djellum

I have a solid steering rack in my other car, with good ends. I just pulled the whole thing out since the boots on mine are bad as well. going to swap it in as a unit.

I have a carbureted car, mainly where did you plumb it into? random vacuum plug, Pcv outlet, carb?

2-3 feet. nothing scientific about it, just need enough restriction however you want to get it

if your talking an 85 gl wagon then it should be the same, they have some cross overs with brats and hatches so be careful with parts in those years.

the vacuum secondaries are internal to the carb (mostly, I believe there might be a small canister on the side of the carb) so you can remove the emissions stuff without messing with it. tbh if your going to tackle this project leave the secondaries for after you are rid of the hoses and tuned to run well. you will have a hard enough time tuning it in without added complication from the secondaries. I have done 2 following this guide and the other couple on here, and this is what I have found while doing it. check your throttle shaft play first. with the car off slightly open the throttle and see if there is any side to side play in the shaft. its ok to hear a small tick/tick since it will always have some play, but if you can see or hear excessive movement then the carb is pretty much shot and probably not worth the effort unless you just want to learn something about it. don't pull the manifold unless you want to for looks, you can unhook everything and remove 99% without taking it off, its just some hard metal vac lines that need the manifold removed and they don't hurt anything and aren't really in the way. snapped manifold bolts are a very common issue and its just cosmetic to remove the metal lines. you could even saw off the ends to get them more out of the way. plug all the ports in the carb but the large front port that goes to the emissions canister. that one needs to be open but restricted. its called a bowl vent, and it maintains proper pressure in the bowl so that theres not vacuum or pressure where its not supposed to be. it cant be left completely open or plugged. it has to be restricted a proper amount. i crammed a hose on it that was a size or 2 small, and left the hose about 2'-3' long and that seemed to get it in the ballpark, so I ran mine that way for a long time. whatever way you chose this will be an important step. I recommend putting an inline fuel pressure gauge by the carb. it helps diagnostics a ton and you will want one if you ever do a weber swap.

well, inner tie rod is shot. not really that climactic now that I have pulled the boot off and see what it is. they are expensive though and the boots are shot as well, so I pulled the whole rack out of my parts car since its all solid. that said does anyone have a manual rack they don't want? I will trade you for a power one, full setup, pump, lines, good rack +spares.

Hay, Ive been looking into this for a while, Id love to see/hear how you set yours up. I have seen a ton of online stuff and would love to talk to someone who has actually built/used it. I have metal working tools and welders so I can build it fairly easy. you can PM me here.

yah the rods themselves spin easily on mine. ill pull the boots tomorrow. I put a bunch of new stuff in (ball joints, bearings, etc) and ended up with worse feeling suspension, to the point of unsafe so Im hopping its just that sloppy steering.

Having a terrible time with the front suspension on my GL 4wd EA82 wagon. the problem for tomorrow is that there is some front and back play in the drivers side wheel. it looks like the play is where the tie rod and the steering rack meet, inside the boot. I haven't pulled the boot yet to check it out, but I thought I would get some preliminary suggestions. the alignment was way out of wack for a long time, but now that I have rotated the tires and dropped the crossmember its driving horrible. is that something due to misalignment of some sort or is it worn parts in the rack? do the tie rods thread in on that end or are they attached in some other way? when you adjust the tie rod ends do you pull them out of the knuckle or do you spin the rod itself and leave the rod end bolted in? any help or ideas you can give are appreciated, its been a very frustrating couple of months dealing with axles and BS.

for me it comes down to tire quality. a little clearance is never bad, but getting a good high ply count tire is important. either will have better options than 13's. Id look at the overall diameter you want and then see what has the most options for good ply count. check the actual tire diameter on the manufacturers site, don't go over 25 inches without a lift.

I've ran 25 inch tires with no lift, though a pair of the wider ones did rub just a little bit. if you don't plan on lifting then stay under 25 inch actual diameter. at 25 inches or a bit over you will likely rub. you have to look up the tires, the normal tire ratings are generalized and not exact. same deal for 27's and the lift. I wouldn't try to eek out that last centimeter, be conservative. the reason the backspacing is important is to center the weight of the wheels over the bearings. with our small light cars its not ultra critical, but bad offset can eat up wheel bearings quickly depending on the situation. that said I have seen tons of people running with spacers, and odd offsets with no issues that I have heard.

its more a problem of running without any exhaust or extremely short exhaust that might let some atmospheric air in from the exhaust side. the oxygen can cause burned valves. considering how long the manifold is on these i doubt it will be much of a problem. the larger problem in your case would be letting exhaust into the cabin if its exiting that far forward. Id at least send back and out in front of the rear wheels just to keep the fumes away from people. At the very least make sure your covers under the center console are 100% sealed to keep the fumes out. some of the smaller problems are that your car will pass through some raw fuel and with that short of exhaust I think you may be risking some fire potential. not a high chance that I have ever heard of, but heat + fuel + air is all it takes. another secondary concern is rust. Ive seen a ton of bumpers are rusty around the tail pipe so I doubt it will be good for the underside of your car.

