AMS Black Talon

[CrackedDSM]

yeah I've owned that one. I knew you what you meant by the thicker cover etc. I might not have ever used it so I didn't learn what you did. I can't remember.

Good stuff Paul. I know the stock gasket can work but it squishes it down a lot. The OEM gasket is wide like this so it puts less pressure on the already beer-can thin threads for the VC bolts/studs. I had a torrid love affair with those VCs back in the hey day of DSMs but quickly fell out of love when I realized how prone to cracking they were. Good times though.



Update: dude has gone silent and not answered my messages on if the part has shipped or not. Been a couple days. Monday if nothing has been heard a Venmo claim will be filed so it’s almost party time boys!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Randomly, I got sick to death of the incessant trolling in the facebook DSM parts groups so I decided to make my own. Rules are simple 1) pictures required for every ad and 2) no trolling.


For those who are so inclined, go ahead and join up. Invite your friends and stuff too. I don't expect or want it to get big, but having a nice safe haven for parts/cars would be awesome.

Mature DSM Parts For Sale | Facebook

Group rules are simple, this is a group for mature DSM owners wanting to sell or buy parts and cars. Rules are simple. 1) Every for sale ad needs a picture, and location. Every ad, no exceptions....

www.facebook.com

 

[92Turbski]

Randomly, I got sick to death of the incessant trolling in the facebook DSM parts groups so I decided to make my own. Rules are simple 1) pictures required for every ad and 2) no trolling.


For those who are so inclined, go ahead and join up. Invite your friends and stuff too. I don't expect or want it to get big, but having a nice safe haven for parts/cars would be awesome.

Mature DSM Parts For Sale | Facebook

Group rules are simple, this is a group for mature DSM owners wanting to sell or buy parts and cars. Rules are simple. 1) Every for sale ad needs a picture, and location. Every ad, no exceptions....

www.facebook.com

Man, they're tough to deal with. No credibility, absolute no use of spelling, punctuation, endless run-on sentences, and no shortage of BS. It's a shame most people use faceface/fecesbook, but, hopefully you'll see people trend away from the platform.
Cheers for starting a mature group!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Man, they're tough to deal with. No credibility, absolute no use of spelling, punctuation, endless run-on sentences, and no shortage of BS. It's a shame most people use faceface/fecesbook, but, hopefully you'll see people trend away from the platform.
Cheers for starting a mature group!

I am honestly just gonna bow out of every parts group on FB. The people who are actually serious about buying or trading stuff just PM you outright and never comment. It's so rampant that some groups almost encourage trolling, and honestly I'm just over it as a whole. I am counting down the days until Facebook/social media in general dies a painful death, but until then it's a necessary evil.


I wish we would return to the days of Fast With Class, both in cars and in spirit. Too many people these days trying to impress people on the internet whom they've never met, and trying to one up each other with assholery. When I was young I used to be of the mindset of "asshole = tough", but the older I got the more I subscribed to @Ludachris and the DSMTuners mantra of "asshole = just plain asshole, why can't we just be nice?"

I owe you a beer or soda one day 'Luda. For the record, sorry for any negative remarks I said about Tuners when I was young. Lol.

 

[CrackedDSM]

I hate DSMs. Had this big long post planned of everything that happened but the rear brakes and rust combined have made me their bi***.

f*** this car for at least a week or two. Lol. Needs a new front drivers side caliper(one of the previous owners stripped the threads. Idk how) and needs the drivers side rear caliper replaced due to a snapped off ebrake cable. Sigh. The joys of moody ass DSMs.


Traded the wheels though. Here’s some pictures.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Alright so I never received the belt system and the seller has gone radio silence so it’s boogaloo time boys!

First impressions with filing a dispute via Venmo is it’s a little annoying. You can’t just click dispute you have to talk to a rep and explain your side. Upload any screenshots, and then they file it/forward it to their dispute department. They say it can take up to 30 days. But I’ll keep y’all updated as I know more. But it was nice actually talking to a person and being able to explain my side in real time.

 

[92Turbski]

Alright so I never received the belt system and the seller has gone radio silence so it’s boogaloo time boys!

