Flash

Now "fun me" wanted to crack straight into the a/c hoses, but "serious me" decided that since we are now deep in our rainy season getting the wipers working again should be top priority - not to mention getting the windscreen sealed properly.... but that is another story.

So those of you playing along at home would have likely spotted the shocking condition of my under-dash wiring:

Yep, not pretty at all.

The plan has always been to get all of the additional wiring for the mod cons in and then do a final tidy up, but with just the two a/c related wires left to run there is no time like the present to tackle the rat's nest.

First order of business was to get everything out of the way of the new wiper mechanism, so I scratched around in my parts bin and came up with two little metal brackets that came from one of my donor vans. Gave them a quick clean and a spritz of satin black and they now look like so:

I then grovelled under the dash one more time and managed to poke two more holes in the front panel lip. Threw two self tappers at the brackets and wrapped a bit of spiral bind around the wires and she looks much better now:

Once I've added the two a/c wires into the spiral bind I'll use some cable ties to secure the loom to the holding brackets.

Anyway, with the wiring loom now safely out of reach of the wiper mechanism I was finally able to mount the wiper motor in position.

The last wiper related mechanical step was to shorten the length of this drive shaft to suit the new motor position:

So out came my grinder of angles and I ended up with this pair:

Scratching around in my pipe stash yielded a piece of aluminium tube that slips over each of the cut ends perfectly.

I spent a bit of time fine tuning the length of the aluminium joiner till I got the movement spot on. Gave everything a test run and it works brilliantly. Unlike the Thames mechanism which was quite jerky the L300 setup is silky smooth.

Flushed with success I'm now attempting to get the park function working as up to now I've had to time my switching to get the wipers to stop in the correct position.

The wiring for the park function is currently doing my head in so I've shouted out for help on the General Car Chat page and I've already received some good info from a number of old schoolers. So hopefully I can get this sorted too.

Some more work on the wiring tomorrow and with a bit of luck I can get on to the a/c hoses later in the weekend.

Thanks for looking.

By yesterday morning my freshly painted a/c mounting brackets were dry.

Quickly mounted the under-dash a/c unit for what is hopefully the final time and then set about working out my hose requirements so I can get my order in with Jeremy the a/c man before he closes up for the festive period.

As mentioned in one of my previous updates I was hoping to bring the hoses up into the cabin behind the false panel that covers the wiring loom, but on looking underneath the van a portion of the underside of the floor is made up of a hollow structural brace that I'm loath to drill through. So, the only option is to bring the hose up on the LHS and loop them around to the right behind the unit. I'm thinking I'll replicate the false panel to hide it all.

Anyhoo that has increased the length of the hoses by a good meter each so it's good that I discovered it now. The rest of the pipework looks fairly straight forward although I am a bit worried about the compressor lines as the 90 degree ends that I have ordered may not suffice. But I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

With the hose components all on order, I thought I'd tackle the wiper motor mounting bracket today.

So first up I took a look at the original Starwagon factory mount:

Yeah nah, that helps me "sweet fanny adams", so looks like I'm up for some metal carving.

Started off with a little cardboard aided design and came up with this beauty:

"Why so complex Flash?" I hear you asking.

Well, the driving spindle needs to face the front of the van and the only mounting point that I have available is the lip on the underside of the dashboard located behind the wiper motor, hence this U-shaped monstrosity. 

Next step was to replicate the bracket in something more solid than an old cereal box:

After a bit of the old cutty, cutty, followed by the poking of a few holes and here she is in all her glory:

Had to play around with the angle on the mounting tab to get things to line up properly:

Temporarily clamped it in place. The good news is that it just fits between the fuse box and the glove box opening.

I then offered up the little drive shaft, but it's way too long, so that is going to need a bit of nip and tuck surgery. 

That will probably have to wait for a few days as I've just received notification that my a/c hose components are ready for pickup, so I'll head through to town tomorrow. 

Thanks for looking.

And that's the holes drilled so that my a/c mounting brackets bolt up to the glove box bracket.

I wasn't happy with the puny looking rear mounting bracket that came in the a/c kit.

So, I spent a bit of time making up my own rear bracket in true "Rough & Ready Restos" fashion.

With all of the mounts completed I slapped the glove box bracket back in position and then bolted in the a/c unit.

I'm pretty chuffed with the result. It doesn't look too out of place.

The other good news is that the gas lines are located on the RHS of the unit which means that I can hopefully hide them behind this panel:

The panel currently hides the main wiring loom and a few additional circuits that I have recently added. I whipped it out to see how much space is left behind the panel.

Looks like I should be able to squeeze the a/c pipes in between the wiring loom and the front panel. I've still got a few additional circuits to add (including some a/c related wiring) before I can wrap my extra wiring loom, but hopefully that will neaten things up too.

Thanks for looking.

Next step from a windscreen wiper perspective would be to fabricate a mounting bracket for the L300 wiper motor. Now I'm thinking that I can fine tune the positioning of the motor by either shortening or lengthening this intermediate drive shaft.

And hopefully that shouldn't affect the sweep in any way. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

I figured it would be better to finalise the glove box and under dash a/c unit installation and I can then position the wiper motor in the space left over.

