Beavers d21 kingcab

[Beaver]

I've been wanting a ute for a while now as we are forever borrowing and or hiring trailers for odds and ends. Figured why not replace our little runaround car with a ute. Win win. I didn't want a single cab as I like the idea of having room inside for gear, and at a push, people. Wasn't so keen on double cab as that seems like overkill on the inside space (I have no friends anyway so don't need to fit 4 adults) and means a much smaller deck. Enter the king cab....

Spotted this locally and held off looking at it as I would have preferred a wellside. After not being able to find one that wasn't a heap of crap, I went and had a look anyway. Was impressed with how tidy it was (considering it's age, 1990) and pretty much had me sold on the spot. Bit of a haggle on price and picked it up the next day. 2.5 petrol (z24) and 5 speed manual. Does what it needs to do. Rear seats are legit, had four up yesterday (as long as the people in the back are reasonably small). Fold away for ample room for bags and whatnot which is awesome.

Was pretty farmer joe spec, so decided to fix that ASAP. So as per the photos I got busy this weekend, and must say I'm pretty happy with the result. Reused the timber sides (hit them with an electric planer, my new favorite toy), new ply on the deck, and generous amounts of black paint. Next up is a bit of low and some wheels, then that'l be about it. It's got pretty bad drivers side (and fuel tank) sag, so have tracked down some second hand leafs for it, so will make a matching pair, chuck some blocks in, and wind the front down to suit.

 

 

 

 

 

[Beaver]

[Willdat?]

Growing up we had a 720 king cab as our only family vehicle. I was 6ft tall when it was finally replaced. I've always lusted after one of these or a Hilux xtracab.

[xsspeed]

lush, next purchase is likely to be a ute albeit 4x4 so keen on feedback

[CaMpylobacter]

Shit yeah this is mean 

my dad used to have a horrific z24 d21 that’s had a knockey z18 put in as the noisiest gearbox I’ve ever heard. I did some much towing and roadies in that thing and it never let me down.

[johnnyfive]

Had never considered the rear seats in these could be side saddle, wild!

[RUNAMUCK]

The best part is that 6 stud wheels have an  "anti tax" on them. You can get really sweet reyums for 1/3 or 1/4 the price of the same wheels in four of 5 stud. 

Its fucking brilliant!

Cool rig Beave.

[Beaver]

Haha yeh they are definitly cheaper. Probably because everyone else is just putting d windows on their Utes lol.

If anyone has some sweet 6 stud rims stashed away I'm all ears

[Beaver]

So I noticed it would always run cold, and never warm up properly. The temp sender had been replaced recently as apparently the temp gauge had stopped working. I thought perhaps the thermostat was playing up or something,. So I drained the radiator in preparation of taking the thermostat housing off....color of water was not promising, very rusty. Then whipped the thermostat housing off.....no thermostat. Awesome. So feared the worst thinking the rad must have been chooched, but figured Id give it a good flush out and see what happened. So went to town with the garden house, whacked a new thermostat it, and boom, now warms up properly and doesn't seem to have nay issues getting too hot or anything. Success.

Next item was the speedo which over read by like 20kph. The needle had snapped as sometime and someone had just glued a random piece back on, albeit crooked, which caused the over read. 5 seconds with a lighter and straightened it out. Boom.

Tacho also didn't work, and then I noticed the needle was bent as well and jamming on the dash face. So straighten that as well with high hopes. With the key off, it sits on 4500rpm....then when key on it slams to zero. It works in the sense it moves as the revs rise, but it under reads by about 1000-1500rpm. lol. Semi success.

Starter motor would occasionally make horrendous noises and sounded like the teeth were engaging properly with the ring gear on the flywheel and wouldn't turn the motor over. Pulled it out expected it to be gummed up or something, but turned out the main 12v feed was just not done up properly. Hopefully this fixes it. PS, the start motors are a nightmare to get off on this, forearms are bruised and battered today haha. Success until proven otherwise.

Oddly enough I'm actually enjoying diagnosing and fixing these little things. Is also quite nice working on something that isn't oily, smelly, and diesel for a change.

And in other news we sold our VW golf so now have a strict fleet of Nissans (this, my gloria wagon, and a xtrail for adult duties).

 

 

 

 

[Shakotom]

Jelly. This is lush.

Pics of loaded up with bikes plz 

[Yowzer]

Gotta love the previous Barry work on it

[Spencer]

Yeah lush whip. Just a thought, if some dweeb has whipped out the thermostat then you would guess it got hot at some point (unless just total durp) if you say the water was gross then high chance the rad has some shit in it, would look into getting it cleaned at minimum. So many old radiators you assume are sweet can cock you over once you load it up.

[Beaver]

Yeh I broke my own cardinal rule which is don't even bother fucking around with temperature related problems until you know for 100% that the radiator is good.

You're right though, I should just get it done properly.

 

[GuyWithAviators]

12 minutes ago, Beaver said:

Yeh I broke my own cardinal rule which is don't even bother fucking around with temperature related problems until you know for 100% that the radiator is good.

You're right though, I should just get it done properly.

 

Fwiw my td27 d21 had wrong temp thermostat in it and temp sender for glow plugs disconnected. Fixed that and replaced water pump with a unit with actual fins on the impeller and it’s mint. 

[Beaver]

Yeh I should probably check the water pump as well...

[piazzanoob]

sweet ute!

have found that white vinegar is good for cooling system flushes. put couple litres in with water and let it run through a few heat cycles and drain it.

it surprised me how much crap came out.  

[Ghostchips]

I find it helps to neutralize the white vinegar with a baking soda heat cycle before flushing with water in preparation for normal coolant.

[Beaver]

Finally got around to having a play with the leaves to try sort out the lopsidedness. So swapped out what I thought was a sagged set of leaves with another, and it made no difference. So then put the supposed sagged set into the high side and it stayed high so that confirmed it wasn't anything weird with the leaves. So then looked at the front which was also lopsided and suddenly occured to me it could be the front loading up the back in weird ways. So dropped the high front side down via torsion bar to match the other. That seems to have done the trick and is now reasonably level so I'm calling that a win.

Still hunting for some choice wheels.

Has done a couple of trips to Rotorua and back, one with a giant smoker on the back, has lapped it up so far.

[Bistro]

18 hours ago, Beaver said:

Still hunting for some choice wheels.

When are you coming to pick up the set of 16x8 Crags

[Beaver]

Sheeet need to find an excuse to come visit