First impressions with filing a dispute via Venmo is it’s a little annoying. You can’t just click dispute you have to talk to a rep and explain your side. Upload any screenshots, and then they file it/forward it to their dispute department. They say it can take up to 30 days. But I’ll keep y’all updated as I know more. But it was nice actually talking to a person and being able to explain my side in real time.

Ugh! Damnit, man I hate that for ya. Maybe, hopefully something came up or whatever and it'll show up, or guy will respond.
Good luck!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Ugh! Damnit, man I hate that for ya. Maybe, hopefully something came up or whatever and it'll show up, or guy will respond.
Good luck!

I’m pretty sure it was a scam from the beginning. But I wanted to test Venmo’s chops without committing fraud. This is the way.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Alright, so, this took me like three days to do but it's probably not gonna take awhile to read or type. Hopefully. Rewind a few days.

Feb. 12, woke up feeling okay, wanted to spend my next three days off getting some work done off the checklist. Decided to do the axles/rolling stuff first. So I hooked up a tow strap to the rear lower subframe, and used the edge to tow the Talon out of the shelter it's been in, and got it up on jackstands. Pulled the wheels off, and then decided what to do. First up, helicoil the valvecover bolts, and tighten the cam caps. Boy what fun that was.

Went to tighten the cam caps...nothing. Pull the bolt out, bam. Has threads on it. Great. BogusSVO stripped the threads on the cam caps. Thankfully I had a helicoil for this thread size, and was already in the process of heli-coiling anyway. So away we went. EIGHT cam cap bolts needed to be fixed, and ALL of them were WAY too tight. Tightened them all to the 9 ft/lbs the Haynes manual said, and then helicoiled the 3 or so VC bolts. Man it looks so good in there. God I want to get rid of these BC cams, but eh, I got them. Might as well use them. Checked the head studs and they're tight, thankfully.



Also finally got the right gasket and threw it on. This one was ACTUALLY branded Fel-Pro and came in the wrapped cardboard they're known for. Hilariously the half-moon piece was blue, and the rest of the gasket black...idk. I like it.



Alright. Time to throw this dirty, but clean AF valve-cover on(I'll repaint it another time. Just wanted to seal this head up so it wouldn't be exposed to the elements.) with my stainless steel bolts. The spark plug cover bolts were waaay too long, but eh. Better than nothing. I don't mind the stock ones for this purpose. Also, I cleaned up the Zaklee clear timing cover and fixed the cracking mounting holes with some high heat epoxy. Love how it looks.




From here, it's another small fix, but a big one on my list. Since I got this car the front grille piece has been flopping around loose with no mounting solution except one screw. I fixed this(with the help of pictures from @1990TSIAWDTALON and part numbers from @19Eclipse90 ) with some replacement plastic clips, and snapped it in. Viola! Much more secure and it's tight AF. Love it. Now I just need to fix that bumper sag...eesh.



That about summed it up for day one. I went on a parts run to get a c-clamp and a breaker bar and thought it'd be a great idea to bring my 3 year old and wife along for the ride. Just there and back to the parts store, not bad right? Surely it won't take all day right? RIGHT?!! Wrong. Between tantrums (over nothing) from the 3 year old, and my wife saying she's hungry(while eating molasses in subzero temps slow too) and traffic, it took all day. So I got home, locked the Talon, and just chilled the rest of the night. Everyone was happy, so that's what matters I guess. Lol.


Day 2. Electric boogaloo. God this was a good day. Woke up feeling energetic, was ready to party. So I had the wheels off already, and decided to start with the axles and the front brakes. This is what greeted me.

Nothing. Blank canvas. So let's do this. I sat down, had all my tools, and got to work and was done with the drivers side in like, 15 minutes. The axles went in STUPIDLY easy thanks to Marty/1990Talontsiawd's tricks, and I had the brakes installed, and mounted, ready to go. Then I went to tighten down the drivers side and found my first issue. The driver's side brake caliper bolt(that bolts the caliper to the bracket) is stripped out. It had a metric ton of thread tape on it when I took it off, and I didn't really think much of it at first. But ah well. Reman'd calipers from Raybestos are like $45 including a core, so I'm just gonna do that. I need to bleed the brake system anyway, but that was the only hiccup. Both sides were done and tightened up in a jiffy. I almost started on the rear, but kinda ran out of steam due to having an emergency pop up at the local FD that I got called to help with. Which honestly in hindsight, was a good thing.