So the first step was to retrieve the dusty old glove box for closer inspection. It's a bit grubby but still looks functional.

The underside of the glove box has a nifty mounting bracket that looks like so:

The pointy end of the triangular bracket mounts up to a little bracket welded to the inside of the front panel with the longer side resting up under the lip on the dashboard, like so:

Now I'm thinking that refitting the glovebox has the added advantage of allowing me to use the same mounting bracket to support the under-dash a/c unit. But in order to do that I need to add some fixings to the dash lip to make the bracket more rigid for the additional weight. I poked two extra holes in the dash lip and added some stainless-steel self-tappers and it's nice and solid now.

Next step was to take a closer look at the mounting brackets supplied with the a/c unit:

Those definitely aren't going to work for me, so I spent a bit of time doing some CAD and came up with these:

Grabbed some 3mm plate that I had in stock. Did a bit of cutting, did a bit of bending, poked a few holes to replicate the mounting slot and I ended up with two of these:

And the plan is to bolt my newly fabricate brackets to the factory glove box bracket in more or less this configuration:

So, the plan for tomorrow is to mount the glove box bracket back in the van and then offer up the a/c unit so I can work out exactly where the holes for my mounting bolts need to go.

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode.

Started the morning off by fitting the freshly painted spacer to the LHS wiper spindle and then bolted the mechanism in place.

Managed to get a clear shot of the factory seam that I was talking about yesterday:

As you can see the factory had already trimmed the seam in the area of the spindles and I'm guessing that was done to provide the needed clearance for the Thames spindles, but just wasn't enough for the L300 ones.

As you can see in the below photos there is still plenty of depth to the spindles even with my extra spacer.

I'm liking the rubber seals and shaped washers that came with the L300 units. If the Thames units ever had rubber seals, they are long gone.

As can be seen the splines and threads are also in perfect nick.

With the spacer in place I chucked one of the L300 wiper arms on and Mrs Flash held the manky old wiper blade slightly off the windscreen while I climbed under the dash and manually manipulated the mechanism. The good news is that the LHS wiper sweep looks to be really good. The angle on the L300 wiper arm looks good, but the L300 blade is too long and goes well over the windscreen seal. Should be easy enough to source shorter wiper blades.

Spurred on with the success so far, I proceeded to make up a spacer for the RHS spindle.

In order to explain why my spacers have the extra little locating holes on either side of the spindle hole I'll share this photo of the original L300 front panel that I kept when I wrecked that van:

My guess is that they prevent the spindle backing plate from rotating by holding it firmly in place.

Anyway, a quick "in progress" shot of the next spacer which has now been completed and has received its first coat of galv paint, so I thought I'd update you all on progress while the paint is drying.

Okay, so whilst a big part of me just wants to concentrate on finishing off the a/c install, I've realised that there are a few dashboard related items that need to be addressed before I fit the under dash a/c unit.

First up you may recall that we deleted the factory glove box and filled the opening with housings for some additional gauges. Photo of what we currently have which while functional looks bloody awful:

A few months of driving around with phones, sunnies, wallets and various other bits and pieces either sliding off the engine cover lid every time we take a corner or languishing in the passenger footwell has become tiring. So, a decision has been taken to reinstate the glove box and move the gauges elsewhere. But more about this later.

The more pressing matter is the current windscreen wiper setup which only really got used in anger two weeks back when we had the first rains in about 6 months. They managed a trip into town, but on the way home they suddenly seized up. Luckily the worst of the rain was over by then, but still this needs to be addressed now as it will be a real bugger to access the wipers once the under dash a/c unit has been mounted.

So, without further ado, I pulled the wiper mechanism out to see what is going on.

Yep, that doesn't look to flash. Now I had noticed a bit of play in the original wiper spindles particularly the passenger side one which I stupidly decided to ignore at the time and it looks to me like the spindle in question snagged up and the resulting torque of the motor did the rest of the damage.

With a bit of effort, I could probably re-bush the units, but the second issue is that the splines have taken some hits over the years and since the wiper arms are just push on units the fit feels a bit dodgy. The answer would be to source a set of pivots in better condition, but what are my chances of finding good ones especially considering the vast majority of used parts would come from the UK where rain is slightly more common an occurrence than here in Straya. So, my chances of finding replacement Thames pivots are probably nil.

The third issue is that the tubby 2 speed wiper motor that I have fitted to replace the original svelte looking vacuum unit now clashes with the glove box inner, so I'll need to modify the inner to clear the motor. The chances of my 60-year-old cardboard glove box inner surviving nip and tuck surgery are slim.

So considering all of the above I've decided to take a different route and it just so happens that I have this mechanism out of a Mitsi SD series L300 van languishing in the shed.

Way back when I was stripping my donor vans, I noticed that the SD series mechanism shared the exact dimensions with the Thames and at the time I did successfully do a test fit of the L300 unit which bolted straight up, but at the time I thought the Thames one was a simpler option as I didn't have to shorten the wiper blade arms. Checking out this mechanism the spindles are mint, just needed a bit of lube to make them perfect.

