Paddy The Corolla - 1998 1.3 E11 3-Door

[tooSavvy]

..... I got my Fan Speed controller fitted just before rain set in for the day.  ffs 

2sav

[mickburkesnr]

As the weather's turned it's a bit of a pain to do anything really. I've checked the weather and this weekend seems to be dry and cold, my favourite type of weather!

Spoken to the engineering firm that I half work for and I've got some mild steel coming to build an exhaust bracket for it. Slightly "tougher" than normal steel aparently but it's ideal for what I need to build!

[mickburkesnr]

The engineering lads have delivered! Scrap piece of steel, 6mm thick and 1500mm long, 40mm wide. They didn't have anything thinner, so I'm off to B&Q tomorrow to buy some 3mm thick steel and I can start to fabricate away to my hearts content!

[mickburkesnr]

Didn't realise it'd been this long since I updated the thread.

For one reason or another I just haven't done anything with Paddy since the last update. Well, except for putting wheels on it and filling the brake fluid up, only to realise one of the calipers has sprung a leak at the oil bleed valve. And do you think I could find where I put the new ones I bought a few months ago!?

Long story short, I got given/bought a Subaru which is now on the driveway, which in turn caused the misses to have a fit and demanded that one of the cars had to go, otherwise she'd scrap the Corolla. I haven't mistyped that sentence!

So for the last few weeks I've been trying to find a lock up to put the Corolla in while I continue to work on it, but I've had no luck. I even put it up for sale for a day, had a lot of interest in breaking it but not actually buying it. So I took it off the market.

But, thankfully, I've managed to find somewhere to put the car while I get it on the road - my Mom's driveway! The Mrs is happy as it's "gone" (for now at least), and my Mom is happy as I said I'd pay her rent for the driveway space.

So, forgive the lack of movement on this, but I just haven't had the time or anything like that for it. 

But, I would like to point out something. I took the car off the stilts and started it. It struggled to start but it's to be expected. Old fuel, cold start, haven't really serviced the engine either. But the clutch!!! It's night and day difference, and actually worked. I may have been more inclined to scrap him if the clutch wasn't right, but from the little bit of driving I did do the clutch was flawless and so so so much lighter than before.

So yeah, I haven't given up. Just got to rehome him and get him on the road.

[mickburkesnr]

So it's been 6 months and not a lot has happened for various reasons.

About a month after posting the last reply I tore ligaments in my ankle while driving the Subaru. The clutch was always heavy, but for whatever reason my ankle couldn't cope and tore apart. The Subaru has since been sold on - made a profit on it which vanished in to bits and pieces on the house - and the Corolla is still on the driveway. 

I've sort of got less to do now so I can start to finish off the work on the Corolla. Yes I've picked the best time in the year to experience mechanical work in the cold and wet, but it's been over a year since I did anything to it and I just want it back on the road now. 

First job on the cards - ignoring what I said before - will be the CV boots on the driveshafts. I did them wrong, I used jubilee clips instead of bands. I'm pricing up the tool and bands to do it, I've got 6 litres of gearbox oil I bought for the Subaru which I'm going to use on the Corolla's gearbox and my 107's gearbox (waste not want not etc). And so, while I have the driveshafts off again, I'm going to drop the gearbox out and replace the oil seal on the engine like I should've done before. This time though I have the loan of a proper crane to move the gearbox!

So yeah, apologies for being quiet. Lots of stuff has happened not related to the car which has taken me away from that and from the site. But the Corolla's still here, pointing at the road desperate to hoon down the country lanes of the British countryside!

[Ant182]

Now then fells, sorry to hear about your ankle and glad it's on the mend. It's great you made a profit on the scooby tho👍. It does sound like a good plan just to do the necessary to get her back on the road and it's always a day to hoon in the back roads 👍

[mickburkesnr]

2 hours ago, Ant182 said:

Now then fells, sorry to hear about your ankle and glad it's on the mend. It's great you made a profit on the scooby tho👍. It does sound like a good plan just to do the necessary to get her back on the road and it's always a day to hoon in the back roads 👍

Thanks bud! Yeah I looked at it over the weekend and found the bit of paper I made with what needed doing, and there isn't a whole lot left. I've the CV boot pliers and rings ordered so they should be with me by the weekend so I can at least kick off the driveshaft work again.

