As some of you may have read I picked up my ED Wagon just a little over a week ago. The pickup saga can be witnessed by looking at the following thread:

forums/viewtopic.php?t=65216

The first thing I needed to do was check to see if the auto was salvageable or not. As detailed in the above thread, it was spewing stuff out the breather by the time I reached home.

Anyway, a conference of sorts with Paulmac devised a plan to test things out. The suggestion was that the filter we put in filled up with the remaining water contaminated fluid on the way home. This was sort of borne out by the fact that the little bit the trans spewed onto my driveway upon getting home was actually red. $200.00 in fluid for a flush was silly if the trans was stuffed so I extracted as much fluid as I could from 2 85Le's I had plus a filter. The fluid was drained through a stocking 3 times to clean it as much as possible and the filter was placed upside down for a day or so to drain as much as possible.

I then dropped the pan on the ED and more reddish fluid came out, bugger all, but it did have a little left. I removed the filter and trashed it as there was some brown gunk coming out of it. A clean of the pan saw the remaining brown gunk gone. I refitted the filter and filled the trans with the reclaimed fluid. No leaks were present so I took it for a drive. The trans changed smoothly through all gears so was returned home for another leak check, the result being nothing coming out.

So with the trans more hopeful than it was, I turned my attention to getting the electrics going. We originally thought that the BEM was stuffed and I was preparing to take one out of my spare EB. However, I spied the relay down by the handbrake (haven't had one before, my EA's were sans that relay) and decided to replace it. Well, everything that didn't work previously now fired into life - wipers, fan, rear window demister, air con switch and horn. This made me very happy as I did not need to pull apart my EB just yet.

One electrical item that did not work was central locking. Previously I had replaced the rear hatch solenoid as it has jammed so i thought that maybe the door ones has done the same. The rear door solenoids were unplugged so I plugged in the right hand one and ... nothing (stiil). So I plug in the left one ans the lock goes mental and won't stop. Once I got the door open again (timing is everything!) I unplugged it. Knowing that at least one solenoid was working I went off to my EB to extract the 3 solenoids I needed. I plugged the replacement 3 into the ED and bingo! central locking had returned. So the next couple of hours were spent removing the old solenoids and replacing them with the EB ones. After I rpelaced the right hand rear solenoid and knew both rears were working, I reinstalled the door moldings. Another thing ticked off.

I then checked the door lock operation with the key and found that I could lock the front doors but not unlock them. I did start a thread about it but after doing a bit of searching, I found that in some cases any key will lock a door but not unlock it. To double check that it was infact the locks and not the door mech, I disconnected the lock shaft and tried the key again - nothing in the unlock position. So, my EA II wagon had Tibb locks so I needed to check if I could replace the ign barrel in my ED with the EA II one without affecting Smartlock. I pulled apart both columns and inserted the replacement lock barrel into the ED's ignition. Turn the key and off she went. Yay! says I (or something along those lines anyway). I then extracted all the remaining locks from the EA and replaced all of the ED locks with them. I now have 2 keys for the car (only had one before) and all the locks work as intended. After that was done, the front door moldings were installed completing the doors.

I also replaced the headlining with the lining from the EA II as the ED's was sagging badly and the EA had a new one when I bought it. While I was at it I replaced the standard GLi roof wiring with Fairmont wiring from another of my EA's. This give me the larger interior light and the two little side lights above the rear passengers.

So that is where I am up to. Next on my to-do list is the following:

LH Mirror does not work, RH one fine.
Little bulb in the steering column blown
Reinstall the carpets
Attach the center console and assemble the trans cover
Replace the fuel pump - makes cool whirring sounds.
Replace the air con compressor.
Front wheel bearings, they howl at the moment
Properly affix the headlights and front indicators. Currently they sit hard against the bumper. May also be a bumper issue.
Replace the heater control - cable solid (rusted) and I think the lever is toast as well.

I have yet to road test the trans for any great distance. I did about 10km's today round trip to school and back without issue. Tomorrow I will go further and check again. I also need to get her back up to 100k/h plus to see if the wheel bearings were causing the vibration at that speed. If not I will look in the direction of the driveshaft or diff, both of which I have spare.

