Altered Mental Status (1G AWD 5spd)

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Take a well deserved break!

 

[SixBolt_16G]

Hang in there! You’re a DSM’er! DSM’ers never say die

We might sit on blocks for up to 10 years.... but we never die!

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

That is a true statement.
I have a 1990 TSI, a 1990 GSX and a 1990 Laser that all have titles but I haven't gotten to them and their issues yet. That is on top of the 3 running DSM's I have (and other various vehicles). It sure does put a strain on you with just one DSM. I am getting retirement issues in order so I can have more TIME to get to those (and get my beloved Camaro Convertible also back on the road). Sometimes we all just need a break for a while.

 

[curt-s]

Truth. My wife about had an aneurysm when she saw me outside working on the DSM, .

Still feel like crap, and body aches are next level, but eh...could be worse. Gonna plod along on this thing probably doing one thing at a time and going inside to die rest a few hours, then rinse and repeat.


From here just gotta install the new slave/bleed it, throw the axles back in, toss the exhaust back on it, IC pipes back on, electrical connections all clicked in, and fill tcase/trans/rear diff with new fluid. If I wasn't dying feeling like I just fought off six MMA-trained bears, I could be done in an afternoon. But alas, here we are.


My birthdays in a day though...so that's nice.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Pretty good day today, man. Terrible quality picture, but here's the hole and how bad it was stripped.

No bolt getting tight in that thing. Insane. After a good 1/2" drill(which nearly broke my damn knuckle ), and a new helicoil insert(sketchy admittedly because it was an amazon ching-chong special), I was stoked to test it out and the bolt holds torque. YES!

While I'm here though, lemme pop on this flywheel inspection cover with that new JNZTuning bolt(shoutout to Brian, he called it. The fifth mystery bolt was for the inspection cover!)

I know it's small potatoes, but I feel like this car deserves the good treatment and to make sure all the OEM stuff is back on it. Plus, I don't want stuff getting in there.

Look at that beautiful stuff, man. Every bolt torqued to spec, ftmfw.

While I'm down here, I went ahead and checked every single driveline piece for fluid, and everything was bone dry. So the rear diff and transfer case got Redline Lightweight Shockproof(alien blood, I call it), and the transmission got Redline MT90. That was so satisfying, especially seeing that the previous owner replaced the fill plug with a brand new OEM unit, and the drain plug with an Evo unit with a magnet! Awesome stuff.

But yeah, from here felt like bolting in the axles so I could actually fill the transmission with MT90 and it wouldn't leak out.

Driver's side done in 30 seconds(thanks to @1990TSIAWDTALON / Marty's axle trick, it makes it so easy!)

Passenger side done equally as fast. No sweat. Everything torqued to spec(except the axle nut, that will get torqued to 167 ft/lbs after the car is on the ground. In the meantime it's torqued to 100 ft/lbs) and ready to rock. I'm leaving the wheels off, because of ne'erdowells on my street that like to take wheels, but the fact I could lower it if I wanted is amazing.

Also, just for eagle eyed viewers, I swapped the cv axle nuts around after these pictures when I realized that one side has a hole for a cotterpin and castle nut, and the other side has a little channel where you're supposed to use a punch to punch it into the channel. I'll do that later when the car's on the ground and they're both torqued.

But yeah. From here I just need to bench bleed the slave, install it, bleed the line, install the exhaust, install the battery tray, battery, UICP, and plug in various little electronics that were unplugged, and we're back to square one. Hope to god this thing's clutch disengages, and if it does...it'll be driven. Even if just a little bit down the road. So close now!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Slave cylinder has been bench bled, and installed. Clutch line and slave together was then bled on the car. Pedals nice and firm now. No way to tell if the clutch is disengaged or not until it’s running I guess.

I also installed the exhaust.

From here it’s just top end stuff. Installing battery and battery tray, UICP/intake, and then test start.

I’m done for the day though. Sciatic nerve told me that I’m done for awhile and I got a lot done. Not pictured is I also completely swapped the shifter and cables to match the 90 trans. Oh and I had a new wideband sensor laying around and the old one is like 8 years old so I swapped that too.

Getting so close man. Just penny-enny stuff now.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Alright, I did this too kind of at the same time. I bought this as a package deal from a local with a bunch of other things for like $50(including an uncracked VC, door panel, sunvisors, etc) so it was a steal.

