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My Celica

Discussion in 'Your 4th Gen beauty' started by spyder, Feb 18, 2014.

  1. Moused

    Moused Well-Known Member

    Look at thatttt... Painted and all, Jesus. Good job.

    How was the distributor seal to do? Pretty straight forward?
    Any tips?
     
  2. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    The seal was so bad it broke in two when i went to pull it off. It wasnt hard to do, as i said before you want to pull the cap and rotor bug and then take some finger nail polish or something and make a mark where the shaft is at at that time. this makes it easier to keep it in time when you put it back in and also tells you where to turn the shaft so the slot lines up with your cam. It wont go back in if it isnt lined up. I also took a hammer and a screwdriver and made a notch in the base of the distributor housing and a matching mark on the head, this way i put it back where it was and my timing doesnt need to be reset or anything. Getting the shaft to line up and then getting it to pop in with the new seal is by far the hardest part to do. Be careful not to get the bright idea and use the bolts to pull it up tight as this will break the housing. Just tap it in with a rubber mallet when you get the shaft lines up. And you will know when it lines up because you wont be able to turn it anymore and if you marked it before you pulled it off you should be able to line up your spots and that will get you real close to lining up. Once it pops back into your head start both of your bolts and then rotate the housing till the marks on the housing line up, i refer to the ones you make on the outside of it. You cant see the marks i made in the pics but tomorrow when i go to finish the job i can take some closer pics for ya so you can see what i mean. Im also painting a few other things. Figured that would be a good color so if it leaks again i can track it down easier.
     
  3. Moused

    Moused Well-Known Member

    Functional, and damn good looking.. What more do you need? lol

    Pics would be awesome.. I need to get on this, I think.. Given I KNOW mines leaking.
     
  4. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    I say do it, just take your time and be careful and it should go pretty easy.
    Went ahead and took the pics for ya, my center shaft mark is a bit off because i have turned the engine over after i got it back in. i made a circle where the marks are, the nitch i made on the outside to mark it,,, well in the pic you can see only the mark on the distributor because of the flash but i hope you get the general idea. cant mark the outside with paint as it wont be accurate enough, that and after cleaning it and painting it the mark would be long gone lol. Also took a quick pic of the crossbar, its not done yet, still have to paint the ends black.
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    the paint i used is about 12 dollars a can, and it has metal flakes in it so it sparkles more than the outside of my car lol.:drool5
     
  5. 187flatliner

    187flatliner Seat Breaker Donated!

    was it high temp paint? model? and i found it easy to lift the bearing out and set the dizzy down in place
     
  6. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    said high temp, not sure about the model. i will see how it does temp-wise after a few days of me driving it. If it lasts then its all good. Ill check the can tomorrow when i get up.
     
  7. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    Done finally, slept most of the day lol, But anyway done. She still runs fine but the things i need to still do is make my custom center cover to go over my plug wires but in these pics you get the general idea of what im doing.
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  8. CelicaSteve

    CelicaSteve Well-Known Member Staff Member Super Moderator Donated!

    Looking very good so far.
     
  9. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    Ok still have a leak, this time its coming from the front of the engine and is not as severe as the other one. More then likely the front crank seal, not sure how to access the crank pully to remove it as there isnt any room between it and the inside of the frame. So that leak will have to wait for a bit. Finally pulled off my front wheels so see what all needs replaced in the front end, turns out the only thing i need to change other than the brakes is the inner tie rod ends, passenger side has a ton of slack to it which is why i thought i had a bad bearing. Parts are ordered to do both the inner and outer tie rods on both sides. Finally got the voltage regulator in that i ordered like a month ago, installed it. Unfortunately it didnt make much of a difference and my guage still dances when i use the turn signals, odd thing is it dont do it when i turn on the hazard flashers on so that means it is an issue with the turn signal circuit and not the alternator. Things like this but the hell out of me so i will figure it out and solve the issue even if it means i end up completely rewiring it lol. (wouldnt be the first time i had to do something like that). Here are a few pics and a short video of it running. Enjoy.:lurk5:auto

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    the sideways engine pic is the video, hopefully it plays let me know if it dont. just click on it.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2014
  10. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    Ok so while installing a second body to engine ground wire i was over by my battery and found a negative post to body ground wire that was unhooked for some reason, so i cleaned up the end of it and that seems to have solved most of my electrical isues. now at idle, 700 rpms, all lights on i get a constant 14v and lights off i get 14.13v. Much better than the 12.16v i was getting at idle with lights on. I keep finding mystery plugs and added wires that go nowhere Thanks to the previous owners. Still sorting that all out.
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  11. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    Arrgh, im getting fed up with these electrical gremlins. Decided to break down and just get a refurbished alternator, that worked for about two hours and then the voltage regulator died a horrid death. So i have a plan, any alternator i get is just going to likely have another crappy used regulator and since the regulator is 75 dollars and damn near what i paid for the alt to begin with. Plan is to convert the system to use a external regulator and not the internal one. If it works as well as i plan then it will be a decent solution and it only costed me 35 dollars in parts to do, 15 for the regulator from an 88 ford, new. and i spent the rest on wire and ends. It is raining right now so i cannot go ahead and install it yet, I have however already built my harness for the regulator.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2014
  12. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    A few new updates

    Been working alot so i havnt gotten as much done as i would like to have, but my new air filter came in, along with some gaskets and seals and both inner and outer tie rod ends. Also replaced a few of my guages with some aftermarket ones i found. Sucks though i broke the oil pressure line before i got it installed so now i need to buy a new line to make it work, but the temp and amp guages work fine. now i have to get me some white guage faces so they all match lol.

