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Subaru MV284 ongoing toil.


Joey spud

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My inner ball joints (drum sticks) have had a bit of play in them for years.

 

Inner and outter balljoints are sometimes found on ebay so are brake pads but discs are very hard to find and are often incorrectly listed and are the smaller early pick up non vented ones.

 

Rockauto in the U.S have everything you need and if you try to order parts from the same warehouse (A,B,C) then the postage isn't too bad.

 

I use an '86 brat as my look up.

 

 

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/subaru,1987,brat,1.8l+h4,1267769,brake+&+wheel+hub,rotor,1896

 

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/subaru,1987,brat,1.8l+h4,1267769,brake+&+wheel+hub,brake+pad,1684

 

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/subaru,1987,brat,1.8l+h4,1267769,steering,tie+rod+end,7428

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Finally decent weather today so i got outside and played Subaru.
I had previously cleaned the oil and crap from the front cross member and now decided to get the hoist out and swing the gearbox back in.

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I then fitted the new driveshafts but left them loose in the hubs so i could raise the box up higher than normal if needed to fit the engine.

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I don't have a levelling bar so again used my best b+q blue string.
I got the engines angle of attack a bit wrong but it's only a short arse thing so i was able to tilt the gearbox up enough to make them match .

With the hand brake on and the gearbox in first gear to stop the input shaft turning all it needed was a spanner turning the crank via the front pulley and a bit of vigorous shaking / cussing to get everything mated together without any drama.

I'm well happy with getting the heavy bits dropped back in this afternoon as i had only planned on refitting the gearbox.

The engine crane lives up the far end of the garden and it churns up the lawn big time whenever i drag it up and down to the front of the house so that task is now ticked off.

 

I do love a bit of simple,well designed Japanese engineering and as i get older my joints are now creaking so i dont have the patience / mojo for doing big jobs on fiddly ill thought out European stuff anymore.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Obviously the truck used to be beige and it was also given a wax treatment by its first owners (a farm in Pershore Worcs) and this included dousing the inner wings too.

 

I thought it wouldn't hurt to remove it and tidy the under bonnet  appearance and found the easiest way was to use unleaded and a paint brush.

 

There was a couple of bits of bare metal that got coated over with the zinc annode primer before being given a covering of synthetic colour matched beige paint that came with the truck.

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The air box was looking a bit sorry for itself but it seemed a shame to loose its character so i just lacquered over the scratches and bare metal instead.

 

I have a spare filter lid and i fancy having a go at painting a white/red Japanese rising sun flag on to it.

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Here's the under bonnet spare wheel.

I give you an eighteen year old Vera.

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is it wrong that the first thing that popped into m head when seeing that Tyre brand/name was this?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_Electronic_Recording_Apparatus

 

https://youtu.be/6l18q7Gi4GQ

 

I think we are of a very different era.

 

My first thought when i hear or read the word Vera is ''Vinyl Vera''.

An affectionate term from my younger years used to describe an inflatable sex doll.

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Yesterday i got around to plumbing in the last odds and ends.

I have had a realisation that my memory is shot as i had to keep looking back at images on my phone to recall where various brackets fitted and how the simple loom was routed.

 

I also had to clean the waxy stuff off of the underside of the bonnet too as it was letting the side down some what.

At one point i thought about masking up and painting the beige red but then decided bugger that i like the beigeness.

 

20190326_132809.mp4 (Some proof she runs and sounds quite sweet).

 

I went for a very quick spin around the block and the clutch is now nice and light (the old one was heavy and juddered when pulling away when cold) and thanks to the new driveshafts it has lost a lot of its transmission shunt and cv joint chatter.

 

Less good though is the hesitation to pull cleanly at low revs,it might be because the petrol in the tank is 18 months old and has lost some of its fizz.

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Looking good. Never heard of vera tyres!I love the white weller wheels I used to dream of having those on my cortina in the 90’s even though they’d probably never fit.

 

Must admit I like Weller's on these too. My mums old C reg GLSE estate had them on with chunky mud and snow's on it. It really looked the part and was bloody surprising what that old thing would tow in low box, it was well and truly tested by my old man. Iirc the wheels had red and blue pinstripes round the edge of the rim too?

Liking the beige too btw, do not paint!

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I guess it's time to look at the rusty bits so i got the truck as high as i could on my collection of axle stands and decided to start with the passenger sill area.

 

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This was a sort of 'soft area' of sill back at its last mot in 2017 you couldn't push through with a thumb but something sharp could have.

Fast forward 18 months and it's now turned really ugly.

 

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Well it's good in some areas and a bit grim in others.

It is going to need some fresh floor and a stiffener panel making up at the front and at the rear the inner sill is ragged and a bit thin so will need chopping out.

 

I pulled the n/s seat out and lifted the floor covering up and the floor is fine but damp so i think the screen seal is letting water in which has over the years rotted the sill away.

 

Alas you can't get new sill panels for these but the profile is quite simple to replicate and i have obtained a copy pair but putting one up against the truck it is a piss poor fit and will need a good bit of trimming to make them fit.

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The original engine if the speedo can be believed had done 94k miles and was sounding tired but still pulled well.

