Nothing really special has been happening to the wagon lately, but I've got a couple of updates and some progress now! Took the wagon up to the snow as I figured it would be the ideal snowboard vehicle. It was the perfect vehicle for the job, was easy to chuck the boards in the back, plus the ability to sleep in the back made it a relatively cheap venture overall. Got a couple of pics of it down in the campsite at Mt Beauty.



The paint on the wagon has always been pretty average and not very shiny, and lately its been getting some dirt staining from dirt roads. One of my mates kindly offered to give it a cut and polish up to make it look a bit more presentable! But first I de-badged the Tickford and XR badges all around, as most of the staining was around them. They were pretty brittle, very pink and ended up breaking in the process, but I have a spare set off my EL. Going to paint them up in bright red, then put them back on after the paint is looking nice again. I am really liking the badge-less look again, but I have already done it with my other car, and I want to keep the wagon looking factory.



The thought of getting the paint all nice again also made me pull my finger out in regards to the body kit. I have had all the skirts sitting there for ages now, and had to make a start on it. The side skirts are the easiest starting point. I hadcut them in half to extend them to fit the LWB, and they had these weird side step things on them that I had to remove.

I fitted the two halves of the skirt to the wagon, and bridged the gap with some alloy angle to hold them straight. Then I covered the gap with tightly stretched tape and put a few layers of glass in from the inside. The end result worked much much better than I had hoped and are looking pretty good at the moment.





The next stage is to sort out the door pods. I have trimmed them down so a smaller segment ends up on the door, and a larger section takes up the extra space in front of the tyre, meaning the pods are the same size as on the sedan. I prefer this look to just making the pods bigger overall. Hopefully I can glass those up this weekend and then start on the other side!

Yes, Progress!!!!!

Looking forward to seeing the finished skirts on the car.

Cheers
BenJ

Thanks mate, so am I! The rear skirt is going to be the biggest challenge as only the side parts are the same and I am pretty much going to have to make the rear section up to fit, should be a good challenge though

The car is now looking muuuch whiter after its cut and polish. And it is way easier to clean when it does get dirty, it has made an amazing difference. I will try and get a better photo during the week. I made the most of the sunny weather on Saturday, and a mate and I headed up from Melbourne to Kinglake and Healsville, there are some very enjoyable windy roads up that way.

Now that the weather is starting to warm up, the wagon is starting to have some cooling issues. On hot days, it gets up warm enough to start losing some power, around 3/4 of the way up the gauge. It happened in winter too, heading up to Falls Creek. It mainly happens when the auto is doing a lot of work, so I am thinking maybe its generating heat which is being dumped into the radiator via the trans cooler? On normal days, <30 or highway driving when hotter, it doesn't have any issues. Aircon is not on, but once I start using it, its only going to make it worse!

The temp gauge stays up high, doesn't fluctuate so I'm thinking that means its not the thermostat sticking. A cooler thermostat for summer might help, or possibly new radiator/flush it out? I'm fairly sure its not the HG as its not showing any other symptoms and I have had to do a few over the years. Does anyone have any suggestions/things to check?

Well obvious question is when was the cooling system flushed last ?
Radiator cap holding pressure okay?
Take the radiator out an give it a good flush out just in case there's some silt, etc in there.

Check out the A/C condenser at this time too - rubbish buildup in the fins, etc.
Mine's got that extra trans cooler bolted in the air dam - you have one too? They look a solid little item.

The cooling system hasn't been flushed since I have had it, so looks like that first up on the cards! Having owned a few E-series, I just assumed the HG would go sooner or later and I would flush it out then, but it seems to have held out, so might be time for a bit of a clean. Radiator cap is holding pressure and I am not losing water anywhere.

Air con condensor is in pretty good nick, but I will give it a bit of a clean out while I'm doing the radiator. Yep mine has the extra trans cooler fitted, although I thought they only came out on HD towpack models, they might have been standard on XR's though. Hopefully the auto overheating possibility *may* be eliminated soon, I am scoping out a manual conversion for it currently, should liven it up a bit!

Well there have been some interesting trials with the wagon lately. Just before Christmas it backfired on gas and blew the intake apart. I managed to tape it up and get home on petrol, and took it as a sign of the ignition needing some work.

I bought a brand new in box Bosch coil pack and a S/H intake and went to work. Replaced the coil, and intake, then started the car. It had a massive miss, like it was running on 4 or 5 cylinders. I had a new set of plugs there, so I thought I will replace them aswell. Went to pull the leads off and they were welded to the spark plugs. Every single one of them broke before actually coming off the plug. So I walked down and got a new set of leads aswell, replaced them, gapped down a set of plugs and put it all back together again. Pretty much everything replaced that can be in an EF. Started it up again, still missing! So I just left it Xmas/NY, I wasn't interested.

Got hold of another new coil, replaced it and suddenly the car is running fine again. Even better, its smoothed out its slightly rough idle, and it pulls heaps better in the top part of the rev range, especially on gas. So it looks like the coil might have been on its way out for quite some time. Bit of stuffing around, but the good news is, its running well now.

The overheating problem seems to have settled down a bit, I still haven't got around to flushing it, but its on the cards very soon. Interestingly, I think the P/S is overheating too. On hot days, the steering loses its self-centering, and the steering gets quite heavy. Has anyonse else experienced that?

Weird one ???
Check the cooler loop in front of the radiator - mines got bubble rust you wouldn't believe, have a 2nd hander ready to fit. Probably good idea to drain the fluid and replace - might be running Dexron, better to go to the EL/AU Type F fluid.

The cooler loop is there and okay. However I had no idea that they ran different PS fluid on the later models, I have just been putting Dexron in it. It has a rebuild PS pump, but when on really windy roads it starts to get a whine to it, might have to switch it across! Whats the best way to drain it all out?

Well, there's not really an easy way - probably undo one of the lines to the rack, and drain it. Replace the O ring and refit it - I don't think refilling with Formula F with a little Dexron still in the system is going to hurt it.
I know a friend who serviced cabs did say they were running Syntrans 75 in the AU P/steering, to quieten down whining pumps.
If there were a rack issue - like leaking past teflon seals, it would be there hot or cold I would think.
I wonder with yours whether the fluid is old and maybe thinning when hot, maybe with water in the fluid.
Funnily enough, I'm currently stripping down and replacing seals on my 3rd P/S pump - other than the vane rotor assy and the flow valve, there's not much to them.

Just undo the return line on the rear of the PS Pump, stick the hose in an old coke bottle, run the car and pore in fresh fluid as it is pumped out, simple flush.

With a bit of air and possible P/S pump damage added in.

Well I have been away for a month, and haven't really had much of a chance to do any work on the car. However I managed to score a manual conversion for it, with a good condition clutch in it. I should have a Malwood clutch pin on its way soon, as I don't really want to pull the dash out of it.

I also scored a new radiator, so will probably replace it and the coolant when I do the conversion, and ditch the auto cooler lines to the radiator. So things are on the up and up for the old wagon at the moment!

Well I finally got around to doing it. I picked up a set of rear EL XR6 seats off ebay for $50 last week, and spent Saturday fitting them. It was a bit of an undertaking, but everything that you guys said made sense once I was acutally doing it. It was definitely worth doing, and it looks a million times better now. The old seat was looking pretty shabby anyway, and I am not really a big fan of the EF XR styling to begin with.

Major progress this week! The wagon is no longer automatic! That said, its not manual yet, but progress none the less! I have been assembling the manual conversion for a while, got the gearbox etc, then a Malwood clutch pin setup, spigot bearing, new rubber clutch puller. So hopefully should be able to get it all in this weekend!