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Cripes, that's awful luck. And of course the seller "forgot" to inform you he'd cut off the lower seat rails.
I hate to say this but it might be the best thing might be to locate another black pair but also keep the set you have now in case you need to cannibalize anything from them even if it's just the leather skins to swap over. But I'm going to assume you don't want to get into that.
The best bet other than that might be to see if the entire lower assembly is removable and if so, still see if those entire assemblies can be sourced used. I really can't say for sure there and I have TT seats as well. This is the first time I've heard of anyone ruining TT seats like this.
I saw that parts car listed at a Portland wrecker. I'm guessing they neglected to tell you it was re-listed several weeks apart? Seems pretty unlikely nothing had been taken off it in that time, so the "latest picture" argument was straight up b.s.
You didn't buy the Supra seats from a Portland area listing, as well, did you? Because there was a set listed a week or two ago where the seller pictured them with rails but said they had been cut off.
Can you cut the rails off your SC seat and weld them onto the Supra seats? I know the mounts are the same, but I don't know if the rails are compatible.
^^ both seats mount to exactly the same locations at exactly the same angles so theoretically that might be possible with a bit of careful cutting, aligning and welding.
I am currently hunting local for the worst pair of sc seats I can find as I don't actually need anything but the tabs to weld to the supra seats. That project is on hold until that happens. Probably going to spend a lot of time trying to get the leather back as best as possible. I've seen some amazing videos on this before.
I did manage to finally get the supra tt brakes installed up front. I have ordered a brand new oem set for the rears after giving up hunting for them online. Hard to find good used ones. I will put them on after I upgrade to the supra master cylinder. Yes.... there is a slight difference it seems, so might as well.
I know, bad curb rash, but I found a great place only a few hrs from here to get them refinished properly.
Now I am not kidding when I say it has been 30 years without turning a wrench, so I am still going to take the car into the toyota dealership first thing in the morning to have the brake system flushed and bled, abs, etc...
I have only driven the car around the block and the brakes are squishy. While at a stop, I can pump the pedal and it will firm up but does not last. Lucky for me I can take empty back roads to the dealership for the brake bleed and check.
Here is a pic of the calipers and how I put them on the car. I followed the directions and many threads here as best I could. Hoping what you see here is correct looking.
Things I noticed.
1. the front right rotor 'rubs' on the brake pads and does not spin freely when jacked up. It is not tight, as I can turn it by hand 'gloved of course',
2. the anti-squeel shims have arrows on them. I could find no directions for this, so pointed them forward. I could have reversed them with arrows pointing back, but that seemed wrong.
3. the 'spacers' I put them on the inside on the pad as the instructions showed, but as there were only 2 per rotor, 1 for each pad, I had to guess and put them on the lowest part of the pad as seen in the pic above.
I'm hoping that while at toyota tomorrow that if they see anything really wrong they will fix it. My concern is that the dealership has NEVER serviced a supra tt, go figure...
Of course this thread wouldn't be complete without the pic comparing stock caliper to new one.
Took the car into the local Toyota dealership today in order to have them bleed the brakes and I thought the abs. I was rather shocked when I went into the bay and watched them in that they are NOT using a pressure bleeder, but simply bled the brakes using the pedal just as I did. Kind of a waste of $130 as they didn't even pull the wheels to check my work. Next time I find a Toyota dealer that actually gets to see a supra turbo once in awhile.
What really caught me off guard is that they did not bleed the abs system. I could have sworn that I read a few threads about having to bleed the abs, however he did call the head tech at Lexus and they said that no, the 96 does not need the abs system bled..... Is this true?
Observations:
This car stops SO much better now than before, although the pedal pressure is still very light and not exactly consistent. I'm sure there has to be some way to increase the pedal pressure as I am much more after a sports car braking feel than the 'luxury' soft Lexus feel. ... any ideas here?
