Winter Chassis Re-fresh

[wixer]

Hi Kaz,

As soon as all the parts arrive, I'll post an update to answer your questions.

I'm with you though on the new pulley/clutch from Rock Auto, I think it will be '91-'96 spec. Hopefully with the '97 mounting bracket & whatever the pulley does turn out to be, I have all the components to mount the new compressor correctly.

The connector on 471-1194 does indeed have the wrong electrical connector & the smaller diameter pulley, which I will measure when next in the garage.

[wixer]

Parts have arrived, so here's some photos to answer some of the questions on an earlier post.

New pulley & clutch from Rock Auto, large diameter




pulley from new compressor 471-1194, small diameter


Rock Auto pulley against new Compressor 471-1194


and against the original R12 compressor from my car




Rock Auto Actuator against original R12 are the same




and '97 mounting bracket.


and a few more parts


I think the Rock Auto pulley/clutch assy is the later '97 offset, as it doesn't have the same offset as the original off my car. Confirmation when I've actually assembled them to the new compressor.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi, Wix.
Thank you for taking your time for all these feedback.
Much appreciated.




Interesting to see where the pulley sits once the snap ring installed.

Kaz

[wixer]

No probs Kaz, glad to help confirm all the fitment issues with a compressor change to R134.

Original R12 compressor hose attachment plate removed, internals look clean, which is a good sign.

This compares the original '91-'96 compressor pulley alignment with the 471-1194 with the Rock Auto pulley assy. As can be seen, the Rock Auto assy is most definitely the later '97 offset, the belt run being closer to the compressor body.

New tensioner pulley & adjustment screw attached, the bracket cleaned up quite well.

New compressor & Rock Auto pulley attached to the original '91-'96 compressor mounting bracket. Photo doesn't really, due to fish effects but there is a definite mis-alignment.


Old '91-'96 bracket off the engine & the new '97 bracket.

Completed assy now mounted to the '97 bracket.


with the belt on, which shows perfect alignment.

Changed a few more air-con pipe seals, one of the old & new from the compressor hoses. Needless to say but they weren't in the best shape, so maybe the seals were the cause of the gas leakage.



So final spec, for future reference.

Rock Auto pulley/clutch/actuator assy - Four Seasons (no Denso parts available at time of ordering) - 47598 ('97 MY Pulley offset)
Denso R134 compressor 471-1194
'97 MY compressor mounting bracket 38930-PR7-A01

[wixer]

More fun in the garage today,

dry fit of new driveshaft & intermediate shaft

New intermediate shaft has a larger shaft diameter, I guess this was an specification upgrade during the cars life.

and more air-con seal changes

[wixer]

Hopefully this will be the final chapter in this winters overhaul. Fitted the last few bits back to the car, filled the gearbox with MTF3 & torqued everything up. Then came the moment to start the car & test to see that the clutch operated correctly, with it still on the ramp. BUT, I couldn't engage any gears properly & couldn't get into reverse at all, there was definitely no proper dis-engagement of the clutch........As you might guess, the air became a tad blue, at the possibility of having to remove the gearbox & clutch again.

After an email to Kaz & doing a few searches on the forums, I had a few ideas. Kaz suggested re-doing the clutch initialisation procedure & checking the pedal travel adjustment. Apparently the mid plate could get knocked out of place, if you struggle to get the gearbox back onto the engine, which did happen to me, working alone. I'd definitely recommend getting an assistant for anyone else who might attempt to do a DIY clutch change.

I re-set the initialisation and clutch pedal travel as per Kaz's video & re tested to see if the gears selected correctly & success, every gear could be engaged easily including reverse. I have yet to test drive the car, as I need to borrow a torque wrench to tighten the driveshaft axle nuts up, my largest torque wrench maxes out at 210n/m & the nut is 335n/m but fingers crossed, there'll be no more gear selection issues when I do go for a drive.

I also replaced the two air-con pipe seals at the front bulkhead. Not the easiest of tasks.....



but the two seals were in good shape, compared to some of the other seals I've replaced from the under floor connections but new ones now in the cleaned up joints.

[wixer]

I haven't posted for sometime on my ongoing maintenance of my NSX, mainly as I've not needed to but this year I needed to tackle the gearbox and driveshafts again. My original gearbox was showing its age and mileage of 200K, with a noisy, clunky diff, the main box being ok. I also needed to replace the driveshafts again, which was quite annoying as, I'd bought shafts from Insane Shafts in America, rated to 500BHP but they started knocking after only a few thousand miles. So I had my original OEM ones sent away for a rebuild at Driveshaft UK https://www.driveshaftuk.com last year.



I bought a gearbox from Goldtop of the forum, a while ago, so I had this sitting in the garage ready for the time to do the swap, which is a JDM spec box with around 65K miles covered. I also decided to replace the clutch with a Science of Speed single plate 275 clutch & flywheel assy. This is very nicely engineered and weighs 5kg less than a twin plate OEM assy.









To help with dropping and raising the gearbox, I fashioned a very basic winch by strapping some left over wooden planks to some joist hangers, and suspending the gearbox on some rope, connected to a small pulley. This worked really well & the allowed me to align the gearbox a lot easy than trying to just use my small transmission lift, as I could easily align the gearbox to the engines angle.






Everything was going well, until I tried to re-fit the clutch slave cylinder & I found the clutch fork was too close to the rear side of the small aperture not allowing enough space to re-attach the cylinder, so there was only one thing to do & that was to drop the gearbox out again. Fortunately I hadn't fitted a lot of things back to the car, so didn't take long but was frustrating. The reason for the mis-positioned clutch fork being the clutch bearing being out of position in the fingers of the pressure plate.

This photo showing a correctly attached bearing.

[wixer]

Seems I can only upload a limited amount of photos to each post, hence the reason for this second post to continue the story.

I also bought Goldtop's DC Sports exhaust last year, so I swapped my Tubi system for this, while the car had it's rear end apart.



Tubi system removed, which I guess I'll put up for sale, as I have 3 exhausts now, these two & a standard system, ready for when I ever put the car back to standard.



Another job I tackled, was to have a go at re-flashing the front bumper lower bib, to try & improve its looks, after 30 odd years of being scraped on road surfaces. I used a heat gun and then scrapped the worst scratches with a Stanley knife blade and various grades of sand paper the smooth the surface out & then used the heat gun again to soften the top surface, which brought the black colour back to the surface.

This photo shows the before heat flashing on the left & after on the right.





Overall, the bib is looking a lot better than it was.

[Heineken]

No offence but could it be that the "after" picture is missing?

[wixer]

No offence but could it be that the "after" picture is missing?

Well spotted Lars....

Here are some of them finished, a lot better than they were but not like new, just need to get the car re-sprayed now....... Probably the next biggest job still to do...