Raizer's 92 Delica "XL SALOON" Van Lyfe of Fail & HiAce of win

[Raizer]

WARNING SHARN AHEAD
 
 
Rather than posting it in spam I might as well start a thread as it's going to be somewhat of a project, just not the normal slammed out OS project lol
So I've started a lawn mowing/property maintenance/handy man type shit business

And as sticking the weed eater out the rear window of my Altezza doesn't convey the most professional look I decided I needed a van/ute/wagon to haul my gear around.
Test drove a couple Previa turds, yuck.
Couldn't scrape up enough $$ for the HiAce I was offered, almost brought a Nissan C22 Vanette, but the seller sold it even though I told him I'd take it pending J5 or VG having a look.
Probably a good thing though as the mighty A15 probably wouldn't have liked being loaded up with gear and towing a trailer full of greenwaste for long!

Also came damn close to picking up a fairly tidy 2002 VX Commodore wagon for $1500 from a dealer, would have been good to put a couple hundred $ into then flicked off for a tidy profit, but I thought about it too long (over night) and it was snapped up by someone else.
 
Anyway a garage around the corner from home often sells cheap vehicles on the side of the road (kinda almost cooked an Estima there trying to sell on one of my test drives) and a couple weeks back this Delica popped up out the front of the garage and it was almost in my budget range of $0-fuck all.
Took it for a test drive, straight away I used the fucked clutch and oil leak to my advantage and got a good chunk of $$ off the price and it became my van with a nice new "clean sheet" WOF from the same garage on the screen...
 

Pulled the very rear seat out and lined the floor, I can fit 2 mowers and all my gear in the back and still have a 5 seater wagon.

A few minutes after this photo was taken I learned that it has an open diff and that the torsion bars have sagged/been wound down.

Went to go straight out the driveway and the front bullbars bottomed out hard on the road and left me stranded with one rear wheel spinning on the grassy gravel drive

 

As said the clutch was well rooted, slipping like anything, but since a full kit is under $150 trade at BNT with a free flywheel grind I wasn't too phased!

Blasted the engine/box with 4 big cans of degreaser and went to town on it.

Typical early 90's Mitsi, the clear coat is fucked!

Easiest clutch change I've ever done, under 45 minutes from driving into my workshop to having the box on the floor, wasn't too much longer to get it back in.

 

Found it's got a new/recon starter, it was the pretty much the only thing that wasn't buried in congealed oil, nice shiny new looking fuel pump too!

Was a decent rivet groove in the flywheel too, but didn't think to get a pic of that before dropping it off at BNT.

 

Shiny box haha, my boy spent ages with a scraper then diesel and a dish brush on it.

"Regularly serviced"

 
"Clean sheet WOF"

That's fail crayon from the main WOF centre in town...
 
Found the dizzy when turned to max advance was timed to TDC, it was also 180° + 1 tooth out!
Reinstalled the dizzy correctly and set it to 7.5°, it now revs over 4000rpm haha.
 
"new rocker cover gaskets last week" translates to a touch of orange poo smeared on rock solid stock gasket and half round block, changed to new ones and it doesn't seem to be leaking any more/still a possible front crank seal dribble though.
 
Was backfiring a LOT between gears and has been using an absolute shit load of gas, I'm putting that down to the rather messed with Mikuni Solex "electro jet" carb.

I've changed most of the vac lines as several were leaking, set the choke and idle up RPM, changed the thermostat so it actually gets warm enough for the choke to turn off and cleaned out everything I can get to, found a tiny adjuster behind the carb that sets the idle adjustment range too (think it's the fast idle control), when I got it I couldn't get it to idle under 1100rpm, now it holds 750 smoothly.

Today I discovered that the accelerator pump was set to the max, 2 pumps of gas was enough to flood the engine and the pump arm was over-travelling so far that it was squirting a little blast of fuel in when I lifted off the gas, could explain the back firing and the super rich smoke clouds when the choke was on?! lol
Backed the pump linkage off a lot and in the 15 minutes I've driven it since there's been no backfiring, so fingers crossed it will also stop drinking so much gas, 1/4 tank for 18k is just nuts!
Don't think the vac secondary are opening either, but that's a mission for another day.
 
When I've got some more money I'll likely be changing to an Aisan carb from an L300 or something and doing away with all the vacuum and emissions shit!!
 
So yeah I know it seems like a total POS, but at this point I've got less than $2k in it and other than the fuel usage and the torsions needing to wound way back up it drives really well.
Engine is smooth, not smoky once warm and makes no bad noises, found a warranty void melt tab on the frost plug behind the flywheel which leads me to think it has had an engine rebuild at some point in it's history too.