For the brake breakin period, I had to guess as to the best way. I've heard both ends of the spectrum, from taking it very very easy for the first 50 miles or so and then slowly increasing the brake pressure as time goes by, to starting out really hard on the brakes.
I found a great spot where i was able to do 10 hard stops from 100+ down to around 5mph. I would do this, then let the car cool down for 5 mins, and then repeated it 10 times. So in all approx 100 stops from 100mph+ within about an hour.
By the time I was done I think I was on the edge of boiling the dot5 fluid as the pedal was becoming quite spongy. This is rather scary to me and something I need to solve before going to the track.
I do feel like the brakes, when the fluid is cool, are so good that they are outperforming the new rubber. I went ahead and ordered a new set of toyo r888's that should be here this weekend. I'm hoping this will help the car stop even better.
If anyone has any advice on further improvements without dropping 5k on a bbk please jump in and let me know.
Your assembly looks correct to me in your pictures. It's not hard to change the brake pads with TT calipers if you follow the TSRM. Very straightforward. As for the bleeding, while I understand the pedal method I usually have better results by taking the car into a shop to have the bleeding done (although $130 is steep!).
Your break in procedure is pretty close to what Toyota wants you to do. 100 stops is well more than enough to bed in the OEM TT pads.
Brake fluid boiling... if you're that aggressive, I've read of Supra track guys using Motul RBF600 (non-silicone) but I don't think it's supposed to be a good all around brake fluid for day to day street use and has a tendency to absorb more water over time. Not sure what else to suggest. Generally you should still stick with DOT3 brake fluid, whatever you use. For daily street driving I don't have any problems with standard Toyota brake fluid. The brakes are more than capable.
The pedal feel... you will feel a marked difference once you get TT rear calipers installed. It balances out a lot of the play you're feeling in the system. As for the master cylinder, I'm still doing well with my SC300 version but I have heard the Supra TT master cylinder gives a slight improvement in pedal feel.
Also, I believe this is correct info... Toyota revised either the master cylinder or brake booster for Supra TT's sometime between model year 1996 or 1997 to improve the pedal feel. I have no idea if it was in any way combined with an updated ABS module or updated ABS ECU.
The pedal feel... you will feel a marked difference once you get TT rear calipers installed. It balances out a lot of the play you're feeling in the system. As for the master cylinder, I'm still doing well with my SC300 version but I have heard the Supra TT master cylinder gives a slight improvement in pedal feel.
Yeah I am certainly hoping that this will help to stiffen the peddle and make it a bit more consistent. I'll report back when my rear brakes are installed.
Originally Posted by KahnBB6
Also, I believe this is correct info... Toyota revised either the master cylinder or brake booster for Supra TT's sometime between model year 1996 or 1997 to improve the pedal feel. I have no idea if it was in any way combined with an updated ABS module or updated ABS ECU.
I remember reading this as well and I am going to just bite the bullet and order the upgraded master cylinder.
Thanks for the link. Looks like the blue fluid was outlawed 2 or 3 years ago. I am currently looking online to see if I can still order it from overseas.
Because I have no real race experience, I don't know if the peddle sloppiness is from the fluid or the brakes themselves. I am guessing fluid as the peddle did get worse as the runs continued.
While I absolutely hated the car when I first purchased it, I can say that with the fixes and upgrades it is coming along pretty well. In it's current form it still can't touch my type r on the small track down here, but it is getting closer and I have watched enough supra videos now to know that it is possible to get this car to destroy my integra. I just don't want to spend 10k doing it.
Next project, hopefully next week, is to replace every bushing in the car. It is not currently sloppy, but it is stock, so there has to be huge room for improvement.
I know that I am doing this backwards from where most people turbo the car first and worry about how it handles afterwards. At my age, I would rather do the opposite. Build a car that drives and handles like a go cart, learn to handle it properly, and then add power as my ability increases. Ultimate goal is to hit Portland International for a few track days on a full size track.
