibody.

Probably what I will end up doing, is removing the torque box up front and weld in a small C channel or square tubing, then do something similar out back depending on how much spacing it needs. Otherwise it'll just be a bolt through the support member.

Bigger issues would include drive shaft, and strut towers.

Nice thing about the S13 setup, is that the mount points don't need to be super strong, since it's distributed across four points. Unlike the S12 where it's only two points that take all the twisting force and using the diff for a stress member, really lame.

shit.

you pull this off, that will be def. pimp status.  esp on your dd!

I'd say you were crazy to try this, but I know you can do it tho haha  

gl man!  lmk if you happen to need any rustless s13 parts,

Thanks man.
Yea, I'm still crazy though.

Actually, if you can keep your eyes out for some S13 rear strut towers, that would help. I don't remember if they're just spot welded in, like the fronts, I was going to try to find a part number and see what the price is.