Australian Mk2 Phase 1 truck

[carnut1100]

Well...it's been a long time between updates!
The thing is still not on the road, mostly due to cold winter nights and getting home after dark most nights and not feeling like a night session in frosty weather after a 10 hour shift at work...also my weekends have been fully booked weeks in advance so I have had little time to work on it.

Well...I have my longer clutch cable, they used the ends of my old one but made it longer.

Next problem was when I put the gearbox in it was too tall for the chassis crossmember, the T5 being an inch taller than the 4 speed that came out.
Also the 4 speed was out of an AUssie spec six cylinder Cortina so the shifter was 4 inches further forward, meaning the shifter hole had to be lengthened, and this will be filled in soon.
The crossmember had to be cut into a little and will be plated with stronger thicker metal to put the strength back in, and I need to make an adapter plate for the gearbox mount as the 5 speed mount is 2 inches further back, has different hole spacings.
I will make a 10mm plate that bolts tothe underside of the gearbox and to the top of the 4 speed mount, offset 2 inches, and I will compensate for the thickness of the plate by putting a 10mm spacer between the crossmember and teh chassis.

Anyhoo, here's some pics!


The offending crossmember with some preliminary marks on it.



The extended shifter hole...this will be boxed in with a plate to mount a proper shifter boot on.



The big lump of metal that caused all the trouble in the first place!



The marks for cutting...now comes the scary bit!



No turning back now!!!



It fits!!!



Another bit of cutting and this will be strengthened by a brace around the rear of the shifter...








Some pics of the box sitting in place with the cutout.



Gearbox at final installation height. There seems to be enough room that when it is plated in the gearbox should not hit the crossmember in service.
I will swear like I have never sworn before if it does!!!

Next free weekend or evening (after I have been to the steel shop for some bits of flatbar!) I will pull the gearbox (again!) and plate in the crossmember, make the mount adapter, fit a new mount and speedo drive gear, and put it all back together.
The end is in sight!

[AlanN]

Getting serious now

[carnut1100]

Oh yeah!
Something like 8 months since I took it off the road for what I thought would be a weekend or two of simple conversion job...which turned into 3 months of waiting for a bellhousing, several weeks of my mate trying to find the clutch cable he lost, etc etc etc...and now it's all coming together!
I cannot wait to have my beast back on the road!
My Volvo GT is going on restricted registration in October so that's an absolute deadline as I will be using the truck daily for a while. It will be my summer daily drive, although it will need to be replaced by another daily next winter as it is not much fun with its crap heater and no rear demist etc, but in summer it's a blast to cruise along in, windows down, big grin permanently on face!

[carnut1100]

Got the steel to adapt the 5 speed to a 4 speed gearbox mount and to plate in the crossmember!
I'm going to be in the shed tonight...

[AlanN]

I'm so jealous

[carnut1100]

Well, I am working on the adapter to bolt the gearbox up to the old mounting.
The trouble is that the bolt hole spacing on the 5 speed is 20mm narrower than on the 4 speed, and 50mm further back.
The plan is to use 10mm steel and make a plate that bolts under the 5 speed, and has a set of holes drilled and tapped 50mm forward to bolt the 4 speed mount to.
A set of 10mm spacers will be between the gearbox crossmember and the chassis to maintain the same gearbox height.

Pics of work so far, not too much as I had very little time in the shed so far.


This is the piece of 10mm steel that will be used, 200x100mm



Descaled and painted with layout blue, centrelines marked using a vernier height gauge, just because I have one and it makes it sooo much easier!




The holes have been centre punched and will now be centre drilled and then opened up in stages to preserve location accuracy before two of them will be tapped 1/2" UNF and bolted to the top of the gearbox mount. THe other two will be opened up to clearance size for the mount bolts on the 5 speed.



Shot of the 4 speed mount upside down and centred on its holes. You can see where the holes are marked for the bolts that will hold the plate to the underside of the 5 speed gearbox.

[carnut1100]

Well...what do you do when someone else's stupidity costs you hours of work?
You swear like a bloody sailor, that's what!


I went into the shed this morning to continue making my adapter plates for the truck, but not all went according to plan...


Holes spotted with a centre drill




This is one end of a 25x10mm bar which will become the spacers between the gearbox mounting crossmember and the chassis, to restore the correct gearbox mounting height.
First pic shows it descaled on a linisher and sprayed with layout dye and marked.
Second shows centre drilled.



Large plate being drilled.
Vice is not big enough to hold it, hence the speed clamp.



Small spacer being drilled.
Note the piece of wood to support the metal and prevent drilling the vice...
Note also that I have marked each spacer from the ends of the bar and I am drilling them while still attached to be cut off later.
This gives a big handle to hang onto.



One more down!



All holes drilled to their correct sizes, either clearance or tapping, and all holes deburred with my lovely deburring tool which I could not live without.



Tap chucked in the drill and turned by hadn to start it straight and true.



Chuck released and the whole lot taken out and put in a big vice to finish tapping with a tap wrench.


