Lucy: 1KZTE Turbo

I had started to get a weird buzzing on throttle above 2500rpm under load, and then over the course of a week or so had started to burn oil on start up, so much that she would misfire and splutter every morning and afternoon - v embarrassing and not healthy at all. I drove to Parsley Hay car park one day after work to go hiking, stayed the night in the truck after finishing late. She took some turning over in the morning and choked in to life in a cloud of acrid smoke. After inspecting the intake I diagnosed bust seals and worn journal bearings.

Access was an arse at times, but on the whole removal and refit was straightforward. To split the compressor and the turbine I had to remove a collar similar to an exhaust clamp. Once that came off the two halves just fell apart... not! Dean came up with the ingenious solution of 3 bolt 'presses' placed between the housings, with a socket butted against a nut on the end so that as you wound the nut, the sockets pushed the compressor away form the turbine - see pic 1013. Once they were split, disassembly of the turbine shaft and bearings etc was OK, and I only pinged two of the tiny little circlips across my lounge.

Rebuild started on Saturday and then everything tightened and checked over on Sunday. I'm pleased to say that she's back to her usual immaculate behaviour

Lucy - Strip Part II

She's stripped to bare body on the outside now, first order in with Toyota for replacement bumpers, window rubbers and more. Sam at Nuneaton has been fantastic and beat roughtrax prices; I think I might be their best customer but everyone apart from Sam looks at me like I've got mental difficulties spending so much on an old truck. I could be putting my hard earned money toward a lovely new aygo (with what looks like a drainage system criss-crossed on the front), or some w4nky hybrid that might make me feel righteous on the way to my gender neutral organic vegan supermarket.

Getting the rear quarter glass out was sticky! All remnants of butyl now gone fortunately. The wings have since been removed and the RHR fuel fill line bracket is soaking in pen oil in the hope that it'll crack the thread and not the bolt shaft when I return.

Anyone else thinking Mad Max? Weld up a couple of spikes, fit some rusty herrace fencing, get Tina Turner singing out the back.

Lucy - Strip Part I

My Surf got stolen back in August last year, from a carpark in Leeds - smashed rear door quarter glass and then chiselled off the ignition barrel, bypassed the alarm and immobiliser. I got complacent living in quiet countryside thinkking that security was enough and and have learnt a good lesson in not f*cking about. Thatcham approved plus a big yellow disc lock or similar will be on the cards.

Fortunately, I got her back. They used her to reverse ram a pay n display meter over, hit the RHF corner, smashed my wing indicators, and wrapped everything that was in the back up in my load liner. Somehow, they missed the brand new exhaust and Alpine amp. They didn't take my fancy wooden sunglasses in the centre console; they did take my five year old smelly trainers. Who knows.

Five years of hard work and money is of no regard to a couple of crackheads, but Hilux's don't go down easy. I priced up the new parts I need from Toyota and Roughtrax and need a load of trim pieces and brackets from another Surf and/or eBay.











The damage to the floor is only on the bumper bracket fixing points where they've pulled a bit, both rear quarters are fine bar a scuff on the RHS. I've spent this week stripping bumpers, lights, running boards, arch extenders, doors, glass and salvaging bits from the tailgate. The doors are in with the body shop next door (Luke Ferla and Jason in Gilmorton) for corrosion repair and paint while I continue to prep the rest of the body and get some chassis service items done.

Solid Air - The Canoe Build

When did you first paddle a canoe? It's a wet May day outside; the smell of the rain reminds me of waking in a tent with a day on the river in prospect - as fresh a memory as a teenager and twenty-something as it is being a sub four foot kid in a eurocamp with my family. There's always been three consistencies - food, friends, and the peace of the river. In our teens, my friend, Josh, let us use one of his dad's old boats (one plywood craft that he'd made in his younger days, and one gorgeous ribbed Canadian that he'd bought second hand and refurbished). Another friend, Andy, had an Old Town and a couple of dagger kayaks that would sometimes complete our crew for trips near home.

Years pass, cars take precedence; trips that were once long enough to fill a week are curtailed early to drive a thousand miles to Amsterdam. I got in boats less frequently but my love and fascination for rivers never abated. It's always been rivers and trees over beaches or anything else.

