So, now the first order of business was to try and get it running.

The first thing it needed was the mechanical fuel pump replaced, luckily it came with the replacement new in the box.
Except it didn't, because it was the wrong part.

So, ordered the right one, waited for it to arrive, put fuel in the tank and a new filter on, and started cranking it to get fuel up to the carb. Fuel got to the carb, but not into the engine. I tried carb cleaner in every nook and cranny of the thing, taking it off the engine and shaking the cleaner around inside it, nothing worked. The pump jet, where it squirts an initial bit of fuel in when you stamp on the throttle, to stop lag and the like, worked fine, in fact it would only run if you kept pumping the pedal to keep pumping fuel through the pump jet. So I eventually gave up and went to sort out the other issues on the car.

So, while thinking about what to do with the carb, I went to fix the other major issue the car had, which was where the headlights would turn on as normal, but the parkers, dash backlight, taillights, anything associated with the first click of the light stalk switch didn't work at all.
First thing was checking fuses, all good, power going to the parker fuse, then I ended up taking half the dash apart to remove an old Panasonic head unit and wire in the JVC that I used to have in the Patrol (got an Alpine for chrissie ). Then took the steering wheel and combination switch assembly off and Dad actually discovered that the contact was corroded, so gave that a quick file and tried it, and lo and behold, all the lights worked perfectly. Sweeeeet, that's one major problem addressed.
Back to the head unit though, I'm pretty sure that Panasonic would have been an upgrade in the late 90's or early 2000's, upgrading from a tape deck to a CD player, it looked like it could have been in there from factory but based on the wiring it was definitely wired in a long time ago by an excited teenager wanting to blast some CD tunes lol. Lots of loose crimp connections that pulled straight out with a light tug. All soldered properly now anyway and now I can connect my phone to it and play my own music Whatever speakers this early 2000's music man put in at the same time as the head unit actually aren't too bad, good enough for me anyway.

Funnily enough, once I messed around with (and tidied up) the dash wiring and wired up my head unit, the dome light started working too. Even turning on when the drivers door is opened. Fancy that.

Next step was get new tires as the old ones were pretty gone. No saving those, so got 4 new tires, feels good to buy new tires actually, and made the car look good too.
Also bought a new battery for it as it really needed one. Smallest car battery I've ever seen.

 

After all this, it was time to get it running again,

This time I took the carb to a local place, really good guys actually, that specialises in carbs. They gave me a few options, one of them being reconditioning the old carb, which as they explained, was quite a complicated piece of kit because the early 90's were right where car companies were really trying hard to make engine emissions lower and make everything run as efficiently as absolutely possible. Which sounds good in theory, but in practice results in a maze of vacuum hoses, and carbs that have so much extra crap added onto them it's very difficult for a backyard mechanic such as myself to do anything useful with them, and just generally needlessly complicated and annoying everything.

The other option was adapting a new or reconditioned Weber carb, a DMTR to be exact, off a Fiat, which is a much simpler carb, with jets that can be screwed out and replaced from the outside and a whole bunch more knowledge (and rebuild kits) around. I went home and thought for a bit, and decided the Weber had much better long term benefits for me so went with their advice on that. I got the reconditioned one because I figured the $100 or so I saved versus getting a new one could be used elsewhere on the car, and it both didn't deserve a brand new carb and the reconditioned one had every wearing part replaced so it was as good as new anyway.

This is the old filter on the old carb, new one has a new filter, as it's a different inlet shape than the old one. This is also with a commodore-sized battery in it, which is waaay too big lol, and still smaller than the Patrol's battery:

New carb, new filter to match, and correct sized battery (I'll get a better engine bay photo at some point):

 

So now there's a nice new carb sitting atop the itty bitty little 1 litre 3cyl, and I've tuned it to the best of my ability, mixture screw first, then idle speed, then adjust the mixture again. Runs well, idles smooth for a 3 cylinder.