But, it had all the tabs and connections and was in great condition. It honestly hurt to sand it, , but I’m never painted the car champagne so off to sanding.

Here it is after being wet sanded and degreased/isopropyl alcohol’d. So smooth.

And here’s after!

Honestly for a rattle can and a couple scraps of sandpaper I think it turned out awesome. I couldn’t resist just setting it in place with the old/crusty lights to see how it will look and I’m excited.

Man. So much better. So pleased.

Also, here’s why I painted and replaced it. This is a comparison of the old grille that was on it and this new one.

Full disclosure, I plan on polishing the eagle emblem too, but I gotta wait until the paint is fully dry so I can mask around it/not get product on it. But, still looks great. It’s the small things!

Tomorrows plan is to finish bolting in the engine bay stuff and start it/test the clutch.

Please pray for me/send me positive thoughts. Lol. I’ve worked so hard. I just want to drive it.

 

[CrackedDSM]

So...beach day tomorrow, meaning I have one less day to work on the Talon. Know what that means?


This.




It F*CKING LIVES!!! IT MOVES UNDER IT'S OWN POWER!!

Video has no sound because 1) it's got a leak at the o2 housing due to a nut missing and 2) My wife and daughter having a loud conversation right in the middle of the video.


I am stoked right now. So stoked. There's some major clutch drag, as I can like fully move the car while in neutral and in gear, but hopefully I can adjust the clutch pedal and maybe do some more bleeding and fix that. But the clutch grabs and (almost fully) disengages! Miles better than before!!


Shoutout and a big get fuct to everyone who said that I was done, that the car was gonna be parted out, or that I would never get it reassembled again. Special place in my anus for you.

 

[victorgalant]

So amazing! Congrats! Can't wait for the tuning part

 

[1cleangsx]

Congrats! Nothin’ feeds the fire quite like some good ole’ HATER fuel!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Anyone think this would cause clutch drag?

It’s pretty far left of the center line. And the master rod is adjusted so far to the max that I can’t actually depress the slave. So I’ll fix that tomorrow.

 

[1cleangsx]

What’s the story on your clutch/flywheel? If the fork is that far past center it usually indicates a worn clutch disk/flywheel, that’s in the shimmed pivot ball territory

 

[CrackedDSM]

What’s the story on your clutch/flywheel? If the fork is that far past center it usually indicates a worn clutch disk/flywheel, that’s in the shimmed pivot ball territory

Brand new southbend SS/B clutch, new OEM TOB, new pivot ball, new fork....ACT Flywheel. Pretty sure it's stepped incorrectly, as Paul Volk had this same exact issue with all new stuff, and the fork even ended up in the same position. Lol.

His is a brand new ACT Streetlite too.

So yeah, I'm pretty resigned to having to shim the pivot ball...but I'm just not ready to drop the transmission again. So...cue the sketchy shit to shim a pivot ball with the trans still in the car! Lol.

 

[1cleangsx]

That’s interesting, I have the exact same clutch/flywheel, my fork is slightly past center the other way

Here’s mine, little under 1200 miles on this trans/clutch/flywheel

I would suspect the flywheel then as well, time to shim it I guess

 

[twicks69]

Shim it. I measured 3x ACT flywheels here currently and they are all 0.607-0.608" in step height brand new.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Shim it. I measured 3x ACT flywheels here currently and they are all 0.607-0.608" in step height brand new.

Is that below spec? Forgive my ignorance.

Also: I’m gonna make a really stupid thread asking this simple question, so I figured I’d ask it here first to get the ball rolling.

Stupid question: do I HAVE to pull the axles to slide the transmission back enough to access the pivot ball? My plan/idea is to pull the passenger axle from the hub, and just unbolt the drivers side half shaft from the block and let it flop/slide back.

I’m not even trying to hide the fact I’m lazy and don’t wanna have to fully drop the trans to fix my “should’ve done it before you bolted everything together” mistake. Lol. I don’t want to perform surgery through the fork hole like Jack M from Jacks Transmission said you could do, but I don’t want to fully drop and disassemble it either.

I’m gonna try it either way. Unless someone has firsthand guru knowledge and says it’s impossible. In which case we’re gonna find out just how little needs to be disconnected before a trans will drop.

 

[SixBolt_16G]

So...beach day tomorrow, meaning I have one less day to work on the Talon. Know what that means?


