Who is doing what maintenance today?

[Chris]

Changed the front prop, front UJ today. Been getting the old grrrrrr noise on over run at higher speeds. Sounds like something is going to burst through the floor. Meh, lived with it til now. Thought it had gone when I put some actual bearings in the front diff, but it's back. With the lift on mine, the slip joint is extended further by a couple of inches. This means there is less connection surface area and of course more potential for side to side play. I had a spare prop kicking about of something else so picked the best bits and rebuilt the front end. There was detectable play in the UJ. Slight but how do you measure 0.005mm easily? I couldn't be bothered to try and dial it up. I just bashed it apart and put the OEM spare spider and bearings in. Lovely. No play, very smooth. Popped it back on and tried to go for a spin. Too much traffic to get up to speed and let off. But early indications are good. I might put the prop spacer back on to just push the slip joint together a bit to reduce any whip. Then we'll see. I want a quiet life!

 

[Hutton]

Nothing too exciting. Gave my wheels a thorough clean and degrease. After that I treated them to treatment of wheel wax. I also changed a fog lamp bulb. I'm now exhausted!

 

[BobMurphy]

My daughters and I have six cars between us . . . For the past few days five of them have been in my yard for fixing .

Fitted a new diesel filler pipe and hoses to No. 1 daughter's Mk III RAV4, after de-rusting, painting and stone-chipping the wheel arch. This was the last job after changing both front hubs/bearings, McPherson Struts, springs, ARB bushes & drop links. When the dust clears I'll get it back and change the Heater Matrix that is clogged.

Then on to a really nasty job. I noticed that the Voltmeter on the Amazon's dash wasn't reading as high as normal so plugged a cheap digital voltmeter into the power socket . . . 10.6 volts when running .

It was needed for a towing job today, so a local hunt around the parts stores produced an extortionately expensive 120 Amp alternator with twin V-belt pulley - Roughtrax are out of stock.

I got it fitted, with new belts, eventually but on a scale of 1 to 10 of cr@ppy jobs I'd rate this 15 .

I had to remove the old one from its lower mount with a crow bar - so how was I supposed to force the new one in . . A long length of wood and a 2.5 lb hammer helped, along with a lot of cursing.

Now running at 14 volts so all is well.

I'll check the 16 year-old one over, it probably just needs brushes (136,000 miles on the truck).

Next its the Ford Focus TDCi that keeps cutting out. I think that's caused by perished vacuum pipes that are shutting off something in the fuel supply.

The joys.

Bo'Ness Hill Climb today, so a short outing on the smaller BMW bike (1988 R100 GS) .

Bob.

 

[Mark01]

I am spending a bit on the ol girl. Currently have the radiator being repaired and the injector pump and injectors in for overhaul as the pump was starting to leak from nearly everywhere.
Got a nice box of bits from roughtrax to go on when all the parts come back.
I am getting the rad repaired as someone in the past had a nice big one made without a bit of plastic in sight. Now do I have a clean up before I put it all back or whip the head off while I am this far....

 

[Trevor]

One of the Tuff Dog springs broke on the 120 which is a shame as they gave a good ride with the Ironman foam cell pro shocks.

Replaced springs today with OME without the packing ring (didn't fit) and adjusted the shocks to pick the front end up a bit more.

So far enjoying a very balanced ride.

 

[clivehorridge]

Washed it..

Inside, outside, topside, underside...

 

[Ben Stratford]

Nice aerial Clive. Your previous comments now make sense to me!

 

[MarkW]

MOT this week, passed minor play on OS track rod end and an upper rear link bar bush as advisories.

Also modified my storage system slightly and re-tinted the rear windows (not to self - make sure you pick up the right roll of tint film from the garage)

Bit frustrated to find some rust though, rear drivers side seems to be getting a little bit nasty particlularly round the body mount. Found some rust inside the truck on the rear mounts as well but seeing as a kind Japanese man had stuffed the cavity with damp retaining foam probably not a surprise after 18 years!

 

[Gasmanjc]

Greased my nipples. All 6 of 'em.

