kws

From what my friend said, who was running the same rails in his Corolla, you're pretty well limited to anything around the age of Fishnets or SR2/3 from something like a Civic/ DC2 Integra Type R. Anything newer, like Evo 5 onwards, DC5R, Accord Euro R etc will be the 4 bolt pattern. He was going to change to floor mounted buckles and use modern rails, but sold the car before that.

With a successful WOF under my belt, I could finally drive the Marina out on the roads and see what it is actually like. Before driving it the couple of KM to the last WOF inspection, the most I had driven it was around the block a couple of times. I had never really strayed far from home. Now though, I could take it out for drives "for the fun of it". I could even get some photos that weren't taken in my garage or driveway! The interior in particular looks a lot better out in natural light than in my garage The feeling of finally being able to get out and actually drive the car properly was awesome. For 51 years old, it drives really well. Going down the road, it just feels like "a car" (that you have to dodge all the potholes in lest you bottom out the suspension). It can be driven just like any other car; get in, turn the key, it fires up and off you go. The difference is that you are driving it, it's not an appliance. About as far from the Leaf as you can get. Touch wood, but it doesn't smoke, it's not overheating, the gearbox shifts well, and although a bit soft, the suspension seems to be doing what I ask of it. I'm very impressed. Those first couple of drives did show up a few niggles. One of them, which concerned me a little as it was the first time I'd heard it, was a clattering from the gearbox. It only happens sometimes, and only when warm, which is why I hadn't heard it before I guess and usually only on over-run or when taking off from a stop. Surprisingly the shifts are good and the syncros are doing the things they should, unlike my first Marina which would punish you if you didn't go from first, across the gate left to right and then go into second gear, to give the syncro time to catch up. There is a squeal from either the clutch release or spigot bearing though, so a new clutch will be on the cards in the future. Something that has been bugging me for a bit, was that my tacho was intermittent at best and dead at worst. It happened randomly a while ago and sometimes works until the cars been running a few minutes and then just drops to zero. I checked the wiring from the coil to no avail, so knew it had to be something in the cluster. Having spent a not insignificant amount on the Spiyda tacho conversion, I was hoping it wasn't an issue with that. With the column shrouds off already for other work, removing the cluster was a matter of taking out two screws (since I haven't got around to sorting the top two yet), reaching in through the "speaker" grille in the dash and undoing the speedo cable, and then pulling it forward enough to disconnect the harness. Once on the bench, I had my suspicions about what the cause was This little guy. I didn't do this, and it's on the power feed to the tacho. Lifting the end nearest the screw showed it was barely attached to the copper trace, if at all. I carefully peeled it off, snipped it back to the solder and soldered in a new jump wire, this time joining straight to the bare copper where the ring terminal contacts the trace To give it some support and stop any risk of shorts I covered it in some hot glue Refitted to the car, lo and behold on the next drive I had a rock-solid tacho for the whole drive. Excellent. I love a simple fix. A not so simple fix, was the next thing that was bugging me. The ignition key. Ever since I've had the car the ignition key has been a bit of a pain, but it did work, you just had to jiggle it a bit and sometimes it'd only work if you pulled the key out and turned it over. I could live with that though. What I needed, was spare keys, just in case I locked my only set in the boot, which has no release except with a key and cant easily be accessed from inside the car. The door key was easy enough, the locksmith decoded it and cut me a nice new one. It turns out his decoding of it perfectly matched a photo I took of the back of the outside door handle ages ago, showing the back of the lock barrel where the number is stamped into it. The ignition key though, was a different story. The first thing the locksmith said to me was "this is on the wrong blank" just by looking at it, followed by "its been hand cut with a file". Oh goody. "custom" key bottom, new blank on top Long story short, the original key had been hand cut by/for the previous owner and had an asymmetrical cut. It took me a little to work out why, and was only when I remembered something the guy at the workshop that failed the Marina said when he went to open the boot with the ignition key and I told him to use the door key, "it opened it before"... Sure enough, when flipped up one way, the ignition key will open the boot But it won't open the boot if the key is inserted the other way, and it won't open the doors. Some wizardry had been done. Why he specifically needed this cut, I don't know, but it's kinda cool. The locksmith didn't want a bar of it, he said he could replicate it but it may or may not work, and in the end it would probably still have the same issue the key currently has, where it's hard to use in the ignition. The reason for this is because it's not a symmetrical cut, with the same cut on each side of the key, so of course the wafers in the barrel will be different on each side. My plan was to copy one side of the key to both sides of a blank, by hand, and make it a symmetrical key. I bought a blank from the locksmith and dug out my needle files. Before I could do that though, I wanted to strip my spare barrel so I could use that to test the key, so I didn't upset the current barrel (and make the car immobile). The problem was that I didn't have a key for this barrel, and you need to use a key to remove the core. That left me with one option, see if I could pick it. First I had to drill out the retaining pin. This goes into a hole in the barrel, locking it in place. I actually filed this down first to see if I could expose the pin and pull it out, it didn't go well, so I ended up drilling it. Next you would insert the key, turn it to ACC position and due to the mechanism in it, it would eject the barrel from the housing. With out a key, or lock pick set, I had to get creative. Using a bunch of stuff from my rollcab that really shouldn't be abused like this, I picked the core wafer by wafer and out it popped. I went between using this spanner and the screwdriver on my multitool as a turning tool, and the remains of some cheap long-nose tweezers to pick the wafers Now the fun part. I removed the column shrouds Took some photos of the wiring so I knew where to plug it in later And using the handy previously slotted shear bolts holding the ignition on, removed it. The signs that someone had been here before were