2002 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear L400 (Garage entry)

[Fummins]

Fummins - I feel your pain. I too haven't had a raise in years. And was recently passed over for a job that I wanted. A job here, but a manager of people job. I actually built a team (of 4) when I was at Hyundai-Kia, and that team was excellent. We formed a very cohesive group. I enjoyed that. One year ago, they hired in an ass-clown to be the manager of my group. He came in right when I was having some trouble in my project. And that's all he saw.

He CRUSHED me on my review, and specifically said I DID NOTHING to improve the issue that was causing the struggle. Hey, ass-clown, I'm getting a M-F'g patent on what I did to RESOLVE the M-F'g problem. It made NO difference to him. And if it had been up to me, I would have started the required certification testing 3 months sooner (and passed, and kept the project on-time) because there are strategies to the testing that are 100% legit. But that wasn't my call to delay certs testing. Made no difference. I got CRUSHED and then rejected for the job I wanted.

I looked around and interviewed, but nothing has worked out since then. I'm still looking. But I'm older than you, and I have been saving like a MFer. I owe about $45k on my house (but won't pay it off early). I have less than 3 years left to pay on it, and at about that time, my sons will all be finished with college. So when all my big expenses (mortgage, college) terminate, they all terminate at nearly the same time. At that time, I'm pretty sure I'm going to semi-retire. Which I've told you guys what I mean by semi retire.

Anywho - my advice to you is, don't burn bridges. You sound very valuable to your workplace. Leave in such a way as they would want you back if they could have you back. And I totally understand your lack of appreciation. And don't blame you for looking elsewhere. Bear in mind the saying about the grass not always being greener on the other side.

I didn’t see your post til just now. It takes me forever to write a post lately and they usually look like English is my second language…

No I don’t plan to burn any bridges. I don’t hate the company I work for, it’s business. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Chit rolls downhill. Sometimes the higher ups do what they can to cover their own ass and make themselves look better by trying to make the guys below them look less valuable. It seems there’s too many chiefs at times.

I still owe $287 on my place. Only another 14 years an 9 months to go(if in ever make another extra payment).

I won’t go into too many details but things are looking up. If you don’t like what you do or where you’re at it’s never too late to try something else. My dad worked for the same company for almost 40 years. His best years of work were the last 10 when he ended up working on bigger machines. He kicked himself for not making the change 30 years sooner cause it was easier work and it paid way better. And got to stay in fancy company hellski lodges in the winter, making more in tips alone from rich tourists than what my salary is.
I get stuck in a rut, need a change. Gotta learn some new stuff that I wish I never had the chance to learn.. Transmission and diff rebuilding, ac diagnostics. I miss working with other people that you can bounce ideas off of. Right now when I get stumped I get told that I’m the one with a ticket so I should know everything, that’s what they pay me for…

It’s a small world, everyone I’ve been talking to in the industry knows each other so burning bridges isn’t something I plan to do.
Basic, Mark and 7milesout, thanks for the advice!

Anyways…I borrowed the trailer from work. Had to spend an hour unspooling the winch cable that was bound up, then reattached the hook. It got loaned out recently and came back with a broken cable. Then pulled the ramps out. They stow away into the bottom side of the trailer, one was jammed in place so had to spend 20 mins prying it out.the one ramp is slightly bent so can only get put back in its holder if it’s facing up, or so I thought…
Got the van loaded up(backwards) and plan to get locking away at it in the am. Then hopefully get the ac working. The wife might drive it out to camp when we go out in a few weeks. It has way more room for the mini horse and pig(dogs) than the Korean rickshaw(her Kia sorento).but I don’t really want it full of dog hair.

[Fummins]

Turns out the Torque convertor seal from
A Montero sport either isn’t the same as a Delica or timken effed up their parts listing. So I had to reuse my old seal after wffung the one in the “new”(used) transmission. The oil pan was different too so the filter I bought didn’t fit so had to reuse my old pan. Otherwise things are going.

[Fummins]

Things stopped going good. Got this there all buttoned up, started filling it up with fluid and found a leak above the transmission mount. A part I didn’t touch. So I pulled the crossmember back out, pulled the mount off the t-case adapter and found a crack in the case. I have no idea htf that would have happened, it would have been like that before it got shipped to me but you’d never know it cause it was empty. The guy I bought it from said he bought it direct from Japan and never tested it.
I’ll reach out to him and hopefully come up with an agreement of some kind. If I was paying someone to do this job I’d be livid. It’s bad enough I’m tying up a friends shop for 3 days now. I gotta get this thing gone today so yesterday I gobbed sealant into the crack(after prepping it as best I could). So far so good… worst case I’ll have to tear the t-case out then replace the cracked
Housing…

In other news, big scary changes are in the near future.

