Flash

Excuse this basic question but I'm a total newbie when it comes to anything Toyota related. For my current project I need to source a 5 speed column shift manual gearbox. Uncle Google says that the third generation Toyota Hiace vans came equipped with such an option. I've found a 1987 Toyota Hiace column shift 5 speed equipped van that is up for sale but it is running a diesel engine (a L14 I think ... hope this makes sense). I would rather replace this with a petrol engine. So knowing absolutely nothing about Toyota I am wondering what petrol engine would bolt up directly to this gearbox. First prize would be something around 2 litres, SOHC and if it was fuel injected that would be even better. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Hi Damo, Nice van! I don't know much about the Commer vans, so apologies for the basic question, but is the standard setup a floor or column shifter?

There is no such thing as having too many vans .....

Guess you caught a glimpse of the van on Westside last night Denham. Our 30 seconds of fame.

Cheers for that. The only thing about keeping these old girls on the road is that there is always something that needs doing. I really should get inspired to update my build thread.

Good to see another Bedford. I'm looking forward to watching your build progress.

I reckon Kiwibirdman is on the right track. I suffered the same issue with my van. Eventually rerouted the tail pipe to come out at the side with a slight kick down end that points the gases towards the road. Problem solved for me.

Got my van certed for self containment today, specially for the Hop. Took the van there last year. The evenings are definitely the best with the live bands and lots of cruising.

I had the rust work on my van done by The Rust Guy. Barry is his name and he does have a website. I would highly recommend his workmanship.

Jeez Neal, how many vehicles in your fleet does that make? Its a good looking wag tho.

A bit of useless information - I had a similar issue with a Ford V6 a good few years back that was running standard points setup. Turned out to be a dodgy condenser. I'm guessing the Lumenition system has done away with the condenser, so it can't be that.

It looks to be in really great condition body wise. I'm looking forward to hearing how your engine upgrade pans out.

Hey Neal, awesome to see another van that is still sporting the original side panels. Can't wait to see it in the flesh.

Yea, more story please

Then fixed the new ball joint seat into position. The arm end was then reinforced. Cert requirement was for TIG welding and crack testing.

After a quick test fit of the new ball joint seat we cut off and shortened the end portion of the arm.

Back home we put together a list of things to tackle over the winter. Top of the list was to slap in some low as the van had a bit of an agricultural look going with the big fat gaps between the fenders and the low profile tyres. The tricky thing with these vans is that they have no camber adjustment on the front suspension and came preset from the factory with positive one degree camber. The easiest way to lower them is to cut the front springs or get shorter springs fabricated but if you take too much you start to suffer with tyre wear issues. After doing some research I tracked down a company in Aus called Stubtech who still have a few sets of dropped spindles for the Bedford. These spindles give you a 3 inch drop whilst retaining the original suspension geometry. The conversion sounded pretty straight forward so I bit the bullet and ordered a set. The parcel duly arrived with all of the paperwork needed for certification but in terms of fitting instructions there was only a dodgy photocopy of a set of hand written notes. First step is to cut out the original Bedford ball joint seat from the lower suspension arm and replace it with the supplied plate that takes a Holden HQ ball joint. To make matters more tricky the new ball joint seat needs to be moved further in on the arm in order to retain the correct geometry. The measurements provided were pretty vague, but I had a spare set of lower arms, so decided to plunge straight in.

So I quickly chucked in a set of 10 inch electric fans with a Davies Craig thermo fan switch before we headed off on an epic 4,800km journey around the South Island over Easter. Again the van performed really well with only one nervous moment when a loose fuel pump wire caused the van to grind to a halt as we were heading down the ramp off the ferry in Picton. A few pics of the van taken during our South Island trip.

We managed to get the van relatively complete and back on the road in time for a trip down to Beach Hop 2014. The van ran really well apart from some nervous moments when the water temp gauge started creeping up in bumper to bumper traffic. So a change from a single mechanical fan to twin electric fans was added to the "To do" list.

With the carpeting completed and the seats back in I made a crappy looking temporary cover for the Hurst Promatic 2 shifter that I had pulled from the donor van. I hate these shifters with a passion, so the plan was to swap it out for something more user friendly at a later stage. Note the small baking tray fitted to the new engine cover. It was much easier than trying to fabricate a tray. Apart from allowing easy access to check oil and transmission fluid levels without having to pull out the whole engine box, it also serves as a handy place to store mobile phones, keys and wallets so they don't slide about the place. I wanted to keep the original dashboard and instrument cluster, but was keen to fit some additional gauges. I managed to track down a NOS Jaeger 3 gauge pod in Crete of all places and sourced some older style Smiths lookalikes locally. They look the part but are about a third of the price of Smiths.

Lucas ? Surely you aren't referring to Lord Lucas the Prince of Darkness ? My van is blessed with many fine examples of his handiwork including a fuel gauge that hops around in time to the flasher unit pulse when I turn my indicators on. No amount of re-earthing seems to solve this. I think fondly of him every time a turn a corner.

That's them Bryan. I read an article in a magazine a good few years ago about two brothers who each bought a Can Am brand new and still owned them. The cars were absolutely original and they were getting offered big cash to part with them from an Aussie collector. Both brothers were in their late 50s or early 60s at that stage. I wonder what became of those cars.

That Aussie one looks the business. The front reminds me a bit of the Firenza Can Ams that we had back in Africa. They were GM's answer to the Ford Capri Peranas that were also a South African developed car. Sadly most of those Can Ams are long gone now.

Hey Bryan, it was really good chatting to you last night. We are looking forward to catching up with you again next month. Hopefully we get to see the Marina in the flesh pretty soon too. If you aren't doing anything next Sunday please come along to Caffeine & Classics at Smales Farm. That will really inspire you.

Jeez, I paid less than that for a brand new 350 crate engine including all of the bolt on bits and pieces. I'm glad you got sorted with a replacement unit.