2006 Fpv Tornado F6 Ute - Cleanup & Resurrection

[PhilMeUp]

Thursday, 1st January, 2015

After not doing anything with the ute for the last few weeks it was time to get back into it.

I bought two new remotes on eBay and coded them to the car. These are the ute version, with three buttons instead of the usual four.



As part of cleaning up the interior I had also put the centre console felt in the washing machine with a load of clothing.



I used a small flat-blade screwdriver to push the edge tabs back into their slots.



Apart from the floor, the interior is now starting to look like it should.

That plastic insert for the passenger door handle is sitting around the place somewhere - I’ll put it back in later.

There’s also an original Ford mobile phone holder. I had originally intended to remove this, but after checking on mobile phone usage law here in WA recently I might end up using it. Using a mobile phone in WA is now three demerit points and a $400 fine, unless the phone is “secured in a mounting affixed to the vehicle and is not being held by the driver.”

Thus, if my iPhone is sitting in the drink holder and I touch the phone, it’s an infringement. If the phone is attached to the holder (eg Blutak) then it’s not an infringement. Welcome to the fine print of the law.

I’ve also got a Parrot MKi9200 phone kit that will be fitted to the Tornado later on. This is the best phone kit that I’ve found, and integrates particularly well with iPhones.



To get the Tornado licenced I’m going to need to raise it to get the minimum required 110mm ground clearance. I also need a reasonable height for general practicality. This means doing something with the rear leaf springs. The front springs will be an easier solution - just buy new aftermarket ones.

I’ve been indecisive about this for weeks, hence not coming up with a solution. Options:

- Get the existing leaf springs reset at a suspension place.
Pros: Would get the job done.
Cons: Expensive - around $400.

- Get the existing leaf springs reset at an industrial springworks place.
Pros: Much cheaper than having it done at a suspension place, for the same job.
Cons: Might take several goes to get them reset to the right height (trial and error).

- Buy new leaf springs.
Pros: New springs and ensures the correct height. Means that I could sell the old ones.
Cons: Expensive, at around $700-800.

- Fit airbags with the leaf springs.
Pros: Relatively cheap.
Cons: I don’t know enough about this stuff, and what to choose.

Trying to figure out a solution for raising the rear suspension has been a time consuming stumbling block. And then I saw an advert on Gumtree for a pair of leaf springs from a 2012 FG XR6 Turbo ute that had covered 40,000km. These were almost as good as new ones but at $150, a lot cheaper. The FG ute uses the same leaf springs as the BA and BF utes, so these will bolt in. I also got the original FG rear shock absorbers (also BA& BF compatible) and some lowering blocks (which I don’t have a use for).



The part number on the FG XR6 Turbo springs.



My driveway has a curve shape to it, so this photo doesn’t properly show how low the car is, but on flat ground it has less than the legally required 110mm.



The lowest part of the car is the exhaust.



Time to start on swapping the leaf springs over. I was really, really, really not in the mood to do this today, but this particular problem had held up the project for the last few weeks and I need to get this car licenced.



I already had a spare set of new shackle bushes left over from a previous job. Notice the part number - XT5781A. The first two letters of a Falcon part number indicate the model of Falcon that the part was originally used on. So, with an XT prefix, these shackle bushes were originally used on the 1968 XT Falcon. The same shackle bushes are still used on the current model FG ute.



Because the ute has been sitting untouched for a while it’s now covered in dust and a few cat hairs. I’ll give it a quick rinse with the pressure washer when I get time.



Getting into removing the existing leaf springs.



There is a towbar in place, but it’s not one that’s designed to fit the FPV Tornado rear bumper. This would also explain why part of the bumper is missing, including the vacant bracket to the right of the trailer cable connection. Once I’ve got the ute licenced I’ll look into getting a tow hitch for it, but I’m more inclined to track down a replacement towbar that is designed to fit in with the Tornado bumper. Hayman Reese make something suitable.



Got the first leaf spring mostly off.



Removing the bolts at the front of the leaf springs was a challenge due to lack of clearance with the side skirts.



With a bit of wrestling and a few four-lettered words I managed to wrestle the bolt out from each side. I’ve seen discussion about the two mounting points for the leaf springs, but as you can see, although there are two holes in the bracket there is only the one hole in the actual chassis.



One of the lowered springs with one of the FG XR6 Turbo springs. The one at the top is the lowered one. You can see the difference in curve in the lower (XR6T) one.



I’ll need to replace the diff breather hose before the licencing inspection. I’ll remove the hose and go match it up with some fuel hose (that will last longer than plain rubber hose).



A photo showing the differences in height between the different leaf springs.



There’s around 50mm difference in height.

[PhilMeUp]

As mentioned, I replaced the shackle bushes with some new ones that I already had. The old ones weren’t too bad (this was the worst), but replacement bushes aren’t expensive and replacing them now means that I won’t need to do this again.