[inuvik]

Ooof, this has been the project from Hell.

[7milesout]

I would think JB Weld would hold the content in, and not let them past that crack.

That green car in your picture is as ugly as sin. He should get rid of it. I'll hold on to it for him, just to get that ugly thing out of his sight.

[Eggman]

Things stopped going good. Got this there all buttoned up, started filling it up with fluid and found a leak above the transmission mount. A part I didn’t touch. So I pulled the crossmember back out, pulled the mount off the t-case adapter and found a crack in the case. I have no idea htf that would have happened, it would have been like that before it got shipped to me but you’d never know it cause it was empty. The guy I bought it from said he bought it direct from Japan and never tested it.
I’ll reach out to him and hopefully come up with an agreement of some kind. If I was paying someone to do this job I’d be livid. It’s bad enough I’m tying up a friends shop for 3 days now. I gotta get this thing gone today so yesterday I gobbed sealant into the crack(after prepping it as best I could). So far so good… worst case I’ll have to tear the t-case out then replace the cracked
Housing…

Don't sweat it - drive it. If the assembly works the way you want, get rid of the sealant and make a permanent repair of the crack by stitching it up.

Lock-n-Stitch Inc.

This was used to repair a crack in the cast iron engine block of my CJ-7 (discovered after it was fully rebuilt...) Call these guys and see what they have for aluminum housings.

Check out their website - they repair sections of cast iron that were blown out. Cracks are easy.

This repair would be dead simple for someone of your skills. Just be sure to get some cash back from your seller to cover your costs.

Precision Metal Stitching (Metal Locking)

[Eggman]

[Fummins]

It didn’t leak today. Got the fluid level perfect. Went to drive it home and made it two blocks. It drove but something wasn’t right. It felt like it was either shuttering or the driveshaft was loose. I made it a block or so to the main road into town and lost all forward gears. I double checked for leaks(none) and verified fluid level(it was perfect). It did have reverse…the shift indicator is flashing away. I didn’t have the scanner to pull codes though. I’m gonna say it’s faked. So I ended up driving it back to buddies place in reverse, took the car home, grabbed the trailer and put the pos money pit back in the driveway.
Fun fact, you can do 40kph/25mph in reverse in these vans. Probably even faster if you’re extra super duper pissy. . I would have loved to have gotten that on video but I wanted to get it off the road sooner than later.

I’ll try to get ahold of the company that sold me the boat anchor. Today was a holiday and I had nothing nice to say so I figured I’d try tomorrow.

Now what, I don’t even want another transmission at this point. I could try parting out the van? I don’t want to have car parts lying around my house forever and don’t have time to deal with that. Could sell it is need ing a transmission, or get my old one rebuilt( but the valve body is in 1000 pieces spread all over my garage floor. I’m kinda considering pulling the engine, transmission, t case and maybe the diffs then throwing them in the trash and toss a 4.8, 5.3 or 6l Chevy in it. I could have bought a complete, drivable truck for what that pos transmission cost. I could do a better job fixing the rust, in the front, maybe toss the entire suspension and solid axle swap it? Or burn it…

As for the leak, I tried Jb weld in the past on a mirage cvt. It didn’t work. I could replace the part that leaked, would have had to pull the tcase then adapter housing(part that leaked).

[7milesout]

Are there any manual transmissions that might fit? Even if there were, doing everything else that would be required to run one (i.e. putting in a floor shifter, etc), would probably be a huge PITA.

[Fummins]

5spds came in some diesel
Models but they’re pretty super rare. I believe Andy( user subcompact culture) has/had one. I don’t know if you could make one work with the gasser easily. Clutch pedal, master, driveshafts and taxes. Sounds like time and money.
I quit my job this morning
Gonna look into shipping this pile back. Or get some compensation. I’m hoping I didn’t do a major **** up and not have the torque converter seated all the way? But it did spin when I lined up the bolts to the flywheel. Then drove ok at first then shuddered and quit moving… there’s a trouble code stored but I may not be able to check it til later this month. I ended up towing the van back home and dumped in in my driveway. Our neighbors a must hate me. Yesterday I had my car, truck and car trailer parked in front of the house on the street, wife’s car and van are plugging up half the driveway, holiday trailer in the other with the hitch at almost waist height at the edge of the sidewalk. Garage is half stuffed with side by side and quad shoved into one side. I’m now that guy.