Sweet, that's the other major issue solved, it runs now.
Except now when it warms up it froths and bubbles out of the radiator, similar look to a boiling engine, but with more froth, and with the top radiator hose only getting to about 80 degrees according to a temp gun. Great, so the head gasket is blown.

sigh

Ordered a head and exhaust manifold gasket off ebay, and did one of the easiest head gasket replacements I've ever done, out of the 2 that I've done, the other turning into a full rebuild of an SD33T 🤷‍♂️

There's the 3 little pistons that push this thing around, each one in a cylinder of exactly 331cc, given that it's a 993cc engine:

Anyway, put the head back on, and literally no change, exactly the same symptoms. Huh. Next I took out the thermostat and tested it, put it in a cup of boiling water. Didn't move.
Oh sweet the issue was a stuck thermostat, so I put it back together without it for the time being, no change, except that it took longer to warm up now, and only started carrying on when it was warm, even with no thermostat to restrict cold flow.

So the only other thing we suspected is warped or cracked head which I didn't get machined like I should have when I replaced the gasket, alloy heads as far as I've learned you're supposed to get machined.
Anyway, so we did a sniffer test with a dropper looking device that sucked in air into a blue liquid, and if it sucked in a large amount of CO2, the liquid turned green. Did it for a while over the bubbling frothing radiator, nothing happened, to test Dad breathed on it while it drew in air and the liquid went green quite quickly.
Tried again, and again nothing happened. So that's odd...

Anyway, if you let it warm up with the rad cap on, it builds pressure as normal, and once it's warm it pops a tiny bubble into the overflow tank every now and then. I've definitely not taken it for a hard drive around the block since then, which I definitely wouldn't do since it's not registered, and when I opened the cap cold the next morning the coolant was still full, so I've got a new thermostat ordered and once it's on the road properly we'll see how it acts, and if it eats coolant. If it doesn't I probably won't worry about it for the moment.

Coolant frothy bubbles and steam, still only around 70-80 degrees, carries on and level bobs up and down:

Also replaced the brake pads in the front, and got new drum shoes for the rear. The front pads were so worn down the passenger side brake piston wasn't going back into the caliper and releasing the brake, making it drag. New pads and it brakes awesome, and when I replace the shoes it should be even better again.

Anyway that's where I'm at now, going to try and get a roadworthy soon, everything that's supposed to work does and there shouldn't be anything major that will fail a mobile roadworthy, he'll probably see it running smoothly and not need to see it warm up. Even if he does want to see it running warm, like I said there's nothing much that pops into the overflow bottle, a tiny bubble every now and then at most. With this new pressure cap I put on I actually haven't seen any bubbles yet so hopes are high.

 

Forgot to mention too, with the new Weber carb on it's also got an auto choke now as they didn't have any manual choke ones to rebuild, so I got a bonus auto choke conversion to boot! Just attached one end of the wire to the tab on the choke as directed, and found a perfect unused tab with key-on power next to the ignition coil, so attached the other end to that.

 

Given all the frothing, is it possible that the cooling system has become contaminated with god-knows-what and just needs a damn good flushing?

 

Definitely could be, maybe I'll try taking off the lower rad hose and giving it a good flush through with the garden hose tomorrow, I've been filling it up with demineralized water, no coolant, but a flush with tap water should be ok I suppose. We'll see what happens.
Like I said though, the level jumps all over the place and if you try and top it up it just overflows again. And when you turn the car off it shoots a bunch out of the open radiator. With the cap on it doesn't seem to have too many issues.

I wonder if a partially blocked radiator could case an issue like it?

edit: idea, I reckon like you say something in the coolant is frothing, seperate from the other issue, and the odd coolant behaviour is a clogged radiator. The fins on the outside look pretty worse for wear so I’d say the inside’s seen some stuff too. I’ll take the rad out tomorrow and inspect it better while I’m flushing the block.

