ocd's little blue on the road to recovery

[ocd]

i never thought i would be doing this with the help of one less mentor...but with a great sense of loss and a desire to honor its time to get this little gem back on the road.


i paid $1650 for this truck back when i was a carpenter working for a "green" contractor. it needed a clutch right away so i traded my air cooled vanagon for a clutch job. shortly after i put wheels, tires, brakes, filters, lumber rack, temp sender, thermostat, and a weekend painting over the rust and such i had myself the greatest little bio burner around. after only driving it for about 6 months i parked this great little rig about a year ago when i heard the tranny bearings start to whir. not wanting to chew up the gears and not having the money for a rebuild i let it sit while life happened. finally when i couldn't stand whatching the growing green stuff ooze off of it while i drove the 15mpg beast back and forth to work, dumping money and time in to it when i really wanted to be driving my pickup, i decided it was time to get to work. so i gave it a bath and cleaned out the crap that had gathered in the bed.















mmm gravel

what is this crap growing on my fuel lines?

is this a stock hose?!

lovely way to mount a filter.





while it sat i figured i'd investigate the sprouts growing in the corners


i don't mind water getting in so long as there is a place for it to get out




as my handle would suggest i think too much and get stuck in details.

i was wondering if there was some way to get up oil pressure before firing. like manually driving the oil pump to prime the system. it looks to me that to access the pump drive gear one would have to remove oil cooler and plumbing opening the oil circuit and then turning the pump gear would push oil out all over.

is that the case or should i even worry about it?

i drained the oil and installed a new filter. it seems like there would be some time before the filter fills up and oil is actually being pushed through the system.

[Delos]

I don't know about the oil pressure issue either, i have thought about it before, but came to no conclusion. If anybody knows about this it would be great to hear it!

[davehoos]

the oil filter will pass oil before it fills as it is an upside down type.

if the engine is in normal use.
it takes very short time to prime with oil.
you could remove glow plugs and crank the engine.

if the engine has been standing for some time.
you can pump oil in though the oil filter[center thread hole].
or cut of the end pull out the filter and non return flap or just a small hole with the filter removed or pushed to one side.fill with oil and wait till oil drains in[if it does??].[OH&S--remove sharp bits from filter and very good gloves-its possible that very little oil will drain in on some engines so you need to clean up the excess]

through the oil pressure switch with pump--pressurised bottle ect.

[ocd]

so i've actually been using this truck as my dd lately.

a friend of mine who has owned a couple of these offered to help with the trany but wanted to hear it first so i fired her up after a fluid/filter change and fuel system bleading and took her for a spin and he didn't think there was anything amiss with the sound of the trans. go figure -he clarified what was meant by a whirring noise in first through third.

anyway since then i've found another passenger seat in decent condition that is now my driver's seat and in the process had a better look at the seat rails and figure i can swap all kinds of seats by just bolting the rails onto a frame that is close to the same dimensions. so the mid late '90s pathfinder seats who's rails werent' quite right in their mounting would probably work just fine. i'll let you know next time i go to the JY maybe i can get one of my cameras to work and i can even take pics.

i've also removed the lumber rack since is was rusting and staining the bed. i didn't realize how freakin heavy it was until i tried to lift all the pieces at once. -i took the tail gate off since the handle broke when it was really cold here. all together probably lost 150-200lbs i can tell the engine isn't working as hard to maintain speed -removed and cleaned the taillights. tried to remove the bumper but didn't have the appropriate socket for my 1/2" breaker bar and it just wasnt' budging with the 3/8" driver. i picked up a jump seat for the kingcab -maybe someday i'll take my daughter and her mom somewhere. maybe after i reinstall the heater fan

[ocd]

got the bumper off -another 50lbs off

put the heater back in -blows a lot better now that the thing is clean. heats a lot better since the fan and fan clutch is off.

forgot to put the speedo/odo cable back on last time i put the dash in -put that back together with the heater install - first tank 34 mpg -the same i got on my best tank with the lumber rack, bumper, tailgate, bed full of tools. i figured i would have gotten better with less weight. maybe letting my lady drive it... maybe something else

[ocd]

twice now i've noticed the starter rattling around. first time i pulled it out and cleaned everything and put it back together and it tightened down better than before it was clean. but a few weeks later i heard an extra rattle and sure enough the starter was wobbling in it's mounts so i tightened it up again. ??? maybe lock washers and/or some locktite... why aren't there 3 bolts? ...3 points of contact for any plain... something like that

[plenzen]

Perhaps the bolts are a tad too long and maybe bottoming in the holes? Don't know for sure if the mounting holes in the bell housing are all the way through or not. I would try lock washers before loc-tite. I believe that there is a "bugger bolt" on those that is a bit of a rodeo to get to. Is the one at the top not a bit "challenging" on the SD 22s because of the road draft tube or something similar? Might end up cursing that but

[asavage]

I think that the upper bolt that is hard to access (I use a very long 1/4" drive extension and a wobbly) is only a problem on the gear-reduction starters. I believe access is better with the direct-drive starters. Yes, the upper bolt being loose is relatively common once someone has touched it, because it does not get torqued up enough.

