Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Thanks guys. Sjoe this year has just been hectic, very little time for Patrollie.

Did have some diff issues because of some over enthusiasm in the salt pans last December and some salt got in the diff.

Well some things got hot and caught fire.

So after 3 attempts from repairs to a new diff that was bent all the way to getting a casing, strengthening it and putting all the non bent parts in I know have a GU diff that is strengthened in a GQ with all the steering components including the steering box from a GU.



So I found some Quicksand in Bots




3 Toys and 1 Isuzu as anchors. 11 tons of winch was standing still.






Eventually I got out.... 10 minutes later all 4 of them got stuck at once and the only vehicle left was PATROLLIE!!!!!
35" defiantly was the advantage including weight distribution between my front and rear axles.

Around April the surprises started rolling in or rather refusing to roll.

Baviaans Kloof Trip

Then I almost made it Home>>>>






So I bought a GU diff. Single handedly shoved it underneath the GQ

Unfortunate someone rolled it off a mountain and it was a bit bent





So the bent diff's internals were fine, got a casing, strengthened it and rebuilt it with new internals.







But we are back pulling the TOYS!!!!

Tijmen, you really are an amazing young man!

FANTASTIC WORK!!!

Mooi makker jou lorrie is n masjien

Not much happened before December holidays other than general preparation, rear suspension and tires. There was one major job and that was oil coolers.
Generally I like coffee but we were boiling to frequently. The easiest option was downsizing the tires, possibly the most practical solution but not actually an option.

But I did borrow some 33" tires just to make sure... They looked terrible but again we were making coffee to frequently. It did pull like a train and 130km/h was great.
In between I changed my locked viscous to one I thought was a normal working one but things got worse so I went back to a locked viscous.

So the next thing I could do and probably the last major attempt left was Oil coolers. I picked up a pair from a contact of Tinus and some sandwich adapters and so it started.
Simultaneously it was more and less work than I imagined. Mounting the coolers was quite easy, they are rather large so one I put right in front to catch as much air as possible and the second inside Piet's bashplate. The hardest part was the pipework, just to make sure it doesn't get punctured. Now as some would know the TD42 has 2 oil filters, the only information I could find about the internal oil cooler system of the motor suggested that they worked in parallel and adding only one oil cooler would simply mean that the oil would take the path of least resistance and flow through the filter without the cooler.
Now some simple tips for installing oil coolers to a TD42:
-Pay someone else (then you have someone to blame when it goes wrong and it is not your hands that has lacerations and cuts as deep as your soul.)
-Use the minimal length fittings on the sandwich adapter side because the stater is very close.
-No matter how well you tried to cabletie the pipes out of the way, carry a few joiners, whole length of pipe and 10L of oil for when it goes wrong.
-Remember the wise words of Oom Boegman- "Fiddle, Fiddle, Fu...

But what choice does one have after a car has cost you a million man hours and boils before you even think about Rigel avenue's hill

I also installed a lift pump just to help a bit with the diesel supply, probably the most noticeable difference I felt was the lowdown torque increase on 35"

So off we went on December Holidays.

I drove 9 500 km in December, the good news is the old GQ made it home by itself.

It was definitely not uneventful. The first 4 500 km was quite relaxing. Lots of good gravel road, outside temperatures was very nice. At one point we were driving between Upington and Pofadder on one of those lang straight North Cape roads and I was driving 125km/h, water was steady at 84 degrees and EGT's just touched 400. One of those aaaah moment when things just worked right for once.

While in the Tankwa Karoo my aircon fan stopped working. I did take out the fan and cleaned it before the trip so I thought I probably didn't replace the plug properly. So I wiggled a few wires and on it went.

I did notice the suspension was not that Lekker. I was driving a gravel road on 0.9 bar tire pressures and it felt like 2 bar. I just thought it was very bad roads, I realized it must be my car when I complained about the bad corrugations and the guys in the Hilux asked: "What corrugations"
That didn't impress me at all.

