WHAT YOU DID TO YOUR TRUCK TODAY!

My exhaust arrived yesterday and after a bit of a struggle it went on. Oh the joys of pattern parts. I will need to have a second attempt in the next week or so to hang it a little better because I am not happy with how the rear pipe joins the middle section and there is still a little blow between the cat and middle section. At least I can drive the car now. Done a couple of miles locally and really need to sort out the electric fan. The temperature gauge is very slow to rise due to over cooling which will not help the fuel consumption.

Idle speed is stable and the car drives straight and true. Plenty of random squeaks and rattles but that is probably normal right? The brakes are good and it is holding oil and water.

First impressions of things that need doing.

Sort exhaust properly
Replace passenger side wing mirror as it is screwed and glued in position and is in the wrong position for me grrrr.
Sort the electric fan switch
Cut the padlock off the spare wheel carrier before that becomes an issue

Change oil and filter
Add anti freeze once fan switch is replaced.
Weld the hole in drivers sill.
Drill out rear seat mounting bolts (two of them have sheered off) and secure the rear seat.

That should keep me busy for a month or so and not cost the earth.

Cut the padlock off the spare wheel, put 30 miles on the car and other than some rattles it seems fine. The temperature gauge stayed on cold and hardly moved. This is due to the fan running all the time. So once home I disconnected the wire to the shorted out switch and run the engine up to temperature. The gauge went up and eventually the second fan kicked in as the other switch contact made. There was an almighty noise from this fan because it is rubbing on the front bumper where it has been pushed back a bit. So I will need to straighten the bumper out before too long before it f's up the front fan. For the time being I just switched the wires so when the switch is made it turns on the engine side fan rather than the front one.

The only problem is that the engine temp will be high before the fan kicks in, but I will just stick to doing short journies until the new switch arrives.

Any hints on removing the front grill? I can release the four plastic clips at the top edge but it seems to be well secured along the bottom edge and I did not want to force anything seeing as it is plastic.

Cheers Robbie!!!!!! :thumbup:

been paintng my back door as it was rusty where the spare wheel bracket had been collecting water, not quite finished properly yet needs a rub back and lacour
then i got a little bit to sand back on each of my door pillars before i get some holes where they meet the sills

Sun is out!, so I decided to investigate non working rear electric window. The usual scenario, just a click when the swith is operated, so off with the door panel, undo the switch from the panel and re-attached for testing later, this is important, as the drivers switch won't operate the rear window without this switch in place, it completes the circuit.

With the motor assembley undone,(three 10mm bolts) the whole lot moves around inside the door easily, and allows you, just, to access the three star head screws that hold the motor itself to the regulator. After undoing them, Slide the motor out.

I switched on the ignition, and operated the switch, the motor worked in both directions

At this stage, I sprayed WD40 into the regulator, down the hole where the motor should sit. When it dripped out of the bottom of the regulator casing, I sprayed down the cable tube, just visible where the window meets the top of the door, and also the circular fulcrum, also visible.

After all the dripping had ceased, I squirted a dollop of silicone grease into the hole in the regulator, and also cleaned up and re-greased, with silicone grease, the worm drive on the motor shaft itself, and the fulcrum.

I also cleaned and re-greased the large slider in the center of the door, on which the window rises and falls, the grease on here was very hard, and not at all greasy :shock:

Had a coffee, now in order to replace the motor into the regulator, it is necessary to hold the motor in position as close as possible, and flick the switch just a little which re-engages the worm gear. keep atight hold until the screws are back in, and relax while you tighten them!.

At this stage, re-fit the whole mechanism back into the door, lightly tighten the three nuts, and give the window a quick test. It should now operate correctly. Tighten up the bolts, and put your door back together.

I hope this helps someone else, it's not always required to buy a new motor, quite simply, the old grease dries out over time, and locks everything up, I shall be operating the rear windows a little more often now, just to stop any further ceasing.

It sounds long winded, but is very easy and took me about half an hour, including coffee and fag breaks

Getting in before one of those 'MODS'.... The above post on the rear windows is good and well deserves getting moved to the 'how to do it' section...

Over to you MODS...

Pretty much the same as I did with it last March.... Took the Gearbox off! Clutch last time, DMF this time :roll:

Spent the day finishing mounting the winch tray I'll get better photos in day light. I haven't be able to wire it up yet because I can't find where I put the wiring socket for the control.

Fitted front wheel bearing and bottom ball joint.

Yesterday I stripped the cylinder heads of the Explorer. That was a challenge. It has a timing chain per head that can only be removed with the engine out. Had to hacksaw them off as I couldn't risk grinding sparks damaging the camshaft lobes.

After putting another 90 miles on my 'new' Frontera it has been behaving itself which is a good thing. Drivers side lock threw a wobbler at one point and the key was very stiff to turn so some WD40 should help there. The temperature gauge is still refusing to budge even with the fan only working on the high temperature mode. The gauge and the wiring checks out and with the car stationary for a long time the gauge does rise so I suspect the sender, wire and gauge are fine. Perhaps the previous owner has removed the thermostat or it is stuck open thus over cooling the engine.

Once the fan switch arrives I will fit a new thermostat and fill up on antifreeze. With luck that shoudl be the end of it.

took the duck out for a drive....

then when i got back.. i got the grinder out and welded up a patch of rust she had on the sil

and then i did some gardning.. and found a good thing to do with a old tyre

not my car but been helping my mate do brakes and bearings on his disco, not to bad a job. was alot easier than i first thought it would be

Good thinking, but this would then render the tyre useless should fudge need it to make another nice set of 3 in the future... :lol:

Would be for Hipo ... he love running on tyres in "Interesting" conditions.

As for me I finally got round to removing the horns off my Trooper and replacing the asthmatic ones with something more beefy. Was stood there looking at the old knackered Explorer and a thought occured. Now have something that actually sounds half decent.

With Chrissy at work and the sun coming out thought i would potter about and get a few of me little jobs done while i had the chance!!!!
The new CB antenna mount.

Then managed to fit the light bar, just the 3 relays to fit and wire up now!!!

Looks good Bobby, but casting the few remaining grey cells back to the days of Antenna Theory lessons something says putting it on top and using the vehicles body to maximise the ground plane works well. Dunno, tis a bit faint, I need to drink more then I might remember as I was mostly bleep or recovering from being bleep during the lessons!