Galant GS-X: Wheel Bearings, Cockpit Fires, and Body Damage, oh my!

Okay, new guy here, but I've had my GS-X for a while. Love it, but it's been parked for about a year now...

I tried searching, but I'm at work and don't have a lot of time, so I figured if you guys have some quick answers, I've got some quick (hopefuly) simple questions.

1. When I parked it, it was because the rear wheel bearings were going. They weren't SUPER loud, but I could tell they were gettin louder and wanted to save the hubs before it was too late, so I parked it. I was afraid of the job because of its seeming complexity, but after swaping a transaxle in my MR2, I think I can handle it. Is it hard? Have you done it? Any tips?

2. As I was driving to park it, suddenly, on the freeway, I felt/heard something go/pop up front, and there was a puff of smoke that wafted through the cabin near the passenger side. Now the alternator isn't charging the battery. Is there some sort of main relay/fuse up there that went, or is my entire harness fubared? This is what finally put the nail in the coffin of me wanting to work on the car.

Any help you guys could offer would be great. I love this car and want to keep it, so I'm hoping these are simple and common problems to resolve.

The car has 297,XXX miles on an unopened 4G63. I want to get it to 300K so bad! I did replace the transaxle though due to the transfer case splines going out. Too much snow drifting maybe?

Thanks!

-Gary

 

[IncorpoRatedX]

heres a quick answer because im at work and dont have a lot of time.

rear wheel bearing is easy, need penetrating spray and a press, but it's not bad.

on the fire/smoke issue. open the freaking hood and figure it out. Sounds like a power wire shorted.

 

I did, on the side of the highway, very carefuly, but there was no visible fire or melted wiring or anything of the sort. I'm attempting to figure it out, however, my experience with the wiring of these cars is minimal and I was unsure of if there was simply a main fuse that could have shorted/blown, which is something that happened on my old Ford Ranger once. I appreciate your help, but I'm just looking for opinions and knowledge of folks who probably know a lot more about these cars than I do and simply saying: "figure it out" isn't very helpful.

 

[5OF2k]

You could've blown the main fuse or something along those lines, but replacing the fuse isnt going to fix the reason it actually blew in the first place. You should start by checking the fuses, then take your service manual and troubleshoot the circuit in which the fuse(s) is/are blown. Check from the fuse, to the item, and in between using a voltmeter set to ohms. That will tell you if the wiring is still intact, shorted, or broken/etc.

Hope that helps!

-Jake

 

Thanks for the reply, Jake. I plan on getting to it as soon as I sort out an axle seal an torn axle boot on my MR2, but it's my winter daily, so I suppose it SHOULD take priority over my summer car. Also, rather off topic, but do accounts get deleted due to inactivity here? I seem to remember having an account and posting some questions during my transmission swap project, and I always use the same user name on forums, had to re-register. Anyways, thanks again.

 

[curtis]

but do accounts get deleted due to inactivity here


Yes and so do threads getting trimmed.

 

Well. Got a chance to look at the car today. Trying to track down the electrical problem. New development: ABS and BRAKE lights on on the dashboard. No blinking of the ABS. I checked all the fusible links and they're all good. One thing that was question was the ALT relay, which smelled of burnt electrics. The voltage at the battery with the car running is 12v even, the voltage at the ALT relay connector was around 9v. I tried disconnecting the brake fluid level switch to shut off the BRAKE light but it remained. I also tried with the parking brake switch. No change either way. The light DID get brighter when I bridged the terminals on the brake fluid level sensor. I can hear the ABS relays clicking away when I key on, but the light never turns off, and after test driving the car I can confirm that the ABS system is not functioning. Any ideas?

 

www.galantvr4.org

Found this. It just confuses me as to why the ABS is connected with the alternator. Time to go find a wiring diagram I suppose.

 

[turbowop]

ABS/brake light will come on when the alternator starts dying or dies. I think it's because the voltage gets too low to operate the ABS system, but I'm not completely sure of that.

