[rgren2]

Old wires get brittle, they can break inside the insulation, a test light or meter is the best way to chase the power. Also could be the earths.

 

[Ethanissan]

What’s weird though is that everything worked before, maybe since the car was sitting for 5 years the old wiring degraded, and when I got the engine running it just all fell apart with the vibration? I’m not sure how it all works, but even if we need to rewire it all it shouldn’t be too hard, these things consist of about a dozen wires total


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[rgren2]

Terminals vibrate, you’d be surprised with the amount of movement that happens when a vehicle moves. For a start, just wiggle every terminal and fuse you can.

 

[rgren2]

A can of contact cleaner can help. Get it from Jaycar.

 

[Ethanissan]

A can of contact cleaner can help. Get it from Jaycar.

Sounds good, I'll get a can this arvo if Dad doesn't have any.

 

[rgren2]

Dad doesn't have any.

Dads are good. But sometimes they don’t have everything. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[Ethanissan]

Dads are good. But sometimes they don’t have everything. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

True, but he seems to have most stuff most of the time, except when we need it 😝

 

[trev zd30]

Sounds good, I'll get a can this arvo if Dad doesn't have any.

Dads are good. But sometimes they don’t have everything. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

True, but he seems to have most stuff most of the time, except when we need it 😝

I think everyone who owns a zd patrol would have a can of contact cleaner for cleaning their MAF 🤔

Yes that means I have some 😜

 

[geeyoutoo]

Sounds good, I'll get a can this arvo if Dad doesn't have any.

The one I use is CRC Contact Cleaner, have been using it on my MAF's for 21 years every 10,000k (whether it needs it or not ). It is a product I became aware of a long time ago when I was in charge of maintenance at a factory, our electricians used it all the time.

 

[Ethanissan]

Alright so I’ll do a better progress update later, but for now:

Replaced the front right indicator bulb, all indicators work now,

Took the dash apart and doused all wires and connections in contact cleaner, now the indicator stalk works reliably, and it turns out the dash lights not working was a blown park lights fuse,

Found out I can make the fan controls work by wiggling the fuse board until it works, have to find out why it’s sensitive,

Plugged in the clock that was in the Ute, set the time, and it keeps time perfectly so far ,

Put in the front seats, hopefully for the last time for now,

Started looking at the butchered radio wiring so I can get it figured out.

Probably more, but I’ll put up some more photos and stuff tonight after work


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[Ethanissan]

I’ll put up some more photos and stuff tonight after work

Well, that never happened.

Anyway, some more progress has been made on the old gold Patrol, and it’s time for a more in depth post again like the early ones.

So the original MK door on the drivers side had a leaky quarter window that wouldn’t seal, and my plan was to put on the white GQ door that came with the car a as a spare. Well, I’ve done that now, and it doesn’t look the prettiest, but at least I’m one step closer to being able to wash it without filling it with water, only thing holding that back now is the barn door seals leak at the top. Don’t most MQ/MK wagons have drip rails above the barn doors, or is that only GQ’s? Mine doesn’t anyway, probably rusted out and the previous owner just got rid of them when he did the body resto.

I’ve also installed the clock and the beginnings of the radio on the dash, but the wiring is so complicated because of the jvc head unit that’s been Frankensteined in, I’m going to have to find some wiring diagrams somewhere for this…

I haven’t got a photo of this, but those of you reading this who’ve either got or have had an old carbureted petrol car, patrol or otherwise, will know that you have a choke cable or lever you pull or push, in order to make it easier to start. Well I’ve repurposed this on the wagon into a pull-stop cable, which pulls the lever on the injector pump to stop the motor, and it’s cool because it looks like it’s meant to be there (it is).

We had a mobile roadworthy guy come over yesterday to have a look at the old VY Calais, because it needs a rego transfer within the extended family. The roadworthy guy was recommended to us by our neighbour across the road, who buys classic cars from out of the country and sells them for a profit, who’s making good money for himself and gets all his roadys though this guy. While the rwc guy was here (nice bloke, was happy to be slightly lenient on a couple of things if need be) I showed him around the patrol and he gave me a few pointers on what he’d need for it to be roadworthy, and it’s actually pretty close. He recommended a mod plate guy to get the conversion certified who’s coming Friday, so that’ll be sorted then, then it’s mainly the oil leaks on the engine I still need to track down and a couple of little things. So I’m pretty happy at the moment.

