I finally bought my first car!!!!
Submitted: Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 21:24
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Rino
after months of umming and arring, today i finally made up my mind and bought my first car. Its a 1990 GQ petrol patrol. if you had of asked me 2 years ago what my first car would be this would have been the last car i would have imagined, but after a friend got me into 4wding a couple of years ago, im hooked and i have never looked back.
The beast has 127 000km on her clock and eats through fuel like there is no tomorrow, but ive always been a petrol head and figure she is worth the extra price at the pump. The car has been my parents since first purchased and has only been offroad the times i have driven it there, so i know im not buying into others problems. it has never skipped a beat and has just had the fuel pump and entire electrical system replaced (new battery, coil, distributor, points, leads... the lot) so i pray i have made a wise choice.
The only thing i need to do is replace the clutch, as it is on its way out. i do have a question though, is it necessary to fit it with a heavy duty clutch or should i stick to genuine parts? if anyone has experience either good or bad with a paticular brand it'd be great to hear about it. me and a mate are going to put it in, i cant justify spending so much money on labour when im desperatly trying to save for the new rubber.
Also, just having finished hsc and with the intention to do a hell of a lot more offroading i hope to join a 4wd club in the very near future. I live in
Sydney, and am pretty sold on the toyota land cruiser club, but if anyone can suggest others i should
check out that would be great. if anyone has any advise they could give me about the GQ or 4wding at all (as im fairly new to these waters) it would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers Chris
Reply By: Roachie - Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 21:51
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 21:51
Chris, Welcome to the expensive world of 4wd ownership.......Mate, you've got yourself a "truck", not a "car"!!
Advice, be bloody careful when you change the clutch......I'm no mechanic and am not sure what has to be undone to get to it. What I do know is that the Patrol gearbox is about the same weight as a small third world country (like NZ maybe?) and many a bloke has had to be rescued from underneath the 5 speed by a team of 5 blokes and a blue heeler!!!
My own first 4x4 was in 1990 and was a Maverick petrol. I later converted it to dual fuel and later to gas-only. Wrong thing to do!! Leave it on petrol and enjoy the extra neddies. By the time you're ready for your next truck, you'll have matured and realised that an oiler is the only way to go (just my biased opinion).
If it hasn't had much use of the front diff,
check all that stuff out forward of the transfer case...As Wayne pointed out to me a few days ago on another thread, if the front traction is not used often, you could run the risk of developing a flat spot on uni-joints etc where they have just been sitting idle for '000s klicks without rotating.
Good luck with it......they're a strong truck.
Cheers,
Roachie
AnswerID:
48692
Follow Up By: Rino - Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 22:40
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 22:40
Roachie, Thanks for
the tip, i have heard a lot of mixed things about a gas convo, while poor fuel economy does bother me, id prefer to pay more for petrol rather than compromise grunt or worse spend thousands on cracked heads.
As for the front diff i hope the uni joints are ok, im confident they should be, as even though it wasnt taken offroad, every so often we did lock the hubs to stop the thing from seizing up.
About The box,
well hopefully i have 2 more sets of hands for the job, but wll have to wait till later int he week to see.
Cheers Chris
FollowupID:
310499
Reply By: Truckster (Vic) - Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 21:52
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 21:52
Go with heavy duty clutch, but all depends on what you intend to do with it? Weekend hack, serious 4b? or just a traveller
Club, I looked at the Yota club too many members. never get on trips.
Try the Nissan Club (you do own one), they meet in 5 Dock on Queens Road. Top bunch, and Ian the pres, is a
young bloke, but knows his shiat, he may even have his GQ on the road by now. They also have their own land you can use.
AnswerID:
48693
Follow Up By: Rino - Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 22:46
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 22:46
Truckster, thanks for the info about the nissan club, i did a search on the net and came up with nothing, so ill definitly
check it out further... better still five dock is about 5 mintues drive from my place. As for the clutch i figured id put in a heavy duty one to stop me having to upgrade it later on down the track, but it will be a while before my "truck" is a serious 4b or more correctly i am a serious offroader, i have a lot to learn
Cheers Chris
FollowupID:
310501
Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Monday, Mar 01, 2004 at 21:35
Monday, Mar 01, 2004 at 21:35
Their site is down at the moment, no idea why, but will find out..
FollowupID:
310607
Reply By: Member Eric - Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 22:12
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 22:12
when you do the clutch on you GQ , make sure you
check the
fork pivot bolt , They always break , and some times a new pressuere plade is just enough to do it . You dont want to remove the G/box again just for a bolt lol . I know , i had to lol
Venus Bay
AnswerID:
48696
Follow Up By: Rino - Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 22:49
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 22:49
Eric thanks for that, knowing my luck i would have spent all saturday on the clutch only to spend the next week wondering whats wrong with it and all over a bolt! the fewer times i have to take out the transmition the better, it calls in too many favours at once.
Cheers Chris
FollowupID:
310503
Reply By: Martyn (WA) - Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 23:46
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004 at 23:46
Rino,
If the turbo clutch fits fit that, Nissan dealerships also sell aftermarket clutches, these are considerably cheaper and do work. If you go for a non genine(ish) clutch kit some of them don't have the right cushioning spring set up, they sound great when first fitted but after a while they develp a rattle on tickover which can be quite disconcerting. My experinces and opinions as usual.Keep the shiny side up
AnswerID:
48704
Reply By: Member - Russell - Monday, Mar 01, 2004 at 01:44
Monday, Mar 01, 2004 at 01:44
Straight out of HSC? First 4WD? The only real questions are, have you got rich parents or have you won Lotto. If answer to either is yes, get someone else to put the biggest mother of all clutches in it, then give it a flogging, in the bush, try not to wreck the environment or yourself, or your mates, while you do it.
If the answer to both is no, buy the cheapest clutch you can, use up your mates to help you fit it (they'll want to have a drive anyway, make them work for it). Then give it a flogging, in the bush, try not to wreck the environment or yourself, or your mates, while you do it.
As for 4WD clubs, they can be great value, but are usually populated by people old enough to give blokes like you the sh**s with all their rules and regs. If you don't join one, however, consider that their rules and regs usually have a good basis. Won't hurt you, or your pride & joy, or your mates, to follow most of them.
Main point is, spend as little as possible and have as much fun as you can until you're sure you want to spend the rest of your life leaving unsightly drool
trails down the windows of 4WD accessory shops.
Do I sound like your Old Man? Build a
bridge. It's because my mate (son) just bought his first 4by, and he won't listen to me either... I'm proud as Punch but MY wallet always seems to have this burning smell.....;-)
Regards
Early member, 4WD addicts anon.
AnswerID:
48708
Follow Up By: Roachie - Monday, Mar 01, 2004 at 10:40
Monday, Mar 01, 2004 at 10:40
Russell,
Good advice there.....
As the El Presidento of our little 4x4 club, (and being an old fart into the bargain @ 49), I can highly recommend joining a club as a bloody good way to learn more about 4 wheeling/camping etc.
At our most recent meeting, we had a couple attending who had been members of a L/Cruiser club. They couldn't believe how laid back we were in comparison to the city-based club. Our main aim is to have a good time. There are a few basic "rules", but only designed for everyone's own safety etc.
I used to belong to the NSW Nissan Patrol Club before I had to move to SA. They were a great bunch of people from the very little I saw of them.
Cheers,
Roachie
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310528