Red Targa Brumby

[El_Freddo]

Late reply Bumpty - but not really. Sometimes keeping track of what’s for what can be an issue!

Nothing really happening with Redback, just clocking up the kms. I still need to fit all of the interior and a couple of weeks ago I fitted the oil pressure sender unit, so now I have a working oil pressure gauge!



In the bush about 5-10mins from home:



Over the last month I’ve randomly had three people compliment my brumby, it’s a nice feeling! It’s also surprising as she’s not washed and is still full of dings.

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

My voltage was bouncing all over the joint with rev changes on the old EA alternator - and I’m out of replacement second hand units in my parts stash. This mod has the volt gauge sitting steady.

The mod is the EA alternator replaced with an EJ Gen3 unit. How to conversion thread here.

Looks odd but does the job:



Another Subarino inspired mod Thanks mate!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Yay! Now with intermittent wipers! Only took me about 14 months to undo two screws to get under the dash and swap the intermittent wiper canister for the looped wire plug (for auto return).

The switch was fitted when I did the dash conversion. I might get the rest of the interior fitted before Christmas..!

Cheers

Bennie

[Bantum]

Looking good Bennie, got any more info on the intermittent wiper install ? ( will have to check what's in the parts bin for mine )
Cheers, Bantum ...

[El_Freddo]

Thanks Bantum. She’s really “good from afar but far from good” - as always, she’s a work in progress.

For the intermittent swap you “just” need the four way wiper switch dial and the intermittent relay canister.



There are two types of dial switches - the one above from a coupe or sedan, the other from the touring wagon with an extra dial for the rear wiper function. Either will work, just the rear wiper will be defunct unless repurposed for something else.



The wiring is easy. Swap the (usually) looped yellow wire plug for the intermittent relay canister. Once the switch and canister are fitted, you have intermittent wipers.

Basically, if you see a six gauge cluster and dashboard, grab the whole thing if it’s in a wreck (or the whole vehicle if it’s too good to scrap!). You’ll have everything you need for the better looking cluster and it will have the intermittent wipers (I’m 99% sure they go hand in hand). Best bit is once you fit the dash and cluster, you’ll “automatically” have the intermittent wipers as a result of the swap. And it’s plug and play so long as you’re using the matching wiring to the cluster.

Cheers

Bennie

[Bantum]

Neat, think I have all that Except for the relay ... :/
( Not sure where that got to - will have to go back & check )

Cheers, Bantum ...

[El_Freddo]

Today I finally got around to something I’ve had on the to-do list since the day I got Redback - clean up some rust before it kills my ride. This is coated in rust buster at the moment:







There was another small patch on the radiator support panel and I hit the passenger’s side A pillar patch below the lower hinge. It’s a fair hole now and will require a panel cut, clean and replacement. That was always on the cards - just when is the question. RHS needs to be done the same too.

I really didn’t want to do the work as I know all too well how it goes - it’s a chase of the rabbit down the hole when it comes to rust. And it never looks good once it’s done as I’m not one to sand, fill and spray etc. I just want the rust shot until I can get that dream spray job done!

In other news, the EJ alternator is going well and the Brumby no longer pings on the open road. I have a new issue to chase down - surging like there’s a lack of fuel at times. It seems to happen when under load for long periods of time such as when towing up a hill and once when trying to maintain 110km/h with a stiff headwind.

First thing to try is a rear filter replacement. After that I’ll be looking at the fuel pump, which I think I’ve never replaced before (can’t remember which brumby I did a pump swap on, but I suspect it was Sunnie the Brumby).

I’m hoping that next weekend will see the Brumby head to Wandiligong to visit the Wandi pub - and get a photo of the pub with the Wandi Pub sticker on my bullbar:



The trip is just something I’ve wanted to tick off the list for a long time. In 2019 when I visited the pub for the first time, I found out they don’t do this style of sticker anymore, which just had me wanting to bring the sticker (and my bullbar) back to the pub they both apparently once visited before

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

I got the primer coat on one day after work late in the week. This is the only pic of that work:



The night before the road trip I sealed up the primer areas in the engine bay and the spots around the driver’s roof hole with black no rust enamel or something like that. It doesn’t look show room spec, but it also doesn’t say “look at me” like the tray area does at the moment.

Saturday. Early morning start at 8am. Driving into the sun wasn’t as bad as I expected and we didn’t see any roos which was a huge bonus.

The route was: Bendigo, Tooborac (also has an awesome pub!), Seymour, Yea, Bonnie Doon, Mansfield, Whitfield, Myrtleford, Porpunkah, Bright, Wandiligong. On the way home we dead headed to save time. From Myrtleford we hit Oxley, Glenrowan (via the freeway) down to Violet Town, across to Rushworth and on to Bendigo.

Total distance 682km. Don’t know exact fuel usage yet but first fill before returning home was 33L and 423km! That’s a record for the brumby, 7.8L/100km!! - even with a good flogging between Mansfield and Whitfield, I was very surprised!

Not many photos, too busy driving! Here are a couple from my phone. I’ll have to see what’s on the big camera yet.



At Colbinabbin silo art on our dead leg home run (boring as - these roads should have a higher speed limit to avoid boredom!):



Awesome day out. It was great to see so many people out, shame that for many social distancing is already a thing of the past... one notable dickhead on the road. The food at the Wandi Pub was awesome too (as expected)! We *just* made it in time to place an order! Book in weeks early if you plan to stop for a feed (no joke!).

Cheers

Bennie

[henpecked]

Great thread, that dash conversion gives me hope.

