Topic: What did you do to your non-motorcycle vehicle today?

[Kelly E]

Looks great, it looks way better with the factory bed than the flatbed.

[grcamna2]

I had a great day today, everything came together without me getting fcuked around for a whole day. But I digress, I had my son give me a hand to lift the new tub off the back of my little truck so I can unbolt the tray, drag it off and then install the tub. It only took a couple of minutes and I only managed to scratch the tub's paint in a couple of small spots.

Triton tub project 28 Jul 2022 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Triton tub project 28 Jul 2022 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I've been around to the local nut and bolt shop to buy new nyloc nuts and panel washers to bolt the new tub on, and checked that the wiring and fuel filler won't be a problem, and it looks all good. I just need to work out now how to hold the tub up in the air so I can drive the truck underneath it, as it's quite heavy. Gary, the guy I bought it from said he propped his up on bar stools which sounds good, except I don't have any, I may have to "borrow" some kitchen chairs..........

How strong is that lower horizontal support?(body panel)underneath the tailgate:the one with the two little rubber bumpers on the ends ?

Terry,you never answered this post: is that lower support?/body panel underneath the tailgate a type of bumper ?

[RAFster122s]

That is typically a trim panel, merely a formed piece of steel....

Just like trucks here in the US... Bumpers are not always standard...
They are often included but are an add-on expense to the total...

[grcamna2]

That is typically a trim panel, merely a formed piece of steel....

Just like trucks here in the US... Bumpers are not always standard...
They are often included but are an add-on expense to the total...

I prefer a bumper.

[Terry in Australia]

I had a great day today, everything came together without me getting fcuked around for a whole day. But I digress, I had my son give me a hand to lift the new tub off the back of my little truck so I can unbolt the tray, drag it off and then install the tub. It only took a couple of minutes and I only managed to scratch the tub's paint in a couple of small spots.

Triton tub project 28 Jul 2022 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Triton tub project 28 Jul 2022 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I've been around to the local nut and bolt shop to buy new nyloc nuts and panel washers to bolt the new tub on, and checked that the wiring and fuel filler won't be a problem, and it looks all good. I just need to work out now how to hold the tub up in the air so I can drive the truck underneath it, as it's quite heavy. Gary, the guy I bought it from said he propped his up on bar stools which sounds good, except I don't have any, I may have to "borrow" some kitchen chairs..........

How strong is that lower horizontal support?(body panel)underneath the tailgate:the one with the two little rubber bumpers on the ends ?

Terry,you never answered this post: is that lower support?/body panel underneath the tailgate a type of bumper ?

David’s correct Bill, just trim panels. There’s a full width tow bar behind it bolted on to the chassis.

[jgger]

4 ladders from the rental yard and 2 10 ft 4x4's. When you put the 4x4's across just be sure to  not have them in the middle of the step. Should be able to back right under it. EZPZ! Heck metal trash cans turned up side down would probably work too, but I think you call them rubbish bins down there.

Crib up (stack like a column)  lumber or cinder blocks and top that off with your jack stands to put the 4x4  on. C'mon Terry, you gotta think outside the box, you're better than that! Hahaha!

[Terry in Australia]

4 ladders from the rental yard and 2 10 ft 4x4's. When you put the 4x4's across just be sure to  not have them in the middle of the step. Should be able to back right under it. EZPZ! Heck metal trash cans turned up side down would probably work too, but I think you call them rubbish bins down there.

Crib up (stack like a column)  lumber or cinder blocks and top that off with your jack stands to put the 4x4  on. C'mon Terry, you gotta think outside the box, you're better than that! Hahaha!

Ha ha, you’re a bit late to the party mate, go back a page and marvel at my brilliance, the tray is off and tub is on! Also it didn’t cost me a cent, as that engine hoist has been gathering dust in my garage for as long as I can remember.

[jgger]

Thats the story of my life, Terry! Glad you got it, I'm proud of you I knew you had it in you.

Don't you own a small trailer with a rotting floor. If so can you put the old bed/tub on that bad boy? Hook it yo the back of the truck and just think of all the bikes and parts tou can haul!

[Terry in Australia]

Thats the story of my life, Terry! Glad you got it, I'm proud of you I knew you had it in you.

Don't you own a small trailer with a rotting floor. If so can you put the old bed/tub on that bad boy? Hook it yo the back of the truck and just think of all the bikes and parts tou can haul!

