Australian Mk2 Phase 1 truck

[deankdx]

same gloves i just bought today,
i'll be playing practice on my welder tomorrow if the weather is kind.

[jerry2]

looks a good project. Wish I had as much land as you will probably have all the same toys too.

[redcube]

That looks like a nice tidy job you have done on the gearbox mounts keep up the good work

[carnut1100]

Thanks! If it's not tidy it would annoy me and I'd just have to redo it later anyhow. That and the fact it's taken this long so I might as well finish it properly! Bit of a deadline though, sister's car needs bodywork after she lent it to a friend...so I need the shed space. Consequently, I just came in at 11pm after getting it all back together. Out of fuel so it won't start although I chucked a cupfull down the carb and it ran, also the starter wiring is playing up and I don't want to be starting it by shorthog the terminals with a screwdriver when I'm out so that will need fixing too. Pics tomorrow, as I start work at 7 in the morning and I need sleep now so I'm not staying up half the night uploading to photobucket...

[carnut1100]

Well...here are the piccies!



Welding finished on the crossmember.





Coat of paint on it and welds ground down.
Next time the gearbox is out I will pretty it up with filler and sand it smooth and paint it properly, but for now a coat of black Killrust will do fine...




Closeup of the crossmember mods...stronger than original!




New speedo drive gear, old one was missing many teeth...might have had something to do with my speedo not working!





Here is the assembled new gearbox mount and the adapter plate.




This rib on the gearbox fouled the adapter plate, so I filed it down slightly, keeping it looking nice of course!




The adapter setup in position.




The side spacers which keep my pinion angle correct and stop the gearbox from sitting higher.






All in place and working out fine!





The final installed clearance on the crossmember.





Shifter position. Not ideal but it will do.




Falcon gear lever installed backwards to have it bend forwards, shift knob turned around (by shoving a bit of balled up paper into it so it stops the right way around when the threads tighten up...) and it all works fine. Can't put the passenger seat back in though until I make up a new "plumber's nightmare" lever that will clear the seat frame...

All left now is to fill the fuel up and sort the starter circuit, then I'm driving it to work over the summer!

[deankdx]

My gear shift has had the lever cut off maybe an inch or 2 from the mounting bolts and uses a stainless steel tube (currently riveted) to that. which is straight. its ok, but still on the short side.

i've been tempted to engineer a stick mounted on a ball joint or similar with a link mounted higher up the gear stick to shorten the throw between gears.. = effort. i dont plan on changing gears often enough to bother.

with your stock diff ratio, you wouldnt even need first gear at all i reckon?

[carnut1100]

Trust me...when you have a built-like-a-tank hired car trailer on the back with a big car like a Falcon or a Volvo on it, ya need first gear!
Taking off empty on the flat, nope!

Got her running about an hour and a half ago...took it for a run up th e road and back, not too far or fast as the brakes need bleeding and I didn't have the engine cover on.
She's been a bit down on power from what it should be for a while, and been overheating easily, I think I found out why...
With the engine cover off I could see the downpipe get glowing red hot within a minute of driving...methinks the timing is badly retarded!
I'll hoik out the timing light and give it a once-over.
Other than that, the gearbox works fine!
And the extra gear is soooooooooooo nice...

[deankdx]

thats nice to hear,
i cant wait to test mine now running on 6cyls(had a burned valve) fitted a good XE motor.
even mine with the 2.92 diff is ok in 5th(would be ticking over about 1800rpm at 100kmh)
well, thats empty at least. and no head wind.

wonder if a blocked exhaust would cause the engine pipe to be red? i have had it happen when my catalytic converter failed in my falcon.

[carnut1100]

Pretty sure the pipe is ok, gonna set the points and timing and see what happens.
I'm on the lookout for a decent XE 250 ally head to give an overhaul with new rings, bearings, gaskets etc, make it oil tight and fresh and shove it in. Then I'll be looking for a gas mixer or even go for gas injection...probably go dedicated gas, set the timing etc up to optimise for gas and go from there. Twin gas tanks for range.

[troppo]

thats nice to hear,
i cant wait to test mine now running on 6cyls(had a burned valve) fitted a good XE motor.
even mine with the 2.92 diff is ok in 5th(would be ticking over about 1800rpm at 100kmh)
well, thats empty at least. and no head wind.

wonder if a blocked exhaust would cause the engine pipe to be red? i have had it happen when my catalytic converter failed in my falcon.

I would have thought a blocked exhaust would have it run really bad or not at all. If your valve timing is off or your running too rich you`ll be getting flame in the exhaust manifold and pipe causing the heat. Cats are really only to burn off exhaust gasses and small amounts of unburnt fuel (and only work once they are up to heat).
If theres no back pressure on your exhaust (no muffler etc) and you`ll get a lot of heat in your exhaust, and a lot more fuel used than usual.

[carnut1100]

Still down on power with the timing set right, I think it's a 3.3 not a 4.1 and it's probably a bit tired...going to try some new plugs and leads to perk it up a bit.

Got to redo the electrics now, almost everything has been hacked and bodged.
Planning a full rewire with a modern fuse box with blade fuses, relay board with relays for everything that draws a decent current, halogen H4 headlights with heavy cable, relays and ceramic connectors, halogen wide beam reversing lamps, halogen worklights on the tray loading board, twin batteries with isolator and a few other things...I'll sketch a schematic then draw up a proper wiring diagram in CAD and wire it all from scratch, new wire, soldered connections, screwed down earth connections everywhere, heatshrink on all connections...will be worth it!

[deankdx]

are you using an existing loom? i am considering fitting a full falcon XE or XF loom as i am probably going to fit an XE dash anyway.
weather is still crap here, havent looked at mine yet.

[carnut1100]

Nah, I'm gonna start from scratch.
There will be every wire I need, and in the right lengths, and no wires I don't!
I'll be taking the original wiring diagram, and copy out the components that are on my truck, add in the components I wish to fit now or later, and design a wiring harness from scratch that is modular in nature, for instance one plug to the harness on the engine, everything electrical on the engine, so you undo one plug to pull the motor, and can replace that section easy when it gets old and hard from engine heat, or if I do a different engine at some point just make up a new engine harness...
Easy diagnostics will be designed into it, heavy duty wire, fuses everywhere, relays everywhere, and I will then go from the rough sketch layout to drawing up a full schematic diagram in CAD, which I can print out and use for refererence and diagnostics later.
It will incorporate wiring for a stereo, electric windows, central locking, heavy wire to H4 Halogen headlights, plus driving lights and foglights, running lights on the tray, halogen reversing light, worklights on the tray, electric winch on the crane mounted on the tray, and a few other things I plan to fit later...wire it up right now and I won't have to redo it later!

[deankdx]

Guessing its pretty cold over there, but is there any progress to report?

[carnut1100]

Yes... The Toyota Landcruiser master cylinder that was Bodged onto it died...and I'm haven trouble locating a good Mk2 master to go back onto it.
Toyota one never worked quite right anyhow.
Anybody got a good master???

Also radiator has sprung a leak so I need to fix that.