Racecar: TRD USA built ITA AE86

[oldeskewltoy]

Spinnett Wrote:I now work for Toyota's corporate HQ in TX. Our chief Akio Toyota did a drift demo at work last Saturday in the Modern "GT86". I should have brought this car to the party <sad face>. Was hoping he'd do it in the original instead, but it was sort of a historic closure for my 25 year AE86 experience

If I had known..... ....it would have added a bit of additional cool to the history


I will be getting back to the history, but for now some repairs, and maintenance...



After having it up 2 weeks ago, I've gotten some of the parts ordered, and did a bit further research into the lights. First, I need to find something the removes dried on duct tape residue...




...... WITHOUT harming the plastic!!

Initial research shows this product...



but there are other methods I've heard, or read about - Vaseline, is one, WD40 is another - problem is I need them to work without distorting the lenses, so if you have actual experience with cleaning tape residue and not harming the lenses... I'm all


Part of what I found when the car was up was the left side front lamp was broken - the socket was missing from the lamp assembly. As I mentioned, I quickly found a pair, and they were sent to me - arriving unbroken




but here is the problem.... this is a race car... I learned after I bought the above lamps that the car had modified MR2 lamps instead (note the added brackets in photo below)




So... do I look for a replacement MR2 lamp... or go with the original zenki type (on right)




Additionally, the car has had a wonky (official term ) temp gauge for a long time. Shortly after start up (less then 3 minutes) the engine temp gauge "buries" itself to full HOT

Did the diag - the sender works along the lines of the FSM test procedure..... The gauge, on the other hand, I've not yet tried to diag it....



...as removal from the cluster may require some creativity?????


That(wonky temp gauge), along with the fact that there is no engine fan, mechanical driven or electric, has made me a bit uncomfortable. David (previous owner) said it wasn't a problem, after all this is a race car, it is used on track........

As this car's purpose has changed somewhat, besides the bits I've already mentioned, I'll be adding a thermo-switched electric fan to keep temps under control in less then perfect racing conditions.




More to come.......