The gasket seam itself isn't leaking - the bolt holes are. Which is weird, since the gasket is glued to the pan and the girdle, and every bolt was installed with thread sealant....
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- Fixed after-market cruise control
- Top-to-bottom wash and polish after Scotland road-trip (1500 mile adventure, only issue was my parking brake on some steep hills!)
- Replaced broken rear-pontoon antenna
- Removed after-market CD changer and wiring changes to accommodate it
- Added AUX input to radio
- Tested durability of new antenna by blasting up and down the motorway to some new music!
Dave - good suggestion here. Definitely worth a try. Any thoughts on the deforming gasket? Any idea if it's possible to access the bolts along the back edge of the pan, obscured by the cradle? Can you just release the motor and transmission mounts and lift the motor just an inch or two without unhooking everything yet again?
Back when i first encountered the leaking i asked Toby about it and IIRC he did say the motor could be lifted just enough to remove the pan. I could be remembering things wrong, but at any rate i didn't (and still don't) have an engine lift so I tried the red neck repairs first.
Yeah im thinking we can get plenty of room to get teh pan by lifting the engine, Ill be bringing my hoist back then Jon.
Drove my car to work, enjoyed the light rain and half day at work too.
I'm taking a water-and-air-conditioning break right now, but here's what I've done so far today.
Went on a "seek and delete" mission to find and remove quick-splice terminals throughout the car. Confirmed all connections are secure. Lots of solder and heat-shrink got used in the process.
Some wires in the relay/fuse area had been nicked or otherwise compromised. If no copper was exposed, I simply wrapped a small piece of silicone wrap around the damaged insulation. In other places, lengths of wire had to be removed and replaced.
The wires from the driver's seat belt receiver had been severed at some point. I spliced in some wire to lengthen the pigtail slightly; I used even more black heat-shrink tubing on that one... but now the seat belt light should work.
Confirmed my "infamous body holes behind the rear speaker panels" fix worked by putting water down the black vents in the rear quarter panels behind the doors. Water went down behind the quarter panel and onto the towel beneath, but not a drop got inside.
Replaced rear speaker brackets, speakers, and trim panels. Speakers are Pioneer brand and new enough to not need replacing.
Pulled the 8mm hex-head screw out of the passenger-side relay/fuse bracket using an 8mm ratchet and vise-grip. I'll use a plastic rivet instead when I re-mount the bracket later. The bracket is extremely rusty, but it's going back in since stock replacements are unavailable and stainless steel ones are prohibitively expensive.
One of the new a/c hoses was hanging down slightly between the body and the frame and the tolerance was too close for me to push it in. Today, since I had both seats out, I decided to remove the four body bolts along the center channel and see if I could push the a/c hose in. I used the floor jack underneath the driver-side jack plate to lift just until the tire left the ground. At that point, I was able to push the hose into the channel by holding the metal end of a claw-hammer in my hand and using a pushing/twisting motion on the hose, starting from one end of the "bulge" and working to the end. It worked.
The rear defogger connector is misshapen and brittle; at some point in the past it must have overheated. I snipped it off: I don't use the rear defogger, and the cruise control requires switched 12v for the control pad -- I used the green/white wire to the rear defogger switch for this supply.
Most of the driver-side rear trim panel is missing its vinyl overlap, so it is loose. Both inner door seals need to be replaced, but until I buy replacements the old ones are going back on, with the torn sections at the bottom.
Before I put the console back in, I'm going to wire in some extensions to the door switch leads via molex connectors and solder pigtails onto the switches. That's assuming Radio Shack is open on Memorial Day...