Well the motor reassembly was really coming along good w/o any major issues 'till now.
Cory might remember on one of the previous times we had the timing belt off that back when the car was down at S-Squared one of the idler pulleys was overtightened and stripped the threading in the block. They had gouped a bunch of thread locker on it and called it fixed.
So when Cory and I took it apart a while back, we found that we had to go to a longer bolt in order to get some clean threads and get the car back together.
Well, since then I think I've had that idler off the car at least 3 times, and this time putting it back on, the threads dodn't hold out. I tried to heal-a-coil it, but no such luck, plus I'm not sure I'm all that keen on using that crap on the timing gear. So I was forced to drill and tap the hole out to 12 mm from 10 mm. Drilling and tapping an aluminum block is a cinch... but attempting to hole out the pulley itself is *impossible*, The first issue is just clamping the damn thing so it doesn't spin while you put the drill to it... but even harder is putting a bit in there that can cut the hardened steel cleanly. It's simply not happening w/ the tools I've got.
So, I need to either find a new ball bearing idler pulley that wil fit(60mm diameter, 35mm width, 12mm ID on the bolt hole), or find a machine shop that can drill the OEM one out for me. I guess I'm back to AIMS on Monday?
Second... I finally got to reassembling the steering rack I got from RevLabs. I need to install all the plumbing and tierods from my old rack on the new one. Well, the plumbing was easy, but it turns out the damn rack they sent me must be and STi rack or something 'cause the diameter of my tierod threading is smaller than the holes in the rack! So, now I need to confirm the car that this rack came off (are the STi racks larger than the WRX ones?) and order up a set of tierods for it. When you include the new boots and the rod ends I already bought (as part of the whiteline roll center kit) there's only going to be the 4 fluid lines remaining from my original rack!