Can't find ANY rust beyond a hole in one of the sliding window frames, only 210k on the clock and since the speedo is rather optimistic* it may be lower still.
 

*Wondered why I kept getting tail gated so checked the speedo against GPS, 60k on the dash is really 50, 85 is 70, 100 is 80, 135 is 100!

 

Future plans inc properly decking out the back for my gear and I'd like some Valiant steel wheels.

 

TL;DR?
I brought a shit van that I'm trying to make less shit and make a living from.

[fuel]

someone has probably swapped in a shorter ratio diff into it.

[flyingbrick]

I'd be pissed off about that wof to be honest.

Good luck with the business tho! Must be a good feeling.

[0R10N]

Please tell me that you'll get some signwriting done and conveniently place the first two letters of "Grassman" on the front passenger's door

[azzurro]

"ive come to see about trimming your bush and grinding the stump out behind it"

 

I miss my van already

[Beaver]

Just think, for the price you payed for the van, you could have fixed the gloria and be rolling/mowing in true style!

[d.p.n.s]

Just think, for the price you payed for the van, you could have fixed the gloria and be rolling/mowing in true style!

Was just thinking the same thing man...

Turning up in a dirty old diesel wagon with assman on the side.

Just need some brown stubbies and matching jandels...... And some sweet lip luggage.

[Raizer]

someone has probably swapped in a shorter ratio diff into it.

Quite likely, tag says it should be a 4.625:1, but I'm thinking it's likely got a 4.1 or something will count next time I've got it jacked up.

Deff need an LSD, went to a mates place with a steep gravel driveway and really struggled to get up it lol

I'd be pissed off about that wof to be honest.

Good luck with the business tho! Must be a good feeling.

Trust me I'm pissed!! If the guy who issued the WOF wasn't a mates dad I'd have laid a complaint with LTNZ about it!

Not sure if he's being told to turn a blind eye by his boss (the cars are sold privately by the boss rather than through the business) or he just somehow managed to miss the balljoint etc...

I know the guy who runs the main WOF centre here pretty well so got him to run it over there pit for me a few days back, other than a couple ball joints he reckons it would pass no problems so that gives me a bit of piece of mind at least.

It's a good feeling, but also terrifying at the same time!

Just think, for the price you payed for the van, you could have fixed the gloria and be rolling/mowing in true style!

Trust me that thought has come to mind a few times lately, but if I hadn't of sold you the Gloria I wouldn't have had the money to fix the Gloria or buy a van now lol.

Backing off the accelerator pump linkage seems to have made a world of difference, haven't had a single backfire today AND it's managed to get 68k on less than 1/4 tank of gas it's only a little 40l tank too.

Other thing of interest to me is how amazing the headlights are, best headlights I've ever had lol

[Raizer]

Backing off the accelerator pump has indeed helped, 35l got 255k and that includes towing a few decent loads of green waste around at open road speed.

Still getting the odd backfire and obviously that's not great milage.

Choke is shit, takes fucking ages to turn off and blows a mist of what smells like raw gas out the exhaust until it does.

Changing the cam cover gasket def slowed the oil leaks, but not stopped it, crawling around under the van today I spotted this

Bit hard to see in the photo, but there's oil coming from that tube on the fuel pump.

Fucking Mitsubishi fuel pumps, seems like every Mitsi I've owned or worked on has leaked oil from the pump! Haha

Bit of gungy shit around the front pully too, will change the crank/cam/balance seals and belts at some point in the future.

Pointed out the dodgey WOF, ball joints etc to the seller today, shouldn't have wasted my time.

Was fucking amused to discover the bull bars are only held on by a pair of m8 bolts through the tow loops, almost looks like factory fitment too as the bars don't look to have been cut.

[Raizer]

Been dailying this thing for a while now, even with all it's issues I prefer to drive it over my Altezza for some reason.

Tows well too, have had some damn heavy loads of green waste behind it several times now and it acts like there's nothing on the back.

 

The list of issues grew a bit, fucked carb, vac secondary not opening, vacuum advance leaking to the point it didn't work, still intermittently backfiring, fuel pump leaking oil etc.

The other night I found a couple L300 vans being parted out locally on TM, turned out it was a guy I know/knew well, I had kinda forgotten that he has opened a pick-a-part style wreckers yard 20 minutes out of town!

Shot out there today for a nosy and also managed to buy a few bits

One base spec Aisan carb with working vac secondary and next to no emissions crap

 

Grabbed the complete inlet too as it doesn't have EGR and has several less vacuum ports and also only one temp sensor while mine currently has 3 sensors??

Fuel pump as well.

 

Lol yeap, it's a Mitsi

.

 

 

 

Would have grabbed the mint looking carb off the Hyundai Stellar out there, but I CBF setting up the manual choke.