Alternator failures are pretty common on these cars. Just don't go to Autozone for a replacement though. Either have a good auto-electric shop rebuild it with quality components that can tolerate the extreme heat near the turbo, or pick up a new (not reman'd) Bosch unit. And make sure your heatshields around the turbo and o2 housings are intact.

 

Yeah.I was reading that alternator failures were pretty common on the turbos. Luckily for me, I'm just a slow GS-X. I got a replacement alternator and had it in later that night. I got one from O'Reilly's and it at least appears to be in good shape. I suppose we will see how long it lasts on an NA.

Found out I have to replace my water pump gasket(?) Because I got a coolant leak after loosening the alternator swingarm/support bracket bolt, so I'll probably be in there soon and replace a bunch of oil seals because that side of the motor ain't pretty.

That and my ABS still isn't working. Trips the 5m/s sensor check and turns off the computer. Which kinda makes me think I'll be needing new or used hubs here soon. Any opinion on if that is probably the case? The wheel bearings in the back are pretty loud... but I unfortunately don't have much of a choice to drive it or not this week. I drove it earlier and felt the wheels and the hubs after driving at 50 MPH and they were not hot, hardly warm. There is also no play in the wheels with the rear end off the ground.

 

[Hertz]

The ABS fails on most. Drive without it, learn to modulate the brakes old school. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

My MR2 doesn't have ABS, so it's not like I'm terrified of driving without it, I just like everything to be working properly (or as properly as I can have it). It came back randomly and works fine now, I was simply wondering if it failing may be a sign that my hubs are going to be destroyed when I take apart the rear end, but now I'm less worried about that.

 

Hey guys, another question.

I'm running into issues finding the right wheel bearings. Everyone seems to be agreed that there are inner/outer bearings, but where the confusion comes into play is if they are sealed or unsealed.

Anyone know for sure?

They also show a whole hub assembly, but no one has availability, and I'm not even sure if it's the right one, because some places say it says for drum brake applications, the GS-X is disc, and on top of all that, none of them specify ABS application. Any help would be appreciated.

 

One more here...

I'm trying to remove the trailing arm right now, but I'm held up because it looks like the bolt that is a cam adjusted bolt (Toe?) will not clear the body when I remove the nut and try and pull it out. I haven't even really given it a go yet because it doesn't look promising. Does the bolt slide out enough to where you can remove the trailing arm, or do I have to lower the entire subframe of the car to remove the trailing arm?

Also, the shock absorber seems to be really quite set on remaining on the knuckle. Will it get easier to remove when I get the trailing arm off in the front? Thanks!

-Gary

 

Nevermind, I'm retarded. Thanks for letting me think out loud here. Any tips would still be appreciated though for the shock absorber. The bolt had plenty of clearance, I was just looking at it from the wrong angle. Now I'm removing the LCA so I can get the lower ball joint out of the picture.

 

Well, the shock absorber came off. And the whole knuckle/trailing arm landed straight on my leg. The dust shield, specifically. Nice gash that. Turns out the answer was just keep wiggling and wiggling and wiggling and wiggling and then, abrasion! I mean... success!

 

[citymunky]

Quoting PETC:
Hey guys, another question.

I'm running into issues finding the right wheel bearings. Everyone seems to be agreed that there are inner/outer bearings, but where the confusion comes into play is if they are sealed or unsealed.

Anyone know for sure?





They can unsealed as they can come apart. They look like the pic below

 

Thank you very much! I'll reference that when I go in to get my bearings!

 

Well, I couldn't find anyone that could press off my bearings for me, so I figured since I work at a CNC machine shop, I should probably just make a fixture that I can use in a press to remove them with.

I had a 3-jaw puller but it wasn't tall enough, and honestly, pressing them off was the best bet to avoid damaging the dust shield. Here's what I came up with! If you're a professional machinist, please forgive my workmanship, I'm new to all of this and this was the first thing I ever made that wasn't essentially designed by someone else.