Swapping the hangers over to the new leaf springs, along with new shackle bushes.



The replacement springs, ready to be fitted to the ute.



When I removed the leaf springs, I started at the back by removing the two bolts that attach the hanger brackets to the chassis. However, the front bolt on each hanger bracket was difficult to access, so for reassembly I tried bolting the hangers in place first and then the front bolts after that. This worked, and I finally got the car back into one piece again.



Once the wheels were back on the ground it was obvious that there was now a bigger gap between the wheel and wheel arch.

Trying to figure out a solution for raising the rear suspension has been pissing me off for the last few weeks. Not only have I now got a solution, but it also cost very little. I’ll probably be able to recoup the $150 that I spent on the leaf springs by selling the lowered ones.

The next step will be to replace the front springs and diff breather hose, and then the ute will be very close to being ready for inspection. Then I can get the thing mobile and get on to getting that carpet properly cleaned…

[PhilMeUp]

Friday, 2nd January, 2015

Today I continued with relatively minor maintenance stuff.

The diff breather hose had broken off at the axle tube, which is common on the Falcon wagons and utes. I went to a Repco shop and bought some 6.3mm fuel hose, as this is stronger, and will last longer, than normal rubber hose.



The fuel hose had a slightly thinner internal diameter than the old diff hose, so it wasn’t easy to fit over the mount on the axle tube. I soaked the end of the fuel hose in hot water for a while to soften it up, but that wasn’t enough. I ended up spraying some silicon spray into the end of the fuel line to help slide it on to the mount, and then put a hose clamp over it. Then I was able to feed the other end through the bracket on the chassis.



The brake fluid didn’t look too bad but naturally I wanted to flush it anyway. I started with draining the reservoir with a syringe with some clear tubing attached to it.



In the past I’ve wasted a lot of brake fluid when flushing out the reservoir to get it clean enough. These days I keep a couple of spare reservoirs, so that I can fit a fresh clean one instead. Removing the reservoir is easy - just remove the bolt at the base with an 8mm socket.



And then disconnected the cable on the other side.



The reservoir then lifted out and a clean one put in.



I love speed bleeders. They are a brake nipple with a small internal valve that allows fluid to flow out but nothing to flow back in again. This makes bleeding brakes a one person task - loosen the nipple, go and pump the brake pedal and then tighten the speed bleeder nipple.

I have not been able to find speed bleeders in Australia so I get them from the US via mail order. The standard Falcon calipers and Brembo calipers all take a SB1010S, which is also sold by Russell Industries as 639630. I keep some of these as spares at home. However, it turns out that the rear PBR calipers on the Tornado ute uses a longer nipple, the SB1010 (sold by Russell Industries as 639560). I don’t keep spares of these, so had to wait until an order from the US arrived before I could fit the speed bleeders to the calipers and flush the fluid.

On the left is the SB1010S/639630. In the middle is the standard nipple from the rear PBR caliper. On the right is the SB1010/639560.

http://www.speedbleeder.com



I use PBR Super Dot 4 brake fluid. It has a higher heat rating but absorbs moisture faster. This isn’t a problem for me as I flush brake fluid regularly on my cars (every 4-6 months on my taxi).



I connected a bleeder bottle to the speed bleeder nipple, which I had already loosened with a ring spanner. These days I’m using a Kincrome DR1011MC for this, which has 10mm and 11mm rings. The rings give better grip on the nipple than a normal spanner, and the length of the ring spanner gives good leverage for loosening and tightening the nipple.

Once the bottle was connected and the nipple loosened, I gave the brake pedal 20 pumps for each nipple. The rear callipers have the usual one nipple each, but the front Brembo callipers have two nipples each.



I had also been meaning to put some grease on the rear axle studs, and finally remembered to get that done today. I also put a bit of grease in each wheel nut.



I’ve had a bottle of Wynn’s Engine Flush sitting in the shed for a while so figured I might as well use it.



When I originally bought the ute I drove it home from Pickles Auctions and then immediately changed the engine oil. I then drove the car for another 160km around Perth on the 48 hour Temporary Movement Permit that I had at the time. So, this oil had been used for 160km before I put the engine flush in.



I left the car idling for 20 minutes while I did a few other things around the place. Then I drained the oil, which came out a very dark brown. Looks like this Wynn’s Engine Flush stuff might actually do something. This was a massive difference from what was on the oil dipstick half an hour earlier.



Then it was time to move on to the front brakes. Before flushing the front calipers I wanted to clean the rust off the disc rotors and wheel studs.



I’ve also had a pair of RDA Dimpled and Grooved disc rotors sitting around for a few years, and had them machined a few weeks ago in case I needed them for the Tornado. Sure enough, there was a massive lip on the outside of each of the original disc rotors.



