Pinguin's 93 244+T (Formerly MistrThou's)

[pinguin]

Traded my 99 V70XC to MistrThou for his 93 240+T
Here's what I gave up (MistrThou taking delivery)

In return, I get this glorious beast:

Ramrod it around town unchanged for a bit:

The rubber line that was on the trans cooler blew off on my way home from work, and cooked the transmission, so I swapped in the standard accumulator modded one that we all have in a corner of the garage:

Onto a trailer to my buddy's place (in the middle of a snowstorm)

Out with the old, in with the new. If I remember correctly, I got the new transmission from some local dude with a lifted 745. It's a weird story involving road construction and burnouts in a ranger.

Anyway, after that, I mostly just drove it a bit while collecting shit to continue the build. I hacked out the original radiator support, and then life happened, it sat. I got married, built a new house. Moved it in to my half of the garage.

Then I got back to work. After a bit of waffling and being too chicken to start, I welded in a new(TB New) radiator support. But from the wrong car:

Fits great, except the charge pipe exits right into the battery tray

And it's too low

On to the problem I can fix easily:

A little cut and weld.

Apply rattle can until she looks factory fresh.

And for the first time in a couple years, it's running.

https://imgur.com/mFsXXrR

Other than me being a hack and putting it too low, the 940 Rad/IC pack fit like they were made to be there.

 

[pinguin]

And a couple teasers of things to come:

Got the pedal box out. And while it's out, I'm gonna measure and drill to swap in a 740 slim booster and MC. I'd wait, but the pedal box is enough of a pain that I want to avoid a repeat.

 

[MistrThou]

Huh. I vaguely remember there being a driver's seat in there when I sold it.

 

[pinguin]

Huh. I vaguely remember there being a driver's seat in there when I sold it.

I'm too old to contort myself and swap pedal boxes with the driver's seat in. Plus I needed somewhere to sit and post this thread.

 

[pinguin]

Got the pedal box out. And while it's out, I'm gonna measure and drill to swap in a 740 slim booster and MC. I'd wait, but the pedal box is enough of a pain that I want to avoid a repeat.

 

[pinguin]

Since the studs on the booster are 4 of the mounting points for the pedal box, with the box out, removing the booster is as simple as removing the cable clamp on the MC stud, and the two brake lines from the ABS master. Got a new master on order from rockauto since the 240 one doesn't fit the 740 16v booster, and because this is one of the grungiest looking MCs I've seen since the ODB died.

With the Booster out, you can see the rectangular pattern holes for the 240 booster which are 142mm x 90mm on center.

The 740 booster mounting studs are 72mm x72mm OC, so I'll whip up a nice printable template that I will at some point post here, after triple checking my measurements and drilling the holes myself. I think I'll weld bolts to 2 pieces of stock steel 90mm OC to be the new mounting studs for the pedal box, and to make it easy to remove if for some reason I ever go back to a 240 booster.

And here's the guy that's going in. Uglier than I remember it being when I stuck it under the bench in the garage all those years ago. Guess it's got a date with a wire wheel and a rattle can before it goes into the car. It can be the prettiest part in the whole engine bay.

 

[pinguin]

Drilled the holes for the 740/780/not 240 skinny booster. Made a template centering the 72 x 72mm 740 hole pattern inside the 142 x 90mm 240 hole pattern around a 60mm pushrod hole. cut out the top 240 holes, and stuck it on with a couple of 10mm harbor freight plastic body rivets. Punched and drilled pilot holes, then finished it out with a step drill, since it's the only thing short enough to drill straight holes.

Update:
Was looking for some metric dog point bolts to make retainers for the pedal box, when I realized that I already have studs connected with metal straps in the right lengths to fit the stock booster holes. They just needed to be freed from the booster.

For sale, 240 booster. lightly mangled. $200 No low ballers, I know what I got.

A little clean up with a grinder, they still ain't pretty, but they don't need to be.

