by cherniy_chack » Thu Oct 23, 2025 6:23 pm
About a month ago, I finished body work on my Transit at my dacha and drove it to Kyiv, leaving my Nissan X-Trail in the garage.
After the X-Trail, the Transit seemed "sluggish" to me, and I started thinking about this problem.
Furthermore, I was bothered by the fact that after replacing the temperature sensor, the temperature gauge needle was on the right side of the dial, near the red section.
I borrowed a non-contact pyrometer from my boss and started monitoring the thermostat housing temperature with it.
Typically, during city driving, it's around 75 degrees Celsius; during fast highway driving, it was less than 90.
I also measured the exhaust manifold temperature at all cylinders.
The hottest exhaust is at cylinder three, cooler at cylinder two, and "colder" at cylinders one and four. I adjusted and lowered the injector opening pressure several times, more or less equalizing the exhaust temperature across the cylinders, and the car ran faster.
However, increasing the opening pressure on cylinder three failed to lower the exhaust temperature—the injector simply stopped opening.
I suspect the third injector is the problem; I'll need to test it with a press and possibly replace it. Also, check the operation and opening pressure of the remaining injectors.
After a summer outage for repairs, I developed problems with the parking brake cable. An inspection revealed that the plastic coatings on the cables were peeling.
I went to the auto market and bought new cables; I have a rear axle from a 2007 Transit. I also bought a "FORD" badge for the hood.
Two cables cost 750 hryvnias, the badge almost 500! After installing new cables, I needed to adjust the parking brake, but I couldn't do it—three years ago, when replacing the rear axle and installing the cables, I broke the part with the left-hand thread.
I had previously welded the broken part back on and somehow adjusted it, but now I wanted to restore the functionality of the adjustment unit.
But where can I find a shackle with a left-hand M8 thread?!
I found a solution.
I bought a cable tie at a hardware store.
The end with the left-hand thread had a hook, not a ring. I heated it with a torch, bent it, welded it, machined it inside and out, and I had a complete replacement for the broken part.
