Offroad-Express

right, time for those possibly dumb questions i promised.

1st, my steering box/gear, whatever its called, has just developed a nasty leak (well, a fortnight ago ).
what i need to know is this, is it worth putting a second hand one in there or get my one reconditioned? I'm guessing that some seals have reached their use-by date and figure (hope) their probably rebuildable. But which is the smarter option cost wise? and is it something i can fit myself?

2nd, when i bought my surf it had pajero 15inch rims and some awesomely useless (in the mud anyway) road biased tyres, that almost measured 28 inchs from the ground to the top and with reasonably new 'heavy duty' springs in the rear and the front wound right up looked embarressingly puny... so me being me has been looking on tardme for the last couple of weeks for a 2nd hand set of wheels and tyres to improve things a little. sooo, i impulse bought a set today.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =122122124

now these are bloody huge compared to my old ones... so i took them to work, used the trusty jack (forklift) and chucked them on.

back, they fitted mint as, theyre off a safari, so offset looks good, just needs a set of flares cos they stick out a little...

front, whole different story, on full lock its hitting on the panel under bumper, surprise surprise, theres not a hell of a lot of room in there anyway, so, i figure i either trim it back to clear, or remove it all-together... any issues with doing that?
aaaand... its hitting on the bolts that secure the inner guard behind the wheel. Can i just bash them back with a Fn big hammer?

and lastly, i guess my speedo will now read incoreectly... any ideas on how far out it will be?

i might just have to follow the missus and find out that way i think.

holy crap thats a lot of words

Where is the steering box leaking? The seals can be done, or you can just replace the box with a second hand one - its not that common for a surf IFS box to leak... not sure on seal prices... ring around and ask. Repco, Saeco maybe, TWL... also try Toyota... you might be surprised.

$400 for those tyres? 2 are very bald... hmmm... hope you got em a bit cheaper than that... still bald 33's are better than good 28's

50mm body lift will fix the rubbing problem, but will need a cert... although so will those rims and tyres anyway... failing that, BFH will also help in around the footwells if thats where the rubbing is. bash the seams under the plastic guard liner down flat.

Also don't run the torsions fully wound up, lower them a bit so you have some out-travel in the suspension - much safer that way. Also chews out your CVs fast...

Steve

cant really tell where its leaking from, il have a decent look tomorrow when i have the wheels off, and il give all the fittings a quick check to make sure everything is all tight.

hopefully if its reasonably uncommon for the box to sprout a leak then they will reasonably cheap from the wreckers.

and yeah, i paid $400, im a shocker at impulse buys but im not too concerned about that, local tyreshop has offered me $300 tradein on my old tyres, so that will go a long way to replace the two baldies, plus i hated the pajero rims, and i dont like the white steels that are so popular, so a nice set of alloys will look a bit better. once ive cleaned all the crap off them.

cvool - well a second hand IFS box generally gets around $80-100 from the buy-sell or other local sources - not sure on the wreckers... probably a bit more.

If it was going to leak I would expect it to do so out of the input shaft from the steering wheel end - or from a loose-or-cracked union... spray it down with brakeclean or something similar and cycle the steering until it starts weeping and you can see where from.

Steve

sweet, will do, cheers.

i got myself a 'gregorys' repair manual the other day, i think its gonna come in handy...

For that front panel, just take it off. Once you push through a bit of bush and then some water it will bend anyway. When I had a surf, I straightened mine a few times but it kept pushing back (even just in water) and rubbing on the wheels and they were only 30s (thought I'd busted something the first time it kicked up a din on the tyres.)

My ifs power steering box shagged out as well, easy enough to pull out yourself, where abouts are you? i ask because when mine broke i bought a second hand ifs box for $80 but went to put it in and in was the wrong size turns out the 3.0 dt surfs have different length rods to the 2.4 ones mine was so 3.0 so i got my box recon'd which was 300 + gst which i didnt think was to bad they pressure test them to 1000 psi or something crazy and at least you no its done and should be good for a while, so yea i reckon the recon is the better option but if you want to take the cheaper option let me no because i still have that one in my garage for a 2.4 when i bought it the guy told me it had been recon'd but take that as you wish because there were no receipts and it didn't look all shinny like mine was after it was done (maybe i should just clean it ha ha) but if you were local and put it in and had it leak i'd take it back and refund ya money. Good luck

sweet, il price one locally and see why their worth, and if too exxy then il let you know.

and yeah, took panel under bumper right off, as well as the bumper end caps, and brackets, heaps of room there now, just gotta bash the inner guard back behind the wheel and it will be all sweet.

but after a quick blast out at the local mud hole i realise i really need a set of flares well, it was obvious anyway but after the mud just blew straight up the side it became reeeeally obvious.

nstg8a wrote:but after a quick blast out at the local mud hole i realise i really need a set of flares well, it was obvious anyway but after the mud just blew straight up the side it became reeeeally obvious.

Whats even funnier is when you do that with the window down and it all comes straight in and lands on your lap I know this happens... I now wind the windows up before playing in mud

Steve

SupraLux wrote:

nstg8a wrote:but after a quick blast out at the local mud hole i realise i really need a set of flares well, it was obvious anyway but after the mud just blew straight up the side it became reeeeally obvious.

Whats even funnier is when you do that with the window down and it all comes straight in and lands on your lap I know this happens... I now wind the windows up before playing in mud

Steve

yeah, i got caught with my sunroof open when i charged through a 15m long puddle surprising how much water comes straight over the top really...