Well the Legnum developed a noise in the gearbox in 2nd and 3rd gear, I just went through a bunch of health drama for a month and had to move at the same time. Enough was enough and it was time to move this car on.
Anyway, it was fun at times and shitful at others.
Sadly, I will miss it though….
But with that chapter closed, I’ve gotten old, softer and less tolerant to shit boxes.
So I bought a Hyundai i30 Sedan N
Till next time!
With the Legnum running again, one of the painful issues that I ignored previously was the fact the head unit was dead.
So with some cash left over from offloading some 4AGE parts, I decided to splurge on a head unit for it.}
Picked up a Kenwood DMX5020S, has all the bells and whistles I wanted and I can wire up a reversing camera in the future.
I hate wiring stereos with a passion, I was really hoping one of the previous owners had done at least a tidy job and installed an ISO loom. Lets find out…
Remove the center shifter console trim, pop the main climate control trim off.
Unplug the ciggybutt plug.
Unplug the two climate control plugs.
I was surprised to find that the stereo is only mounted by slots, no screws.
Hoorah, ISO plugs! Along with a dodgy glass fuse that was…. blown. completely redundant considering the stereo has a fuse on the back of itself…
Cut that out, soldered the wires together and shrink wrapped.
The Kenwood is a short body unit and only uses the first two bolts, the rear section of the brackets kept fouling on looms and was a pain in the ass…
I cut the rear section off. I then found the holes were not quite spaced correctly for the Kenwood… (I guess standards changed since 1997…).
Quickly slotted them with the drill…
A few wriggles and adjustments of screws and it all went back together with relative ease.
Couple of minutes setting it up and it was playing music.
It wasn’t all rainbows and lolly pops though. Each time I turn the car off, the stereo resets… I’m thinking one of the wires in ISO plugs is not providing power to the stereo when ignition is turned off, so it does not retain it’s settings… bugger. Well I know how to pull it all apart and fix it.
Until next time!
With the Legnum all buttoned up, I took it for a quick 2-3km run up the road, then came back. There was a couple of knock and bangs I could hear while driving. Turns out one of the driveshaft nuts needed torqued up properly and a sway bar link bolt was loose.
With all of those tidied up, it was time to set sail for home, taking all the back roads and avoiding the free way till I’m more confident that it will not shit itself while doing a buck ten. It made it home without fuss.
Till next time!
While I was swapping the transfer case, I decided to replace the bashed sump that leaked with a brand new one.
Virgin pan, I might actually cry if I ding this in the future….
Motor has a bunch of sludge in it still, scraped some off while cleaning up the sump sealing surface.
Slazed some Permatex Grey sealant on and sent it.
Gave it 5 ugga duggas and called it done.
Till next time.
I decided to pull the inspection cover off the old transfer case to confirm it was indeed damaged. Yep, it’s munted.
Metal all over the inspection plate.
Decided to check the new transfer case, it was fine thankfully.
Clean inspection plate.
After getting in a comfortable position to lift the transfer case, it went on pretty easily. Putting in the bolts finger tight to stop it falling back off.
Then torqued the case bolts up to 65Nm
Stub shaft reinserted into the gearbox and transfer case, then the driveshaft and started bolting all the suspension back on.
The suspension took a couple of hours as I had to fight the coil covers a couple of times to get the bolts to line up and one ball joint refused to seat properly and would not tighten up. I also took the time to replace the 3 piece tail shaft with a spare.
Transfer case topped up with fresh fluid (650ml!) and ready to go!
Till next time.
Been procrastinating a bit on this job, but it was time to face the music.
GC8 was bumped outside, Legnum in and lifted up.
Unpacked the new transfer case to make sure there was no obvious faults.
Bought some new toys for this job, make removing driveshafts and the transfer case easier
Unbolted the lower control arms and popped the passenger drive shaft out, then used a ratchet strap to tie it out of the road.
This side needs to be removed to pull a long stub shaft out of the gearbox which goes threw the front diff and into the center diff (inside the transfer case).
Y-pipe off and out of the way. I always thought the Y-pipe on the 1MZ was bad, but this is a proper abortion…. I really want to make a new version!
Another new tool for the job.
Of course it did not have the right attachment for what I needed. Found one of the attachments that would work, drilled an 8mm hole in it and fitted a M8 head bolt from a 1MZ into it. Threaded that into the stub shaft, couple of bangs and out she came.