Ha ha, thanks Jim, the trailer option was discussed a couple of pages ago, while it’s not a bad idea the tray weighs a ton (well it’s really heavy…) so I’d rather just get rid of it and re-timber the trailer. Hopefully I won’t need to use the trailer much as I hate trailers, but it’s another option.

[Terry in Australia]

Weather wise, it was too miserable today for bike riding, so I decided to do a couple more jobs on my little truck. I bought some seat covers because even though the seats aren't damaged, it's been a work truck all of it's life, so the seats were filthy.

Triton Saturday 6 Aug 2022 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

They looked a lot better with all the covers in place.

Triton Saturday 6 Aug 2022 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Back in 2014, the wife and two sons gave me a new Pioneer car stereo for Father's day, for one of the Subaru's I'd bought cheap, but I never installed it, so I decided that I'd install it in the truck.

Triton Saturday 6 Aug 2022 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I ripped out the horrible el-cheapo "Clarion" stereo, Clarion stereo's were made to a price, and it wasn't very much. I did have to laugh though when I saw the horrible wiring harness that was in it, I couldn't believe what a rat's nest it was. I managed to remove a foot or so of unnecessary wiring, crappy auto store wiring connectors, and at least one fuse.

Triton Saturday 6 Aug 2022 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'm color blind so really struggled with the color coded wiring, but must have lucked out because as soon as I turned the ignition on, it worked great, and the sound was magnificent. I haven't set the clock, or synced my iphone with it yet, but I don't care, all I wanted was the radio to work.

Triton Saturday 6 Aug 2022 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[RAFster122s]

Yep, that interior needs a good carpet and upholstery shampoo cleaning. The seat covers cover it nicely.
Good job on the radio…Pioneer ain’t too bad…I always like Kenwood stuff for the car on the economy side.
Glad you got it freshened up. Is the wiring a gray scale to you? Or, some other type of color?

David

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, that interior needs a good carpet and upholstery shampoo cleaning. The seat covers cover it nicely.
Good job on the radio…Pioneer ain’t too bad…I always like Kenwood stuff for the car on the economy side.
Glad you got it freshened up. Is the wiring a gray scale to you? Or, some other type of color?

David

Thanks David, luckily for me there's no carpet in it, and the OEM rubber floor is still in excellent condition, and clean. I had the choice of that Pioneer stereo or an even older NOS Alpine stereo, that I bought on Ebay a week before Fathers Day 2014 and had to hide so I didn't disappoint my family who bought me the Pioneer stereo as a surprise, not realising that I'd already bought the Alpine. That's OK, I'll just save it for a future project.

I'm about to jump in the little truck and drive it to the wrecking yard to scrounge a fuel door lock, and check out the rear suspension setup on another truck like mine that I saw there last visit, I think mine has an aftermarket "heavy duty" rear leaf added to both sides that I want to remove to soften up the rear suspension before I drive it 200 miles to Bairnsdale in a couple of weeks, but I just want to check how many leafs should be on each side on a standard setup so that I'm not going to remove something that needs to be there.

[grcamna2]

Yep, that interior needs a good carpet and upholstery shampoo cleaning. The seat covers cover it nicely.
Good job on the radio…Pioneer ain’t too bad…I always like Kenwood stuff for the car on the economy side.
Glad you got it freshened up. Is the wiring a gray scale to you? Or, some other type of color?

David

Thanks David, luckily for me there's no carpet in it, and the OEM rubber floor is still in excellent condition, and clean. I had the choice of that Pioneer stereo or an even older NOS Alpine stereo, that I bought on Ebay a week before Fathers Day 2014 and had to hide so I didn't disappoint my family who bought me the Pioneer stereo as a surprise, not realising that I'd already bought the Alpine. That's OK, I'll just save it for a future project.

I'm about to jump in the little truck and drive it to the wrecking yard to scrounge a fuel door lock, and check out the rear suspension setup on another truck like mine that I saw there last visit, I think mine has an aftermarket "heavy duty" rear leaf added to both sides that I want to remove to soften up the rear suspension before I drive it 200 miles to Bairnsdale in a couple of weeks, but I just want to check how many leafs should be on each side on a standard setup so that I'm not going to remove something that needs to be there.

Terry,how's your custom bike lifter machine doing ?
You've put a lot of projects/bikes on hold which I had been following.

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, sorry I'm not working fast enough for you your highness, I promise I'll try harder! 

