DieselMontes BarnFind Subaru Justy

[DieselMonte]

Well that didn't last long

Hopped in it today, got to the bottom of my hill and it ran like absolute ****.

Bad enough that I couldn't take it to work as planned.

Dropped the fuel filter on advise from someone and...

Already clogged.

Thankfully I have a spare on hand and it is an easy job.

This is what came out of the filter.

Plenty of fresh fuel in it.

May need to drop the tank sooner rather than later.

Seems otherwise fine happily.

My guess is that a chunk of gunk got into it this morning and caused it to run like ****. It ran beautiful just last night.

[J.R.]

Wise move re the tank, hopefully it's just debris and not severe internal corrosion.

 

Do you think the filter was clogged or that some debris got through the element to the carburettor? I hope its the former.

 

Is the fuel line upstream of the filter plastic or does it have some metal piping? If the latter that is where I would now be looking, I have spent far too many hours removing and cleaning the float chamber needle valve or idle jets from corroded fuel lines upstream of the filter on a couple of vehicles.

[DieselMonte]

It's a small metal pipe going from the tank to the filter with a rubber hose connecting the 2.

Do have a suspicion about it being blocked.

Fairly confident this filter did its job and caught any debris. Tried to blow through it and it was blocked almost solid. Will order yet another filter tomorrow. And get some small jubilee clips somewhere so I can mount a secondary filter just before the carb.

 

[J.R.]

Sorry I meant downstream, between the filter and the carburettor is there any metal tubing?

 

Good move re the secondary filter if there is a metal tube between the two, that way you can see where the debris is coming from.

[DieselMonte]

23 hours ago, DieselMonte said:

 

Fairly confident this filter did its job and caught any debris.

 

Well, that was a mistake.

Fuel bowls filled with crap.

 

[DieselMonte]

Carburetors still being a ****. If its not filling with crap from the tank its the cork gasket not wanting to seat. 

On the brightside though I finally have a logbook in my name for it. 

Anyway. Set about checking the valve lash so popped the valve cover off.

Turns out it's the 1.2l Justys that are 3 valve. Even though its the same Engine ""prefix"" for the 2, the 1l is 2 valve. For some reason.

All of them were set exactly to the specs shown on the bonnet, so I left them be.

Then I started on the timing belt.

I took off the alternator belt. Obviously well past due, have a new Meyle one for it.

There's an access port you can get to by removing a plug in the drivers side wheel well. Didn't bother removing the wheel, locked it hard and that gave me plenty of access.

 

Pic of the old subaru belt on it. Looked okay. Didn't look like it was going to fail any time soon anyway.

Old Belt vs the new Gates one. Didn't bother replacing the idler pulley as it was fine.

Really not in bad shape for how long it must have been on there.

New Belt on.

And done. Only took about an hour. Didn't start it as the top of the carb is off again. 

One last thing is I was gifted a Cassette to aux adaptor for this. 

Bit pointless considering. But proved that the cassette player works flawlessly. 

Edited 25 December, 2022 by DieselMonte

[J.R.]

Just look how clean everything is inside the rocker cover! I don't know if you are old enough to remember say Ford X/flow push rod engines in their day but everything would have been caked in black clag, the tappets would have needed constant adjustment and would still be noisy because of indented rockers, you would have to remove them to remove the indents on an oilstone and in doing so would see how worn the rocker shaft was, you would then refit it upside down to gain a few more thousand miles wear, this would be on engines that had covered 30K miles upwards sometimes even less.

 

By 80k if you were able to nurse the engine to that stratospheric mileage you would no longer need to adjust the tappets, you could no longer hear them for big end knock, main bearing rumble, timing chain rattle and piston slap!!

 

You would also hav had to decoke the engine at least twice to get to that mileage.

 

If you look at the picture showing the old belt on the pulley with the valve gear behind, if you crop out the parts of the photo showing the corrosion on the alternator body you would say that engine was less than 12 months old and had done less than 1000 miles, or at least thats what a Ford, BL etc engine of the day would have done to have looked like that.

 

In my experience all Jap engines since the mid 70's look like that internally even when they have never had an oil change, just think how good the sealing must have been around the timing belt covers for the belt and especially the cam pulley to remain like that.

[DieselMonte]

I probably could clean up the alternator with a wire brush. It's really not too bad though.

For a car that was built to be disposable, it was really well built. It's a stout engine aside from a weak oil pump design. 

Think a lot of the reason this engine looks so healthy is because it would have never been neglected maintenence wise. I wonder if my work would have any records of it, considering they sold it new. It still has the original dealer sticker on the back, and a keytag with works name on it.

