Isuzu Trooper Owners Club UK™

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tinkerman · *** Joined: 11 Jan 2009 Posts: 183 Location: west bromwich

could it be the bearings in the fan?i had a car,an escort mk1 i think ,and had the same trouble,it was wobbling very slightly,and i changed to an electric one

Rhanagar · Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 21:56 Post subject:

mbw13 · **** Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 341 Location: New Zealand

Good looking mobile.

Had a go in one of these a while back, had an auto trans which was odd. Didn't have an exhaust so I can't remember much of the experience Embarassed

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1996 Mazda B2500

markymoan · Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 2:37 Post subject:

Take the belt off and start it Idea

As for the belt itself, was you at full adjustment? most factors provide one thats to long Rolling Eyes

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Rhanagar · Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 10:48 Post subject:

Rhanagar · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 20:16 Post subject:

Ok its been a while, and I haven't done anything anyway near what some of you have done. Been mainly driving it and getting to know her. There were a few issues that needed adressing.

The turbo went on me. White smoke, no power, arrgh. Fortunatly I had a spare in the garage that I knicked off a mate a few years back that I was going to shove on my ratty Cavalier for a laugh. Thank christ I didn't. When taking the old one off I discovered the source of the screeching. One of the exhaust manifold nuts (front lower) was missing, and the bolt behind it was loose. Slapped on a new exhaust manifold gasket. Cleaned up all the oil and water pipes. gave the quick warm up system a thorough scrubbing, and shoved it all back together.

Took two or three days as I went at it slowly to get to know the engine and make sure a proper job was done. Fortunatly for me the manifold bolts came off without snapping or rounding, however the manifold to turbo bolts were a different matter. That spare turbo I had had the manifold with it so I used that one instead, but quickly realised that it didn't have the outlet for the pipe that goes to the EGR valves. Not to worry I thought. Leave it off and blank it off, along with blanking off the EGR vales to the inlet manifold. Noticed quite a few vacuum pipes were as rotten as 2 year old apples and went about replacing them as well. Did a mini service by changing the oil, oil filter, and flushed out all the coolant. Made lots of big brown puddles that day. Encountered another hitch when I went to take the thermostat out and test it and split the gasket (stupid paper things). No-one had one in stock, or paper that was thick enough. Fortunatly I remembered quite a few people telling me in the past (including the parts manager at the local Vauxhall dealership Very Happy

) that cereal boxes do the same job. Unfortunatly all the cereal boxes I had were too thin, but noticed that the hard cover of a haynes manual was just the right size. 5 mins later I had one replacement gasket. flushed out the engine while the thermostat was off. Put the bottom radiator hose back on and filled with nice clean fresh coolant. Double checked everything was in order and started her up. No bangs or unwanted explosions. Got her up to temperature and topped up the coolant and put the cap back on. Went for a drive around town and she sounds and drives loverly now. No screeching or wailing. When I got back home, I looked at the oil and coolant level and everything seems fine.

Now today I got up nice and early to make a start on some more bits and pieces.

That front bumper and grill are really tatty. Plus also if you look at the fog lights you can see that water has got in there and rusted the reflector up. I spent some time taking it all off and took the chance to look behind it all.

Had some surface rust and the grill looks quite old and is faded to whit in some places. Whipped off the grill and gave it a good clean, then a couple of coats of Halford own Gloss Black. Took a wire brush to the front cross member and attacked it with some hammerite.

Finished result when the grill was put back on:

The fog light wasn't working Sad

As she is an Import its an aftermarket jobby. Took the bulb out and gave all the terminals a clean, and tested the bulb actually worked. Still no joy. Traced the wire to the front cabin and found a hidden switch under the steering wheel on the lower dash (the panel that hides the pedals). And here is me thinking that the person who put it on would use the fog light switch on the dash Confused

Even so it was not connected to any power. Fiddled around and eventually wired the extra switch to the light and hey presto Very Happy

Some numpty before me had decieded to wire in a stereo. When I say wire in ... what I really meant to say was to grab as many wires as possible and stuff them all into a connector block and hope it works. It didn't

