Digby's Aimless Adventure

Over the past few weeks, I have been carrying out a few minor side projects while I awaiting the necessary funding to start the camper build proper. These “mini”side-projects are things that I can get done with little fuss & bother, and don’t cost too much to undertake, that will hopefully improve the general look & feel of Digby in an attempt to bring him back to near his former glory. The Grab-Handle – When we first purchased Digby on of the more obvious signs of wear and tear was the fact that the passenger side dash-mounted grab handle was missing, leaving two ugly holes in the dash and the unmistakeable indentations of the former handle. I pondered the fact of how this item could have been lost or removed by a previous owner…? I suppose excessive force of over-use could have pulled it away from its moorings, or the M6 nuts holding it from behind the dash could have come loose, but who knows for sure…? Surely it could not be too much bother to re-mount it…?     I contacted

About a month ago, as I ploughed my way through the many and various Delica forums from around the world, I watched a video from someone who was having problems with cold starting their Delica, and I noticed that the way the glow plug indicator and the relay worked on a very similar vehicle to ours, was quite different. So much so, I made a video of my own and posted it to the worldwide Delica Owners Club page of Facebook and asked for comment. I received a bunch of replays from around the world that basically said that what was happening was not what they normally experienced, (EG “Glow plug timer/relay buggered. Glow plug should glow for about 3 - 5 seconds and then switch off after starting when the engine reaches desired temp”, or “ Hmm, never seen or heard a relay switch on/off like that at a regular interval or even one that does that.” As I had Harry the Mechanic coming around to do some other work, I asked him about the way the glow plugs were working, and he agreed that it did

After 23 years of stout and worthy service, Digby’s suspension components are at the end of their life. There is no other way to put other than to say they are “Knackered…!”, and need replacement. After doing some research in my local area, and reading a tonne of forum posts and product reviews, I started to narrow down the options for replacing Digby’s suspension. A straight swap for factory parts would give the vehicle another 20+ years of service and probably be good enough, but what do you do when ‘good enough’ is not good enough….? You upgrade…!! Doing this modification was a great opportunity to swap out for some quality 4WD parts and help make Digby a little bit more nimble-footed in preparation for the adventures ahead. With the future full-time camper conversion being planned, adding the heavy duty springs and torsion bars, resulting in better weight carrying capability and a 50mm lift, would ensure that Digby would be able to cope with the additional weight in the back, and a

Here in New Zealand, cars that were new before 1st January 2000, need to obtain a Warrant of Fitness (similar of an MOT in the UK), every 6 months, and Digby’s time was coming around. If you own a 23-year-old vehicle you learn to dread the WOF inspections because there is always something that the car can fail on. As you may have read in previous blog posts, I have been diligently repairing and fixing items on the Delica since we got it in early 2018, so I had my fingers crossed that between myself & my mechanic, Harry’ we had done enough to get Digby through the WOF. Guess what…? Digby failed on the brake pad wear…. Bugger…!! I knew the brakes were on their way out but I figured that I wouldn’t replace the pads until I had to, and now I had to… My immediate thought was to get the garage to just put new pads on for me there and then, and then get a re-test, but with a little more thought I thought that it was probably time that I learnt how to replace the pads myself, after all, I