New 4.2 Ute 'Hexie'

[PeeBee]

Great detail and excellent photos. I agree with @Cuppa, ditch the felt as it holds mud and water and never dries out. I used a car builders closed cell foam on top of the jing ping sound deadener- similar to the car builder stuff and its only the carpet now that can get wet.

How hard was it to exchange the gearstick bush? I have them n the shelf but have not gotten to it yet. Whats a brief description of the process please?

[NomadTech]

Great detail and excellent photos. I agree with @Cuppa, ditch the felt as it holds mud and water and never dries out. I used a car builders closed cell foam on top of the jing ping sound deadener- similar to the car builder stuff and its only the carpet now that can get wet.

How hard was it to exchange the gearstick bush? I have them n the shelf but have not gotten to it yet. Whats a brief description of the process please?

Yep, I decided to order the back piece of vinyl to go behind the seats so I'm going to re-do the underlay when that comes. Originally I only ordered the front half as I was trying to manage costs but I liked the result so much I wished I'd done the back half of the cab too.

The process of changing the shift bush is:
-Unscrew the shift knob and transfer knob.
-Undo the 4 screws that hold the top cover on and lift it off.
-undo the 6 (?) Screws that hold the top rubber on. Take it off, then lift off the rubber heat shield under it too.
-pull the rubber boot off the gear shift.
-Take out the circlip holding the stick in.
-Lift the stick out and change the little bush on the end of it (add grease).
-Pull out the snapring. This is a pretty big fella, I used multigrips and a big flathead screwdriver to get him out.
-Pull out the big bush that everything sits in.
-Clean all the old grease out.
-Regrease with Hi-temp bearing grease (they recommend bearing grease, not black lithium grease if you're using plastic bushes).
-Drop the new bush in.
-Grease it thoroughly.
-Put new snapring in. This was the hardest part of the whole operation for me.I finally got it in by seating one end on the opposite side from where I was sitting, grabbing the other end with multigrips and pushing with my bodyweight a bit until it finally went home (It is a big snap ring).
-Drop the stick back in.
-Pop the circlip in. It seats under the snapring.
-Pull the rubber boot back over the top.
-Reassemble the rubber covers. You may have to put some body weight on the top metal cover to get the screws to bite as on mine the upholstery underlay needed to be compressed under it.
-Put the plastic cover back on and re-screw the shift knobs back on.

Tips:
-Have it in neutral and the stick will drop straight in, otherwise it's fiddly.
-The little bush if it's a bronze one can fall off the stick when you're trying to put it in. You don't want to lose it in the transmission.
-I've seen on some forum posts about this that the factory drawing is only indicating that you can use a snapring OR a circlip. This is 100% flat-out false! The snapring holds the big bush in, the circlip uses the snapring as its seat and holds the stick in.

...Hope that helps. It's not a complicated job. I could do it again very quickly now that I know how to do it and have a technique to get the snapring in.

[PeeBee]

Yep, I decided to order the back piece of vinyl to go behind the seats so I'm going to re-do the underlay when that comes. Originally I only ordered the front half as I was trying to manage costs but I liked the result so much I wished I'd done the back half of the cab too.

The process of changing the shift bush is:
-Unscrew the shift knob and transfer knob.
-Undo the 4 screws that hold the top cover on and lift it off.
-undo the 6 (?) Screws that hold the top rubber on. Take it off, then lift off the rubber heat shield under it too.
-pull the rubber boot off the gear shift.
-Take out the circlip holding the stick in.
-Lift the stick out and change the little bush on the end of it (add grease).
-Pull out the snapring. This is a pretty big fella, I used multigrips and a big flathead screwdriver to get him out.
-Pull out the big bush that everything sits in.
-Clean all the old grease out.
-Regrease with Hi-temp bearing grease (they recommend bearing grease, not black lithium grease if you're using plastic bushes).
-Drop the new bush in.
-Grease it thoroughly.
-Put new snapring in. This was the hardest part of the whole operation for me.I finally got it in by seating one end on the opposite side from where I was sitting, grabbing the other end with multigrips and pushing with my bodyweight a bit until it finally went home (It is a big snap ring).
-Drop the stick back in.
-Pop the circlip in. It seats under the snapring.
-Pull the rubber boot back over the top.
-Reassemble the rubber covers. You may have to put some body weight on the top metal cover to get the screws to bite as on mine the upholstery underlay needed to be compressed under it.
-Put the plastic cover back on and re-screw the shift knobs back on.

Tips:
-Have it in neutral and the stick will drop straight in, otherwise it's fiddly.
-The little bush if it's a bronze one can fall off the stick when you're trying to put it in. You don't want to lose it in the transmission.
-I've seen on some forum posts about this that the factory drawing is only indicating that you can use a snapring OR a circlip. This is 100% flat-out false! The snapring holds the big bush in, the circlip uses the snapring as its seat and holds the stick in.