I'm finally going to get my blue targa sorted and then clear out all the parts i have.
i know i have two great wide dashes, and i know that one of the analogue instrument panels came to Me "bare" , i'm hoping that the other came with a full sub-loom.
I know i have 3 looms for working digital panels, I wounder if the digi sub-looms are plug'n'play with the wide analogue dashes - probably not.
I'll have to start a threat myself - it will be short though.
Anyway great read, thanks

[El_Freddo]

Recently I’ve had issues with performance around town, limited ability to rev, heavier throttle makes it worse. Had a whistle associated with it at one point.

After a lot of stuffing around with the exhaust it turned out it was blocked or partially blocked. Now that’s sorted she revs freely and could possibly be running better than ever, but I have no way of a solid comparison.

Straight to work for her:



Henpecked - apologies for the late reply! Your brumby sounds like a good project too. Thanks for the positive comment about a good read.

To answer some things for you - the digi dash looms are digi dash specific. You will need the analogue gauge’s matching wiring loom. The rest from there is plug and play

Let us know when you start your thread if I don’t find it first

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

While I was crook a week or two back (not covid! I got tested), I thought a day out in the fresh air would help out so I took the brumby for a drive out to Kooyoora Conservation Park, this is on the seasonally closed East tk:



At the thong tree. I learnt of this place on a uni bike ride back in 2006 but took me ages to find it again! It’s “near” Kingower, a few kms down the Kingower Arnold rd. It’s a well kept dirt road for anyone that’s interested. The brumby held well in 4wd at 90km/h no worries! I added this to WikiCamps as it wasn’t on there already. BYO nails and thongs



Subarino sorted me with some new exhaust gaskets. Soooo good that it’s one of those simple fixes I should’ve done ages ago! No longer does my beloved brumby scare ppl eating outside food venues as I cruise past in town! So good.

She also smashed out a 400+ km round trip the other day to see the new bond film with a mate. Didn’t miss a beat and was a great sesh. Loved it. Dunno what they’ll do in the next bond film, I’m still a bit shell shocked!

Cheers

Bennie

EDIT: exhaust flange gasket part number is JE693

[Silverbullet]

Nice pics and a nice day out I'm sure. It's awesome when you work out a simple fix that unlocks formerly hidden potential in these old Subies
Wish I could get 400k out of a tank in my wagon, I actually broke down last week (out of fuel) at a shameful 280k's, although the big wheels make it read less than actual, maybe more like 300k's to a 45L tank though is still pitiful.

Question for you on that 6 gauge cluster; does your fuel gauge read full when the tank is full? And do you have the 2-wire fuel sender or the stock Brumby single wire one? My 6 gauge dash only ever goes up to the 3/4 mark and I'm wondering if it's because my single wire sender has a different resistance to the 2 wire sender.

[El_Freddo]

My fuel gauge reads as it should with the six gauge cluster and the stock brumby single wire sender unit. I’d like the twin wire unit to get the low fuel light working some day.

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Took a detour on my way home the other day to get this pic:



It was a nice drive using the old parts of the Calder before cutting west for an extended detour. I pushed the fuel envelope lower than I’d ever done before - got just off the bottom of the E mark but managed to make it home.

Fuelled up today and managed to squeeze 47L in. Can’t remember if the brumby has a 50 or 55L tank...

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Not much happening other than filling it up and driving it yesterday to Melbs and back in a futile parts yard run.

I didn’t see any other Brumbys in my 400+km drive. Saw many P platers in high end BMWs and Mercs doing a good 10km/h over the speed limit in roadwork zones and 80km/h zones. Oddly many of them were sitting on 95 in 100km/h zones. Weird.

Found three tiny rust spots above the upper windscreen rubber where stones have chipped the paint a tiny bit. Another thing to get on to...

Cheers

Bennie

[Silverbullet]

Do you need anything in particular? Paul (formerly Subareck Paul) over here in SA still has a whole yard full of Brums that he parts out or repairs, can supply most parts. I went for a visit on Saturday to get a speedo cable (the one in my wagon broke) he's probably got close to 100 Brumbies on his property, mostly bent, thrashed or otherwise too broken to be road worthy again. I could ask for you if you don't have means to contact him directly, he mostly goes through FB messages. He posts stuff all over Australia too.

I dunno what goes on with traffic on country roads, the trip out for the speedo cable was a 2 hour drive from home for me out into the countryside and if I wasn't being held up by oldies doing 20 or more under the limit I was being tailgated relentlessly when I was doing the limit. At one point I was doing 99 in a 100 zone (phone GPS speedo) and got overtaken on a double white line by a highly modified Hilux debadged and with blacked out lights, he must have been doing 140 when he disappeared off into the sunset

[El_Freddo]

It’s not that bad here on our country roads. You’ll come across the odd driver doing over the limit skipping past ppl but it’s not usually more than ten over. And I don’t often come across many doing under the limit on country roads with the exception of caravaners usually.

As for parts, thanks for the offer, not brumby parts though. They’re from a 2011 Liberty and it looks like I’ve found them from Subabits in Melbs. I should’ve looked at this option before shooting off 2.5hrs to Melbs!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Lots of driving today, down to Geelong and back (actually a bit further along from G’town). Did the trip home with the tops off, missed all the storm activity on my way home, those are part of the storms in the background. This was just near Mt Franklin between Castlemaine and Daylesford:



Did my fuel calcs from the wasted trip to Melbs, got 8.5L/100km! I’m pretty stoked with that. Dunno that this trip will be the same, LOTS of hills and intersections and not a lot of vehicles to do a bit of slip streaming with. But did “cop” a tail wind most of the way home!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Went for a quick shop in the next town over, parked no the main street, came out to find Redback had made a friend:



I couldn’t hang around so I left a note on the windscreen.

Good to see they’re still getting around. I haven’t seen the other two local ones for a while now. I should look into it.

Cheers

Bennie

[Subyroo]

Your drivers door looks a bit crinkly Bennie.