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Chapter 36 - The fix
so in the last chapter, i described how i had a huge p/s leak, and that my a/c belt had came off
but i kept driving the car around during the following week, so i did what any smart person would do in that situation...
my p/s pump was going to burn out because there was no fluid going thru it
and i didn't have to time to remove the radiator and a ton of stuff just to remove the belt
so i just cut it... i had another spare one anyway
the thing is that exactly 1 week after the track day, i was going up north to my chalet, a 4 hour drive,
so i really wanted my p/s and a/c to work for that trip
during that week i drove the car to work, without p/s, on the highway, it was a freaking pain!!! i couldn't feel my forearms when i got to work because i had to hold onto the steering wheel so much, darn 265 tires
the first thing was to figure out why my brakes weren't doing crap, so i took the whole thing apart to inspect it ;
the rotors looked super glazed, no wonder why it wasn't braking
i took the pads off, and all the cylinders boots looked fine, no sign of damage anywhere
then i turned my attention to the rotors,
in an attempt to reduce the awfull awfull noize the Hawk HP+ were making (at that time) i chamfered the leading edge of each front pads
i also drove past AutoWorx and borrowed some leftover cans of Wurth Anti-squeal
after applying a good thickness, i put everything back together
i then check the wear of my front tires and quickly realized i couldn't finish my summer with sooo much camber wear
the problem wasn't actual camber, but way too much toe out, because like an asshole i had changed the alignment front VAG Motorsport's settings because they were a bit too extrem
so i went to a tire shop that my dad often deals with, and had both front tires flipped, meaning that the camber wear would now be on the outside of the tire rather than the inside
it looked like ****, but at least i could drive for the remainder of the season
---------------------------------
the next day, i checked what my p/s and a/c problem was
and sure enough i had lost the complet a/c tension pulley assembly, so i got on GTRC and found another one, rather quickly
i then saw that my main p/s hose was cracked open,
after looking under the car i realized that line was part hardline part hose, but 1 piece all the way from the p/s pump tp the rack&pinion head
so, seeing this was going to be a real PITA to fix, i enlisted the help of my father for a rare occasion
first i had to remove the radiator, argh
both of us spent a good 3 hours underneath the car to remove the line without bending it too much since i didn't want to replace the whole thing
we had to snake it thru the subframe, motor mounts, swaybar, etc, etc...
and this is what the whole fawking thing looks like
believe me you do not want to replace this line, it is by far the worst job i've ever done on my car
the soft part of the hose was completely torn open, even though its super thick and solid
i called Nissan just for kicks, and the line was worth something like 300$
and would take 3 weeks to arrive from japan
since i didn't have time to get it fixed myself, my dad brought it to an hydraulics shop
they didn't have the same fittings to go into the p/s pump (DUHH) so i told my dad to get something as similar as possible
and also, the facilitate the "putting it back on" part, i told him to get the line cut into 3 section and using fittings we could assemble it back on the car
but, just my luck he had it cut just a couple inches from the spots we had discussed
this is how it looked
how the assembling fittings look
the crimped section
and the end fitting, which looked completely different
problem is, we had received the line on the friday, when i was supposed to leave at the break of dawn on the following day
so on friday night, my dad and i went back under the car to get the line back into place
but since the assembling fittings weren't in the right spots, it actually made it even more difficult to fit because we couldn't reach the fittings with tools to tighten them up
it took another 3 hours just for that
but out of luck, the standard banjo fitting at the end of the line was just the right size to fit on the p/s pump and into the bracket that prevents it from rotating
while working on that, i saw that the dust cover on top of the rack&pinion was cracked, and that the rack&pinion itself was leaking just a bit
but i realized, that it would have been much smarter to simply replace the whole line with a complete soft line (high-pressure nylon braided line), it would have been much easier to re-install, and much more reliable (as you'll see later in another chapter)
after that, it was already pretty late, but before putting the radiator back on, i wanted to fix the A/C
luckily i had received a pulley from Brian Ellis (Bellis)
quickly i bolted the pulley assembly onto the car, but since the original one wasn't there at all anymore, i couldn't compare
i fitted the spare A/C belt over it
reassembled all the other belts, the fan, and put the radiator back on
then i filled the radiator simply with (inexpensive) distilled water, and a bottle of Redline WaterWetter to make the water more viscous
filled the p/s system with good quality fluid
after everything was reassembled, only then did i start the car to see if there was any problem
there was no leak, but a loud ''squeak'' could be heard
it wasn't coming from the p/s pump
but when i checked underneath the car, the sound was louder
so i stopped the engine, and started it again
it was clear the noize was coming from the freshly installed a/c pulley
i could even see rubbing marks on the support right behing it
only when i saw the pulley jam, and the belt still turning and .. smoking did i yell to my dad to stop the engine
it was clear i was missing some sort of spacer between the pulley and the support
so i sent a text to Brian, asking if he had sent everything related to the pulley's assembly and he replied that he did
my dad was looking at me, with a look that meant 1 thing; ''son, we're going to have to take it appart again''
ohhhhh no
by taking the nut of the pulley and prying it a bit, i was able to take it off the shaft without having the belt slide off the pulley
so at first i slid a 1/2" washer on the shaft, to space the pulley outward, and tighten the pulley back on
started the car, and saw that it wasn't enough
fuuuuuuuuu
so i did the exact same thing a second time, and with two 1/2" washers, the problem was resolved
even though it was close to midnight at that point, i still decided to check the spark plugs, since it was a 600km ride in the following days
i cleaned the plugs, and everything was fine!
