Thread: Victorian Roadworthies

Hi Guys,

so how is everyone else getting around the sheer insanity of the roadworthies. My brother purchased a really tidy early 1990s F250. The paint is a little faded on the roof, the dash looks crap. But the thing runs and drives like new. The previous owner was a F truck crazy with heaps of them and was reducing his fleet. This thing had only been roadworthied last year for the previous owner. My brother ran it upto a mechanic ( a friend he went to school with). and he gave it a good going over to pickup any outstanding stuff it might fail on. The steering pump was weepy, so it was rebuilt. He also fitted new cylinders to the rear and a diff seal.

I had no doubts she would sail straight through.

He's just turned up at my place really ****ed off. With an A4 page of stuff that needs to be fixed. Here's some of the things I can remember off the top of my head:

--Door catches need replacement due to slop .... We opened a door ... yeah there is a bit of slop, the lower hinge bush is slightly ovalised .... WTF does this have to do with a roadworthy.
--duel rear tyres must be repaired so they dont' touch ?? ... so we look behind it. Sure enough, they are *JUST* touching on one side. FFS: Why didn't they just put 1psi of air in each tire ... that is all it would have taken to fix it.
--Fix leaking power steering pump ( WTF: Its a new rebuilt pump that doesn't leak ).
--Fix engine oil leaks .... this thing is parked on concrete in his shed each day .... it doesn't drip.
--Fix automatic transmision leaks ??
--Fix rear diff leaks ??

WTF ? Maybe it's weepy damp like every range rover was when it left the factory.

--Fix bent chassis member and supply engineers safety certificate for repair ...... WTF ?? god damn engineers certificate....
--Fix firewall rust ... supply structural safety engineers certificate.
--Supply engineers certificate for non standard seats ( they are ? ).
--repair rear left brakes... not enough braking force ( WTF ? they just did the rear brakes)
--tighten tub bolts
--replace or remove faded side lights
--replace all shocker bushes
--replace front right shocker.
--fix drooping bonnet insulation
--fix lower radiator hose that touches chassis
--fix clearance gap between engine and steering column.
--add missing washers to gearbox mounts.

heaps of just bull**** like this ... that is only what I can remember.

Now stuff like shocker bushes is valid (though I seem to recall he said the last owner changed them). Its a twin shock front, so it is possible one of the shocker is dead, and you would miss it without unbolting them to check.

But the **** they have picked. It is ludicrous, he took it down to the local bodywork place that does all the insurance work. He crawled under to look at the chassis.... and come out laughing... "That's irrelevant. its just a slight kink ... it would be 7mm C section. All we would do to fix that is 2 solid thumps with a sledge hammer .... though one hit would probably be enough". he checked the firewall. If you pull the wiring forward, you can see paint cracking at what will be a seam. The guy said "wire brush that and cover it with body deadener, give the chassis a whack with a hammer and take it somewhere else". None of this is even relevant at all. We can't do it though, its too heavy for our workshop.

Now the steering shaft clearance.... I'd say at some point it had a collapsed engine mount , so it did actually touch enough to mark (not groove) the paint... the paint damage looks ancient not recent. There is maybe only 2mm of clearance there. This cannot be fixed and is the way the car has always been (its a 460 big block after all). The car has probably been driving australian roads like this for a decade with no issues. I suggested to him, re-paint the steering shaft with mat black before taking it somewhere else.

We crawled under it to have a look at the seats..... and I just took a look and said "bloody hell... this is amazing". Every bush I could see is bright shiny poly, every body mount is bright shiny polly ... new exhaust... everything just looked amazing. I said "you put a load of wood in the back of this a couple of weeks back right ?... Those new bushes will just have settled into there mounts from the weight in the tub, so now the bolts will be loose".... keep looking ... damn it, he's right, the seats aren't into the factory mounts. But they are bolted in with huge washes that make the factory mounts look pathetic with there tiny bit of extra metal to prevent the bolt pulling through. Maybe find an original seat for a day to get it through ?? Where the hell would you find an F250 seat in Australia.

We can't find the missing washers they speak of, while searching for them I said "I can't find any ATF or engine leaks either. Maybe we need a bright light to look for dampness".

I think he's just going to take it home and sell it. All the engineers **** .... How in the hell are we supposed to keep cars on the road with the utter insanity of this. If you looked under this thing, you wouldn't bat an eye and giving it an immediate pass.

Oh the brakes ..... There is brake fluid all over the back wheel on one side. They must have stuffed the wheel cylinder when they pull the wheel off to check ... as it was NOT leaking when it went in (you can tell by how perfect and un-manky the tyre is that it only started leaking in the last few minutes).

seeya
Shane L.

Sounds extreme. Go elsewhere.