I was watching tv, surfing cl and came across the 98 auto tt torsen for sale here on the forums and managed to snag it before everyone else did.
So it's official. Between all the money spent fixing the suspension, alignment(s), new tires, new front wheels, double din, complete Lexus interior fasteners, supra seats, supra tt brakes and now the auto tt lsd, I have now officially gone nuts. Remember, I seriously hated this car the week I got it and honesty I am not sure how I feel about it yet, but I am giving it a fair shake.
Questions:
1. Because I have a stock w58 my current gears 4.272:1, and the new diff has 3.769 how much am I going to hate the acceleration difference? I am N/A for the foreseeable future.
Use is auto-x and Portland International on open to public days, so no need for high end speed as no turbo.
2. Having just done the brakes myself I am feeling adventurous and considering installing the new diff myself. Any great guides or info I should know first, such as other things to change while I'm down there?
3. Anyone with w58 done this before? I ask because I don't know if I need to change the flange on the back of the driveshaft or not. Rather confusing info on that.
Wasn't sure about posting questions like this in my build thread as not many see it but worth a try.
Are you planning to stay with the W58 transmission ? I asked because on my response to your question in my build thread, I recommended not swapping the diff internals since there was a big difference on gear ratio.
So now, depending on your transmission , staying W58, you might be better of swapping internals to keep the 4.27 gear ratio for your W58. Then again, this all depends on your long term plan and use of the car.
Are you planning to stay with the W58 transmission ? I asked because on my response to your question in my build thread, I recommended not swapping the diff internals since there was a big difference on gear ratio.
So now, depending on your transmission , staying W58, you might be better of swapping internals to keep the 4.27 gear ratio for your W58. Then again, this all depends on your long term plan and use of the car.
Thanks for the info. I read most of your build thread and saw where you had made the change to the flange and I am happy to hear that at least for now I don't have to buy a new one.
For now I plan on keeping the w58 as it has a brand new >3k clutch, flywheel and it is working pretty well, as best a w58 without a short shifter can.
The reason I was considering putting the lsd into my current diff is the car is already slow enough. Making that big a gear change in my mind would make it horribly slow. If it is something I can do myself with a little reading and watching how-to videos first, then I will give it a shot.
Good job taking care of all the maintenance items first...
Yeah, I will never understand a person who buys a car and doesn't do ALL the maintenance before anything else. But then again if people did it right, then I wouldn't have dozens of p.o.s. 300's on craigslist to find extra parts....
* weird note *
There are currently 7, yes 7 5sp 300s for sale on cl in Seattle, 3 in my own small town, and with the exception of one gte swap for 13k (way to much) they are all beaters whose owners think they are worth 5k.
I asked in another thread, but does anyone happen to have a link to a good guide, or better yet video, on how to properly rebuild a diff and change the gears?
Would like to try this myself and save a bit of $ as this addiction is getting bad.
I found a great spot where i was able to do 10 hard stops from 100+ down to around 5mph. I would do this, then let the car cool down for 5 mins, and then repeated it 10 times. So in all approx 100 stops from 100mph+ within about an hour.
That is insanely excessive and you possibly glazed the pads/rotors and boiled the brake fluid, which would give you a pretty consistent spongy feel since if you boil the fluid you usually get air in the lines.
1. Because I have a stock w58 my current gears 4.272:1, and the new diff has 3.769 how much am I going to hate the acceleration difference? I am N/A for the foreseeable future.
You will hate the acceleration, or now lack there of, going that low. If top speed is of no concern go taller 4.3+ if possible, then you can be aggressive off the line.
I asked in another thread, but does anyone happen to have a link to a good guide, or better yet video, on how to properly rebuild a diff and change the gears?
When I get to work tomorrow I'll see if Alldata has the guide for rebuilding the diff and snag a copy for you. I've never done a supra diff but if its like other Toyotas they are not too bad. You need a dial indicator.
03-08-15, 03:55 AM
