sr2

Soooo……….

 The theory is that if you unbolt the rear housing and slide it back you will have enough room to slide the old selector slider off the selector shaft and slide the new one on.

After a little bit of measuring I decided this all could be done with the gearbox still in the car.

What could possibly go wrong?

First step, unbolt the cover.

 

 

 

Remove the spring loaded plungers and the roll pin that holds the slider in place.

 

 

Unbolt the rear housing. (Luv my new  Milwaukee 3/8 ratchet).

 

 

 

Remove the driveshaft & rear mount and support the gearbox with the trolley jack.

(You’ll note Rigamortice as usual pissing oil on the man-cave floor).

 

 

 

The rear housing separated with the application of the minimum brute force and ignorance.

 

 

 

The old slider slipped out easily…

 

 

 

And the new one slid in with no drama….

 

 

 

Bugger.

At this stage I realised that the paper gasket between the two housings was toast and the engine and gearbox had to come out of the car to replace it.

 

 

 

What can I say?

 

Nasty horrible, obscene words were spoken.

Tools were hurled around the esteemed sr2 man-cave while Rigamortice was lambasted with abusive & misogynistic insults!

 

 

Time to sort out the gear lever position, it’s too close to the seat and needs to move forward.

 

 

 

The W50 Toyota box was used in a number of different Toyotas with gearlevers in 3 different positions - with the front-mount position closest to the front of the car as rare as rocking horse do do’s.

I lucked out completely and found the right shifter housing on Trademe. (Sometimes you just get lucky).

 

 

 

Out of the car it’s easy to spot the difference….time for a celebratory brew.

 

 

 

Lined it up in the car…..and it’s going to work.

 

 

The elephant in the room became sourcing a suitable selector slider to suit the new gearlever position.

 

 

 

After ringing what felt like every bloody so called “specialist” gearbox shop in Googles NZ playlist all I got was a pile of contradictory information and/or the “not interested” brush off.

Not mentioning any names but I even got told by a company that claims to be the NZ expert on Toyota 5 speed conversions that they probably had the part I wanted but it would “take too long to find it”

 (Face-palm!)

 

 

 

Finally swallowed my Kiwi pride and contacted Dellow Conversions across the ditch in NSW. (Yes I bloody know………).

The part arrived in 4 days complete with 2 optional rubber boots. Great bunch of guys to deal with, great value for money, and their level of customer service put the NZ opposition to shame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, finally, got the parts I need.

 

 

 

Wild Turkey time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see with the alternator adjustment backed off there was still a way to go to get close to the block.

 

 

With the adjustment arm removed you can see how much closer to the block we can get.

 

 

 

A quick cut with the band saw…..

 

 

 

….and a little tickle on the linisher, (thirsty work)……

 

 

 

Because it was a Sunday rather than being at my usual bearing supplier I was stuck at Repco giving a pizza faced Gen-Z a lesson on how you identify V belts when you don’t have a Rego number.

I wasn’t brave enough to explain how you can calculate belt length using pulley diameters, belt section and distance between centres. (Jeeze it’s great being a grumpy old prick!  ).

 

 

 

With it all bolted up and looking good with the right sized belt it was time to check the timing.

 

 

Woops, just discovered the harmonic balancer had a serious wobble to it - I used to have a girlfriend like that and I ended up marrying her. (Guys, if the “ever lovely” Mrs sr2 reads this I’m bloody toast!).

 Luckily I had a spare non-counterbalance harmonic balancer so it was a quick job to change it.

 

 

 

 

All timed up and running ok, I’ve dot punched the distributor for a future rough setting and with old Holden 6’s I usually road test and set the final timing by ear.

 

 

Time to mount my brass overflow bottle, I still haven’t a clue what it came from!

 

 

 

Should fit in here nicely…..

 

 

 

Tacked in some round EWS.

 

 

 

Then a piece of flat with a couple of Rivnuts…

 

 

 

Found some brass strip to keep things in character…

 

 

 

Found a cap to fit, I’m a big fan of the type with a pressure release lever.

 

 

All plumbed in and looking good.

 

 

 

Finally filled and bled the coolant system. As always I added a big dose of glycol and a can of Bars Bugs.

As much as they are my passion in life these old Holden 6’s are nothing short of a plumber’s nightmare with every 2^nd head bolt ending up in the water jacket.

 

 

 

I finally found the air filter base I’d made for Rigamortice some 40 plus years ago; I cleaned it up and added some paint. …..yes I’d gas welded it because no one had a mig in those days and none of us had even heard of fringing tig!

 

 

 

Flipped it over, cut out a gasket; it all still fitted, so bolted it up. 