so the next day, saturday, i got up at 6am, and drove my perfectly functionning car all the way to my chalet
so in the last chapter, i described how i had a huge p/s leak, and that my a/c belt had came off
but i kept driving the car around during the following week, so i did what any smart person would do in that situation...
my p/s pump was going to burn out because there was no fluid going thru it
and i didn't have to time to remove the radiator and a ton of stuff just to remove the belt
so i just cut it... i had another spare one anyway
the thing is that exactly 1 week after the track day, i was going up north to my chalet, a 4 hour drive,
so i really wanted my p/s and a/c to work for that trip
during that week i drove the car to work, without p/s, on the highway, it was a freaking pain!!! i couldn't feel my forearms when i got to work because i had to hold onto the steering wheel so much, darn 265 tires
the first thing was to figure out why my brakes weren't doing crap, so i took the whole thing apart to inspect it ;
the rotors looked super glazed, no wonder why it wasn't braking
i took the pads off, and all the cylinders boots looked fine, no sign of damage anywhere
then i turned my attention to the rotors,
in an attempt to reduce the awfull awfull noize the Hawk HP+ were making (at that time) i chamfered the leading edge of each front pads
i also drove past AutoWorx and borrowed some leftover cans of Wurth Anti-squeal
after applying a good thickness, i put everything back together
i then check the wear of my front tires and quickly realized i couldn't finish my summer with sooo much camber wear
the problem wasn't actual camber, but way too much toe out, because like an asshole i had changed the alignment front VAG Motorsport's settings because they were a bit too extrem
so i went to a tire shop that my dad often deals with, and had both front tires flipped, meaning that the camber wear would now be on the outside of the tire rather than the inside
it looked like ****, but at least i could drive for the remainder of the season
---------------------------------
the next day, i checked what my p/s and a/c problem was
and sure enough i had lost the complet a/c tension pulley assembly, so i got on GTRC and found another one, rather quickly
i then saw that my main p/s hose was cracked open,
after looking under the car i realized that line was part hardline part hose, but 1 piece all the way from the p/s pump tp the rack&pinion head
so, seeing this was going to be a real PITA to fix, i enlisted the help of my father for a rare occasion
first i had to remove the radiator, argh
both of us spent a good 3 hours underneath the car to remove the line without bending it too much since i didn't want to replace the whole thing
we had to snake it thru the subframe, motor mounts, swaybar, etc, etc...
and this is what the whole fawking thing looks like
believe me you do not want to replace this line, it is by far the worst job i've ever done on my car
the soft part of the hose was completely torn open, even though its super thick and solid
i called Nissan just for kicks, and the line was worth something like 300$
and would take 3 weeks to arrive from japan
since i didn't have time to get it fixed myself, my dad brought it to an hydraulics shop
they didn't have the same fittings to go into the p/s pump (DUHH) so i told my dad to get something as similar as possible
and also, the facilitate the "putting it back on" part, i told him to get the line cut into 3 section and using fittings we could assemble it back on the car
but, just my luck he had it cut just a couple inches from the spots we had discussed
this is how it looked
how the assembling fittings look
the crimped section
and the end fitting, which looked completely different
problem is, we had received the line on the friday, when i was supposed to leave at the break of dawn on the following day
so on friday night, my dad and i went back under the car to get the line back into place
but since the assembling fittings weren't in the right spots, it actually made it even more difficult to fit because we couldn't reach the fittings with tools to tighten them up
it took another 3 hours just for that
but out of luck, the standard banjo fitting at the end of the line was just the right size to fit on the p/s pump and into the bracket that prevents it from rotating
while working on that, i saw that the dust cover on top of the rack&pinion was cracked, and that the rack&pinion itself was leaking just a bit
but i realized, that it would have been much smarter to simply replace the whole line with a complete soft line (high-pressure nylon braided line), it would have been much easier to re-install, and much more reliable (as you'll see later in another chapter)
after that, it was already pretty late, but before putting the radiator back on, i wanted to fix the A/C
luckily i had received a pulley from Brian Ellis (Bellis)
quickly i bolted the pulley assembly onto the car, but since the original one wasn't there at all anymore, i couldn't compare
i fitted the spare A/C belt over it
reassembled all the other belts, the fan, and put the radiator back on
then i filled the radiator simply with (inexpensive) distilled water, and a bottle of Redline WaterWetter to make the water more viscous
filled the p/s system with good quality fluid
after everything was reassembled, only then did i start the car to see if there was any problem
there was no leak, but a loud ''squeak'' could be heard
it wasn't coming from the p/s pump
but when i checked underneath the car, the sound was louder
so i stopped the engine, and started it again
it was clear the noize was coming from the freshly installed a/c pulley
i could even see rubbing marks on the support right behing it
only when i saw the pulley jam, and the belt still turning and .. smoking did i yell to my dad to stop the engine
it was clear i was missing some sort of spacer between the pulley and the support
so i sent a text to Brian, asking if he had sent everything related to the pulley's assembly and he replied that he did
my dad was looking at me, with a look that meant 1 thing; ''son, we're going to have to take it appart again''
ohhhhh no
by taking the nut of the pulley and prying it a bit, i was able to take it off the shaft without having the belt slide off the pulley
so at first i slid a 1/2" washer on the shaft, to space the pulley outward, and tighten the pulley back on
started the car, and saw that it wasn't enough
fuuuuuuuuu
so i did the exact same thing a second time, and with two 1/2" washers, the problem was resolved
even though it was close to midnight at that point, i still decided to check the spark plugs, since it was a 600km ride in the following days
i cleaned the plugs, and everything was fine!
so the next day, saturday, i got up at 6am, and drove my perfectly functionning car all the way to my chalet
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