1991 RC recovery mission - "Rebel Scum"

alltracman78

Active member
Totally forgot you're RHD...

I screwed up on the vacuum lines; I was going off 10+ year old memories. Sorry.

That second vacuum port on the TB should go to the MAP sensor, not your boost gauge. That's how it's set up factory anyways. I guess since the MAP sensor isn't integral to fueling it's not a huge issue if it's off that TB port. But if it were my car I'd move it back. :shrug:

That capped port on the rear of the manifold is (or used to be) the "best" place to hook up the boost gauge.

If the line with the bolt goes to the TVSV it shouldn't need to be capped off? I wouldn't hurt to follow that down and see where it goes.

The other lines are ok IIRC. Though you should still have vacuum in the brake booster for a long time as long as you don't use it. That check valve may be bad.
 

underscore

Well-known member
Not a problem, I really appreciate the help.

The MAP line coming from the wrong spot might explain why I sometimes hit fuel cut when I shouldn't. I'll move it back where it belongs and see if the car behaves better.

The TVSV is disabled since it has an EBC. The shop initially hooked up the EBC incorrectly so it may have been me who capped off that line. I'll have to pull the crossmember off the bottom and see if I can follow it from there because trying to follow it from above just scratches my arms to hell and I can't reach the end.

It wouldn't surprise me if the check valve has a bit of leakage, since it is nearly 30 years old. If I can find a new one I may as well swap it and see.
 

underscore

Well-known member
Today I finally got the starter relay mod done. I'd been having symptoms of it off and on for a while so it's good to have it in there before it got too bad. Originally I had made a super tidy version that lived near the starter but then I realized I'd have to pull the intake off if the relay died which is no good if I'm at a TSD and need to go immediately.

I also made a little jumper that I can use in the socket to either reconnect the stock trigger or bypass the telay and start the car manually, just in case.
 

underscore

Well-known member
I went to put the plastic undertrays back on so I could move the car out of the garage for a bit, and for some reason decided while I was there I should tighten up the trans cooler lines that have a slight leak. Some of you can guess where this is going. As I turned it I noticed it wasn't really getting tighter, then I noticed it had some side to side play. The adapter fitting then stripped out of the trans. When I checked the other one it had the same side to side play and after a couple wiggles came out too. It looks like the problem is the threads in the trans don't start til a few mm in, and the adapters are very short, so there's only 2 threads of engagement. Rather than get too annoyed at the shop that supplied the fittings or the shop that installed them I'm just trying to be happy it happened in the garage and not while driving as that likely would've resulted in a destroyed transmission.

I still have the stock lines and could put them back in, but they're 29 years old. I have nice new AN lines already the correct length and hooked to the cooler so I'm hoping to find some longer adapters, top up the fluid, and be good to go.

I tried to measure the stock fitting and it looks to be M14x1.5 but can anyone confirm that before I order anything?

The mess it snowballed into:

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The aforementioned trans threads:

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underscore

Well-known member
The new fittings from the UK showed up a while ago and I finally got those in and put the cooler back on. Luckily the old fittings were softer than the trans so the trans threads had no damage.

Long story short since I needed fluid anyways I ended up doing a full change again since I wasn't sure if the stuff the shop put in was correct. I went with the Redline fluid Corey recommended in an old thread on here, and used the trick of pulling the transmission vent to fill it from the top. You need a 32mm deep socket to do it, you hsve to remove the airbox to get access but it was worth it. RC/CS/GrpA guys will also have to unbolt the WTA hose support on the motor mount and move it a smidge. I would guess 165 and 205 guys would need to do the same?
 

underscore

Well-known member
Since everyone likes pictures, here's the underside with the lines all nicely zip tied together again after that fiasco.

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underscore

Well-known member
Well since that last update I drove the car a couple times, though I don't go much of anywhere these days. Now it's off the road again to fix a couple things before the next TSD even in November.

The biggest thing is the broken drivers side door switch. It only worked sometimes, so I tried to clean it, but now the stupid thing thinks the door is always open and kills the battery, so I have to disconnect the battery every time I park. That's really annoying. To get to the plug I have to pull the big trim panel off that's beside the rear seat, which it looks like I need to remove the rear seat back to do.

How does the rear seat back come out? I don't see any bolts on the outside, do I just unbolt the bracket in the middle and swing it out or is there a trick to it?
 

Corey

Active member
Hey, car's looking great.

I've removed the backs seats a few times but I'm going by memory, it's been a number of years....

The seat backs come out once the 4 bolts (2 per seat back) are removed from the brackets at the bottom edge on the back side. If you lift up the carpet which drapes down from the seat backs, you should see the brackets.

The seat cushion then lifts out when the two tabs at the front bottom edge of the cushion are released by hand (one tab under the front edge of the left seat and another under the front edge of the right seat).