Quick test fit into the new transfer, fitted nicely.
Let me share a fail….When I replaced the lower control arms, I did it with the engine out. I accidentally put this bolt in backwards… Trying to remove it means it just hits the sump.
This sump has been hit before and leaks oil, I have a brand new one on the shelf ready to go… So lets hammer the sump to clear the bolt 😀
Ta da!
The transfer case is held on with 6 bolts and 1 of them is right in a painful spot, but with a little flexing of the turbo drain pipe, we managed!
Ok… Well maybe it was before it failed 😀
Old on the left, new on the right. Tomorrow I put it in!
Till next time!
Buy a Legnum they said, it would be fun they said.
Missus gave me a call one night, said the Legnum was making some “Nasty bad grindy” sounds.
As the well taught chickadee that she is, she had already double checked fluids, wheels and the engine bay for obvious things.
It only did it while driving and it got worse the faster she drove, so she pulled over and and called.
Into the MR-S and I zoom out to to find her on the side of the road.
A quick look around the car myself and it didn’t show signs of obvious things (Wheel bearings, failed brake caliper, etc).
Told her to jump in the MR-S and I’d have a go at limping it home.
I made it ~200m before I pretty much determined the issue and accepted the fate.
A failing transfer case.
Anyway, just thought, fuck it, send it and see how far we get, the less distance, the cheaper the tow truck trip.
Well it made the 20km trip home, but was very angry the last kilometer, every corner I could feel it binding the front end up and clunking.
So once again the Legnum is parked up…
Thanks to a member of the OZVR4 forums, I picked up a replacement transfer case, a pair of turbos (might help with that smoking issue…) and a drive shaft (I suspect the middle bearing on mine is worn as it clunks a bit).
But for now, we needed another 4 door car, that is reliable…
Maybe I should have just bought one of these in the first place instead of the Legnum….
Yep, a 2002 Toyota Camry V6 manual.
Last of the 1MZ V6’s and fitted with the much sort after E153 manual gearbox.
It handles like a bucket of shit with flogged out shocks (it does) and tires so hard it peg legs for days (in the rain you get keep it spinning in 3rd to limiter)
I do happen to have a TRD LSD that will fit this gearbox, so maybe, just maybe when the Legnum is sorted, it will get a gift of traction.
The 8th generation Legnum/Galant uses a really simple method to put the car into a diagnostic mode to flash out the error codes on the dash. You just put a jumper wire between pin 1 and 4 on the ODB2 port and turn the ignition on. However, I’m lazy and I’m over looking for the bit of wire I’ve left in the car and then having to awkwardly bend under the dash to insert it. So I came up with this solution.
Core Electronics sell the ODB2 connectors for $2.65.
The pins are neatly labels as well, I grabbed a pair of pliers and bent pins 1 and 4 inwards 90 degrees.
Then soldered an offcut of wire across them.
I will eventually fill the plug end in with epoxy, a small loop of string will be embedded to help remove the plug from the socket, it will also protect the pins from shorting.
Well it was a good run….
Diagnostic mode…
Error 61 – A/T ECU And Communication Lines (Torque Reduction Request Signal Line) System
Did I just buy a Golf R???
The light goes away after a power cycle, sometimes I can drive for an hour and it doesn’t come on, other times it comes on within 2-3km.
The automatic transmission drives well with no issues or oddities, so I’ve been partly ignoring it.
This week on Dragon Ball Z, Goku finally def………..
We try to get the Legnum registered!
The Legnum has been rolling around on some boarder line legal NT01’s since we pinched it’s tires for the GC8 one time. We the spare GC8 wheels were loaded into the back ready for the tire swap to happen again and give the Legnum it’s tires back.
Setting off for the registration inspection.
Being inspected….. And passing! Paperwork done, called my insurer, organized the required road insurance, next stop, the transport department.
(As this is an imported car, a lot of the features are not mentioned, so the inspector didn’t have to check things like the ABS or AYC were even working!)
And registered! Drove it home.
Now it’s all registered, I will now daily it for a bit to make sure everything is running well while I order the parts to fix the issues.
Only 14 months behind schedule…
But hey, as the motto says… ‘Sometimes maybe finish, sometimes maybe not‘
I’m calling that a finish.