All done and shiny. God it looks good.

I like the Evo wheel but man, it's gotta go. I need those old Enkei's I had on my 2G back...maybe I could trade for them (is what I thought to myself) so I reached out, and did the trade that day. New owner of the blue talon stopped by and brought me the Enkei's and I traded these Evo 8's for them straight up. I'm happy with it.

You can kinda see some of the rust I'm dealing with. I went behind myself after this picture and hit everything with a wire wheel, and I'm gonna POR15 coat everything I can.

Let's move on to Day 3...and a bonus day.


There's like almost no pictures from these days because it was retar---uh..stupid..that I even struggled this long and hard. I started the day feeling okay but man, something felt off from the beginning. This is what greeted me...deceptively simple looking, but a megalodon lying in wait.



Ugh. I had to BEAT the wheel off of this hub just to even START. And then after the caliper came off, I was greeted by a most unwelcome sight. A piston that required a special tool to twist closed, instead of just being able to press the bast*rd closed like the fronts. Just...just why? I didn't have a vehicle so I couldn't go get the special tool and tried to make do with a variety of tools. Needlenose, even a tool that you use to loosen/tighten a cutoff wheel/grinder head that worked surprisingly well..until it bent and then didn't work anymore. Lol. I fought with this thing for way...way too long. And then my wife came home with the car, and I went and got the special tool I needed. It was a cheap square POS that honestly, I should've just ordered the REAL proper tool and waited, but it kinda worked. Worked enough I guess. It still didn't tighten the piston all the way down, and I had to practically beat the dam* caliper on, but it was on and nothing was binding. So I went to tighten the e-brake cable down right?

Nope. Bolt snapped off without warning. Didn't even bind, just *tink!*. Whole caliper now has to be replaced because this SOB wasn't budging with heat, or an easyout. Whatever. Done with it, let this car sit for a few days or weeks, IDC. I locked it up, left, and went back to work the next day.

(the offender right here. Finally got it done though!)

But I couldn't leave it alone. I have two spare rear calipers with brackets that are in great shape, and I just couldn't quit. So today, decided screw it, it's my only day off before 2 weeks straight of working EMS and a part time job too, but I have to get this done. It can't win! So I took my time and did the damn thing. Replaced the caliper in minutes, like it WANTED to be replaced, got it bolted up and torqued to spec like it was nothing. The passenger side fought me good and hard just like the drivers side, but it eventually relented and was defeated. Everything fought me, and I've come to a conclusion. This brake kit sucks for the rear. Either the rotors are too thick, or the pads are WAY too thick because it was a struggle, and got to a point where I literally had an impact on it spinning the piston and it wasn't going down any further but nor would it fit over the pads. I eventually just sanded the damn pads down until it cleared like butta, and torqued it up to spec. Before I put the wheel on, I had to express my heartfelt emotion to the rear brakes in this one picture.

Bellissimo. *chefs kiss*


After it was finally all said and done, I got to cross like...three things off my giant list. Woo. .

But, it can finally sit on all fours and let me look at these new wheels in all their glory. God it looks good like this. I regret nothing! New wheel bearings, new axles, new pads and rotors, different wheels, fixed VC bolts, fixed cam caps I didn't know were bad, and fixed the front grill.

Now that that's done, time to work like a maniac. But thankfully I'm done with the rolling/suspension/brakes part other than bleeding all four corners. I need to replace the t-case bolts with the OEM ones from ExtremePSI that I've got, but that can wait until later.


Nothing exciting, but man..progress is progress. I got the car way earlier than I planned so really if things went according to my OG plan, I wouldn't even be working on this car yet!


Thanks Marty and 19eclipse90 for all your help and anyone else I might've forgotten and those who actually even read this wall of text.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Ordered more parts this week. Trying not to just spend my whole tax refund on this dang thing.


But, got something coming from JMFab that I've always wanted. No clue how long it's gonna take them to build it, but I'm excited. Also got a replacement caliper coming for the Driver's side, and some other various tools I'll need.

