Another successful day at the garage. I replaced the auto free wheeling hubs with a set of manual locking hubs from Superwinch (p/n: 400543).
The benefits of locking hubs include better fuel efficiency, quieter operation, less vibration, and lower wear. However one of the main reason to install manual hubs is you can engage them when you need them without moving (usually a whole wheel turn, normally in a specific direction) the vehicle. They also do not disengage, doesn’t matter in which direction you go. The only downside is you have to get out to turn them on or off, which is not a big deal for us.
The install went quite smoothly except of two stuck bolts which is not a surprise with an 16 year vehicle. Heating the bolts upwith a propane torch helped. Another item off our list. Here are a few photos of the modification:
Next project:
I still try to find the best solution to replace the left side lower control arm bushings. Not sure yet if I just should get new bushings and find a place which takes the old bushings out and press the new ones, or maybe buy a whole control arm. Anyway we need to get the alignment done soon. It is off quite a bit and you already see uneven tire wear. Any suggestions?
An update on what we have worked on this week.
The Delica came with a pretty sweet and solid aluminum roof rack. Unfortunately some of the bolts were rusted quite badly, so we took it off cleaned it properly and replaced the hardware with stainless steel. Now everything is nice and shiny.
The light bar in the front came off too, but I don’t think I’ll put it back, because I rather get some strong off-road lights on the front push bar and maybe mount some additional lighting on the roof rack.
The rims offset are perfect, so the wheels are not sticking out of the fender wells. Therefore I took the fibreglass fender flares off and sold them to a fellow Delica owner. To get the maximum articulation without hitting metal I had to grind down the fender wells quite a bit though. After all this trimming we mounted the modified mud flaps back with some custom brackets.
My friend Jay likes to work on all the electrical stuff, so he discovered a few weird “spaghetti” wiring from the previous owner in Japan under the carpet and behind the dashboard. We want to start fresh, so he took almost everything out. Also the old batteries had to go too. He replaced it for now with a single Odyssey PC1400 to get not stranded in the next few month. More on this subject once we work on a proper dual battery set-up.
With way larger tires than stock we also need to go to an alignment shop. A few people recommended Dale’s Alignment in Langley. Off we went to them yesterday. Nice guys for sure with – as far as I can tell – professional 4-wheel laser alignment set-up.
Continue reading ‘Roof rack, fender wells, mud flaps, battery and alignment.’
DINOEVO spent some time at the shop of Butch and Edwin at CVI. This guys know Delicas inside out and are very reputable mechanics in Vancouver, BC. They mainly did the usual maintenance work after you imported a car from Japan. They replaced and worked on the following items:
- Timing belt and tensioners
- Water pump and thermostat
- Drive belts
- Re-cored radiator
- Ultrasonic cleaned the injectors, adjusted valves (photo below)
- Upper and lower stabilizer bushings
- Oil & filter change
- Front & rear differential fluids
- Transfer case fluids
- Manual transmission fluids
- Fuel filter
- Engine coolant
- Greasing ball joints, tie rods and drive shaft
Probably some of the work are not entirely necessary right away, but I like to have a piece of mind if we are in the middle of nowhere.
A while ago – before we even got DINOEVO – I was researching for any kind of snorkel options. Unfortunately the ‘ultimate’ company Safari does not have a specific model for a Delica. Beside an expensive Australian company I just found FTS4×4 in Taiwan which still makes perfectly fitted snorkels out of fibreglass.
A few people from our Delica Club were interested too, so we ordered as a group to bring the price down. After a couple month, I finally received the package today. Looks all good and I can’t wait to install it. However I want to modify the air canister at first to reduce the bends/piping and get a better airflow right from the tip of the snorkel into the engine.
A friend who did a custom snorkel a while ago, reported quite a difference in performance. We will see how it goes…
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