 

Really debating putting a weber on now. Sort one thing on the hitachi and another problem crops up. For the little while it was going right. It drove absolutely fantastic.

I did add another fuel filter just before the carb, to help stop the carb getting gunked up again.

[J.R.]

Stick with it, the aftermarket Weber conversions were in the main a pile of crap, never actually tested on the vehicles, you have the best carb in the world after you resolve the debris problems that might afflict a weber even worse.

 

My pal put a Weber conversion on a CVH engined Escort, the venturi was forever icing up on damp days stopping the fuelling.

[DieselMonte]

Not really anything progress related but I'll post anyway.

I have since tried (carefully) putting gasket sealant stuff onto the mating surfaces for the cork gasket, as a way to secure it properly and stop it slipping.

It needs to cure so can't do any more there. Did take out the thermostat too to have a look, seems stuck solid. Dumped it into some boiling water and nothing happened. Will have to track down another it seems.

With that out of the way, someone was up looking at the justy the other day and pointed out to me that if I moved some ****e about, I might be able to stuff it into the back of the garage and fit another car in. 

Wasn't doing too much so decided to try that out.

Did create a fair mess moving stuff around. But it did seem possible.

It's really jammed in though. The freezer isn't being used but I had to keep it in the garage. So I shove some bits of the Monte into it and pushed it deep under the stairs.

Next problem is this old table top, I can't move it myself so it couldn't go anywhere either. With it out of the way I could get another few inches.

Left myself some space on this side. Just in case.

Slowly taking shape.

Final test to see if all this hassle was worth it.

It fits, just.

Have about 6 inches from the front of the Monte to the garage door.

I can't fit anything bigger than a fabia, but considering that's all I have, it doesn't matter.

 

An hour or so spent but happy with the result. Can't complain about turning a 1 car garage into a 2 car garage for free.

[J.R.]

Think how much room you would have if the 2nd car was another Justy or pretty much any small family car of the time.

 

That  is a decent sized 2 car garage but not for anything modern and bloated, even the Fabia looks huge against it.

 

You desperately need some more racking and storage in there but in the interim I like how you have turned the stepladder into a rack for the squirty stuff!!!!

 

Creating more space in the garage/workshop is what I am working on at present, I have more tools and materials to bring to site for the house renovation which is not going to start until the workshop is sorted and useable with the equipment and materials in it, I have learned the hard way that otherwise you just become buried.

 

First job after that is to double the size of the workshop to be able to work properly and have a seperate woodworking area, only then can the house renovation start. Until then I have to live in the caravan.

Edited 28 December, 2022 by J.R.

[DieselMonte]

I've been needing more shelving here for ages. But if you think that garage is bad then you'd need to see the shed where the other fabias reside. Everything's just sort of laid out on the floor. 

That garage it wasn't much of a problem until I got the justy. All I used that garage for previously was storing a car after a wash, or for polishing. 

Think it'd be a good job for summer to take all out. Paint the walls and put up some racks. The attic is a mess too but I know as soon as I touch it someone will come along and mess it up again.

Best of luck with the renovations.

[DieselMonte]

New Thermostat is on. Its a Gates one so hopefully it will be OK.

Put it in. Got it running and out of the garage for once. New accessory belt is not the proper one, made a lot of noise first start up and no matter how tight I got it. Kept wrangling itself off the pullies. So it has the old one on it again, for the time being.

Tried bleeding the cooling system. Bit of seepage around the thermostat now. Came with new gaskets and I made sure to put it in the same way as the original one. Bit of sealant should take care of it. Aside from that. It seems the thermostat itself works fine.

"Sealant around the edge of the carb" job seems to have done the trick for now. Don't mind the high idle. 

 

 

 

[DieselMonte]

Not much here but enough to warrant a post.

Carburetor is off again awaiting another kit. Be getting another float to try, cork gasket and some new jets. Whether they are the correct jets or not who knows.

Also

Finally got it trailered out to the farm, didn't really want to be pulling the fuel tank at home so.

Have finally found a backbox that will bolt up, to save me shelling out for getting the stainless one put on. New standard fit backbox.

[DieselMonte]

New backbox is here and on

Looks a lot nicer

All the rubbers are fine so no point getting new ones.

Really straight underneath for being 30 year old.

Jacked it up on the rear to try drain some out of the tank.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Good work going on here, as always. Lovely to see the proverbial wheels in motion.

[DieselMonte]

Heads been fried trying to get things in order for all my current projects.

