Author: asarangan

The panel can be easily pried out by hand without any tools. It is held by several clips.

There are two connectors for the cigarette ligher and a light bulb for the ashtray.

The biggest challenge was unplugging the connectors behind the hazard flasher switch and the defroster switch. These switches only pull forward from the panel, and the connecting wires are pretty short, so removal requires inserting your fingers behind the panel into a tight space to wiggle the connector out.

Once the two connectors are unplugged, the entire instrument panel moulding can be removed.

This will expose the instrument cluster. The instrument cluster is a single enclosed unit mounted with four screws. Once the screws are removed, the panel comes out very easily.

There are two electrical connectors on the back of the cluster that need to be unplugged. Again, the wires are short and there is very little working room.

The backside of the instrument panel is an exposed circuit board. All of the black circles are light bulbs that illuminate various things. These are clearly labelled and are easy to identify.

The bulbs can be removed by simply turning them and pulling them out. These are glass wedge-based bulbs, also known as T (Tubular) style. The bulbs are designated by their diameter, with each unit representing 1/8″. The smaller ones are T1.5 (which are 0.1875″ diameter) and the larger ones are T3.25 (0.406″ diameter). The bulb can be pulled out of the plastic base, and a new one can be inserted.

Whereas the front suspension has a strut unit consisting of the shock running inside the spring, the rear suspension contains the spring separate from the shock. Replacing the rear shock is relatively easy. It is held with two bolts at the top attached to the frame body, and one bolt and bushing at the bottom attached to the wheel unit.

The lower bolt goes through a bushing on the shock and screws into a welded nut. Since this is fully exposed to the elements, everything was heavily corroded, and it was hard to even notice that the nut was actually a welded nut. The bolt just wouldn’t budge, even with an air impact wrench.

I had to pull out my oxyacetelyne torch and heat the nut until it was cherry red. The rubber inside the bushing was also starting to burn. Using an impact wrench while the whole thing was still hot did the trick in removing the bolt.

In comparison, the upper two bolts were a lot easier to remove. However, the threads are not very deep, and it is easy to strip the threads.

Replacing struts is one of the simplest jobs one can do on the vehicle. The strut is a single unit that contains the suspension spring coil and the shock absorber (dampener). The spring is kept compressed under tremendous pressure inside the strut. It is like a loaded gun. Therefore, it is not worth the trouble to disassemble the strut or attempt to replace its internal components. It is much easier to buy the whole strut. The cost of a complete strut for the front wheels was only $75 each.

Two horizontal bolts hold the steering knuckle to the strut. These are easy to remove. The hardest one to remove is the sway bar arm that is attached to the strut. It is a ball joint, and the bolt needs to be held from the opposite side with a wrench while turning the outside nut. Its a bit tricky and it is easy to strip the nut, but it does come off eventually.

The left and right sides are different, so it is important to match them up correctly.

This is with the new strut installed

The biggest challenge in replacing the CV axles is the removal of the old axles. The shaft is locked inside the transmission with an expanding C-clip. To release the shaft, it has to be pulled sharply to make the C-clip compress and slip out of its retaining groove.

First, the steering tie rod has to be disconnected, and the wheel hub has to be removed from the lower control arm. A prybar could be used to remove the axle from the transmission, but a more effective method is a slide hammer. This can be done as follows: separate the inner CV joint by removing the metal strap that holds the rubber boot and then pulling the joint apart. This will leave just the cup attached to the transmission. Then clean all the grease inside the cup.

The tool we need is a slide hammer with a vice grip attached to the end. Most slide hammers come with a threaded attachment. As long as we find a vice grip with the correct screw size, it can be directly attached to the slide hammer.

Tightly clamp the vice grip to the cup wall. A couple of sharp pulls on the slide hammer should release the shaft from the transmission. If that doesn’t work, an alternate method is to drill two holes on the sidewalls of the cup, insert a bolt and attach the slide hammer at the center. Luckily, in my case the vice grip method worked for both axles.

The shaft seal should be replaced any time the axle is removed. This will require a seal puller. Installing the new seal can be done with a wooden block and a hammer, but a bearing driver comes in very handy.

Installing the new axle is a lot simpler. It can be simply inserted into the transmission and gently tapped with a hammer to snap the C-clip in to place (with the axle nut attached to protect the threads).

The grease boots on my lower control arm’s ball joints were torn, so this was a good time to replace them. The arm is attached to the frame as well as to the stabilizer bar. There is a welded nut inside the frame that the bolt screws into. At the other end, the stabilizer bar runs through the control arm with two bushings on either side.

This is also a good time to replace the outer steering tie rod end. There is a jam nut that locks the position of the tie rod. This is a critical part that determines the alignment of the front wheels, so it must be replaced in the exact same position. Even then a new alignment job may be necessary.

Here is a photo of all of the items that were replaced. It includes brake pads, axles, seals, lower control arm and tie rod ends.

The windshield washer reservoir and the power steering fluid lines need to be unmounted from the wall and moved out of the way. This is for making some working room on the left side.

The passenger side engine mount has to be removed and the engine jacked up. This raises the left side of the engine to give better access to the timing belt housing. Next, the top timing belt cover can be removed.

The crankshaft bolt and the harmonic balancer have to be removed. This will allow the two lower timing belt covers to be removed.

Before removing the timing belt, the crankshaft has to be rotated until the camshaft alignment marks are correctly located. The tensioning roller has to be compressed to allow the timing belt to be removed. Next, the timing belt rollers can be unbolted from the water pump housing.

But before the water pump can be removed, its inlet connector has to be unbolted. Unfortunately, this area is blocked by the AC mounting bracket, requiring it to be removed from the engine block.

Once the AC mounting bracket is removed, the inlet connector is easily accessible from below.

Finally, the water pump can be removed from the engine block. Once removed, the mating face has to be scraped with a blade to remove all traces of the old gasket. This is in a tight spot, making cleaning and inspection quite difficult.

The next step is to install the new water pump. The general advise seems to be to avoid using sealants when mounting the new gasket. However, it is nearly impossible to do this without using some Ultragrey as a glue to hold the gasket while placing the new water pump.

It is quite tricky to maneuver the water pump through the tight spaces without scratching the mating surface or tearing the gasket. It takes several trial and error attempts.

The water pump’s inlet (which is accessible only from the bottom) needs to be connected next, but it also connects to the cabin heater return line. Since this is a rigid line, it needs to be disconnected at its other end to to give it some flexibility. Its mount point is hidden behind the exhaust shield, necessitating its removal as well.

The exhaust shield is easy to remove, but its bolts were corroded and frozen, requiring some of them to be drilled out.

The water pump’s inlet requires a gasket. Again, it is tricky to align the bolts without scratching the surface or misaligning the gasket.

Finally, the new timing belt can be installed. The rollers have to be installed first, which bolt directly onto the water pump. While placing the timing belt, care must be taken to ensure that the cam shaft alignment marks are maintained accurately. Then the tensioning rollers can be torqued to the specified value (35 ft-b).

The second roller is for tensioning. It has a spring that pulls on it to add tension to the belt. The roller has to be pushed with a wedge as far towards the spring as possible and the bolt tightened. This will allow the spring to be extended and connected by hand. Then the bolt is loosened to allow the tensioning mechanism to work.

The timing belt cover has three pieces. Mine was cracked in several places and significantly deformed. These are hard to find and had to be ordered through the dealer.