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Noticed a few drips of oil coming of the power steering rack, so it has come back out.
And also noticed some oil coming out one of the rear wheels seals.
Both of these were things I thought would be OK so never touched them - 1 step forward 2 steps back I guess.
So have ordered more parts. I was hoping to have it registered before Christmas but that’s clearly not going to happen now.

The ute has made a brief appearance out of the shed before the steering rack came back out.
Apart from Landcruisers, my daughter has limited experience driving manuals. But she is pretty proud of her first efforts of letting the clutch out here.

Hide the keys!

I need to! I have just put new rear tyres on the one tonner as we went for a “drive” for her to let off a bit of steam during school exams.
She actually has her heart set on a Kawasaki Ninja 400 so am hoping that this ute might be a better distraction. Thankfully in QLD you can’t get your bike learners now until your 18. She has ridden my bike a bit – ZZR1100 – but doesn’t like it cause its too heavy.

Wow! Good on her for getting into bikes. My girls loved the trail bikes and now their kids are into them as well. But they were never be game enough to ride a road bike, especially where I am. Too many Uber drivers to look out for.

This is the wheel seal, and the seal lip is completely gone, so it only was a matter of time. Both were the same.
Not sure what I was thinking – clearly I wasn’t.

Also found that the rear face of both axle hubs had been bashed with a hammer – so have dressed that up not that it matters now.
But clearly the axles have been out before so no idea on how old these seals or bearings were.

Managed to get it RWC and it has been registered and insured for a while now.
This is it on the freshly mowed zoysia. Needs a wash already. Yes it is bright and yes it does look a bit bland without the side mouldings. And no it won't be winning any car shows. But its not too low at FE2 height so it can be driven. And yes I need to adjust the bonnet alignment.
These are possibly the last photos of the ute with no dents. Have no idea what to do about the outer door belts as there looks to be nothing available – hence why they are missing at the moment. I was hoping an Opel Senator or Omega might have had the same door belt but nothing that I can see. Also thinking that the door belt off an older Holden might go close and could be glued on to the original. I did measure up the VK commodore profile and it’s just too big.
Got new tyres and a wheel alignment for it – just Nexens – they have a stepped side wall but there’s heaps of gutter rash on the rims already. I probably should have done something with them, but that can wait for another day.
The toolbox in the tray has come up pretty neat too. Thinking a screw Toyota jack might be the go to put inside it, but just not sure they go low enough for a Commodore to change a flat tyre. It's got provision for two tonneau cross bars but only have one in there at the moment. I've also fitted some tie down rings at the top of the tray

Seats and door trims are in and the interior is more or less done. It has cleaned up OK but the seats could use a steam clean.
Central locking is now all up and running fine – still had a drivers’ side master actuator in the wrecked wagon. The reconditioned steering rack is in but the $200 eBay power steer pump is very noisy.
Have done nothing with the exhaust other than having a small coronary when I got a quote through for a custom exhaust. The only 3” single cat back I can find is from Manta and its single cat, and I’m not at all interested in their mufflers.

But had a few odd ball issues mostly due to my own doing.
First was the windscreen wipers. The original wiper motor had burnt out, so ended up buying one from a wreck as the one from the old wagon was long gone. Fitted it up and assumed it was all good. Turned them on and the wipers tried to move the wrong way – so it would have been parking at the top of the windscreen. The arm on the motor didn’t look like it had ever come off, but it was definitely in the wrong spot. So whatever car it came off must never have worked either. But I never checked it so I own that one. Easy fix to adjust the arm position 180 degrees, and no damage done.

Then the AC. I was intending to use HyChill but was talked out of it. I fitted a new TX valve, added a bit of oil and evacuated the system and kept that vacuum in there for a few weeks. Got it regassed with R134a but it wasn’t getting cold and it was all a bit vague with pressures and how much went in etc. But it seems because I held the vacuum on it for so long, the TX valve had stuck open which sounds legit - the pressures apparently equalised too quickly on shutdown. So have ordered a new TX. Good thing was that after all my wiring changes all the AC system including the fans work, as the VS harness is slightly different to the VR. And learnt a lesson with the Lamp Check Relay – I didn’t have one fitted and couldn’t work out why the cabin ventilation fan wasn’t working. But chased a wiring diagram and then it becomes obvious.
But now I find it’s got a leak through the gaskets on the AC compressor body. I never touched the compressor, and the prices of new ones have gone up significantly, so the gas has come back out.