Now comes the fun bit...I went to run the bolts in their holes.
No go.
Looking at it the tapping hole seemed to be a bit big, the thread was not full depth. This puzzled me as I was sure I had chosen the correct tapping size drill bit.
Then I looked closer.
In the packet of my nice brand new 1/2" UNF tap, which was marked as such on the box and which I had bought expressly for this job, was in fact a M12x1.25 tap!!!
To say I was livid is understatement.
The threads are not deep enough for a decent strength if I substitute the bolt size, due to using the correct tapping drill for 1/2 UNF, and it is now tapped with a metreic thread so retapping in the correct pitch is likely going to make it worse.
So...there goes a nice new piece of steel and a couple of hours work!
I'm not bloody happy!

[Luke]

oops

you've got some good kit there tho greg

[carnut1100]

Ya gotta have your toys!

[carnut1100]

Bit more to update...
While waiting for the tap suppliers to give me the correct one and a new piece of steel, I finished the other spacers for between the crossmember and chassis.







What is not shown is the first coat of gloss black which is drying now...I will photograph it when it is all nice and black and shiny!

As an aside, today I was looking at a potential purchase...a 1972 International Harvester D 1310 3 ton truck...
Bit bigger than the Transit...but I love it!
Might be just big enough to shift cars about on. Comes with no tray so I can put whatever I want on it!

[deankdx]

ahh finally found your thread,
i still haven't looked under my van to see what was done for the T5 gearbox.

should be a million times better with the overdrive, even with the stock diff.

watching with interest. the weather is getting better now, so mine should see some progress soon

[deankdx]

Hows the progress here?

well, i am about to get back into mine,
i took a pic of the cross member you cut, mine isnt cut there. is close though.
i think i will be doing my gearbox mount in a similar style to yours, i'm not overly happy with how it has been done.

[carnut1100]

Got some pics of progress, but can't upload them where I am at the moment as I'm not on my own computer tonight and this one doesn't have a camera card slot...

Anyhow, been rather hectic at work, we started doing sunday runs, doubled saturday runs, and started late night runs...the upshot being that two new drivers were needed and only one was there, so I got plugged into the gap until further notice which means sometimes working till 10:30pm and other times starting work at 6am...so playtime onthe truck has been limited.

That said, I have been doing stuff to it.
Where I cut the crfossmember I have made up a plate of 5mm steel a tight fit that fits inside the rail and extends about 4 inches past the cut opening each side (was a bugger to get in there!!!) and this is being welded to the existing rail, and where it overlaps inside it is getting plug welded in several places the upshot being that the chassis rail will be stronger than before.
I started welding it in with my oxy torch, but I couldn't find the gloves...the heat was baking my hands so I went into town (this was my day off) to get some more gloves, and just after I got them I got called into work to cover for someon who had to go home early.
Damn!
So the piece is half welded in, but I do now have a new gearbox mount and new speedo drive gear (half of the teeth were missing...so I guess I know why my speedo didn't work before!) and I just need another spell in the garage to finish it off.
My GT rego runs out in a couple of days, and I wanted to put it on special interest rather than re-registering it fully but I may have to whack another 6 months on it...

I also have a new adapter plate for the gearbox mount...the power of persuasive talking means that the supplier of the dodgy tap got their toolroom to make me a new adapter plate, they even surface ground it and made it all shiny!
Then I had to paint it so it doesn't rust under there...
Took photos first though! Will upload soon...
They even threw in a full set of taps in that size, not just the one I bought, they let me keep the metric one that came in the imperial box, and gave me a set of drill bits as a sweetener...
Good th ing too, as my little brother broke most of my drills under 1/4"...he would have broken the others if they weren't tougher than the drill press motor...

[deankdx]

good to hear,.
i just bought a Mig welder, so i will be doing amazing things with it before long. got lots of junk metal to practice on too.

i'm interested in this Gearbox mount, i think mine is using an EA rubber mount, and maybe its lower than the one you used? if so, i havent noticed any pinion angle issue if there is one.

[carnut1100]

Could be...the EA mount is what fits directly on the gearbox, but I didn't want to modify the crossmember so I thought of a way to adapt the mount for the 4 speed to the 5 speed...
Didn't want to go lower on the mount either as that would have changed the mounting angle, leading to increased wear on the uni joints. That's why I am going to all the trouble with the chassis rail...

Speaking of which...




Here's the replacement adapter plate...all nice and shiny!
Shame I had to paint it...




All painted...but I got carried away with how much paint I put on...



Here is the stiffener, in 5mm plate this should be stronger than the uncut rail.
Note how far it projects to the sides...this cause no end of trouble getting it in, but spreads the load nicely and will be plug welded to the rail for extgra strength.



Here is how far I got without welding gloves...
Note that the stiffener projects beyond what you can see in the second photo...all you can see is backed up by 5mm plate.



Shopping for parts is fun...I think this new gearbox mount was $20 well spent...



Taken earlier tonight...all fired up and ready to go!
Those new gloves were nice...



I turned the torch off about 30 seconds before I took this shot...had to take the time to get the camera.
THis shows how much head was radiating off the metal...5mm thick, and why I had to get some gloves...




This is the current state of play.
I'm a pedantic madman so there will be plug welds and grinding down any lumpy bits and smoothing stuff out and giving it a coat of paint etc before I am happy with it...

Mind you, not far to go now really...