At this stage is has still only cost $510.00 (the purchase price) as I had all the required spares on hand in various cars. I am sure it will start costing me soon.

No pics yet, nothing really to show. As this thread will also be the enhancement of the ED (eventually) there will be pics later without doubt.

Cheers
RD

Last edited by racedirector on Mon Jan 26, 2009 11:31 pm, edited 9 times in total.

Hey RD

Nice write up mate.

Will follow/help your progress.

Cheers
BenJ

Had a quick look at the wheel bearings today inbetween the rain showers. They definitely need to be replaced, the grease in there is old and virtually non-existent. The wheel does not want to spin much more than 1/8 of a turn at a time. So later in the week I will get down to the local Bursons and grab 2 sets.

Also, not sure what is going on with the auto, it started changing harshly all of a sudden during a couple of short trips to drop my daughter at dancing. TIme will tell if my engine/trans conversion will need to be moved forward.

Cheers
RD

Another Update.

Well, I have been chipping away at the things on my todo list.

First up was the howling from the front end. A quick check of the wheels bearings revealed the need to replace them. Off to Bursons to grab a set and an afternoon spent replacing them. Boy, did they really need it. The RH inner bearing was knackered, the outer race was coming off the inner race! The tricky bit in all this was reinstalling the bearing races into the hub and the inner seal, mainly because I had to find something that fitted the outer diameter so I could bash them in. A 1 1/4" socket did the outers, a large hunk of plate steel did the inners and a air con idler pulley did the seal . Now the front is nice and quiet - job done.

Next up was reinstalling the interior. Seats out onto the driveway and an hour or so later it was all in. Another tick on the todo list.

A nice sunny day gave me the chance to replace the fuel pump. After removing the pump from the tank I found out just what is different about the later model pumps. Even though the pump is the same pressure and overall dimensions the exit pipe is at right angles to the top of the pump unlike a car or early wagon where it is straight. This is because the pump sits vertically in the tank whereas an earlier wagons pump sits horizontally. So a quick call to Ford and Bursons revealed prices of $380.00 and $138.00 respectively. Hmmm, thinks I - although the Bursons price was far better than the Ford one I have an aversion to paying for a pump that has bugger all difference to a car one. So I put my thinking cap on and try a couple of configurations to overcome the problem of a straight pump outlet.

Initially I thought of a longer piece of fuel hose to connect the pump to the tank outlet. That would have required a long length to get the curve right and not squashed. So, me thinks, what about an elbow? Off to the local parts store and grabbed a fuel resistant elbow and spent the afternoon figuring things out. What I came up with is pictured in the attachment. This is a standard car pump from an EB II with a right angle fuel hose from an EA into the elbow. From the elbow to the fuel outlet is the original hose from the wagon setup. A couple of tiewraps to hold it on place and it was ready to go. This made the unit slightly taller then a standard setup and a bit trickier to get back in but I got it in and fixed in place. While I was dealing with the fuel system I replaced the inline filter and, at Paulmac's suggestion, I also replaced the fuel rail and injectors from my spare EB II. After reconnecting the battery and pump relay I fired the car up. All good, no leaks. There was a little stumbling from idle but it revved out nice and smooth. My roadtest went well too, a nice increase in power, no backfiring through the inlet. The engine was nice and smooth, revved out cleanly to 4500/5000 rpm, even the auto was playing the game.

This morning the newly installed pump was buzzing occasionally. Bugger think I. This pump exhibited no noises when in the EB so it had to be something else. I suspected the fuel pump relay was dodgy as a relay that wasn't latching correctly could cause the power to fluctuate thereby causing the bump to buzz. So I replaced the relay with the one from the EB and everything went quiet. Whether this is a long term fix is to be determined.

So at this point the car rebuild is going well. Costs so far are:

Car: $510.00
Fuel to get it home (including the trip up): $115.00
Trans filter: $20.00
Trans Fluid: $46.00
Tank sender gasket: $28.00
Plastic elbow: $1.50
Front wheel bearings and grease: $63.00

Everything else has been supplied from the spare cars I have in the backyard.

