Red Targa Brumby

[Silverbullet]

I honestly don't know how I missed your Subinats write up until last week Another epic trip for the books and a stellar trip report Looked like a lot of fun, and a lot of km's for an old EA81! I'll have to go next year, make the trip over in the blue wagon. If you can get your ute EJ'd by then we could go in convoy

under load no issues. Hit that light throttle at cruise and on it comes

Could this be back-lash related? As in, worn out dizzy gear or shaft bushings kind of backlash. When under load the shaft pushes one way then light cruising it relaxes back the other way creating an intermittent miss...Maybe a wiggle by hand of the dizzy shaft would show it.
Whenever I had ignition related problems I just replaced everything I could which usually fixed it Then EDIS fixed everything permanently

[El_Freddo]

Hmmm… I hadn’t thought about backlash on the worm gear which would mean a retune would be needed I’d say. No play in the shaft beyond about half a mm going by my finger dial gauge.

It’s a putting like loss of power when cruising. Glad it didn’t do that on the road trip! I was already paranoid about the gearbox as it’s begun to sing a light whining noise in 4th and currently seems to be giving a fair crack at dropping its oil all over the exhaust directly under it. Fun times.

Cruising up to Subinats next year would be awesome. The date I’ve heard being thrown around for next year isn’t really convenient as it’s “mid term” for me but I’ll see what I can do.

As for the EJ conversion I’m yet to sort out the following things:
- misfire on #1 cylinder. Looks like it’s valves not sealing or possibly a dead spark plug even though I’ve tried two. If it’s not either of those it could be a piston issue. I digress
- gearbox crossmember for the AWD
- shortening the gear selector rods
- locating the ECU in its final resting place
- wrapping the wiring loom for final install
- radiator fans - although this seems covered in your and many other EJ conversion
- finalise air box location and fitment for a factory look in a small engine bay
- other miscellaneous stuff like throttle cable, clutch cable mod, tail shaft, brake MC which will be solved as I reckon there’s a 5 stud conversion in Redback’s future with this EJ conversion.

There’s loads of other things to do yet - get the heads serviced, all new gaskets and cam belt kit etc. All of this will take time and money to complete; time will be the challenging factor I’d say.

But it’s happening and that’s the main thing.

And then there’s Ruby Scoo to bring back into operation too…

Cheers

Bennie

[Bumpty]

Cruising up to Subinats next year would be awesome. The date I’ve heard being thrown around for next year isn’t really convenient as it’s “mid term” for me but I’ll see what I can do.

Class excursion...!?

- other miscellaneous stuff like throttle cable, clutch cable mod, tail shaft, brake MC which will be solved as I reckon there’s a 5 stud conversion in Redback’s future with this EJ conversion.

that new Subarino 5 stud kit

And then there’s Ruby Scoo to bring back into operation too…

Reading this gave me the biggest smile

[El_Freddo]

Thanks Bumpty, I’m glad a mention of Ruby Scoo put a smile on your dial! This might too:

Redback brumby made a “cameo appearance” at the 26min 28s mark in the latest MCM video below! Surely this is a sign that Marty loves the brumby now too

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XqWC5w0y4rM

The misfire issue at cruise is believed to be a carby issue that I don’t really want to deal with but will probably end up playing around with the voodoo carb magic stuff and hope to come out on top. I miss driving it!

Cheers

Bennie

[Silverbullet]

Saw that cameo on this weeks vid, was wondering if you'd be in it

That's quite a list for sure, nothing that's outside of your abilites though Would be an awesome cruise up, compare the same journey between the current donk and EJ AWD. Surely we could get a few MYs to turn up at the same time and make a proper line-up.

With the carb, original Hitachi? If you can still get a kit for them the rebuild is easy enough for an afternoon. Last one I did for my ute (yonks ago) ran like a swiss watch afterward.

And what's this about Ruby scoo? Haven't seen nor heard much about her for a while

[El_Freddo]

And what's this about Ruby scoo? Haven't seen nor heard much about her for a while

She’s been stored at M&D’s for the last two years It’s about time she came home to our new place so I can tinker with her or take her on the odd drive to get her back into shape.

We haven’t been offroad in quite a long time and even longer again for Ruby Scoo. Simple fact is that our family no longer fits in her. I think trips away will be with some kids and Mrs El_Freddo will stay at home instead. We’ll see. I do like taking the Pajero and camper out bush with the whole crew though.

