What did you do to your X1/9 today ?

Broke it....again. I'm getting good at this :D

Noticed after the trip to Autoitalia the brake pedal travel was getting longer, thought it would be a good idea to bleed the brakes just in case....the rears went fine, started on the near side front....hmmm....no resistance at all, closed the bleed nipple still no resistance oh @£@$%^@£&*

I hate this job it's a really ball ache replacing the master cylinder and I'll have to do the clutch as well seeing it will all be apart... :(
 
Did a few odd jobs on Saturday:

1. Removed the wheels and gave the wheelhouses and wheels a good scrubbing. The last car show of the season last year was on wet, slightly muddy grass so there was some dried up debris up in there, plus a little degreasing of the CV joint areas.

2. Since each end of the car was up in the air with the wheels off, I installed the Mark Plaia shock tower doublers that I've had on the shelf for a few years now :rolleyes:

3. Removed the drivers seat to re-tuck the seat base upholstery into the channel in the front of the seat frame. It's a shame that new seat base foams are not available, as I think this would not be a problem with original firmer seat foams---as they get old, the original seat foams are getting a bit squishy. Vacuumed under the seat since it was out.
 
I'm curious to what extent any of you have found the tops of the strut towers to be pushed up? Looking at both of my X's there isn't any noticeable deviation visually, but I haven't attempted to measure it more closely. So I'd like to get a feel of how much they can get distorted.

I suppose one advantage to letting the tops get deformed upward is it offers some lowering of the car without compromising the suspension travel. :D Honestly if there was more clearance under the hoods I'd look into extending the height of the towers to assist in lowering the ride height more while preserving the travel.
 
Started work on the master cylinder swap today and thought I’d take the opportunity to tackle the broken choke cable the car has had since I got it. Replacing it is another one of those ‘jobs’...you have to take both seats out and the seat belt stays along with raising the centre console so as to lift the carpet sufficiently to get access to the hand brake and choke lever. I used a generic cable which was a touch too large in diameter but it went in ok.



Broken cable

 
Right hand drive!
For the generic replacement cable, are you referring to only the inner cable or the whole sheath and cable?
 
Dr.Jeff said:
I'm curious to what extent any of you have found the tops of the strut towers to be pushed up? Looking at both of my X's there isn't any noticeable deviation visually, but I haven't attempted to measure it more closely. So I'd like to get a feel of how much they can get distorted.

I suppose one advantage to letting the tops get deformed upward is it offers some lowering of the car without compromising the suspension travel. :D Honestly if there was more clearance under the hoods I'd look into extending the height of the towers to assist in lowering the ride height more while preserving the travel.
Click to expand...

To the naked eye, I can't see any deformation of the strut tops on my car. I think this was an issue for early cars and not so much the later ones.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Right hand drive!
For the generic replacement cable, are you referring to only the inner cable or the whole sheath and cable?
Click to expand...

Inner Dr.Jeff, the wire gauge is a touch too large. I reused the outer greasing it well...
 
It was a great drive to work today. it was a balmy 40 degrees. this normally wouldn't be an issue but I don't have heat. when I put the B16 in, I had an issue because the b series works off a bypass system for the heat where the X is an open close. way back when, I said "meh, I will get to it later". so when i started to drive, the windshield started fogging up from my breath. Time to open the window! something about 80 MPH with your window down in 40 degree weather sure wakes one up!!
Car made it to work fine. But going to lunch it had intermittent misses again. bummer. but hey, i have only done 1 street tune, I need to get it to t dyno. As far as fast, I have the LS transmission which is the slowest of all transmissions for b series but the tall gearing make it comphy to drive. Still quicker then the 1.5 but not as fast as I expected. Vtec under an overpass sounds ALMOST as good as the 1.5 with dual webers, but not quite.

Best part, I had a big (albeit frozen) grin on my face.

Odie
 
Made progress on the master cylinder swap today. I would like to personally thank the monkey employed to work on the supposed “restoration” of my car by a previous owner some 5 years ago...your work sir is something to behold and I thank you for making my job 1000% harder...I know the garage but won’t mention them here.


I have found brake unions tightened up so hard I was in danger of busting a blood vessel in my attempts to undo them, bake unions that seem to have been tightened with a pair of mole grips and thus rounding off all the corners. A corroded pedal assembly housing that should have been renovated correctly before being refitted to the car. A seized to the plastic pivot brake pedal that required significant work to free off and a trapped / kinked reservoir to brake master cylinder hose that could have potentially led to a bad accident. Thank you so much.


The hose retention clip is there for a purpose, but the monkey didn’t use it...not see here is the tie wrap inserted into two badly drilled holes and not used to secure the hoses...





Which results in....





Nice.


This doesn’t look too bad but the rust is deeper than can be seen and runs down each side of the pedal box...sorry guys I just needed to vent, today has been frustrating.


 
I have to say the state of the clutch fluid was something else as well, if I’ve learnt anything it is that you really do need to change your brake fluid every two years...
 
I think a major factor in the ubiquitous nature of rusty X pedal boxes is the use of cloth braided hydraulic hoses. It seems in those years many Euro car makers used hydraulic hoses with cloth overbraiding--I would think for abrasion resistance, which is a good thing. But the downside of its use in the X is that the cloth braiding acts as a wick and brings moisture from the scuttle area under the windshield and draws it toward the pedal box. The good news is that the pedal box is a good thick steel stamping; the rust looks unsightly but there is little chance of it advancing to the point where safety is compromised.
 
Dan Sarandrea (Phila) said:
the cloth braiding acts as a wick and brings moisture from the scuttle area under the windshield and draws it toward the pedal box
Click to expand...
True. Add to that the highly effective paint removal effect of brake fluid. Even a minor leak will leave the metal unprotected (except for the residual coating of brake fluid).
 
Treated the rust and gave the box a coat of paint yesterday and started on the rebuild today which came to a prompt halt as I found out why one of the brake unions had been rounded off by the monkey.



That must have been one tight union to do up! Hopefully I’ve located a used one, with luck it will be here soon.
 
Frozen brake line nuts are very common on these cars. It is not necessarily from improper installation (i.e. over tightening), so much as not using some anti-seize on them. And it often results in rounded off nuts, galled threads, stripped fittings, etc.
 
I did the pedal box last fall and being the first one in it went a bit smoother than those monkey tracks NEG is negotiating right now. I finally got to the other end of the brakes this week. I rebuilt the calipers, replaced the original 04/85 dated hoses, dropped in some new pads. I also gave the rotors a good sanding and everything else a much needed bath in degreaser/defunker. I'm happy to report all went smoothly though the rear parking brakes were a small pain. The calipers were remarkably clean inside despite the black strap molasses I sucked out of 'em on the first round of repairs. Before changing the pads and hoses the pedal felt hard and required a lot of force to stop quickly. Now there is more range and pedal effort seems noticeably lower even stopping quickly. Seals were sourced through Eurosport UK. The other parts were sourced through MWB and everything fit perfectly.
P_20190513_130251.jpg
P_20190513_130336.jpg
P_20190513_125330.jpg
 
While I was in a productive mood I decided to grease my swoosh swoosh swoosh speedometer cable. Easier said than done. I attempted to withdraw the cable from the sheath as I always do but this one was so dry and rusty it was a lost cause. I can't believe it even worked! I ordered a $30 replacement from MWB that was a dead match for the OEM I pulled out. I did need to trim off 5mm from the cable to make it fit perfect. I suggest comparing it to your old cable length before cutting or trying to force anything. Too long and it rubs on the sheath causing high resistance and wear. Too short and it could chew up the drive gear and cable from too little engagement.
P_20190513_125032.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top