Gotta love cars and the curve balls they throw ya from time to time

Just checked those items you had on TM.. those ROH RT's are a very nice looking wheel, wish I had the money to take them off your hands lol.

lol, don't let that stop you Nath, I can put it through paypal so you can pay with your credit card



Yip its the V8 that's testing my patience.

Pulled down the auto for the second time and it's stripped all the lining off the C4 clutch pack again. Which points towards a fault with the S1 solenoid. I think the solenoid might be stuck "on" which stops the oil flow to the c4 cutch pack. The C4 clutch pack is an Overrun clutch . . . primary function is to provide engine braking in manual 1st, 2nd and 3rd. In 2nd and 3rd gears to prevent objectionable ‘freewheel coasting’.

We checked and cleaned the original valve body pretty carefully before reassembling the trans the first time and the solenoid was within the allowable resistance range when checked with a multimeter.

Before I pulled the trans out for the second time I tried a AU valve body and the car did drive better but I suspect the C4 clutch packs were already toasted by that stage.

I'm trying to work out if this is a physical problem with the S1 solenoid or is it to do with transmission control from the ECU? Or did I f**k up installing the wave washer in the clutch pack?

Does any one know what voltage the solenoids are so i can test them or are any auto trans experts watching???

Hope to have the auto back in the V8 early to mid next week. Just have to wait for all the new parts to arrive so it can be reassembled.

I bought a digital fault code reader off Muzza and that should arrive early next week too.

Looking forward to having this car back on the road; it's been a glorified paper weight for a little bit to long and I'm sick of not having a car I can actually drive.

Had a look at the Green XE Turbo the other day and saw my brother has fitted a new alloy radiator and it looks like its actually left the garage for the first time in about a year.

Well back in Vancouver now.

Never did get the the V8 Fairmont going again before I left. Once the big quake hit a few essential parts ended up being stuck in town after the city centre was cordoned off. Got them all back now but didn't have the motivation to f**k round with the car.

I did manage to bolt up the ELGT extrators to the car so that was a bonus.







The 3.45 LSD diff from the XR6 is going in for a bit of a freshen up before being fitted too. The local ford dealership totally balls up my order for the speedo drive to suit the 16" wheels and 3.45 diff ratio so didn't get that before I left. The V8 will remain an on going project...

Yeah, just about to start for the hunt for the campervan, will get some quotes for insurance and other related costs over the next couple of days. I haven't even stepped inside one yet so I'm not sure what to look for. The camper in the link below is still the main contender; I want one with the 5.4L V8 rather than the bigger V10 engine.

http://www.cruisecanada.com/buy/modelDe ... odelNo=23A

I know the price is quite good. A similar sized unit in NZ was about $65k NZD. However most of the campers in NZ and Oz are built off Japanese 3-4 tonne truck and cab chassis with diesel engines so they are quite good on fuel.

We don't know what to expect with regards to fuel consumption from a lazy 5.4L V8 with a giant brick on the back; could range from 18.1L/100km to 33.6L/100km.

I drove something like that around the US for a few weeks. It was a supercharged V10 Chev. It went well when you put the foot down, but after the first gas stop I realised that you pay for putting your foot down

Once out on the open roads, it did good speeds with reasonable economy.. cruised through Nevada at 80-85mph

do they come with the powerstroke to?

I haven't seen one yet. You can get Dodge (Mercedes) Sprinter based diesel campers but they are out of my price range.

Been doing a lot of looking at motor homes. Still haven't found the one I want to buy yet here's a few of the contenders:

This '02 unit is the 6.8 L V10 and should be a 4 speed auto. Its sporting a fuel economy of about 9 mpg. It's the layout and size (24ft) i want and it ticks all the boxes but a dealer has it and want's about $5k CAD more than I want to pay for it. I does have an on-board generator and LPG oven which are on my must have list.

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This '01 unit is also a 6.8L V10 but only 22ft. It still only did about 9 mpg. A bonus of this one is it had a slide out for the dinette but the layout may not suit our needs. It's 10k cheaper that the unit above.

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Heres's a couple of units I looked at but had to reject to do their condition.

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This puppy was interesting. a '94 with a 460ci V8 and 3 speed auto. Capable of an impressive 5 -7 mpg It was really cheap but need a full set of tires, a new exhaust, new mattresses and an owner that had shares in an oil refinery.

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We decided that maybe we should look at smaller more fuel efficient units. I stumbled across this van conversion. Being a Mercedes Sprinter van it's good for about 20mpg. The missus liked the size as it would be easy to park. They wanted 39K for it so it was at the very upper limits of my budget. But it was 10k cheaper than the next cheapest Sprinter van converson.

It still had pretty much every in it but it was just a lot smaller, The dinette / couch in the back of the van folded down into the bed. It wasn't exactly what we wanted but we could make do and I could live with the fact I couldn't actually stand up fully in the back of it.

It was all looking good, looked tidy enough and everything worked; but then I went to pop the bonnet and saw the rust at the bottom of the windscreen. Rust bubbles along the entire length of of the windscreen. It would need the screen out and proper repair. I could have run the risk that I could hide the rust with a bit of bog but if I ever had to replace the windscreen the rust would need to be fixed properly before the windscreen could go in. A risk you can't afford to take on the road in-case it happens in a hicksville town miles from anywhere. Dam shame.

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