It's not worth putting off an easy fix

I've had some trouble in the past with getting a white buildup around the negative terminal of the battery in my rodeo ute. I have always been able to get it going again, but it has always been some fiddling around when it gets bad.

When this happened the second time I bought a new battery terminal and put it in the car. Ready for me to install it. However because the problem didn't come back I didn't end up getting it installed.

Yesterday I had the same problem. I park on a slope at work and there is enough electricity getting through the terminal to hill start it, which I did. However when I got home there wasn't even enough getting through to run the central locking. So I had to fix it.

This is the old terminal. Just an extension of the crimp that gets bolted around the battery post. It looks pretty rubbish for a factory part, but I guess it's worked for the last 10 years.

This is the new part. I just cut the strap off the crimp and left the main body of the crimp alone so all of the little wires would stay in one bundle. According to the packet this terminal is lead which is the same material as the battery post so there should be no compatibility problems there. What will be interesting is if the problem goes away, or if it moves to where the wires meet the new terminal.

Cheers,
Rex

What a bunch of stick in the mud's

Yep, It's Stuck.

In the process of helping Mum & Dad move out to a new property we decided to take my ute and go for a tour, right up the back. Apparently to ground up the is pretty boggy and we managed to get my ute stuck in there. The ground was solid enough until after you drove over it. Once you did that and disturbed the crust then all the loose soft stuff below would just let you sink.

Then when we came back the next day with another ute it got stuck as well.

That lighter coloured mud was oozing out from under the wheel while we were standing there talking about what to do next.

This may have had something to do with why we got stuck.

We ended up getting a set of recovery tracks. (Not this brand but similar) and all of a sudden we were out. These things worked so much better than we thought. Even my 2wd ute with an open diff was fine. Until I reversed a little close to a tree for comfort and had to stop again.

The first one goes free.

We put some old carpet in front of the cars so that they had something to help stop them sinking through again. It seemed to help, particularly in the first bit getting up speed again.

We were stuck pretty well. There were a few diff shaped divots in the ground as well.

Cheers,
Rex

Triple Check before the shops close

These ended up stinging a little more than I'd expected.

My 2006 Holden Rodeo has been shifting poorly for a little while. Initially I thought it may just be wear, but I wouldn't expect a gearbox to be gone with only 180,000km on the clock. So I decided to change the oil in there and see if that helped.

Short version? It did.

Long version?
I checked in the owners manual what oil I should put in and I was pretty confident that I was looking at the right gearbox as some of them in the book have different specifications. By the time I'd drained the oil I was starting to get a nagging doubt so I checked the builders plate and compared that to the number in the book.

Guess what? I'd gotten the wrong oil. The gearbox I thought it was used the same oil as the engine which is due to be changed soon anyway. But the gearbox it actually is needs SAE 75W-90 GL3. Definitely not engine oil. This was about 1625 on a Sunday afternoon so I took the other car around to all of the parts stores in town and by the time I got to each of then they were shut. One shutting just a few minutes before I get there even.
So what to do? Where else can I get a bit of a specialty oil? Servos that cater to trucks and have a bit more range than just fuel and chips. I managed to find the 3L I needed at the servo just out of town for about $80 total. So pretty expensive for something that I thought I already had.

The astute among you will note that the spec. calls for GL3 and the picture shows GL5 oil. When I found the oil I had to pull out my phone and do a quick search to try and find if they are compatible. I ended up finding the answer on a scooter forum which indicated that GL5 oil will be fine for a GL3 spec.

After sorting all that out I made it back home to re-fill the gearbox. I ended up putting in between half a 3/4 of a liter more oil in than came out so that may have had something to do with the bad shifting. Any by guesswork and feel I finished as the sun had pretty much gone down.

Then I went for a drive. While not being silky smooth by any means. The gearbox now shifts reliably into 2nd and feels like you'd expect the gearbox on a ute to feel.

I think I've talked too long by now so I'll finish here. But remember, triple check specs before the shops close.

Cheers,
Rex

The death of a wreck

So we finally got the last of the parts I wanted off the falcon and this weekend the scrapper is picking it up. The list is surprisingly long especially when you consider how quickly it all came off. Here it is, along with what I plan to do with each item:
 - Airbag - Set off in the paddock with a plough disk or somthing on it
 - Intake manifold - Scrap?Sell? Whatever. I needed it out of the way
 - Injectors - I'm probably going to put these on the Jeep to see if the more modern injectors give me better economy.
 - Throttlebody - Possibly, maybe, unlike but it may end up on the Jeep. I think it's a bit bigger than stock so less restriction at WOT.
 - Fuel Tank - This is going in the Rodeo which will mean that I can drive nearly 1000km without having to refil.
 - Exhaust pipe - I'm goiung to use some of the bends from the pipe to help me make up the new exhaust for the Rodeo
 - Radiator & Fans - With any luck the fans will fit on the Jeep so I can get rid of the mechanical fan.
 - Air con compresser - This is an exciting one, This will be going in the Jeep for use as an endless air setup.
 - Rocker cover - I'll probably clean this up and paint it then sell it
 - Can Shaft - Either sell this or hang it up somewhere as decoration.
 - Power Steering Pump - This will become an oil pump in some future project.
 - Towbar - Sell, no good without the car it goes on.

I think that's pretty much all that came off the Falcon. If anyone is interested it's a Ford Falcon AU II ute. I will update this page with links when I use any of the above in my projects.

Cheers,
Rex

Easy Car Repairs

So I have recently done what is probably the easiest repair/modification to any car I have ever done. My 2006 Holden Rodeo had a cracked door mirror that wasn't going to pass rego so I needed to replace it. I was a bit worried about how hard it was going to be because although I could find the parts, I couldn't find any instructions on how to do it. I needn't have worried. After the break is how I did it. Hopefully it will inspire some confidence.

The problem mirror.