Who is doing what maintenance today?

[Towpack]

Unexciting things on the 4Runner yesterday; had to change the oil... need to sort the brakes out though, but that'll go to a mate who is a mechanic.

On the other hand, wife (Delz) got a motorbike during the week....

1991 Yamaha XT600, ex Australian Army with an Acerbis long range tank; even came with rego until Spetember! Scarily Learner Legal, so Delz is on her Green P's already! Only needs a few bits sorting; needed a new tyre, so Delz found one for $100 instead of $160 (had only done a short distance and was then swapped for something more aggresive) and we spent a bit yesterday fitting that.... we pinched one tube (of course, brand new), so we refitted the old one... and did that one as well; think we also tightened the valve stem too much. Still needs some locks... squaddies can't be trusted with keys, so no ignition lock nor a locking fuel cap. We're working on that as well, fuel cap is $50 or so, whilst the ignition barrel is a bit more of a challenge; need to sort out the loom a bit more and then we can go somewhere with it. There's also a bad earth that needs sorting out, as the indicators cause the headlight to dim.

Great bike those. Should get years and many more 1000's miles out of it. Stick some 4mm inner tubes in. They're much more difficult to pinch and as near puncture proof as a tube can get.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Think they were about that... and we still pinched the bugger! Damn Mitas E10's, so it's going into the shop to get sorted tomorrow. Delz will be pissed as it's forecast to rain on Friday (her next day off) so we'll have to try to get out in the week when she's finished work.

Funniest thing is that Delz is only 5' (on a good day) so has correspondingly little legs.... but this had a seat height lower than most of the dirt bikes around, so when she realised it was that low we were on it like a shot.

Also found the handsfree kit for the handheld UHF so she'll ride with that, and I can talk to her from the one in the 4Runner when we're out bush.

 

[Gary Stockton]

Had to replace a bad my bent drag link and stuck new link ends in at the same time. Good thing a 100% spare came with the sale

 

[chadr]

Pumped all the tyres up to 38psi in preparation for a short holiday in Somerset over the 1/2 term.

Err......that's about it I'm afraid!

 

[120mm]

My vehicle had a light hit up front sometime in the past and some butchery repair work, so rather than shell out the money for new parts, I repaired the old headlight buckets. Both marker lights were literally flapping in the breeze, so i restored the bayonet mount sockets with some 1/4" fuel line and JB Weld. In practice, it appears to be superior to the original set up. Very easy to install the marker lights now, good retention and shock absorption built in.



The repainted grille is finished and installed. This thing now has an FJ Cruiser vibe to it I wasn't exactly going for. All I was trying to do was to cover up some tired and broken front end parts with epoxy and paint.

 

[Chris]

Something fishy there. Where's all the rust?


Ha ha

 

[120mm]

Something fishy there. Where's all the rust?

Ha ha

Two words for you: Arizona Car.

One of the best benefits in living in the US is the ability to buy a $150 plane ticket and fly to Arizona and buy a cheap, rust free vehicle. They never get snow or even much rain there, so even cars from the 1950s and 1960s have zero rust. It's eerie to see junkyards full of vehicle with sun scorched paint, but bodies that otherwise look like they came off the assembly line yesterday.

 

[Scott]

Looking very smart indeed Drew, worth all the hard work.

 

[clivehorridge]

You warned us it wasn't staying err gold was it or something nondescript?

At least now you can say it's blue, and folks will have a fair idea of what colour it is

Good job Drew, even though it's not that blue...

 

[Gary820]

Looking really good that is.



Spent few hours today with my drawer unit in bits, really annoying rattle from the boot, the ally box section bolted to the floor had a rivnut rolling around sorted now and back together, just need to re stick the carper and fit the edge trims.

 

[120mm]

Looking very smart indeed Drew, worth all the hard work.

You warned us it wasn't staying err gold was it or something nondescript?

At least now you can say it's blue, and folks will have a fair idea of what colour it is

Good job Drew, even though it's not that blue...

Looking really good that is.

Thank you very much. I really didn't have the time to make it a "nice" car finish, but didn't want a flat finish, either. I like the farm implement look on off road vehicles.

 

[clivehorridge]

Got round to fitting the light bars at last...

Ended up with the bigger one down on the winch bumper spot mounts, and the smaller one up under the roof rack.

Only the the bigger one wired up for the moment, but what a difference it makes.

On the open road, with no other traffic of course, it's just like daylight. I'm not sure now whether the additional one on the roof will be noticeable!

Must get that bl00dy front number plate renewed with an in-line rectangular one now, been meaning to do that for some time, now it's a must!



Just dipped beam



With light bar



I've got a small one for reversing/worklight too, it'll be another month before they're all wired up...

 

[120mm]

BTW, about 1/3d of that was accomplished using epoxy and wax paper. It's amazing what you can fabricate with that stuff.

 

[120mm]

Got round to fitting the light bars at last...

That is, quite literally, brilliant!

 

[Chas]

They are great ain't they? Looking good Clive.

 

[MarkW]

Made some progress with refurbing the lower rear suspension arms on my truck, started a couple of weeks ago cut out the old rubber bush and then started on the bastard, stupid, fecking annoying metal sleeves. After 180k km they are pretty fond of the arms and don't want to be parted. After not getting anywhere I purschased a large metal spike and broke out the FBP (fecking big persuader) and bish bash bosh out it came

Next excitements for the weekend was FERTAN on some of the rust bits. We'll the idea was to rust proof and paint the mounting points, so out came the wire brushes and before I knew it from the drivers side body mount to the rear axle had received some abuse and a coat of fertan was being applied. Even did some bits on the axle which I refurbed a couple of years ago but has some surface rust on.

Next up repainting when I can decide on the best stuff to use

 

[Andy]

At last got round to replacing my HDK cv's with genuine Toyota ones this morning.

nothing visibly wrong with the old ones, it's just that after the horror stories here I wanted peace of mind!
The job was made a lot easier as I had 'martacked' the shafts last time so none of those pesky snap rings hindering the removal of the joints.

oh and yesterday had the MOT, straight through, the tester actually commented that he looked really hard but couldn't even find anything that he could advise on!

Andy

 

[120mm]

Woke up to a spreading pool of oil under the vehicle. Now I am deep into an oil pan remove, reseal and replace. What a lovely job.

The rat bastard before me didn't clean off the mating surfaces. Zero adhesion on the #2 pan, with chunks of old gasket of a different color mixed in with the new gasket.

 

[120mm]

Got the #1 oil pan off today. Blessedly, found that the rear main seal was perfectly dry and that both arch seals had failed. Was able to clean the old gasket that the prior "mechanic" left on the mating surfaces off in about 15 minutes, with my thumb nail. Some people just shouldn't be allowed to turn a wrench. Now am waiting on the oil dipstick and timing cover small square seals to reassemble it.

 

[GingerMermaid]

I'm back in the workshop today, trying to install a Ring AE916 electric aerial which is proving to be impossible as there are no installation instructions or guidelines anywhere! Anyone have experience fitting one of these?