Shoota_77

Yeah I dunno, it just had it in for me! I'm not sure if it was because it was a pretty new gearbox?? Anyway, all good. It's heading in the right direction now! Once I get this shed out of the way I'm back into it! Boring shed pic-

Wrong. Full electric cars will replace them, not petrol. ICE (internal combustion engine) are near on done. There will be minimal investment on diesel/petrol engines within the next few years. Whether we like it or not electric cars are the future. There are going to be massive issues/challenges to start with but by 2030 it will be incredibly hard (impossible?) to buy an ICE vehicle. I've never driven a Tesla but the Jaguar I-Pace I've driven was awesome! Incredibly acceleration and handling. The obvious issues are (seeing this is a towing thread!) will be towing range. I'm sure they'll be all over that by 2030 but lots of work to be done. For all of the great things that full electric cars bring it just won't be the same..... Cue nostalgic music!

Why do you hate diesel @ActionDan? There's no way I would go the other way unless I owned my own petrol business. I find that Diesel is just so much nicer to drive in a big heavy vehicle. Being so heavy I feel they need the diesel torque to get them up and moving. Have you driven a modern diesel engine (V6)? If you've only driven Toyotas or an Isuzu diesel then I can understand why you may have doubts about them as they are the old generation of diesel engines. Even though the Jeeps have questionable long term reliability the engine is a great engine and the ZF behind it is even better. There pretty much isn't a crap modern V6 diesel in my opinion. Any of the ones we mentioned in Fatz's post are brilliant - Audi Q7, VW Amarok, Jeep (diesel), Mercedes ML/GLE are all great tow cars but you obviously run the risk of issues down the lines as being European cars that can be costly to maintain once getting a little long in the tooth. For me, I'd rather run the risk of a slightly less reliable ownership experience to be able to say I drove a car I enjoyed. I'm sorry but there is not one car in the Toyota stable (excluding the obvious Supra) that would do that for me. Their clinical plastickyness just kills me. There is hope for Toyota, apparently there is a V6 TDI in the works. Will take a lot more than that to get me on the Toyota bandwagon though. As always, each to their own! These are just my narrow minded, biased opinions!

A few minor updates. New 3rd gear and press on sleeve finally arrived from Amayama. Corona making a (unt of itself again... Front diff should be back in a week or so from the dude who is resetting it in the sump for me. I tried BK's method of removing the shafts from the centre plate and had mixed results... The counter shaft went from staying in place after 20 hits with the dead blow hammer to launching itself out and smashing into the synchro on the mainshaft and smashing it in half ?‍♂️. I decided to keep trying with the mains haft but ended up destroying my dead blow hammer which disintegrated in a shower of ball bearings and metal dust.. BK, you can stick your bloody method! ?? Went back to the original plan of modifying the press to finish it off. Seeing I bought the bloody thing primarily for that purpose I may as well use it! I cut the deck in half then cut up some steel plate to weld it back together. I made it 120mm between each side which is big enough to fit the largest synchro on the mainshaft in between them. I also drilled new holes on the middle of the deck to be able to support it from two points on the uprights rather than just the one. Seeing the deck is now wider it puts a lot more load on the pins. Cue more boring press modification pictures! As soon as the mods were finished i threw the mainshaft and centre plate in the press and off it came with minimal effort! Building my new mower shed next weekend so I can get my machining/welding/grinding shed up and running. It'll be great to get all of that stuff out of main shed. Slowly slowly!

Yeah @ Shepparton Volkswagen and Audi.

I've got an SQ7 on a boat docking in a few weeks. Not far from Albury to Shepparton.....

Ha ha. Having started my apprencticeship doing valve clearances on Holden Rodeo's I do tend to agree on old (ie Toyota) technology engines. I forget all my hate when you see what a modern one can do. We've delivered 3 Audi SQ7's this year with the 320kW 900Nm diesel V8 in them. Now THAT is a diesel engine it's hard to hate on! Sounds good, goes good and surprisingly good fuel efficiency if you realise the throttle isn't an on/off switch.....

Ha ha, it's not the oil you have to worry about. Some of them get so bad you don't need an exhaust as most of it just comes out passed the injector and through the valve cover!

How many sets of injector seals did you do in the Q7? They chew through them like lollies in the older generation!

