i have been running 245/35/18's rotalla tires on the fairmont and they are about 15xxx kays old so far and they have been going well and i picked the up at tires for less at fairfield east.

not the 100% best in the wet but i am happy with them

cheers, bear

XB GT Bonnet - Refresh Progress

I have been a bit slack in starting work on the bonnet, mainly due to not wanting stuff it in the process, but finally picked up the power tools and went to work.

A few weeks ago I marked and trimmed the bracing under the bonnet behind the vents.







This has cleaned up the look underneath. I think that is all that is the changes I will make, and will paint it all Jet Black. I did have some thoughts about adding some white LED strips behind the vents but that may be a bit too ricer-ish. Some LED strips like what are in the cargo area may be added though, only to provide light on the engine bay at night.

Today, I mounted a stripping disk to the grinder and ground back the areas on the bonnet that were showing signs of cracking. I cut back sufficiently until the cracking was not evident, but most of them were down to the metal. I then got the sheet sander out and started sanding the clear coat, most of which has crazed. Once through the clear coat to the Black Pearl it appears to be fine. I got a fair bit done in an hour, and will continue the sanding tomorrow.





Stereo Upgrade

I asked the local lads if anyone had an old amplifier they had laying around and didn't want any more, and DCTodd found an old Kenwood 4 channel amp.

I hooked it up and after a bit of testing found that Channel A bridged worked great and the gain and crossover controls functioned well. Channel B was a no go however.

I mounted the Amp under the passenger seat and now have plenty of power and control for the 10" sub. Quite happy with the outcome.

I will keep looking around for other cheap/free amps.

Another Clutch Cable Failed

Sooo, who would have thought that I would have more clutch cable dramas after replacing the last one in March 2011.

Last week the clutch pedal was feeling off, and I had to adjust it to I could select gears.

Hmmm Not Good!!!

So on Friday I get home from work with some daylight still about, and jacked the car up to check the clutch cable out. I pull off the plastic cover over the clutch fork and find that the 3 month old cable has only two strands of wire holding the end on. Bloody Hell.

I swapped in the spare, and with receipt in hand head to Bursons. Close inspection of the cable shows the cable was not cast in the centre of the alloy piece at the end, which would cause it to rub on the hook.

Bursons sent the cable off to the Manufacture, and on Tuesday I got a call saying they had sent me a new replacement as the cable was faulty. YES!!!!!

New cable has now been installed and all is right once again.

I do have some new information regarding parts for a hydraulic system, and will share that info in due course.

Cheers
BenJ

All very interesting there BenJ, nice work on the bonnet, but, please Mr Hassellhoff no KIT lights!

I had that exact same problem with my clutch cable I snapped the one that had been in my car for about 2 and a half yrs then I sourced one from repco and it snapped within about a month, then got a replacement for free and snapped that too within about 3 weeks or less. The third time was lucky, I've now had this one for about 4 months and everything's going fine so far. But as you said it was breaking off at the grommet that attaches to the clutch fork, ripping the wire out of the casting. I forget what the brand of cable was but it was the aftermarket type that repco sell.

next time you are looking at getting a cable, last one i got for my brothers au xr6. Ended up being cheaper to buy a genuine ford one, than a aftermarket one from bursons or repco by a solid 30 dollars

yep, genuine ftw...

hey benj im currently doing this with my 1991 eb sedan but instedd of using the eb high beam i just moded the wire and im running the ba low and high beam but still using the eb parker i am yet to mount the two adjusters i was wondering if u had a way u did yours and how did u get full cercals from the big one i have achived a nice clean curcel from the small reflector would be nice if your could email me some closer details asap cheers

jwc-22@live.com.au

fordboy22 ruining a el xr6 tichford motor in a 1991 ford eb soon to be 5 speed manual with 9 inch lsd and xt front lights with angel eyes and projectors

Good on you for having a go. I love the look and the improved light output.

Re the large reflector, there is no way to keep the full circle. It just has to be trimmed, both top and bottom to fit in the EB Housing.

Cheers
BenJ

I've got an aftermarket cable I bought thru repco about 18mths ago in the Eb Ghia, no issues with it at all. Was cheaper than ford genuine parts at the time too.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

thought u might like this... as somewhat if a black vs white lol

Hey, that is cool.

Cheers
BenJ

kind of reminds me of spy vs spy

Water Hassles

For a few weeks I have a slow leak from the back of the water pump, where the metal heater pipe goes in.

Then last week the leak went from slow to 2 litres a day. Not so good.

After a bit of elimination work, I established the radiator was leaking. Oh Joy!!!!

After a few phone calls I found a new EF/EL copper core radiator at a cooling specialist in North Parramatta for $175. I installed it mid week, and the slow leak returned.

So on Saturday I resolved to fix the leak. I picked up a new replacement o-ring from Ford for $3.75.

After letting the car cool for a bit, I proceeded to begin the job. Now, for those of you who are not aware of what is involved to install this $3.75 o-ring, here is a quick run down.

Remove all the LPG gear from over the extractors.
Undo the 13mm bolt that holds the metal heater pipe near the front of the block.
Undo the top right hand 19mm bell housing bolt to allow the metal heater pipe to be pulled back.
Replace o-ring and reverse above procedure.

Now this sounds simple enough, but that F*$^#@N bell housing bolt is almost impossible to get to. In the end I had to custom bend a 19mm ring spanner to be able to get some purchase on the bolt head, but I won.

Four hours of work to install a $3.75 part. Bloody Hell.

Good news however is that the leak is now fixed. YAY!!!!

ICS Control

In a previous post I mentioned I had installed an on/off switch for the Idle Control Solenoid. This was working well as per the design, but I thought I would take it a step further.

I added in a relay so that when the A/C pump is activated the ICS is automatically turned on, and then off again after the A/C pump turns off.

Simple but works a treat.

Odd Electrical Gremlin

In amongst the above adventures I had been experiencing an odd scenario with the instrument cluster. On occasion the temp gauge would read full hot temp and the cluster would beep a warning at me.

The cluster is supposed to do this to warn you of a over heating problem, but this would occur when I turned the car on when it was stone cold.

After initially suspecting the temp sensor, a quick test of installing another spare sensor, showed no change. Then I had to drive the wagon with the temp gauge on full hot, and while out ran out of LPG. The car drove fine on LPG, but on petrol it would hardly run at all and just would not idle at anything like it should.

This got me thinking and after studying the wiring diagrams I came to the conclusion there may be an issue with the signal ground side of things. The main reason I suspected this is that pin on my ECU plug has the retaining tang broken on it, and when I loosened the ECU and had it sitting out of it's bracket the car would run normal once again.

I had originally used crimp connections when I added in the extra wires for the EL Engine and the BBM install and decided to check all of that wiring. The week before when installing the relay for the ICS control, I had removed the crimp connectors for the 12v ign source and soldered all the connections.

A bit of checking showed that one of the crimp connections on the signal ground wires was dodgy and I was able to duplicate the temp symptoms etc.

Some quality time with the soldering iron and the electrical tape later, all was sorted and the Wagon is running as sweet as it ever has.

Cheers
BenJ

That is why crimp connectors are crap and only belong on trailer lights if at all.
Good to hear you had a win.

Now let me be clear here. I never ever used those fold over connectors that join two wires together.

I always used bullet or spade type connectors. These are usually good solid connections, however for a tinkerer like myself, after the ECU has been pulled out too many times it puts a strain on those crimped wires.

LOL. I am only prepared to be called a goose up to a certain point hahahaha

Cheers
BenJ