kws

Well, everything has arrived now, and the car has been pulled into the garage..... guess the box will be coming out sometime in the near future.

You need to disassemble half the dash to remove it (glovebox, knee panel on RH side, center console, center stack), its in the center stack below the radio. It depends what you're more comfortable doing; if unplugging stuff blindly from the engine is easier, proceed as you were.

Pull the engine out with the loom attached, its really quite easy. The engine side of the loom disconnects from the dash loom and ECU in the center console, and then pulls through a grommet in the firewall. I think the engine bay fuse box came out with it too.

yay double post.

I believe the engines themselves are the same, just ecu, wiring etc different.

Wrapping up the suspension meant I could move onto another small job I needed to attend to; Flushing the cooling system. The drivers side suspension went together more or less the same as the other side, with a couple of small exceptions. The first was that the trunnion pin would not go through the new bush. The other side was a tight but smooth fit, but this side just would not work. To remedy this I purchased an adjustable hand reamer and reamed the brass bush out until it was a smooth fit on the pin I also altered how I applied the epoxy putty on the end. On this one, I used a file to scuff up the metal on the end of the trunnion and left the epoxy a couple of days to set before continuing work. This seems to have worked as it's far better adhered than the other side, and has set harder. I may have to revisit the other side at some point. In all its glory, with new bushes and joints. With that out of the way and the car back on its wheels, I wanted to flush the cooling system. I knew it was pretty grotty from when I removed the heater hoses way back, but other jobs had got in the way until now. The first task was to disconnect the lower radiator hose and drain the system. Due to the design, this was messy, but I did manage to catch most of it. The fluid that came out was anything but coolant though, it was a thick brown sludge. I had a replacement thermostat to fit too. Thankfully the three bolts came out easily and with no issues. The old thermostat didn't have a bleed hole in it and was also very grotty. With the thermostat removed it allowed me to use a hose to flush the system out. It took a huge amount of water through the system for it to start running clear. The big cutout at the top goes into the head/block and the central tube leads to the waterpump. This is the waterpump, which I'm lead to believe is a FWD Maxi or Allegro pump as its slightly different to the RWD pump the car should have, hence the creative lower radiator hose. To gain a bit more access and allow me to flush the radiator I had to pull the radiator out. I pressure tested it when I got the car and it held pressure fine, although looking closer it definitely needs a recore as the fins are all rotting away. Flushing the radiator took a considerable amount of time. The amount of thick brown sludge that come out of it was horrific. It would start to run clean and then you give it a shake with some water in it and you get another torrent of brown sludge. I think it took about half an hour of constant flushing to get it to run clear. Before refitting the radiator I cleaned up the thermostat housing. It had some remnants of an old gasket, but it wasn't in great shape. The thermostat had been replaced at some point as it was an AC Delco part made in the USA. The replacement is a Tridon part, with a new gasket. The replacement thermostat has a jiggle valve and a bleed hole which will hopefully make bleeding easier. I placed this at the front as the engine tilts backwards slightly, so that should be a high point. Finally, before refitting the cleaned up top of the housing I ran a tap and die through the threads of the housing and the bolts. This was a course thread, and I had no replacement bolts that would fit so the cleaned up original bolts were used. A quick smear of Hylomar, and the thermostat housing was reassembled with the new thermostat and gasket. Unfortunately upon refitting the radiator I slipped with a screwdriver on one of the nearby hose clamps and punctured the core slightly. I lowered the coolant level to below the leak, and using my tiny little gas soldering iron turned up to 11, I heated the area with the bare flame first, before using a wide soldering tip to blob some solder over the hole. Its far from perfect, and the radiator really needs a recore now, but it seems to be holding coolant for now. I ran the car for a few minutes to get some heat into the system and bleed the system and all seemed to be well. The temp gauge didn't go over quarter, so I need to check that's working as it should, but it did move. There are already two positives that I noticed; first, when shut off, the engine didn't diesel and run-on like it had previously. Secondly, when the engine was shut off it didn't make the loud popping and banging sounds from deep within the engine like it previously used to. Im guessing all the sludge was blocking passages and causing hot spots around the cylinders.