A Weber carb disguised with an HR Holden air-cleaner…looking good.

 

 

 

Slapped on a filter…

 

 

And fantasised about running with no bonnet and the intake poking out the side.

 

 

 

Time to spark the X2 up.

I kicked the old girl in the guts and ran her up to temperature at a fast idle for 30 minutes or so. Yes she could do with a more aggressive cam but what a gloriously responsive little 3 litre six; we’ll get all the legals in place before we finish building and fitting the 208 Motor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0A8eSZyu2A

 

 

 

The ‘to do list’ appears to be getting longer not shorter.

Time to knock off some smaller housekeeping jobs. (i.e. the boring shit).

 

 

 

The drive shaft was looking a little manky but surprisingly enough the universals were in good condition.

 

 

 

 

 

Hit it with some paint stripper….

 

 

 

 

And some black paint.

 

 

 

Next on the list was the fuel filler.

I couldn’t resist re-using the 70 year old hose clips…….

 

 

 

 

All set for the next 70 years….

 

 

 

Decided to retain the ‘rustic look’ for the fuel cap….

 

 

 

Next on the list of “not exciting” jobs was to find a suitable hydraulic line for the clutch.

I had a collection of braided brake hoses left over from some years back when the LVVTA in their infinite wisdom decided that despite having completed in some 20 plus gravel rallies our brake hoses presented a clear and present danger to the public and had to be replaces with crimped lines. - The mind boggles at what goes through these idiots heads!

 

 

 

 

The triumph slave cylinder presented a challenge but I found an old brass fitting and turned one end down to suit.

 

 

 

Fits OK sealed with a copper washer…

 

 

 

The HR Holden master cylinder was an easy fit…

 

 

 

Everything bleed up well and I’m more than happy with the pedal feel, well worth the effort of converting it from cable to hydraulic.

 

 

Decided it was time for the old girl to stand on her own 4 wheels so I dug out my accumulated collection of hubs, discs and bearings

 

 

 

Ordered some new hub washers and nuts from Resto Country in Oz. I’m amazed at how their delivery time is often less than ordering locally in NZ.

 

 

 

Just love assembling new parts, always feels like Xmas.

 

 

 

I’d rebuilt the calipers a while back with new pistons and seals….

 

 

 

All set for brake pads and a rough wheel alignment.

 

 

 

Dug out the trusty Holden workshop manual….

 

 

 

Thought I’d start with some basic HD/HR settings

 

 

 

 

Loaded up the suspension with axel stands under the lower wish bones and set the toe in the old-school way with a couple of pieces of straight wood and a tape measure.

 

 

 

 

 

Dialed up some camber with the digital level.

 

 

There wasn’t much I could do to set up angle castor without the wheels on and the suspension settled so I took a guess at the required shims needed on the top wishbone. Happy with the result for a few skids around the block until I get it to my favorite alignment guy.

 

 

 

Finally some front wheels……

 

 

 

Only just enough offset to clear the top arms……phew!.....

 

 

 

Hard to tell if the ride height/stance works without the bodywork on but so far so good.

 

 

 

I wasn’t happy with how the sway bar was sitting on the original mount after I’d dropped the chassis tails 2 inches into the front suspension cross member when I had the body off the chassis.

 

 

 

 

Had a quick play with using a rose joint for the top mount….

 

 

Settled on just cutting down the existing…..

 

 

 

Works for me.

 

 

 

Time to see if Rigamortice’s horns have any life left in them.

 

 

 

I pulled the covers off and the insides looked a lot better than expected.

 

 

I dressed up the contacts with 2500 sandpaper

 

 

 

…..hooked them up to the battery… holey sh**, I’d forgotten how loud they were!

 

 

I added “much flashness” with a bit of polishing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

love the heads on some of these old bolts.

 

 

 

Made up a bracket……

 

 

 

Trimmed it down a bit…..

 

 

 

Painted it with the now famous “insipid green”

And I’m happy with the horny looking result.

 

 

 

Having been born with short arms and deep pockets I’ve always tried to do as many jobs as I can myself, rather than buying of the shelf items or paying someone else to do it.

Up until recently I’ve always made up my own starter cables by soldering the lugs on as oppose to crimping. Of late I’ve come to the conclusion that that the capillary action of the solder can make it harder for the lead to bend close the lug making it more prone to failure. Not having the correct crimping tool and being too tight to buy one may I present….

Starter Cable Crimping for Tight Bastards 101

 

Find a nut slightly smaller than the terminal and cut it in half.

 

 

 

Strip the wire….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tape the two half nuts around the terminal….

 

 

 

 

Slide the exposed wire back into the terminal and squeeze the living daylights out of it in an old vice to crimp.