 

Awesome car mate, was my brothers first upgrade from his Lj50 3 cyl zuk. New Daihatsu charade. Back in the day. Drove up n back from G.C to Townsville quite a few times. Easy to work on. Easy to steal too. If you get stuck i can tell you how to open the car. Disengage the steering lock n start n drive🤣, my brother used to go away for weekends n stuf n take the keys. He had suspicions it was being driven but never wrote down the kms b4 he left to check. I had to come clean one day at alligator crk south of Townsville, when we got stuck cause he lost the keys. That was a fun ride home. Anyway. Great car. Hope u get it running n enjoy the hell outta it👍

 

blocked radiator stick a hose in the bottom take off top hose and bubble some air in the bottom will either clean or blow apart

 

Well it’s not a blocked radiator, flowed really easy with the hose, came out a funny colour at first but was clear after a second, flushed the engine just with the hose as well and it came out clear pretty much straight away so I don’t know if there was anything funny sitting in that. Still need to take the heater hoses off and flush that, but I’m not expecting much different at the moment.

We’ll see what happens when I put the thermostat in this week too.

 

have you checked the water pump

 

One 1991 Daihatsu Charade vs one 35" tire:

Now if you imagine the vehicle that drives that 35" tire you begin to get a feel for the scale difference between the 2...

 

If you drop the back seat, can you actually fit a 35" in the back of the Daihatsu? To go get a puncture repaired, for example?

 

I'm gonna have to test that now that you've said it. It's like the Tardis in that it feels surprisingly big on the inside. I've got more legroom than in the Patrol...

 

Even if it would fit in the car, it may not fit through the opening of the hatch.

 

That’s why you put it in when it’s flat then pump it up. 🤔😉🤣🤣🤣

 

Update:

It’s registered, Woooo!

a few things have happened since the last post,

First of all, replaced the spark plugs and leads as the old leads were very dodgy and it was a good excuse to look at the plugs. The old plugs actually don’t look bad so I’ll keep them as spares just in case. There’s no perceivable difference in the way it runs with the new parts, but I didn’t have much of a gauge before anyway since I’ve only taken it for 2 cheeky test rips around the block. In any case it’s good to know that those bits are new and good now. Also took the opportunity to neaten up where they run.

Before and after:

Next, I had a chat to the neighbours across the road about roadworthy’s. They import and sell classic cars from the US, and they recommended the guy who did the rwc on the Patrol. He’s moved to the Gold Coast now, so they recommended another guy who’s worked with the first guy before.

Gave him a ring, chatted with him on the phone for a bit and organised a time and date, he’s the kind of guy who actually likes cars and can be lenient on small stuff. He made it clear that any safety issues would fail straight away but small stuff was alright so that made things easier.

So once the mobile roadworthy was organised, I made a list of things to do, clean out the car, tidy up the engine bay, connect the rocker cover breather to the new carb air filter cover, secure the battery, and small jobs here and there.

Breather looks almost factory eh?

Thursday arvo gave it a good clean and it was as ready as it’d ever be.

Then, that Friday I took an hour off work in the middle of the day to come home when the roadworthy guy was here, he had a good look around the car while we chatted (turns out he’s a bit of a Daihatsu fan and has had a couple which is cool), pointed out a couple small things for me to fix over time, but was overall quite happy with the car. I didn’t point out the head gasket issue, because the less stuff obviously wrong the better, and also didn’t point out the other issue of it not charging, because again if you weren’t looking for it specifically you’d never know.

He started it up and listened to it run, commented on the exhaust manifold leak but was happy when I pointed out I’ve got a new gasket to go on, and after a while of looking around the car, making sure everything worked as it should, said he’s happy with it and I had the roadworthy in my emails not long after he left.

Went back to work, then straight after I finished at 3 came home to grab proof of ownership and went to TMR to get it registered.

Woo plates!

Continued in next post:

 

Read previous post first, this is continued:

Since rego, I haven’t actually been able to drive it properly, because for some reason the old alternator (with the original Daihatsu logo on it 😮) wasn’t charging.