Same with the Porirua branch, and had no ETA for new bottles

Anyone else unable to find mig gas on the Bunnings website anymore? Doesn't bode well. Might have to look more into straight CO2 myself since argon seems to be hard to get ATM.

Eh, it does the job and was cheap to design and manufacture.

It's not that primitive tbh. Lots of newer cars used torsion bar suspension for years, and things like the mgb used lever arm shocks too.

Or just don't be gross, and take Manuel in your hand like a real man. #savethemanuels

7/16" studs with a 4x108 PCD is the same as my Aus spec Marina, which is also early Capri and Escort.

Its quite a nice simple setup. Works well when its not been neglected for 25 years with no seals to keep the moisture out.

I had a brainwave, and some good advice, which got me going again. "It's just a rubber bush, and there is plenty of space around it. If I knock the arm back, surely I can press it out on the car?" That's the thought that got me back on track, surely it can be done without removing the bushing holder. Sure enough, the idea worked. I cleaned the splines on the torsion arm up and wire brushed it so there was as little resistance as possible for the arm to slide back on the spline. I then used a couple of quite large hammers to gently tap the arm back. I had to be careful to keep it on the spline or I would upset the ride height (which I should have measured or marked, but didn't). The goal is as above, to knock the arm back far enough that it disengages the eye bolt, which is going through the bush we need to remove. With this disengaged the torsion bar and lower arm will drop out of the way. I then cut the shoulders off the front side of the bush so they wouldn't get in the way of my balljoint press, and using the press and a big socket I proceeded to press the bush out. Quite easily too, I must say. The extraction went very smoothly Since the replacement poly bush is one piece, the key to a smooth and painless install is to make sure the inside of the eye bolt holder is clean and smooth. Mine had a lot of rust and pitting on the lower side, so I spent a while chipping rust chunks out and then running a wire death wheel inside it until there was nothing to catch on. It took a few tries to find the right tool to press the bush in. I first tried some large washers and threaded rod but I just couldn't get it to go that last few MM and seat properly. I even tried old mate balljoint press again, which was no help The final, and best, solution was a pair of appropriately sized sockets and threaded rod. Quick, easy and seated all the way first time. Freshly pressed The last part of the bush is to press the steel sleeve through it. I employed the threaded rod and big washers for this, which pressed in very easily. Done. Now it's just a case of slipping the eye bolt back through, lining up the lower arm/torsion bar with the spline and knocking the arm forward. With that success behind me, I moved on to the trunnion. I had been told via the Aus Marina Facebook group that an 11/16 x 13/16 x 2 bronze bush is a perfect replacement for the standard bush, so I ordered a pair from a local bearing supplier. Heck, my trunnions were so filthy I couldn't even see where the steel stopped and the alleged bush started. Some quick digging later and I could see the edge I started by cleaning out the grease passage. It's no wonder the grease wasn't getting where it needed to, this was packed solid. I tried pumping grease into this when I first got the car but it just came out the ends of the pin instead, as the seals are missing and the pin is stuffed. Then using a spare 9/16" socket, I pressed the old bush out. It took a lot of force to get moving and let go with a mighty pop. Partway out. I used a cheap extension to push it completely out I gave the trunnion a good clean with a wire brush. You can see the old and new bushes together. The old bush is also bronze, but had been slotted and a huge area ground out of it where the grease passage is. The old bush, like the new one, is completely smooth inside with no grooving for grease to get around (which the Uk ones have). I drilled a large hole in the new bush for grease to get in And then carefully pressed it into place. I was a little stuck here as I was waiting for a pair of used Uk trunnions to arrive so that I could pinch the pins from them and use them in my trunnions. To keep myself entertained in the mean time, I did a couple of other small jobs. The first was to replace the utterly smashed rubber rebound stop. I had read on facebook that someone replaced their one with a pair of Mini ones (as the Mini ones are half as long as the Marina one), so I ordered a pair of the uprated polyurethane ones. Since these are solid poly, not rubber, I chose to only use the one. I had to bend the flat tab up but otherwise it bolts straight in. The other quick job was to chase my grounding issue. This car has always been a bastard to start, but adding a jump lead the other day as an additional grounding lead from the engine suddenly woke it up and it