 

It burnt oil,knocked badly from a cold start while waiting for the oil light to go out and it was a bit tappety although the valve clearances were spot on.

 

Out of curiosity i decided to split the crankcases and have a look at what's what.

 

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I removed the heads a couple of weeks back and there wasn't anything seriously wrong with them bar baggy valve guides.

 

On these Subaru engines you can disconnect the pistons from the con rods by removing two caps to access the pistons gudgeon pin (when they are set at the bottom of their stroke) then pull the gudgeon pin out allowing the piston to be popped out the cylinder.

 

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To get the back two pistons out you have to remove the flywheel and the engines rear housing to gain access.

 

I had been using a bit of tight fitting wooden dowel to pull the pins out but piston no4 wasn't going to play ball as it was a bit tight so i had to knock up a little tool that would hook onto the end of the pin and allow me to lever it out.

 

I do like how simple these engines are,no chain or belt just a helical gear on the back of the crank to drive the camshaft.

 

I believe these engines were a popular fit in home brewed light aircraft back in the 80's.

 

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All the pistons are really clean with absolutely no scuffing on them but the oil control rings are tight in their lands and don't have much springiness to them.

Maybe thats why the engine consumed so much of its sumps content ?

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The tappets / cam followers are also in a bad way.
Each cam lobe has to work an inlet and exhaust valve so i guess double the work equals double the wear.

There is wear showing on the bearing surfaces and a bit of light scoring on cylinder number ones journal but none of it bad enough to explain the low oil pressure and bottom end knock on start up.

I have had a measure of of various surfaces with my cheap vernier gauge and all is good except for cylinder no 4's cam lobe has lost a couple of mm off its tip.

I was expecting at least a couple of big end bearings worn down to their copper shells so I'm quite disappointed really.

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I think the oil consumption was down to stuck oil control rings as i cleaned all the tar and muck from one set and they now spring in and out nicely.
I guess it might have a bit of Toyota dna in it.

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Not sure what to do with remains,maybe i could make a poncy glass topped coffee table out of half a crankcase.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have been slowly repairing the n/s sill area on the Subaru.

It is far worse than i realised but there's no rush so i can plod along as and when i feel the urge.

I have decided to split the work into two bits (front sill / A post and rear sill / inner tub) to keep me motivated.

 

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A lot of the rot in the front of the sill and base of the A post has been caused by a previous long ignored leaking screen seal,water had run down the door pillar and had no escape route so it pooled there and rotted through the A post,outter sill skin,inner sill flange and the end of the wheel well.

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The old grotty bits were cut away and replaced with thicker than standard 1.2mm zintec,the incomplete flange on the end of the outrigger was cut off and replaced too.

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As none of it's going to be visible i didn't fuss with dressing any of the welds back.

I used a 7mm bit to drill the holes out for the plug welds (normally i use a diddy little hole punch on a joggler tool) to give them a seriously strong fix.

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Inside the sill and around the repairs i have given it all a couple of coats Zinc annode paint,once it's all finished i can access the sill cavity easily enough from inside the cab to pump in whatever rust prevention product is the flavor of the day.

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The pattern sill panel really didn't fit at all well so i settled on retaining its original pressing profile where it met the inner sill and trimmed it to suit where it attatches to the door step.

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Again big plug welds in the bottom edge and the top joint was tacked then slowly seam welded before dressing back and coating with the zinc primer.

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  • 1 month later...

Done a bit more to the Brat.

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Zintec is a bit thick so i have used a bit of steel from a Mitsubishi Fto door skin to fashion some flexible wheel arch patches.

It's not ideal but i will do the job nicely.

I had planed to fit the inner (bigger) one first then the outter bit and plug weld the flanges together as it was originally done but it was too much of a faff so i ground some more of the outter arch away and welded the repair panel to its edge instead.

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Now i can piece together the inner arch to the outter arch in sections instead of trying to do it with one wobbly bit of steel.

I still need to cut the rot out of the end of the inner sill / inner arch area but its turned a corner now and it wont need too much filler to make good again.

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  • 5 months later...

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Work on the little Subaru has sort of ground to a stop as looking for and retraining for a new job got in the way.

I don't have a garage and every winter i get on the good side on my neighbour and bung the truck in her dry garage until March time so today i have given it a good wash down and put some old wheels on.

I really need to get my arse in gear with this as i would like to bring to Shitefest in May.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Well Covid 19 and Furloughing equals getting the Subaru out of my next door neighbours garage a month earlier than planned.

When i put it away i washed it down,added five litres of fresh fuel and put the battery up the shed to keep trickle charged (when i remembered) so i was confident it would wake again ok which it did but as i pulled up on my drive it stalled and refused to idle cleanly.

I added more fresh fuel but it made absolutely no difference,it seemed like a blocked idle jet or sticking float and to be honest ever since the engine swap it had been a bit stuttery so today i decided to remove and strip the twin choke Hitachi carb and give it a bit of a seeing to.

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It was a bit gummed up with a few turds sitting in the float bowl so a wash out with fresh fuel and a blow thru with compressed air would sort things out...

