azzurro

yeah nah, not a fan of personalized plates, cant justify in my head the expense. I think ive seen that xone9 pesting around, lives out west i think anyways, original black plates FTW! Or this one

keen, cause no power and probably not on till tomorrow, but ute (transporter) is on the lawn and is trapped there till i move the wagon, which is still under the collapsed carport, that has also trapped the scooter in the garage. I should probably be home so i can clear the fallen trees and stuff but, i really want to ride my scoot in a suit. Scuit!

This is being a boring and reliable work horse On the way home from BF meet above, the LF brake got a bit draggy and hot and it is due for a WoF, so time for a bit of a service. Turned out one of the 3 NEW! brake cylinders in a caliper was a bit rusty and got jammed so it got a clean out (rust came off with a copper brush) and rebuild with lots of rubber grease (which i didn't know of when i built them!). The other three probably need the same treatment. No photos becasue my hands were covered in brake fluid. I also installed the Fiat 1500 water pump pulley a dude from Aussie sent me randomly (thanks bro!) so i could replace the sketchy one i made from cutting and welding two std 124 ones together, and a new belt. I pcked up a timing tab thing from a bargain bin at a swap meet and chucked it on - the engine only has a TDC mark - no advance markings so this will be nice to have a better idea on ignition timing (factory says 6 deg BTDC at idle, i run it around 10 (i think!) ) Gave it an oil change and cleaned out the centrifugal filter. This is a 'later' engine and also has a modern style oil filter under the inlet manifold that as far as i can tell does almost nothing at all as its one the low pressure return side from the head. I swapped that anyway with one from the pile i got from RoackAuto for like $1.20 each + shipping Also swapped out my very nice (and very expensive @ 65 Euro!) NOS Magnetti Marelli dizzy cap because its got a bloody crack in it leaking all the sparks electricity out, so its back on the crusty one from the car at Smash Palace that works better than the off-brand cheap but new one i had spare, so will do untill i splash out on another NOS one from ebay Still has holes in the secondary pipes (so no Wof untill sorted) so im gonna take the opportunity to get them extended down the car a bit more - any suggestions for a good exhaust shop out west?

Been spending a bit of money on suspension and driveline bits and pieces, in prep for a make over, find and eliminate the gorram grindy knocking noise, and sort out a wee bit of drop (i love the lowest one but thats dreaming). Im going to try dropping the whole front subframe and maybe engine complete out the bottom/lift the body off if i can like they did in the factory and do heaps of 'while im in there' stuff too, like clutch, gearbox seals, driveshaft universals and hangar bearing, tidy engine bay etc in one go, instead of poking around at a bit at a time upside down on the driveway. Ive had a bit of trouble with poor idle and missing at higher RPM since I got this, Ive so far put new (NOS) purple solid copper wires and a Pertronix setup MM S155 dizzy (with good cap and rotor), and it has a 'sport' Lucas coil. I suspect that one or all of these things are a bit pants. At least the plugs are looking much better, so hopefully the carb is sorted for now. Been tidying up my box of Bosch Z44 electronic dizzys (ex Beta 1800?) and matching coil, to make one good one out of the three i had. Made a new loom, and got a new Bosch cap, rotor and a generic GM HEI ignitor to run it (+spare) from Rock Auto for not much at all. This is pretty much the same set up as my sedan but that has the equivalent Magnetti Marelli version. Big box from rock auto shows up finally, so out with the lightest smallest parts and in it all goes. That black (bosch) coil to dizzy plug with the 90degree ends ended up giving me a jolt so i cut it in half and threw it in the bin, and had to use the old blue one that matches the spark plug leads but with straight ends, proplem is that it likes to sit right along the fuel line to the carb :/ Idle is much better now to the extent i had to adjust the throttle stop to drop the idle 200rpm and engine feels stronger all round. Yay! Also lubed the throttle control cable (like a second choke so you can drive by hand), adjusted the clutch a bit, and noticed more coolant dripping from the heater. FFS, lucky i have a lada heater core and ceramic tap on the way too...