Ray Mears I am not (maybe one day, when I grow up), but I wanted to try and make a canoe. I looked for plywood kits like the one that Josh's Dad must've used years ago, and found Stanley Small Craft. I bought their 10 footer - perfect for one full sized human or a couple of smaller ones. It arrives, flat packed and wrapped up, just as below. 

The instructions the Stanley guys provide are very thorough with good pictures - there's nothing terribly complicated, it is a matter of remaining patient and working methodically. John Martyn helped me along with this, and his first album ended up becoming the name for my canoe - Solid Air. Listen.

Butt Joint the Lengths

Lay flat, pre coat the areas to be jointed with epoxy resin, apply wet, webbing tape, cover with plastic sheeting, weigh down.

Stitching
Lay your panels in rough order, drill a little way in from the mating edge and slowly pull the sides up using cable tie stitches. I think you'd describe this as a hard chine hull, referring to the sharp angles created by the flat ply at the joints. I worked on the sides first, loosely stitching each end while I got my chines symmetrical.

Stick the gaffa tape on and call it a day?

Finalising the Shape

Once the sides are up you can concentrate on the bow and stern. The yoke goes in next, after which I think I had to shuffle some of my stitches to get everything even again. Great fun seeing it take shape around this stage. 

First Fillets

Epoxy resin goes neat on the bare surfaces around the joints, before adding silica and fluffy sawdust to create a filler to slide into the gaps on the outside. I did a low profile first fillet on the inside joints, and then removed the stitches. 

Sanding
All holes filled, fillets built up and outside joints profiled. Then the first of many sanding sessions - this one quite mild in preparation for the taping. I used abranet (80/180) on a flat velcro block.

Taping the Joints
Laying the wet tape flat and without creases was easier than expected, even on the bow and stern, but you still end up with a small ridge at the sides of the webbing. Below is the first fill using the original epoxy filler mix, maintaining a high resin content for strength. I bulked out the fillets on the bow and stern as much as possible at this point too.

Bulkheads and Decks
Once all my taped joints were well covered I prepared the bulkheads and decks. I had to cut the deck lengths down quite a bit to fit as the shape I'd defined got broader toward the yoke than the boards did. The boat is stiff in the right places but I probably wouldn't go any shorter.

I fitted the bulkheads and sanded the excess epoxy all over prior to positioning the decks.

Then filleted the underside and top, building up the filler at the apex.

Shaping the Deck Head (if it had a figurehead, it might be called the 'Prow')
I'm sure what I've done could be achieved with a delicate touch on the epoxy and a lot less sanding, but at this point I got the abranet out again to smooth and contour.

Surface Finishing and Final Seal
Next up, to get a smooth finish on the external joints I ran two coats of a much finer epoxy wood filler using 180 grit in between. The final task before paint was another seal with pure resin.

Paint
I debated over paint - both type and application - for ages. I am liable to overthink. The choice made was for 2K - a two pack epoxy based paint which is commonplace for car manufacturers - something used everyday in the body shop next door. I went for 2K in a can which has a separate reservoir at one end from which you pull a release pin to mix the activator with the paint. It was expensive at ~£15 per can but went on great, has dried rock hard, plus mixing it reminded me of Dennis Nedry's covert shaving can in Jurassic Park. Colour is Raven - 18B29 from British Std colour chart 5252.

First ride out on the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal, leaving the truck and floating off from North Kilworth boat yard. I went down as far as Welford locks before the marina and then back up to the entrance to Husbands Bosworth tunnel.

Gunwhales 
First attempt at bending my gunwhales below. I've never steamed before so thought I'd see how far you can get just stretching while damp - not far enough. I purchased some polytubing from ebay to slide my gunnels into, and then fed them with a wallpaper steamer for about ten minutes, when everything is hot and flexible. I didn't have enough clamps to keep everything tight while bending up and in from midships, so I have a second steaming session to complete. D4 woodglue on it's own? Button head rivets to secure? I'll add photos when they're done.