[mickburkesnr]

Happy new year everyone!

So the deal is I bought another car, and the wife won't allow me to have it on the drive until I get rid of one. The Corolla's going nowhere, but it needs to be on the road. So here I am!

Under torchlight - as candle light isn't recommended - I started to remove the driveshafts.

Everything came off easily enough. Until it got to taking the driveshaft off. I gave it a pull and it just came off, like this:

Because I was an idiot and didn't have the proper tools or clips, the boot has separated and now it's left behind in the gearbox. Think it's worth noting that the gearbox was drained of oil at this point. I think last time I used a pry bar to get it loose, but for the life of me I can't find it now. It's one of them where I've seen it but God knows where it's gone.

So for all my effort and trouble, here's what I'm left with tonight:

I'm busy tomorrow night but Thursday I'll have found the pry bar - or at least found an alternative - to get the other part off. Then the other shaft will be off and I can sort of the mess I made when I last worked on it. But it's good to be back under the car getting gravel rash!

As an aside, my friend had his Corolla smashed up by his idiot next door neighbour. It's a long story, but it ended up that the insurance didn't want to know because the neighbour damaged the car on foot before he drove his own car in to my friend's car at 30mph - twice. The upshot though is that I helped him get the exact same Toyota Corolla, and he let me nab the clear indicator lenses from his scrapped car. So they'll be going on as well at some point!

[oldcodger]

Hi Mick,

HNY.

Didn't they say its going to snow by the end of the week , just your kind of weather ! 

Don't know if you have seen this recent thread but seems you can now get aftermarket complete driveshafts for just £50 so might be cheaper than trying to repair yours, unless its just a securing clip, though not sure how  those two parts hold together ?

Initially tried a pry bar on mine as the book says, but did not seem to work for me, instead I got piece of wood and from the opposite side of the car placed it on the driveshaft inner cover and gave the wooden drift a sharp knock with a lump hammer and it popped straight out.

https://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/186002-driveshaft-advice/

[mickburkesnr]

9 hours ago, oldcodger said:

Hi Mick,

HNY.

Didn't they say its going to snow by the end of the week , just your kind of weather ! 

Don't know if you have seen this recent thread but seems you can now get aftermarket complete driveshafts for just £50 so might be cheaper than trying to repair yours, unless its just a securing clip, though not sure how  those two parts hold together ?

Initially tried a pry bar on mine as the book says, but did not seem to work for me, instead I got piece of wood and from the opposite side of the car placed it on the driveshaft inner cover and gave the wooden drift a sharp knock with a lump hammer and it popped straight out.

https://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/186002-driveshaft-advice/

You make a valid point about the weather, although I've been checking it and it's just going to be cold around me. That's always subject to change, but it'll be fine!

The driveshafts are fine, it's just the boots that were cracking up. So it's just a case of taking the boots off, cleaning it up, re-greasing and using proper clips with the proper tools to secure them. All of it I've got, so it's just a matter of doing it.

I think I'll attempt the wood, I've got plenty of that. Would love to know where my big pry bar has gone though.

[tooSavvy]

Nice to see you still up for it......

I'm amassing bits for a carb tune up + replacing all the skinny vac piping, in RED 😜

Got a Vac gauge so I can tune 'on the drop', of Hg.

Keep jogging on, m8

2sav

[Ant182]

Hey Mick, glad your still cracking on with her but your one hardy person fixing it in this weather though 👍 Hope your all well. 

[mickburkesnr]

18 hours ago, tooSavvy said:

Nice to see you still up for it......

I'm amassing bits for a carb tune up + replacing all the skinny vac piping, in RED 😜

Got a Vac gauge so I can tune 'on the drop', of Hg.

Keep jogging on, m8

2sav

I'm going to be delving in to that world of carbs soon enough. Won't be a Toyota this time but that's for another time 🙂

13 hours ago, Ant182 said:

Hey Mick, glad your still cracking on with her but your one hardy person fixing it in this weather though 👍 Hope your all well. 