After spending some time tracing the speaker wires and sorting them out, then quite a bit of time soldering I ended up with this Very Happy

Much much better, and it works like a dream now.
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1990 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.I 2.8TD Manual Lotus Edition
1994 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.II 3.1TD Auto Lotus Edition

Deceased
1994 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.II 3.1TD Auto LS

Rhanagar · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 20:18 Post subject:

On a bad note ... the front bumper was quite badly rusted. These are the worst parts. I might have to get a new steel middle section

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1990 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.I 2.8TD Manual Lotus Edition
1994 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.II 3.1TD Auto Lotus Edition

Deceased
1994 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.II 3.1TD Auto LS

markymoan · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 20:39 Post subject:

Cheap as chips Wink

http://www.milneroffroad.com/specials/3.html
£18.50 for a bumper Shocked

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Rhanagar · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 21:11 Post subject:

Rhanagar · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 19:03 Post subject:

Been busy busy busy. Decieded not to get the new bumper and just refurb the old one with stuff I had in the garage. Old tin of Hammerite, various rattle cans and bolts etc. Much cheaper and to be honest she is never going to be a looker. Pulled the bumper and nudge bars apart and cleaned them up then several coats of paint and laquer I ended up with this. As said not perfect, but should last a few more years yet.

Nudge bars prior to stripping:

Nudge bars stripped

Nudge bars painted:

All back together:

Also managed to spend some time doing some electrics. I worked out the front fog lamps come on when any of the front lights are on and the dash switch is activated. Not liking this I dug out an old loom from the garage and set about re-wiring it all. Now I am about 95% of the way there. New loom complete with relay and 30 amp fuse put in. They should (if I am lucky) come on only when the full beam is on. I also re-wired the dash switch so I can choose to have them off when full beam is on as well as an overide.
_________________
1990 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.I 2.8TD Manual Lotus Edition
1994 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.II 3.1TD Auto Lotus Edition

Deceased
1994 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.II 3.1TD Auto LS

:::Matski::: · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 20:24 Post subject:

Err, fogs should only come on with side lights, spots and driving lights should come on with the main beam.

Good job on the bumper though!
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Front Aussie Locker - Rear LSD - Petrol Diffs
2" Lift - 1" Body lift - +2" shocks - 32" KL71s
2.5" free flow stainless system - TMIC - 20psi Boost
Suckin' Diesel Baby!

The Laird · Guest

You mean your fogs now can be switched on without any other lights on?

Rhanagar · Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 0:26 Post subject:

oops. i meant to say front spots. Rear fog comes on at any time with the button. Its an add on as its an import model. no front fogs.

The front Spots will only come on when I have full main beam, and the switch on the dash will turn them off if I want to.
_________________
1990 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.I 2.8TD Manual Lotus Edition
1994 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.II 3.1TD Auto Lotus Edition

Deceased
1994 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.II 3.1TD Auto LS

Rhanagar · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:54 Post subject:

Went away this weekend for a camping and re-enactment event. I get in for free so long as I help crew it, which involves setting up tents and site support. Some of which includes pulling trailers around and when the weather is bad pulling cars out of the mud. As you can see it was quite muddy in places and gave the old girl a new paint job:

She only had road tyres on but with careful use of 4WL, limited slip diff, and locking the manual hubs I was tugging everything out of the sticky stuff. Now its probably not as hardcore as some of you but if you look in the first photo and see the puddle in the background thats the conditions we were working in at the beginning of the weekend. I was the only one not to struggle all weekend out of the array of 4x4's there. Some of which included: Dodge Ram 4700 pickup, Ford Explorer, Mitsubishi Pajero, Discovery (altenator caught fire as he got on site), SsangYong Korado. For me its hats off to the plucku Trooper. Two things which made me giggle was a Vectra that had bottomed out in the mud and I easily dragged him out, and the other was having to tow an AA van all the way accross the field as he couldn't get traction. I now on the lookout for photo's of the last one Very Happy

_________________
1990 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.I 2.8TD Manual Lotus Edition
1994 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.II 3.1TD Auto Lotus Edition

Deceased
1994 Isuzu Bighorn LWB Mk.II 3.1TD Auto LS