Because of the lip on the discs, I had to push the pads apart to get the callipers to slide off the discs. I got this Disc Brake Piston Spreader from Radum a couple of years ago and use it often.

http://radum.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=8685



Once I got the caliper off I hung it from the upper control arm with a pot plant hook so that I could remove the disc rotor. However, on each side, the disc wouldn’t come off because rust had glued each one to the bearing hub. I had the same problem that I had with removing the rear discs.



Each disc had a massive lip on it - not easy to photograph though.



I checked the ball joints for movement by trying to lift the control arm up and down by pushing up at the base of each disc rotor. There was no movement in the rubber boot on each ball joint, indicating that they aren’t worn at this stage.



Getting the disc off on each side took some effort. There was plenty of thumping with a hammer to break the rust seal on each disc, followed by lots of wrestling to get each disc off its bearing hub.

[PhilMeUp]

Once I finally got each disc rotor off I was able to access each bearing hub.



I was then able to clean the rust off each bearing hub and the wheel studs.



This is how I do this - with a drill and wire brush. I also use a long ring spanner to control or prevent rotating of the bearing hub, and also to keep my fingers clear of the wire brush.



I had already cleaned the disc rotors before getting them machined, so they were ready to go on.



The battlefield.



I finally got each side reassembled and put some grease on the wheel studs.



I was finally finished with maintaining the brakes. I had left the engine oil draining all this time, and the next job was to replace the oil filter. I had bought some Motorcraft FL-820S filters in my recent Amazon order. I also bought a AMPRO T75871 Oil Filter Wrench Set a while ago, and used the 93-15F cup on the Motorcraft filter.



I used a small 1/4” drive ratchet instead of my usual larger 1/2” drive ratchet to ensure that I didn’t over tighten the oil filter. Using an oil filter cup to tighten the filter is a lot easier than other tools that I’ve previously used.



I also wanted to replace some other consumable items. I had bought a new engine pulley drive belt, upper and lower radiator hoses and a fuel filter.
Some part numbers:
Drive Belt: SX8620A
Upper Radiator Hose: BA8260AMC
Lower Radiator Hose: BA8286AMC
Fuel Filter: AFG55AA



The upper radiator hose is easy to replace.



Replacing the lower radiator hose involves removing the cooling fan, which is easy to do.



The lower hose (on the left) was still in good condition. There was some bulging on one end, but that hose still had plenty of life left in it. However, there was a more substantial bulge on the upper hose. When the hoses bulge the rubber gets thinner and eventually the hose bursts. The rubber in the bulge area was extremely thin, so I was pleased that I’d replaced both hoses before one of them burst.



Then I replaced the pulley drive belt. This is done by using a ratchet to rotate the spring loaded tension arm that keeps the belt tight.



One good thing that I noticed was that the top of the alternator was clean. There is an o-ring in the power steering hose, and when that o-ring expires power steering fluid leaks out and drips on to the top of the alternator. This eventually wrecks the alternator, which is an expensive part to replace on BF Falcons. Both the power steering hose and alternator are both in proper working order.



When removing the cooling fans, people often forget to reconnect the power cable afterward (I’ve done this). I made a point to not forget this time.



I was then done with the engine bay for the day. Fresh engine oil and filter, new upper and lower radiator hoses and a new pulley drive belt were now in place.



Just when things were progressing so well, I managed to stuff it up. I wanted to check the spare wheel winch but was having trouble reversing the car onto some ramps. The wheels were resisting getting past the first part of the ramp so I progressive applied more accelerator. Then the wheels got onto the ramps and overshot the end before I could back off.

Lots of cursing followed as I got out to see what the hell had happened.



Luckily the damage was only minor. There are cracks in each side skirt, and the badges will need replacing. This will cost some money, but won’t be particularly expensive. There are badges on eBay and the side skirts can be repaired with plastic welding.

I then used the trolley jack to lift the back of the car up high enough to remove the ramps.

I was in a pretty foul mood by now.



I figured that I might as well keep working, and replaced the fuel filter with the new one that I had bought.



I had tried to reverse up the ramps to check the spare wheel winch. I managed to get the car up on ramps without breaking anything else, but the winch wouldn’t unwind.

I removed the winch from the car and drilled out the rivets that hold the casing together.

My mood didn’t improve a whole lot once I saw the contents. This wasn’t looking good.

[PhilMeUp]

It was starting to look like I wasn’t going to be able to fix the winch this time.



Nup, not looking good at all.



That cable is well and truly stuffed.



I’ll have to get a new cable made and fitted to the winch. This won’t be difficult, but I was hoping that it wouldn’t be necessary. This also explains why there wasn’t a spare wheel with the ute.



