ramen tamer

I hadn't realized that there was a 3D printing topic, when I posted this, and I was told over there that it's probably just not a good idea at all to print these. I might still try, but I might have to hunt Ebay for a ring, presently, if it's not going to work. The project will, at least, give me something to try and model as I learn 3D modeling.

Oh whoops. I didn't know we had a 3d printing thread. I just posted a whole new thread that was pretty strongly related and probably could have been posted in here. The idea was that I think it would be a cheap and quick way to make replacement headlight retaining rings if there were an accessible .stl file of them. But, I haven't started learning 3D modeling, yet. I have, however, had a retaining ring critically fail recently. I'd be willing to commission an .stl file, if somebody else would like to make it or has a good scanner that can do it up quickly. Otherwise, I've suddenly got some motivation to learn 3D modeling.

I had a thought about headlight retaining rings. Mostly because one of mine in my 620 has catastrophically failed and they are pretty unpleasant to hunt down. Could somebody with 3d modeling experience make an .stl file of one? I would be willing to pay a commission fee for it. I have a 3d printer, but have yet to manage the modeling side of things. I think having a handy supply of easy to make plastic crap that I can use as all of mine eventually disintegrate would be nice. Also, if it works well enough, the .stl files would be available for anybody else who has similar issues with a dangling headlight and also a 3d printer. Or do y'all think this is just plain unfeasible? If no one is interested, I'll just have to learn modeling sooner than later. I was planning on putting that off indefinitely, but I seem to have a need for it, presently.

Yeah. I was thinking about that. While I do have an engine that can push those big wheels, it's not really worth designing a vehicle around the tires. I was playing around on Discount Tire's wheel calculator and it looks like I could put 215/65/16s on there and it would be 27" total diameter and a width of 8.46". And according to other parts of the internet, 215s will fit a 7" rim, so it works. Slightly larger than stock, but it's probably fine. Also, I like to haul a bunch of stuff in my truck and having those big beefy wheels in the back would probably not work with that. So, unless I lifted the silly thing, it ain't happening. And after reading your posts about what a nightmare lifting a 620 is, that probably isn't happening either.

So, I had to buy different rims to slip over my new disc brakes. I found some on FB Marketplace for $60 for the whole set. They're 16x7. They came with these massive tires (265/70/16) and I love the way it looks. Unfortunately, as any dingaling could figure out, the fronts rub with sharp turns. I haven't tested how sharp a turn needs to be to rub it, but I had the truck jacked up and turned the wheel and it hits, alright. Which leads me to wonder, what is the largest diameter I can run without rubbing? Could I just get thinner tires with a larger ratio and make it work? Something like a 215/85/16? Probably not. But, I don't know. They're Toyota wheels and they say 16x7JJ 15. I think that 15 might be an offset? Damn I know nothing about wheels or tires. I any of you guys know, I'd appreciate any help.

Alrighty, here are the pictures of my "fluid pump." So, first you take the little hose there and put the green bit into the full reservoir of dot3. Then, suck up nearly a full hose worth. If you were born with three functioning hands, you could use the syringe to do that. I was not, so I just sucked it up with my mouth. Attach the fluid filled hose onto the syringe, make sure the plunger on the syringe is pulled out before you connect them, and then jam that little green end as tightly as you can into the hole in the bottom of the reservoir. Plunge the plunger. But, not so much that it runs out of fluid. You don't want to shoot air in there, obviously. Then, pull the green bit out of that little hole, refill the reservoir, suck up more dot3 into the hose, jam it back in and plunge more. Repeat until Dot3 is squirting everywhere and making a big ass mess. Before I bought the cooking syringe, I tried to just blow the dot3 through the system by mouth. I do not have the lung strength to achieve this. Then, I was going to use my air compressor. But, I left it out all winter and it is broken. So, I walked to Safeway and bought a cooking syringe. If one were so inclined, you could take the plunger out of the syringe and fill it with dot3. Push until it squirts out of the tube and then jam it into the hole and squeeze a full syringe of fluid through the lines. I felt like the chance of air bubbles was a lot higher that way, though, so I did it my way, instead.

That's pretty clever with the vice grips on the flare nut wrench. I just used the first pair of squeezers I could find to loosen the hard lines as they came pre-stripped from some previous owner. I'll get a picture of my "fluid pump" that I used. Gonna wait until it gets light out, though. I took the car for some test driving and it's running well. I need to test drive it more and do more checks for leaking. I think it's good, but I've been wrong about this sort of thing before and I'm not a huge fan of surprises. Though, I'm keeping my cooking syringe in the car, should the lines ever need to be bled again.

I agree. But, replacing the hose means taking a bunch of stuff apart and then re-bleeding the lines. I just don't have it in me, today. Either it'll be fine, for a while, or AAA will have to come get me...again. On the bright side, it'll be pretty easy to figure out what went wrong when that goes wrong!