 

Turns out the shitty bullbar mount is standard, looked under 3 Mitsi vans today and they were all like this!

 

 

 

This hose went to a solenoid then to the carbon canister, I'm assuming it's where the fumes are sucked into the carb so as I'm ditching all 3 carbon canisters my van has I should be able to just plug it right?

 

 

My mum lives a further 10 minutes out of town from the wreckers, so I shot out there to have a catch up, and while there I went through some of the old shit I have sitting in the car port, well would you believe I had a fucked Mitsi dizzy with a mint condition vacuum advance dashpot just sitting there?

Swapped it over and I've now got too much timing at low RPM/high vacuum, but more importantly there's no backfiring at all!! Was caused by the vac leak from the dizzy!

 

Grabbed a new fuel filter, some brake clean (which works fucking well on carbs haha) and ordered in an inlet manifold gasket for the morning so that's my mission for tomorrow!

 

Any of you guys able to help me out with a decent priced carb kit?

I get trade at BNT, but they stopped selling kits a while ago, Ripco has one in stock but it's got a ridiculous retail on it and SCA would have to order it from the US and it will take months or some shit??

 

I'm Raizer, and that was my pointless post.

 

Now sing it with me "Don't you wish, you had a Mitsubishi?"

[fuel]

I've stripped down one of those carbs using the CDL rebuild kit from SCA (used to be stocked on the shelf for $30) - it made no difference once it was done. I wouldn't bother if the carb runs fine as is.

[Raizer]

Time for another Raizer's shit van update!

 

Got onto changing the carb today, first step was to give the new carb a bit of a clean, bit of diesel, brake cleaner and a toothbrush equipped slave helper got 27odd years of crap off it.

 

While he was doing that I started removing the Mikuni and assorted crap

 

The gasket had gone around what I thought was the EGR port and it was leaking a lot of oil??

/Not sure WTF that much oil is doing in the EGR/if that slot is even the EGR port??

New manifold has the mount for the EGR valve cast on it, but no passages for it at all.

 

All 4 inlets had a bit of what almost felt like 2T oil sitting in them??

 

While it was still off the engine I changed all the vacuum lines on the new carb, glad I did as most of them either weren't tight on there fittings or crumbled when I went to pull them!

My boy swapped over the thermostat and water neck, tried to change the temp sender but snapped the one in the new manifold off, bit of drilling and we used a hex bit as an EZout to get the remains out.

 

Fitted up the pump, inlet etc, wired up the anti-diesel solenoid and blocked off that vent on the new carb and also the remaining line from the old emissions shit.

 

Stuck the dizzy back in it's hole with a new rotor, splashed some gas down it's throat and it fired up first crank, stuttered while the pump filled the bowl, then idled perfectly.

 

Refilled the coolant, set the timing to about 8° and jobs a good 'un.

 

Feels SO MUCH BETTER to drive, no hesitation, smooth idle, sure feels like the secondaries open and yeah it's just all around better!

Just need to sort out an idle-up for the AC, just need to find a 12v push solenoid, apparently both Holden and Ford used these on carby engined cars with AC so will keep an eye out at the wreckers etc.

 

 

Ended up with a nice little pile of shit left over too haha

Still more vac solenoids and brackets etc in shit to reach spots to come out too!

 

 

I've stripped down one of those carbs using the CDL rebuild kit from SCA (used to be stocked on the shelf for $30) - it made no difference once it was done. I wouldn't bother if the carb runs fine as is.

SCA only listed the full Fuelmiser rebuild kit, would have been super keen on a $30 kit!!

It used to be about $50-60 trade price for a full fuelmiser kit from BNT back in the day, yesterday Ripco wanted about $180 for one that had been on the shelf for years, SCA $106.

Don't seem to need one now though, had just wanted to strip and fully clean the carb before fitting it.

[Raizer]

New carb and dizzy bits have made a world of difference to cold start, idle and acceleration.

It managed about 275k from 33.45l of petrol, most of that towing my trailer around with an ever increasing amount of grass clippings and a fair bit of time with the secondaries open, so not great economy but still better!

Seem to have fixed almost all the oil leaks, but there is still a few drips coming from the front of the engine somewhere, thinking it'll be one of the cam/crank/balance shaft seals but as it's only a few drips and I really CBF pulling the front off the motor I'll ignore it for now.

/Valve stem seals are leaking too so will probably change them and all the timing shit at the same time.

Chucked a cheap last model year head-unit and speakers in, took forever to figure out Mitsubishi had taped the rear speaker plugs in behind the tail lights

Any of you want a free 1995ish Sony tape player? lol

Now that I've got it in a somewhat reliable state (touch wood) I've now really got to figure out organizing this mess into a workable arrangement, it is a real pain having to move almost everything to get a mower out, worse when there both in use!