I bolted it into the van and apart from having to shorten the blade arms and fabricate a bracket for the wiper motor, the only other issue is that the LHS "conrod" hits the metal seam where the windscreen surround butts up to the front panel. Even although the seam is hidden under the dash I don't want to butcher it. Luckily the L300 spindles are a lot longer than the Thames units so my cunning plan is to make up a spacer for each pivot that will space the "conrods" away from the seam.

Not too much of an issue I reckon. so I started off by making up the first spacer out of an offcut:

Poked a few more locating holes and trimmed to suit:

Have given it a splash of galv paint which I've left drying overnight. If the test fit works out okay I'll make up a second one for the driver's side.

Thanks for looking.

First thing this morning I fixed my newly fabricated receiver bottle mounting bracket to the bought one with a few stainless-steel fixings. Screwed in the pressure switch and she is ready to go. 

Grovelled around in the wheel well with a few spanners, and then:

Next on the list is the under-dash unit.

Well, strap yourselves in for an absolutely epic comedy of errors.

Yesterday just after lunch we got a call to say that something that we had ordered was ready for pickup in town. It being a relatively coolish day with a slight breeze we decided to take the Thames rather than the air-conditioned Mustang. So, Mrs Flash, our we dog and I headed off. On the way back from picking up our parcel we were navigating through the back streets of town when the Thames cut out. I managed to coast into a handy parking bay. Lifted the engine lid and checked the glass fuel bowl on the fuel filter - plenty of gas so I knew it wasn't that. Pulled the dizzy cap off and gave her a crank over. Sure enough no spark at the points. Okay I thought it's either a dodgy condenser or coil. Luckily, I was only a block away from the local Toyota aftermarket parts specialist so I figured I was in with a good chance of sourcing a new condenser. And yet .... nyett ... none in stock the bloke says - WTF. "Try Repco around the corner mate" he says.

So off to Repco I go and, yes, they have a condenser in stock .... winner.

Okay, now all I need is a stubby Philips screwdriver and a pair of pliers and I'm home and hosed.

Repco had a stubby so I grabbed that.

But they wanted moonbeams for a set of pliers, so I passed on those. Went back to the Toyota place as I had spotted a pair of pliers on sale there. Grabbed these puppies and headed on back to the van.

So now comes the easy part. Loosen the condenser off the dizzy body with the stubby screwdriver ... tick. Loosen the nut off the dizzy through bolt with the pliers .... tick. Make sure I don't drop the nut and spring washer as I remove them ... tick. 

In my haste I forgot that the outer part of the little plastic isolator is loose once the nut is off, so ..... yes ..... you've guessed it in one .... numpty here manages to drop the little isolator down into the bowels of the engine bay ....... but not just anywhere .... no, no that would have been too easy. It manages to hit the sweet spot right between the a/c compressor bracket and the engine block. Like right down where the red arrow is pointing in the following photo:

Now that bracket has three sides to it so there is no way that you can get to the dropped part except from above. The gap is probably about 15mm wide and about 50mm deep. I could clearly see the part, but do you think I could get to it. To make matters worse the engine is nice and toasty so that just added to my overall feelings of happiness and joy.

Okay so off to Repco I go and I figure a magnetic pickup isn't going to help me as the part is plastic, but maybe one of those claw-like grabbers will work. 

Back to the van with my claw thingy and guess what ....... the thing is too wide to fit in the gap. Jeeez !

Okay, so after a bit of head scratching, I go across the road to one of those small convenience stores and luckily they sell a pack of blu-tac. Back to the van with my blu-tac. Stick it on the end of my new claw thingy. Poke it down into the gap and ........ the end of the thingy where the claw lives is too big to go in the gap and I'm about 30mm short of my target.

Time for Plan B, I think. So what if I plug the gap where the plastic isolator is supposed to go with some blu-tac. Maybe that will stop the wire from earthing on the dizzy body just long enough for us to limp home. Shoved some blu-tac about the place. Closed up the dizzy and gave it a whirl. She fired straight up. Winner!

Started to pull off and she was running like a bag of dicks then she cut out. Obviously my blu-tac band aid wasn't cutting the mustard. By this stage it's dusk and the homeless types are starting to hit the streets and a few start giving us the eye, so Mrs Flash and I call it quits and I give Steve the towie a buzz.

Luckily he wasn't far away and nek minnit ....  

What an undignified end to the day for the poor ol Thames.

Fast forward to this morning and armed with a thin rod and a piece of blu-tac I make quick work of retrieving this puppy:

Who was very chuffed to be re-united with his mate:

Put it all back together and she fired straight up.

So, I'm left wondering whether it is actually the condenser or perhaps my coil is on its way out and is okay now that it has cooled down. Time will tell I guess, but needless to say I've now put together a pack of basic tools that will live in the van together with a few rags and some wet wipes. I've also added a spare dizzy cap and coil to my emergency pack, and I think I'll invest in a spare condenser and maybe some points. Long term plan is to convert to electronic distributor, but hopefully I can keep things going until then.

And so endeth my tale of woe.

Thanks for reading.