I hadn’t written it up yet, but the Pajero got a new waterpump, radiator hoses and belts this past weekend due to it peeing itself when it got excited via the weep hole. The waterpump itself is easy to get for the truck, as Cat used the same Mitsubishi 4M40 2.8l diesel in a number of small skid steers and excavators. I ordered a waterpump for a “Cat E306 excavator” from an equipment parts seller in California, and it was indeed the correct pump for my 94 Pajero. They sent me a Japanese made aftermarket pump.
The radiator hoses were a little harder to find, and I’m pretty sure I ended up with the only new set of radiator hoses for a 2.8l Pajero on this continent. The options were ordering from Japan, ordering from parts sellers in the UK, or there was a partseller in Dubai with a set of hoses on eBay. Since the UK sellers wanted twice as much in shipping, I ordered the set from Dubai and they showed up about a week later.
The belts were sourced from Oriley’s that afternoon by matching sizes to the old belts. This takes a retail parts store a lot longer to do when they can’t look up a vehicle that doesn’t exist in their parts catalog.
The job was straight forward: drain the cooling system, remove fan cowling, remove the radiator (and flush well), remove the fan and clutch assembly, remove the belts and then the pump itself. Reinstallation was a breeze, and soon enough the the system was back together and bleed.
I enjoyed the Sunday afternoon of wrench turning for this job. Since I no longer turn wrenches for a living, I really enjoy the occasional chance to spend time under the hood. Compared to any modern car, things like redundant drive belts and the excessive size, grade and quantity of fasteners, the fact the truck has three auxillary electric cooling fans inaddition to the double-belt driven primary fan remind me why I love Japanese bubble-era engineering and build quality. Nobody builds vehicles like this anymore at any price point.
Bonus content:
I went home for lunch today to let the doggos out (this is a home alone day for them) and give them their lunch. Things went quickly enough that I had time for another very small Pajero project: replacing the main overhead interior lights with LED bulbs to match the one I put in the hatch area.
Maybe this evening I’ll wire up the fog lights to finish that project.
