1991 Pajero Short Wheel Base

So this is my short wheel base Pajero project. I bought this on 2012 from a small family who had replaced it with a Camry. It's a May of 1991 model, it has a full chassis, solid axle up the back with torsion bars up front. I'm pretty sure it's called double wishbone suspension but there's a upper and lower control arms on either side. It's a five speed manual and astron powered.

The whole car has 600,000kms up on the clock, but the motor was replaced at 300,000 and the box at 400,000. The brakes need attention, as when i bought the car they only had 5%. Upon a brake bleed, it was learnt pretty fast that the pads hadn't been changed in a very very long time and the ones in the front left had eaten through to the piston. Luckily dad was at the rear of the car when the caliper spat it's guts all over the ground. A couple hundred at the wreckers got me hubs, disks, cvs, calipers and pads. The carby is in need of a tune. Upon pulling it off, it has a plastic body which is strange for a carby... with an aluminium top. No corrosion in the float bowl though thank goodness. Pulling the in carby filter out was a different story... full of rust and gunk. The float mount is this strange plastic piece that pull out and doubles as the filter, fuel inlet and needle seat. Getting it into a position that seems correct is another story. How do you correctly set the float level if the mount is flimsy? Finding a manual for this carby has proven incredibly hard. So far I've got nothing, and I've been using settings based on other solex two barrel carbs that were tuned for 2.6 motors. I've also got plenty of spare carbs.

These are my non 2.6 carbs, a twin solex manifold for a 4g32, a single manifold (the thermostat housing is on the twin manifold, note the single housing is pointing in the wrong direction for the twin housing) and carby for the same motor, a 32/36 weber and a 34ADM weber from a falcon. If the 34 was complete (missing float assembly), I'd make up an adapter plate to bolt it on. Not pictured is my magna and sigma carbys bought from swap meets. I think there's 3 or 4 of unknown origin... mostly just bought because they had two barrels and solex written on them (I like swap meets ;) ).
Anyway, so the reason in the first picture I have no rear bumper is because early one morning (about 11am), I woke up, put some shoes on and backed the car down the side of the house. Bad idea, as I put the left bumperette into a pole.

So this is my bumper half assembled on the benches. I did this quite a long time ago so it's all from memory. You can see the tail lights and the long wheelbase bumperettes hanging around. I haven't got a replacement shorty bumperette for the other side. Pictured is the metal part from the long wheelbase bumper, with the long wheelbase brackets and one shorty bumperette bolted on. The long wheelbase bumper required some straightening but it was nearly as severe as the accident victim.

Pictured is the long wheelbase brackets and the bent shorty bumper, stripped of needed parts.With the help of dad, a hammer and a dolly, an almost completely straight result was achieved. This is after all going for general cleanliness and roadworthiness, not show car quality. I started to modify the long wheelbase bumperette to fit the short wheel base, but it's half done and still being planned.

The short wheelbase bracket being adapted to this bumperette was very mangled of course, copping hardwood pole head on. Some notches had to be cut out of the bumperette to allow for the brackets. I've been thinking about somehow cutting whats left of the shorty bumperette and attaching it to the long wheelbase bumperette, but that'll come later if I do it at all.
Anyways, so the whole car is in need of bushes, ball joints and all other wear and tear bits and pieces. I got quoted by repco for bushes, coming out to $450 for the whole car.
So far:
Snapped the handbrake cable and replaced it
Installed a head unit
Changed the oil and filter which was black
Replaced the accident damaged fake tail light
Bought for next to nothing two pairs of headlight covers
Picked up a g52 hilux/4runner gearbox thinking it was pajero, then realised the transfer was the wrong way around (5th gear is still intact which is amazing as they just shear off under load in these wonderful boxes)
Replaced the drivers side rear sliding window (pain in the rear to find, had to call on a few favours for the one.)
At the same time got a drivers seat and a drivers side rear seat as the drivers seat had caved in the the seat behind it had copped a fair amount of weather
Cleared the front sprayer system. It was blocked with who knows what, but i ran a fair bit of water and bug lifter through each section of the system, and it works but it's a little weak.
Got sucked into buying the crappiest chinese alloy 15"s at a swap meet. It was only a set of three. After being left at the tip, I vowed to stick to sunraisers and stock mitsu wheels.
Brake work in the front, although it's not finished, it was just to get rolling. It's probably done too much work considering, but it hasn't failed yet.
Picked up an m25 head, which has smaller ports. The m27 head that's currently on tells me either someone did that for the bigger valves and ports, or the motor was out of something else. Either way, the m25 head should eventually make it's way on. Needs to be skimmed and the cam has flat spots. I stripped it and gave it a clean.
Other things that don't come to mind

 

Plans:
Front cvs have a click
Finish carby tune up, need oil cooler line as the old stuff just crumbled when I touched it
Finish rear bumper
Paint (Chalky and down to primer on roof, hood and floor in cabin)
Brakes
Tyres
Exhaust leak somewhere
Clean engine bay and look for any leaks
Power steering (needs a lot, it's completely stuffed and leaks fluid everywhere. I have a small parts kit, but I doubt that'll solve the problem. I want a spare power steering setup before i try dismantling though so if I stuff up or find a major problem, I have a fall back)
Radiator (has leaks)
Get rid of the dodgey bull bar and get the proper bash plate, so the things flopping around can be mounted to what they should be. Bit suss it's a triton bull bar or something that's been cut to fit. It would shear at the bolts at small impact, it lacks enough material at the mounting points. It's rough as guts and one look at the pits and they'd turn it down.
The gearbox has a fair bit of slop. Dad reckons gates are worn but wouldn't mind opening it up and having a good look one day. Still works for now.
The interior has it's fair share of tek screws and dodgey plastic fasteners that aren't stock, which could do with replacement or repair but it's not priority.
Shocks all round
The grille has a bracket broken off, so I just took it off completely to save it from further damage.
The flares I have are really on the way out. The rears have started to flake up and fall to pieces at the bolt holes.
Reverse light switch is temperamental. Will be sorted when the gearbox comes out
It lacks rust, unlike my 40 year old trailer. Nice, but there's plenty of dents and things that need fixing


7/9/14
A few months ago I pulled the carby off, cleaned it and guessed the float height because I couldn't find a proper setting anywhere. The process I'd written about earlier in the page. A couple weeks ago I put the carby back on. I had to run a tap through the holes in the manifold because they were so grotty and I wire brushed the bolts. Hooking everything up wasn't a problem as I'd taken photos and marked certain lines. for the oil cooler line problem, I fitted some water line I'd pulled off an old Barina. It was a bit wide so I put clamps on and wound them right up. When it was all together I chucked some fuel down the carby and had to use a spare battery to jump start the motor as the existing battery was dead flat. I started it up and it ran smooth for ten minutes, despite little fuel. Without the air filter on it was clear intake vacuum wasn't an issue. It was just idling at 2000 revs. I dropped the idle adjuster down 4 turns and it started idling a little better.

As you can see here it's idling just below 1000 rpm. The 2.6 manual says it should be idling closer to 800 rpm, but the carby tune revealed the motors wear. It has a bit of blow-by and is down on compression, so light footed driving has been occurring because it still has to tow the trailer around the paddock with loads of wood. It's stopped blowing unburnt fuel out the exhaust, but it still smells of burning oil and other things.

I took this photo just after I filled the shed with exhaust fumes. So the motor runs a lot cleaner and uses less fuel for now. After the odd drive for a couple weeks the carby must have settled down a bit more or those plastic bits have moved around because the idle has moved up to 1100 rpm even when warm.