Isuzu Trooper Owners Club UK™

[Rhanagar]

Now for the fun bit ... NOT!!

What I thought was the aircon pump rattling ... then thought was the power steering pump as that failed ... my original theory was confirmed when the aircon pump siezed on me during the steering fluid bleeding. Fortunatly for me it was while the engine was idling and I was stood next to the ignition. The horrible clanking, chinking, grinding noises made me panic and kill the engine in time before the belt started slipping and melting/snapping and causing who knows what damage. This left me in a dilemma as where to go. At first I thought I should just get a new aircon pump and carry on. Then I hit a few hurdles.

1) I had a 20 year old truck that is set up for R12 refrigerant which was made illegal 10 years ago.

2) I would have to convert my system to the normally used R134a refrigerant which would involve having to drain the entire system of oil and gas and replacing the expansion valve for the new gas.

3) Refrigerant cannot just be released into atmosphere (its illegal and damages the atmosphere. I am not an eco-terrorist but have read the effect of refrigerants on the atmoshpere and its quite scary) Instead it needs to be sucked out and destroyed appropriatly) This again costs money.

4) Get the system vacuumed out and dried and recharged with R134a and the appropriate oil PAG (Polyalkalene Glycol).

5) Hope I don't have any leaks and have to replace the parts as necessary.

This was going to cost a fortune. The reason you need to get the system recharged again is an aircon unit requires the gas and oil to circulate together to keep everything lubed up. This will keep all the bearings in the pump lubricated and stop them from getting dry and seizing. If you run out of gas then the oil cannot be passed around and everything starts to wear out. Now the biggest issue you will have is the power steering pump relies on the aircon pump being there to work as the belts go around them and the crank pulley. If you aircon pump dies then you also lose the power steering. That will hurt your arms.

Instead of all this hassle and agro and cost I decieded to go for the cheaper and easier option. Not all 3.1 and 2.8 powered engines were fitted with aircon instead they had a pulley in its place. I never use it, and besides the appeal of ditching the entire thing to save weight, improve fuel economy, and release a couple of ponies all seemed a far far easier option. I quickly tested to see if I had any gas in the sysytem by pushing on one of the schraeder valves (filling valves) and no gas came out, It seems that the previous owner (my stepdad) never bothered with aircon either and didn't know of the ramifications of not keeping it serviced. That also confirmed my decision as I didn't have to pay for the gas to be removed. Next was to source the replacement pulley. Searched high and low for one to no avail. Then came a ray of sunshine in the name of Badendesigns (cheers buddy   ) who put me onto a brilliant chap down Brighton way who had one, and for little money later I had a pulley land on my doorstep. Things are now going well.

Now first off I removed the aircon pump and all the hoses, drier, and condensor from the engine bay. This is a simple spannering job working from one corner to the other. The hardest part was removing the condensor that sits behind the grill and infront of the radiator. The hassle you will meet is there is a reinforcement bar that bolts to the front valence and the front slam panel. This effectively trpas the condensor (radiator type thing) where it is. I resolved this with a bit of brute force. I undid the two bolts that connect this bar to the slam panel, and just yanked it forwards till it gave enough clearance that allowed me to pull the condensor forward and upwards away from the truck. I then just pushed it back into place again and bolted up again.

Once you have done this you should have a pile of bits like this :



Ignore the damage to the condensor. My original idea was to cut bits off it until it was small enough to remove. I got bored, tired and annoyed so looked for an alternative method, which I have described above
_________________
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

[Google]

[Rhanagar]

Next was to mount the new pulley. There are two bolt holes in the block already to do this:



Now the bolts that are in here are the wrong length to use on the pulley. The rear one is 25mm too short, and the front one is 20mm too short. What you need is an M8x70mm long corse thread Hex Bolt for the rear one, and an M10x65mm long fine (1.25 pitch) Hex Bolt for the front. Neither of which I had. However Grandad (Cheers once again buddy ) came to the rescue again. We managed to find some longer bolts and he taught me how to engineer them to get the right length and thread. Feeling chuffed and hopeful went home and managed to get the pulley mounted.



One thing else I had to do was to put a spacer behind the pulley mount and the block on the 8mm hole. It seems that the block was cast with a 5mm height difference between the front and rear holes. Fortunatly I had some 5mm thick washers that are used on my Nissan 300ZX Z31 to hold on the exhaust manifolds. These were sitting spare in my garage and were a perfect size. The next issue I had was the belts on the aircon versions are longer than the non-aircon models. I had a belt that was supposedly off a non-aircon model but it was far too small. So instead I had to come up with an alternative. The way I eventually got round it was by spinning the adjuster bracket on the steering pump around by 180 degrees. You can see this in the next two photos. The modified position in the first photo, the original position in the second:





This meant the the pump sat further away from the block and allowed me to use the longer aircon pump belt.

Once I had got everything put together again I started her up and have to say the end result was good. All I have to do now is to start her up and see how it went. Here is a pic of everything running:



So all in all what started as a nightmare has ended up a job well done for the time being  

Acknowledgements:

Grandad - Your patience and help is outstanding. Couldn't of done it all without your guidance and ability to listen to me panicking.
Badendesigns - For answering a call of help and putting me onto the right people. Without that Banshee might well still be off the road.
Steve - Dunno if your on the forum or not, but you and Penny were outstanding and thank you for a wonderful service and prompt delivery.
_________________
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]

Wow, dunno if I want to laugh or cry, great write up  
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[BFL Raider]

Briiliant thread.  Thanks for taking the time to put this together.  You do a better job than any manual.

Cheers

[Rhanagar]

Ok I might be getting some 15" pepperpot Frontera rims that need a bit of refurb. I was thinking of trying to achieve some kind of scheme to match the colours of the truck. Basically dark green with a light gold trim.. Here is a really bad photoshop version of what I thinking of doing.

Comments welcome


_________________
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

[griffter]

very nice looking beastie.

[Rhanagar]

I have since discovered that removing the condensor that sits infront of the main coolant radiator, and blasting compressed air through the fins of said coolant radiator removing half of Nothamptonshire's mud from it, my coolant temp gauge barely rises above 1/8th of the guage. Still the heaters are nice and warm so not all bad, and she does seem perkier now I have removed the aircon compressor and replaced it with a pulley with intact bearings. Also it seems that the steering on a Mk.1 Trooper is as light as a feather when you have a fully functioning power steering pump. Some things never cease to amaze me  
_________________
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]

Got myself some Frontera Series A 15" pepperpot alloys. A couple of them were a bit tatty so a refurb was in order. Decieded against the complicated two tone colour scheme and settled for simple shiney black. Will match the bumper and nudge bars.

Before




Sanded



Primered



First coat of black



Not perfect, and have a nasty run, but after a bit of flattening and a couple more coats of black followed by some laquer they should look dandy.
_________________
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

[tinkerman]

those alloys look great in black given me an idea now lol

[Rhanagar]

Ok did a fair bit on the old girl today. Had a list of jobs that needed doing and testing.

First off was replacing the old wing mirrors. The clamps in the mirror bit are made of really cheap nasty brittle plastic that shatters quicker a easier than sugar glass. The net result was one being held on with an entire reel of insulation tape, and the other being a bad bodge of an old Land Rover Defender mirror



I have been looking for replacements for months now and to be honest people have been quoting me silly money for them (£80 for a pair of tired looking second hand ones that didn't have a guarantee of being intact). Fortunatly my patience has paid off and RBUCKINGHAM had some for sale. It was worth me popping down there during the week and driving back from Essex to get them. Cheers buddy, really appreciate it. Anyways we noticed the mounts for the new ones were different. My Import ones had four mounting holes in each corner and the ones off a UK model only had two. Not a problem I thought I would just use some nuts on the rear after drilling two new holes in the door.

Today I pulled off the old ones and found there is a backing plate inside the door behind the mirror position so I just drilled and tapped two new holes in it to accept the new mounts.



Then bolted the new mirrors on again. Adjusted them and now I can see behind me ... happy days ... I love it when a bodge comes together



Next thing I did was to do a trial fit of my Frontera Pepperpot wheels. Two of them had some 255 75/R15 tyres on them ... though a bit tired and almost bald, but good enough to judge clearance issues. So I swapped one of the front wheels over and drove it back and forth to get it to settle. Then turned it lock to lock  to gauge clearance. All in all I was very happy with the results. I should be able to get some pretty chunky tyres on there if I wanted to, but to be honest considering most of my miles are going to be on-road (1850 per month just getting to work and back alone) I am probably going to stick with something that keeps my speedo accurate. Seeing as Pajero tyres are quite a common size and also fairly cheap as well I am probably going to go for some 265 70/R15's on there and they rims are offset enough to clear all the running gear. A much better size compared to the original 205 80/R16's I had on there when I got the truck.

Offset currently:



Offset with Frontera wheels:



And how they look:

Originally



Frontera Pepperpots



I even managed to get some more paint on two of the rims. All they need now is a few coats of Laquer to finish them, then I have to start on the other three.

Now a buddy of mine won a set of Frontera Series A Nudge bars on Eblag, and I picked them up for him. Seeing as they were sat there I thought to myself would they fit on my truck. Would make a nice addition for the future. Anyways I pulled off my front bumper and held them up against it. Unfortunatly the mounts are about 4-5mm too narrow, and even then the bars sit far too high and almost cover the head lights. However I thought its nothing which a piece of angle couldn't solve. I reckon with a bit of fettling and welding it could be very easily made to fit, just by cutting off the old mount arms, and welding two new ones higher up. I quite like the Frontera ones as they are sloped at the front as opposed to the OEM Mk.I Trooper ones which I feel are a bit oversized, too wide, and also are too flat at the front. The Frontera Series A ones would look just right if mounted properly. Shame I have no metal and cannot weld

All in all a successful day me thinks.
_________________
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

[griffter]

cost me 140 quid to go from old gas to r134

[Rhanagar]

Yeah Its costly isn't it. It cost me £30 to dump it all and replace the air-con compressor with a pulley, and I have noticed an improvement in performance and fuel economy. That is probably also due to the bearings on both the steering pump and aircon pump were shot and probably really dragging on the engine. What the difference would be if they were working fine I wouldn't know. However I never use air-con, and am enjoying the 35mpg
_________________
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

[RBUCKINGHAM]

glad to see the mirrors on. dont forget to give me a shout if you want any more bits still got loads of mk1 spares.
_________________
Richard

Black 2.8 MK1 LWB Slowly being modded

[Rhanagar]

Finally got my hand throttle working again. Thought it was disconnected or broken, Turned out to be clunged with gack. Liberal useage of WD40 and hey presto. Now I can set the idle revs anywhere between 650-3000 rpm.
_________________
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

[griffter]

mine will go up to 1600rpm