Genuine "Goodride"

First I should say that I have renamed Fritz to Artie, in part due to the numberplate which has "RRT" as the letters.

I got a pair of these fairly cheaply on eBay to replace the 12 year old ones on the rear of Artie, even had fun mounting and balancing them. They raise the rear a bit and may draw the ire of our nanny state which manages to have a law against everything, but finding tyres in the correct size for Artie isn't easy and I'm sure I'd only be met locally with a blank stare and a price tag designed to write him off. I think the pair cost $137 including freight.

Found.

Going on the info in Fritz's owner's manual I found it parked at its old home.
Easy to understand why it is so dusty, being on a dirt road but since the photo is one of the new high res ones Google are rolling out it comes as a surprise to see it parked in the garage.

Should the old owners see this, I'd be more than happy to tell them what's happening with their old toy.

Wow!

Jimmy was a bit slow to find this out but Fritz's seats unfold together to make a fairly comfortable bed.

Cool.

Jimmy's waiting for some LED lamps to arrive before he puts the dash back together, so don't worry about it looking very rough.

Relief.

This is a major reason for changing cars, now I can easily lift the important bits out of floodwater and have some peace of mind.

New belt.

A way easier job than I was expecting, nothing was stuck or stripped or seized or broken.

Another productive day.

The boot was torn on the tie-rod end and although it's otherwise OK without being dustproof it'll be soon buggered, since I'm no longer part of any trade I think I might only embarrass myself trying to find a new boot, so I bought a complete unit, usually you'd go to a lot of trouble to keep the wheel alignment the same when fitting but the previous owner must have taken it to one of the 9 out of 10 shonk shops because the alignment was woeful. I've set it a bit closer now and will probably play a bit more later.

Why can't people leave the alignment as it left the factory, they get it right and then shops proceed to ruin it.

Playing with a Nippon-Denso alternator.

Since Jimmy in his youth seemed to always have alternator trouble with whatever dunger he was using, he's made a habit of inspecting them in his mature years.
First up remove the alternator then spin the pulley if it spins smoothly then merely looking at the brushes should suffice, if not then don't worry about brushes and get an exchange unit.

This is the first ND one I've played with and I like it already. Most of them are probably very similar with the back cover plate needing to come off, use a 7mm spanner on the three green pointered screws, or if you're brave and strong a philips head screwdriver, but be warned the Japanese always do up screws far tighter than mere mortals can cope with. The Yellow nut is a 10mm hex and only has to be undone to the last thread or two and the insulator will pull out of the cover plate and allow its removal.

The new brushholder cost $21 on ebay and judging by the wear on the old one wasn't needed for a long time yet, but peace of mind is a wonderful thing when you're out in the middle of nowhere, so I put it in anyway.

The brushholder on these are simply held in by the green pointered screws, use a good screwdriver for these not granddad's old hand me down, you don't want to burr them. The lower one is longer but the short one won't fit in that hole so you'll know if you get them wrong like I did. Something thin may help to hold the brushes back while fitting them and be careful they line up properly.

Now Jimmy will have peace of mind for a while, say 100,000 km till he bothers looking again.