Been busting my chops to get the Monte good for nct tomorrow on top of everything. Not wanting to stall on any car any longer, so even if I'm only making a little bit of progress on each car it's better than nothing

[DieselMonte]

Big job this evening, getting the tank out.

First I pulled the sender to check if it could still work

Had to remove the backseat which was just 2 bolts. Pic was taken after everything was out.

It's rusty as anything and was stuck in place, a little bit of wiggling saw it moving free. Plugged it back in and confirmed it does work perfectly.

Then the tank. Was not a fun job but would have been much harder if this was a 4wd one

Had to unbolt the trailing arms to let it down, thankfully every bolt came out very easily.

A look at the fuel left in the tank, feral.

Drained all out and this is what was left

It just seems to be surface rust and sediment. Confident this will clean up easily.

 

 

[DieselMonte]

Fuel tanks back in and plumbed up

All I'm waiting on now is a gasket for the carb.

So close and yet so far

Wouldn't mind but I did order gaskets and waited a month for them, only for them to arrive ripped. From a different seller mind as the seller I bought the first kit from is out of stock. 

 

[J.R.]

On 28/02/2023 at 22:20, DieselMonte said:

Drained all out and this is what was left

 

A bag of cocaine if I'm not mistaken!

 

Someone has waited a long time for that 🤣

 

Those tiny wheels just straddling the pit has given me the Heeby-Geebies!

Edited 21 March, 2023 by J.R.

[DieselMonte]

38 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

A bag of cocaine if I'm not mistaken!

 

Someone has waited a long time for that 🤣

 

Those tiny wheels just straddling the pit has given me the Heeby-Geebies!

Don't worry it's off the pit now and hopefully won't need to go back on for a long long time.

I ran some petrol in and around the tank, shook the life of it and drained it out. Turned a shade yellow but compared to before, I don't think I'll have any trouble for another while yet.

 

Also note the fuel pump/filter dragging still.

New filter is slightly different to the old one so it's gonna take a bit of fettling to put in. Done enough on it this evening to be happy.

[DieselMonte]

New carb kit is finally delivered I just need to pick it up.

Came all the way from Canada. Was not cheap so I ****ing hope its correct and not ripped.

Anyway, was waiting for paint to dry so tinkered on this for a bit.

Wirewheeled the brakes front and rear

And gave em a lick of hammerite silver. Pointless since they're stuck behind 12 inch steelies but I'll know.

Also had some spacers doing nothing so threw them on the rear. 5mm a side.

I don't really want to tackle these wheels by myself with the surface rust. Don't think I can make them look "like new". So for now they can look original. May send them off to a professional somewhere down the line. And maybe buy some new wheel nuts.

Also refitted the fuel filter assembly back on. 

Hopefully be running like a champ very soon.

[DieselMonte]

Finally lives again.

New carb kit arrived. 

All it needed was the gasket really. 

Put it all together, slapped it on, fresh fuel in the tank and a bit into the fuel bowl. And...

 

First try and it fired right up.

New backbox is silent aswell

 

Running pretty rough, High idle and lots of revhang but it IS running and does idle. Did take it out for a few runs of the farm ofcourse. And it pulled superb considering.

Obligatory photos.

Doesn't look it but it's covered in an inch of dust from sitting up.

Got it on the weighbridge and according to that it weighs 740kg without a driver. 

So now it's back starting, steering and stopping. So nct is in its very near future indeed.

 

[DieselMonte]

Not much here but after some more fine tuning it's running much better, well enough to have it on (definitely private) roads. Filled it up and as you can see the fuel gauge is reading right.

It's driving fine but a bit slow and it's not giving me the big bump in power when the second barrel kicks in. Gonna Check timing again and maybe advance it a hair and see how it goes. It is absolutely filthy now so I'll give it a good scrub soon. Nct on the 13th all going well.

I'd like to drive it there to make sure its "hot" and give it a better chance for passing emissions. I'll see closer to the date. 

Nice to see it running well again. Set idle a bit higher just to let it idle smoother. Starts in half a turn 9 times out if 10 too.

 

Still don't think it'd pass nct first try.

Just have this feeling it will fail on something extremely stupid. But all the light work, brakes are good, trackings good etc etc.

[DieselMonte]

 

In for nct this afternoon

Towed up because I didn't want to chance getting stopped.

And...

Clean sheet pass.

So now tested until September next year. Should be 2 years but due to the unique way nct works, it goes from the month it ran out to that month the next year. Because it's over 30 years old it gets a "2 year test". If it were any younger it'd be tested until September of this year, and have to go back in again.

Makes complete sense right?