cranked over much better, indicating that the one single ground lead from the engine to the body wasn't up to the job. This lead goes from the bellhousing to the body. The bolt on the bellhousing was fine, but check out the state of the bolt that was on the body side! No bleedin wonder. Last I heard, rust wasn't a great conductor of electricity. I cleaned out the captive nut in the body as much as possible, and refit the strap using a nice fresh new bolt and lots of copper grease. To help the cause, I also added a second ground from the starter housing to the body. I initially used the shock mount bolts but since they basically go through painted steel I moved it to an existing hole in the body that I put a rivnut into. Now the car cranks quickly and starts very easily when cold. No more of this struggling to turn over or having to charge the battery every time I want to start it. Massive improvement. A few days later a big box of bits arrived. In that box, we had a pair of good early "big hole" shocks, a pair of used but usable UK trunnions and a battery hold down. Since it's been bugging me, I started with the battery hold down. Being from a UK car, it's slightly different. The Aus battery clamp just goes out horizontally and squeezes the battery against the inner guard. The UK clamp goes diagonally and clamps on the edge of the top of the battery. Aus UK The UK threaded hooks go into holes that aren't present on the Aus cars, and if you use the holes on the Aus car the rods are way too long. A few seconds with a grinder fixed that. And a date with my nice new die to thread the rod again And bam, we have a functional battery hold down. Pretty chuffed with that. Next was to build up the upright. I removed all traces of the old balljoint, sent the upright to the parts washer to spruce its self up a bit and then following the instructions in the kit, installed and set up the new balljoint. The replacement shocks got drained (had almost nothing in them anyway, just some black sludge), flushed and then refilled with 30W engine oil The arms on these are very smooth, and much freer to move. Being another set of early shocks, these are the "big hole" arms. The later cars had smaller holes in the arms and didn't need bushes or sleeves for the balljoint. Since these are big hole style like my original shocks they still need the steel sleeve inserted to replace the bushes. This is greased and then tapped into place with a suitable socket and hammer. Before I could fit the shock and upright I needed to attend to the trunnion. I cleaned and greased the donor pin and it was a perfect fit in the new bush; if a little tight to press through but rotates smoothly and freely. The donor trunnion also gave up some seals that were missing and better end washers than the Aus one had. I also knocked the end cap (a steel disk) out of the donor trunnion to fit into my original trunnion. The problem was that the original disk is fitted and then the steel is either cast around it or peened over. The lip had been broken away. I'm trying some of this fancy epoxy putty that claims to be as hard as steel, but we'll see. I'm not convinced it's bonding to the cast iron housing that well and will probably fall off over time. I'll keep an eye on it. The upright and trunnion got thoroughly greased and the trunnion spun on The replacement shock was fitted and the upright attached to the lower arm The lower tie rod was a pain to refit with the new solid bushes, but got there with some levering. It was worrying to note both sides were missing the big washer that is meant to sandwich the bushes into place and was relying on the nut alone. I found a large washer and fitted it. The thread on the end of the tie rod was a bit rough and rusty, so I ran the die over that too. The refreshed trunnion in all its glory. Everything that could, got new nuts, especially the nyloc nuts. For no reason in particular I used the big weird UK nut on one side. I think it's meant to be some sort of steering lock stopper? The upright was then mated up with the shock and the top pad tightened. All that was left was to refit the backing plate and hub And of course the caliper. I made a slight change to this though and using some alloy plate, I made a bracket to move the hose off the upright, so now if I have to remove the caliper I don't need to disconnect the pipe, just remove the bracket from the upright. Now, I'm a mechanic, not a fabricator, so these are very rough and ready, but do the job. The hardline on the caliper dictated where the bracket sat, so it's angled a little inboard now. I bled the caliper and it's all working as it should. The car is back on the ground again, but I still need to repeat all of this on the other side now. A difference is already noticeable when bouncing the corner of the car. It's much stiffer and controls bounce much better. It does sit a little higher, but I'm hoping that will settle a bit with driving. Bouncing one corner and the then other shows a huge difference between the side that's been done, and the other that hasn't.

