RA65 Celica - the wedge of cheese

[Norbie]

Today's mission was to take stock of the brake related parts I have and make a call as to whether the rear disc conversion is going ahead. First I needed to confirm if the calipers I acquired on the weekend are the right ones. Here they are next to the ones from my Supra:



They look identical so far as I can tell. Also pictured are the EBC pads I pulled out of the Supra, they have plenty of life in them yet so I'll re-use them in the Celica.

I also confirmed that the EBC pads I'd had on the shelf for well over a decade are the right ones:


Looks perfect, so I have a new set I can put in the Supra and a used set I can put in the Celica. Nice!

The most important part of the puzzle is the control arms (which I'm pretty sure I bought off Paul Pyyvaara many moons ago), they're a bit rusty and dirty but still seem to be intact and the hubs turn freely:



Even the bushes don't look too bad, so I might just throw them in as is with new brake rotors and rebuilt calipers?

One of the control arms had an old brake rotor on it, obviously it's rusted to shit but still intact:



I was able to measure it and confirm the RDA listing matches. It does so I ordered a new pair, once they arrive I'll get started on the conversion. The control arms cleaned up OK after a quick blast with the pressure washer, I'm not going to bother with a full on resto like I did with the Celica, it's really just surface rust and no worse than what's already on the car.

[Norbie]

Another thing I need to figure out is the brake bias, which is obviously going to be different with rear disc vs drum. Here's the master cylinder on the Celica:



And the Supra:



Comparing the two it's interesting to see that the master cylinder itself is quite different (and way cleaner on the Supra!), but the biggest difference is that the brake line on the end of the master cylinder goes directly to the T junction on the Supra where it splits off to the front brakes, but on the Celica that line goes to a separate valve thing just below the master cylinder before connecting to the T junction. I assume that valve thing is the proportioning valve for the drums and I need to get rid of it? Can anyone confirm if that sounds right?

[japlish]

Yeah the master never changed between rear drum or disc versions, just the prop valve is installed on the drum setups

[Norbie]

Yeah that's kind of what I figured after staring at it for ages. I'm hoping I can just remove the valve and bend the lines around so they connect directly to the master instead, then profit?

[piss98]

There might also be a check valve/residual pressure valve in the line somewhere.

[schnitzelburger]

There might also be a check valve/residual pressure valve in the line somewhere.

plus one, for remove little rubber vagina cuz drums

[andy_wk]

I'd pull the speedo gear, count teeth, then figure out the maths. This looks a (hopefully) helpful resource: https://www.celicasupra.com/threads/...estions.67982/

[piss98]

Oh and agree with above, if it's a sticky cable it will jump around, yours sounds more gear related as mentioned. I have a sticky cable on my to do list, sits nice at some speeds and bounces about at others as the cable binds and unbinds inside the sleeve. I am just going to give the "clean it in the car" approach a crack by flushing it from top to bottom with some WD to clear the crud (and using a drill to spin it and help move shit) then pump aerosol lithium grease in to it until it runs out the bottom (again with the drill).

[Ribfeast]

Had the same speedo cable issue on my old 1JZ cressida but never bothered fixing it. Can't remember if there was a separate feed on the transmission that the ECU got its info from so it knew when to tell the auto to shift.

[PITS]

I would put an extra ac fan on the front of the condensor and leave the clutch fan.... I find clutch fans work so much better than thermo fans....

[Norbie]

I generally agree, but my clutch fan seems to be defective.

[Norbie]

Today was the day to install the coilover hardware, but things did not go as planned. It started out fine though, I pulled out the struts and disassembled them:





Then measured the struts I just pulled out of the Supra to get an idea of where I should weld the new threaded sleeves onto the strut tube:



Then the point of no return, cutting the spring perches off:





It was at this point everything went wrong. I did a test fit of the threaded sleeves, and I discovered much to my surprise and annoyance that I'd been sent a mismatched pair. One had a 51mm ID (which is what I ordered) but the other one was 50mm! It took me a while to figure out what was going wrong because they look totally identical, it's only when you measure the ID you can spot the 1mm of difference. Unfortunately that 1mm is enough to prevent that sleeve from slipping on, and no amount of persuasion was going to get it on there. I don't have any way of boring out that sleeve to 51mm (oh to have a lathe) so I'm basically stuck now. I was planning to take the car on a cruise next week but it doesn't look like that's going to happen now, the car isn't moving off the hoist until I can get a replacement sleeve!

I'm really kicking myself because I did measure one of the sleeves before I started to be absolutely certain everything was going to fit together how I planned, but of course the one I picked out of the box was the one that actually was the right size, and it didn't occur to me to measure the second identical looking part. I guess I should have though?

Anyway I'll call the place I ordered them from on Monday, there's a small chance they could get me a replacement sent out from Yatala before the weekend but I wouldn't bet on it.

[PXL265]

Prep the century for the run next Sunday then......

That is certainly one way to fuck your day up.

Hopefully the phonecall on Monday is better than a strongly worded email and they sort you out quickly.

[Norbie]

Yeah I have plenty of other cars I can take, but I wanted to take this one dammit!

There will be a polite but firm phone call first thing Monday morning, hopefully they do the right thing and send me the correct parts, but we shall see.

[Norbie]

Since the car is stuck on the hoist for now I figured I might as well knock off a few little jobs. I've got some new suspension bushes on order so it will be a good opportunity to do that, and I'm also having serious thoughts about swapping in that Supra LSD.

It was pretty hot in the shed over the weekend so I didn't get a huge amount done, but I did manage to get a fan installed for the AC condensor:



It's just a little one, it came with the oil cooler I bought for the Supra and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but it's perfect for this application. I think it's a puller fan but I've got it wired up in reverse, still seems to push plenty of air. It's wired up with a relay and integrated fuse, but I haven't got it hooked up to the AC system yet - the plan is to have it come on at the same time the compressor, so I have to find the circuit that makes that happen. Shouldn't be too hard to do. I'm hoping this makes the AC work a lot better when sitting in traffic.