You know what it wasn't too bad on Tuesday, but it's turned today so I expect it to be a bit colder. But once I start working I just sweat and get too hot anyway even in sub-zero weather so I won't be too fussed! Everything's good man I hope you're good and had a good christmas etc too!

[mickburkesnr]

I've been away from the computer since the last time, but not away from the car. Which makes a change!

So on the Thursday, it was quite cold. -1 degrees outside. I don't think the car ever defrosted itself:

I tackled the other driveshaft, and that came out with no bother at all. I tried to attack the other part of the driveshaft that was stuck in the gearbox but it wasn't budging. But here they both are anyway, sat on the bench ready for work:

On the Saturday I attacked the gearbox. Took about 5 hours and I got to the point where I was going to take the gearbox out. It got dark, and even with 2 torches I couldn't find out why it wouldn't move. The lack of my long pry bar didn't help. But on Sunday morning I found my crowbar (close enough to my pry bar) and it came off within 10 minutes. Once it was on the bench I attacked the other part of the driveshaft with a block of wood and my lump hammer. And it FINALLY came off.

Didn't have much time on Sunday so I turned my attention to a spot of rust on the gearbox. I remember seeing it last time I saw it, but I think it's gotten worse since. Either way I attacked it with a wire brush to remove the rust and loose paint. So it went from this:

To this:

Sprayed it with brake cleaner, but then I had to go. I checked it again this evening and it's still damn for something. Well it is cold, and I've no kitchen roll to dry it off, so that's going to wait until tomorrow. I've got some high temperature paint so I'll paint that on it when it's dry enough.

One thing I've done since last Tuesday was taking the bolts from the brakes I took off and put them in a vinegar and salt solution and left them to soak until tonight. They started off like this:

To this:

For some context, here's one bolt that was rusted that I took out:

Through to this after I brushed it:

All I was ever interested in is removing the rust from the threads, as they were a bit difficult to get off. So I'm quite happy with the end result. For those playing at home, the tin to the right of my hand is water mixed with bicarbonate of soda, which is going to neutralise the acidity of the Vinegar and salt solution. The salt, by the way, is meant to increase the acidity of the vinegar.

I've started another group of bolts, this time from when I dropped the gearbox off the car. Here they are to start with:

Not too bad, but here they are in the other tin - same vinegar and salt solution although I think I've used more salt this time. The smell, with all of this, isn't pleasant. Imagine vinegar, strong vinegar, with a metallic smell to it. It's odd really. But it's quite cheap to remove the rust using this method, and not completely toxic either. Plus it's a good use for the bicarbonate of soda I buy and then forget about!

[Ant182]

It's coming a long then Mick, it is cold tho. The bolts came up well I did the same kinda thing on the mk1 as the surface rust had really dug in on bolts and gearbox. 👍 Keep up the good work tho. 

[mickburkesnr]

16 hours ago, Ant182 said:

It's coming a long then Mick, it is cold tho. The bolts came up well I did the same kinda thing on the mk1 as the surface rust had really dug in on bolts and gearbox. 👍 Keep up the good work tho. 

Yeah it is, it's just annoying me that the oil seal on the engine failed after changing all the seals on the gearbox and the clutch. But this is about as big a job as is needed really at this point, everything else is sound.

[Ant182]

Yer at least when it starts complete it will be sound forever 👍 

Our team has a twitter feed now if you are on there it's Team Ya'race identified with @ya_race come follow us 👍

[mickburkesnr]

On 1/23/2019 at 11:32 PM, Ant182 said:

Yer at least when it starts complete it will be sound forever 👍 

Our team has a twitter feed now if you are on there it's Team Ya'race identified with @ya_race come follow us 👍

Will check it out!

Just an update on this. For once the cold didn't stop me, it was the clutch! Couldn't release two bolts of the clutch to the flywheel as the flywheel kept moving. Remembered I had to use a pry bar (which I found!) and push the flywheel when I turned the bolts. Managed to do all of that, only to be scuppered by not being able to remove the bolts of the flywheel. Tried everything, but nothing seems to work.

