Cool. I'll try to get some bolts in the next couple evenings and see if I can get things mocked up and then pull the bearings.

I forgot all about this. It's been a bit of an adventure around here recently. I've actually had thoughts of selling the car at this point. I'm not sure what I'd buy next, but I'm sorta in the mood for a new adventure.

You had to daily it for a week so now you're bored!

I see that lol no problem I will get new ones for now

I still have spare bearings. Let me see if I can get to the garage tomorrow. I don't think I have anything too exciting going on.

There have been some changes to the car recently....

I had an older version of the UMI rear swaybar that was a little too tight with the coil overs mounted "spring down". The bar design was changed when the coil overs came out. And I had been talking to Ryan about spring rates and the changes they have been making. The discussion turned to doing some spring rate and swaybar testing on the convertible. Ultimately, I filled it up with fuel and dropped it off with the UMI team so they could play with it while I was on vacation. Normally I don't leave cars with shops, but considering the company it was in...I had no worries about leaving it with the UMI guys.

It has a new rear sway bar and new spring rates on the front and rear, we raised the ride height a little bit and swapped on the 2 point SFCs (we don't have the nicest roads in Ohio and I have to deal with a couple particularly bad parking lots and HUGE speed bumps regularly...and I had the car too low to clear easily). It had a bent spindle so new (new to me/used) spindles went on since it was going to be apart and the Stoptech brakes went on with the spindles. The UMI crew is a dedicated group of gearheads that truly love this stuff. They went above and beyond. They even washed the car. I felt bad about that...because I've been a bit slow to wash the car myself.

The car is better balanced. It rides very well, even with the increased spring rate. The car feels good and I think it's likely a faster autocross car than my previous 2002 Z28 that I used to run years ago. The car was good before, but now it's great. My wife drove it and she was pleased with the ride and handling and that it's still easy to drive. It's not nervous or snappy, the brakes aren't grabby. It just goes....quickly. Sadly, I've now accidentally assembled a hell of a track car....without a roof. Oops. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

I hope I'm allowed to share this next part. I don't think I'm letting out any company secrets.

Ryan also gave me a personal tour of the UMI facility. I'm truly impressed. I didn't realize exactly what they manufacture in house....which is basically "everything". They cnc bend tubing, they use cnc lathes and mills to turn the pivot parts of the roto-joints, they machine delrin, they manufacture their own tube ends to thread rod ends into steel tubing to make control arms and such. Powdercoating is done in house as well. This isn't a couple guys welding up stuff in their basement (I think we all knew that), but seeing the scope of the UMI operation and the equipment they have on hand...impressive is an understatement. I met the other engineers on staff (they have more than one) and some other members of the UMI team. I told my wife "If this telecom job ever falls apart, I'm going to work for Ryan and team UMI". Now I'm starting to mean it. What a great facility and a great group of people. Ryan has built a truly impressive company and he knows that a company is based on people. He treats his people extremely well and I just can't say enough good things about my visit to the toy shop at UMI and the great people I met while I was there. And the in house design and manufacturing capabilities are truly impressive and far beyond anything I had imagined.

Heh, there's a shop near me, that I've said similar things about to my wife. The flying monkeys come through here every once in a while, grabbing random (truly-random, it seems) people, pulling out all their stuffing and throwing them on the street before flying away. If/when my number comes up, I'm seriously thinking about retiring from IT....

Hey, that last picture looks like they're pre-fitting that car for the 'hovercraft' mod you had done on your truck recently. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/nutkick.gif)

I think it's more like the end of Back to the Future 3 when the Delorean hovers, folds the wheels and blasts off. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

At the end of BTTF3, the DeLorean is crushed by the modern train, then Doc shows up in his time traveling train that he built in the past.

Crap. Was it 2? Maybe the original? Doc comes to get them and says something about not needing roads as the car hovers. lol.

I've had a lot of flying cars in my life recently.

Also, the front wheels got ARP studs because the brakes made the front wheel studs too short (thicker aluminum hat and a small spacer). The rear will get ARP studs as well, I just have to get time to install them.

Sounds like the car is ready for Circleville!

That is the ending of the first one, setting the stage for the second movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flge_rw6RG0

Interestingly, the actress that played Jennifer (his gf) couldn't come back for the sequels, so they replaced her and re-shot the ending of the first movie as the opening for the second.

It's getting close. I'm going to have to skip this weekend though, I have a couple houses to go see. There's just not enough time to get everything done these days.



I'm not sure that I ever noticed that. I might have at the time, but I sure don't remember it. Interesting. I have the 3 DVD set at home, I always liked the movies.

I finally got it aligned on Wednesday. The tech was an older gentleman (looked a little like Bernie Sanders). He started out grumpy about the whole thing. When I said I likely wanted max negative camber he answered "Why in the world would you want THAT?". But by the end, we were good buddies. I took the alignment tool for the Camaro with me and he did his best not to use it. Once we were "stuck", I had him let me grab it out of the car and we wrapped it up nice and easy. Turns out he's an old car guy too....but that's not unexpected.

Oddly the one side had -2 degrees of camber the other was -.8 degrees. I replaced the spindles because this car didn't "track" quite right as we did the castor sweeps on the alignment rack. This time they seemed to track better, but it makes me wonder if the K member is off center. They did put a fresh engine in this car, so it might make sense.

Ultimately, we settled on -1.3 camber (it's a street car) and 4.9 castor with 0 toe. It feels much better. I like the higher spring rates, the car is more balanced and less tail happy (even with more rear bar) and I think it was a move in the right direction. The front springs went from 600 in lb to 850 in lb and the rears went from 200 in lb to 250 in lb. The 19mm rear bar came off and the UMI 22mm hollow rear bar and the billet bar brackets went back on. It doesn't drag, it doesn't bottom out, it's balanced, my wife is just fine with the way it rides and I ultimately think this is a quicker autocross car than my original 2002 Camaro that I ran years ago (if I added some more negative camber).

