^ The molding did match but personally I like the contrast. I have been meaning to paint the skirts black but havent had time. I'm still unhappy with the car until I get new wheels but the drop really helped.

 

As stated I proceeded in swapping out alternators today. As I went to remove both the adjusting bolt and the pivot bolt I found that I had no pivot bolt. It was gone. Which means that my alternator didnt fail but the tension from the belt was pulling the alternator away from the correct pivot point, which means I was hardly getting a charge. So to get a sense of accomplishment I still swapped them out since the other one has considerably less miles on it. I found a perfect bolt to replace the missing one and waa laa it works just fine again.

 

How hard is it to do that yourself? ima need to replace mine soon and am wanting to do it myself. PM me on how do to it plz

 

I can explain here. That way anyone else can see. Its easy to do yourself, if you have a strut bar in front then youre gonna want to bring the old one out from the bottom and put the new one in from the bottom. That way worked easiest for me. All you have to do is undo the one bolt on the bottom and the one that attatches to the bracket on top. then you remove the belt. If you have A/C youre gonna have to remove that belt if you plan on replacing the alternator belt. Then all you do is put the new one in, put the lower bolt in and tighten it, then stick a wrench inbetween the head/timing belt cover and push the alternator away from you to put tension on the belt and then tighten the top bolt that attatches to the bracket. I wish I had pictures for you but I didnt feel the need to take any when I did it. Sorry

 

Its a PITA! at least on a 96-00 it is. The only way that I could get mine in and out was thru the bottom and it helped for me to take the tire off when I did it.

 

^ I didn't have to take the tire off but I had to jack the car up because it was lower than the diameter of the alternator so I couldnt get it out lol.

 

Haha thanx for the help...like i said ima need to replace mine and im thinking my friends dad up the street (the same guy who i got my hx's from) had a working alternator he might be willing to sell for cheaper than retail so i might be in luck...if anything ill just have it put in professionally and buy the part from him

 

Update: The other day I found a sweet deal (no pics yet) on a Whiteline EG6 20mm Rear Sway Bar with poly bushings and collars on CL for $50! Its baby blue with yellow lettering. I think I'll like the contrast of colors under the car but I had to order some endlinks. I got Blox adjustable ones, they should be here sometime this week. The bushings are brand new but didn't come with the bracket that holds them around the bar and that bolts to the subframe. Wonder if an auto parts store would carry something that would work? Maybe ones a little large just for temporary?

Other than that I got my Password:JDM front and rear license plate frames and ACL Rod Bearings. Still waiting on the main bearings so then I can pay for my stuff at the machine shop and put the block together.

I also ordered a Type R style shift boot from Password and some new HID bulbs since the new headlights use a size H4H bulb instead of H4.

Pics of the stuff I got:

 

Couple pictures, had to take one for ROTM.







Picking up my whole lower end at the machine shop hopefully tomorrow. Will start putting it together once I get the Main Bearings.

 

I just looked at this thread and I took a look at your plans outlined in post 1.

A word of advice... don't get the polyurethane exhaust hangers. I had some for about a year and then I started noticing a rattling sound at certain RPMs and over imperfections in the road. I spent a very long time tracking this rattle down and it ended up being the polyurethane hangers rattling.

What happened is the holes where the metal exhaust hanger pegs go through the bushing widened over time, and the bushings became harder over time, possibly from the heat. As a result, the engine vibrations caused the metal peg to rattle inside of the hole in the bushing. The noise was extremely annoying. If anything, I just recommend buying a brand new set of rubber bushings. You can get them cheap at the auto parts store.


EDIT: After reading through your thread I noticed that you actually bought some from me... the ones I had leftover a while back. (right?) I didn't know about this problem when I sold those to you... I just got rid of my other ones about a month ago or so. Went back to rubber. If you notice a rattling and it bothers you, check there first.