Offroad-Express

went to get a new WOF today, failed on the rust in the tray of the hilux.

got a aliminum tray off a new single cab hilux that im eyeing up. hopefully its not to much of a drama to cut a section of that out and weld it back up so it fits my DC

just purchased a winch, have to wiat for it to arrive then try a get it fitted before thermal thunder.

got some plate welded to my bullbar and mounted hooks.

Had a play around the farm and got hung up trying to get out of a creek,took an hour to dig myself out must get that pto sorted

thought i had better investigate why my oil pressure has been a bit shit lately (and the rear main started leaking as well ) so off with the sump .pulled the main caps off and the bearings were sweet as ,next pulled the bigend caps off and what do you know nice shiney copper ooh well ,luckily keep a spare set of bearings for a rainy day (or something like that) so after slipping with the screwdriver and gashing my finger finally got all the bearings changed .tomorrows job is to replace the rear main and put the sump back on without any oil leaks (we hope )

Did a spring change (Thanks Weemsy) on the POS escudo toy. Gained about 1 inch all round. Not a lot but I didnt want height (okay not a lot of height). The rear shocks really limit things dont they? have about 2 inches more droop with them disconnected (see pic, Shock is fully extended and spring is sitting firmly in place).




Front end is a pain, removing shafts and circlips etc to be able to get enough drop to remove the springs but got there in the end. played with the auto hubs while they were off. Will save up and get rid of them completely I think.

Pulled the steering apart to replace the bent common link with one I bought ages ago. Problem is they are different lengths. So now I need a new one or options on cutting the new one (it is bigger and hopefully stronger).

went for a skid down ashurst river with a few others had a dam good day note to all boy racers couldnt try to 4x4 hoping to put new gauges in crusier today

taken the altenator off tha safari as i lost vacum to tha brakes last nite not fun

needed doing anyways as im sweapping safari with allmud for his hilux

had to work yesterday, but woke to a cracker day today and seeing as how the brakes in the 80 were starting to squeal, I decided to look at them.

Thought I would only need one or two tools, but it turned out to be a few more





and then, seeing as how it was such a beauty day, we decided to crack a bourban about 2pm and the rest is history......................









have only just come inside, feeling a bit jaded and rather pink after sitting in the sun all afternoon, need sleep, back to bloody work in the morning.

Fixed the steering with a mercy dash to Rotozuk's place (Cheers Chris) and now have a spare (the old one which I will press back into shape) and the longer one which I will be cutting and shortening as it looks stronger than the std one.

I now have a set of std height swb springs for disposal if anyone wants them (free) or I'll put them in a metal scrap bin at work.

The old bonnet and tail gate have been stripped of anything of value and placed on the roadside for the inorganic collection (nice timing) and they have already been 'Liberated' by someone. The were knackered so they must be going for scrap.

Next week I may get round to sorting out the new battery position (been going to do it for the last 2 weekends) finally.

Heath

did some more work on the g fabbed up the engine mounts and had the motor sitting in place on them have taken them out now just need to get them welded and then i can start doing all those fiddly bits the big one will be sorting out the fuel system

...speaking of fuel systems. Had an incident the other day where the truck stopped and I thought it was fuel . A few handfuls of water out of the fuel filter and a quick prime and I thought it was sussed. Turned out this was one of those issues that happen over and above a greater problem . Turned out I had a whole lot of other crap in the fuel and when I thought I was washing crap out, the internal baffles in the tank was merely allowing me to wash only one segment of the tank.

Long story short... got real good advice from the folk on the US Nissan diesel list (Cheers Al). I was pulling 23 inches of vacuum in the fuel line at 2600rpm and was stuttering and hunting for fuel. Flushed the tank and blew air back into it to blast the outlet filter and I get the vacuum back to 10 inches. Still too much and still a stammer at 2600rpm. Stripped out the outlet in the tank outlet and found the filter all covered in red blop and looked suspiciously like algae. Put a small torch and mirror into the hole in the tank and saw the crap on the floor of the tank section proctected from flushing by the baffles. Flushed it out and now have 0-2 inches of vacuum with the 2 being on hard revving...

I was amazed though the lift pump in the LD28 Bosch VE IP pump could pull such a vacuum in the first place! Life is easier for it now..

When was the last time anyone else flushed their diesel tank out? I'll be doing it a bit more thouroughly now I know about the baffle issue!

Took the stanley knife to my stock flares, added good old convyor belt to the remains.... now have a poor mans flat fender [well kinda]. Figured that seeing as how i havent had a handbrake for the better part of a year, that i best take a shuftie at my rear brakes. Everything was caked in mud and barely moving, so whipped em all apart, replaced the pads, lubed everything up (before the pads went back in!] and now we're all good to go for Minginui next weekend.