Who... does... Mister Two... work... for?!

As a Toyota aficionado, and well known mr2oc.com member- aw11 steering rack has issues. Lots of wandering steering and shaking from these over the years.

In reply to Trackmouse:

That would certainly explain some things.

And she's an '86

Steering rack bushings, if I recall, are a common "clunk" source.

As the new-ish owner of an '88 SC and previous/re-purchased-again owner of an '87 I feel I should at least bookmark this thread for later reference.

Thank you, I'll show myself out now...

For some reason I was also thinking of Get Smart with agent 86 but I am getting way off track here.

Ordered a set of new bushings and some items to freshen up the shifting last night.

I'm sure at some point I'll hit something hard, but so far this car has been a dream to work on.
Replaced the rear engine mount just now, took maybe 20 minutes, including rummaging through my entirely unorganized tool box and chatting with my neighbor.

Old mount

You can see my shoe through the crack in the mount!

Sometimes the universe smacks you on the back of the head when it's time to call it a day.

Steering rack bushings and short shift kit went in today, lack of a 22mm socket prompted the above carnage.
Tomorrow!
Though struts being scheduled to arrive tomorrow might bump more bushings down the list.

In reply to SnowMongoose:

That's the universe telling you to use the proper tool.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Thanks for writing something nicer than I was able to come up with.

Sorry for not having a 22mm open ended wrench in my modest box-o-tools.
Got excited, bushings are exciting for normal people too, right?

And if the universe were really trying to tell me something I'd have hurt myself in the process, that was a warning shot.
(Borrowing or buying the proper equipmunk tomorrow after work)

And FWIW, I accumulated the broken one at some point, I try to avoid buying bottom shelf tools.

At least it wasn't a pipe wrench.

SnowMongoose wrote: (Borrowing or buying the proper equipmunk tomorrow after work)

Trackmouse wrote: As a Toyota aficionado, and well known mr2oc.com member- aw11 steering rack has issues. Lots of wandering steering and shaking from these over the years.

Almost 100% of it caused by a $2 nylon internal rack bushing. All that clunking and drama is a $2 part and a 20min fix.

Probably the best bang for the buck fix on these cars. And balljoints-- they eat rear balljoints quickly.

Edit: this stupid thing:

SnowMongoose wrote: Though struts being scheduled to arrive tomorrow might bump more bushings down the list.

Did you ket Konis? If so, get the right pin-spanner for the gland nuts. McMaster has them for $12.

In reply to Tyler H:

I did get Konis.
Currently dealing with the fact that when I wrench on the top bolt (after compressing the spring) the shaft just spins and spins and spins.
Flat section visible at top of shaft in picture.

And I don't currently own anything capable of grabbing the small flat spot near the top.
If any of you know what sized wrench I'd need for that, that information would be most helpful to me.
So, yeah, playing with bushings/skipping the rear right corner for now.

Never mind that I lack the vice needed for the next step, plan for now is to get all four units off the car then use my stepdad's vice at his place.
Never mind that that conflicts with my cunning plan to do this without having to unhook (and re-bleed) the brakes.

Wow, typing that made me way less excited about this suspension overhaul.

In reply to Tyler H:

Have yet to find anyone local with the correct pin spanner
(admittedly I have no idea what the right one is)

We'll see how creative I get tomorrow.

SnowMongoose wrote: In reply to Tyler H: Have yet to find anyone local with the correct pin spanner (admittedly I have no idea what the right one is) We'll see how creative I get tomorrow.

For the SW20 MR2 konis, the "Armstrong 34-107 1 1/2 Face Spanner" is the tool for the job. Measure the diameter of the two holes on top of the Koni gland nut and the distance apart to be sure.

For your old struts, take the strut off, put your spring compressors on, compress the spring until there is just a little bit of tension to keep the top spring perch from spring. Braaap it off with a hefty impact, while the spring/compressor is pointed in a safe direction. You know...for safety.

There should be a slot in the top perch to keep the shaft from spinning, but you can't fully disassemble it while it is under tension or bad springy things happen. I usually break the top nut loose while the car is on the ground.

The front springs on a MR2 are short and wide, with very few coils. It's fun with the spring compressor.

Make sure you get the new gland nut on and damn tight or they'll clunk a lot. You can snug it up a little more once it's on the car with the spanner.

When the shaft starts turning in junk struts, I clamp vise grips on them and turn the top nut off.

Cause really, what you gonna do, damage junk parts?

Needle-nose locking pliers held the shaft in place for me, woo!
Ended up cutting and bending the brake-line bracket to get the shock out of the car, now to repeat the removal process on the other three corners and make a mess near my step-pops' vice.

Then do some bushings, then slap it all together.
Good news is that the little plastic inner bushing (that Tyler H mentioned) should arrive by the time I've buttoned everything else up, that should be the last step before she's back on the road.

SnowMongoose wrote: Needle-nose locking pliers held the shaft in place for me, woo! Ended up cutting and bending the brake-line bracket to get the shock out of the car, now to repeat the removal process on the other three corners and make a mess near my step-pops' vice. Then do some bushings, then slap it all together. Good news is that the little plastic inner bushing (that Tyler H mentioned) should arrive by the time I've buttoned everything else up, that *should* be the last step before she's back on the road.

First step in any MR2 suspension maintenance is to cut a slot in the brake line brackets so you can avoid cracking open the brake lines every time you pull a strut. The little horseshoe clips still work. Dumbest design ever. If your brake line brackets weren't already cut, they've probably never been off the car.

In reply to Tyler H:

Yeah, both now have slots.

Left rear strut was also blown, I'm guessing the fronts will be similarly dilapidated.
In related news, the rear bushings are all done except for torquing them to Toyota specs.
Mister Two has finally inflicted damage on yours truly, I have a throbbing left middle finger and a chunk missing from my left thumb, not bad considering.

Break on the couch meow, then I'm going to see about yanking the front struts so I can appropriate a vice and get these babies opened up.

Suspicions confirmed.
All four were blown, right rear was... more blown.
Like, shaft had no resistance, glided happily along.

Two bushings and some vice work and it's alignment time!

Suggested alignment specs for spirited street driving and possible rallycross?

You should drill into the right rear strut and see how much pressure it has left, if anything. Curious how it's disintegrated over all these years.

Wear eye pro.

Pics to come when I make it back to the lappy, two struts ready to go, need to trim the bottoms to make them fit.
Mixed feelings about these not being plug and play, though it doesn't seem like too much work from here on out, especially compared to all this bushing stuff... should be a piece of cake.
Famous last words, I know.

As promised, pictures!
Couple shots of the fancy red bushings, shot of the OEM shock innards, then a shot of how holy-crap-close I am.

I'm calling it a hunch that between the four corners, the shocks should have held more oil than came out of them.
I used a 2-liter pop bottle to collect it, all told it was around 2.5 inches full.

Say what? The other side even matches?
Heck yeah.
Have to trim a few mm off of the bottom of each of the front inserts, re-assemble, and install.
Then hoss the car around a bit until Monday when I can get an alignment that I'd wager I needed even before I took apart, well, the entire suspension.

Oh, yeah, replaced the white plastic inner bushing on the steering rack too.
No pics of that, it's boring.