Unrelated to the Talon, but I've also got a Z23 kit from Powerstop coming for the Edge's rear brakes to match the fronts, as the rear pads are on the squealer tab/whatever you call it and are grinding and crunching away.


I am also extremely...extremely tempted to buy a relatively local 1Ga GST so I can rob parts off of it from the interior and stuff. But we'll see.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Just bought a few more parts. This is getting out of hand. Operation "save your damn tax refund and don't spend it on the Talon" is failing...miserably. Excited to get this one!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Forums are going suuuuper slow for some reason, but felt like updating this anyway. Some parts on still on the way, but some stuff arrived today too.


Ricer obligatory stickers that's gonna go under the hood where no one will ever see them. Lol.


Bam! Good ol' ECMTuning. Shoutout to Thomas Dorris for going all out on the shipping and tracking/automatic updates for just some stickers. Lol.


Aaaaaand this.

I'm honestly a little conflicted about painting it...it looks so clean and new. Raybestos R-Line reman'd front caliper. Nothing amazing or world beating but man, it looks good.


Got some more parts on the way. The one from JMFab was shipped today and should be here by Friday. So that's exciting. It's not an engine/head part at all, but something I've always wanted. And that this car desperately needs. I am very excited!


Also: I double checked and the fuel pump is still on the stock wiring. The fuel feed and return hoses are just bigger diameter fuel hose that's clamped onto the lines at the sending unit and that just triggers the sh*t out of me. So I've got a rewire kit coming from RTM Racing, and I will probably be ordering a complete tank to rail and rail to tank AN line kit to replace these hoses. Really don't want the car or myself to burn to death.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Venmo update: It takes up to like 30 days to resolve a dispute from them. I waited a good while and never heard a single thing back from them. After losing my patience and blatantly threatening to make the guy who sold me the belts famous all over facebook and forums, he gave me my money back. So I cancelled the dispute.


Overall? Avoid Venmo unless you really, really trust the seller(Ricky Nichols, Nick Rollison, Josh Melocik, those guys are 100% trustworthy and I'd send them venmo without question) and send it as a gift. Honestly, Venmo is too new and too inexperienced right now. I am 100% not impressed with their dispute process in both communication and how it was handled. It should've been an open and shut case. They never even messaged the seller to see if he'd refund me or etc, and if they did he was outright ignoring them. Paypal would've resolved the case well before I had to get my money back my own way. So yeah, verdict on venmo? Avoid. Use paypal or walk away.


Also: Got a sh*t ton of parts coming Friday, and a few more coming from Canada(eh?) on Weds. I ordered belts through a seller on eBay that, big surprise, is dragging his feet. So, now I'm gonna have to file a dispute THERE. Not sure why you even bother listing parts for sale if you drag your feet on shipping the stuff out.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Positive update: I decided screw it, and painted the shiny new caliper. I’m glad I did. This stuff is seriously awesome and bonds strong. Smells like cat pee though. Lol.

I immediately removed the paint on the piston and stuff so ignore how it looks in the pictures. Kinda cool. I have plenty left in the can too so I’m gonna paint the edges brakes too. Lol. And I used a metric ton for one caliper. If you were more frugal you could do 8 calipers easily.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Seems like every shipping company sucks the big one here lately. Ups and FedEx in this part of the country used to be 1-2 days consistently unless it came from California. Now it’s almost always like guaranteed to be delayed or take extra days. JMFab paid for two day shipping through UPS for my part and UPS still delayed it.

Not angry, just kinda resigned. Can only use the “muh ukraine” and “muh coronavirus” as an excuse for so long. Alas.


Either way, JMFab stuff will be here tomorrow. Bunch of stuff from Amazon is coming today tho. Woohoo.

 

[92Turbski]

Seems like every shipping company sucks the big one here lately. Ups and FedEx in this part of the country used to be 1-2 days consistently unless it came from California. Now it’s almost always like guaranteed to be delayed or take extra days. JMFab paid for two day shipping through UPS for my part and UPS still delayed it.

Not angry, just kinda resigned. Can only use the “muh ukraine” and “muh coronavirus” as an excuse for so long. Alas.