The upper starter (bugger) bolt. Easy to get to when the radiator & alternator are removed first:
(click on image for larger)


Unlike when it's in the truck, with the engine out you can put a 14mm box end right on that top starter bolt!



Hitachi DD starter on left, GR starter on right:


More pics in the Hitachi SD starter thread.

[ocd]

i was able to get a 14mm box end on to the bolt from above by guiding it in with the other hand slid in along the starter. i was concerned about stripping the threads in the bellhousing so i probably didn't get it tight enough.


on friday i noticed an extra chirping noise on warm up at idle that i tracked down to the water pump vicinity. so i ordered a new pump $51 that arrived today. as was eyeing it to see if was a match i checked the coolant which had turned a dark brown. a friend helped and we changed it out this evening. it is a nice cast iron body and impeller made in japan this year even painted the right color. only noticed one casting difference after the upper left bolt bottomed out and we had to add a few washers. forgot to order the little 180 hose. should probably go through and replace a bunch of them before i take to mac's radiator and get a flush and fill. there is still a lot of oem wire clamps on that engine -not bad for 194k miles.

any experience with the G-05 coolant?

[ocd]

went to mac's radiator on MLK Blvd this am and watched them drain, flush, pressure test, fill, replace the thermostat, the cap was a 16lb and he replaced it with a 13lb. he said he got a bunch of rust out. he even removed the overflow tank and cleaned it. rinsed and blew off the engine.

didn't expect the $183 bill.

they were nice enough to take my 6gal of coolant that i brought with me.

the odo reads 1937xx miles

changed oil and filter at 194k

[ocd]

Started having some intermittent fuel starvation issues reported to me by the little lady.
So I cleaned out the primary fuel filter and tightened some fuel line clamps. Drove fine for me.
Another reported stranding.
Went to change the secondary filter and found the manual lift pump plunger stuck in the stowed position and no amount of spinning would get it to “unstow”. So I used my handy fuel line clamp pliers and was carefull to fill the filter up all the way and just started it on a high idle till it smoothed out.(195k)
the next time i looked at the plunger it was stuck in the upright position.
after driving it that way for a bit the plunger functioned as designed.
then symptoms expressed 2x in a row. the first time it stranded the lady on I-84 E on the way to pick up her mother from the airport. She called me to ask me to pick up her mother while she waited for a tow. I told her AAA would consider the fourth tow in as many weeks would be considered using their services instead of a mechanic and to just wait for me to come “rescue” her. I just did the standard fuel system bleed and it fired up and I drove toward home on surface streets. The second time it occurred while I was driving constant speed 40mph –lost power, wouldn’t respond to throttle, disengaged clutch and motor stalled. Went to follow same fuel bleed and actuating the plunger wouldn't flow fuel at all.
had it towed home cause it was sunday night and no parts stores were open -I checked 2 before calling AAA.
next morning i used the plunger to bleed the fuel system and started the engine and brought it up to operating temp with out difficulty.
i did discover that i could duplicate the conditions by squeezing the short vacuum hose post throttle body till the rpm dropped and blipping the throttle at the same time and the engine died.
Called DFIS and they had the parts instock to rebuild the lift pump and could do in less than a day.
Great! Couldn’t get the lift pump off the IP. Let it sit for a couple full days of work.
Called DFIS again -i purchased the lift pump rebuild kit and updated manual overide plunger from diesel fuel injection services here in portland for $20 and replaced the check valves, springs, copper washers, and the plunger. while i was at it i replaced the fuel lines and clamps to and from the secondary fuel filter and the ip and all 4 vacuum lines and used fuel injection line clamps all around.
and a healthy dose of cleaning, sanding and painting...
drove the same routes that the got the little lady stranded and then up in the hills for a load of yard debris removal and all seems fine. for now...
don’t ya just love intermittent issues?!

[kassim503]

this one sounds like a good'un