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Norma - her car, so absolutely NOT a project car

S

soclosenotnear

Active member
Joined
Oct 12, 2011
Location
summerville, south carolina





Currently set up as of 5/25/17

Suspension:
Ipd sway bars
960 braces
Cherry turbos upper strut brace
Ipd lower chassis brace
Ipd front end poly bushing kit
Voxx mg3 17x8 with 225/45 17 tires

Drive train:
MBC @ 7 psi
Custom "cold air" intake

Interior:
Left side vent gauge pod with boost gauge
Custom front door speaker enclosures
Cloth trunk liner
Children's toys everywhere

Exterior:
Illegally dark windows
 
Alright, here goes. Norma is a 1990 740 turbo wagon. White, Aw71, tan leather interior. This is my girlfriend's car, technically, so it cannot (should not) become a "project" car. We bought this car in North Carolina a little over two years ago from a member of this board. Here's the link:

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=305681

It was pretty well maintained and had ipd sway bars and a pretty effective "cold air" intake. A few dents and dings and various issues here and there but overall a nice car. We made the trip home with no issue. Shortly after buying her, we were forced to replace the fuel pump as it died at her dad's house one day. How fortunate. I also had the overdrive solenoid go out, so we put a bypass plate on. Other than that, she's been pretty reliable.

I replaced the turbo side engine mount as the last one was oil soaked. I installed the 960 braces since they are such a cheap upgrade. I also replaced lots of vacuum lines since I had extra silicone from doing my other car. We replaced the rotors and pads in the front and back. I cannot, for the life of me, get rid of my brake squeal. It's the worst part about driving the car. We tinted the windows nice and dark and also ran various sets of wheels. Currently running voxx mg3 in 17x8. Cut the springs front and back. After all that, we mostly just put miles on it.

Then, we had a little one. She has her own thread also:

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=318591

As summer came upon us, and having no air conditioner, we were at a fork in the road. I needed them in something reliable and cool. Was it the time to buy something newer or put some good money into Norma? I still owe about $3k on my 2012 civic si, so getting into another payment was not ideal at this point. We decided to spend the necessary money to get working air conditioning in Norma and rebuild the suspension properly. Somehow or another (I haven't talked to him personally), her uncle was able to get our ac blowing cold on the original system at no cost to us. Unfortunately, I already purchased a condenser, drier, compressor, etc from rock auto. I decided to keep all of it for if/when the ac stops blowing cold. But for now, the ac works well enough and it was the deciding factor in our long-term ownership of Norma.



This brings us to current day and the reason for this project thread. The suspension. I've already bought b&g lowering springs, kyb gas adjust rear shocks, kaplhenke bne select camber plates and new struts bearings. The only thing left I need are a set of struts. I'm waiting to afford those for the big overhaul. But I also picked up a cherry upper strut brace and ipd lower brace. She wanted the strut bar pink so it was plastidipped. The lower brace was left blue. I got them both installed in a few minutes this afternoon. And that is how Norma's project thread begins.



I'll document the suspension build here as well as any other work on Norma. Long term goals include kaplhenke qsrc and an adjustable panhard bar. I would also like a snow cap and maybe a 940 fog front end. My hope is to leave the drive train completely stock and reliable and just focus on having a nice, cool, comfortable family hauler.

-joe
 
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Congrats Dad! The baby daughter is a sweetheart..... I'm a grandpa now, and have an almost 1 year old granddaughter in Asheville (my son is driving a 92 745 Turbo wagon). Long may the 90 run! Just remember, don't let these old Swedes get in the way of quality time with your children. Best of luck with the wagon and you are WISE to keep the drivetrain near stock for reliability.
 
Had to figure out why the driver's side brake light wasn't working despite a new bulb. Pulled the tail light off to figure it out. The bottom socket thingy was slightly melted. That can't be good. But I bent all the tabs inward and scraped all the contacts with my pocket knife. She works fine now. Here's the wiring order for my own reference if nothing else.



Also, her passenger windshield wiper quit working this past Monday. I did a quick search on here and found the two possible causes. Turns out the splined shaft was still spinning but couldn't turn the wiper. I took the wiper off and cleaned the splines with a wire brush. I used some cement stuff on the splines and put it back on there. Thread locker on the nut. It's not ideal but it should never quit wiping in a storm on them again.
 
Took a trip to the junkyard this morning. She's been complaining about her vents being broken, now that the AC is operable. Took nothing more than a thin screw driver and popped out all three of the vents. I found out the little arm that connects the flappers is what broke on all of Norma's vents. The old lady behind the counter told me to just have them, so I got what I needed for the $2.00 admission. Another check off the list.
 
Cranked the car up this afternoon and was greeted by a rough and low idle. And then a check engine light. The car died in about 30 seconds before I could even pop the hood. We were on the way to my girlfriend's eye appointment so naturally she is not happy about the situation. I only had time to get a code from lh 2.4 and glance around under the hood while the AC cooled down my civic. Nothing obvious in my minute of poking around. The only code it threw was 2-3-2, which is:

Fuel trim (lambda control) too lean or too rich at idle

}If too rich: high fuel press., leaking injector

} various driving problems


I did some research and it sounds like I've got lots to check. Possible bad amm, tear in intercooler hose, leaky/bad fuel injectors, fpr. Am I missing anything? I read its likely not the O2 sensor as that doesn't function when the car is cold. I won't have a chance to work on it until Sunday now, but can anyone offer insight? Thanks.
 
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AMM is the first thing I'd check. Unplug it before you start the car and if it runs without it then the AMM is bad. Check the temp sensor that reads to the ecu. I've had that problem before.
 
Yeah it will flood the car so bad that it sometimes won't start. Then when it does start it won't run properly or you can drive it and then won't be able to restart. I scratched my head trying to figure out what was wrong with my car when it happened.
 
I swapped out amm's with no change. I pulled all the hoses off the car and inspected them well. I found a tear on the hose from turbo to intercooler at the hose clamp. I trimmed it. All the rubber hoses on the car are in bad shape. I'm going to replace them, although they don't seem to be my problem. Put everything back together and my issue persists, although the cel didn't come back on yet. I also sprayed starter fluid everywhere and didn't get a change in idle. No fuel in the vacuum line coming off the fpr. I feel like I've checked some things off the list. I'm going to make an order tonight and I won't call it firing the parts canon. I'll call it preventative maintenance/stage zero. It's my girlfriend's car to drive our daughter around in so it needs to be right anyways.

Edit: also discovered the two grounds at the back of the head were disconnected, just like I found them in my 940. How bizarre. They got reconnected.
 
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Just got an order in at rock auto for lots of maintenance stuff. I ended up deciding to cheap out and get mostly uro stuff instead of do88 or oem stuff. I'll probably regret it later, but I could buy every part ten times before I got to the do88/Volvo prices. This cannot be a project car, must keep telling myself...
 
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