That’s it for now. Had a young fella drop in today to talk about Brumby’s with me because Redback was parked up out front. Looks like we might be organising a regional brumby meet where I’ll be the old dude. His boss still has his brumby he purchased from new, apparently it’s in great condition.

Cheers

Bennie

[Suby Spanner]

With the carb, original Hitachi? If you can still get a kit for them the rebuild is easy enough for an afternoon. Last one I did for my ute (yonks ago) ran like a swiss watch afterward.

Can confirm; My cream brumby sat for a few years, then was a dog to move at all: I think the primary jet was blocked??? I dunno, I didn't study carby's when I did trade school, because everything was EFI by then... so I went through and ID'd the carby, ordered a kit off ebay. Pulled all the jets and stuff I could easily get to, replaced the main gasket, carby cleaner where I could, confirmed the float level was right, put it back together...

It's the best performing of all my brumbys!!!!

Funnily enough, I've had a shed sort out, and I wanted to turn the red targa 180 degrees.... almost 4 years since I moved here, must be probably 2 years since I had it going... wouldn't start... But be damned if I can read the numbers on this one so I took the top off, and it's the same as my cream brumby, confirmed it's the same gasket, and ordered another kit... but I also pulled the jets and shutoff solenoid: I didn't have carby clean, only intake cleaner, so I squirted that around, made sure the jets are clean, and reassembled: It goes! It's not happy, and randomly stalls, but it was enough to rotate it 180 degrees.

I kinda wish I understood the workings of a carby: I know the principals, but if you point to a part and ask me what it does, you'll get a shrug.

But the big news is: I've got a new windscreen seal: I'm going to bodge up the windscreen corners, and get the screen in so I can at least drive the targa until I'm finished the cream one, which, the rust repairs have blown out, so I'm doing a serious job of bringing that one up to scratch.

I do like taking the Pajero and camper out bush with the whole crew though.

Mate, the Pajero's have proved to be a bloody awesome vehicle. Plenty of grunt, reliable, comfy, somewhat decent fuel economy... A good rig.

[El_Freddo]

Yeah Suby Spanner - the Pajeros are totally underrated and I reckon they’re a bit of a “grown up” Subaru in the offroading world. Great onroad handling and comfort with some quite impressive offroad abilities too. No need to go overboard when setting them up either I reckon.

Update on the turbo project. Big step forward today with sorting out the misfire on cylinder 1 - which was actually cylinder 1 and 4 not firing. Long story short I had my wire extension for the cam angle sensor backwards, this sorted out the lumpy idle and smoothed it out perfectly. It sounds meaty when revving it and it does this quite freely.

Very stoked! Now on to “engine bay fit out”.

If anyone else is looking at doing this I reckon it’s a goer at this point. The only thing really to give it the seal of approval is a road test, I’m a long way from that yet though. Complete how to build thread will come after I’m happy it works under load.

No update on the carby issue. But it was good to sit in Redback again even though only briefly when moving from under a tree as strong winds hit us.

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Carb kit put through Redback’s carb. That took roughly six hours from start to finish. Lots of cleaning crud off the carb happened. Then carby cleaner for all the other bits. That stuff is serious business! Probably not good for your skin…

At the peak of the rebuild it all looked like this. I didn’t get any pics of the carb looking semi new…



Now Redback cruises along without issue and doesn’t rattle when revving hard up near 5500rpm. Not an everyday thing but good to know it can be done.

It was really good to be cruising in Redback again. Basil is good but he’s no brumby

Happy days again! Now to remember all the other little bits that need attention…

Cheers

Bennie

[Silverbullet]

Nice work! Wish more people would give this job a go, rebuilding the stock carb. So many large and small running issues are solved in an afternoon of not-too-difficult bench work. The last Hitachi I rebuilt was on my ute pre-weber conversion and it ran so smooth and quiet, stopped at a red light once I thought the engine wasn't running at all

[El_Freddo]

Yeah I’m glad I did the work as driving in the brumby again is awesome but now the carby gremlins are at it again - this time with the idle and powering into the next gear.

The issue with powering into the next gear is a momentary lapse of power/acceleration I expect even from the EA81 and I believe this is because I only WD40’d the accelerator pump cylinder and didn’t stretch the plunger on the pump… rookie mistake that isn’t too hard to fix.

Idle though, arrrgh!! Stalls at intersection/traffic lights - it’s also not constant at one set rev point, it waivers and not all the time either. It’s loads of fun (not) - but I’d rather live with this than put up with poor running when driving like it was doing prior to the work. At least I can use it and drive it now!

Now to pull my finger out on the turbo project and get that in - just got some things to sort out on that one yet.

