Flash

Thanks fellas, I'm pretty chuffed with the new look.

Mama's got some new shoes !

And we are back on the road. New wheels must be taking the scenic route from Perth as it's been two weeks since we ordered them. Hopefully this is the last photo of the Thames with his old shoes on.

First thing this morning I slapped in my new thermostat and water neck gasket and filled the system up with sky juice. Over the course of the morning, I put the system through a series of heat cycles and so far no signs of any further leaks. It's nice to see a dry patch under the van for a change. I'll leave the water in the system for a few more days and if I'm still leak free, I'll drain and then refill with coolant.

As mentioned in my last cooling system related update, my water neck seal had hardened and was really brittle so a replacement was needed, and I figured I may as well source a new thermostat while I was at it. Reading up on the Toyota van technical forum that @tortronintroduced me to there is a really good thread that talks about the thermostats used on the early HiAce vans and the fact that they are mounted horizontally rather than vertically. For this reason the writer of the article highly recommends sourcing a genuine thermostat from a Toyota dealership. I'm not totally convinced, but figured it was worth doing for extra peace of mind. Yesterday I headed into town for supplies and dropped in at my local Toyota dealership. My first visit there and I've got to say I was suitably impressed. Ordered a new thermostat and water neck seal which they sourced from Brisbane for me. Arrived overnight and the price was comparable to the stuff stocked by my local supercrap. Comparing the Toyota thermostat to the aftermarket one that was fitted to my engine, there are noticeable differences in the design, so there may well be an element of truth to the claims made on the Toyota forum. Anyway, I'll chuck them in tomorrow morning and hopefully I'm one step closer to a leak free cooling system.

Well, I'm not exactly proud of today's hackery, but I thought I'd share it with my old school mates anyway as I guess we have all been reduced to taking short cuts at some stage. So, the long-term plan is to replace the knackered Aisin carby with either a new repro or possibly upgrading to a 32/36 Weber. I'm leaning towards the Weber as it isn't blessed with the electrically operated shut off valve and coil activated little computer control as well as the million and one emission related vacuum outlets that the Aisin has. Keep it simple I say. Anyway, I've sent an email to the Weber supplier asking them to confirm the overall height of the 32/36 together with its adapter plate as I'm headroom poor in the engine box. My existing Aisin with the factory snorkel just clears the cab floor. Fingers crossed that the Weber dimensions will work, but in the meantime I need to keep the Aisin limping along. During the start-up and initial test drive I could tell that it was running rich and I knew that this was likely due to a combination of the automatic choke and the shut off vavle that I hadn't wired up. So today I tested the choke with some temporary wiring and it's not functioning. Pulled the carby off to take a closer look at the choke and there are definite signs that it has taken a knock somewhere along the line as the choke housing has a chunk missing. No need for chokes here in the tropics and I'd rather not waste valuable time on something that is likely to be binned in the next few weeks, so I've just removed the choke coil thing for now and have cable tied the choke open. Time will tell if it's improved things or not. Easy enough just to remove the cable tie if not.

I'm going to leave the thermostat housing off until I can source a new o ring on my next trip into town, so moved on to the next snag item being the brake pedal adjustment. As previously mentioned, the brakes performed really well during my test drive, but the pedal travel was a bit more than I felt comfortable with. First thing I did was to double check the adjustment on the rear brake shoes, but they were spot on. I then pulled the master cylinder actuating rod out. It's a custom fabricated job to mate the Nissan master cylinder to the Thames brake pedal, but luckily, I got the threaded end made a bit longer than the original Thames one, so I was able to wind it out another 5mm. Slapped it back in and the pedal feels bloody good now. And that's another item ticked off the list.

Coolant leak - Chapter 3 Well, it looks like some good "old schoolers" have come through for me again. And that's why even though I am a team of one out here in the sticks, I know that I have the support of the old school community who willingly provide valuable advice and guidance whenever needed. So, a big shout out to @tortron and @Raizer for suggesting that the rusty bolt that I highlighted in yesterday's post might well be a "wet" one and the cause of my leak. Thanks fullas! Armed with this advice I headed under the Thames once again this morning to focus on that bolt. Sure enough the thing wasn't all that tight. Pulled it out to see if I could see any signs of wetness on the threads. Not that easy to see since it has a good deal of water around it for the last week or two, but then I remembered the mock up engine languishing in a corner of the shed, so I moseyed on over and pulled the same bolt out. The spare engine has been dry for a good few years and although it's difficult to tell just by looking at the photos below, but there are definite signs that the bolt hole has been wet at some stage. So, I reckon Tori and Raizer are spot on the money. The bolt from my working engine looks a bit manky, so I'm going to replace it with the one from my spare engine. I'll chuck a bit of thread tape on it just for a bit of added insurance. I was intrigued by the photo in Tori's post which led me to the Toyota van tech forum - something that up to now I didn't know existed. Checked out a few thermostat related posts on that site and it turns out that the housing doesn't use a conventional gasket, but rather a rubber o ring type gasket that fits around the edge of the thermostat. Might pay me to see if I can source a new gasket next time I am in town.

