GRM $2009 Dodge Aries project - EVENT COVERAGE W/ PICS

[GLHNSLHT2]

Here, I'll fix the funny for you...

I'm sort of anal, but drilling out that connector is the only thing you can do if your car didn't have an intercooled option for it's wiring harness since they didn't cast that hole open for cars that you couldn't get the i/c motor in. You're just drilling straight through and not through any connectors. I drill through and find it fine. I suppose you could pull all the wires out, shove it in a vice setup on a bridgeport and drill it that way. You go Vigo!

[mario03SRT]

A while ago i sold my neon to a friend for $300 as a favor. That didnt turn out the way i thought it would. He only gave me $100, flipped it for profit, and then tried to trade me some junk cars to make up the rest.

I mean, im a big fan of junk cars, obviously, but ASIDE from the ethical issues there, im a college student in and out of part time jobs and sometimes i just want you to SHOW ME THE MONEY

Anywho, the neon is now in better shape than when i had it, and the new new owner likes it, and i now own a 90 3.3/604 woodgrain grand caravan and a 93 2.5/5spd mx6.

Luckily, the grand caravan had the large lug pattern brakes that i needed to put the 16x7.5s on the aries, at least in the front, and a lot of the underhood stuff is going to Big_P for his 3.8L Lebaron GTS swap.


So, this weekend we swapped front spindles/brakes/wheels on the Aries AGAIN, and put leftover junk back on the front of the van to keep it rollable.




The van is ugly, but still a productive donor for at least 4 project vehicles so far. I should change from Vigo to Vulture to reflect my scavenging skills. This picture shows the front small pattern already swapped on and backs still stock after we were done for the day.



The front when we started. We had just installed this setup (11.25" rotors/60mm dual pin calipers on 91-up spindles) the last time we worked on the car, and only put about half a mile on it before taking it back off. But all for the better


Side by side comparison of the two setups. The one on the right is a 91-up 5x100 with 11" brakes, the one on the left is a 90 model grand caravan 5x114.3 setup with 11" brakes. The setup on the right had a better caliper/pad setup, but either way we've got plenty of brakes for such a light car.


Bleeding the brakes out. I think they need to be bled even more, but we worked slow yesterday and gave up on the car early in favor of lots of food!


It works! Taking the car down.


These rubbed the front fenders as well, but not NEARLY as bad as the 17s we had tried. I ended up doing the 'sawzall mod' on the offending portions.


Derrick brought over the New Yorker i gave him and did some work as well. http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/sh...t=34837&page=2

We also put in some FFV injectors and the cal we had, but Im scared of toasting the tbi clutch before we're ready to change it, so we left the boost controller alone.

The rear brakes (10.5" non vented disc setup) will actually have to be redrilled to get the bigger pattern in the back. Ill get some hub centric rings from discount tire to center the front rotor over the rear hubs and use it as a pattern. It will be tedious, but not costly.

Hopefully the car will be inspected soon so i can do months of shakedown on the public roads

More to come...

To get the brakes bled very well do a gravity bleed first. Start in the pass rear and fill the MC, attach a catch can underneath the caliper and crack it open. In a bit it will begin to fill with fluid. Refill the MC. Do all 4. Then if needed do a quick bleed. It works great! I could not get the same pump as you are using to get empty lins to fill and bleed any other way.

FYI,
Marion

[Vigo]

I did do a gravity feed on the fronts first but i did not try to bleed the rears at all. We will be taking apart the rear brakes to change the bolt pattern soon, so i will re bleed starting from the rear at that time. I think with the wheels i put on i can easily bleed the fronts without even taking the wheels off.

[Vigo]

What you doing with the 5x100 11" setup. I need some for my k car. It has 11" awd caravan discs for the rear

Unfortunately it's already dibsed for another 2 cars. I'll be putting the caliper brackets, rotors, and possibly calipers onto the front of my 90 van, and the spindles and wheel bearings themselves will be going onto Mason's CSX along with the newer style k-frame.

However, i can tell you that this stuff is easier to find than most people think. I have seen more 11" brake setups on NON turbo NON r/t 91-up daytonas than on any car in the junkyards, not to mention that the spindle, caliper bracket, and caliper are the same as the 91-95 grand caravans, though you need the small pattern wheel bearing and rotor to go back from 5x114.3 to 5x100 with the van stuff.

