Project Car / Motorbike thread. Let's see 'em.

John U

MTB Precision
Just bought a Ranger. Keen to get into a bit of 4wding. Got no idea at the moment. But have a few upgrades listed.
Winch, suspension, snorkel, bash plates and recovery points.
Edit - tyres.
What I’m really surprised by is the level of general disengagement from the shops I’ve been to so far.
 

Attachments

Haakon

Keeps on digging
Just bought a Ranger. Keen to get into a bit of 4wding. Got no idea at the moment. But have a few upgrades listed.
Winch, suspension, snorkel, bash plates and recovery points.
Edit - tyres.
What I’m really surprised by is the level of general disengagement from the shops I’ve been to so far.
Is that the one where if you take longer than 10 minutes to drain the oil the pump empties and you have to tow it to a dealer to have the pump primed?
 

creaky

XMAS Plumper
Just bought a Ranger. Keen to get into a bit of 4wding. Got no idea at the moment. But have a few upgrades listed.
Winch, suspension, snorkel, bash plates and recovery points.
Edit - tyres.
What I’m really surprised by is the level of general disengagement from the shops I’ve been to so far.
Congrats.

My advice from past experience.....

Start mods with, in order of importance for heading off-road:
  • Tyres
  • Recover points + recovery kit
  • Suspension

That will be more than enough for getting you some experience on the tracks with other vehicles around to assist. Consider a club or training course if you are not confident.

See how you are going and what kind of 4wding you are enjoying after a year and then consider getting the winch + bash plates etc. These are essential for some situations but you really start adding weight with these types of mods, which causes it's own issues.

Unless you re-engineer them completely the utes aren't as capable on extreme tracks as coil sprung wagons with shorter wheelbases. They are fantastic for off road touring and hauling camping gear around though.

I'll forgive you for buying a Ford. At least it's not an Amarok.
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
Just bought a Ranger. Keen to get into a bit of 4wding. Got no idea at the moment. But have a few upgrades listed.
Winch, suspension, snorkel, bash plates and recovery points.
Edit - tyres.
What I’m really surprised by is the level of general disengagement from the shops I’ve been to so far.
Best thing to do is join a 4x4 club, especially when it comes to recovering vehicles with snatch straps because you'll need to learn how to use recovery gear. It's better travelling in groups until you learn what you're capable of in your vehicle too.

One thing I can't stand is seeing kids in the firing line of a snatch strap that isn't even anchored safely to a forbie. I've seen one punch a hole straight through the tailgate of an old jeep with the shackle still half attached to it.
 

beeb

Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
One thing I can't stand is seeing kids in the firing line of a snatch strap that isn't even anchored safely to a forbie. I've seen one punch a hole straight through the tailgate of an old jeep with the shackle still half attached to it.
The other 'ol' faithful' horrow show you see on the trails is the snatch-strap over the tow-ball. Nothing like firing an impromptu cannon-ball into an already stuck vehicle...
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
The other 'ol' faithful' horrow show you see on the trails is the snatch-strap over the tow-ball. Nothing like firing an impromptu cannon-ball into an already stuck vehicle...
Funny watching some of them turn up on the beach, no snatch strap, no recovery tracks, no shovel and some of them with no drinking water. Then you get the slightly smarter ones that have a snatch strap and wrap it around the cheap alloy nudge bar.
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
Had a few hiccoughs with the differential. The new gear set has larger bolts into the carrier so the LSD carrier had to be drilled out. Difference between 28 spline and 25 spline axles I guess. Then the new pinion didn't come with a crush washer so grabbed a used one and discovered another difference, there must be different crush washers, this one is 2mm too long. I will measure properly through the week and machine the washer to suit. So no differential fitment.

However the Chinese Golf washer bottle arrived complete with Chinese characters on the cap!

Made yet another bracket today and bolted it in. Had to remanufacture the bracket because when I put fitted the light housing the damn thing slipped back out so I had to move the bracket (and bottle) back about 20mm to fit the headlight. Perils of working alone. Basic bit of cutting and bending and drilling and dimpling. Naturally none of the faces are square so the folds are on various angles. I picked up a piece of 2mm gal sheet 250x2000 for $10. I split 70mm out of this for the bracket. I have to make some other brackets and will use this to fill in the Watts linkage bracing etc. Plenty strong enough.