Ha ha, yeah enough is never enough!

God don't get me started on the most overrated, under-performing brand on the planet.... I congratulate Toyota on convincing people that being reliable at the expense of making their vehicles capable is preferable. Marketing brilliance. But as you say, each to their own. I'll take the risk that I might have one visit to the workshop now and then (but probably not) to be able to drive a vehicle that puts a smile on my face! Reliable = boring. That's why we all love Skylines!

My last comment on this so I don't block Fatz' post with non related merde but what I was alluding to was that you can't write something off without actually knowing all about it first. Disclaimer - I work for a VW dealership so I'm biased as hell but I bought one myself as they're amazing. Is it as comfy as a Patrol? Possibly not. Does it ride better than every other ute on the market? Yes. Can I drive it like a car? Yes. Does it have the features of a Ranger? No. I get 16-17L/100km when towing the van (2.75T). I bought it hoping it would be towing my car to Winton on the regular but that kinda hasn't eventuated yet. Ok, I'm done! (see me for great VW deals ).

You are a smart man. You, not so much.... The Amarok V6(having the same donk as the Q7) is insanely good to tow with. Our van is 2750kg and the Amarok still pulls like a beast with it on the back.

PM’d back, will have a look tonight if it’s not too cold to venture out to the shed!

Pretty sure I might have a spare one. Will be an old one though.

Holy hell, that's mangled!

Yeah bush was $40, 3rd gear $131. $180 all up delivered from Amayama. That's one snazzy looking workbench!

I ordered a brand new 3rd gear so ordered a new sleeve at the same time. Was only $45 so happy enough with that!

Thats the thing, I eventually got it to move but then it bound up again and broke 2 more things after moving forward 5 or 6mm. The initial 'lock' or binding was broken.

No, I used hydraulic pullers. The strain on them was insane! Theres no way the 3 pins would stand up to that amount of strain.

Ok so I know those bushes are tight but f♡ck me mine was tight! So it sheared off two lots of my studs, snapped the tip off a puller arm, ripped off one of the 8mm thick metal chunks I welded to it to pull off and then finally snapped off an 8mm stud in my bearing puller. There's no way that was normal tight! I didn't take many photos as I was too busy welding, pulling, braking shit, grinding and swearing my arse off to stop and take photos! In the end I just went f♡ck it and cut the f♡cker off as the counter shaft is bin worthy only anyway. Man what a bloody mission that was! Be interesting to see how difficult the one in my other box that is donating the counter shaft is. Hopefully I don't have to cut that one off... Right @BK what's the next step in the no press dismantle process? Does it involve a piece of wood and some heavy down force? Anyone got a cheap no crunch gearbox i can just check in....?

Hmmmm, I like the concept! I might have a quick crack at that before going the bigger bolt option. Might be too late now that I’ve already cut/ground off the 8mm nuts. If I can’t resurrect it from here then I’ll have no choice but to go the bigger bolt option. You triggered some ideas in my dull brain but we’ll see if they go anywhere. Cheers for the inspiration! ?

Finished off the puller. It certainly didn't end up pretty but its super strong. And the results? Failure! Unfortunately even though the bolts are 13.9 high tensile the still sheared off. I've cut off the 8mm nuts off and I'll drill them out bigger so I can up them to 10mm. I thought the 8mm would be strong enough but no... I'm hoping the bigger bolts will be harder even though the size will still be 5mm. I think I might get them properly necked down on a lathe as my method is weakening them. If that fails I give up! ?

Thanks for your offers @BK. Your dad looks thrilled! Tool is coming along. Made up a plastic mock up to start with. I'll let the pictures do the talking for the rest! Hopefully finish it off tomorrow and test it out!

Ok so Project "Waste More Time" is underway... Got the high tensile bolts for the puller today. Don't have a lathe so whipped out the poor man's version ?. Never tried it before but seems to do the trick! I kept the verniers handy to monitor the size as i went and then finished them off with a flat file to get as close to the 5mm hole size in the sleeve as possible. Once I've made the puller section I'll grind the tips to the perfect length (3.85mm) so the necked down section is as short as it can be to make it as strong as possible. Feel free to let me know if posting this stuff is boring as bat shit. Its not very car related at the moment. I've got thick skin so you won't offend me!