I'm not really sure where to go from here. I need some wheels. I don't want to autocross on wheels that have been powdercoated (I had them done by a professional wheel shop and they say I won't have issues, but I'd rather not risk it). And when the car got to UMI, they found 13 PSI in most of the tires. That's pretty embarrassing, but I mention it because it's a good reminder. Check your pressures. Most of my wheels (on my other vehicles) held air all winter and were fine. I assumed these did the same. I wasn't racing or driving the car particularly hard. So I didn't think much of it. When Roger at UMI said "I found the tires down to 13 psi when I checked them"...I felt pretty dumb. But it had been a year since I checked them last, or at least 8 months. That has resulted in a soft spot in one of the front tires. So, now I need to replace the tires anyway and I'd like to grab a set of forgestar wheels. But I'm house shopping right now, so that may have to wait.

Today I swapped front brake pads. I removed the Pagid Orange pads (almost a full set of them, very little use) because they were squeaky in town and I had to keep rebedding them. I liked the pads, but I think I'll save them for autocross or something more serious. I installed the Stoptech Street performance pads that I bought out of the FRRAX classifieds. They are listed as the OEM pads for the Stoptech kit. I went out to bed them tonight and made stops from 60-20 (back to back), 80-30, etc. And the pads started working well, even quite well....but I never managed to get the brakes hot enough to smell pads. That's unusual in my experience. I could get Carbotech XP10's to smell like hot brake pads by the time I was done bedding them, but not these (either set of pads). I'm starting to think the Stoptech rotors do a better job of cooling down than I expected. Either way, I have brakes for "days".

I also swapped out the rear wheel studs. I have a 4 channel ABS car and it's been a while since anybody has covered this process here. So I took a few pics.

Remove the caliper (15mm socket and 16mm open end wrench), caliper bracket (15MM socket) and rotor (pointy object to break the rotor retainers on the studs and a rubber hammer to get them loose).

Remove the ABS wheel speed sensor (you need a 10mm socket) by unplugging the sensor and removing the bolt in the brake backing plate and pull the sensor out. It's magnetic and will stick to things. It's also likely covered in metal shavings. Use a towel to grab those and "pinch" them off of the sensor.

Line up the old studs and drive them out of the hub towards the hole from the abs sensor you removed. (I used a spare lug nut screwed about half way on and an air chisel, the lug nut keeps the chisel head from skipping off of the stud, then you just unscrew the nut and pull the old stud out. A hammer works too).

The ARP wheel studs have a larger head on them than the stock studs. They won't clear the reluctor ring on the axle for the ABS. You need to grind the corner of the head of the stud down slightly to clear the ABS ring. DO NOT FORCE the stud in place, you can damage the ABS reluctor. (See pics).

Insert the new ARP (or other brand) stud through the hole for the ABS sensor, aim the flat spot in line with the ABS reluctor and pull it through the axle flange.

Stack a bunch of grade 8 washers and lubricate them and the wheel stud with oil (or WD40 actually works pretty well). Use a spare lug nut (pick up 3-5 of them at your local parts store, you'll throw them in the trash when you're done) and an impact gun to wind the lug down against the washers and pull the stud in until it's seated completely in the axle flange. When the impact gun slows down, you're getting close. Don't overstress the studs (pulling the axles and pressing the studs in is the proper way to do this job, this is the "alternate approach", use at your own risk).

Unscrew the nut (which is likely now stuck to the top washer) with your impact gun, remove the washers and start the next stud.

When you complete all 5, spray the studs with brake clean and remove any traces of oil.

Reassemble brakes and reinstall the ABS sensor (don't forget to plug it in).

Enjoy your new wheel studs.

The pictures show the view through the stud hole and out through the ABS sensor hole.
Installing the stud.
The washer setup as I used it.
The stud after it's pulled in.
The nut and washer (you will throw them away when you're done, they're junk as you can see).

Kevin

They do make a wheel stud installer that works very well!!! I did it like you for years till I grabbed this off the tool truck. keep up the updates!!!!!!

Not sure I've ever seen one. I'll have to check that out.

The car didn't get driven much this year. House shopping took up most of our time and we just didn't get out to enjoy it much. We did have a lot of fun when we had the chance to drive it though.

I parked it a month or so ago before they started salting the roads around here. I meant to clean it up and wash and wax it, but that didn't happen (again). However, it's tucked in the garage to sit out the winter. Tonight I decided to start it and let it warm up a bit (just to circulate oil). Just as it reached operating temp, the power steering pump started to whine. I shut it off and found my power steering fluid under the car. I'm not sure where it's coming from at this time, but I'm hoping it's the pressure hose.

I've been trying to fix anything that might cause reliability issues with this car and I guess the rubber parts of the power steering system are next. I emailed Turn One about rebuilding my pump and I'm tracking down new hoses for the system. I already added a new C&R PS cooler last winter so that part is done. I'm hoping it's not the rack, but I feel like I may as well have it rebuilt while I'm at it. I don't want to deal with any issues if I want to take this on a road trip, so I guess I have a new winter project to go along with the rear diff cover leak that I have to fix.

I guess I'm lucky that it died in the garage and not out on the road somewhere, not really sure how that happened.

Hmmm, that is kind of strange. Usually something like that would happen when the car is being driven, at least.

Looks to be further up front than the rack. But that could just be the picture angle.