I WILL be taking my 5x100 wheel bearings and rotors out when i get the stuff to finish swapping the front of my van to 5x114.3 as well. If you could still use them when that happens i can send them to you. : /

[Vigo]

Did a bit of semi-aries-related work yesterday!

Mason and I finished tearing down the turbo minivan donor and got it ready for the scrap heap. We took all the good stuff that remained off of it, along with some parts people here have asked for, and got the thing loaded up and sitting on my dolley waiting to be towed to the recycers.

All the money from sale of its parts and scrap metal goes back into the budget, so thats a plus.






We also did a bit of work on the OTHER donor minivan that we took the front brakes off of. There's a chance you may see this thing at SDAC this year, but not in the way anyone would guess, lol. NOW LIVE IN SUSPENSE!!



If anyone needs all the factory owner's manuals for a 90 caravan, let me know! $5!


/update

[rx2mazda]

Keep up the good work.

[GLHS60]

Did a bit of semi-aries-related work yesterday!

Mason and I finished tearing down the turbo minivan donor and got it ready for the scrap heap. We took all the good stuff that remained off of it, along with some parts people here have asked for, and got the thing loaded up and sitting on my dolley waiting to be towed to the recycers.

All the money from sale of its parts and scrap metal goes back into the budget, so thats a plus.


[IMG]http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk124/Vigo327/DSC04593.jpg

[/IMG]


We also did a bit of work on the OTHER donor minivan that we took the front brakes off of. There's a chance you may see this thing at SDAC this year, but not in the way anyone would guess, lol. NOW LIVE IN SUSPENSE!!



If anyone needs all the factory owner's manuals for a 90 caravan, let me know! $5!


/update

I could use a left tail light and L.R. chrome wheel well moulding if they are still available off the LX Voyager.
Thanks
Randy

[Vigo]

Tail light is definitely available, but unfortunately you missed the wheelwell moulding as someone dibsed it back on the first page of the thread. I can look in the yards for one for you sometime soon. Ill tell you if i see any.

i'll pm you about the taillight when i have it off and ready to ship. I am heading over there right now to take that one off and tow the rest to the scrappers!

[RoadWarrior222]

We also did a bit of work on the OTHER donor minivan that we took the front brakes off of. There's a chance you may see this thing at SDAC this year, but not in the way anyone would guess, lol. NOW LIVE IN SUSPENSE!!

Making a flat bed car hauler out of it?

[Reaper1]

^^been done before...I've seen it! Still cool though...

[Vigo]

I considered it, only my thought was for a motorcycle hauler... that's not it though. I'm setting you all up for a letdown, haha.

Ok so bum news, i got the registration and put all the plates on and changed some bulbs and what not to prepare for inspection. I drive it about 20 miles over here to a friend's shop for inspection, and on the way the headgasket blows. Stupid 250k motor with no maintenance! LOL.

So... im here waiting for a friend to pick me up and the Aries will probably get a headgasket change, among other things, in the coming week or two.

I also got rid of the black donor van this morning (maybe shouldnta towed it with the aries..... jk) and there's a post about that with pics forthcoming!

Stay tuned..

[GLHS60]

Tail light is definitely available, but unfortunately you missed the wheelwell moulding as someone dibsed it back on the first page of the thread. I can look in the yards for one for you sometime soon. Ill tell you if i see any.

i'll pm you about the taillight when i have it off and ready to ship. I am heading over there right now to take that one off and tow the rest to the scrappers!

Thanks. Hopefully it is the original LX tail light as they have a strip of chrome around the bottom.

Thanks
Randy

[Vigo]

Unfortunately, i forgot all about the taillights in my rush to get the van out and done with and it is now gone. I do have another van but i think the left is cracked, and no chrome.. I will still stay on the lookout for what you're after, and sorry for my lapse.

On the other side of that coin, the good news is that the van is gone!
I towed it down to my preferred recycling center, and none of the wheels even fell off until i was only a block away from my destination. Ok technically it didnt fall all the way off since i stopped in the middle of the road and tightened the 2 lug nuts some of the way back down so i could pull it the last 500 feet.

NOW FOR THE ACTION SHOTS!