Anyway. Had a lovely trip through the Tankwa and up the west coast with our family all the way from the Netherlands. Their first time wild camping and true offroading. They loved it so much that their Polo is now in the market and they have their eyes on a Jimny.

At home I only had time for a few small things.
Cupholder was on top of the list and I kept getting voltage drop to the rear battery and figured out it was the exposed connection at the fuse. So I 3D printed some solutions.
I also printed a deeper tray for the center console.

Then Off we went on the next part.
I tagged along with my friend and his family to the Kgalaghadi for a few days.

December 2018 my friend's aircon in his hilux decided that it didn't want to cooperate. So the conditions for going in my car was simple: "your aircon better work"
Now that was no problem, never had an issue before. What could go wrong?

So about a week before December I was casually driving home from work and...NO AIRCON.
Luckily it was only a very warn belt so I replaced it and also keep a spare now. I went ahead and cleaned the fan and heat exchanger inside the car aswell.

2 Days into Kgalaghadi...NO AIRCON

Turns out the motor turned so much in its life that the brushed completely wore out the commutator, I did a bush fix and turned the rubbers holding the brushes around so they would touch a different part of the commutator. Gave it about 2 more days of life but after that is was moeg.

The replacement I got from Oom David one can see has a lot of ware aswell, seems the compound the brushes are made of on the GQ's is to hard and thus wares out the commutator that is not reconditionable instead of the brushes that is easily replaceable. So if you cannot life without an aircon and your GQ mileage is getting up there, check them.
Then I pulled a Discovery and conqueror trailer around in some deep sand which was fun and Spotted a shorty.

On Day number 6 we split from the group as they headed home and we headed for Kang on our way to Walfisbay.

Drove some awesome and isolated sand tracks back to the main road and aired up the tires.

At Kang the fuel situation needed attention aswell as our stomachs. While filling, the attendant asked me what is going on underneath my car?
As I looked I realized the worst had happened. Because I fiddled

One of my oil cooler pipes had shaved through somewhere. Luckily I did pack Oil, connectors and extra pipe but tension was to high, engine to hot and tummy to empty to address the situation right away. Luckily there was still oil at the tip of the dipstick so I was hoping for the best.

After lunch I gathered the courage to tackle the problem, first up was to determine where pipe had a puncture. So i was in the bonnet inspecting the pipes and asked my friend to briefly start it so that I can see where it is squirting from. Under normal circumstances one would first check if it was in gear and then start. but no no, not today. Today we just give the key a flick and this patrollie is always eager to get on the road so it literally starts with just a flick of the key, problem number 2 is that it can start like that in gear aswell. Good thing I was mostly inside the bonnet than in front of it so things were mostly under control.

Well we got things leak free again and back on the road, unfortunately the garage's paving wont be the same again, poor Land Rovers, owner probably thinks it was one of them again.

The suspension situation made things worse, exhaust cracked and my airhorns rattled off. Luckily they just landed on the engine and I could save them. I also developed an issue that I never had before and that was that I started having temperature issues on the gravel road. I was coping with the TD and its issues because my problems were past 100km/h and not offroad. Now I was getting very frustrated because my tires were now on 0.8 bar and every time I hit corrugations I had to reduce speed to under 80km/h and 3rd gear or my water temps would go beyond 105 degrees.

But we managed the issues, on the open road with the forward aircon vent open we kindoff still had aircon, one dared not open a window or all the gearbox heat would be pulled into the cab

Sitting at De Hoop in Richtersveld I noticed a wet spot on the ground that didn't seem to dry up... so I was sitting one morning drinking coffee when I noticed something dripping underneath the car.

The diesel tank had a crack, so I took a bottle and roughly measured the rate at which we were losing fuel. I wasn't more than 5 liters per day so I sacrifised a water jerrycan and filled it with 20 Liters just for in case things got worse.

But we had an awesome adventure and Old Patrollie made it home by itself now with 480 000km on the clock.

Original Parts list:
Rear diff
Transfercase
Gearbox (2nd gear is starting to scratch )
Most of the body