Thread: What have I done! IIa sitting out front.

Originally Posted by Ozdunc

Have you had any problems with the leaves rotating with the clamps off?

I only cut the top off the one that was fouling the steering rod and my car isn't running yet; however; Isuzurover removed the ones on his car to allow more drop. I recommend reading this thread here; especially what Ben says Parabolic leaf springs

You are correct about the standard dampers limiting travel; isuzurover recommends dampers from a coil spring suspension, if a swag of leaves are removed,

Cheers Charlie

After a long while something needed doing on Bill.
He had a 3 week layup over Xmas and on my return I noticed the rear hub leaking from the drive flange.
I had a gasket and felt washer lying around so pulled the drive flange (after lifting the wheel high enough to stop any diff oil dripping out).
Well found the reason for the leak - there was no gasket! No idea how it had managed to be leak free for so long. Replaced the gasket and the splined felt washer only as the hub had no play and felt good when rotating.

Even though i lifted the wheel I still had a bit of oil leak out so I topped up the diff oil. Whilst under the truck I thought I'd check the transfer and gearbox.
The transfer needed about 5-600ml of EP90, but the gear box was high and came flooding out.
There must be something acting as a pump to push the gear oil between the boxes, as usually any oil going between the boxes goes from gearbox to transfer as the transfer is lower.

Rather than pull the boxes at the moment, cause nothings leaking, I'm thinking of linking the gearbox and transfer filler holes with a bit of hose to pipe the oil back where it should belong.
Does any one know what thread size the filler plugs are?

Well, I think the filler plugs are 3/4 BSPT, but that little project is on hold whilst I sort other things.

The drivers door top has been a little wiggly ever since I fitted it for winter. To be honest its knackered, and well past its serving date.
Anyway it finally split and has been splaying out giving a good 20mm gap at the top front corner, so this weekend I thought I'd patch it up

Quality previous repairs


The final failure point


The bog dug out


Not much to weld to


Patch shaped to fit


Scabby welding


I've never welded thin rusty metal like this and found it pretty hard to get the welder set up. The lowest setting wasn't getting any penetration, and the next setting was blowing holes, plus it doesn't help that what you're welding to varies in thickness as you're moving around.

So its definately not the prettiest job, but it does seem to have done the trick. Doors sitting flush and not wobbling.
All good til the next bit gives way

Got fed up with the windscreen washers missing the glass so decided to do something about it. Out with the Sugru and I made a little platform to tilt the spray head back a bit.

Holding the spray head in place whilst the Sugru sets


Works a treat and is pretty unobtrusive.

Next I decided to try and find the source of the ticking from my engine, so I bought a engineers stethoscope.
GET ONE OF THESE! They are magic. So much better than using a bit of dowel or a long screw driver as both ears are on the job and you don't get the intrusion of external noise.

I still havn't found the cause of the tick, but I do know its not tappets, cam or valve related. Its from the front (drivers left side) of the engine and it seems to be external to the engine.

Whilst I was prannying around with that I stuck the vacuum gauge back on just to confirm nothing was amiss, and it isn't. Its marvellous. But I did think the idle was a bit high, so I attached a daggy tacho (via the bulkhead vent and bonnet gap)

With showed the idle was fine at 550rpm, my ears must be off.

Anyway went for a drive and the tacho was saying things that my ears weren't believing - the engines making a racket and I'm only doing 3000rpm. (you know what's coming don't you )
Yep, went home and checked the tacho setting and... it was set to 6 cylinder, so its reading 2/3 lower than the actual rpms - no wonder the idle sounded fast!
Now on the proper settings, with the idle actually 500rpm it sounds so quiet, sometimes I thought I'd stalled changing gears.
I've kept the tacho attached for the mo, as its really nice to drive off rpms and really get a feel for what the engine can do. I think I was babying it a little before.
I think the next project will be to fit a prettier tacho, a voltmeter and dash vacuum gauge.

TTFN

Originally Posted by Ozdunc

......
I think the next project will be to fit a prettier tacho, a voltmeter and dash vacuum gauge.

TTFN

Many years ago I fitted mine with a 2" tacho next to the ventl lever straight in front of the driver. very useful for speed checks.

I don't have a vacuum gauge, but do have voltmeter and oil pressure on a sub-panel next to the speedo.

John

Well the wiper switch went and died on me. In the pouring rain obviously

Luckily I had a spare headlight switch kicking about, so I set about replacing the switch.

Whilst the dash was out I finally got round to replacing the voltage regulator for the fuel sender and temp sensor. I'd paid a bit more to get an OEM one but it turned up in a little blue box so possibly i didn't get what I'd paid for.
Here's the original



And here's the replacement



They are very similar bar the name stamped on the rear and the back mounting plate being attached upside down.
Anyway I decided it wasn't worth the few dollars difference to kick up a fuss and decided to fit it.
It works anyway. I now have a working fuel sender that shows when the tank is full - never happened before

Also replaced all the brake fluid, used one of those bits of hose with the non-return valve and it was a easy as...
Apart from flicking brake fluid all over myself taking it off one of the nipples.

Finally the next project turned up in the post

I am now a fully fledged boy racer



Progress is being made on the other dials, but you'll have to wait for piccys

I like the sound of the engineer's stethoscope. D'you reckon you could send me a PM or something with a little info on how much/where to get 'em/brands etc etc?

Cheers,

John