I've got absolutely 0 woodworking talent so fuck knows how bad this is going to end up!

Also been given a mid 90s Eternia if I want it, apparently it's low Ks and went well but has a fucked ECU.

I was semi tempted to do a DOHC swap into the van, but it's 4G67 not 4G63.

[Positive Ape]

ouch, I dunno how a ply box is gonna help you out of that situation. How about making up a couple of jerry-can holders so you can transport your fuel on your trailer? Then putting your fadges on your back seat?

[Raizer]

Yeah its had me thinking about the layout for a while, was going to get one of those steel boxes that you see on utes to bolt to the drawbar, but it would end up sticking out the sides too far + in my mind a locked toolbox left on a trailer is a beacon for thieves (I know a lot of mower guys have had petrol cans/tools etc stolen from there trailers while there mowing backwards.

I'm aiming to keep all my gear behind the rear seat, the van is also often used as the family wagon now, after getting used to the height and visibility in the van my Altezza just doesn't feel right anymore!

I'm tempted to make a small deck on the trailers drawbar big enough to strap a mower on, that would clear up a fair bit of room in the van, would keep the mower in my shed and just bring it when needed since most of the time I only need one with me, I've got one big 1/2 acre+ lawn that my missus or son mulch mows the back with the second mower while I weedeat and mow around the house etc.

Going to finally raise the front suspension back up tomorrow too, checked the difference between the front and back using the body line, front is 38mm lower than the rear and it's only about 10mm off the front bumps, probably on bumps with me in it lol

[cletus]

what about a ply second floor high enough for the mowers to fit under, other stuff on top, maybe a mesh cargo barrier type thing between the stuff in the back and your passengers. i had something like that in my old work van for my dog, ply sat on top of the wheelwells, and had room for storing stuff underneath

[Geophy]

Not lying actually do want that tape player, PM sent

[8ball]

Look around some wreckers or online (what ever your cheap goods page is there, gumtree here..)

Find some used drawers from a 4wd and fit in the back.

all ya small stuff goes in the drawers. And mowers on top.

Make up a folding ramp setup that once you

Open tailgate you just fold it down and roll the mower up and in. Saves ya back.

Then grab a second hand cargo barrier from a wagon or van etc and fit it in to stop mowers etc from entering the seating area.

And id definitely be getting the jerry cans out of the cabin.... the fumes will be a c@#t.

Not to mention over here most cops would grill you on the spot for having them in the cabin.

[8ball]

You could always fit a poxy roof rack setup for ya jerry cans.

But that could interfere with carports, drivethrus etc...

And would probably cause more wind drag and increase fuel consumption. ..

[Raizer]

Another shit Raizer's shit van update...

 

Beefed up the bullbar mounts with some 6mm plate and decent bolts, then wound the front up just on 30mm, it's now even-ish with the rear, isn't sitting on the bumps with me in the van and best of all the bullbars clear the driveway now which is great haha.

 

 

I've got absolutely 0 woodworking talent so fuck knows how bad this is going to end up!

It's possible that I in fact have a less than 0 level of woodworking talent...

 

Have been fucking around with setting up the back of the van a bit over the last couple days, am really trying to just utilize shit I've got sitting around rather than spending $$.

 

So starting with a sheet of ply from a shipping box that fits snug between the wheel arches, I used some 2x2 to divide it into sections.

If fits tight enough not to move around at all, and if I ever need to haul anything other than mower shit I can just slide it out of the back of the van!

 

Removed the very rear seatbelts and made a bracket to fit a length of 25mm box section using the seatbelt mount holes, plan to hang a few things from this

 

At this point I wasn't sure about removing the belt for the folding seat/removing the folding seat.

 

Made an MDF box that I'm going to divide into a couple sections so my weed sprayer and spray will tuck in the end by the sliding door and all my empty fadges can go in the main box to the right.

That corner is cut to clear the guard on the weedeater

 

After discovering that all the folding seat is held to the bench by is a pair of (loose!) m8x20 bolts, I whipped it and it's belt out, have put them aside for if I ever feel the need to refit it/if not having an end on the bench becomes a WOF issue.

More bodged up brackets and 25mm box section has the weedeater hanging nicely

Wrapped the hooks in tyre tube, fits snug with no rattling, just need a visit from Matthew Black to tidy up the brackets.

 

Now to try to make a shelf/cupboard/something for the leaf blower, catcher, mulcher plug, tools etc...

 

 

Going to get some bits of angle welded onto the drawbar of the trailer to mount a deck onto, if my measuring is correct (HA!) I should be able to fit the second mower and a steel box big enough for a couple 10L gas cans on it.