@AALAWS

yah, WLY WLY slammed

Been prodding away at this, a few little jobs - new LED interior light bulbs - refixed some wiring i had previously 'fixed' - reset ignition timing and done some more carb fiddling - compression tested - (150psi all round ) - flushed radiator (ran a few changes of just water and dishwasher powder for awhile, seems to have taken the grease out - i suspect from a previous HGF) - tightened the sump bolts - made and installed a flywheel cover for the lower half of the bell housing (pretty sure the main rear seal is gone) - cleaned and degreased/waterblasted all the tie rods and steeing rods chasing the front end noise (think i found it) Took it to C&C with the Scoot on the back and it went fine, the seats are 1000% better than the old ones. This is after scooter gang run, only car in the carpark AAAAND, I think i finally found the noise, the passenger side engine mount mount seems to have more movement than a solidly welded structural member should - i think the old set up with the diff spacer had popped the welds and it moves around quite a bit Resolving it means taking the front suspension out, so while im in there...

very enjoyable ganging, hopefully someone with a better camera will chuck some better shots up pretty much a harley mmm beerspot

Compound superturbo diesel stationary engine turning a giant ship turbo ramming m3/s ofair into a tyre powered steam sterling engine? Or the Simpson Perpetual Motion Machine(TM)* *i couldnt think of a SHARN acronym. Answers ITT

Bike-urious

Im gonna live a double life and take the ute and scoot to c&c early, sneak out the back and roll back in witchoose. Ice cream run to lower the tone in devonport or similar after?

Shall i bring my big box of small hoes? *hose

yum burgers. hopefully the weather is blown over by then

Yep the ol fiat up-downs.

3 cylinder diesel alfasud

Mines halfway there with a late 1600 twink and 125s doorcards lol. I quite like the silly old dash. Longer term efi from a delta head or twin carbs and electronic ignition to bring it up to 1989 spec as if it were made on the western side of the iron curtain is the goal. I also have a croma turbo engine but that would be silly. The rear is slimy enough as it is.

Thanks @NickJ , seems some judicious application of poop has it sorted for now. if it leaks again ill check out Chris's stash and order a new one from the mother land if they are the same. 124 heater valves and boxes are quite different tho so might be close but not quite @Infinit , ive never seen another 125 based vehicle driving around IRL despite having 2, so you are doing better than me! This thing is a proper shitter in the best eastern european style, but seems to respond well to the attention ive been giving it, even if i significantly underestimated the amount it needed!

The factory seat in this are dumb, and i had these AE101 Trueno seats in the storage unit from my AE101 Corolla wagon. You can see the cracks, collapsing, and pokey springs and general lack of support in the lumbar, tushie and muffins regions of the factory seat on the left in the photo below. What you cant see however, is the temperature of the black vinyl, which is i assure you, quite hot. The Trueno seats (on the right, obv) were too low for the wagon, (which is why they were buried in storage in favour of FXGT ones) but look near perfect* for this being the right colour in black/grey, ok condition, around the right size and rail width, and most importantly free. and in no time at all* here they are installed as per FSO and Toyota intended, on the factory seat mounting points. Way more comfy, especially with the headrest not being made of glass now. The Trueno being a coupe gives the bonus of tilt forward on the passenger seat, meaning easy access to the area behind the seats which is pretty much the only in cab storage area. The drivers seat also has a 'lumbar support' lever on the upright and vertical height adjustment on the lower squab. Very noice. Looking pretty flash in there now! (The new seats did not resolve the flippin left turning noise, but the cab is a much nicer place to hear it). These shitters can go back into the hole the trueno ones left in storage, dog can have one last ride on them Subaru BRAT style.

Been using the Giorno to rack up the many short trips to the beach, board included over summer (blardy tourists taking all my parks!), but did take the ute a couple of times.new cars are big! Did take the scoot to my mates place about 5km on gravel and at some point the air filter fell off, but i didnt notice until on on the way home it sucked in some crap and putted out happily just as the mrs went past.Ride home to get some 'helpers' and Ute to the rescue. Get in the back ya blardy mongrel!

