Hi, long time lurker here! This forum has gotten me out of a jam more times than i can count. Wiring diagrams, workshop manuals, and all sorts of general tips and tricks on the care and feeding of these rather enigmatic horseless carriages have allowed me to keep mine from being melted down into washing machines for quite a while, so i figured i'd pay my dues by making my first post the start of a project thread!
I'll start off with a bit of introduction. My name is Aidan, I'm 18 years old as of the time of writing, I live in Australia, and this is the car that taught me just how bloody cool older machines can be, as well as how much of an albatross they can be around your neck.
Throughout this thread, I will document my progress in restoring this car back into good conditon, my opinions and grievances on different design choices made in its construction, and every useful discovery that i may make about it. (like how late model first gens share a lot of parts with the better known TF rodeo, or that a bit of corrosion on the little orange diode box underneath the dash can stop your engine from running more than a couple seconds)
I'll be using 'port' and 'starboard' to describe the opposing sides of the car, because the 'drivers side' is different here in australia, and because it too is a hole in the[you have heard the rest of this joke before]
Here's my story.
It all started when I was 13, my parents had just moved up to a rural property accessible only by a couple of rather treacherous dirt roads, and we were on the lookout for a good 4x4 that could get us up to the shops if the rain, snow, or any other kind of disturbance made our road untraversable via front wheel drive. being the little car nut of the household, my dad had me help him research what kind of car we'd be buying.
Initially i was set on looking for a little suzuki samurai(sierra in AU), but my dad had doubts about owning something that was built during his rock n' roll days, and the seller we were trying to contact didn't even bother to answer his bloody phone. :x
And then during a subsequent search for a more 'usual' brand, i found this thing. rebuilt engine, current registration, nice amount of ride height, only 384,000 kilometres on the clock, Dad and i thought nothing could possibly go wrong.
Damn it
This is now what's left of it, an end result of something that started in november 2018, long after my parents had separated. my dad was in a bad financial state, and he lived too close to the supermarket to warrant paying through the nose for registration and fuel for this thing every year, so we decided he'd hand it over to me the day the registration expired (i loved the thing to death and hated seeing how the salty atmosphere at his place was dissolving it like a soluble asprin). and it's been sitting in my endshed's naughty corner ever since.
(Portside wheel well)
Possibly not an entirely unjustified situation, considering the many problems i have to fix.
Both footwells have undergone a 'flintstones conversion', It drips oil front and back(possibly because my bad PCV valve f'ed up the half moon seals), the radiator started leaking coolant after we neglected to add antifreeze, and it froze (what are the odds), the drip rails are mostly made out of bondo, the steering box leaks :evil:, the front starboard brake caliper was seized up so bad i had to take an angle grinder to the guide pins to get it off, the front brake lines show cracks if you bend them tight, the handbrake doesn't work very well because my rear pads are worn far past the groove, my rotors look like they belong on top of a record player, the bottoms of both my fenders have rotten away from dirt packing behind them, i did a dodgy paintjob when i was 'fixing' some of the rust with bondo to get it past rego for one last time, and i didn't prep my surfaces(which is why it looks the way it does), it doesn't idle properly(bad IAC), the previous owners have left a lot of wiring which they've ever so thoughtfully spliced into different colours along their lengths, the differential makes whirring noises, synchromesh on first gear is completely gone(to the point i don't know if the MUA-5 ever had it in the first place), and fifth gear makes a really cool cooing sound for as long as you're in it.
Gonna be one hell of a first car.
See below for some more shock horror!
I'll start off with a bit of introduction. My name is Aidan, I'm 18 years old as of the time of writing, I live in Australia, and this is the car that taught me just how bloody cool older machines can be, as well as how much of an albatross they can be around your neck.
Throughout this thread, I will document my progress in restoring this car back into good conditon, my opinions and grievances on different design choices made in its construction, and every useful discovery that i may make about it. (like how late model first gens share a lot of parts with the better known TF rodeo, or that a bit of corrosion on the little orange diode box underneath the dash can stop your engine from running more than a couple seconds)
I'll be using 'port' and 'starboard' to describe the opposing sides of the car, because the 'drivers side' is different here in australia, and because it too is a hole in the[you have heard the rest of this joke before]
Here's my story.
It all started when I was 13, my parents had just moved up to a rural property accessible only by a couple of rather treacherous dirt roads, and we were on the lookout for a good 4x4 that could get us up to the shops if the rain, snow, or any other kind of disturbance made our road untraversable via front wheel drive. being the little car nut of the household, my dad had me help him research what kind of car we'd be buying.
Initially i was set on looking for a little suzuki samurai(sierra in AU), but my dad had doubts about owning something that was built during his rock n' roll days, and the seller we were trying to contact didn't even bother to answer his bloody phone. :x
And then during a subsequent search for a more 'usual' brand, i found this thing. rebuilt engine, current registration, nice amount of ride height, only 384,000 kilometres on the clock, Dad and i thought nothing could possibly go wrong.
Damn it
This is now what's left of it, an end result of something that started in november 2018, long after my parents had separated. my dad was in a bad financial state, and he lived too close to the supermarket to warrant paying through the nose for registration and fuel for this thing every year, so we decided he'd hand it over to me the day the registration expired (i loved the thing to death and hated seeing how the salty atmosphere at his place was dissolving it like a soluble asprin). and it's been sitting in my endshed's naughty corner ever since.
(Portside wheel well)
Possibly not an entirely unjustified situation, considering the many problems i have to fix.
Both footwells have undergone a 'flintstones conversion', It drips oil front and back(possibly because my bad PCV valve f'ed up the half moon seals), the radiator started leaking coolant after we neglected to add antifreeze, and it froze (what are the odds), the drip rails are mostly made out of bondo, the steering box leaks :evil:, the front starboard brake caliper was seized up so bad i had to take an angle grinder to the guide pins to get it off, the front brake lines show cracks if you bend them tight, the handbrake doesn't work very well because my rear pads are worn far past the groove, my rotors look like they belong on top of a record player, the bottoms of both my fenders have rotten away from dirt packing behind them, i did a dodgy paintjob when i was 'fixing' some of the rust with bondo to get it past rego for one last time, and i didn't prep my surfaces(which is why it looks the way it does), it doesn't idle properly(bad IAC), the previous owners have left a lot of wiring which they've ever so thoughtfully spliced into different colours along their lengths, the differential makes whirring noises, synchromesh on first gear is completely gone(to the point i don't know if the MUA-5 ever had it in the first place), and fifth gear makes a really cool cooing sound for as long as you're in it.
Gonna be one hell of a first car.
See below for some more shock horror!