obvious... Such as the random screw holding the switch into the housing and the modification to the retaining pin It turns out the modification is a little ball that was pressed into a hole that had been drilled down next to the pin Removing that allowed me to use a pick under the pin to lift it up Inserting the key into the barrel, and turning it ejected it The bare barrel A bunch of wafers were missing from either side, to match the cut of the key. No wonder it was a pain to use The square metal rod on the end is what turns the electrical switch in the end of the barrel. The white plastic section has a groove that runs around it, and this is what engages and disengages the steering lock (and also what ejects the barrel from the housing). I used a small punch and screwdriver to drift out the roll pin holding the plastic part on With that removed, the core will come straight out of the barrel Make sure you have a key in the core when you remove it or the wafers and springs will go everywhere. The core does not require a key in it to be removed. The effects of the iffy key can be seen in the barrel, where the wafers have worn into the housing from not being disengaged properly This is what the uncut blank looks like in the core, showing the wafers that would stop the barrel turning. It does highlight how few wafers were actually being used too. Apparently this "wrong" blank is designed for 10 cuts (5 on each side). The proper blank is for 8 cuts. This key had maybe 4 total based on the wafers left. I stripped the spare core completely After cleaning all the wafers and springs up, I went through and using the original key, on the side I wanted to copy, matched the spare core to that key It's worth remembering that the key works on the opposite side of the core, pulling the wafers down. In the above photo, the cut on the bottom of the key will be acting on the wafers fitted from the top of the core, pulling them down against the springs. I didn't fit any wafers to the other side, just so I could perfect the one side of the key first I carefully clamped the two keys together, and using vivid (permanent marker) on the blank, traced the cut from the key to the blank Using a series of small files, I carefully filed down the cuts until it was close to the traced marks, testing along the way. I got one side of it really good, almost a perfect match. I started on the other side, got it pretty close and then this happened I messed up. What I hadn't accounted for was that the other key, having the shorter cut on one side, couldn't be symmetrical using that cut, or the key goes too far into the core By reducing this area here to line the cuts up, allows the key to go further into the core than it should, misaligning the the end wafers. You can see the reason for it here, on the original key. With that one, the key goes further into the barrel on one side than the other. Its madness. Back to the drawing board I went. In a stroke of luck, whilst googling what sort of key the Marina should have, I came across a number for a blank which rang a bell. Hold on, don't I have one of those keys? It's pretty worn, but yes, that's the blank a Marina should have. I don't know where it came from, if it even came with the Marina or another car, but its quite fortuitous. You can see the cut is quite different and the tip of the key is longer and stepped I already knew this key didn't match either of the barrels I had, as I had tested it, but this gave me the chance to rekey a barrel to match this key now. The locksmith was also more than happy to duplicate this key as it wasn't some weirdo custom thing. I built the core up in my spare barrel for testing, and once good, I gutted the original core and swapped it all over The reason I couldn't use this barrel in my car is that someone has removed the outer ring which has all the markings on it, so it looks pretty haggard One tip for reinserting the barrel into the housing, is to make sure the plastic at the end of the housing matches the pin on the end of the barrel. Its not actually a perfect square, but a slight rectangle and it will only go in one way. You can spend a lot of time being frustrated by it not going in, if this piece is the wrong way around... I gave the barrel, core, and housing all a good clean and then lightly lubricated it with graphite before reassembling and refitting to the car The steering lock is still a little sticky to activate, it always has been, but the key now works each and every time without having to jiggle it or turn it over. Its made the car 100% easier to operate now. I really wanted to keep the weirdo asymmetrical key in the car as it's a cool bit of history, but that just made the job far too difficult, when just redoing the whole lot to a different cut made so much more sense. I'll keep the original keys in storage with the rest of the bits, including the wafers I kept in order, just in case. Now, I have two complete sets of keys (plus another spare that will open the boot) and an ignition barrel that works properly. Success. Finally, the last niggle the car has developed since I've been able to drive it properly is an issue at higher RPM where it seems to cut out. I had a rather interesting moment shooting a gap in traffic where I started off rapidly with a chirp of a tyre, and just as I got out in front of the oncoming car, the engine cut flat out but came back to life when I basically crash started it and kept going like nothing happened. Testing it again later, the same thing could be replicated by giving it beans in a straight line. It didn't seem to be load dependant as you can go WOT at low RPM and other than some light pinging (hopefully to be fixed by running higher octane now) it pulls fine, but once the revs climb above about 3500rpm it started to misfire and then cut out. It could be fuelling, as I've been topping the fuel tank up with jerry cans and I don't know how much is actually in there, and although the fuel gauge is coming back to life, I don't know how accurate it is. Theres no obvious rust in the fuel filter, and the pump should easily be able to keep up with the demands of this engine. I've topped up with another 20L of 98 octane to be sure it isn't just low fuel, and the gauge reads about 3/4 of a tank now. It's a 54L tank, so that makes sense. My suspicion is the ignition system, as the tacho drops to zero when the engine cuts out. Other than cleaning the points, checking the gaps when I got the car, changing the plugs, leads, cap and rotor, I have done nothing else. My plan here is to replace the coil, relocate it from the engine to the engine bay (like later Marinas, presumably to reduce vibration), convert to electronic ignition, and I'm also going to give the carb a quick going over as I've only barely cleaned and adjusted it to get it running. Hopefully that fixes it. if not, more troubleshooting will follow, including maybe checking inside the fuel tank for condition. In the mean time, its more than happy tootling around town, as long as I don't try to drive too aggressively.

