850R - Stage 0 Dreams Pt. 1

After a lot of swearing, cursing, and collective problem solving the 850R went back on the road today. The progress towards fully stock, aka Stage 0, has made many leaps and bounds in the past few days. On both sides of the car we have installed brand new sway bar end links, control arms, tie rods, stainless steel brake lines, rotors, and pads. The final piece that we competed was flushing all the brake fluid, which was something that should have been done a long time ago. The brake fluid in the lines was so full of particulate that the initial pumps sent out a jelly like substance before any sort of fluid. We also discovered a flaw in the 850s stock brake lines (a common issue as mentioned on the forums), they had built up so much pressure, and were caked with so much road grime that they were fully fused to the brake hard-line. Luckily, like the bolts on the passenger side, we were also to use the Dremel to cut the lines and remove them for the new steel brake lines. It is also worth mentioning the CV axle was re-installed as well, as has worked great.

A shot of the new Brembo discs, along with the stainless steel hard-lines and new hadware installed.

What wheel cleaning fluid and steel wool can do to remove road grime and splattered axle grease. Unfortunately the Pegasus wheels we have still need major repairs for the curb rash that they have developed over time.

A shot of the installed CV axle with the new boots. You can also see the new tie rods and sway bar end links.

With as much as we have completed so far, there is a lot to go. A falling headliner, and a mysterious oil leak still need to be remedied. A fluid flush of the cooling system may be in order, along with new oil. In the more short term, we need an alignment, and plan on getting many more bits and pieces from some donor cars to fix pieces on the interior and exterior.

850R - Firestone Fixes CV Axle while Suspension Nears Completion

After trying, and failing, to repair the axle boots ourselves, we finally broke down and decided to have them professionally rebuilt. To our surprise, finding a shop that would do this was more difficult than we expected. Many automotive shops in High Point, NC would not touch it, and the one axle & drive-train shop that we were sent too seemed like it had been out of business for quite a few years. We were giving up on the idea of having the boots replaced and focused on a re-built one sold by O'Rileys or NAPA until I saw that Firestone, of all places, will actually repair CV boots. For the tune of $52, we were able to have the boots installed and repacked.

The new axle coming back from Firestone. New boots along with new grease. We did not check the bearings for damage, as when we removed the boots there was still a large amount of grease left in the original boots.

With the axle done Steve was able to button up the passenger side suspension with the new control arm, sway bar end links, and new tie rod. With this complete we are slowly getting closer to moving onto new parts of the project. The new brake discs from FCP Euro (OEM spec Brembos) along with new brake lines will most likely be installed soon as well. After these parts are installed it will be a matter of bleeding the brakes for new fluid, then isntalling new pads to the calipers.

Interior work is coming soon as well. We have installed the new panels on the rear, however there are still many sagging trim panels to fix, broken clips to replace, and dirty interior fabrics to be deeply cleaned.

The passenger side suspension all buttoned up. We will defintely need to get an alignment though!

850R - Axle Removal and CV Boots Halt Progress

Today we were able to finally get all the bolts removed that we needed to continue on the passenger side. After removing the axle and cutting the old, ripped CV boot off we began to remove all of the axle grease. Unfortunately the clip that holds the end of the axle on (near the hub) that we are unable to reach with our tools. This means that the boots will need to be installed by a professional shop after the weekend. Hopefully once this is done we can continue progress of rebuilding the passenger side suspension (tie rods, sway bar end links, control arms, etc.) Overall the cost of the rebuild will not be that high, and NAPA carriers re-manufactured axles for $50, a steal!

Old and new tie rod ends. They were completely worn on the drivers side as well and most likely contributed to the bad pull we had when braking.

By the end of next week the new brake lines and brake discs from FCP Euro should arrive and allow us to button up the entire front end. After this our plan is to drop the exhaust and take a look at the mysterious oil around the turbo. With any luck it will be a leaky gasket, however worst case we rebuilt the turbo with Steve's plan of a 20 blade turbine.