I probably should move the expansion tank back a bit but there is a good 10mm clearance and the washer filler is fine so I am leaving as is, at least for now. The filler neck is held on with a rusty old 2" exhaust clamp. Couldn't see the point of doing anything fancy when cheap and cheerful works.

Sadly the old pump is seized so another will need to be bought. I will cover the back side of the bottle with Dynamat to give it some stone protection.

In other news the press is working well. It is so nice not to have to hold the work to stop it moving around while you run the press. Thinking now might be a good time to retire the old pedestal drill too. When you use the hole saws it bounces and vibrates so badly you end up in the next postcode.
 
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link1896

Mr Greenfield
Monday arvo's WTF moment:
"Melbourne's only ZF gearbox authorized repair agent, we rebuild and repair all varieties of ZF gearboxes".

service manager "of no, we don't carry or refurb mechatronics units, just buy in from BMW".

It probably just needs fresh oil and a seal, but I'd rather have a spare up my sleeve. 200usd for a working assembly out of the US. Torque converter has twice locked up when it shouldn't have at ~10km/h road speed with engine at about 1600rpm. almost broke my neck, wholly fuck. No codes thrown by the computer yet.

If valve or solenoid sealing surfaces need machining, let the fun begin.
 
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Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
VF or ZF? The VF runs a GM box no?

Since I am here the diff is done. Just need to throw the axles back in and the brakes on then I can do some test fitting. I think the decambered single leaf springs we bought will be too low. That is not an issue because I have a buyer who will take them off our hands and I can run standard Escort leaves until the new standard height single leaf springs arrive. Front is together, I decided to skim the hub faces because there was a little run out in the aftermarket hubs we bought. Enough for the rotors to scrape on the pads for about half a turn. Machining was probably on the limit of what my little lathe is capable of but took 0.2mm of the face to square it all up. They run perfectly now. Wont be much happening for a week or two since some work has cropped up.
 

link1896

Mr Greenfield
sorry DC, blood sugar was low. ZF Friedrichshafen AG made gearbox. I never bought the SSV, could not find one that wasn't a repaired write off or heavily modified.
This gearbox is in a 2006 BMW 750i.
 

link1896

Mr Greenfield
VF or ZF? The VF runs a GM box no?

Since I am here the diff is done. Just need to throw the axles back in and the brakes on then I can do some test fitting. I think the decambered single leaf springs we bought will be too low. That is not an issue because I have a buyer who will take them off our hands and I can run standard Escort leaves until the new standard height single leaf springs arrive. Front is together, I decided to skim the hub faces because there was a little run out in the aftermarket hubs we bought. Enough for the rotors to scrape on the pads for about half a turn. Machining was probably on the limit of what my little lathe is capable of but took 0.2mm of the face to square it all up. They run perfectly now. Wont be much happening for a week or two since some work has cropped up.

what, you didn't want to machine the rotors on the car and eliminate the runout the right way? chicken
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
what, you didn't want to machine the rotors on the car and eliminate the runout the right way? chicken
Bwarrk.

Thought that was it. Bugger. ZF is usually good stuff. Is it the same box as the Falcons ran? Very likely filter and oil flush will sort it. Some of the tuners probably have experience with those boxes.
 

link1896

Mr Greenfield
Just had a bit of a google, yes ford used the design under license from ZF.

Filter, fluid, and 6 bits of plastic SHOULD fix this fault. The fluid is all the cost. 40 bucks of plastic, 350 bucks of fluid.

There is a place nearby that lets you use their car hoist for 30 an hour and they dispose of the fluids. I see me there very soon
 

SummitFever

Eats Squid
Check out your nearest Fuchs oil distro. Many merc, vw and bmw oem trans fluids are made by Fuchs. Last time I bought fluid for 7g tronic it was only $180 for 20l.
 
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