So I hopped on eBay and ordered one that looked right, nothing looked perfect but the ones listed for this car have multiple variants and I grabbed the one that looked right. The only difference was that my original one had a round 3-pin plug, with the sense pin blanked off, and the new one had a standard T-type plug, 2 pin. So went to jaycar and got the right plug, cut off the old one and put the new one on, no issues.

The alternator I ordered on eBay was branded Auto8, but the one that arrived was a Jaylec one, so no complaints from me that they upgraded me 🤷‍♂️. Installed it yesterday, the spacing between the lower bolt and the pivot bolt is slightly shorter on the new one for some reason, luckily the pivot guide can be loosened and moved to make it work. So it basically bolted on without too much issue, and the car charges now

The other thing I did yesterday, was discussing Christmas with Mum, who’s working in Darwin at the moment. She wasn’t sure what to get but we chatted and landed on some speakers for the Charade, as Autobarn has a pioneer sale on at the moment and I could get some decent ones for cheap.
The factory sound system in the charade consists of a speaker in each side of the dash, and nothing else (so 2 total). Someone in the past has put new ones in the dash, but it’s still a bit underwhelming, even for me. I don’t even listen to music loud, I like to hear what’s going on around and the music is just ‘present’.

Anyway, since I don’t have a sub or anything, settled on some 6x9 Pioneers for the rear to make up for the lack of bass, and went about installing them yesterday. The wires were already there, the previous owner must’ve put speakers back there before, but now the sound is much improved, just gotta find a permanent place and way to mount them.

Then, yesterday night, since the car charges now, I went for the first legitimate test drive (now with good sound too lol), and it’s so cool.

It’s super light, so just kinda goes where you point it, first thing I did was go fill it up at the servo. The tank was nearly empty, and to fill it up to the click was…
28L
Itty bitty little fuel tank, gotta love it.

Next thing I did was go straight out to the highway and test it at 110kph, and it does get there eventually. At that speed it’s slower than the patrol purely for lack of torque. It’s 4th gear to 100, shift to 5th, then see if you can get to 110. Once you’re there you can let off a bit to hold speed, but it’s still working pretty hard to stay there. Any sort of incline at all and it starts to slow down even foot flat, but overall it cruises pretty nicely. Headlights work surprisingly well too.

Around town it’s just about zippy enough to keep up with traffic, but I’ll be able to report on it better once I’ve used it for a few weeks.

Overall very happy 😃

 

Forgot to mention too, about the bubbling in the coolant issue,

If I let it warm up with the cap on to pressurise, it'll just pop a little bubble into the reservoir tank now and then, no signs of anything wrong other than that. Temp is nice and consistent, doesn't overheat or anything, and if I let it cool down overnight and open the cap in the morning the radiator's still full, so it seems to just be pushing any bubbles it makes out through the overflow, not burning any coolant, and when it cools down it's sucking what it needs back in like it should. So I guess for now I'll just drive it as is and keep checking to make sure everything's still all good.
It doesn't seem to concern it in any case, it just kinda lives with it.

 

A great Christmas present to yourself. Congratulations. 👍

 

Your Christmas prezzie speakers will rob you of 30% of what little power it had !

 

Just you wait till I get the aircon gassed and working, then we’ll see if it can still hold 110kph…

 

So I’ve had some time now to drive the little nugget around town, taken it on a couple highway trips etc.

It’s quite good, I’m happy with how it goes, it’s got enough poke to get around, and cruises quite nicely. On the highway you don’t need much throttle to keep speed, it’s not nearly as quiet as the commodore in terms of road noise but it’s much better than the Patrol.