On that, I turned a factory EJ rubber grommet around on the EJ wiring and put all the engine bay wiring through it so that’ll all pop out the passenger’s side grommet hole that’s got a blanked grommet there. Pretty stoked with that being done and it should turn out really neat. Now my “big hurdle” is how the wiring will be laid out under the dashboard and where to mount the ECU on the passenger’s side - this will determine how I wrap the loom for under the dashboard.

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Got the idle adjusted nicely now, stoked about that!

Seems that I may have set the idle mixture too low which wasn’t helping.

Filled up today - first tank used since the carb rebuild. At a quick glance I’m pulling better than 10L/100km on my daily commute which is 80% country driving and about 20% urban driving. Happy with that.

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

On my way to work today I was several kms out of town, things were still warming up properly, 100km/h, cruise engaged and things are normal. Then the cruise seemed to be working hard to maintain 100km/h and the engine sounded more rattly than usual, and was quickly struggling.

I couldn’t work out what the issue was other than it was engine related. It was an odd one as it almost seemed like a CV joint issue - the noise had a weird rhythm that got worse with load.

Under heavy load the noise got worse and the vibration even worse again. I was able to limp it home at 65km/h, and swap into the Liberty. I was really late for me at this stage - and concerned the issue with Redback was a terminal engine issue.

I was like a pet owner waiting to hear about their severely injured animal at the vet… only I was the vet and couldn’t wait to get home to diagnose the issue.

And here’s the issue:



Exhaust valve - explains why when loading up the engine the noise got worse and the vibration so violent it sounded like something was going to break.

Re-adjusted back to spec and all is good now, I’m glad it was an easy fix!

It was good to go for a drive again without any issues - I thought it was going to be a while before I could do that again! The EJ conversion isn’t drop in ready - that’ll be the next major engine work that goes on with Redback. If this engine dies she’ll sit around until that happens.

That’s all for now.

Cheers

Bennie

[Silverbullet]

Yikes!! I really thought for a moment that the rocker arm was broken. But the adjuster came loose? That's a weird one. Glad no major damage was done.

[El_Freddo]

Yeah I was very glad that it was an easy fix!

I haven’t touched the rocker adjustments for quite a while and with the carb refurbish running the engine smoother I’ve found myself in the upper end of the rev range without realising until looking at the tacho. That could have something to do with it, maybe.

Also found out I have a coolant leak from the water pump, I can’t complain, from memory I’ve not changed the water pump since getting it.

I also need to check the radiator out thoroughly too. I might have some corrosion and weeping in a lower corner ;-( Last time I filled up with fuel I noticed the engine was quite hot when pulling into the servo, too hot for the distance travelled from work to the servo from a cold start. Feeling the radiator with the engine running only the bottom 100mm was piping hot, the rest above it I could hold my hand on it.

What felt like 4L of water later (engine running, slow pour done after filling up with fuel to let the engine cool a bit), it was full and no running issues until the valve lash adjuster took a picnic from its job. Luckily I wasn’t half way to work, I would’ve been proper stuffed for work that day (parent interviews too - not one to miss!).

Can’t wait to give her a wash and go for a decent drive in her again - just because I can (while I can still afford fuel!).

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Well Redback is definitely back in business! 300 or so km of towing today without any issues while picking up bits and pieces (not cars parts) was a good shake down.

Before the carby rebuild Redback didn’t like towing, just the “free spirit driving” without a wind sock out the back.

Happy days!

Bennie

[Silverbullet]

Towing! How much weight?

I only ever towed an empty trailer once in my ute

[El_Freddo]

Nothing serious, these trips were just bedding and couches etc.

A few years ago when moving houses I used to load her right up and she managed ok. But since then I’ve also put in some front coilovers and this is probably partly why she doesn’t feel good with big loads as the rear is doing all the work as such.

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Well today we headed out to collect some wood. Mrs El_Freddo doesn’t like trailers in general and since her family bus was towing one we swapped vehicles to get into where the wood was. As a result I managed to snap this photo of Redback brumby in its natural environment. There’s something about a vehicle in motion in pics:



Not much going on for Redback at the moment other than needing the water pump replaced as the current one is leaking and it’s slowly getting worse. I’ve got one ready to go, it’s just a case of putting it in.

Cheers

Bennie

[Silverbullet]

There's something about a Brumby on a dirt road carrying a load too Used mine for a few firewood runs back when I was driving it, always rides better with some weight in the back. Firewoods too expensive for that now though!