To get the side plastics out, you need to start at the back panel of the trunk if I recall, and work your way forward.

For the Trunk Side Plastics, there are hidden screws under the rear tweeter speakers above the rear struts (or simple rear strut covers if u dont have tweeters). A thin, but wide flat head screw driver or something similar will pop those covers off.

For the side plastics which cover the large speakers next to the rear seats, the speaker cover needs to be popped off to access a hidden screw if I recall.

The plastic door sill cover will also need to be popped off at the back because it conceals the final screw holding the side plastic on.

You wont need to take off the plastics around the rear quarter windows.
 

underscore

Well-known member
Thanks Corey, I wouldn't have guessed the trunk side pieces would have to come out so you saved me a lot of time there. What you said was basically it, the only other screw was one near the bottom of the actual panel I wanted to remove, in the front edge of the lower half of the seat area. It's pretty funny actually how quickly the rear half of the car can be stripped down compared to the front. The hardest part was figuring out where to put all these huge pieces. A bit of work for just a little switch, but at least I can leave my battery connected now.

In other news I took the Hellas off the front, the license plate mounts are just too bouncy on a car like this where it's only held on by 2 bolts and they aren't flush against metal. Instead I've now got these 4 KC HiLiTES attached to a piece of steel box attached to 2 heavy duty light bar tube clamps attached to a Yakima roof rack. A bit fiddly to get it all together but hopefully it'll work okay.

WdzHoqih.jpg
 

underscore

Well-known member
I ran out of connectors so I could only fire up two of the roof lights, and I need to finish properly installing the fog lights, but I was curious to try them out anyways. Excuse the coolant jug, it was keeping the hood from hitting the battery charger alligator clips. The roof lights are running off the same wiring I had used for the Hella's, so they can only be turned on when the high beams are on.

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And a fog light

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Running lights only

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One fog light

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Low beams + one fog light

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High beams + one fog light

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High beams + two roof lights + one fog light

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Yes my garage is a mess. I still need to aim the fog lights and roof lights, but the results seem promising.
 

underscore

Well-known member
Some bits showed up in the mail so I did a couple quick things in the insane heat we've currently got.

All 4 of the roof lights are now wired in, they still need to be aligned though:

E0M5BZzh.jpg


Pretty stinking bright.

I'd also gotten tired of the reflective triangle we need for the rally events just bouncing around wherever. I chopped up the old seat bracket I had kicking around since I have no idea who made it and therefore don't trust it as an actual seat bracket, flipped it around backwards and clamped it down with the seat mount bolts. A couple of velcro straps and on it goes.

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I may add some extensions rearwards to support the heft of the weighted base a little better, but for now it's in. I used the other half to make one to mount the fire extinguisher on the passenger side, but the mounting bracket for that hasn't arrived yet.
 

underscore

Well-known member
The strap style mount that I bought for the extinguisher was too small, so I hacked it to bits and chopped up some other spare brackets I have kicking around and made this.

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And installed

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I had to push it further back from the mount than I was expecting, because of how low the seats are. I wanted the passenger seat to still be able to go as far back as possible, as my codriver is taller than I am.

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grip-addict

Active member
solid work, great to see another celica living that rally life. Those lights look really cool, too. I hope you can snag a photo of it all together with the car out on the road!
 

underscore

Well-known member
I definitely will!

The rear spats are finally going on. My rattle can job is pretty crappy but I'm not too worried about paint quality at the moment. Mounting was fairly easy, I trimmed the rear a bit to fit the Celica bumper and the tab in the front a little to match the wheel well. Mounting was pretty easy since one of the Subaru mounts lines up with a factory screw in the Celica bumper and the other one lines up with a hidden part of the bumper skin. I had no worries drilling it since the bumper cover can't rust. I already had holes in the fender lips for the mudflaps and then I ran a strip of 3M adhesive the same size as the stuff that came on the spats along the top and rear edges. I'll let it cure and see if it was worth the price.

PCeiTyCh.jpg


I also got a slightly different stereo from a buddy of mine who sold his GTFour, it's a single DIN cassette but then instead of the separate single DIN CD player it had this CD changer controller and a CD changer in the trunk. The odd part is I can't find any record of this part number anywhere so I have no clue where to try and get a cable for it. The controller and changer both have the same part number of 08601-00150.

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underscore

Well-known member
We had a cold snap that ended today, so I unplugged the battery maintainer and fired it up to make sure all was well. It ran great but the battery and cat warning lights were on so I might be having alt issues *again*. At this point I might just convert it to run a more common alt so future faults are easier to deal with. I don't know much about what to watch for when swapping, but I see a few different Toyotas with higher output options so I'll dig into those more.
 

underscore

Well-known member
The poor thing hasn't gotten much attention lately, but eBay had a 20% off car parts deal so I snagged a set of the Hella conversion headlight housings that I'm looking forward to getting installed.
 
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