 

 

 

 

I than give it an additional tap with a punch (optional)...

 

 

 

And then two layers of heat shrink with glue lining….

 

 

 

 

Yes it is thirsty work......

 

 

 

 

Made up a bunch of them…(Hick!).

 

 

 

 

And fitted them up to the old girl.

 

 

 

 

In the interest of being kind to 70 year old switchgear I decided I’d use the original firewall mounted starter switch to power up the starter relay rather than the starter itself.

 

 

 

This end poked through the firewall

 

 

 

 

 

While this end poked through the dashboard with the remnants of a starter button on it.

 

 

 

I needed to make a suitable replacement so I bought a 20mm bolt and bored a hole through the middle…

 

 

 

Turned most of the head off…

 

 

 

 

And ended up with a “one of these”…….

 

 

 

 

Cut off a bit of round ally stock…

 

 

 

 

Turned it down a bit and drilled and tapped one end…

 

 

 

 

Hit it with some emery tape until the “one of these” was a nice sliding fit.

 

 

 

 

I then flipped it around and made it into an old-school push button.

 

 

 

Started with this…

 

 

 

 

And ended with this….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks the part to me & as an added bonus it even works!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thought I’d have a play with some body work for a change.

Dug these two out of the parts shed…

 

 

Started scraping….

 

 

 

Did a little hammer and dolly stuff…

 

 

 

Then some underseal…

 

 

 

Bit of a mission getting things to fit….

 

 

 

 

 

Had to massage the front of the guard for clearance…

 

 

 

Happy with the result.

 

 

 

Time to finish painting the floor with the famous “insipid green”…

 

 

 

 

 

2 coats and I’m over painting.

 

 

 Time for the accelerator linkage. I’m keeping it oldschool; no cables, just linkage all the way.

I started with Rigamortice’s original, rusty pedal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A wee dip in the rust electrolysis bath.

 

 

 

 

 

Same thing for my collection of original levers and pivot blocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing detail on some of the bolt heads - just love reusing old shit.

 

 

 

Bought some small ball joints on Ebay.

 

 

 

 

Had a go at making up a replacement for the pushrod from the pedal to the cross shaft that goes behind the motor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discovered there wasn’t enough clearance for the pedal linkage with the ball joints so I reused the original… had to do a bit of repair work.

 

 

 

 

 

Mounted the pedal with the old push rod….

 

 

 

 

Connected it up to the horizontal cross shaft on the other side of the firewall.

 

 

 

Needed a shaft to run (via a 2nd pushrod) from the cross shaft to the carb spindle. I’m re-using 70 year old steel just because I can!

 

 

Couldn’t fit the rod in my lathe, (the bent end was just longer than my 20mm spindle bore) so I hacked the end off….

 

 

 

Turned it down to fit an old rose joint I had lying around…..

 

 

 

 

And welded it back together again.

 

 

 

I needed a lever to link to the 2^nd pushrod so I fired up the mill.

 

 

 

 

And ended up with this.

 

 

 

Made up a temporary bracket to check it all worked and it was that smooth that it was returning with only the small coil spring on the carb spindle. (Sometimes you just get lucky).

 

 

 

Started cutting up a piece of angle to make a bracket. My system is to go chunky, make it work and then remove material to hopefully give it that sexy made for purpose look.

 

 

 

 

Trimmed it right down and gave it a lick of insipid green.

Very sexy….(yes I know I need to get a life!).

 

 

 

Needed a 2^nd return spring so I knocked up a rocker cover washer (original on the right, new on the left)…..

 

 

 

And used it as a spring mount.

 

 

 

Rigamortice has now officially got a loud pedal that works!

One very time consuming and fiddly job ticked off the list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bent up a 5/16” pipe to go over the motor from the pump to the carb.

 

 

I need a fitting to go from a 5/16” copper ferrule to a 5/16” tailpiece to fit the flexible fuel hose to the Weber carb.

I found an old brass fitting and turned one end into a tailpiece.

 

 

I love how old brass fittings clean up so willingly on the wire buff.

 

 

Very happy with the result.

 

 

Made up a pipe for the vacuum advance using leftover 3/16” copper-nickel brake line.

 

 

 

Installed the new plumbing using Oetiker clamps on the hoses.  Yes they are single use only but they’re neat and tidy and easy to use.

I installed the vacuum line to the booster at the same time…..

 

 

 

I installed an additional in-line check valve to the booster to play it safe, those early Falcon Tandem Mastervac’s have  a bakerlite valve body’s that self-destruct with a good backfire through the carby!

 

 

All looking good to me - must be Wild Turkey time!