Also forgot to mention I put all of the interior back together too, so the front and rear seats are in, seatbelts are in, everything’s pretty much ready to go. And now that I can start and stop the engine from in the cab I just need to wire up a glow plug button and I’ll be sweet.
Progress is good

And now some cheeky flex shots to keep everyone interested:

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[Ethanissan]

Alright, big progress time: (sorry about the wait, I kept thinking about it when I didn't have time, then as soon as I've got time I'm distracted as usual by everything else )

Firstly, I got the radio from the ute in and wired up, pretty chuffed with myself as I've never really done any wiring before, I'm just lucky the previous owner of the wagon labelled the red, yellow etc. wires for the radio. Found an image of a wiring diagram for the JVC unit from the ute and just used some squeezy connections to wire it up, I might do it better in the future if any of them fail:

Also as you can see from the pic I put the standard MQ wheel from the ute into the MK. I much prefer the original look as opposed to the wooden wheel that was in here. I would like to get an MK wheel for it at some point, but for now I actually think the MQ wheel looks more 'classic' than the MK ones. The other reason for swapping the wheels was to sell the wooden one, much more useful to me liquidated than sitting in the shed.
As for speakers, dad gave me his old GU speakers, which I'm pretty happy about as the quality seems pretty good on them, and I just had to use some plastic speaker spacers from repco to make them clear the windows in the GQ doors. Other than that, I had to drill new holes for them since the GQ has smaller speakers with different bolt patterns, but now I can use any speakers made to fit a GU.

Next, I got the conversion official, with an LA1, LA2 modplate for the fitment of the engine and gearbox, and removed the old plate for the cleveland conversion. Exciting day this was, felt like we were really getting somewhere, and I was very happy. (plate on the right)

Next, we fixed the oil leaks. This is probably the most embarrassing part.
When I got the turbo motor, I had to swap the starter, alternator etc. over from the N/A, and in the process of doing so, swap over some oil lines for the vaccum pump too. Now, during this, my toolbox was out in the backyard with the ute, and me, being lazy, decided that I couldn't be bothered going out to get it, and tightened them all finger-tight with the intention of tightening them properly later. I then promptly forgot about it and assumed everything was fine.
Dad got underneath the other day to see if anything was loose, causing the oil leakage, and found both oil lines to and from the alternator/vac pump only finger-tight. Ahh, whoops.
So he did everything up and we found it leaked less oil, but still a bit. I then had a look and found that the rubber 90-degree bend from the turbo oil return to the block had a split in it and was dripping some of the oil that was supposed to be returning from the turbo onto the ground. Anyway, I went shopping for a new bit and didn't find anything to fit, but Bursons had a bit of fuel/oil pipe that had a similar bend in one part of it, I'd just have to cut it out, but the diameter was too small. I decided to test it out anyway and with some oil and heat finally got it on.

Short version: rubber oil hose had split, got new piece to cut out and stretch over, no more oil leaks!

Next, attached the bullbar from the ute since it sits better against the front of the car, doesn't stick out as much as the ARB one, and it also is taller so doesn't look as weird with the body lift. So it sits more flush with the grille and doesn't look as short:

Next, got the exhaust sorted. we've had to use the N/A one from the ute for now with the big muffler on it as the V8 one wouldn't have matched up to the dump pipe from the ute, but I'll get a better one at some point. For now I'll just have to live with it being all quiet and sad . Almost sounds like a new car sigh.
The previous owner of the N/A ute did a dodgy-as straight pipe on it, where they cut out a section of exhaust before the muffler, but left the muffler itself attached so it looked somewhat legal, so I went down to the local exhaust shop here in Caloundra and got them to make up a bit of 2 1/4 pipe with flanges at each end to clamp on, so that it's a complete exhaust again now. Sorry about the quality of the second one, I don't have a photo of it so I took a screenshot of a video...

Next, my newly modified TD42 starter decided to be not-a-starter anymore, and I got the dreaded "death click". At first I thought it might be my too-small battery, but I got a new big one, no difference. So it had to be the starter. I contemplated rebuilding mine but decided to just get a brand new one from OnlineAuto Parts in Virginia, Brisbane. I was down there anyway so decided I may as well. Now it turns over much quicker and quieter . (See my starter thread for an explanation on that)

And then I had the roadworthy guy come over again, he asked if I had fixed all the things we talked about last time, I said yes, he had a look around to make sure and did the roady there and then. So I was very happy again.
Then that afternoon (Friday) dad told me to go and get it registered so we could drive it around for a few weeks to make sure it's reliable and working properly before the big Fraser trip. So most of the work is done now. Still need to attach the exhaust properly, it's only using one of it's 3 factory mounting points as well as the dump pipe to support it at the moment, but I drove it all over town yesterday and got it up to 100 twice and it seems fine temporarily until we get that sorted.

The other issue at the moment is that there's an old boost tee adapter in the intake manifold with no boost tee atached to it, so it's leaking some boost out of that, which also has the side-effect of not giving enough fuel from the boost compensator. The end effect of this is that it's got absolutely no top-end power at the moment, but that should be sorted with my JRP gauges fairly soon.

But yeah. I'm pretty stoked that after all the hard work it's actually on the road, if anyone's around the Caloundra area and you see me around give me a wave 👋

 

[rgren2]

Great work! Just wish my students had been as motivated as you. That could have been a great yr12 Industrial Tech project.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Well done, just increased your last image to full size

 

[Foo]

Great work! Just wish my students had been as motivated as you. That could have been a great yr12 Industrial Tech project.

