Matt's back! With a new Celica...

Thanks Bempa, its 8G2 - Ice Blue Metallic

 

Starter relay mod installed today. Car now starts first turn of the key. Did not catch fire. Winning.

 

oh dear... honestly, it's such a cheap mod and it really doesn't take long to do, I can't fathom why anyone would bodge it like that... I mean it would almost take longer to do a bad job

 

This weekends work - fix the cooling issues. Ever since I've had the car, after 30-40 minutes of driving (or about 15 on a 30+ degree summer day) the temp gauge starts heading to the Hot end of the scale and its either time to park it or turn the heater on. It does not like sitting in traffic, it does not like hills, and it does not like going more than about 90km/h. The coolant is clean and it doesn't seem to burn any so I'm pretty sure the head is OK and it just needs a new radiator. So here it is, a 32mm dual-core copper Koyo job:



Pulled the thermo housing (which is a prick of a job, btw - the alternator and lower radiator hose have to come off, and a uni-joint socket used to get to the bottom nut). This is what greeted me



The old "thermostat":



The old rad had several holes in it:



Potato-quality pic comparing the thickness of the old rad to the new one:



Here's another of the minor and incredibly annoying differences between the ST and SX models - the mounting points on the top of the fan shrouds are different. Had to pilfer the fans off the parts car:



Threw it all back together, took it for a nice long test drive, temp gauge sat nailed on about 11 o'clock the entire way . Just before I got home though it started making some screeching noises from the alternator pulley. Oh well, that'll be next weeks job hahaha

Here's a somewhat nice pic that you can't see the terrible paintwork or how dirty it is. Needs more low though

 

Looking at that last picture I have just realised that I'm missing the black trim strip between the rear wheel and rear bumper on the right side of the car. I've had the car for 18 months and never noticed hahahahahaha

 

Funny you should say that, in Australia Celica's have always had the tag "hairdressers cars" hahahaha

Suspension work coming in the next few months, watch this space

 

I'm comfortable with my mid-life crisis purchases, lol

 

Yeah it was parked facing uphill with the left wheels dropped off the edge of the road. New suspension coming soon!

 

Lol, it hasn't been out of the garage for the two weeks since the last pic, so about the same. Slightly more dusty, maybe

 

Alternator rebuild fail

My alternator started making some bearing noise a few weeks ago, I squirted some oil into the front bearing to shut it up but then the charge light came on the dash a few days later so it was time to come out. I swapped in a used spare to keep me going and bought a rebuild kit from www.aspwholesale.com. There are two kits listed on the website for a 1988 Celica, I went by the part number on the outer case of my alternator to ensure I was ordering the correct one. The kit comes with front and rear bearings, brushes, insulators and voltage regulator. Pretty good value for $US60 + shipping (here in Oz a brand new Denso alternator will run you ~$350)



Using the Big Green Book and a very helpful YouTube video which I'll link below, I started to pull it apart. The outer cover screws all came out pretty easy and the pulley came off with the aid of a rattle gun. The slip rings look in pretty good shape, which is lucky because I'd be up for a new rotor assembly if they weren't:



The brushes were rooted. Old vs new:



The front bearing retainer screws put up a fight but I won eventually with the assistance of a heat gun. However, progress ended once I pressed the bearing out. New bearing vs old bearing - close but no cigar:



I don't blame the supplier, its likely the bearings in the kit are the correct ones for an 88 Celica, but like so many other things on a 30 year old car thats had a lot of owners and a lot of maintenance/repairs, I'm guessing someone has mixed & matched alternator bits at some point to piece together a working one. Off to eBay now to order a new set of bearings that are the same part numbers as the ones in it currently.

Here's that YouTube vid:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqvTHJVQU5g