I ended up gambling on as universal a flywheel locking tool I could get hold of. It's made by Sealey, product code VSE2394, and it arrived yesterday. Didn't really have much time to use it but I placed it on the flywheel and it lines up with the holes for the gearbox bolts to attach to. So I think this will help me loosen and tighten the flywheel! I wanted to get a universal one as after the Corolla is on the road I've another car to restore. So I didn't want to buy two flywheel locking tools specifically for different engines!

This week I should be cleaning up more bolts, some of the suspension bolts are currently sitting in the vinegar/salt bath. Hopefully I'll be able to do the driveshafts this week too ready for the weekend.

[mickburkesnr]

Small update.

Since receiving the flywheel tool I also received the master brake cylinder repair kit yesterday. God willing on Saturday I'll be able to kick on, get the flywheel off, change the oil seal, refit the clutch and box back on the car this weekend.

As an aside, I've removed rust from more bolts. This time the bolts responsible for the subframe and suspension. Yet again the vinegar and salt has worked wonders. So well in fact it's revealed this on some of the bolts:

Lovely lovely pitting! Which was hidden by rust. There's two of these big bolts that have this in the same place, I'm inclined to replace them so I'll be going to Mr.T either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. I'm also waiting on some Zinc anodes and copper wire, so I'll be electroplating these bolts with zinc to prevent further corrosion. Fairly easy to do as well, so I'll keep you up to date on that too.

[mickburkesnr]

Well here's one for you all to ponder.

I've just come in from working on the car - been off ill for a bit so this is the first day I've felt well enough to do anything - and I've FINALLY managed to get the !Removed! flywheel off. Which was a short lived joy because now I find out what's been leaking oil.

Firstly, the rear crankshaft oil seal should be replaced just because it's been a hassle to drop the gearbox for the second time. So that's a given.

But the oil leak itself is coming from the oil sump pan, so I'll have to remove the bottom of the bell housing to get the pan off. The question though is do these oil sump pans have a proper gasket or do they use a silicone type of sealant to seal it? I haven't taken the pan off until I find that out, but basically the question is: is it a proper repair to use a silicone sealant on the sump pan or do I go to Mr.Toyota and buy a proper oil sump pan seal?

[oldcodger]

Hi,

Well can only refer to my later model and the Haynes manual is a little misleading as it say " remove all traces  of gasket material and sealant"  yet on reassembly it only refers to Sealant.

If its a steel sump it says RTV sealant but if its an alloy sump then use Toyotas sealant.

It also says check the steel sump  flange  on a flat surface for distortion, a common cause of leaks, if so straighten .

In another later manual  with exploded diagrams it does not show any cork gasket, again just sealant, pic attached.

Would think a call to your local Mr T will soon tell you if your model needs a cork type gasket or just sealant.

 

 

 

[mickburkesnr]

Thanks for that, my Haynes manual has gone walkabout so I couldn't refer to mine earlier.

I've been on a few sites to see if an actual gasket exists, and so far I can only see the sealant stuff. I'll give Toyota a call tomorrow and see if one exists or not, if not I'll just throw some RTV on it.

I think mine's age related, as the car was jacked higher on the passenger side for a few weeks while I worked on it, that's when I noticed the oil build up. But the metal plate between the flywheel and the engine block is sodden with oil, so I think one was present before it was parked up, judging by the crud on the plate.

[oldcodger]

Also had a few folk saying the oil seal on the gearbox input shaft can leak, might be worth popping a new one on while the box is out..

[mickburkesnr]

11 hours ago, oldcodger said:

Also had a few folk saying the oil seal on the gearbox input shaft can leak, might be worth popping a new one on while the box is out..

I had thought that was the main culprit, so I bought one. But the one I have (as far as I know) is the wrong one or at least meant for the other side of the engine. But one of those have been ordered and I'll change that as well.

[mickburkesnr]

Update on this.

I asked the question on the Irish Corolla group on Facebook and they all said it's a sealant. The proper Toyota stuff is £15, but apparently (on other forums from what I can gather, not Toyota related) RTV is a go to sealant in these applications. So a tube has been ordered and will turn up tomorrow!