Flash

While the carby hat beautification project is steadily taking place in the background I thought I'd share the next item on the "to do" list with you.

So, as I've mentioned before due to limited real estate in my engine box I'm only able to bless the mighty 3Y engine with one belt driven ancillary and at the moment that is the Mitsi Express belt driven power steering pump. However, the intention is to flick on our modern Bongo van and substitute the Thames as our everyday driver, and before this can happen, I need to fit a/c to the Thames. Now as I've mentioned before my initial plan was to run a 12-volt a/c compressor, but in talking to my local a/c guru I soon realised that whilst these little 21cc compressors work fine in compact hot rods they ain't going to cut the mustard in a relatively spacious Thames van. This leaves me with only one option being a beefy belt driven compressor, so the belt driven power steering pump needs to go.

My first thought was to convert back to manual steering which I posted about a few weeks back and to be honest it absolutely sucked. I then turned to the OS tech forum for some guidance and those in the know suggested I look for a Holden Astra electric power steering pump as these would be relatively plentiful here in Straya.

So, armed with a downloaded photo of an Astra TS which is the model required I headed over to my local wreckers. Turns out they had only one TS in stock and so I moseyed on over for a quick gander. The car looked absolutely mint. No accident damage and all that was missing was the front grill and exhaust manifold. Winner, I thought and proceeded to remove the pump which is a bitch of a job as those who have done this before will confirm. Anyway, the last step in the process was to cut the hydraulic lines and this is where things got interesting. Cutting into the pressure line resulted in not a drop of fluid leaking out. Hullo, I thought. Got it out into the sunlight and the reservoir was dry as a bone. Checked under the car and sure enough the steering rack and associated kit was still all intact. So how come this thing has no fluid I wondered. Anyway at $150 asking price and no guarantee as its classed as an electrical component I decided to walk away. Back at base camp I searched the web for another but prices for second hand units in the bigger towns over here run in the $200 plus figures. Eventually I decided to take the plunge on a new aftermarket unit which costs about double the going rate for a second hand one but comes with a 3-year replacement warranty.

And then a few days later a friendly courier dropped this off:

First thing I noticed was this funky looking electrical plug which I couldn't identify. I toyed with the idea of cutting off the plug, but the seller confirmed that this was likely to void the warranty. So I reached out to OS with a photo of the plug and luckily @tortron came to the rescue with a link to one which is now making its way from the other side of the world.

While I'm waiting for the plug, I started poking around the van to figure out a suitable location for the pump. I was going to tuck it under the driver's side front fender, but the issue is access to the incorporated fluid reservoir for top ups, so I then focused on the back corner of the engine box where my existing Mitsi Express fluid reservoir is mounted. Pulled it out to clear some space and yep, this looks like it will work perfectly:

 Next step was to trim the redundant mounting tabs off the Astra mounting bracket:

I'm just waiting for the touch up paint to dry and I can then puzzle out some kind of angled bracket to attach the Astra bracket to the rear wall of my engine box.

Thanks for looking.

So, the plan with the new carby hat was to use the original chrome cover that came in the kit I bought. I was going to use 4 small sections of threaded rod screwed in to the carby flange that normally takes 4 short bolts to hold the filter base down. First step was to poke 4 holes in the lid and it all worked out okay on the test bench, but when I tried to fit it to the Thames ... instant fail. There just wasn't enough headroom to get the lip on the lid past the sides on my newly fabricated housing. Just shows you how space poor I am.

I then thought about slicing off the lip on the short side in order to squeeze the top through the gap, but then realised that even if I did that there is no way that I was going to be able to get a hold down nut on the two threaded rods sitting under the floor. Bugger.

After a bit of head scratching I came up with an alternate plan for the lid. First step was to carve a flat lid with a little tab out of some flat plate and I then carved up an offcut to make a little hold down bracket that I spot welded to the side of the base. Looks like so:

The new lid slides between the sides of the base and the cab floor with about 7mm of gap. The two threaded rods closest to the rocker cover are well out of the way of the cab floor so I'm able to firmly bolt that end of the top down onto the rest of the housing.

Not the prettiest looking thing but it is functional.

