Kiwi-E

Hey everyone Brought a thrasher el coon with some mates a while back. Parked it up for a week that had a lot of rain and when we went back to start it ,it packed a sad and wouldn't fire up. Messed around with it for ages and managed to get it running for maybe a minute at one point but as soon as you tried to give it a rev it snuffed out. It had poor spark so we replaced the old rooted dissy cap. Also Tried another coil and replaced the fuel filter. At this point during cranking it would go through phases of trying to start and then nothing. Ended up pulling a plug and saw that the spark was pretty intermediate and non existent when it wasn't firing so we banged in another second hand dissy thinking that the hall effect sensor might be playing up. After that it was firing pretty constantly but still not quite starting... -has injector pulse -has spark (looks ok now, although if the plugs are wet it jumps a bit funny. might want the gaps closed up a bit?) -don't think its shitty SMARTLOCK, main interior light goes and i don't think the fuse is blown. (will double check) So....... thinking the following -Fuel pumps pumping but not up to required pressure, fuel pressure regulator? -Timings out and/or some plug leads mixed up (will double check this soon) -Can the temp sensor play up on these and upset the fuel mixture etc to the point it wont start? Any ideas would be much appreciated Cheers Tom If all else fails, might have too drop a reliable crossy in

Cheers McQueen. We tried tipping gas down it but that was when it had really poor spark. Might give that another go now and see if it gets running. Hey 351XD. Will check that and also the timing/ firing order. May have it a tooth out. The old distributer gear looked fine when i pulled it out (can't see cam gear tho). Its sparking and oil light goes out when cranking so i presume the dissys driving. Will check none the less. Cheers mate So my mate had a crack at starting it tonight and reckons its bloody close to going but just wont quite catch on..... Fingers crossed its just a couple of plug leads mixed up now

Wouldn't be silly to take the spring out and undo the sway bar on one side and jack the suspension up until it hits the bump stop to make sure the top ball joint isn't binding beforehand. With my bumps removed it felt like the upper balljoint bound when the uca was about 10mm from the bump stop plate. So i ended up only trimming 10mm of my bump stops to be on the safe side. You might get away with how you have it but it would be reassuring to check. My xe sits 20mm off the bumps in the front which is alright if your roads are not too rough.

Hows it going mate I had a similar problem however the fast idle was probably only around 1200 ish revs It turned out that inside the chock housing on the side of the carb, that the stop for the fast idle cam had broken off which was allowing it to rotate further than it was meant to and getting jammed in the fastest idle position. Its a terrible photo but it shows the fast idle cam rotated right around anticlockwise until it jammed. The broken off stop And to fix it just bang in some filler of some kind I'm not sure if this is your problem as the fast idle screw would have to be wound in a fair way for it to idle at 2000 revs but it might be worth looking at. Otherwise check that you have some slack in your accelerator cable and that the tranny kick-down cable isn't stopping it. Also i believe some AC fitted cars have a solenoid on the carb to raise the idle when the AC is on but you'd have to ask someone else about that. Shouldn't be too hard to sort out once you find the problem

My crossy in the xe seems to love a wee drink aswell. Shes nearly chewed a 5L container of oil so far and its only been on the road less than a month lol. In this time its done maybe 3000-4000km. Still runs good as gold. Its currently done 419,000kays although it had a set of rings and bearings thrown at it within the last 100,000kays. The old mans XD ute did over half a million on the first motor before he swapped it out as it was burning a lot of oil. And being a contractors ute that thing did a lot of towing. After the motor swap it got up to 798,000 kays before it got parked up due to rust issues. Need to get it going and do the million i reckon Then there's the crossy in the XE ute hes running at the moment. Just did a head gasket and valve seals on it so hopefully it keeps chugging away. So all up when my cars at home there's 4 crossies floating about. Just a shame they're all slow,...... might have to investigate some boooosst one day

So I'm doing a trial fit of putting super lows in the back of the xe and need to decide at what height to mount the bump stops (need to fab some up as the shocks i have don't have any). The tail shaft is closest to the floor about 100mm forward of the back uni and I've got it set with about 10mm clearance at full tuck. I'm wondering if this will be fine or if i need to leave more due to some deflection in the rubber bushes allowing the pinion to climb a tad. Cheers guys and i'll get some photos once i find the camera

