It is really weird. Nearly 20 years in the same place and you always have those jobs that you think "I must get to that". Then you decide to move and suddenly all those little jobs come back to haunt you.
About 10 years or so ago I dinged the back of the 4WD. Not anything major, just broke the clips that hold the rear mudguard in place. At the time I "fixed" it with some cloth tape. It was still like that until last week when, while cleaning out the shed I came across the fibreglass repair kit I'd bought to do the repair properly. Bugger it. May as well try and fix it properly. So an hour or so later I'd fixed it properly. It had only taken me 10 years!
Anyway, I figured - while I'm in the mood, lets look at the ute and get that sorted out. Now this ute is over 20 years old, and hasn't really been all that well looked after. For at least 8 years it has been a bugger to get started, the automatic choke just never really worked properly. I'd had it seen to by a mechanic who said that it was typical of that model and the only real answer was to convert it to a manual choke. This is a 1987 Mitsubishi Triton by the way, with a Mikuni carburettor on a 2.6l Astron engine. After looking at it for a while I realised that the problem was that the initial choke pull-off wasn't working. It cost just $20 to get a replacement part (and another $50 for a repair kit including all the gaskets) and really was under an hour to pull the carby off and replace the part. Job done. Boy was I feeling pretty smug. Chucked it on the car and it worked a treat, barring a minor adjustment required.
When testing the car after that I noticed a water leak. OK, probably a worn hose, not a problem I'll get that sorted out pretty quickly. Oh the smugness. Taking a closer look I noticed what has to be the worst piece of engine design I've ever encountered. Coming off the water pump and running all the way around the motor under the exhaust manifold and around the back is a metal pipe. It is the heater bypass pipe. At the end it has two connections, one of which had corroded so badly the pipe had collapsed. To get this off you have to either remove the exhaust manifold or drop the engine out, neither of which appeals. Trying to get the heat shield off the exhaust manifold I managed to snap one bolt off and noticed that another was missing. Given the age of the car and its poor maintenance record there is almost no chance of getting the exhaust manifold off without breaking bolts and stripping studs.
Lets try taking it off without removing half the engine. Nice idea, but the bolt holding this pipe in place is right under the exhaust manifold and you need to be a contortionist to get close to undoing it. With grit and determination I was able to remove it, and the other bolt which is hidden under the hose connections. Great. But no cigar. Short of dropping the transmission out there was no way I was going to get enough clearance to get the pipe out. Well I'd already ordered a new one, but I decided that for the moment I'd just put the bolt that I could reach (the one at the back of the engine) and will rig up some heater hose around the other side of the motor to fix it until I have the time (and the tools) to do the job properly.
Even ordering a new part had been a trial. None in Victoria, I had to get one sent down from NSW, and I had to figure out the part number myself because their parts system didn't recognise my VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). Luckily I'd found a site that has a download of the parts system used by Mitsubishi dealers. Obviously North American version, but if you know what you are looking for it is pretty easy to figure it out. The model codes are pretty much the same, although the configuration codes are slightly different. The best part is that it has diagrams to allow you to identify the parts.
I had this idea that I'd spend a few hundred dollars and get the ute up to spec for the move so we can rely on it for the miles it has to do. Nice idea. But the ute is at that point that I could end up spending a lot more money than it is worth unless I'm careful. So I'll replace the broken lens on the back, hack together a replacement for the stupid heater bypass, and call it quits. Once the move is over I'll take another look at it and get stuck into the difficult bits, but for now I'll just make sure it is safe and reliable.
At least at the new place I'll have enough workshop space to do this type of work easily, rather than the hassles I have to go through here. Maybe that will encourage me to take an interest in regular maintenance. I used to be meticulous in my car maintenance, but that was before electronic fuel injection, sealed box controllers and all the emission controls that are now mandatory. Still, the basics are the same. Fuel mixes with air, burns and expands, pushes cylinder down, turns flywheel, powers wheels. Nothing changed there. Just the twiddly bits around the edges 