I'm running the black 015 in the Marina and it seems to go hard, appears to have no issues keeping up with the mighty 1750 and single SU.

If it still has a standard steel sump pan, check the flange on it is flat before refitting. People always nip the bolts up too tight to try to fix a leak, and end up warping the flange around the bolts and it'll never stop leaking until thats fixed

The bushes are super weird, so even pouring poly bushes probably wouldn't be the go as you need the flex or the alloy arm will break (which I need to avoid at all costs since the arm is also unobtainium) I had a guy in Aus snap some photos of the arm and new bush for me to see what I was working with. My idea was to just buy or made something like this, to the exact same length as the stock arm, but with bushes with voids in the same places as the stock bushes

I can't be 100% sure on the 4.6 because I haven't had one, but the crank snout differences on 3.5 and late 3.9 is all inside the timing cover due to the oil pump differences. The actual length was the same. There is a spacer to use the old pulley on a newer engine and keep belt alignment. The blocks are all the same dimensions, just with different bore and stroke.

So the Marina had a wof advisory that the rear axle radius arm bushes are perished and I need to replace them. Problem is they were only on Aus cars, and are straight up unobtainable. They're a weird moulded rubber bush, and the hole in the arm isn't circular (to stop the bush rotating) so I can't really press some other sort of bush in without modifying the arm. What's the go with me just replacing the arm with a custom arm (basically a rod with a standard bush on each end)? Direct replacement, not adjustable etc. either standard bushes with voids like standard, or rose joints.

I have a 2L one and it's fairly small, so depends what you want to use it for I guess. Mine just fits a small motorbike carb body in it

Sadly not. I asked the seller/son about it and he wasnt sure and with his dad gone the story was lost to time. I have the original re-rego paperwork for it, but no reason why it was dereg in the first place. The son has the original black plates, and im trying to get hold of them from him for histories sake but he's older and a bit hard to get hold of.

Coming back to this, I can mostly confirm this was correct. After a little driving the new bearing is significantly quieter now. Given a bit more use I think it'll go silent.

Thanks everyone, it does feel good to finally have gotten over that massive hurdle that's been so daunting for years. The closer I got to it being ready for a WOF check, the more scary it got. I think you might be giving me a little too much credit there @Flash. The order i've phased the work really comes down to the fact that I enjoy mechanical work and utterly loathe bodywork There is definitely something to be said for having an ugly, but drivable "rolling project" as you say. I'd be even further behind schedule had I decided to tackle more of the bodywork; the work I had to do set me back way more than expected as it was but was necessary to move forward. I've only driven it for one "for the fun of it" drive so far, since insurance isn't sorted yet, but I wanted to take my wife for a quick spin (she won't go in any of my cars until they're road legal). Starting to hear and feel things I haven't noticed before, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of small things that pop up. As we parked up for photos a mum and her kids walked by, and I heard the little boy exclaim "look at that it's so cool!" and that made me real proud. Looking forward to bolstering/being the Morris Marina showing at British Car Day, and hopefully the MGCC runs their grasskhana at Threntham again next year as I'm real keen to throw this around it