Thanks mate, Ive got plenty of suspension travel with the super lows in , probably 80mm of compression or so. I was just wondering how much minimum drive shaft clearance I need at full compression so i can mount some bump stops at a height to give me maximum suspension travel. It hasn't got the factory pinion snubber and the shocks i'm using don't have integrated bump stops on them. I'm planning on mounting some bumps directly under the frame rails which will nudge on the axle tubes. I think just a pinion snubber alone would put a lot of pain on the diff housing if you bottomed out hard where as a bump on each frame rail should have the loading closer to the wheels and won't try to bend the diff. Sorry if that first post read a bit misleading

I'm planning to lower my car with king springs superlows front and rear and will need to buy new short body (or shortened) shocks. I have done a bit of research which has given mixed opinions. A lot of people say go for Koni or bilstein but we're talking $800+ and i'm wondering if there it a descent brand that will suit my needs for a fraction of the cost. I'm after a reasonable-ish ride quality ( I understand it will be much harder riding the lower it is). Also i would like it to handle alright just so that its better than stock and gives a nice safe feel. I'm not planning on racing or going real fast around corners but it would be good if it handled well enough to have a wee play every now and then. Things to consider: A clevo will be going in sometime in the future and so will stiffer front springs I might do the shelby drop and get a larger sway bar at some point to help improve handling So i want to know is if a cheaper brand of shocks will suit my needs or if i'm better to bite the bullet and go for Koni's etc. I know the story of how the poor man pays twice, and don't want to buy another set after i cheeped out and the first set was shit. Brands i've read a bit about: Cheapies: Ultima: not that great of a review Monroe GT: Harsh ride KYB: we have them in most of the family cars and they perform good, however none are in a lowered application. UltraKing: never heard of them before but found them on trade em. Dearer ones: Koni: Good reviews Bilstein: Good reviews I haven't herd much about Gabriel's either. I will dummy up the springs and take measurements before i order shocks to see how much travel i can get before i get clearance issues or balljoints binding. This will probably confirm if a short body shock is beneficial (guessing it will from what i've read).

Cheers man I've already got two sets of springs, What part of NZ are you in? I'll send you a pm if i can figure out how. Thanks Wagon i'll keep that as a backup plan.

So I'm thinking of getting Koni's and being done with it. Does anyone know where to get them at a reasonable price that would ship to NZ? I'll look up some suspension joints here in NZ and see if they're prices are on par with the cost of importing some. My other option is ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Falcon-XE-XF-Sedan-KONI-Adj-Short-Front-Rear-Shock-Absorbers-/281861311614?hash=item41a03e4c7e:g:xjkAAOSwT5tWJiSB&vxp=mtr, never brought anything through it before though.

Cheers mate, have you run them before?

So it seems if you buy cheep ones they might work ok and get by with your setup from peoples experiences. If its really worth the investment for Koni's then i'll get them. I don't want to be buying another set in 6 months after i hate how the first set performed, or if i decide to drive the car a bit harder and need the better spring control. I know what you guys are saying about spring control, my stock shocks might be comfy as cursing around home but as soon as I get 6 fellas in the car on rough roads I'll be bashing the bump stops and be all over the road like a wild woman's shit. Hmmm decision time..... Be a tight arse and get Ultimas and see how they go or to buy Koni's and be done with it...

Ok so that crosses Monroe and probably Ultima off the list. Polson how do the Ultima's perform?

Love the fab work mate. You always see new tricks on how someone has made something reading builds like this. I'll be very keen to see the progress in this one.

Hey man i went through this ordeal 6 months ago over here in NZ. The bottom needle roller bearing is common and i think cost me around $30-$40. However the top needle bearing is a special item that ford got made epically for this purpose as far as i know (happy to be proven wrong). Its exactly the same as the bottom one however it has a small flange/lip around the top of it that prevents it sliding down in the housing. Try not to stuff it because the bearing shop had a hell of a job tracking one down as it was 'obsolete' according to them. In the end they sourced one from England after making a few inquiries in Australia with no luck. That top bearing cost nearly $300 which is absolutely ridiculous, i know, but hey what do you do..... The sector shaft seal is easy to get and the one on the input shaft is just a soft rubber thing to keep the crap out so you can probably just reuse it. As for the ball bearings on the input shaft I reused the old ones so don't know what they are like to get hold of. I had the part numbers for the sector shaft bearings and seal but they are back at the old's. If you get really stuck i could try get the old man to dig them up for you. Just my 2 cents worth mate.... just don"t wreck that gold plated bearing.....