Still to do is diagnose the vibration at 80kph plus. I am looking at the tyres, especially the front LH. I have a set of 15's to put on and will do that in the next day or so.

The todo list (at this point) is now:

LH Wing mirror does not work.
Radio doesn't work.
Fan needs cleaning out.
Heater control needs replacing - cable rusted.
Vibration at 80kph plus.
Replace the air con pump.



Cheers
RD

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Well, I went over to my Dads this afternoon and the fuel pump started buzzing again. This is now a PITB. The pump itself is a good one and supplies good fuel pressure. It never buzzed in the EB II. This is going to be tricky to get to the bottom of as I fear it is electircally induced. Will report back if and when I find something.

if u can put a voltmeter on the relay and see what it is saying as u drive and the buzzing comes and goes...

Today I replaced the pump/sender unit (again!) with an EF version from Pick 'n Payless. At this stage things are better although there is the occasional buzzing under certain conditions. One day I will get to the bottom of that. I did notice orange grunge in the bottom of the tank so at some point I will grab another one, have it cleaned and install that. Oh, and the wagon I took the pump out of as the exact same colourr as my ED so I grabbed the fuel door for my future remote door mod. All up, another $50.00 added to my total costs.

Cheers
RD

RD,
The wagon looked really nice when I saw it last Friday and sounded good too.
How's the gearbox coming on, was it only the rear seal like we're hoping?
It's sure come a long way since you picked it up, are you ready for a Friday night at Liverpool yet?
I'm sure the crew would like to get a look at it.
Cheers,
Mac

Just a thought on your vibration issue. If, as is suspected this car has been for a swim at some stage, it may well be a faulty driveshaft. The factory aluminium tailshafts have a cardboard tube inside the aluminium, to reduce the noise. If the car gets dunked when it's warm, it will draw water thru the tiniest pin-hole in the welds, and that causes the cardboard to swell up. As the car sits for a while, all the gunk sinks to the bottom, and creates a heavy spot. If you have another tailshaft, try a swap and see if it fixes the problem. If not, a drivshaft shop can turn out one of the welds, remove the cardboard and re-weld and balance your shaft, good as new.
Hope this helps, I am doing a wagon as well, so I'm interested in all your techo bits.
Cheers,

Thanks Paul,

It is getting there....I am finally realising that all the work I am doing is actually paying off.

Haven't broached the ghearbox issue just yet, I have had a few other pressing issues. Once that is done and I do some good K's on the box will I venture down Liverpool way, don't want to pull into Harry's with a smoke trail

Cheers
Bruce

Interesting, didn't know that. I did suspect it could be a driveshaft issue but the U joints are all solid. I had a similar vibration on my wifes EB S and changed the driveshaft to fix that.

I do have a spare EA wagon driveshaft that I will see if it fits. When I get the box all sorted I'll attack the vibration and have a look at the shaft..

Cheers
Bruce

sure it's not just a wheel out of round?

You sure have lots of spares about!! he says with 3 EF wagons himself! smirks!

perhaps it was in the Hunter floods last year?

Howdy all

Long time, no posts. Family health issues reared their head and out paid to most things.

Just last week I managed to get something done, nothing major but a start. I replaced the driveshaft with an old EA wagon one and my vibration disappeared! So sooty72 was right, something inside the original was causing it to vibrate at over 80Kph. My auto seems to be better for it as well, I tend to think that it did not like being vibrated to death...

Anyway, that's it for now.

Cheers
Bruce

Another big gap in doing things, doesn't time fly. This weekend I will be replacing my diff with one that doesn't howl.

This will only be a temporary measure until I can get (read afford) an limited slip. Anyone know which E series wagons have LSD?

Also on the cards in a week or 2 is another engine and trans combo, probably an EF with log manifold and the auto I have bought (am buying) from Troyman. That will basically mean the entire running gear will have been replaced!

Cheers
Bruce