Well, here we are, It's time to try this WOF thing again. After the string alignment, when the rain finally stopped, I took the Marina out for a quick run around the block to see how the alignment was. The steering was dead center, and it was a lot less wayward than it had been, likely due to the new bush in the steering rack. I'll call that a success. All that was left was to wait a couple of weeks for the next booking. This time I booked it with a different workshop, one that I was recommended by a friend in the local Rover club which he had good experience with, and I booked it as a Pre-WOF inspection off the bat (just in case I did need more than the 28 days to fix anything). I wanted to make a good impression, so the day before, I gave the Marina its first real wash, with suds and all. It was dirtier than it looked but it's hard to tell because of the condition of the paint. The wheels gained a bit of a shine though. The Marina did decide to play a great little prank on me though, the day before the WOF check, where it ran on only three cylinders. haha so funny. I checked spark, all good. It didn't clean up when revved, and barely idled. I was starting to get a bit concerned, and then decided to check the carb and noticed the choke jet was out despite the handle being all the way in; the jet had stuck and the carb was over fuelling. I lightly touched it and it snapped back into place and suddenly the engine smoothed out and ran beautifully, as expected. Phew. It stuck again the next morning, so I'll need to sort that out. Yesterday morning, with my wife in the Leaf in tow (two polar opposites of transportation), I drove the Marina the furthest it's been in my ownership and dropped it off at the workshop. Other than once again passing a police officer on the way there, and my wife alerting me to an iffy connection on one of my brake lights (which a quick jiggle of the bulb holder cured), the drive went well. Straight off the bat I got way better vibes from these guys about the Marina, having had a quick chat with the guy there who expressed his interest and enthusiasm towards the car. It makes a big difference when the people you choose to work on your special project actually care about it. There was no waiting around for it this time, and since they were busy I wasn't going to get the car back until the afternoon, so I jumped in the Leaf and after some breakfast and errands, I spent the rest of the day trying to distract myself whilst anxiously waiting for the call. Late in the afternoon the call comes through "your car is all done and ready for collection". Vague. We jump in the Leaf again and shoot down there. As we roll into the carpark, the Marina is just parked out front, looking awesome. As we turn to park next to it I notice something and just about jump out of my skin. There is a sticker on the windscreen. I go in and sure enough, we've done it. After almost 29 years to the day, the Marina has a fresh new WOF on it. All the hard work finally paid off. Soon to be updated The guy from earlier came over and complimented the car, saying how good it was and how good it looked underneath, and wishing me some good cruising over summer. He also clarified a note on the WOF sheet for me, that the bushes on the rear axle reaction arm are perished and will need to be replaced, but that needs to be done before the next WOF. Other than that, we were all good to go. Some strategic tape to cover the gap in the seal, since it was meant to rain. New seal to be fitted. I jumped in, the old girl fired up first turn of the key and off we went. As it's not insured yet, it went straight back into the garage for now. We quickly popped to VTNZ before they closed and renewed the rego, which has been on hold for as long as it has not had a WOF. I was 7 years old when this car was last on the road. It hasn't been on the road for longer than some of my colleagues have been alive. But here it is, back on the road again and ready to do some summer cruising. It's been saved from an uncertain fate where it could've been stripped for parts, chopped up or scrapped. A lot of people wouldn't have bothered to do the work it needed, but back in 2021 when I bought the car, I promised the seller I would get his dads old car back on the road. For a couple of years now I've been holding on to a little treat for the car (and myself), only allowing it to be fitted once the car is road-legal. That time has come. Off came the stock wheel, which is badly cracking and doesn't feel great to hold The boss kit needed a couple of pins for the indicator cancelling fitted, and then it was fitted to the column And my steering wheel of choice was fitted. It's been so long that I can't recall the size now, it's a nice black leather Mountney wheel. Compared to the original wheel it is slightly smaller, but so much thicker And it feels great in the hand It won't be to everyone's tastes, and I couldn't care less. I like it. I wouldn't be a British car owner without some self-deprecating humour too A huge thank you goes out to everyone who has followed along, all the comments and support, and to the people that have helped out with knowledge/advice and parts when needed. There is still plenty to do to it, and it'll have some money spent on upgrades soon, now that it's proven it can get through a WOF. For now though, once the insurance is sorted, I just want to get some Ks on it, give it a shakedown and see what happens.

The book track width should be accurate enough if you measure from the center face of the wheel, because you only need to know the difference front to rear, the overall width doesn't actually matter. Obviously once you start changing things like hubs, camber etc, this may be less accurate. I believe that's the point in making the box with the tubes in front and behind the car, because then you know the box is square (the risk if the track measurement is wrong is that the lines won't be perfectly parallel). I guess the same applies to if the axle is askew, it won't matter as much with the box around the car.

I'll have to give the HPA video a watch later, thanks. This is the one I watched that had a couple of lengths of just simple old PVC tube resting on axle stands, which is something I might give a try Is your adjustable pole a fixed version of measuring with a tape measure from the inside tread blocks on one tyre to the other?

That is what the book says to do I have NFI how it currently is