And the clutch cable - I had bought one off ebay listed as being for a V8 and V6, but I assume there’s a difference to a V6 and the v8s are shorter – I was struggling to get it adjusted and there wasn’t much left in it. So I made up a 10mm thick spacer to get me by. Thinking the clutch is not long for this world anyway. Hill starts and reverse parking is something we have not attempted yet, but there's been lots of stalling, wheel spinning and compression skidding.

Then I managed to corrupt the NVRAM while trying to make changes to the tune.

I have also have been struggling to get the tune right. The 42lb green tops are way too big. I think duty cycle was just on 30%, and I wasn’t getting the progress I should have. So I changed the whole VE map to single fire and it was a massive improvement to point where I now have it quite driveable. Clearly this is not a long term fix, so will track down a set of 25lb LS injectors and start again. But there’s no real point in messing with the tune any more until I get that sorted.
I don’t think it’s got a lot of power, but the torque is really impressive. In 4th or 5th gear it just pulls away quite strongly and will quite happily lug around corners in 4th gear. Early days yet, but am not seeing a great deal of data in the histograms in the 100% VE Column at higher rpm, but to do this the road speed way up there, which is not particularly smart with an L plater at the wheel.

Still heaps to do. Need to chase up some door belts, rear mudflaps and sort this AC system out. Exhaust system and wind tinting.

There is a difference between V6 and V8 clutch cables, but I don't know exactly, having never had a v8 cable in hand.

I ordered a HD cable for my V6 last year and it was also too long, I had to make a 12mm space one end and another 8-10mm at the other, it's also on the last thread to get the pedal right, so I assumed I was sent a v8 one by mistake, assuming V8 are much longer, but if you are saying it's the other way, then maybe all cables are being made to completely wrong specs these days?

It's a shame if that's the case, as my cable is the Dellow conversions HD and it's by far the best quality cable I have ever used and it does not increase in resistance over time as it does not have the plastic liners on the inner cable and probably outer jacket. It's super low resistance, makes the pedal feel like a breeze to drive. The other jacket has not melted either which happens in the first hour or so of the other brands.

I have a NOS Flexdrive V6 cable, so I have a length reference now, so when I order another cable from Dellow, I will do it over the phone and get them to compare the length so to make sure nothing obviously sus is going on.

Well I’m not sure now. I just assumed the V6 was longer as I was running out of adjustment.
Having said that, I just put the damper back in at the fire wall end as it came out. For all I know, there could well be a spacer or something missing from the damper that was never there when I got the car.

I rechecked the cable I bought and it was definitely listed as a V6 and V8 cable.

The damper only has a normal thickness washer each side to protect the rubber from cutting through, so no spacers in any meaningful way.

I added a heap of structural gal washers as spacers on mine, about 3-4mm thick each or there abouts. At the bellhousing end I drilled out an old bonnet hinge spacer collar thing that was about 12mm thick. So I had to add heaps to get mine to even work and as mentioned I only just managed with like one thread left on the adjustment too.

The issue may lay with Dellow using handbrake clevises as their HD design but with the same cable length, since these have their crimp point and pivot point about double as far as the stock design, this could be the extra length, but looking at the pics on their listing, I estimate it would need to be at least 3x to result in the adjustment I had not including the spacers, so I really think they made the wrong length or the wrong make of cable supplied.

Neat looking ute and hope you get the tune sorted. I had a problem with the air con on my CM Chrysler Regal. We replaced the compressor the dryer and all seals, filled it up with gas and it leaked in the evaporator deep behind the dash. I haven't gone back to it yet but one day when I have time I will pull the dash apart to replace it.