Lucy: 1KZTE Fuel Pump Rebuild

For about a year I'd had a single misfire when on long motorway journeys - an hour'ish into driving and BUMP, then calm again - only ever once through the trip. Recently I'd come back south from Leeds and the single bump manifested itself into a series of them, forcing me to the hard shoulder to restart the ignition, upon which she fired back into juicy diesel chugging life.

I knew I had to strip the fuel pump next time I was in the shop, but days after getting home from Leeds I get a call from my brother to tell me Mum's gone into hospital. We need to get down to the Riviera - Paignton - straight away. I leave that afternoon, heading down the Fosse way to join onto the A46 and then the M5. By the time I reach the motorway the motor has already stumbled, and the token gesture of a half litre of redex I poured in at a service station was contributing nothing to the party. I made it to junction 14 before the stumble became a splutter, and the truck resigned from duty.

Recovered by a nice west country guy, called Andy, we make it back about eleven pm, direct to the farm where my unit is to offload the truck and pickup the Panda. I take that home and sleep well. On leaving the next morning I make it as far as the edge of Coventry before realising the car has no road tax. That debacle felt like the last, until, two hours later, on a downhill and twisty section of the A38, the rear brakes fail - pedal goes to the floor, then starts kicking back at my foot, bouncing up and down. The final twelve miles are horrible, but I make it to Mum's, where she's now returned from what thankfully turned out to be a false alarm.

Later inspection reveals the friction material to have delaminated from the shoe backs on the rear brakes, so two floating crescents of it were battering their way round the drum. I use Mum's bike - operational but small for my frame - to get to the local factors to purchase new shoes and a breaker bar for the shaft nut. I get a couple of strange looks loading my parts into the handlebar mounted wicker basket and peddle off up the road.



Onto the point of the post - removing / cleaning and repairing / replacing a 1KZTE fuel pump. 

Electrical diagnosis with multi meter and power probe showed all sensors and solenoids to be working OK - I could even hear the spill valve plunging at the right time but, still, no fuel got past the pump output. I spent hours checking out the circuits between ECU, ignition and the pump, then more hours confirming my results with the wiring manuals and scrawling the forums for experience of the same symptoms. As my sense of logic and patience drew to a close, I realised that the spill valve was getting louder every time I applied voltage. It's controlled by a pulsed signal so direct feed is not the ideal way to test, though in this case it needed just that in order to unstick itself. After multiple 12V opens and closes, the harness was reconnected and she sprang into life on first turn of the key. Proof - spill valve is crudded up. Time to replace. The 36mm hex is slimmer than the valve body itself - i.e. no bloody sockets here - only spanners. I chopped a fan spanner to fit in the space next to the pump but there is very little chance of getting out without removing the pump - I couldn't manage it.

Remove everything on the LHS of the engine bay - air filter housing, ducting, battery, oil filter, and - once all the connectors have been removed - push the electrical harnesses out of the way. Access to remove the cambelt is required and can be done just with the fan and shroud off, but having the radiator out gives plenty more room and is a good excuse to flush the cooling circuit out.

Next - follow the manual - everything's in there and there are no real surprises, though depending on soiling it might be worth scrubbing around the mounting points on the pump to reveal the fixings - mine had been previously run on used veg oil which, regardless of filtering, cruds shit up and leaves nasty deposits that turn chewing gum like with some heat cycling.

A custom pusher tool is needed to force the pump out of the timing case - mount it off the M8 holes for the pump sprocket and remove the woodruff key from the shaft before pressing.



Once my pump was out I spent a couple of days dismantling and cleaning with a scraper, a soft wire brush, an electric toothbrush and scrubbing pad. It was painstaking but worth it to see it on completion. I did a set of seals and gaskets, the internal filters and the washers on the in and out ports.





























Pump cleaned, rebuilt and ready to refit - slide it back in. Make sure to pay attention to the scribed timing mark on the LH mounting flange and match it against the timing case. The injection pipes can be an arse to route through the intake manifold - take your time and thread gently.





I took the opportunity to do the water pump and all the belts while I had access.

Once all major fixings are back in, the cam belt is on and lined up, and the rad returned if it was removed, reconnect all the harnesses and any critical bits, and test it as soon as is practical.