www.imoc.co.uk

Thanks everyone. Its all pretty bog standard inside and out although the paint and alloys aren't nearly as good as they look in the pics. The body shell is completely solid of course and you could eat your dinner off the underside. I bought it 5 years ago for 400,000 yen give or take, which at the t...

Just thought I'd let you all know that my 1989 SC is in a container on its way from Tokyo to the UK! Also on its way is the spare engine and quite a few other bits and bobs. The shippers had plenty of fun getting the engine onto the moving van. In the end we used the engine hoist to get it airborne ...

The flag you've pictured is that of the Japanese Imperial Army. Its still seen today displayed by far right extremists so bear in mind its considered offensive by many.

If you want a true symbol of modern Japan how about some Hello Kitty graphics instead?

-AL

Jimi, thanks again. Was wondering about the dye whether you could just rub it off once you found your leak or what. Its about a tenner for a can of dye so not terribly expensive compared to taking it to a shop but point taken about deliberately putting refrigerant into a system known to leak. If som...

Thanks Jimi. Knew about the moisture and had both sides open whilst I was doing it, will bear in mind to do it for longer if and when I am ready to refill it. The vacuum pump did get very hot even after 20 mins and there was a fine mist of vapour or smoke coming off it. Hopefully that was the pump's...

toxo wrote:
Close. Your hoses are most likely for R134a service ports, which are different sizes to stop you putting the wrong gas in places.

The hoses are all R12. Its a Toyota quirk apparently that the high pressure coupling is a little bit smaller. 3/16" instead of 1/4" IIRC.

Why not take it to an aircon specialist, get them to refill, they use a UV dye so it should be fairly easy to see the leak. It might come to that. Mine was also working great until I made a stupid mistake whilst changing the alternator. To be fair at the time we were still having fairly decent afte...

Bit of an update on this. Couple of things have held me up. One being that the high pressure service port has a slightly smaller coupling on it meaning my hoses wouldn't fit. Presumably this is to stop you hooking up a charge can to the high pressure side. So sent away for an adapter only to find th...

I use Hai Oku (high octane) in mine which is 98 - 100RON.

Strangely the JDM owner's handbook has nothing to say about what to put in it...

Thanks guys. The system is currently empty (and no I didn't deliberately vent it). R12 seems to be quite easily available here, both the real freon stuff and substitute. The unions on the compressor itself are just held on with bolts so no special tools needed to remove them although they do have an...

Does anyone have any experience of doing this? My compressor is making nasty noises so I'm changing it to a refurbished one. How much gas will it need to fill from empty? I know I need to evacuate the system first. How much oil do I put in? The service manual says to measure what comes out and refil...

Very nice. I've been toying with the idea of doing something similar with an Arduino and mounting a dot matrix display in place of the clock. Haven't got past the dreaming stage yet but was thinking it could be a good project for the boy to get him started on electronics and programming. Would be ve...

Sorted now, luckily I had a reconditioned alternator in my parts pile. That was probably the most complicated job I've ever tackled so quite pleased to get it all done in one day. I remember reading somewhere that taking off the side air vent helps with access so thats what I did, but did I complete...

Appears to be the alternator thats causing it. If I disconnect the connector under the red boot it goes open circuit, reconnecting it I go back to ~2.5ohms. The circuit diagram shows a bunch of diodes between positive and earth, a rectifier I guess, so seems like one or more of those has given up. I...

My battery's been on the way out for ages. Two nights ago I put it on charge since the car hasn't been started for a while and went to bed. Yesterday morning the fuse had gone on the charger. I replaced the fuse and tried connecting it again but it popped again. Checking the voltage across the batte...

Glad everyone likes them. They're a bit fuzzy because the light wasn't too great but undoubtedly some lovely stuff on show. The mag lev train to get there was good fun as well. The collection isn't just Toyota. The top floor of the museum was about the coming of age of Japanese manufacturers from th...

We spent a week in Nagoya recently to escape from Tokyo so couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the Toyota Museum.

Pics at flickr.com, I got a bit carried away with the MR2...

www.flickr.com/photos/alanlaird/sets/72157626274486377

-Alan

Well, its gradually been getting worse again. Same symptoms, won't rev when cold, gradually revs better as it warms up, but most of the time its down on power. Hardly ever see the green light or get normal acceleration. No diagnostic code when shorting E1 and T. Since last post I've changed distribu...

That was actually a JDM option instead of remote control door mirrors.

But, yes, looks dreadful.

As for the seals from the states sadly they only produce the car to glass bodywork seal not the strip of rubber attached to each T-Bar glass panel which is the bit that fails and leaks. Don't think the seal on the glass panel side has ever been available separately. I asked when I got my seals and ...