But seriously, I'm just trying to get my little truck set up for comfortable, reliable longer distance drives. I need to drive it 400 miles in two weeks time for my mum's 94th birthday, so I don't want it crapping out on me. Today I changed the thermostat and flushed the radiator and back flushed the engine block while I had the thermostat out. I'm not sure why Mitsubishi thought it was a good idea to put the thermostat where they did on this variant of their 4G64 engine. Instead of up high on the top radiator hose, they put it on the bottom of the block. No real biggie, just a bit trickier to get to. I forgot to back flush the heater core so there's probably some oily crap in it too, so I'll do it all again soon.

Has anyone got any hints on an additive to put in my radiator to prepare for a good cooling system flush? My father in law used to put something in his old Ford's radiator (caustic soda?) and run it up to temp before he flushed it, but I don't remember what he used? I power flushed the overflow tank as well, as there was some slop in there where a previous owner has blown a head gasket and hadn't flushed all of the oil out of the coolant. I drove over to "Pick a Part" to raid the one and only Triton for the fuel filler flap lock, but it had already been robbed. I tried one out of a van but it didn't fit, and I can't find one on Ebay either, so I'm thinking about buying a lock for a key cabinet or cash tin etc from a hardware store and just modify it to fit. I will ring around a few suppliers first just in case there's an aftermarket item available.

Triton Sunday 7 Aug 2022 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

While I was wandering around trying any brand/model of car/van/truck in the wrecking yard I saw this thing, which made me laugh.

Abomination Sunday 7 Aug 2022 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

Nothing to do with me trying to put you to work,etc.
I was interested in those projects and enjoyed seeing them come together.

[Terry in Australia]

A few weeks ago I forked out 400 bucks (around $280 USD) for a genuine Subaru MAF meter sensor, from an Ebay seller in Japan. This was for my twin turbo beastie that for some reason had lost it's second turbo. Of course fools rush in, so I'd also bought a good reconditioned turbo from the UAE, or Saudi, or some other sandy place.

I drove the car to the chemist today and remembered that I hadn't installed the MAF sensor, so I grabbed the new one and went out to the car. It turned out that it was an entirely different item! Spew! $400 down the drain! Oh well, if life gives you lemons...... I took the old MAF into my winter workshop in the patio and with the aid of some genuine Subaru MAF sensor cleaner and some cotton wool buds and a small touch up brush, cleaned a coating of black soot off the very fine wire sensor.

To be honest I wasn't expecting much of an improvement as I'd sucessfully brainwashed myself into thinking that it was a knackered turbo or somesuch mechanical gubbin, but I was getting bored with working from home so I fired it up and decided to drive over to the liquor store (my favourite shop) and as soon as I had some open road in front of me I mashed the accelerator pedal into the floor. Instead of a "Check Engine" light coming on, all hell broke loose, my boost gauge read 15 psi and I rocketed forward faster than a very fast thing! Woohoo! I was so proud of myself I bought a litre of Wild Turkey as well as my usual carton of Ginger Joe, to celebrate!

I've sent a return request to the Ebay seller for the wrong MAF and have carefully stored my reconditioned turbo as a spare for next time I break something on it.    

[grcamna2]

That's a good fix'em-up Terry. 

[scottly]

I've noticed that the '04 Chevy pickup I bought in February drains the battery after sitting for a month or so; after sitting since 6-15, it measured 8v by the 1st of this month. My '89 Toyota could sit for twice as long and still have enough juice to start the engine, but evidently the newer electronics draw more? The owner's manual recommends disconnecting the battery if the truck will sit longer than 25 days. I picked up a claimed 1.5 watt solar battery "charger" from Harbor Freight for $15, and while it can't actually charge the battery, hopefully it will keep up with the parasitic drain. So far it seems to be working, but it's only been one full day. Time will tell.    

[ofreen]

I've noticed that the '04 Chevy pickup I bought in February drains the battery after sitting for a month or so; after sitting since 6-15, it measured 8v by the 1st of this month.

I have my daughter and son-in-law's 2018 F150 here while they are in Germany for the next couple of years. It sits most of the time, so I had to put a battery tender on it because it does the same thing.  It goes dead surprisingly fast.

[CycleRanger]

Changed the gear oil in the rear diff on my '02 Tundra.
Nice to see virtually nothing on the magnetic drain plug after ~250K.

Coming soon: New timing belt.

[Don R]

 I have replaced all of the rubber fuel line parts in my 40 chevy in the last couple weeks and foolishly thought the secondaries on the carb would be clean since it only idled and ran at low speeds since I rebuilt it. Wrong. It flooded instantly today so I cleaned the float bowls front and rear, re-adjusted the fuel levels, cleaned the rear float valve several times and finally replaced it. Then the rear float was still too high and by the time I got it adjusted the gaskets on the float valves were seeping so I opened a carb kit that I was saving for today and put new float valve gaskets on both ends. I dropped a bowl window screw which promptly went into a black hole but there were more in my parts boxes. 

