What did you do to your 90 today?

[Ian Reid Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Reid]

Triple 5 make fantastic quality ball joints and tie rod ends, made in Japan and not overly priced like some. I've also used Superpro upper and lower control arm bushes in mine with no complaints. Picked them up for $220 for the complete set, upper and lower.

Ive been looking for 555 ball joints but no one seems to have any stock in Aus. Been quoted 2months a couple of times.
Looking at amayama for the whole kit at less than 1/3 the price, just waiting on freight costs and to see what i need through customs

[oceanracer Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close oceanracer]

The prices are comparable, the brake lines are much cheaper if there genuine, #### uses another band of ball joints,

[Ian Reid Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Reid]

Ordered my ball joints from Amayama in Japan today. Full set top and bottom $340 including freight. Ship loads cheaper than Toymota. Brake hoses and control arm bushes coming from UAE. 555 Tierod ends ordered off fleebay. Got most of the bits on the go to give the old girl a birthday


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[oceanracer Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close oceanracer]

I've a few more bits to buy, but it feels much better now, especially since the exhaust system and extractors,

[oceanracer Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close oceanracer]

Fitted the K & N,

[Ian Reid Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Reid]

Oil and filter change. Was planning to start stripping the front end but now have some burns from the bbq to contend with, coldbeer soothing the hand at present


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[Ian Reid Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Reid]

Started Stripping the front end out today but got a minor snag. Need to move the steering rack to get the bolts out of the lower control arm but cant get to one bolt on top. Anyone know any secrets to that




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[Ian Reid Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Reid]

Started putting the front end back together. New mounting rubbers for the steering rack

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

I changed my timing belt and water pump. A fairly straight forward job process wise. Time consuming if you do it by yourself and if you want to have it completed in one full day you better start early and work fast with no dordling, but it'd be unlikely you'll get it started and finished in the same day. You just have to be prepared to improvise through some hurdles if it's your first time doing this job like it was with me. Removing the crank pulley bolt. I used a 450mm breaker bar and rested it on the passenger side chassis rail and gave the starter motor a quick tick. The high torque of the starter motor easily loosened the crank bolt. To re-tighten it near the end of the job I made a special service tool (SST) cheaply. I don't own welding equipment and didn't want to spend hundreds for Toyota to order one in, but have done a fair it of work with timber do easily made an SST out of a 500mm length of hardwood timber sleeper. I drilled two 10mm holes fairly centred near the end of the timber length 75mm apart to accept the M10 steel bolts that will bolt it onto the crank pulley. I then drilled a 20mm hole in the middle to accept the 19mm socket to go onto the crank bolt. I rested the sleeper on top of the chassis rail and torqued it up to about 235nm which was as tight as I could do it.

To remove the crank pulley you'll need a harmonic balancer puller kit. They range in price but a simple $30 kit will do nicely.
Removing the air con compressor and bracket can be a pain in the backside to access the timing belt tensioner. Then re-fitting them is just as fun.
Trying to keep the timing belt tensioned tight with one hand around the crank sprocket while also trying to keep the cam sprockets TDC without one of them flicking 45 deg to the left or right can take a few goes.

Spend the time making damn sure the engine housing surface is scraped perfectly clean of old gasket material so there's a perfectly flat surface and then clean with metho over and over to get rid of any greasy residue. If not you'll be doing this job again and here's the clincher... You won't be able to purchase the water pump gasket on its own. You'd either need to buy another water pump with the gasket for $90 or buy a sheet of 0.8mm thick gasket paper and spend hours perfectly and carefully cutting another one and creating the bolt holes being ever so careful as not to tear the paper in the thinner strips or you'll be starting again with cutting out another one and failure at this point would probably mean you'll be ready to kill yourself haha.

Make sure you do a good and continuous 4-5mm bead of sealant all the way around the water pump, then on the gasket after its pressed on.
Then carefully press it onto the housing without breaking the sealant bead anywhere on the thermostat housing bolts. I bought a tube of Toyota FIPG for $36. It's damn good stuff but skins within 5 mins so you have to work fast. Accurate and carefully but fast.

Here's info you'll be hard pressed finding anywhere else... When re-fitting the crank pulley don't line up the false TDC dimple directly above on the crank sprocket with a noticeable notch above. This will not achieve TDC and the result once you put everything back together will be that your car won't start. It will crank but not kick over because your crank is 180 deg out compared to the cam sprockets. You must slot it onto the key way that is slotted right way through the crank pulley and then line the notch cut out on the actual pulley with the 0 mark you'll see to the above right. Do this and the timing will be set correctly. Do it not and you'll see what doesn't happen when you've put it all back together, topped it up with coolant at the end and then go to turn the key to start it.

I would consider this job to be near impossible to do without removing the radiator. You need the room. So just remove it at the start to avoid being careful working around it trying not to damage the fins and to save having to do it later on anyway.

Or you could just pay a mechanic to do this work for you, but what's the fun in that
For those of you that have never replaced one of the drive belts before, then during this job you'll realise how simple and quick it is to replace an aircon belt, power steering belt or alternator belt plus you'll learn other things about your car that you never knew beforehand.
On completion of this job, add one more notch to your belt for your level of experience.

[oceanracer Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close oceanracer]

Hi Brett, can you list the parts that you changed,
Water pump
Timing belt
Drive belts
Any lip seals ?
Did you replace the radiator hoses purely because of the age
Mine is due for the 3rd time,
Thanks

[Ian Reid Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Reid]

New ball joints, control arm bushes and tie rod ends installed



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[Ian Reid Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Reid]

DBA T3 rotors installed with new Bendix pads


New Radiator as well



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[oceanracer Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close oceanracer]

Hi ian I can't recommend enough how good the pacemaker headers are instead of the cast originals, much smoother

[Ian Reid Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Reid]

Was looking at the Y junction of the exhaust today from under the vehicle, thinking it looks very restrictive, looks like a complete new system would certainly help


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[oceanracer Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close oceanracer]

The difference is awesome,