Except for tightening vital parts. 🤣

Foo

 

[Ethanissan]

Alright, I figure a damage report gives me more to talk about later on in the build thread, so here's the report from today's expedition out to the glasshouse mountains. Nothing crazy, just a few little things:

Firstly is the most boring one, I now have a new rectangular exhaust tip lol (yes, I will be bolting the exhaust on properly later on):

Secondly, I did end up resting against a muddy soil bank at one point, so there's a big scratch in the passenger side doors now. Not too concerned about this though as I need to paint the drivers door anyway so I figure I'll just touch this up with the paint I get for that:

And thirdly, the most disappointing one, I damaged the front passenger fibreglass flare. As far as I've heard these aren't the easiest things to come by so I might end up taking the others off and giving them to someone who won't destroy them, and just making some out of rubber, because I don't want to see them go to waste (what it's hard to see in the photo is that the top damage is pretty much split in half, and the bottom bit is bent out and obviously has the big chip in it):

But for a day of fun, I reckon I didn't do too badly considering I've got no barwork (need to at some point get sliders and brush bars done), and it was my first time being the driver while 4wding. That flare is disappointing, but I can live with it for now. I'm very happy I didn't get any actual panel damage, especially on the door sills with no sliders.

And then the obligatory powerwashing all the mud off:

 

[Foo]

That flare is easily fixed. Run some grooves along the cracks fill in make a backing support, glue on, Then buy some carbon fibre strips and glue over the top of all four. 😁

Foo

 

[Ethanissan]

Build thread time woo hoo!

I always thought the old SD33T felt slow even compared to what other people say about them. And now I know why...
Other than the fact that I've got 4.11 diff gears (which never came out with the SD, tallest ratio was 4.375, up to 4.88, 4.11 was for the P40) and 33" tires, when I decided to use a pull-cable to stop the motor, I used the factory choke cable so it looked good, but apparently I pulled the IP control lever just a little too far back towards stop, just enough that it was getting a bit less than full fuel. Now this was great for the EGT's but just didn't seem to go very well, and I've since fixed that issue and it's given the motor a good kick up the pants. Now there's a few more mods on the cards that I'll be doing to make it better to drive and reduce the EGT's.

 

[Ethanissan]

I'll be replacing the 4.11 gears with 4.375's, which won't be as good off the line as 4.675 gears, but will probably get better fuel economy on the highway. Although I'm not sure about this, as there used to be a member called landy, who as I can gather hasn't been active since about 2015, who did a lot of early work on getting the most out of the SD33T, and somewhere I remember him saying that the 4.6's with 33's was about the perfect gear ratio for the SD as it's right in the middle of it's maximum power and torque band, sitting at about 25-2600 rpm. I guess I'll see how well it goes with the 4.3's and decide from there what to do next.
I was going to use the H233 diff out of the ute so that I would get both a re-gear and more clearance, but I found out that the LSD had failed and left big chunks of metal inside the carrier, thankfully it hadn't made it's way through the ring and pinion yet, but that left me with 2 options:

• Either get the LSD repaired (~$500), and get the tailshaft lengthened and reconditioned (~$600)
• Or use Dad's old H260 carrier with 4.3 gears and get the ute LSD replaced with his spare wagon LSD, and end up with a diff that has a much better LSD (~$much less than the total cost of the H233 swap)

So yeah, H260 4.3 gears, here I come

I've also been talking to a guy on marketplace about a water-to-air intercooler, which, even though it's just an ebay job, I should be able to reduce my EGT's significantly, as well as make more power with cooler, denser air. The other advantage with the w2a is I can mount it on top of the engine, and have less turbo lag, with better cooling capacity than even a big front mount. The w2a I'm looking at looks similar in shape to the factory zd30 tmic, but enclosed, and with all the other bits that come with a water setup. I'll make a separate thread to discuss whether it's a good choice or not.

Both of those mods, along with a 3" intake up to the turbo and 2 1/2 after, and a 3" straight through with a hotdog muffler or a diagonal straight through if I really want to be quiet, should bring the EGT's right down and significantly increase the drivability.

 

[Ethanissan]

One other thing I've done since last time is went over to @Johan Safari's place and we used his spring resetter (big jack to bend springs out of spring range so they stay bent) to reset my springs a little taller, and take a leaf out of the rear pack. Overall the rear rides better now because it's got a lower spring rate.
It also flexes better up and down, up because a lower spring rate means less resistance to compression, down because the taller natural arc means less resistance to down-travel. The uptravel is now restricted by the bump stop, and the downtravel is restricted buy the standard-length shackle, so it'll be even better once I get my extended shackles from superior, I might even be able to run some longer 80 series shocks I got for a good price.
(Yes I've already explained this in the 'what did you do' thread, but I thought I'd add it to the build thread too.
The front flex hasn't changed as it could always go full compression to extension, even with the swaybar connected.

Once I get my shackles, install the 4.3 diffs, and install the LOKKA I've ordered, all I'll need is barwork, and the aforementioned power/egt upgrades, and it'll be sweet.
Oh and also need to get those panels sprayed, but I think that'll be a running theme here.