Time to say goodbye?

[Flying Torquewrench]

On the Patrol front, I haven’t done too much the last few days as it is my working block.

I have ordered some more parts and a whole bunch a metal. The sidestep brackets are in poor condition so I m going to make some new ones. The plan is to make new sidestep at a later date.

For the rest I have been cleaning the chassis and underbody ready for paint. No further work on the gearbox has taken place as I want to wait till the parts are here. Don’t really want to take it apart now and leave all the parts laying around for 2/3 weeks.

[solarman216]

It is not one I recognise and after having a look in my normal places cannot see one like it, my first thought was Aqualisa but most of that style are Digital, I have taken a screen shot so when I pop to town later I will ask my suppliers, Rick

[solarman216]

SPS did not recognise it and suggested National Shower Spares, you can send them a pic to see if they can match it with a make and model, I would be pulling the knobs and plates and have a look at the insides, if there are no grub screws and the knob centres do not come off then they will be push fit, unfortunately they often have a rubber "O" ring and over time they can get hard making removal very difficult, Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

Thanks Rick, I will send them a photo. The knobs have grub screws so theoretically should be easy to remove.

[Flying Torquewrench]

Removed the rear crankshaft oil seal today. Unfortunately it became apparent that the oil seal retainer was damaged. A new one from the UAE would only cost £20 including delivery. However, this would not get to the UK till the middle of September.

I managed to find an original one in Ireland which I have ordered. Hopefully that will be here towards the middle of next week.

Waiting for parts is holding me up as there is very little that I can do now until the gearbox is fixed and back on the car. Very frustrating.

[solarman216]

How did the retainer become "damaged", Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

I don’t know Rick. The whole retainer is warped. Not by a lot but on a level surface it doesn’t make contact everywhere. (If that makes sense).

Not risking that it leaks at a later time for the sake of £50.

[Flying Torquewrench]

Rick, not sure if it helps your fuel pump issues but here is the timing procedure for my engine. It may not be helpful as mine has the electronic fuel pump.

I can not get them attached to this post without blurring. If you want them then drop me a private message with your email and I send them that way.

[Flying Torquewrench]

My first Amayama parcel arrived only a couple of days late, but considering the amount of money saved over the dealer it is worth it.

Unfortunately, the second parcel which contains the parts to fix the gearbox should have been delivered yesterday and it wasn’t. Looking on their website, it is showing that they are waiting for the inserts to arrive. I hoped to finish the gearbox in the next few days but that isn’t going to happen.

After a few days at work, I started my days off today. Started by repairing the gearbox support, which had a good bit of corrosion. I made two new fillers out of 8mm steel.

[Flying Torquewrench]

Once they were welded on I painted the support bracket, so it looks a bit better.

It needs a second coat of paint tomorrow.

[Flying Torquewrench]

Whilst I was painting, I also painted the oil sump and the anti roll bar brackets that I made a few weeks ago.

I also made some new side step brackets as mine were severely corroded. As my sidesteps are not in the best condition I am also going to make some new sidesteps. Nothing fancy, just a bit of tread plate with a bit of angle iron around the outside.

[solarman216]

All looking good, shame about the gearbox bits not arriving, nothing you can do but wait, re my pump got the pressure stabilized but still as it warms up so does the idle increase, so pump is off now to be worked on over the W/E, time will tell, Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

Absolutely Rick. The wit is not ideal but for the price of 1 insert at the dealer I am getting 6 from Amayama. At least the Patrol keeps me busy whilst I wait.

Rear crankshaft seal and the oil pan are back on the engine. I also needed to reinstall the vacuum pump after I had taken the camshaft cover off. This all went swimmingly well.

As everything with my Patrol, the good times didn’t last long. The nearside door sill had a couple of corrosion spots in it. Not all the way through just yet, but not far off. I have a piece of repair sill in stock, so I thought that it would be a relative easy job. Cut out the damaged section and weld in the repair section, job done. Oh no, once I started cutting the hole was just getting bigger.

I didn’t take a photo of the corrosion spots but this is after the first cut.

[Flying Torquewrench]

After poking around a bit more it became apparent that the corrosion ran all the way to the rear wheel fender.

This is looking from the nearside rear wheel towards the sill.

[Flying Torquewrench]

After some more cutting. The worst has been removed, I now need to tidy it up.

Planning to weld a 3mm thick steel plate along the inside. (Where the side step brackets screw into). Just need to figure out how to best repair the body mount as it’s in a lousy position regarding access. Hopefully I can come up with something that can be installed from this side. Need to have a think about that.
This has gone from a quick little job to a few days work.