This.

Late to the party, but just wanted to say,

Thats awesome! Good job! and Congrats!

 

[twicks69]

New spec is 0.6065-0.6080 where I normally see them from ACT. Once in a while they are out of tolerance but typically they are correct.

 

[curt-s]

What’s the story on your clutch/flywheel? If the fork is that far past center it usually indicates a worn clutch disk/flywheel, that’s in the shimmed pivot ball territory

It's the other way around. The further the PP friction surface is inwards to the flywheel due to the step height being too great or the clutch disc being too worn/thin, the further the TOB moves away from the pressure plate due to the fingers moving the opposite direction. That causes the push rod end of the fork to angle more towards the slave cylinder.

Thats why the PP fingers are so extended on an uninstalled plate. One you install it, the fingers become more flat, which would bring the TOB towards the block and the other end of the fork goes outward towards the frame rail due to the fulcrum/pivot ball. The more the clutch/friction surfaces wear, the further the opposing PP surface moves towards the block, causing the fingers to extend and the TOB to be pushed away. That tilts the other fork end to the right towards the block.

There's two pivot points at work: fork and pressure plate fingers. Movement of either in one direction results in the other end going the other way.

The more left of center the fork end is, the thicker the clutch disc or the shallower the step height. Too shallow and you don't get full throw from the slave. Shimming tries to restore throw by changing the fulcrum point on the plane, moving the fork and pivot closer to the slave cylinder.

The worst scenario is a flywheel with too little step height and a really fat clutch disc. Those at the same time allow the PP friction surface and the TOB to come so close together that the other end of the fork has barely any room to move before it hits the left side of the window and you have basically no throw left in the slave

 

[CrackedDSM]

Well, transmission is almost out again, and it would be out except the passenger axle decided that it was in its forever home and it’s never leaving again. And nowhere I could pry made a difference in budging it. It actually bent the damn 1” thick prybar to the point where I was worried it would break.

Drivers side came out clean and easy with zero effort. Didn’t even pry on it. This same axle on the passenger side on my other trans came out with minimal effort as well. I have no idea what’s different. Except this 90 trans actually had proper amount of fluid in it and it swole the c clip?

Either way I’m gonna see if I can finesse the trans out with the pass axle in the trans. It’s out of the hub. I think I should have just enough room.

Always something with this car man.

 

[twicks69]

However you are prying it, it is not the force on it, it is literally a flick of the wrist to pop the axle out with a prybar.

 

[CrackedDSM]

However you are prying it, it is not the force on it, it is literally a flick of the wrist to pop the axle out with a prybar.

That’s the experience I had several times before. I’m honestly not sure what I could be doing wrong. I even used a small screwdriver to get a better position and it’s just…locked. It moves slightly back like it’s gonna come out and then just clicks in place and stops.

The other side came out with no effort. None.

 

[pauleyman]

Put a square shank screwdriver/prybar behind it. Twist the shank with a crescent wrench

That’s the experience I had several times before. I’m honestly not sure what I could be doing wrong. I even used a small screwdriver to get a better position and it’s just…locked. It moves slightly back like it’s gonna come out and then just clicks in place and stops.

The other side came out with no effort. None.

On awd drivers side has no c-clip.

 

[curt-s]

When I have to pull mine, there's always one side that just doesn't want to give. Over and over and over.. and then suddenly, be it angle or sudden force, it just comes out with practically no effort and I'm left wondering WTF was the big effort..
Never an answer it gives me.

Paul's explanation definitely explains my last time (first with an AWD). I was referring only to fwd earlier

 

[CrackedDSM]

Put a square shank screwdriver/prybar behind it. Twist the shank with a crescent wrench

Damn this is a good idea. I’ll try that tomorrow. I may go get a smaller set of prybars because these screwdrivers I have are as sturdy as a limp noodle.

When I have to pull mine, there's always one side that just doesn't want to give. Over and over and over.. and then suddenly, be it angle or sudden force, it just comes out with practically no effort and I'm left wondering WTF was the big effort..
Never an answer it gives me.

Paul's explanation definitely explains my last time (first with an AWD). I was referring only to fwd earlier

Honestly it’s just weird. All the times I did it before it was minimal to no effort. I have no clue what changed between then and now. Only guessing that it’s fluid related but now this trans had fluid in it from day one.