Kiwi Mk2 5 litre transplant

[kiwi_mk2]

Engine is now all back together, new rings, bearings and frost plugs, and a lick of paint, still trying to track down a T5 gearbox and a power steering box from a MK 3.... Wish me luck!!!!


Thought i better do a step by step on the power steering conversion, so here's the beginning..


If anybody out there can help with sourcing a power steering box from a MK3 it'd be greatly appreciated, there are only a few Mk3's here as they weren't imported in huge numbers compared with the MK4. Cheers

[Luke]

nice work mate

we struggle to find mk3 pas boxes over here too they wern't common at all and ive seen them fetch £250 UK pounds i take it you've seen sundowners pas conversion how about something like that

[kiwi_mk2]

Hi Luke, yes i've seen Sundowners conversion, however we didn't get many of those Volvo's down here either, have been looking for one of those boxes for a while too....

[Sundowner]

I have a spare box but i cant say yay or nay on a sale until i know that mines in good nick

[Sundowner]

hows it comming along?

[kiwi_mk2]

Hey Sundowner, coming along slowly at the mo, still looking for a power steering box solution, going to a big swap meet tomorrow so fingers crossed! Have found another MK2 for free which i'm stripping for a few spares,( have to grab them when you can...).
Also sharing my time between one of my other projects.... Rebuilding my MK1 Escort rally car.
Have you tested your power steering yet? Where abouts did you get your box from as i have a mate who lives in Canberra who can probably assist in getting me a Volvo box too,
Cheers Steven

[Sundowner]

Sounds good mate just keep plodding along

I havnt tested the steer under preasure but its feels good to steer just moving it around the yard, lock to lock is less

I got my steering box's off ebay and like you said theres not to many of that model volvo around though i was looking at using a hilux box but for some reason i didnt go that way

[kiwi_mk2]

After a bit of a break i decided i needed to make some more progress, so i tackled the job of an engine cover and mounting
frame. Once i had tidied up the hole,i folded up what was going to be the mounting edge, i used 1.5 mm 25x25 panel steel, then cut, welded, bent and rewelded until i got the required shape..... I don't want to think how long i spent doing this!!!





What seems like about a week of fettling and reworking i finally welded the main part of the engine box mount into position...

Now onto the box itself.....

[Sundowner]

looking sweet

[kiwi_mk2]

Hopefully this is the second to last time the engine has to be fitted... Will start to fabricate the engine cover soon...

[Luke]

Great work and keep the pics coming

plenty of space with half the bulkhead removed these V8's are big motors

[Sundowner]

hey luke the little windsor is smaller than rover v8

Both later mod efi engines

Windsor / rover

Width: 610mm / 762mm

Height: 699mm / 711mm

Lenght: 736mm / 843mm

Weight: 200kg semi dressed / 230kg fully dressed

[Luke]

hey luke the little windsor is smaller than rover v8

wow

that looks huge - compaired to my V6 which fits with no bulkhead mods

good thing about the transits tho is that space taken up buy enlarging the bulkhead is unused anyway - so no loss

[kiwi_mk2]

As promised here are the pics of my electric power steering conversion, here is the comparison with a
standard Transit unit,


Just had to shorten the steering shaft the correct amount and cut and reweld the outer column to suit



With the column shortened the new MGF unit bolts up into the original Transit mounts under the dash and the end of the column is within 3 mm ( just under 1/8" for you English people...) of the original! Just had to modify the pedal box slightly to accept the electric motor....

[kiwi_mk2]

The view from here looks completely standard.....


While i'm updating this i thought i'd show you what was happening down the other end of the van, I have modified a Ford 9" rear axle to fit the van, easier way to get an LSD, wider choice of wheels and much better choice of ratios.... Here is the bare housing in place. ( mounts and angles all copied from standard transit axle).