In conclusion......... where to start!
Thanks for reading my little report. Im very sorry it took so long to write but its been fun going back and revisiting the trip in my head whilst putting this together.
A good 5-6 bottles of whiskey have assisted in my writing so i apologize for the undoubtedly many typo's spelling mistakes and brain farts.
All in all i think we covered around, 9000km+ and for the most part i thoroughly enjoyed the drive. I lost about 8kg on the trip but sadly over the passed 6months ive put about 5 of that back on.
In the weeks and months that followed my return ive set about fixing all of the little issues which creep-ed up on this trip. I started with the front indicators as i already had a new pair at home ready to go but they did require a bit of messing around before fitting despite being the so called best ones on the market these days and Made in Japan. There was no ground present in the housings as the metal surfaces were painted / coated etc. so i had to pull them both down and then rebuild them before fitting.
I was able to get some replacement rubber hangers from the exhaust shop that had made the exhaust for me years ago, and i also needed a new gasket and studs for where it bolted up to the manifold.
Next up was the snorkel. I cut up some flat plate approx 5mm larger all around and 'seam?' welded it around the existing cracked bracket. Also drilling 3 holes in the middle which were plug welded, and the cracks ground out / 'v'd out and welded also before being ground back flush. It seems absolutely rock solid once again and i was happy to have an excuse to break out the welder once again.
I noted some additional creaking and groaning from the tray area too on the last few days of the trip so i set about tracking down the cause and i found 4 of the 8 mounting bolts which connect the tray's front to back 'c' channel to the side to side 'c' channel that is bolted to the chassis, had actually torn out of the channel. (Front and back either side). I put this down to my canopy as it is clearly extremely rigid and with the chassis flexing underneath something had to give. I ended up having a local metal works shop bend me up some 'sleeves' which i put inside the channel and bolted them in place. This has stopped the noises and so far they have held up. (I think this damage has occured over time most likely while traveling throughout the Vic High Country where ive had the old girl flexing as much as she can and on 3 and 2 wheels many times.)
The radiator was once again covered under warranty. I take my hat off to Brendan at Ultimate Radiators in Berwick. He really went above and beyond. In the end, he built me a radiator at no charge which ive been very happy with. Touch wood, this one has been and will continue to work as it should. I removed the thermostat and found the Dayco unit (from Repco) had indeed failed, less then 12 months old. I ordered a new one in from Toyota.
I almost pulled the carby down thinking it was the cause of the vibrations at idle having checked the engine mounts over and ruling them ok. Shortly after arriving home it started stalling at idle too hence my investigations into the carby. I did clean out the idle circuit and checked the cutoff solenoid along with blowing out both jets. In the end, my mechanic did a compression test and found no compression on #5. Turned out the tappet was just out of spec holding the exhaust open? Something like that. She still hasnt been running the best but im starting to think the distributor is starting to wear out as it is an aftermarket OEM job and its done a good hard 80,000km's. I still have the original Nippondenso distributor and i plan on having that one rebuilt eventually hopefully sooner rather then later, the vacuum advance among other things is one obvious sign of difference in quality the genuine being all brass and steal and the one in it now is mostly plastic but then again its done ok given it cost me about $150bux mates rates from Bursons.
Throughout the Cape York trip we seemed to suffer once again with voltage issues on the Auxiliary battery.
I finally cracked it, pretty much ready to take the National Luna fridge out bush and to blow the bloody thing up. Id had the battery checked out as per the trip reports etc. following our trip out to the Simpson last year and that came back perfect. So i finally decided to get the fridge checked out. Sadly, the first service agent who was closest to me was useless. After wasting a few weeks he declared there was nothing wrong with the fridge. This just about had my bloody boiling.
At the time i even looked back on a post i had made here about the fridge, and the compressors duty cycle was quite a bit worse still. By my own investigations i found with an outside ambient temperature above 25deg C, the compressor would run almost 100% continuous until the ambient dropped below that. I was taking a 110Ah battery from full to 11.8 overnight most nights. Again before even taking the fridge in to get looked at id bench tested it at different voltages and again tried testing the battery. The 2nd service agent was much, much, much better and i cannot recommend him enough. Petka in Eltham, it was a fair drive from home but im glad i ended up taking the fridge out to Peter.
He checked everything else first before finally checking the gas. Low and behold the bloody thing was just about out... He did a Nitrogen? Leak test / and Vacuum test and could not find any leaks but said the valve cover was loose. Im not really convinced that that was the cause for the gas leak, more likely a hairline crack in the lines somewhere id think but for now, it is running much much better. Approx 18min on and 30-40minutes off in normal mode even on 40deg C days now. Turbo reduces the compressor run times to about 10-12minutes. However, the freezer is no longer getting as cold as it used to. About -4 to -9 instead of the -12 to -20 it did before it was re-gassed and the current draw has gone up. From around 1.8 to 2Amps in normal mode to 2.5 to 3 amps. And 4 in turbo to around 6Amps. Personally i believe this fridge has been getting worse and worse basically ever since we purchased it.
Given the run times of the compressor over the passed 12-18months the brand new battery we fitted on the Simpson trip last year decided to give up the ghost about 2months ago. It just stopped holding charge, dropping from 12.8 overnight to 12.4 with nothing connected to it - after being on the 15A Ctek charger etc. Combined with the acid leakage id experienced on the cape trip, together with 2 more leakage's (was leaking from the screw caps) (in the high country, most recently when i very very very nearly rolled the old Landcruiser over the edge of Deep Creek 1 - and she spend a good hour almost on her side while i was setting up the recovery!) I decided to go to the dark side and ive now fitted a FullRiver 115Ah AGM battery in the tray. The thing is a beast, all 37.8kg of it!!! It also gave me an excuse to break out the welder and i modified the battery tray to fit the larger battery. So far the Aux battery and fridge is now running once again, exactly how id expect it. 48hours stationary running the fridge to 12.1Volts under load (load being the fridge compressor running). I could have almost cried with joy the first time we took it out bush again and we'd wake up in the morning after 24hours out to see 12.5V on the battery still.
Thats all i can think of right now.
Once again, thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed the read.
Last but not least...
Michelle and i are expecting our first child. Michelle is 36.2weeks pregnant today.
Travis.
