What did you do to improve your soobie today

dfoyl · Post by **dfoyl** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 3:16 pm

A bit off-topic, but have you tried to find tyre black (the brush-on stuff) recently ? Just about impossible to find, as everyone has moved to the spray-on type which is easy to apply but makes removing brake pad dust a very messy job.

dfoyl · Post by **dfoyl** » Tue Jan 06, 2015 5:05 pm

Ok, finally received my XT6 wheel studs last night and ended up using the big hydraulic press at work to get them in tight (tried the manual press, just didn't have the force - we use a large hydraulic press for removing stators from motor housings (glued in)) :

And today received my new centre caps:

And continued to clean up the outer rim - started with 600 grit, but will have to drop back to 400 and then work up to 1200 before buffing :

I am planning on gloss black spokes with polished outer rim, and the new centre caps to finish them off. Running 195/50R15 should give me a 0.14% rolling diameter difference from the factory 13's (576mm vs 575.2mm OE).

Removing the factory silver finish was slow, I used a non-corrosive paint stripper which is water based - great on the hands but not very strong. Each coat took 12 hours to react, and I did each wheel 4 times (the one pictured in the last photo had 5 coats, and still had to have a few areas brushed off). The factory finish under the silver is great on the lip as it is factory machined (I just polished out the milling lines), but the rest of the wheel is rough textured so I have decided on a black on silver rather than all-polished.

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 8:13 pm

Bit of work to the Wagon today, Brakes have been pretty poor the whole time Ive owned it. I stripped down the hubs, cleaned them out, inspected the slave cylinders, shoes and drums, lubed and assembled them. Flushed out the old fluid and replaced it with some new stuff. No difference at all, so I replaced the master cylinder with a new one from ACdelco. 100% improvement. My best guess is that the rear brake Master cyl section was not working at all. Symptoms were a softish pedal until about half way thru the stroke, then it would pressure up.

Only issue with the ACDelco unit is that its for the US market, so the bleeders are on the wrong side.

I also had a look at my alternator. Its been a bit hit and miss the whole time Ive owned the car and at some point someone had bypassed the idiot light. I left it how it was when I rewired the car. My battery has seemed a little bit flat lately and the charge current surges at idle (probably all the time, only notice it at idle). Pulled it apart and found this.

Turns out these diodes are the ones that supply the power to the exciter coil after the engine starts. 2 were open circuit and the third seemed to be intermittently shorted out. Fortunately all the rectifier diodes were fine. I soldered new diodes on and glued them down with silastic. Figured best way to test the rest was to assemble it and try it. Now charging at around 14v constant

. I even wired an idiot light back up!

Misc other things, hooked up the reverse lights, wired up some other idiot lights while I was at it, etc.

Regards

Doug

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 7:24 am

Still diagnosing my driveline issues and decided to remove and inspect my tailshaft uni's. First uni at the yoke was definitely a bit rough. When I tried to knock it apart a big cloud of rusty red dust came out which was kinda funny.

I'd also had issues in the past finding replacement uni's because this is a custom shaft and I couldn't remember what it used. Measured by size it is a Datsun uni joint and I bought 2 so now I have one spare in the car.

Made no difference to my driveline issues but good to have it sorted.

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:17 am

Isnt that the greasable uni?

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:38 am

Yes mine all have a grease niple. This one never took any, I suspect it had been on the shelf a very long time and the prepack grease had gone hard. The prepacked grease came out in chunks on the others.

I cleaned out most of the grease on the new one and put fresh stuff in while disassembled.

Brand new thrust bearing is bloody noisy (again), are they pregreased???

dfoyl · Post by **dfoyl** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:44 pm

A bit of a small-jobs weekend on the Brumby. Refitted the chrome strip under the front windscreen (old one fell to bits when the glass was replaced, so picked one up off a 1982 wagon) - slow and tedious job when the rubber is fitted to the car. Repainted the side louvers (just behind the doors) - interesting point was the later models have only the top and side chrome, while the early models had the bottom chrome also - obviously to match the chrome on the top edge of the door (where the door meets the glass). And after several years of ownership the Brumby finally has a 4wd sticker on the tailgate!
Also spent a few more hours polishing the ex-Impreza alloy wheels, and mocked up the 5-stud rear brake setup using the correct (LH) backing plate - the handbrake cable now routes under the support bracket instead of on top, but still is right up against it.

henpecked · Post by **henpecked** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:26 am

spot the difference

to

Proton mouse · Post by **Proton mouse** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:42 am

There's an MY wagon close to the Brumby in the first picture? lol

henpecked · Post by **henpecked** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:46 am

Proton mouse wrote:There's an MY wagon close to the Brumby in the first picture? lol

fixed

henpecked · Post by **henpecked** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:47 am

Proton mouse wrote:There's an MY wagon close to the Brumby in the first picture? lol

fixed

hope that helps - and no its not the stack of 14" rims/tyres

Proton mouse · Post by **Proton mouse** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:52 am

Haha well done HP. If this was Suba Book I'd be hitting the Pleiadean star 'like' button

Post by **Bantum** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:56 am

Gone from Motion Spokes to 15" Pugs ...

Cheers, Bantum ...

nairobery · Post by **nairobery** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 8:09 pm

Front bushes

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:08 pm

Got a new decal for the rear window

Removed the galvanized uprights as well, dunno why they were even there...

Proton mouse · Post by **Proton mouse** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 7:25 pm

They are there to hold the roof up, put them back!! lol
Decal looks good, where from?

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 8:20 pm

Proton mouse wrote:They are there to hold the roof up, put them back!! lol
Decal looks good, where from?

Heh, not with those four M4 screws and flimsy mounting points I don't think

Decal is from fleabay, but I think you can get them at Supercrap too I've seen them on the sticker board behind the counter. Sadly there was no AUSubaru sticker, so I had to settle for this

dfoyl · Post by **dfoyl** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 7:32 pm

Finished my new wheels and mocked them up against the car:

Proton mouse · Post by **Proton mouse** » Thu Jan 29, 2015 7:59 pm

Oh man, that looks ssscchhhmmiiccckkk!!!

JP147 · Post by **JP147** » Sat Jan 31, 2015 5:38 pm

For the first time ever, working boot struts!