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Or maybe not.

Once back together and bolted back on it was obvious it was still running like a dog and massively overfueling,winding the idle speed up to keep it running allowed me to look down the carbs primary intake where i could see unmetered fuel dripping down its throat so off it came again and back to the operating room (shed no1) to try again.

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The Hitachi's cork top gasket wasn't in the best of health and there was a break  (centre of above image) that was allowing fuel to leak into the intake totally ruining the air/fuel ratio.

The only places to get a carb gasket kit for these is from Aussie E'bay or Rock Auto in the U.S so that wasn't going to happen but i did dig out some old cork gasket paper instead.

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So after much faffing about using the wifes best pink nail scissors and a cheap set of hole punches purchased from Detling Autojumble circa 2005 a passable replacement had been made.

And once the base of the carburettor was reunited with its top half normal service was resumed.

In Subaru (Brat,Brumby,MV284) circles the Hitachi Carburettor gets a bad wrap with owners swapping it out for a 32/36 Webber unit with claims of releasing extra horses from the engine but i like the little Hitachi underdog so it's staying put.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My rear shocks are a bit shagged and are only available as new old stock now days so i had been keeping an eye out on ebay as they come up every so often.

Recently a pair of nos Gabriel ones popped up on a 99p start / £40 buy it now auction so i stuck a max bid of £35 on them and forgot about them only to get a notification saying i had won them for 99p,then a few mins later i got another message cancelling my transaction claiming the shocks were "lost or damaged".

So i thought fuck you mate and bought a new pair of Jap KYB gas shocks from Rock Auto in California instead,while i was at it i bagged a pair of bottom ball joints and a set of brake pads too.

All told including vat and carriage i was relieved of £72.00.

I placed my order on the 7th and it turned up today so seven days that included two bank holidays so i'm well impressed with Fed Ex who charged just £14.30.

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Also made a start on welding up the n/s rear inner arch.

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This suprised me as it was just a tiny bit of a bubbling under the factory underseal that sort of spread.

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2 hours ago, Joey spud said:

I placed my order on the 7th and it turned up today so seven days that included two bank holidays so i'm well impressed with Fed Ex who charged just £14.30.

Be aware that FedEx in my experience pay any VAT (and duties if applicable) on your behalf, then claim it back off you afterwards - plus a £12 admin fee. So you may get a bill in the post shortly :-(

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  • 4 weeks later...

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So i got the Subaru up in the air to carry on with the grot removal on the n/s (before spinning it around and doing the other side).

The scabby inner arch lip was slowly but successfully fabricated from the remains of a Mitsubishi Fto door skin (as the 1.2mm zintec steel was a sod to try and form tight curves with) and seam welded in place.

And the inner arch/end of the sill closing panel was formed with the thicker zintec steel as required,it looks a bit patchwork quilt but in reality it is way stronger than what Subaru engineered.

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This is my prefered 'A team' for the underside.

The HG rust remover purchased from my local hardware shop is a real animal and does a good job of cleaning off and neutralizing the brown stuff.

Rust Annode is the absolute dogs bollocks,it's not overly cheap but is 95% pure Zinc and a very thick,heavy paint that dries with a grey primer like appearance but if you abrade it with a brass bristled wire brush the grey coat comes off to reveal the shiny zinc below.

A while back i made a simple metal (zintec) surround for my brothers Cremation plot and painted it with this stuff and a year on it looks no different.

PU Seal and Bond is just like Tiger seal/Sikaflex but only £6.50 a tube and i use this spread out on to welded joints and flat surfaces to give a second thick protection layer.

Upol Gravitex stone chip is my favourite underseal as it's reasonably cheap and goes a long way when applied with compressed air @ 50psi.

And finally i finish it all off with good old clear Waxoyl applied with a brush or Shultz gun.

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Here's an example of a coat of Rust Annode paint applied and then having the top grey primer skin buffed off.

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PU sealant and Gravitex over the top.

 

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This hole was a bit of a surprise too as it had rotted through from the inside.

I knew there had been damage to this lower quarter (guessing the truck has ground out on a rock or tree stump) but didn't realise it had been patched up with a bucket of Isopon's finest rather than a slight skim of filler.

The only obvious way water could get inside the panel was via the rear bed (that has a cover on during the winter months) or the rear lamp unit so i removed both lamps and shone my phone into the abyss.

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It'll be leaking rear lamps them..

The lamps are secured to the truck with four screws and there is no gasket between them to keep the rain out instead it relies on caulking (dum dum) type material.

I had previously used black silicon and assumed it was doing the job ok.I had a dig around my shed and found a tube of windscreen sealant and laid a bead of it out along an old number plate to see if if would be suitable.

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The answer is yes it is sticky enough to seal but not too baggy to drop out of the filled joint.

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The Abyss was treated with the "A team" and the lamp and the quarter panel were both given a thick layer of screen sealant before squashing them together.

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So with the water ingress hopefully sorted the grot below could now be tackled.

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The back end of the inner arch had gone AWOL too but after cutting out the worst it patched back together ok.

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Next up is the scabby bits on the rear panel.

Got to love 30 year old Japanese tin.

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