 

[Andy]

Changed oil, filter, air & fuel filters today and also decided to do the cam belt, even though it had only been on for about 55000
Quite shocked when I took the belt cover off to see that it was not fully on the cam pulley.
It seems that the tensioner was on its way out & slightly twisted, pulling the belt forward on the cam pulley, even though that was also new at the last belt change, genuine toyota belt but I can't remember what the pulley was. I had anew (gen) belt & roughtrax pulley & spring in stock, so on they went.
Don't know how long it had been like this, but even pushing the belt back & after rotating the crank one turn by hand made it ride forward again.
Will be keeping a close eye in future.

 

[silvercruiser]

I think you have changed that in the nick of time. i wonder how long it had been forward of the pulley.

 

[Chris]

Shouldn't be like that but not sure it was ever in danger of coming off. It wouldn't get past the cover to start with and the bottom pulley has 'sides' to it so it couldn't track much more than that. If you run the engine and rev it up without the over on, you'll be surprised at just how slowly it actually goes round. As I said, it's not right and needs fixing but I don't think it was about to let go. There doesn't seem to be any wear on the edge of the belt suggesting that it hasn't been rubbing against the cover. Were there any marks inside?

 

[Andy]

There was very slight rubbing in the cover, and I realise the bottom pulley 'sides' & cover would have Prevented it coming right off
I ran it up with the new belt & tensioner without the cover and it stayed where it should be on the pulley
The old tensioner definitely had a twist in it causing the belt to ride forward, but the cover & sides on the bottom pulley would have stopped it coming off, but who knows if could have worn away.
anyway, glad I found it

 

[Chris]

Absolutely. I always run the engine with the cover off when I change a belt to make sure it's tracking. But I confess I don't do it again until I need to change it. Might be handy to put a little inspection plate on there next time I have it in bits

 

[Towpack]

At the risk of being flamed for mentioning LR's on here, this was a well known fault on early 300Tdi engines, the belt riding forward on the pulleys and eventually wearing down sufficiently against the cover for it to break. I just caught mine in time. Yours may or may not be as severe as the LR problem but nice one for catching it anyway.

 

[fbnss]

Changed the clamps on the pipe from the turbo to the crossover pipe yesterday as with the romanian mud under there it shows all the moist patches, less smokey and picks up a little quicker ( could be imagining it)
Today I swapped over the tyres from At's to muds ready for lincomb. Thought i'd have a go at bleeding the brakes since the incident in Romania, holy cow!

 

[GeekOKent]

Changed the clamps on the pipe from the turbo to the crossover pipe yesterday as with the romanian mud under there it shows all the moist patches, less smokey and picks up a little quicker ( could be imagining it)
Today I swapped over the tyres from At's to muds ready for lincomb. Thought i'd have a go at bleeding the brakes since the incident in Romania, holy cow!

You seem to have some brake fluid in your air line.

 

[fbnss]

Remembering i've never been on the business end of brake bleeding before, I wasn't sure what to expect. There was plenty of bubbles from the rear wheels and the brake bias valve thingy but the passenger side just kept on giving! think i put two bottles worth through it in the end. went for a test drive and almost face ripoffingly good. Not been like that before

 

[Michael Montgomery]

New used turbo fitted temporarily for now till I upgrade to a EFI 24 valve body one.

Quite a job even had to take the manifold off myself quite labour intensive doing most of the work myself.

New service with upgraded oil for longer yield and new filters. Should last some 20,000 km’s before next service.

Wheel tyre rotation done with props greased.

Also a over due under and over jet wash clean

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

On the black Collie, greased the props again, (I do it every time it goes on the ramp) changed the front diff oil and the transfer box oil. Sprayed every surface with motorcycle chain lube and covered it all up with these:-



This is a really top piece of kit, very precisely made and the only hiccup came with having the remote cooler fitted the pipes had a bit of re routing but it all went together in about half an hour.
Many thanks again to Shayne coming up with them and fetching them to Lincomb .
When I bought the Collie it didn't have a single shield and I didn't know as it was the first Collie I'd looked under and didn't realise what should have been there. To buy some good OEM shields and blast and paint them up wouldn't have been much difference in price TBF.