...Hope that helps. It's not a complicated job. I could do it again very quickly now that I know how to do it and have a technique to get the snapring in.

Many thanks very detailed, I will have a look at it soon.

[gibbo_78]

Nice ute mate! Done well on the repairs too

[NomadTech]

Step 6: Door Cards.

So I had to change a door Latch out and when I got the door card off I noticed a couple of interesting things:
1. The Door Card was mouldy and rotten.
2. The vapour barrier has at some point in the past been cut away.

Both sides same story... This explains a bunch of things: Why me and mate both had headaches and sinus congested after working on the upholstery, why there's a patina of rust on all the unpainted steel in the cab, and why so many of the electrical contacts in the cab are a bit crappy.

So I ordered new ABS plastic door cards online along with new vapour barrier and thought I might as well do some sound deadening and insulation in there too. Also bought a tin of vinyl spraypaint to resurface the door pockets.
Re-did the butyl rubber for the barrier as most of it has been pulled away and is... Where ever most of the old barrier is, I assume.
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[NomadTech]

So even with the dead vacuum pump replaced, new booster, cylinder etc the clutch still felt very wrong, like crushing an unopened coke can. I went to a very reputable clutch shop in Western Sydney who talked to me like I was a complete idiot and told me if the pedal is heavy the booster will be dead. I said it's working, they insisted it'll be the booster. I said "Well I just put it in 3 weeks ago", they changed to "Well you've got no vacuum then". I started to get a bit heated, said "Vacuum's fine. I'm pretty sure there's a problem with the clutch", they jumped in, felt it, told me "You've set up the pedal and booster wrong." I went to another shop. They looked into it, found the clutch was ancient and worn almost down to the rivets, the release bearing was completely rooted (that's what was causing so much force in there) and the flywheel was thoroughly fatigued.
I've got a new fly wheel and an Exxedy Safari Tuff clutch in there now and the pedal is as light my mum's old 1 litre Alto.
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[NomadTech]

Step 7: A/C.

Not a lot of progress pics here but the A/C has been a bit of work. Slow progress due to sourcing parts, constant rain, heat, finding time between work etc; but I finally got working A/C... Two days before end of the most humid Summer that most people can remember in Sydney.

The A/C belt on Hexie when I got her was frayed to the point I wasn't game to even switch it on, most of the 'V' in the rubber was gone. This was in contrast to the Alternator & Power Steering belts which were almost new. "Odd", I thought, "why only do the other two?".
Well because the A/C belt tensioner was siezed, that's why. (Also the alternator belt was too small. I have no idea how they got it on. Even with the alternator completely unbolted and at the end of the adjustment range I couldn't pry it off with a big flathead. It must have been just supple enough when new. I just had to cut it and hope I had the right size replacement. Also cut the A/C belt off. Had to go to the plumbing section of Bunnings and get a breaker bar to crack the bolts on the old adjuster to get it out. It was done so tight the pulley nut had actually bit into the metal. New adjustor on, new belts on: The compressor runs! ...No gas though; it only blows hot air.
Once I was done with the compressor I decided to install new splash guards that were completely absent from both wheel wells.

I wanted to fix up the rest of the A/C before getting it gassed so they wouldn't insist on doing a bunch of other work first (Budget is getting tight).

I put a can of A/C cleaning foam into the external intake: Watched it all come out the top and realised the recirculation vent is stuck closed. Diassembled the blower unit and found it moves freely enough. Tried to find a new vent control motor. Nissan carry them for $470. I got one from a wreckers in the UK off Ebay for $130. It works! Vent now opens and closes.

Put another can of A/C cleaner in: It all comes out between the blower unit and the evaporator box. The seals are gone...Yay.
Reseal with new foam from Bunnings, put it all back together. Local mechanic regasses it, now blowing cold air finally!

Mechanic comments the air flow seems low in the cab. I comment "If you'd seen the evaporator...". 20 years in the bush, on dirt roads with no cabin filter; she's absolutely choked with dust.

Finally had a chance today to re-open the evaporator box and get a mini-Karcher in there with a mix of hot water and Simple Green cleaner, followed by yet another can of A/C cleaner. Also changed the blower and Resistor Pack for good measure to see if that increases air flow. Seems to blow more air than my fairly new D-Max now.
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[jack]

Great write up, I’m glad it’s you doing this and not me.

[PeeBee]

You sure got good life out of that clutch!

[NomadTech]

Revising interior.

So I ended up buying the back piece for the vinyl upholstery and finally had the chance to install it today. On Cuppa's advice, took the opportunity to rip out the felt that came with the front piece and re-did it all with waterproof underlay. I know the underlay in the back half is a bit of a hodge podge. I've hit my budget limit now so couldn't get more underlay (Until someone buys my D-Max I've basically got no cash). I used some offcuts and the leftover sound deadener that I had from the doors, covered as much as I could in a few strategic places.
Got rid of the mess that was behind the seats and neatened it all up. Much better now.
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