Colinb17's Little Red Rocket Build: 1988 Fiero

Looks great! What's the splitter made out of?

 

I still think this needs more height and some Dmacks

 

Polyurethane. Really easy to trim, drill, etc, but unlike a carbon or kevlar, it does need a little extra support.

I have no idea what that means....

 

Dmacks are a brand of rally tires, and pretty good ones too.

 

I see, said the blind man. I can put the stock mud flaps back on to look the part..... They'd probably drag on the ground bow though.

 

"self clearancing" Just like the muffler hanging from the MR2 in the parking lot today

 

Check this k24 fiero build

 

Did a wheel bearing last week. The hub I pulled off seems to have a Pontiac part number on it, meaning it'll be worth keeping and rebuilding myself with some timken or better bearings. The one I I stalled is an aftermarket unit, but is professionally assembled by the guy who is known for having the best packaged bearing assemblies for these cars, so it should do the trick.

The fact that this has a Pontiac part number on it, means that it could very well be an original bearing with close to 200k miles on it. Previous owner had a lot of service reciepts, and when bearing was not one of them.

Anywho, an old bearing like that made for a difficult uninstall.

Had to made my own press, since nothing I had was small enough, and the really want enough room to swing the 4lb sledge.

Some all thread, 3 nuts, and a washer did the trick. Jam the two outer nuts so you can hold the all thread still, and then sure the inner but against the hub flange. The tip off the all thread will press against the spindle until the hub is out. If you get to the point that you can't turn the wrench anymore, slap the sides with the sledge to break it loose. Then start turning the wrench again. Repeat until the assembly falls out.


I used a chisel as well to help persuade it.


After getting it out, you can see why it gave me so much trouble. The wetness is penetrant, not water, but still nice and rusted in.


Cleaned up with a die grinder and fine grit flapper


Anti seize on the new unit to make future swaps easier


And done! It's a shame what salty roads and a gravel parking lot does to your vehicle. I never painted the dust shields, but the rest of the suspension was a nice shiny black when I started driving this a few months ago.

 

Tech tip. Hover above salted roads.

 

My 2001 Subi was the same, when it came time to replace the rear bearings. Not only were they seized in the knuckles, but the axle shaft's splines were also rusted into the hub. Double fail.

Same as you, cleaned them up, and antiseized everything. I can always deal with that little mess, over that mechanical hassle. Yuck.

 

When I pulled the motor and transmission out last year, I was legit worried that the axles were going to be stuck in the hubs, and that was going to be my big holdup. Licking they came right out, but it had me nervous.

Side note, only one casualty while doing this bearing

 

For those off camber angles. Lol.

 

"Licking"? I know you love the car, but that is a strange fetish.

 

I swear I meant "luckily"

 

New lug nuts. While I love the design of the ones I have, they just aren't right for my application. Current lug nuts are a steel body with an aluminum floating, conical washer. Unfortunately, the bore in the wheel for the lug nuts is so small, that when the nuts were torqued down, the aluminum washer squished a little, wedging itself in the wheel. So now when I remove the nuts, the washers are stuck in the wheel. Lucky me now gets to cut/grind each and every one of the washers out before the new, all aluminum nuts go on.

 

Looking sweet man!

 

Thank you, Chad

 

Ugh. What a headache.

 

makes me wish it was a 4 lug......

 

got some parts in yesterday. mostly little stuff, but one of them has mad the most major handling difference that I have ever gotten from a single small part like this. so I'll start there.....

the engine and transaxle (transmission and differential built into one) sit on 3 mounts, with a brace on top. there is a forward mount on the transmission, a rear mount on the differential, and a mid-mount on the motor. they sit in a triangle, and provide plenty of support. then on top of the motor is a "dogbone", which stabilizes the motor when torque is applies to the assembly by accelerating or engine breaking.

since getting the car operable, if been experiencing a lot of forward and backwards jerking immediately after shifting gears, and while driving at low RPM in 1st and 2nd gears (below 15 mph). originally I thought, damn, I'm absolutely terrible at driving this car. then I dug into things a little bit. turns out the rubber bushings in the original dogbone were shot. cracked, torn, and missing pieces. I think there's actually a photo of it somewhere earlier in this thread. so I called up my uncle (fiero enthusiast), and asked if he had any spares or replacement bushings laying around. two days later a dogbone showed up in the mail. it was also an original, with 28+ year old bushings in it, however the bushings weren't torn, just very old. so I went ahead and swapped it out. there was a noticeable improvement, and the jerking went away completely under normal driving conditions, and lessened in the under 15 mph range. however, when I was really getting on it, it was still very much there.

there are two options left at this point. swap out for polyurethane bushings, or go to a solid mount. I said what the hell and ordered an adjustable solid mount. OH MY WHAT ADIFFERENCE life-changing almost. right away, as soon as you start the car, you feel it, not in an annoying way, but there's just the right amount of vibration transferred into the seats, that you feel better connected to the car. slow speeds are not a problem anymore, and hard accelerations and engine breaking are now quick, precise, and predictable.

what I never realized until now, is that the "heavy duty" clutch and pressure plate i installed was going to waste until now. if I everpopped the clutch from a standstill. the result would be a feeling similar to wheel hop in a leaf spring truck, and relatively disappointing acceleration. with the new dogbone, a popped clutch results in immediate acceleration, or with the brakes applied, a nice little gokart burnout. no hopping or jerking at all.

now since you've read half a book, some pictures....

the new solid mount dogbone.


not much movement is needed in the rod ends, but there is a little bit of transverse movement in the motor (mostly on turns), so the guy who makes these machines out the spacers to allow for the rod ends to have just enough freedom to rotate.


engine bay with factory dogbone installed (aluminum with rubber bushings


close-up


new solid dogbone installed


close-up


my only complaint with the new dogbone is that it is made with two right-hand threads, meaning to adjust it, you have to unbolt one end. not a big deal since it's easy to do, just a small critique

changing gears, I finally got around to ordering a new trim piece with a new side marker/turn signal lens. factory piece has been faded and broken since I bought the car.




Through the forums, I came across a company that specializes and reproduction "classic car decals". it's mostly muscle car badges and the like, but they have a great recreation of the old "Fiero Racing" logo. this logo was adapted from the "Pontiac Racing" logo, when fieros started to appear in more and more races (think TRD putting a Tacoma through Baja in the stock class kind of thing).


Lastly, I used my lug nut debacle as an excuse to buy some more tools. thus, a nice selection on new die grinder bits.


These things are magic. A little spendy, but they eat through hardened steel like butter. Radnor part numbers below in the same order as above.