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When it rains it pours. Today I worked on the Blackberry Pearl LS400 to install another starter and test run the engine and trans in preparation for selling them. I installed the starter with only the mounting bolts, battery cable, and solenoid connector just to test it turning the engine over before putting the intake back one. The starter just spun. It sounded like the bendix was engaging but it just spun. I had it tested the other night and the bendix worked perfectly. The one that the original owner said was bad actually worked fine too.
Here is where I found a problem. SOMETHING bad happened here folks... I put a ratchet on the crank bolt and it felt locked up solid. I tried turning it the other way and it moved freely for about 10 degrees. Then it made a 'clunk' sound from the flywheel area and bound up again. Go back the other way and 'clunk' again... So I popped the flywheel nut access panel and turned the engine back and forth while looking at that. Doesn't look good people... I then stuck a prybar between the trans case and flywheel and I can get about 1/8" of movement up and down on the flywheel/torque converter assembly... That's not bueno. Not supposed to do that... Without a good bit of extra labor testing the engine and trans doesn't seem worth it. I could either pull the trans first and see what's up or just go ahead and pull the whole unit out together and split it when it's out.
Either way it seems that the flywheel bolts have possibly backed out or sheared, or something else really really bad happened... This isn't good for the trans crescent pump either...
Well since you don't seem to want to keep junkers around the place, I think your best option is to just go shopping for a good nice car and maybe keep a few important parts and part out or sell to a junk yard the rest. And being a pilot I'd think you'd rather be spending your hobby time building a nice airplane.
Well since you don't seem to want to keep junkers around the place, I think your best option is to just go shopping for a good nice car and maybe keep a few important parts and part out or sell to a junk yard the rest. And being a pilot I'd think you'd rather be spending your hobby time building a nice airplane.
The plan is to turn this junker (currently) into a fairly nice car. The interior is trashed and it's nothing but leaks underneath but the parts from the white car will fix all of that. The body is actually pretty straight. The hood could probably use a respray but the rest isn't really that bad. It will clean up nicely with the parts from the white car I think. What this does affect is making some of the money back by selling the engine and trans. I have no clue what the damage is to either with this issue. I wanted to run the engine and drive the car as it sits prior to pulling the drivetrain so that I could advertise the motor and trans as tested. If I want to do that now I'll have to AT LEAST pull the trans. That would be a mess because I can't turn the engine over to access all of the torque converter nuts. The converter would have to stay with the engine and a huge amount of fluid would come out when the converter shaft left the pump front seal. I'm probably best off just giving up on testing the drivetrain and go ahead and pull them both together so I can split them out of the car. There are some nice LS400's around me locally but I was really never looking for a car when I bought these two. Plus, I've got nearly everything I need to make a pretty nice car out of the currently junker blackberry car and the wrecked white one.
As far as building an airplane, that's not in the cards for me yet at my somewhat young age. I'm enjoying flying a nice airplane while someone else pays the bills on it for now! My dream kit plane would be a Thunder Mustang, alway's has been. Obviously that's not great for my family so an RV-10 or something would be better. I bet that would be a lot of fun though. Maybe I should build a 1UZ powered Lancair... Hmmmmm
Actually swapping out soooo much stuff like that is hours wise a huge cost, yeah I know some of us do the stuff to learn and for fun if you can call it that, but still some times I'd rather do something else than fool with a car. If a person puts all that extra time into a second job (part time) at least you get some compensation for that time. You can get a really nice 98 or 2000 for way less than your putting into the old 95's 96's etc. and have a way better car. Unless your a collector then go for it. There is no making the big bucks restoring a 2nd gen LS, yet. Maybe 20 more years down the road they may be worth something. And then all that effort can end up where the white car did.
If the interior colors are not the same in both cars that blows out the chance of collectivity in the future, yeah I know. Just trying to justify all the effort done.
Actually swapping out soooo much stuff like that is hours wise a huge cost, yeah I know some of us do the stuff to learn and for fun if you can call it that, but still some times I'd rather do something else than fool with a car. If a person puts all that extra time into a second job (part time) at least you get some compensation for that time. You can get a really nice 98 or 2000 for way less than your putting into the old 95's 96's etc. and have a way better car. Unless your a collector then go for it. There is no making the big bucks restoring a 2nd gen LS, yet. Maybe 20 more years down the road they may be worth something. And then all that effort can end up where the white car did.
If the interior colors are not the same in both cars that blows out the chance of collectivity in the future, yeah I know. Just trying to justify all the effort done.
The money I have spent on these two cars is already spent. I don't really have to spend anymore. I'm not a collector. I'm not taking time away from my family to work on the cars. I just work in the garage instead of watching TV and twiddling my thumbs. I'm fortunate to have lots of time off, way more than most in my profession. I am not looking to make money on either of these cars. I was only looking to sell the motor and trans out of the black one as I do not need them. At the end, like most projects, the reward I get is the satisfaction of a job well done. I'm into the content of this thread to just have a nice car to drive around.
I have a 10 year old diesel truck that's in excellent shape. Nine years ago I bought a 1992 Toyota Paseo to drive back and forth to work. 40 mpg is better than 12 mpg. I also wanted a car like that to park in the airport parking lot for 4 days at a time and not give a crap about door dings and such. It has served it's purpose well. If I'm by myself I always jump in that. It's the epitome of point A to B transportation. The problem is that it is not safe. No ABS, no traction control, no air bags and it's very small. I also wouldn't mind something that I can carry my family in to keep miles and wear off the nicer vehicles. In comes the LS400. I know how to repair it, I know how to service it and I've always liked the car for many reasons. After purchasing these cars (mainly the white one) it became a great thing for us to park our VW TDI to get several thousand more dollars out of the buy back that VW is forced to do. The LS400 is perfectly comfortable for a family of 3 and is very reliable, especially after what I had done to the white car.
That was all working out well until the white car was destroyed a little over a week ago. Now I have to make lemonade out of lemons. The black car was first going to be flipped to pay for the white one plus the parts I put into it but the plans have changed once the white car was totaled.
And not really an exception. Do the study many small stature people like small women fatally injured by perfectly good air bags, and slow very survivable crashes.
Today I was torn between pulling the trans first then the engine or pulling bother together. The steering rack is kind of in the way for pulling them together but I think it could be done. The weight of the trans on the back will also make the unit come out near vertical I bet.
I think I've decided to pull them out together. Since I'm going to swap the steering components as well I'm just going to go ahead and remove the steering rack prior to the powertrain. The left steering gear bushing is totally shot anyway. I think that will make it much easier. I've got a VW gift card from the TDI scandal that I need to burn this month so I'm going to remove the wheels from the black car and run them up to the dealer to get some new Pirelli P7's wrapped around them.
I'm ready to knock this thing out. I'll post some pics of the progress if they are interesting.
Progress on the blackberry LS400 is coming along. Once I have another couple hours of time to work the engine and trans will be on their way out. Last session I got the exhaust and drive shaft out. The engine and trans are only connected to the body via a couple grounds and the motor and trans mounts.
Yesterday I wrapped the cars wheels with some new high quality rubber. Pirelli P7's. I had a VW TDI Goodwill dealership card that was going to expire today so I used it, plus a little extra, to put some new shows on the wheels. I can't wait to try them out. I've heard really great reviews so far.
Also, at some point during the blackberry car's life, someone thought the potentially the very best place to lift or support the car on the rear was via the center of the lower suspension arms... They are tubular and ended up with significant bends in each side. Good news is that I have 2 straight ones on the white car that will get transplanted.
11-19-16, 03:02 PM