...For a grand total of $126.90 out of the original $450 purchase price and back into the $2009 budget.


Now all this was before i blew the headgasket on the aries. In retrospect, i think it was blown and i blew it betterer when i took it on its longest trip so far (~20 miles). After towing it home and pushing it off into the backyard for a few days, i decided to work on something that never breaks... My van!

I upgraded to the 11" front brake setup we had taken off of the aries. Since i had already swapped the front spindles/brakes to a 93 setup off the red 3.0 van i parted (info on that:http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/sh...t=dragged+home), all i had to do was swap the loaded caliper brackets and slip the bigger rotors on.




Done! Now my van is slightly better prepared to tow my aries. Still gotta get that hitch off my lawn and onto the van tho...

Also, my odometer was highly PALINDROMICAL today. Take that mental dictionaries!


Headgasket and simultaneous upgrades soon to come!

[rx2mazda]

i decided to work on something that never breaks... My van!

ginx.

[Vigo]

So Mason and I got together yesterday and today and did more work to the Aries. The latest accomplishments:

Took out the motor/tranny
Bought engine stand and put engine on it
Began the arduous process of cleaning off that stanky motor
Pulled a front rotor to use as a pattern to make rears 5x114.3
Put some parts in the trunk that we havent gotten around to installing yet
Pulled a good (hopefully) garrett off my black new yorker
Removed the balance shafts from the aries engine
Fitted a 2.2 pan and oil pickup and schemed on oil baffles
Played musical tires with some of the cars in my yard..actually that was just me.



Just getting started.

Lowering it out. We were using the hoist to pick up the car as usual and it looked a little tipsy so we decided to 'stabilize' it with a rock bar, a tire, and a floor jack.

All out. It usually takes 1.342 people to drag it around with that chain, but we had two people which was more than enough.

...It all happened so suddenly! I feel.....(shivers)...

Oh look, a new engine stand! I also taught Derrick how to find a/c leaks with a blow gun and a rubber hose on new yorker there.

We had to borrow a front rotor for a crazy scheme so i installed a temporary replacement to keep the brakes 3/4 functional.

Remember everybody: Eibach=LOWERING SPRINGS


Funny thing, i was worried about toasting the TBI clutch we had in there, but that thing showed NO signs of slippage. I had put a little crosshatch on with a roloc disc on the flywheel and pressure plate and it isnt even faded yet. I should have been more worried about blowing a headgasket. Lesson learned!

[Aries_Turbo]

looking good. in the end the TBI clutch wont be able to take it but for low(ish) boost it should be fine.

Brian

[Vigo]

I agree. We're planning on eventually getting a 4 puck ceramic, but in the meantime we're sticking this brand new tbi disc back in with a new turbo pp and hoping for the best. We have low weight and low traction and usually never WOT in 4th or 5th so hopefully it will last long enough for us to get some money for a better one.

[Aries_Turbo]

its a smaller diameter right?

[Vigo]

Ive heard that, but i just tossed the only old turbo disc i had sitting out and theres a new turbo disc sitting in one of my trunks somewhere but i havent compared them side by side.

I have heard that its 215mm vs 230mm. I haven't verified it personally.

[StraX22]

And on the fifth page, the lurker posted!

Here's some pics I took from the bolt pattern conversion of the rear hubs. Why would anyone do this you say? Because some of us have more time than money or common sense.


The hubs in their original nastiness...



Let's do away with those pesky studs



Hubs less studs



Now to make a centering ring. Unfortunately I didn't have a lathe big enough so I had to improvise. The tooling consists of a hole saw & mandrel with a transfer punch taking place of the drill bit, the piece to be worked on (a scrap of Kydex), and another hole saw mandrel to clamp the piece in place. It's jankey but it worked.



Now that the OD is finished, time for the ID



Fits perfectly snug



I used the rotor and a transfer punch to mark the holes. I also pre-marked the centers between the existing stud holes.



I circled the holes with a sharpie just so I wouldn't use them (I should have just used blue dye but oh well). I drilled the holes out in three steps to make it easy on me and the drill bits.



It was quite a struggle to keep the drill press from chucking the hub across the room.



And there we are all purdy and drilled. I'm planning on welding the studs in place so I don't have to use an end mill to flatten out the backside of the hubs. More pictures will follow.