Thanks for the suggestion @torton and @Raizer I'll check it out.

Coolant leak - Chapter 2 After fitting the new Mini ignition switch, I fired up the old Thames and let it idle for a few minutes. Tidied away a few tools and then took a peek under the van and lo and behold I was greeted with a steadily growing puddle of water. Bugger. Grovelled around under the van and although it's not that easy to see past the alternator, I now suspect that the source of the drip is the thermostat housing itself, so I've pulled that off. With the alternator swung out of the way and peeking into the engine box from the wheel arch I can see definite signs of rust on the head of the bolt below the housing so I'm taking that as evidence that I'm on the right track. Even although the existing gasket is new, I fitted it dry, so tomorrow I'll make up a new gasket and will add some sealant this time around. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode.

Coolant leak - Chapter 1 I've been working on the coolant leak in tandem with my wiring efforts. I was getting a steady drip running down the left-hand side front corner of the engine. My first thought was that it might be coming from the joint where the lower radiator hose meets the trimmed down thermostat neck. The thermostat neck is cone shaped and the hose is rather stubby so I figured that I may have positioned the clamp too far up the hose. As a "proof of concept" I chucked a second hose clamp on further down the neck, filled the system with water and placed a bit of kitchen paper under the joint. Let is sit for 48 hours and not one drop. Thought I'd solved it.

Electrical gremlins - Chapter 2 Whilst I am extending wiring to replace the starter button with a conventional ignition switch, I figured I may as well relocate the battery at the same time. Sometime in the future I plan to build a rock 'n' roll bed just behind the front seats. It will have a little padded shelf facing the front of the van for our wee dug and a rear facing sofa type seat so we can enjoy roadside smokos in relative comfort. The base of the sofa will double as a storage box running the width of the van and will be a handy place for the jack, wheel brace and emergency tool roll as well as space for a house battery. The sofa and dog box will fold down to create a queen size bed for lush overnighters. It's kinda all planned out in my head at the moment. Anyway, the factory battery position behind the driver's seat will clash with this plan, so I decided to drop it down onto the rear cargo floor so that it will also live in the storage box once this is built. Drilled a few holes for the battery leads, chucked in a few rubber grommets and its basically done. I'll work out what I'm going to do from a battery hold down perspective as part of the storage box build.

Electrical gremlins - Chapter 1 Next items on the snag list to address are a few electrical issues. Now I've never been a fan of the factory fitted starter button. For one thing it's tucked away in an awkward place and I keep forgetting to turn the key on before hitting the button. Doh So, in a way I'm glad that the thing is stuffed as it forces me to make a change. I previously mentioned that I was planning to replace the key switch with a proper ignition switch from a Mini MK2. The new switch arrived earlier this week, so I thought I'd get it fitted today. Started off by pulling out the offending starter button. Ford in their wisdom have used one of the terminals on the switch as a common point for the main power feed with a loop wire up to the positive terminal on the battery. This means that I need to extend the main wire to reach the battery as well as extending the thicker wire that runs to the starter motor. Rummaged around the wiring left over from my donor vans and found a long enough heavy gauge wire for the starter motor. Winner. That's now cleaned up and fitted. Tomorrow I'll break out the old soldering iron and extend the rest of the wires. Thanks for reading.

Had a few minutes spare yesterday so thought I'd best fill the gearbox with oil before I forget. Remembered that I needed to fit the little speedo drive while I was under the van. And that is where the fun began. Pushed and shoved and fiddled about but the little speedo drive just wouldn't slip into the hole. Headed over to the original gearbox that is languishing in the naughty corner and the drive slipped straight in. WTF. Back under the Thames with a little lube but still no luck. Eventually pulled off the inner shaft with the attached nylon gear and then offered the housing up to the hole. Slipped in perfectly. And it's at that point that I started to smell a bit of a rat. So, after lunch with the speedo drive in hand I headed over to Grant's place and grovelled around in the back of his HiAce where I had stashed the 1RZ bellhousing, clutch fork and electronic speedo drive that I had removed during the big swap over. And ... bugger me, the nylon gear on the electronic drive is way smaller. Pulled the little circlips that hold the shafts into each housing and sat the two side by side. Shaft on the electronic drive is shorter. Back home I chucked the shorter electronic shaft into the housing and offered up my speedo cable. Luckily the cable still engages even although the shaft is shorter. Offered the drive up to the gearbox and it slipped in like a charm. Not sure what the smaller gear is going to do in terms of speedo accuracy, but I'm probably going to need one of those calibration boxes to match the Thames speedo to the gearbox anyway, so it's not a big deal.