Either way, JMFab stuff will be here tomorrow. Bunch of stuff from Amazon is coming today tho. Woohoo.

That or UPS throws your package off the loading dock into the concrete, run it over with the forklift, then never follow through or deny a claim. Hahaha
Pics of their sweet handiwork;

 

[CrackedDSM]

That or UPS throws your package off the loading dock into the concrete, run it over with the forklift, then never follow through or deny a claim. Hahaha
Pics of their sweet handiwork;

View attachment 688070

View attachment 688071

Jesus, man.


I’m not going to go on a rant like I want to, so instead I will say simply this: people need to stop working jobs that you hate. If you’re gonna damage product or be rude to people, f*cking quit.

 

[92Turbski]

Jesus, man.


I’m not going to go on a rant like I want to, so instead I will say simply this: people need to stop working jobs that you hate. If you’re gonna damage product or be rude to people, f*cking quit.

Lol, yeah, for real. Oh well, shit happens. Just grateful/thankful to be able to do the fun stuff we do!

 

[CrackedDSM]

Got my stuff today and immediately installed two of it. First up is what I’ve wanted for like 20 years but could never afford all $175 of it ().

Small pile but kinda valuable.

Behold! The JMFabrications 1G race front bumper. I had front bumper sag something awful and was tired of it.

So I installed it immediately!

And then this is before. See the sag i between the lights and bumper?

And after! Look at that. Nice and tucked.

So much better.


Also, this arrived.

It’s an FP Green that I scored for a deal. It needs a rebuild bad because it’s got comp wheel damage, but honestly even an $800 rebuild I’ll be in it for less than $1000. Over $500 off a brand new fp green? Yes please!

Also, this is ricer stuff but I did need to replace the lugs as they were old and missing a few in the rear. I think they accent the red calipers nicely.

Small update and not world ending but exciting to me nonetheless. Appreciate y’all!

 

[Dericsh]

That’s interesting about Venmo since they are owned by PayPal, I figured that they would have a similar dispute system. Thanks for the heads up.
The front bumper looks great!
This project is rolling right along man- excited for you!

 

[CrackedDSM]

That’s interesting about Venmo since they are owned by PayPal, I figured that they would have a similar dispute system. Thanks for the heads up.
The front bumper looks great!
This project is rolling right along man- excited for you!

I thought the same thing but was curious. Overall not impressed though. If I had like a $1,500 turbo setup I got screwed out of, I absolutely wouldn’t wait 30+ days just to get my money back or possibly hear there’s nothing they can do. So yeah, definitely a hard pass from me.


But, thanks broski! It’s got a long way to go, and I’m currently fighting with myself to not just grab a battery, fix the three wires, and start it. Lol. It’ll be worth the wait and I especially need to check the main and rod bolts. Because if dale stripped the cam cap bolts he can strip those too.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Been meaning to replace this clip but couldn’t find anything online that was less than $20(I’m not paying $20 for two clips that cost you maybe $1 to 3D print yourself) so I did a little digging.

Found some Honda/Acura clips that will work but I had to order 25 of them from China. . So if any other 1ga guy needs a couple of these, hit me up. I’ll send them to you for free tbh. Cost me a whopping $8 for 25 of them.

 

[Dericsh]

What is that clip for?

 

[CrackedDSM]

What is that clip for?

It holds the side marker/corner lense in for the 1GA DSMs. The front of the light is fastened down by two screws, and the back part of the light slides into this little clip. If they break, they'll just flop around in the breeze. They won't go anywhere, it's just an appearance thing.

Here's how it looks where they slide in at.

^ That's the $20 pair of clips that I was mentioning, but it performs an identical function.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Small update but something that was important to me. Ordered this on eBay for frankly way too much.

It’s the OEM automatic seatbelt rail system and this car for some reason had the drivers side deleted. I have no clue why because when I ripped the interior panels off, I found this.

Someone left the heaviest part of the whole rail system and just cut the rails and stuff and left them. Lol . But I was happy to see this because I was low key worried someone might’ve like cut the harness to delete them, thankfully they didn’t! And it took all of like 5 minutes to bolt this up and plug it in. So happy to have it back. I love my auto seatbelts!

I do need some bolts that are missing but the main thing is on at least. I am excited!