Used a little piece of stock steel I had laying around to keep the brake pedal engaged with the brake light switch. The 740 rod is a hair shorter than the 240 one, this is probably overkill, but the welder was right there.

 

[pinguin]

Flying saucer in the garage today:

 

[pinguin]

Might have to kill the guy who originally took the manual pedal box out of this car; luckily I know where he lives. I don't know if swapping them is any easier on the non airbag, no cruise control cars, but on this one it's a pain and a half. every single piece under the dash is somehow connected to the pedal box. I haven't spent this much time on my back since I quit turning tricks.
I've got it roughly in place, with the 4 studs that were once part of a 240 brake booster threaded on. Manual box seems to have 2 additional nuts and bolts through the firewall on the clutch area. Maybe for that I will make a little tab to hold them, since I don't have a partner to hold a wrench on the engine side while I fumble around under the dash. then the 3 bolts up top that I'm really not looking forward to. But progress is progress. The slim booster is in, though the little foam gasket that goes around the pushrod is on my workbench . It can go in later. or never. We'll see.
My 740 ABS master shows up Wednesday, and I'll need to finesse a brake line tight around the strut tower. So hopefully I can have the pedal box buttoned up by the time it gets here.

On the upcoming agenda in no particular order:

• bolt the pedal box in
• connect booster clevis to brake pedal
• Install clutch cable to pedal
• Install RX-7 Front calipers
• Install master cylinder and bleed system
• Remove slushbox
• Install T5
• Modify trans x-member for T5
• Finalize rad/IC mounting
• Install coolant hoses & fill
• Install RX-7 Oil cooler and remote filter

Booster is in place and looking sharp.

So good news and bad news.

Bad news: the 740 ABS master cylinder I ordered doesn't fit my brake booster. Turns out the booster is (I think) from a pre-facelift 960. I honestly don't remember what I pulled it off at the yard all that time ago.

More bad news: pre-facelift 960 master cylinders don't seem to be available for love or money.

Good news: 240 master cylinders fit the 960 booster. or at least the ABS ones do. Which means I can just order a new ABS 240 MC and be on my way. This also means there will be no clearance issue with the brake line and shock tower.

Booster is in place and looking sharp.

So good news and bad news.

Bad news: the 740 ABS master cylinder I ordered doesn't fit my brake booster. Turns out the booster is (I think) from a pre-facelift 960. I honestly don't remember what I pulled it off at the yard all that time ago.

More bad news: pre-facelift 960 master cylinders don't seem to be available for love or money.

Good news: 240 master cylinders fit the 960 booster. or at least the ABS ones do. Which means I can just order a new ABS 240 MC and be on my way. This also means there will be no clearance issue with the brake line and shock tower.

 

[pinguin]

Returning the 740 master, new 240 MC should be here tomorrow. Today's goal is getting the pedal box & under dash crap all squared away. I'll have to see if the clutch switch is still around somewhere. Or I'll have to find one for the cruise.

 

[pinguin]

What a day, the clutch in my daily completely shat the bed, and I snapped off a caliper bolt on the 240 taking the ABS calipers off for to sell. Might have to take the evening off before I wreck anything else.

 

[pinguin]

Got the offending strut out, also installed the buchkaspark board in my future EZK.

Wired the spark outputs to the EGR pins, since the 240 doesn't have EGR, and the chip disables it anyway.

 

[pinguin]

If you got Konis, the people need to know.

 

[pinguin]

The days of me getting sidetracked by suspension work in the middle of a transmission swap are certainly coming to a middle.
Got the left side mostly back together.

Cleaned the housing up. Painted it, put in the new shock, installed the BNE select mounts & ipd springs. I'll try to document the passenger side better, hogging out the hole in the spring perch is a pita. Probably worth whatever Ben charges to do it for you.
Also mounted a new control arm with the STS delrin bushings. Again, more pics when I do the other side, this side was mostly me cursing at things. Just know when STS says you need a 20 ton press, they mean you need a ball joint press, a half decent bench vise, and a TurboBricker's aversion to spending.