binary-fuel

Hey fellow ford nuts. I have an idea to preserve my xg while its rebuild begins. Auto to manual. Would it be to much work to convert the xg column shift auto 4 speed to the 5 speed manual. I want to replace the engine and I thought the manual version of the xg would it fit in?. Is there a difference in the auto transmission and manual gear box, size wise or fitting sizes that might make fitting into the auto xg an issue? I also understand that the gear stick needs a cut and fit but am I allowed to do this or does an engineer need to do this? I just haven't been able to find information on this topic. Any information or ideas would be good help. Thanks in advance

I have owned a ford xg ute for sometime now. I got it as a second hand ute which was owned by an ex trade fellow. The ute has had some of the body cut by wood and metal rubbing against it and causing deep cuts which has rain has touched. For anyone who has more know how then me, What is the best method to remove rust in hard to reach places?, best rust converters? method or removal in attempts to remove the deep rust cut to prep for new paint or strengthening using some steel, or just to prevent rust for eating away more while i gain funds to do a grind back. Any tips or tricks would be greatly helpful. Thank you in advance Binary-fuel

I am requesting someone with 5 minutes free time to take photos of the there manual XG 94-96 run down. The picture are for the manual gear stick fittings, taking apart showing harness or connectors/cables anything in the hump area. The link in the engine. Everything that goes to the gear box from the interior I am converter mine to manual and just need the expected result of the technical features, including gear height from cd/stack deck audio so i get height expectations and anything that might help in manual conversion via pictures. I know its an odd request but I just need an insight. thanks in advance

I have notice a noise a month ago behind my wheel. After driving it while making the noise the sound got worse. After some Google searching some forums suggested ball joints was the cause. Today I deemed the car to dangerous due to sounds other then ball joints at back, front and engine areas. I put the car in my garage and removed the wheel to find that it was a matter of time that the upper ball joint would break apart onto the road and cause a serious problem while driving it. Without knowing my strut had enough wear to start breaking down and leaking over the spring. I also will assume the spring is going to be replaced due to it being used for many years and showing me that it didn't work well when driving (When it was a new strut). (correct me if wrong) The picture of the lower control around shows worn out bushes with looks to be rubbing and breaking away. I would like to stress to other who drive their car without doing regular checks that you could be driving with parts that could let go at any time. Please do your checks. Old cars should be weekly checked due to parts being used way past the recommended changing times. Please check brakes, ball joints, struts/springs (If it has oil looking stuff on the springs it may be coming from the strut and can indicate the strut is worn) control arm, any and all bushes. It just may save you from a accident and it could save you a couple of dollars if you get to it before some damage are done.

I did some researched when I wanted to upgrade my xg brakes so far there is the only standard piston that I could find, as for the other x models I haven't found one with twin piston that would fit in. By the sound of what your brake are doing I do think that the piston rubber ring that works the piston inside has ether worn out or the piston has wear on it and rubbing against this ring. Just a guess, because mine had this issue. For some reason the wheel wouldn't spin but once I adjusted it, it then worked but then had a a lot of friction to where it took a lot of force to move. For me tho it was the rubber that is inside around the piston it was split which cause the piston to have issues retreating back and kept the pads pressed. As for your lack of funds issue, sometimes buying recon breaks are a cheap way to get new breaks. They replace the dust cap, the ring and recon the piston or in some cases replace it with a new one. If your like me new is always better but if it works like new smells like new and is clean as new, then it should be the same if they did a good job.

Yer I found some challenges that others have had but they have managed to bypass most of them. I am converting the column xg to a t5 manual. which as you know does not contain the manual inner fittings, so the hump, etc. At this time it will be cheaper to do that option rather then getting a manual xg and gambling on the clutch not being stuffed or anything else my xg is experiencing from age that other XG utes may experience. I would love to go outback but I don't require 2 tanks or super heavy duty shocks and other parts the outback has over the standard xg. Thanks for having a look in the manual, it seems with the XG unless you can afford it, the manuals for it are gold

I guess the point is, would you leave these looking the way they are... Nope. There is no exact checking method. Some use the turning of one wheel and inspect with eyes while then turn it checking for noise. There has been some to say to jump/push down on a side of the car over the wheel you want to test, ether have a mate hear and or feel for movement or rubbing then aim to apart which could be the issue and then inspect, then others do the jack the car of the car and hold onto the wheel and turn it and pull it towards you and see if there is movement or sound, there may be more methods but all test almost of the hole infrastructure of the wheel mechanics. Depending on what you aim, bearing or ball joint there is not one test to test them all sometimes you need the car on the ground to test parts or change.

that's anyway jack, Sorry to hear the cast part, hope it heals well. Well if you do have the supplement book, you don't have to, but if you have some free time would you scan a couple of pages showing the hump, the workings and down to the gear box link, should be 3 pages depending of the book and how they have work. Google is no help only got pedals and gear job location but not alot of detail by the view.I have moved to victoria and know no one here. Plus I don't live near ute xg or ford owners in that matter. But I will keep trying. thanks

Yeah that's what I thought until i looked into the tray and found a support post that connects into the front bar mounts. He had mentioned that he carried heavy posts over the bonnet on the passenger side using this post. I just don't see sufficient damage in the back to suggest that the tray had alot of weight in it from when I got it. I have loaded the tray up and thus noticed the ball joint is noisy then inspected to find it had been crushed due to the weight and speed bumps. Regardless of the existing hard life shes had, I am replacing much needed parts then considering a xr6 or v8 engine swap and supporting mods to go with it, big breaks, heavy duty supps.

