My DSM Saga. Part 1

[impactspoon]

I am new to the DSM community, I got a great deal on a 1995 Eagle Talon TSI (or at least what I thought was at the time). I picked it up for 800.00, it has 250,xxx kms on it and was told that it needed a rear wheel bearing and the paint on the roof is a little faded. The drive from the buyers house to work made obvious that the clutch needed to be replaced but other than that drove well. When I got a chance to pull it into my bay at work, I put it up on the hoist and had a good look at what I was dealing with. First things first, I popped the hood and found that the previous owner had equipped the motor with a vent to atmosphere bov and an Injen cai. There were leaks present near the power steering reservoir, valve cover and around the oil filter housing. So after I got it up in the air I shook the wheels down and found that it needed two wheel bearings (driver's front and passenger's rear) Driver's outer tie rod, two front lower control arms and two upper control arm bushings on the rear. I have done the wheel bearings, the rear being the single most godawful wheel bearing I have ever done, getting the axle shaft was the worst part. Am going to do the tie rod end and the lower control arms this coming pay. So I take it for a test drive and it starts squealing like a bi*** and snaps the belt for the crank, water pump and alternator. So I put a new belt on and cleaned up the pulleys, started it up, ran great but as soon as the cooling fans kicked on the squealing returned! Thusly I put a voltmeter on the battery while it was running and it read 11.8 volts. So the alternator is pooched. Next pay I plan on modding the Saturn alternator to fit the car. My wife just got a digital camera, so the next time I have to do something to the car I will post pics too.

I will have more soon........ from what I have read the saga has just begun.

 

[impactspoon]

Time for an update. On sunday I was going to see my girlfriend then the car just quit. No noises, no symptoms, just quit. So I have it towed down to the place where Im doing the work.... I took this as a sign to just go at it and do everything that I was planning to do. So I get into and it, tear down the top end. But when I take off the timing cover, I notice a ton of what was at one time, a belt. Low and behold it was pieces of the balance shaft belt. Debris from this belt had managed to take out my crankshaft position sensor and my camshafm position sensor, which explains why it stopped running all of a sudden. Needless to say, I'm taking those stupid things OUT! Also I found a big dirty crack on the bottom of my exhaust manifold. Woot, more fun. Luckily though, the shop that Im doing my work at is a machine shop....so the manifold isnt an issue. When I got the car I was told that the engine only had about 50-60k on it, but I had my doubts. The way that dirty engine bay looked I figured it was the origional engine. But when I got the head of I was quite supprised. Everything was mint, aside from the block being a little rusty. No signs of crank walk, hell you could still even see the honing in the cylinders! And so, here I sit just taking a break...I ended up just pulling the engine instead of weaseling my way around it still in the car. I will post pics in a different thread when I get them from my phone to my computer.