Sunday, December 11, 2011 - 08:05 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Hi guys,
I've been trying to fix my nephews broken Mitsi Mirage which has blown its water pump in spectacular fashion. Problem is I CANNOT get the harmonic balancer nut undone to get the bottom front cover off. I've tried all the usual tricks with the starter motor, long poles etc, but it will not budge.
Poor kid is 17 and has no money to take it to a garage, so all he's got is his me and my limited set of tools.
So now I need either a blowtorch to heat it with, or better, a decent sized impact wrench and compressor to try and smash it off with.
Anyone in the Waikato area able to help out? Can reward with beer or whatever.
Sunday, December 11, 2011 - 10:09 am, by: Dave Hart(Davyboy)
I'd like to help but I'm at work ATM. Previous problems with stuck nuts has meant an impact wrench was useless unless our rattle gun was not powerful enough. Using a scaffold pole on the end of a ring spanner could end up shearing off the head. Maybe heat is the way to go. Not sure whether left or right thread either. Presume he'd need towing to get to anyone?
Monday, December 12, 2011 - 06:41 am, by: James Johnson(Jimbo)
I have a rechargeable rattle gun (battery powered) but I am in Auckland. I will see who is keen on a road trip if you like? Stretch the legs on the new soarer too....
Mike Beck Goo Roo New Zealand BMW E36 Coupe 1UZFE V8 340i
Monday, December 12, 2011 - 06:17 pm, by: James Johnson(Jimbo)
I have had it for 2 or more months now. Blue 95 uzz31 pov pack. The idea is to do the manual conversion to it and strip my gold one and transplant all the good bits from the gold one into the blue one and have 1 nice soarer. I have not yet got round to taking any pictures and have not quite got my head around how to resize them for this site but all in good time.
Sorry for thread hijack but my offer still stands as I have tomorrow and Wednesday off work Matt.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - 07:05 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Thanks guys - ended up towing him down the road and the local mechanic let us use his big gun - which STILL struggled to shift it - took a good 2 minutes of banging away at it before it finally let go.
Mitsubishi's suck arse.
Things that sucked about this job
1) Couldn't get the harmonic balancer bolt off 2) NO ROOM to work around the pump area, was SO difficult getting the new pump back into place 3) New OEM pump would not fit the alternator adjustment bracket - was about .5mm too big. Ended up having to grind down the bracket. 4) Cams snapped out of TDC as soon as the old belt was off, and would NOT stay at TDC when moved back - so had to hold them at TDC while putting the new belt on - then the fing crank moved and I had to start all over again! Managed to get it perfect eventually, but involved all sorts of contortions. 5) timing tensioner arrangement SUCKS. One of those off-centre bearing systems you have to wind counter clockwise to tension then hold in place while you tighten the bolt - EXCEPT instead of having a 1/4" socket point like most of them have, it had a stupid propitiatory two pin thing that you must have to have a special tool to fit! Managed to come up with a couple of drill bits that fit the holes and used a wedged screwdriver to hold in place while I tightened in the end. 6) Even refitting the ancillary belts was a pain in the arse due to there being NO ROOM between bits of the engine mount and the inner guard.
Give me a 2JZ-GE any day! Walk in the park compared to this one.
On top of all that the Mitsi is now leaking oil out the other end of the cylinder head gasket - going to try and re-torque the head for him today but the amount of oil would indicate that the head is now warped from overheating.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - 07:09 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Wow, a 95 uzz31 in NZ James! Rare beast indeed! If you like email me the pics and I'll resize them for you. Just private message me for my email address.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - 08:41 am, by: James Johnson(Jimbo)
Matthew Sharpe wrote on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - 07:05 am:
Told him to sell it and get a Toyota.
I have a 14MP camera so Ill try take some shots of it. It is noting flash, got it for $2300 with 349kms on the clock but 1 NZ owner since 98 when it was imported. The guy that owned it used it to tow his JZZ30 race car to events hence the high kms so it has had a hard life but been looked after by some one that knows them at least.
Thursday, December 15, 2011 - 06:17 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Cool - 350K is nothing for a well looked after 1UZ-FE.
A friend of mine is on the lookout for a Soarer. I told him it was pretty hard to find a good V8 these days (which I think is what he wanted) so he's looking around at some late model JZZ31's. He's pretty well off, so he can afford to be fussy and get a good one. Actually he's replacing his (totally worn out) 2004 Subaru Outback! Didn't even make it to 8 years old and its totally stuffed - paint is stuffed, engine is stuffed, transmission is stuffed - AND he always took it to Subaru for its scheduled servicing - so its not like he didn't look after it. Its coming up on 300,000km, but still!
Soarer market is really bare at the moment though - not sure if that indicates supply has dried up, time of year or what. Was interested to see a JZZ31, same year as mine, higher K's (250K) starting price at 3000 on trademe. I would not have thought I'd get $3000 if I sold mine, let alone have that as a starting price.
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