In typical old car fashion, what was meant to be a simple and easy job kinda spiralled out of control. I had a plan. It was a good plan. Replace the bushes in the front end of the Marina, because they were all perished. I also wanted to replace the top ball joints and clean out the trunnions and grease them. I knew the top shock eye bushes weren't in good shape. I had noticed them a while ago and knew I had to replace them as they wouldn't pass a WOF inspection like this These are fairly important as they are joining the top of the upright to the shock (which doubles as the top arm). If these are worn or perished it can cause play in the top of the upright, which is no good at all. The next bush that needed to be done is the eye bolt bush. These were also visibly perished. Apparently upgrading these to poly bushes makes for a good upgrade to handling. This bush is what locates the inboard end of the lower arm. The final bushes are the pair on each of the tie bars. On most cars upgrading these is also a good idea since these bushes control forward and aft movement of the lower arm when accelerating or braking. That's it for bushes in the front suspension. It's a very simple setup, but does mean that the bushes that are there are all crucial to suspension operation. The plan was to replace the tie rod and eye bushes with polyurethane bushes and replace the shock eye bushes with an uprated kit that replaces the bushes completely with a steel insert. Disassembly although messy, was quite straightforward. I started by splitting the tie rod end balljoint with one of the splitters in my kit. It's a shame that I have to disconnect the brake hose from the caliper to remove the caliper (as the hose is mounted to the upright), but it's the only way to remove the hub and disk. I then undid the eye bolt nut and removed the tie rod and front of the lower arm To remove the upright you need to split it from the shock. This is done by undoing and removing the pad on the top of the assembly. This is screwed to the top of the balljoint that goes through the hole in the shock arm (and through those ugly perished bushes). I couldn't undo this on the car, so ended up removing the balljoint from the upright and leaving the balljoint in the shock. You do need to keep upwards pressure with a jack on the assembly during this, otherwise the torsion bar will keep trying to pull everything down and makes it harder/potentially dangerous when it gives way. And that's the upright removed, in all its filthy glory. Of note here is the fact that despite my car being a 73, it has the much more substantial upright, spindle and trunnion as used on the later six-cylinder Marina. Everything here other than the top ball joint is completely different to the UK cars. This is where it all started to go pear-shaped. The trunnion wasn't looking too hot, covered in grease and dirt. It did spin freely on the upright, which was promising. The pin was stiff and seized though. Removing the trunnion showed that although the grease was filthy and old, the thread on the upright was in good condition. The threads had some wear on the upper threads as to be expected, but were tight with no play. You can see the wear as the peaks of the thread on the LH side are squared off a bit. The problem was the trunnion. The cap on the bottom had been blown out and was missing. This was letting grease out, and dirt/water in. I also managed to extract the pin and wasn't happy with what I saw. The bushing in the trunnion wasn't looking great either I tried cleaning the pin up, but it was a lost cause All that was left was to move on and remove the shock I jammed the locknut in the vice and used a hammer and spanner to knock the pad free These are the bits removed from the shock. Lots of grease and perished rubber. The top pad is retained, but everything else is scrap now. I planned to flush the oil in the shock and replace it with a mono grade 30W engine oil, which should stiffen it up slightly (but anything is usually better than the old oil in them). The top cover is held on with a series of screws, and once removed gives access to the main chamber of the shock. Annoyingly I suspect someone had been here before, as the oil was full and although a lot of sludge had settled on the bottom, the oil was clean. To flush and bleed these units you need to pump the lever arm up and down a few times. I couldn't do that. The arm was so stiff even with no valve or oil in the shock that it was almost impossible to move by hand. I ended up putting the whole shock in the vice and swinging off the arm to get it to move, and when it did, it was anything but smooth. It felt like needle bearings had pitted their race and you thumped over them, it was very jerky. I closed it up and left it. The final thing I wanted to do for the day was to remove the eye bolt holder so I could press the bush out. There is one nut to remove on top of the chassis rail in the engine bay, and then you should be able to knock the eye bolt holder through. It is held in with a tapered spline so it doesn't turn. I suspect that tapered spline was my undoing. I couldn't get the thing to pop, no matter how hard I hit it or what fluids I soaked it in. I tried for a couple of days and then gave up. So in total, I had one trunnion that was trash, a shock that was stuffed, and an eye bolt I couldn't remove to press the bush out. Not winning.