A couple things have happened since the last post,

firstly, I wanted new wheels for it to replace the old steelies. Don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them, but hey, it’s a fun little car, may as well make it look cool.
So had a look around for a while and eventually came across some Cheviot Armorlites. Basically a 4x100 13x6 Cheviot equivalent to an old Centreline. And I could not be happier with the look, I think they look awesome. Even if it’s not for everyone 😉

Had to do a very small amount of “rubber mallet guard manipulation” in the rear so they didn’t touch the lip on compression, but the offset is perfect. Gone from a 4.5 inch +45 rim to a 6 inch +29, and gone from a 165 to a 185 tire. Very happy.

Another thing, I work at a very well known camping fridge manufacturer, and we use the same gas as modern aircons, so after Dad and I made the aircon mechanism work, I was able to have it pressure tested and gassed at work, and now it has cold aircon. Literally one of the best things done so far. It can only just hold 100kph on the flat with the A/C on. As soon as there’s a grade I need to switch it off. Surprisingly it has held pressure despite being off the road for 8 years, and it’s still cold a few days later, but we’ll see how it holds up.
As to how a vehicle that came with R12 can use R134a, it’s got receipts in the logbook for being in a mechanic shop in 2012 for an aircon service and conversion to R134a, so the work’s already been done for compatibility with the new gas.

More to come in a couple hours on lunch break lol

 

Forgot at lunch,
Anyway

Autobarn had a 20% off sale the other day, so as well as buying a compression tester and some service items, I decided to nicen up the interior a bit with a new shift knob and steering wheel.

Got a bit of a retro style going on with the wheels so matched that with the steering wheel (boss kit should arrive soon), to me it gives a classic cruising wheel look, which was exactly what I wanted.

Shifter matches the chrome styling too, but I also just like the look and feel. Easier to reach with the slight extra length.

Fun fact, no one will probably notice this, but that happens to be the exact same wheel that was in the Patrol when I bought it, except the Patrol’s one was a wood finish, instead of black vinyl. I ended up selling that, kinda wish I didn’t now.
Still got the seats in the shed, that tacho is the same one on the floor of the 3rd charade pic in this post, and the B&M shifter is still in the shed too. So if I bought another of that wheel I could put the Patrol back the way it used to be, minus the prev owner’s 351 Cleveland. That’d almost be too expensive a conversion to do nowadays, but not when it was done in 1999.

 

For a budget car I’m spending a bit of money on it…
All in good fun 🤷‍♂️

 

Next thing you know the engine will be worked, turbocharged doing 12 second passes then you'll know you really got carried away.

 

Ya think?

Foo

 

So, I haven’t really done much to the car since January, just been driving it daily, enjoying it, basking in the lack of power, normal stuff y’know.

Yesterday I went and picked up a full electronic distributor ‘kit’, basically just all the hardware from a G200 Charade, and hopefully soon I’ll get that installed to replace the points it’s got now. I think they’re worn out, it’s started misfiring every now and then, so the electronic distributor will be a good upgrade both for maintenance and should also give it a good kick up the pants power wise with more powerful and accurate spark.

I currently don’t have a timing light so can’t install it yet, but in the next couple weeks family will be coming up and I’ll have access to one.

And this afternoon I went to put some rust converter around places in the spare tire spot, and it… escalated quickly

 

I've got a timing light I haven't used in well over 30 years, you're welcome to it, I'll never use it.

 

If I could borrow that sometime this week maybe that’d be great actually, thank you. PM’d

 

Yep got it, the timing light is all yours mate, I'll never use it again (hope it still works, got nothing to test it on Lol). This is basically an Antique 😂 like me..........

 

Well, a short lived era has come to an end, the Charade is sold, since I’ll be buying a much newer Kia Rio off family.

I genuinely loved the little Daihatsu, it was sad to see it go but in the end I was always too tempted to spend money on it and now having a modern car where everything just works is admittedly nice.

The new owner of the Charade was absolutely ecstatic though so I can be happy it’s gone somewhere it’ll be cared for.

Anyway, now I can focus on the more important of my cars, the Patrol 🙂

Some of the last photos for the sale: