by lewis » Wed Sep 19, 2012 12:45 pm
I had the shittest weekend ever. The truck was going so well on the way to the snow, pulling 120kph 5th gear up hills and all, seemed too good to be true and it turns out it was.
We got to Turangi to go to the hot pools after a day of snowboarding and as I was filling up the truck my mate noticed diesel pissing out from under the engine bay. I knew then that the replacement of the worn out glow plugs had just masked the real hard starting problem - the injector pump seal was totally shot. I drove as far as I could and ended up at national park with the tank on E ($100 diesel in 50km) and it was misfiring and boosting 25psi and the exhaust temp was shooting to 700 which it never had done before.
Lucklily no one from Wellington had come with me. My mates from Auckland who were on the trip gave me a lift back on the Sunday. Monday morning I hired a trailer rated at 1200kg (haha) and hooked it up behind my girlfriends dads 1990 Nissan Patrol 4.2L petrol gas guzzler, and picked up the truck and took it back to Auckland, ripped the bullbars, winch, gauges and anything else easy off it. Tuesday morning sold it to the wreckers for $800 and drove the patrol back to Wellington.
I have made no profit from selling it cause i spent $600 on petrol for the patrol over the last two days and $100 on trailer hire, and I still have to get the patrol back to Auckland in October.
Unfortunately fixing it wasnt really an option as an injector pump rebuild is too expensive, and my spare pump was in Wellington. Also dumping more money into a truck that doesnt really get legit WOFs didnt seem the smartest idea as my girlfriend kept reminding me. Had it broken in Wellington I would have got the pump swapped.
Gutted that the truck is gone cause it was such a good all rounder - economical, big but not too big, and decent on and offroad. It will be missed.
I will upload some pics of the bullbars front (winch bar with mounts to suit body lift or not) and rear with tow bar and tow hook, and the 4" stainless steel snorkel + enclosed k&n air filter if anyone is interested in purchasing them - pick up from Auckland.
Not sure what I am going to get for the next truck, all i know is i dont have the time to build one up myself....