This is the wheel that I’ll keep as a spare, a BA XR8 wheel. This wheel will fit over the Brembo calipers.



Damaging the sideskirts is quite a setback, and I’ll be pissed off about it for a few days. I’ll have a look for secondhand ones, but these ones can be repaired with plastic welding.

I also bought some new front springs today, so once I get the front struts out and get the new springs fitted I’ll have the car up to a legal height. Once that’s done then the car will just about be ready for a licencing inspection, and I’m hanging out to get this thing licenced and mobile.

[FiftyOne]

f*ck! And all was going so well! I recently brought a set of Tornado badges cheap for a rainy day. I'd love to donate them to you for this project. Please let me know

[discostig]

My face when I saw the ramp overshot result

Hope you can get a spare set easy enough, or get them plastic welded and painted. At least they are a small part!

Great resurrection thread Phil. You're even more prolific with progress pics than I am and I'm sure I'll use your threads in coming years. Still haven't cleaned my seatbelts though

[PhilMeUp]

My face when I saw the ramp overshot result

Hope you can get a spare set easy enough, or get them plastic welded and painted. At least they are a small part!

Great resurrection thread Phil. You're even more prolific with progress pics than I am and I'm sure I'll use your threads in coming years. Still haven't cleaned my seatbelts though

I was pretty upset when it happened. I haven't had a good look under the car yet, but the only damage that I can see so far is those two sill panels. There are places that do plastic welding, including places that repair motorbike fairings, so I'll look into that.

Right now I'm procrastinating going out into the carport and replacing the front springs. I bought a pair of XR6 height King Springs on Friday, but wasn't able to borrow some spring compressors until tonight. Don't really want to do it tonight, but if I get it done then it's one step closer to getting the car licenced.

Other things will probably pop up at inspection time, but the list right now is:

- Cover driver’s seat hole - there's a small cigarette burn hole that needs to be covered up (a very small hole, I'll probably be a smart arse and put a band-aid over it).

- Door handle - I might just put a standard BF door trim in place for the inspection.

- Replace front suspension springs - what I'm procrastinating about right now

- Wheel alignment & centre steering wheel - will email WIlkinson Suspension and book the soonest spot they've got.

11:55pm. Off to the carport. C'ya in a couple of hours.

[PhilMeUp]

Monday, 5th January, 2015

The list of things to do before putting the car through a licencing inspection has been getting shorter recently (as has has been my temper).

There will probably be a few last minute things, but the list right now is:
- Replace the front springs with ones that will get the car to a legal height. I’ve bought a set of King Springs for this.
- There’s a small cigarette burn hole on the driver’s seat. Although trivial, this will need to be covered up. I’ll probably stick a band-aid on for a laugh.
- Replace the driver’s door handle. I’ve got a standard BF Falcon door trim that I’ll put on just for the inspection, and then sort something permanent out later.
- The steering wheel isn’t centred, so I’ll get that sorted out at the same time a wheel alignment is done.

Tonight’s job was to replace the front springs. The current ones are Lovell FFL-102 (Lovell Sport Low) springs, which lower the car. I bought a pair of KFFL-57SP King Springs, which are XR6 height.

Here I go again, pulling the car apart.



Getting access to the first front shock absorber.



At least the upper bolts are easy enough to access on the driver side.



After a bit of wrestling I got the shock absorber out.

Somewhere here I’ve got a set of upper control arms with new bushes and ball joints. I went looking for these controls so that I could fit them while I was doing this. Looked in all the usual places and couldn’t find them. The Tornado probably doesn’t need new upper control arm bushes and ball joints at this stage, but I’ve got a set of control arms here somewhere so might as well use them.



Time to swap the spring over.



I’ve never swapped over front strut springs before. I don’t have a bench or vice, so used my hydraulic press to hold the shock absorber in place while I tightened up the coil spring compressors. My lack of experience with suspension was really starting to show.



Got the spring off the first strut.



Then started on removing the shock absorber on the passenger side.



The upper bolts aren’t as easy to access, but I managed to get all three loosened off easily enough, and the shock absorber dropped out easily.



I had a go at compressing the first King Spring to fit on the shock absorber, but realised that I was rapidly getting out of my league. I haven’t done this before and decided that I’ll have to wait until tomorrow, and get the springs put on by someone with a proper spring compressor.

I figured that it wouldn’t be too hard to compress each of the new springs, but I had a lot of force built up with the spring compressors and was still a long way from getting the nut back on the top of the shock absorber. Rather than something go wrong, it was time to pull the pin for the night before something went badly wrong.

I’ll be able to put the completed shock absorbers back in myself, but I’ll leave compressing the springs to someone who’s got the proper experience and equipment to do so.

This will also give me some time to go looking for the upper control arms that I’ve got here somewhere.

[hoarspower]

Wow what a read ! Keep up the good work