That looks sharp. Do you want to do mine
If you have access to a sheet metal bending machine, you can make your own skid plate. I had to make one for my engine after the wimpy plastic thing fell off. Just used a sheet of 3/16 steel (I think that's the thickness, perhaps less) that i had around. Its heavy as heck, but its not going anywhere and it really protects the bottom of the engine.

 

Hunter......Thanks for the thumbs-up. Sure, bring your rig on over and we can knock it out.......I will let you do all the removal, degreasing, sanding/prepping, and then I will shoot the paint on. Its a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.....ha ha.

Im thinking the mechanic who works on this rig years down the road will appreciate the clean working environment down under.

Good idea about making a skid plate......I thought about it, but if I can find a used one from a salvage yard, it will bolt right up and be original equipment. I probably should just drive by a tranny shop, and there will probably a bunch stacked up like pancakes out back.......they get taken off and not put back on and tossed in a big pile.........dern knuckleheads.

 

As it happens, it would be the same person who has to clean and sand the stuff
BTW, not to presume much, but do you happen to have a Studebaker Hawk? Photos please. My daughter loves the look of Studebaker with the "turbine" on the nose. I'm on the lookout for one that can be made into a daily driver.

 

Hunter......When you ask me about Studebaker Hawks, you are opening a huge can of worms......I could end up talking forever about all the old Hawks I have owned/restored over the years, and this site may get angry at the change of topic from Mitsibushi Montero to Studebaker Hawks. I guess we could call it a Mitsubishi Studebaker Hawk, and we might get away with it for awhile. Ha ha. Since Mitsubishi made thousands of those famous WWII Zero fighters, anyone can see that a Hawk and a Zero fighter are highly related. In fact, I would stick my neck out and say that the Mitsubishi Hawk would have been a much preferable name over the Zero.......so much in fact, that surely Japan would have been victorious with a sky full of Hawks.

I have owned almost all years.....from 1956 to 1962....Gold Hawks and Silver Hawks. Beautiful cars, and way ahead of their time. The 56 had the huge and heavy Packard V8 351 and had a turbo-charged option. On a straight line race, it was the fastest production car for 56 and 57. But not as good racing on curvy mountain roads.....too much weight up front and the rear end could slip out and surprise the over-zealous driver.

Its best to find one that has already been restored so you dont have to spend a fortune bringing it up to par. They are out there, but you really have to be looking around for a good amount of time to find one at a decent price. $10k - $30k is a general range for a nice one, but sometimes they will pop-up on C.List for a lower price. If you find one for sale and have interest in it, feel free to email me the details/pics and I will give you my opinion.

 

Tranny Fluid/Filter Change update:

Got the cross member mounted and tranny is now resting back on the proper rubber mounts:
I plan to sand/paint the entire frame this summer, so properly painting the cross member now was well worth the time (since I had to remove it anyway).






While doing the tranny fluid change, it makes sense to knock out all the front diff, the transfer case, and the rear pumpkin now since all the skid plates are off.

Changing the front diff:




Draining Transfer Case:



All three differential boxes had a plug with a magnetic shaft, and they were doing their job as you can see in the pic a super thick layer of metalic sludge about 1/4" thick:



After wiping off magnetic plug:




After draining the thick oil out, I then injected about a pint of diesel fuel into the 3 transfer cases, put the plugs back in place, cranked up the engine, and let the car run in 4 wheel drive to slosh the diesel fuel around iniside the cases. This helped get all the grime out of the cases:



Front diff:



Had to use a hose for the Transfer case to inject the diesel fuel:



Diesel fuel came out pretty dirty, so it did its job:

 

Tilted the Montero a bit to allow the rear Pumpkin to drain its innards a bit easier:



Another krud-incrusted magnetic plug:



Some pretty knaley kruddy sludge came out, but no Pumpkin Seeds:



Question for the experts: Do these magnetic plugs typically look like this when changing these fluids every 50,000 miles? I dont have the maintenance history on this rig, and am guessing they were never changed and the clock now sets right at 100,000 miles (low for a 25 year old MitsieBitsie).

 

Not an expert, but this is exactly what you want to see - light fuzz and no large chunks of any kind. The crud you see on magnetic plugs is just the metal wearing off the contact patches on the gears. The crud itself is not an indicator of any issues.

 

Hunter.....Yep, I totally agree with you. I was just curious if there was a long-time mechanic who did these diff. changes all the time......and if this looks like the first change in 100,000 miles, or maybe just looks like all his diff. changes (30,000k, 50,000k, etc.).

The good thing is that there was no water in the fluids.....so prior owners were not swimming the old gal in bug holes and 3 foot deep wambat holes. (Any of you ever watch the excellent Youtube videos "4WD Action"? Superb video quality and some amazing off-roading.....and great campsite cooking.......for a crackin-good time, go check them out).

 

Wrapped her up today......Got all the skid pans put back on:






I am missing the skid pan that protects the tranny oil pan......does anyone know if this was standard equipment, or a special order option? (There are threaded holes on the frames for one).







While I was "down under", I decided to clean up those 4 torsion rod rubber boots, and pulled them back, cleaned them up a bit, and applied fresh grease inside the boots. This ensures they dont seize up, and keeps those 4 friction points lubed and reduces wear. Would have been nice to have grease fittings there, but se la veh. Also spotted the 4 grease fittings on the drive shafts and pumped a good amount of grease there. Factory Shop Manual showed where to lube the torsion bar key adjuster bolt, which has a rubber block that needs lube......some used differential oil was all she got this time. (See long threaded bolt in next pic.....just pour a good amount of oil on that bolt and let it ooze down into the rubber bushing area).




Now on to other resto work on this old rig.

 

Hey Hawk, please tell me that you filled the transfer case with GL4 lube, not GL5, or any that says GL4/GL5 compatible! If you did, you are really going to want to get that stuff out of there before you ruin your synchros (they allow us to shift into 4hi at speeds up to 100 km/hr)!