Plan for tomorrow is to put a bit of lipstick on this pig, but for now here is a money shot of the thing actually in its final home:

I've finally given up on my fibreglass carby hat. With the limited headroom that I have, I just couldn't get a low enough profile on my creation. Sad, I know, but such is life sometimes.

Anyway, inspired by some photos that @yoeddynz shared of a carby hat that he fabricated for one of his customers, I thought I'd have a go at creating one out of metal.

I followed Alex's recipe by slicing up the original HiAce hat. Since I'm not blessed with the carby headroom that a HiAce has I've had to create my hat in two sections that I'm able to slide in on either side of the choke tubes.

Made some hoops out of flat plate which I then welded onto each half of a freshly fabricated base plate. Next step was to weld the remnants of the HiAce snorkle onto my creation. The HiAce steel is bloody thin and even with my cheapy welder on its lowest setting it was still blowing holes, so I had to resort to some dodgy spot welding. Not the prettiest thing you have ever seen, but it is strong and even if my flapper disk doesn't improve things I can live with it. At the end of the day most of it will remain hidden under the chrome top cover that I've pinched from the performance air filter.

More planned for tomorrow, but in the meantime, here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure.

Having a bit of a cruisy day today.

Earlier in the week I was giving my mate Grant a hand to fit a solar setup to his camper van and to say thanks he gave me a metal surround for the Cortina MK1 gearshift boot that he gifted me a while back. It was pretty crusty, but after spending three days in a vinegar bath it has come up pretty good. You can even make out the little "Enfo" factory stamp on the face.

Gave it a spritz of satin black and then bolted it up. I'm bloody chuffed as it finishes the surround off nicely.

I'm lucky to have such a generous mate.

And this is hopefully the last time that I will mention the front stabiliser bar as by now I'm sure that you are as sick of the subject as I am ..... LOL.

I'm looking forward to working on something else for a change.

Front stabiliser bar - Chapter 10

And that's the rest of the fabrication work done on the front stabiliser bar. Tomorrow morning I'll drop it back onto its wheels and take it for a spin around my test track.

If all goes well, I'll strip it all out and give it a lick of paint. Some fresh rubbers wouldn't go amiss either.

Soz for the quality of the photos.

Front stabiliser bar - Chapter 7

Spent the morning serenading the neighbours with the dulcet tones of my angle grinder and I now have the six main components of the stabiliser bar bracketry in various states of completion.

More holes to poke tomorrow and once that is done, I can then fizz them together.

Front stabiliser bar - Chapter 4

The next option that I tried is the original Thames stabiliser bar, but unfortunately it is a lot narrower than the new front suspension, so I immediately discounted it as an option.

The last bar that I have in my parts pile is one that I harvested from my HiAce donor van.

Wrestled that one into position and it's shape looks really promising.

I was able to mount it further forward on the chassis legs so it's well out of the way of my brake components and the radiator. There are some convenient holes already in the chassis legs so I was able to temporarily bolt it into position.

It tucks up onto the chassis rather nicely, but I'll need to move it slightly further forward as the vertical drop pieces are a bit too close for comfort to my steering rack ends. At first glance this shouldn't be an issue as all that will be required are longer mounting brackets for the lower control arms. These should be fairly straight forward to fabricate, so this option is looking pretty promising.

Lunch and other activities stopped play, but I'll carry on with this again tomorrow.

Thanks for looking.

Last night I gave my distributor dilemma a bit more thought. Based on my latest experience I'm a bit gun shy when it comes to acquiring another aftermarket jobbie even if I do purchase it from a reputable source.

Then I remembered that I still have the crusty old Toyota one that I originally replaced. So, first thing this morning I scratched through my discarded parts bin and found it languishing near the bottom of the pile. Looks crusty as, but I figured I'd take a punt on getting it to work.

Spent a few minutes stripping the points, condenser, associated wiring and vacuum advancer over from the broken chinesium to ol' crusty, chucked it back on the mighty 3Y and she fired right up. Winner.

I definitely trust the old Toyota one more than another aftermarket job, so ol' crusty is going to stay. I might ditch the points in favour of one of those ignitor conversions, but let's give it a bit of time to make sure things are working as is.

Celebrated by refitting the power steering rack and associated kit and all is good in the world again.