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    Next thing im planning on doing is installing a gm alternator from an s-10 that i found for only 20 bucks. its 100 amp so i will have to change my main power wire to something beefier but that should solve my power issues. Shouldnt be that hard to do.
     
  13. CelicaSteve

    CelicaSteve Well-Known Member Staff Member Super Moderator Donated!

    Will look cool once you get the other 2 done ;)
     
  14. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    Got my new alternator, came off an s10, i sized it up and it will take a very small amount of mods to get it mounted and wired up. Also picked up an 8 gage power wire with fuse to run from the alternator to the battery so the 100 amp alternator dont fry anything. Paid only 20 dollars for the alt lmao.
     
  15. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    Ok. alternator is a cs130d, part number 1623-16-8 and range from 100 amp on up. I have to cut a small part of it off because i wanted a better fit but i didnt have to. I dont have it all done yet, still have the new charge wire to install and route and to buy a slightly longer serpentine belt as my old one is a little too short. I chose this alternator because of a few factors, one of them is because i found it on craigslist for just 20 dollars, and the other factor was because both mounting tabs were the thick ones instead of one thick and one thin, this way i could mount ti without needing much of a spacer on the upper bracket and only needed small modificaion to the lower one. I still have to build an adapter so i can bolt the lower mount in place but that wont be that difficult. I would have gotten this done today but i had to work and by time i got off work it was snowing. I got what i could done but tomorrow it will finally be finished. Goodbye wimpy import 60 amp alt and hello reliable 100 amp alt!
    so here is a few pics of the progress so far, if you guys are interested in this mod after i finish i can do a write up on it. Its not that difficult to do.

    the alt.
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    before i trimmed a small amount of metal off the lower mount on the alternator to get it to clear better.
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    and after, a much better fit.
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    and a pic of it in the car from above
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    Let me know what you guys think, if anything lol. I did some research and found that alot of toyota truck owners are doing this so there is a ton of info out there on this subject. However i have yet to find any info on doing this mod on a celica.:ground

    Here is how i plan on wireing up the plug to make it work with the celica
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    Last edited: Apr 15, 2014
  16. GazModz

    GazModz Active Member Donated!


    I would advise against using 8 gauge wire on a 100A Alternator, 8G is only good for 60A max (the stuff i sell at work is anyway). i would be recommending you use at least 4 gauge as it can support 110A, personally id be looking at 2 (160A) or 0 gauge (200A) :cool:

    the joys of working in an electronics shop :hehe
     
  17. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    wELL I WENT AHEAD AND USED THE 8 GUAGE WIRE I HAD ALREADY BOUGHT, I I have any issues with it it will be changed out, it has a fuse so its all good.
    Got it all done today, had to get a larger belt. the only issue i have now is the pully is just a little off from where i need it to be, i had to put a small spacer on the pully to get it to line up perfect. but other than that my lights are brighter and it charges at a consistant 14.55 volts. So time will tell if it holds up, went on a long drive after i got it done, about 50 miles or so and it did great, maybe its just me but it seems to run a bit smoother as well.

    the white thing on the wire is a 100 ohm 10 watt resistor, radio shack didnt have the exact one i needed but this one is working fine. wires look crappy because in this pic i havnt routed them or anything yet, just hooked up enough to test it and make sure it was working.
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    a close up, didnt have the right plug for it so i made one lol. i have one ordered, just playing the waiting game.
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    and a pic of the wires routed a bit better, still not exactly how i want to run them, after i know its going to be good and reliable im going to remove the old charging wires and all other unecessary wires from the harness and put some new wire looms in, till then its going to look a bit crappy. oh and i finally got the copper line for my oil pressure guage so i can finally hook it back up. going to have to drill a small hole in the steel bracket behind the guages for the line to go through first, also need to swap the bulbs out with leds so they will match the other guages.
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  18. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

  19. burakol

    burakol Well-Known Member Donated!

    any risk of melting the wiring of the car since you are now using a higher rated alternator???
     
  20. spyder

    spyder Well-Known Member

    Actually there is a risk of that, and if you read above a bit you will see i used 8 guage wire to solve that problem, and it has an inline 40 amp fuse just in case i get a short. Look at the pic above and you will see a red wire coming off the alternator, i routed it back behind the engine and then to the positive side of the battery, for the time being the old wire is taped up and not connected to anything. Im planning on removing it from the harness along with the other wires im not needing so it will be alot cleaner looking. By time im done i will have a total of 3 wires running acrost the engine, two to the alternator, and one to the temp sesnor for the fan.:auto
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2014

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