Hey, 87 GL wagon, 4wd high/low, carb so I've finally got all my suspension set after my lift, cross members dropped and such. going to install the new axles tomorrow and then I need to do an alignment. the front passenger side tire is obviously out by a bit. you can actually see that the front passenger side is turned out a bit. the car has always pulled to the right and that tire is the only one worn funny so I'm fairly sure its just that specific side thats out. gonna run the string around the back tires and use that to get the front one strait. never really messed with the steering so just throwing up my plan in case theres a snag somewhere that you can catch before i start. basically going to do this 1-put the string around the rear tires to in front of the car 2-measure the distance that the tire is out on the back side 3-knock out the tie rod end and loosen the locking nut 4-spin the tie rod end until its moved half the measured distance 5-reverse everything and check it again I may have to eyeball it to get it close enough to use the string, but is there any pitfalls I'm not thinking of? actually looks fairly simple, but that doesn't mean there aren't tricks and problems.

yah, i imagine ill end up with some loud aftermarkets, unless its just a loose wire or something. I may even just wire it direct to a switch. I never use my horn, but work is getting testy about mine not working. don't want it to be too ghetto, but I just need it to make some noise when they ask me to test it.

ill check it out tomorrow. work actually requires me to have a horn for some stupid reason.

sorry, 87 GL wagon, 4wd

Need to fix my horn, checked all the components in the steering wheel, now I want to check the actual horn itself but... I don't know where its located. I looked but not extremely hard, never had a horn on this vehicle so no idea if its missing or not.

I really haven't had too great of luck with specialist shops. just because the owner/lead mechanic has a cert doesn't mean he's the one that always works on your cars. they hire other mechanics just like everyone else. get to know the peons in the shop and then decide since they will be the ones turning most of the wrenches. I have had great experiences here and there, but it was when the other guys in the shop were on their A game. My roommates mom payed a local shop to replace a water pump on her van. she mentioned that the noise didn't go away, so I listened through a long screwdriver and found that it was the alternator the whole time. it didn't sound like an alternator bearing to me either, but I still listened with the tool to make sure. Took all of 2 minutes and finds the problem 99% of the time. someone at the shop could have found that, but they were sure it was the water pump. bit of an extreme case I think, id expect better from most shops or they wouldn't be in business long, but the point is go to the patient guy who checks things. if the guy who did your axles did them well and was easy to work with, keep going to him.

the actual path the exhaust gases take is all in the manifold. if your EGR is leaking exhaust into the manifold then plugging the hoses won't help, you need a block off plate of some sort. I only mention this if your actually attempting to find an issue, if the car runs fine and you just want to remove the EGR then plugging the holes will do it.

if its the stock carb then the secondary is likely vacuum operated. id check all the linkages to see if any of them are stuck. also id look for vacuum leaks to see if thats your idling problem. if the choke wasn't working then maybe the carb was tuned that way and now that its open it needs a few turns.

those designations of tire are generic ranges. they can be off by a staggering amount sometimes. you want to go to the actual specs on the manufacturers website and see what the true diameter of the tires your looking for are. pick a few available brands and look them up. you have to take into account the tread wear but normally treads arent really that deep anyway. rim width changes things as well as other variables. its not the end of the world but you should get as reasonably close as you can.

the selector for the vents are vacuum. there is a hose going to the motor from a canister on the passenger side firewall. check if the hoses are connected and that the canister doesn't leak. there are lines on the back of the button selector, which I assume go to the heater core area, but I haven't torn it down past the button control unit myself.

you can bump the timing up a bit likely. a lot of people run 20 deg base timing. I cant seem to get mine running right at any timing below 15. be mindful of spark knock, but many people including me haven't had any issues on normal gas up that high. also the webers are sensitive to fuel pressure, where the hitachi isn't. you will want to check your pressure if your gonna run the weber. should be between 3 psi and 3.5 psi. I just installed a $17 inline reg. its worth gold to just pop the hood and be able to see that your getting fuel pressure. Also get a 3 way filter and install the return line again. helps take some of the pressure off the carb another common problem is water leaking into the manifold from that coolant passage. the carb gaskets and adaptors aren't generally set up to accommodate them. some JB weld, epoxy, whatever you want that will fill and block it before putting the carb on. I welded mine shut. might double check your jets, 3 turns out is quite a bit, should be closer to 2 if the jets are standard. maybe a vacuum leak as well requiring a rich carb to adjust it out? also check your float adjustment and make sure your choke is not interfering in some way.

Before pulling injectors I would throw some sea foam through it and then change filters. Injectors are rebuildable but I have never done it myself. maybe google a bit and see if they may just need some cleaning and new orings or some such thing. i seem to remember them just being 2 small screws. easy to F up the screws or break stuff so be careful. there are a few types of injectors, I cant remember what ones we have (bosch?). anyways once you find out what style they are then there most any of that style will fit on, they just may be rated for different power outputs. people building turbo motors used to use injectors from some fords cause they needed more fuel output. i mention it since i seem to recall you lived in the sticks so you may not have a lot of options.

for the OP, since I didn't really say it right. best bet is to buy 2 tires the same size but different brand or pattern. they won't be exactly the same but will be plenty close. if you mix the sizes like you listed you should actually measure and see if they are close to the same actual diameter. they may be very close depending on the brand or way out of whack. your goal should be to have tires that are the closest in actual diameter. the normal size rating system is only a ball park, look up each tire and get its actual diameter from the makers website so you know. width and tread pattern matter little compared to the diameter.