Still getting a weird rattling/grinding noise from the left front/gearbox/rear (?!?) when turning even slightly left. low or high speed doesnt seem to matter. LF Wheel isnt rubbing on anything in the arch, brakes clear everything. I thought it was the wheel bearings , so new front wheel bearings both sides, clean and grease everything I thought it was the steering box, so new oil filled idler, cleaned and adjusted steering box, still noisy I thought it was the exhaust rubbing on the driveshaft or the driveshaft on the seat belt bolts (new rubbers moved it away, more washers on the seat belt bolts to shorten them, still noisy) In a bid to chase this rabbit further down its hole it further and also to address a suspension issue i removed this 20mm spacer (wtf?) from between the driveshaft and diff. Im assuming its factory from the heft and look of it but its not in my books. The shaft is also wierd, it looks like a 125 one at the back, but the front half is thin like the 2300s one (so is probably the original 1500 one) with a small universal and narrow yoke. Im wondering if the driveshaft is a franken-hybrid made up when the 125 diff was fitted? Anyway, with the PO Lowering the ass by 3 inches (not complaining, just saying) meant all the articulation in the slip yoke at the gearbox end was used up, and so bumps, especially when empty (!?) would shift the gear box and engine on their mounts. Not good. I also extended the center bearing carrier mount so it could move back towards the diff by around the same amount. Holes yet to be 'slotted' (10mm hole at the end + dremel to join them up) Now it drives a remarkable amount better, now the rear suspension is not pivoting off the diff nose or bunting the engine/box around, but the bloody grindy noise when turning left is now even worse! I'm guessing probably the universals or the center bearing carrier (which was slightly perished and crazed but not (yet) broken), or at least that what i will probably be shotgunning new parts at next.

That'll vape out. More progress pics please

Then today, the postie (who turns out to have a Model A Rod, a JC Bedford tow truck with a V8, and races a classic stock cars) turned up with a couple of things i got from trademe This EMPI filter that reminds me of my old VWs And a single sidedraft linkage kit to gussie up my temporary mock up BOOM! (shakalaka) I had a K&N recharge kit so have it the red for an extra 5hp, for less than half the price. Ive also cut up a chaepo rug for mats, put new hangers on the exhaust and tightened and greased a few things. Ive yet to take it for a test drive but im expecting it to be all round much better than it was. Already have a shopping list of little things tho...

The next day, i noticed this: FFS man, why do i even! So that meant a change to the timetable of Job 3: COOLING SYSTEM from like, whenever yo, to right now already. So, to the bat cave for more crusty shite! Started with the heater unit, its a two part unit that clips together the fan on the bottom is easily removable, to then remove the upper section with matrix and flaps and controls that bolts up under the dash. I had previously 'overhauled' the fan* so i knew it was fine (*its the switch that is patu) and the matrix is the leaky bit. Its actually somewhere around the heater valve thats leaking, so i try undoing the two nuts, one is fine, the other just turns but wont come undone, uhohh. it must be leaking from the loose fastener and new hole that is now behind the gasket. I think the leverage from the mechanism acts on this nut and the brass eventually fatigues and breaks around the captive bolt. This is the one from my 125 that i swapped out already, same failure mode. Not a spare then. this is the other spare matrix. Ah nope, also leaky. The 125p one was in the best nick of a bad bunch so i cleaned out all the muck, greased everything and slathered the valve/matrix joining area liberally with windscreen sealant. Alos swapped the mounting tin over with new foam seal as it was rusty as was the mounting area on the car, so that got a wire bush, rust converted zinc paint and lots of lanocote for good measure as its pretty inaccessible otherwise. Next part, the radiator. Setup in the ute was a bit pants, had a cheap generic 10" fan set up to push, bolted (!) through the radiator, which was also in pretty poor shape with lots of lost and corroded fins. To be fair, the factory fan is also 10" (a later model plastic one is visible inshot) and is also un-shrouded Spare of unknown condition on top looks in slightly better condition, but is older, as it takes a 'long' radiator cap. Ended up doing a PickaPart run and got a nice slim 11" fan from a Toyota Curren and made up a shroud with alloy sheet (left over from the Sign of the Year trailer ) BTW PaP is a bit meh now with numbers and shit, especially when 'supermarket' shopping looking for something that you will know it when you see it rather than from a specific vehicle And installed. For a lack of a 'long' radiator cap i stuck with the original radiator, but removing the bolts must have triggered something as it leaked like a sieve afterwards. Then I checked the cap on my blue sedan, and then stole my first part from it and now the cooling system is much betterer. OEM Toyota Fan is very quiet and moves a LOT more air and cycles in about 2 minutes instead of 10s of minutes like the old cheapy. I also wired in a bypass of the in radiator thermo-switch (which earths out the fan at a lower temp than the thermostat) , as its a bit of a sketchy set up and one cant be too careful, can one. Its running mostly water and dishwasher powder to clean out the coolant system, which is a bit greasy (skum in the overflow). Its getting less greasy with flushes, so hopefully its not a gammy head gasket letting oil into the coolant, but its running way cooler already so, woop!

hunggffff aaaand im done