Aussie BJ73 (1 Viewer)

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Part 2. More on the previous page.

Onwards to Duke of Orleans bay. This is Wharton Beach, you must go there.



Little Wharton.



A hearty lunch of noodles at little Wharton.



Parked on Wharton beach. This was really cool and I think national parks really need to see it (and never bloody touch it). Every one had the freedom to do what they want here, there were people fishing, riding motorbikes, surfing, s***loads of kids running around, plenty of dogs and most people were having a quiet beer ad cooking up a barbuque lunch. But none of it was chaos, everyone was doing the right thing and enjoying what must be Australia best beach. There's no rubbish, no idiots doing doughnuts, no drunken dumbshits, no one fishing where people are swimming ect. It just all worked and was very refreshing to see.



I'd also like to point out that even though there's lots of people, this place is really very remote.

From Duke we took a 4WD track through to Membinup Beach. It followed this creek most of the way and had a few semi challenging ruts and so on.



At Membinup there was this boat wrecked on the rocks. Pity the turbo was seized!



We camped at Alexander bay. Nice enough place, it looks like quite a few people have been camped here for months. Another morning swim to wash the sweat and dust off.



A few KMs down the gravel roads to Tagon beach



Little Tagon



Dolphin Cove



Thomas River. How nice is it cruising in a MWB on a hot day with the back windows opened up!



Onwards to Cape Arid National park.



I discovered the best trick ever. Always losing your rear valve caps? They screw on to the axle studs! The threads are different but it's enough to make it stay there.



The beach near the old Hillsprings Homestead.





Jorndee creek Beach.

 
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Annnnnndddddd this is where it all went to crap. We got as far as Poison Creek but whilst coming back to seal creek campground there was a bit of an odd squealy graunchy sort of noise. I suspected a dry front uni or something but it still seemed wierd. I got Kellie to drive the car back and forth whilst I tried to figure out where the sound was coming from. I walked out in front of the car and saw the radiator hanging down on an angle and signaled to shut the car off. The noise was the fan shroud rubbing on the power steering pulley.

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I filed out the broken off mounting tabs and put a hose clamp around them so they would sit further in to stop the radiator slamming into the aircon condensor.



The top mount I also filed so it sat further in so the broken weld on the radiator sat on top of it.

I grabbed a few gripples off a fence and luckily still had the coathangers from when I locked the keys in the car. I also had a roll of tie wire I always travel with.





The roads were extremely rough and corrugated and I think that's what caused the mounts to fail. The aim of the trip was to get to Israelite bay but that will have to be next time.

We limped it back to Esperance. I was very pleased that the wire held considering the rough roads we had to drive. Kellie was sick of camping and booked us into Bayview motel.

The next day we picked up a new radiator and drove the 350ishKMs to Ongerup. We stayed at Ongerup Caravan park which is really lovely place and I fitted the radiator that night.



There were some cool old cars and trucks at Ongerup shire depot. A smattering of 1970s Fords/Holdens, a fintail Mercedes and many more. Kellie has a thing for these old Inters, I personally think they're a bit of an unsung Aussie icon.



Through the Stirling ranges





"Lake" Muir.



Cool old bridge on the Tone River.



And home. :)
 
Great trip report. That piece of coastline is the best in the state.
 
Predictably, cooling_auto on eBay didn't come through with their 1 year warranty on the radiator. I'm not real happy, $250 on a radiator that lasts 6 months and fails in the middle of nowhere? Great.

I haven't done much to the car lately, I've been more interested in other projects. Hopefully I'll get the LSD and locker in sometime soon. It needs a few little things done too, it's overcharging and there's a rattle in the drivers door.

I dug up this photo of when I got bogged ages ago. Here lots of tracks go underwater in winter and the water is black with tannins so you can't see where the ruts are. I tired digging and maxtrax for a few hours but it was pretty much dark and I was getting no where, it was diffed out hard in the rear and the tires wouldn't bite on the maxtrax. I managed to get a hold of a friend who was halfway through turboing his GQ Patrol and realized he didn't have all the bits he needed. We put in a few hours getting it back to N/A and he pulled me out.

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As it turns out my friend had been stuck in the same spot a few days before hand and he has 37s so I had no chance. No water got into anything so that's a win!
 