Oh, I meant to address this post. The slave piston was some weird homemade thing. It was like a piece of all-thread with some nuts on it. It fit through the little hole on the transmission fork. Not knowing what I was doing, I tried putting the piston into the hole on the fork with the new slave cylinder. It popped right through. I was pretty frustrated, at this point in fixing things, last night, so I yanked that piston out and put in the little homemade looking deely-bobber. It's working, but there's a part of my brain that says that was a very stupid thing to do. But, just because something is a stupid idea, doesn't mean it's a bad idea.

The next project will be fixing, brake swapping and lifting my 620. Which, if cursory forum searches are to be believed, will be really difficult and unpleasant. So, see y'all in my next topic!

Less than $150 for the parts. I think it was $50 for master, slave and hose. I didn't change the hose. I'll just save it for later, like Banzai suggested. So, my issue is similar and it's been going on for some time. Generally, if my car sat for a couple days, like when I'm not driving it over a weekend, on Monday, I couldn't shift. I would just open the bleeder, let it drip and top off the fluid. Then it would work all week. Repeat next Monday. It was weird. Oh, man. Bleeding it after putting the new parts on took some effort. I spent way too long under the car, with my wife on the pedal. My shoulder is sore from opening and closing that damned valve. I got it this morning, though. I got one of those cheap $10 bleeder kits and just grabbed one of the little hoses and one of the little nozzles. Then, I took a cooking syringe and sucked up some Dot3 into it. Then crammed the nozzle into the hole in the master cylinder and pushed the plunger on the syringe down, forcing the fluid through the system. It worked brilliantly. A little too brilliantly. Before I did all this fixing, my clutch pedal would have to hit the floor to engage. And lifting it any amount would disengage the clutch and car would go. Now, it's right at the top. I lightly press the pedal and clutch engages. And it doesn't disengage again until I'm back at the top. Since I'm used to smashing the pedal to the floor, I have a lot of re-education before I do much driving. Living in Seattle means steep ass hills everywhere, with stop lights in the middle. I can't be fussing about trying to get car to go when I have a line of people behind me and I'm rolling backwards. The e-brake trick would work, but really I just need to get used to how the car drives, now. Cheers!

Ah. Didn't know it was just a dust cap. I'm fitna replace the whole master cylinder anyways. Figured if it was a little crummy, fixing part of it won't do. Might as well fix the whole thing so it doesn't just break in another month. I haven't noticed any fluid in the cab, but I rarely look at my feet. I can go pump it a bunch of times and see if anything happens. Though, there's so little pressure in the system right now, that I'm not sure I'd get a leak even if I tried. Yeah, it's black in the reservoir. I'm going to replace everything, though. Master, hose and slave just to make damn sure I solve the problem.

Can confirm that the fluid is black.

Sorry for disappearing on y'all. I've been busy, but I'm back with answers and updates. Anyways, like Mike said, when I open the bleeder, fluid freely leaks. So, it's not sucking air bubbles in. In between when I made the topic and now, I only just got the chance to poke around in the car. I was fixing a minor, possibly major later, electrical issue and started up the car to see if it still shot sparks at me. It does not. So, I thought I might pop off to the store and get some beers. No clutch, again. That's to be expected, so I opened the bleeder and topped off the master. This is always how I get the clutch to work after it sits a while. But, it still didn't work. So, I tried to do a proper bleeding. With the assistance of my loving wife, we bled the clutch for what was about two whole master cylinder reservoirs worth of dot3. Step, open, wait, close, release...repeat. The entire time, the fluid was coming out very frothy and my wife would consistently report that there was no increasing pressure on the clutch pedal. SO! I decided to put in an order on rockauto for a new hose, master cylinder and slave cylinder. Figure, I might as well get the whole damn set in case there are multiple issues. After that, I went poking around the car some more, because I wanted to see why the fluid kept frothing. I saw what I think is the problem and it should be pretty easy to fix... Y'know the rubber seal on the master cylinder on the driver's side of the firewall? Yeah, I ain't got one of those. Don't know where it's gone, but it is gone. I know that it used to be there in some capacity. I seent it. I'm guessing that without the seal, the little plunger in there is pulling in a bunch of air and that's why I can't get any pressure on my clutch. To test this theory, I'll replace the master cylinder first and do a little test before replacing the slave cylinder. I like Stoffregen's theory and even if it isn't the current issue, I'm sure it will be, soon. And then I'll test again before replacing the hose. My hose seems fine, but I already bought the new one, so I might as well use it. Cheers!

Thanks! I'll dig around in that. I think the car sat a lot before I started using it as a daily driver. So, I think you might be onto something.