I went into Repco today and got quoted $50 per ball joint upper and lower both sides = $200. He gave me a part number 7510 upper and 7512 lower jbj brand but I haven't been able to find this part online to see if it is good with wear or any information on this ball joint. Has anyone found cheaper ball joints that are not sealed. Sealed is ok if it is cheaper. I want to replace both sides in one hit but just for now I want to replace the screwed ball point to run it to repair places. I do however wish to do the full repair in one hit to avoid having to jack the car up and do another hour of so of work completing the others. So has anyone found any cheaper ones for the XG or is this a good prices. What is the price different with sealed or greasable, if any.

http://ericthecarguy.com/ http://ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-idle-problems

Yeah alright, I think it depends on the brand and car because my stock joints has done 500k without replacing but the others show near no signs of needing replacement but one where most consistent weight is placed is the one needing replacement (front passenger side from wood and other objects placed on metal braces). As for ebay I have seen the kits for the tie rods/ball joints, but due to ford making 3 different configurations for tie rods I won't do online just in case they mess me around with returns or claim I should have known the version configuration I had, I also only buy little stuff for the XG on ebay, PVC valve from trusted sources. I will buy the rods from the shops maybe even ford as the ford ones on it (not sure model or make) have yet to fail and is stock with 500k on them they have proved tough even the ball joints that have followed the adventure have yet to fail except the abused one. I will try the TRW as a lot of users on this site haven't reported issues with them. I do have to look for better deals but the sounds on what your paying.

I was told that you may request greaseable ones and that you should aim for greased ones because they out last sealed due to when the sealed ones stops being greased it squeaks which then indicates wearing on the joint (this is what mine has done) But thanks I was thinking $50 was cheap but yeah I will try a proper place for the parts. Any brand recommended? For what you have paid that is cheap. My honda civic tie rods cost near $250 and to get the ball joints and tie rods in the kits that's cheap.

lucky because when I inspected the upper joint it is the worse thing I have ever seen of a car of this age. The weight this car must have had on it (ex tradesmen car) was extreme. When I checked them the first time there was signs of wear but I just wanted it due to the price and infact the engine is perfect and it has served me well. Its in my shed having the engine teared out and a xr6 or 8 cyl being placed in with many upgrades. Big plans, but so little money to do it so may take ages, I am doing the joints myself but with a mechanic looking over me

500,000ks yeap engine and all is still beating

Since I have been the owner of my beating down XG 1994 model I have began to slowly fixed issues wrong with it. This issue is one that I have not been able to see a workshop about. It is is the temp gauge. The car seems to not overheat one bit. I have checked the thermostat and it seems to be opening and closing at the right moments. I know this may be easy to fix but I am not what you say a car smart person as I work with computers in the networking engineering department, this complete new world I say.. haha. The temp gauge does move to cool temps but it does not go into operating temperature unless hailing a lot of weight. I am not sure if its the gauge or the temperature sensor. Is there ways to tell what could the issue be. Any easy test?

Its alright. I quit smoking today and I think something just ticked me and the last comment showed it. Sorry. Yeah I know what the picture means. Stress and wear and non regular checks. The car did travel 1300ks with a hole house on it. It also was not in a perfect shape, but it did it. The car has had a lot of stress placed on those parts. When I say I wish to replace the parts myself I am not thinking it's easy. I'm thinking 5 to 9 hours work with a couple of petrol heads and some beer, of course that is expecting to find more issue.

$400 with 2 months rego (nsw). It ran well and the ball joints where ok condition. new battery and water pump.

Thanks for the positive comments and information. I just wanted to explain that the XG was running out of rego very shortly and that I was gathering parts and workshop manuals to aid in replacing and tuning and a maybe do small rebuild to make it run good and safely. The XG is not in the best shape. The old owner bashed it down. The engine has a knock in it and I do plan to replace it. So I sometimes use the internet for help and direct answers instead of going through the workshop manual. The car isn't going onto the road for sometime. In the mean time I am checking over the car finding this wear everywhere. Sometimes it takes proof to show others what neglect and wear looks like in extreme cases. Come on guys i'm sure there is someone on this forum driving around with breaks that are worn so bad that screech. If not maybe this would prevent some drivers from getting to that stage, along with upper and lower ball joints.

Ok so you are saying that you have never used the internet with help/instruction on how to change parts or locations of parts, noises or other car related information? Yeah I used google but that connects me to websites of advice. step 1 know the noise. Replacing is no issue, workshop manuals and advice from workshops will make it easy. Plus being the most complex job a car has to offer and requires the worlds most experience mechanics to handle changing ball joints will just make the job easy. haha fucking ha. I have done it before just never knew the noise it made when it was in the environment that mine was in (not a rusty door hinge normal noise something hard to explain, but was the ball joint). It seem the strut being under weight a week ago had done it and followed through. P.s the strut/shocky didn't show oil 2 weeks ago. Also my XG drove 1300kms with a load on it. With the spring weak, it just got to the upper ball joint. Who the fuck wants to change a spring with incorrect tools** not me** and i'm not rich like you guys so everything other then brakes/bleeds are my own 2 hands job. I also got the XG in this shape 2 months ago (for cheap). Please forgive me if I name parts wrong. I don't have a brain wired to know all car parts just by looking at them and haven't experienced much wear and tear problems.

Struts worn

Thanks for the reply. I have the xf manual now, but I got it because I plan to get an xf soon. Thanks for the information, I have found the xg sup manual but I can't locate the Nissan TFN ute manual even with eBay or a Google search and I have never heard of this model so not sure what I'm looking for to ensure I'm getting the correct manual. Got any pictures or successful Google search you would send me so I know what I need? Again thanks for the help and advice ~ binary-fuel

Wait so what I have read so far. I can switch my XG EBII engine to an el xr6 is this correct? Does an the XG manual gear box fit right into an XG auto (I know it may need some mods to make manual gear stick go in) making this work. Or can the 4 speed auto work with this?