I went off to a farm nearby to collect a few bits out of some old dead 'Cruisers he had, also mostly just to check out some old junk.

This farm has a pretty decent collection of beat to s*** 75 series still in daily use, like this one. Note the ripped out front crossmember?! I love these old 75s, to me they're the embodiment of 'Cruiser toughness and farming at a somewhat pure level.

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The first BJ40 was a no go! :eek:

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The second, whilst a little rusty, did have what I need! A downwards pointing oil filter housing.

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The first fastback BJ40? This was obviously someones pride and joy once upon a time. It has 31s, free wheeling hubs, snorkel, bucket seats, centre console, roof console, second fuel tank, stereo and uhf. Probably quite the kitted out car in its day!

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He also had a 3B in the shed, it was made only 3 months before my BJ73. It looks to be out of a BJ42 with power steer, sadly it was missing the bits I was after. I would have liked the 5 speed gearbox that would have been behind it too!



I'd been having some charging issues and this HJ47 had a solid state regulator with the same plug as mine. I wasn't sure my issue was actually the regulator so I nabbed this one.

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The 'Cruiser had been often (intermittently) overcharging, sometimes up to 16v. I pulled the regulator out and measured the resistance of everything and it was in spec, I also filed the points. That made no difference. The solid state regulator seems to have totally fixed the issue and does a FAR better job of regulating, volts stay fixed no matter the change in load. This one is made in Australia by Ingram. With the cover off, it's a simple turn of a screw to change voltage.



I split a fuel line. This is the one between the fuel filter and the injector pump. I was worried this might be quite a high pressure line but I looked it up in the manual and it only takes 30psi. I cut the old hose off and used 10mm fuel line on the barbs with conventional hose clamps. I'll get some T clamps to replace them, then I'll be happy. Oddly enough, it idles a little higher now.



I've got the bits to make a turbo manifold now, the plate came from an eBay supplier of extractors and the Ts/elbows from an independent steel shop, Madalia and the other big mobs couldn't help me.

I'm undecided if I'm going to run just the Ts like everyone does....



Or do something like this. Going low mount the turbos inlet would need to line up with no.3 cylinder.



I was going to go low mount to get the turbo away from the clutch booster, power steer and throttle cable but looking at it more I think I'll go high mount, there's a bit of stuff to move but it's going to be a lot easier in the long run, especially to remove the turbo or adjust boost.
 
I also converted to a HDJ79 radiator.
...
The new radiator hangs below the chassis a bit and really needs a bashplate made to cover it. The standard plates don't fit.

Hi. I am thinking about going this way myself. Do you think a PTO will still fit underneath ? How low does the radiator sit, what is it level with ?
 
Hi. I am thinking about going this way myself. Do you think a PTO will still fit underneath ? How low does the radiator sit, what is it level with ?

I don't know where the PTO runs but the radiator hangs a couple of CM below the chassis. It's out of the car at the moment so I can't grab any exact measurements for you.

Almost a year ago the 3B spun a cam bearing and cut oil feed to the rockers. I recently picked up another 3B to slot in (the're very rare in Australia). I've got quite a few projects on the run but hopefully that will happen in the next month or 2.
 
Thank you. Sorry to hear about your misfortune with the engine, especially after investing a lot of time in it.

Do you know if a HZJ radiator is shorter, and whether it still has the same mounting and connecting points as your HDJ ? I wish i could play with them myself, but i can only get those radiators here if i order them online, no chance to test fit them.
 
Thank you. Sorry to hear about your misfortune with the engine, especially after investing a lot of time in it.

Do you know if a HZJ radiator is shorter, and whether it still has the same mounting and connecting points as your HDJ ? I wish i could play with them myself, but i can only get those radiators here if i order them online, no chance to test fit them.

Yeah I'm not massively pleased, before the cam bearing spun I pulled the head off, reco'd it, ported it, replaced precups, rebuilt the injectors and fitted an MLS head gasket. Lots of weekends of offroading missed!

HZJ radiator length is between HDJ and BJ. From distant memory the HZJ is 50mm longer than BJ and HDJ is 120mm longer. They all have the same body mounts but the shroud mounts are a little different, nothing major though. It's easy to adapt the BJ shroud but extending it takes a little bit of work.
 
Due for an update I reckon :)
 

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