 Anyway, now it has all new fuel lines, filter after the tank, a filter at the carb, rebuilt pressure regulator and a multiple time cleaned carb, I'm expecting the mechanical fuel pump to crap out shortly.  I drove it a mile and miraculously, there are no fuel leaks. Hooray! Now can I work on a bike?

[Stev-o]

Have a minor brake fluid leak on the "ol' Chevy".  After discussing with my Corvette buddy, he had same issue, the calipers with a lip seal tend to leak when not used regularly. He advised changing out the calipers that have a stainless bore.
Pulled the left rear wheel to inspect but this side is dry, ran out of time to check the other side.




I've had the car nearly 5 years, brakes have always worked good, nothing needed but a fluid top off a couple times a year.  Will check RR side next time I get a chance.

[Terry in Australia]

It looks like the weather over this weekend is gonna be motorcycle-unfriendly so I’m going to give my twin turbo Subaru an oil and filter change, then take it for a 50 mile shakedown drive. Now that I’ve got both turbo’s back on song and the 300 missing BHP’s have returned, it’s scary fun to drive again, but I checked the oil yesterday and it needs changing, those turbochargers get very hot and don’t like dirty oil, so I’m going to give it the full synthetic treatment plus a dose of Pro-Ma additive and it should be good for another 5000 miles.

The Tonneau cover and mirrors that I ordered for my little truck arrived this week so I’ll install them as well. I need to get a wheel alignment and the front wheels balanced as well, as I get an annoying vibration through the front end at 60 MPH. That should keep me busy for the weekend.

[Terry in Australia]

Well Melbourne put on all 4 seasons today. I woke up for a sunny Saturday morning and I felt guilty that I wasn't planning to go for a ride, I wanted to do some more work on my little truck and my twin turbo Subaru. I wandered out into the driveway and installed the new tonneau cover, making sure that I measured twice and cut once, the support rails and buttons for the elastic straps require that the body is drilled and the hardware pop riveted in place, so I didn't want 4mm holes all over the place. Anyway, a couple of hours of work, and it was done, just as the rain started to bucket down.

Triton Saturday 13 Aug 2022 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Triton Saturday 13 Aug 2022 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

As it was raining I left the little truck and drove the twin turbo Subaru into the carport for an oil change. I "inherited" it from my youngest son when I sold him my 2015 Ford Territory that I've had from new, I took the Subaru as a trade-in because, being a Subaru, with all of the problems  inherent to the marque, Tim had been late to a couple of TV jobs due to it's unreliability and was doing more miles in our crappy old 1997 Hyundai "spare" car that, for all it's faults is 100% reliable. He needed a bigger, better car, and I wasn't using the Territory, so we did a deal. But I digress. I dumped the old oil that didn't look that bad, (although there was at least half a litre too much of it, better too much than not enough I guess...) installed a new filter, and added a dose of "Pro-Ma" oil additive. 

With the Pro-Ma, you need to run the engine up to temp, tip it in, then run the engine for at least 20 minutes, so I jumped in to meet up with my new best friend Mick, to buy his "Joe Rocket" perforated leather bike jacket. By now the rain was absolutely bucketing down, and then when I turned from one main road to another, the road ahead was blanketed with what looked like..... snow?

Triton Saturday 13 Aug 2022 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I drove up one street and my GPS told me to turn left into a street, ahead. I did, and AWD or not, the Subaru did a 180, I was driving over a bed of hail!

Triton Saturday 13 Aug 2022 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Triton Saturday 13 Aug 2022 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It was only small stuff, but tons of it, so probably more like snow really. Anyway, I kept driving and a mile down the road it was all gone. I caught up with Mick, gave him the princely sum of 50 bucks and took the jacket, and another one he threw in for free, what a nice guy. It was raining and we were standing outside so we agreed that we'll have to go for a ride sometime soon, and parted. All in all, an interesting day.





     

[BenelliSEI]

The “rent a racer” is prepped for our next event. The little Echo ran over 1,650 km at the last double header weekend (2 X 8 hour endurance races). Tough little car, the factory rev limiter at 6,300 rpm helps it survive. Weak link is always the third gear synchro, but this one seems OK. Next up is a fresh motor for our LEXUS!