Well, looks like I have solved the brake fluid leak. No drips in the past 24 hours. Gave the brakes a few good pushes this morning and it's still dry as a bone, so I'll tick that of the snag list.

Brake fluid leak - Chapter 3 With the reservoir outlet ruled out as the cause of the leak, I turned my attention to the joints on the adapter and the barbed fitting. There is no pressure at this point in the system, so it's just a case of the fluid leaking under gravity. Bizarre I know, but there you go. Checked out the mating surfaces on each of the joints and they all look to match and are in brand new condition. I'm using PTFE pipe to feed the master cylinder, so I'm assuming that PTFE pipe tape would be brake fluid friendly as well. So chucked a bit of tape on each of the threads and gave the joints a good cranking. I've put everything back together and filled up the reservoir. I've placed another piece of kitchen paper under the joints and will leave things as is for the next 24 hours. Fingers crossed that I've solved the leak. Thanks for reading.

Brake fluid leak - Chapter 2 In terms of the source of the leak there are three possibilities: Firstly, the outlet nipple is crimped into the bottom of the reservoir with a little washer providing a seal. These washers have been known to fail if allowed to dry out. The next possibility is a leak from the adapter that goes between the outlet nipple and the barbed fitting that takes the hose. The third possibility is a leak on the barbed fitting where it screws into the adapter. I've ruled out the leak being on the rubber hose joint for now. Looking at the image in my previous posting you will notice that the reservoir has two outlets, one of which has been blanked off. The reason for this is that in factory mode with a single circuit brake setup the reservoir services both the brake circuit as well as the hydraulic clutch. Since I'm using two reservoirs on my dual circuit brake set-up, I'm feeding the rear brake circuit and clutch off the other reservoir and have just blanked off the clutch outlet on this one. To rule out the issue being with the crimped nipple I removed the reservoir from the van and clamped it to my dodgy work bench. I then moved the blanking off fitting from the clutch outlet to the brake outlet and then filled up the brake portion of the reservoir with brake fluid. Put a bit of kitchen paper under the reservoir to make it easier for my poor old eyes to spot any drips. Left everything for 24 hours. Checked it this morning and no leaks from the outlet. Phew, that is a relief.

Brake fluid leak - Chapter 1 I'm steadily working my way through the post drive snag list. With the gearbox and tyre rubbing issues hopefully behind me, the next priority item on the list is resolving the leak on the brake fluid reservoir that feeds the front brake circuit. Having a good look at the reservoir the fluid seems to be seeping from somewhere on the joint circled in red in the photo below:

Thanks for the link to your build @Tiger Tamer I'll have a good nosey.

Thanks for the feedback regarding the wheels @Tiger Tamer. Superlights are a really good choice too. I've been toying with putting a set on Mrs Flash's Mini Moke for a while now. I hadn't thought of using shadow chrome, so thanks for the tip. You haven't perhaps got a build thread on your Tiger have you? I've always had a soft spot for them and would love to read up about yours. I came close to owning one about 20 years ago, but it was in the centre of a rather messy divorce and I ended up backing out. At the time Norm Miller in the USA was the custodian of the Tiger Register and I swapped a few emails with him checking on the pedigree of the one I was interested in.

Wheels - Chapter 8 This morning I headed back into town to drop of the loan tyre with Blake my tyre guy. While I was there, we also locked in the final tyre order to go with my new wheels. Rear rubber will be 225/50/15 on an 8J rim. I also put on my big boy pants and ordered 175/60/15's for the front. Reason for this is that most manufacturers seem to have discontinued making 165/65/15's and I didn't want to limit myself in terms of rubber choice. Based on yesterday's test fit the 175 is going to be tight, but hey, it's done now, so no turning back. Oh, and in my last post I promised an update on the wheel situation. As you all know I had my heart set on a set of American Racing Torq Thrust 2s in either 14 or 15 inch diameter. In terms of the rears, it turns out they no longer make an 8J x 14 and the 8J x 15s were only available in a limited choice of finish. It would have broken my heart to fit 7Js on the rear, so 8Js it had to be. The fronts were an absolute nightmare too with all 4J, 4.5J, 5J and some of the 6Js all on back order with a minimum of a 26 week lead time. Blake managed to find a pair of 8J x 15s and 6J x 15s in Perth, but they aren't in my preferred finish. My first choice was a polished lip with grey painted centres. The available wheels are either full chrome or a polished lip with polished centres. I'm all for instant gratification, so there is no way I can wait 6 months for a set of wheels. So, in the end I got Blake to pull the trigger on the Perth based polished ones. I'm worried that they may be a bit too blingy, but if I find that to be the case I can always paint the centres. Anyway, here is an image of the wheels which are making their way from Perth as we speak:

Wheels - Chapter 7 First thing this morning I shot through to town to visit Blake the tyre guy. He didn't have a 165/70/14 in stock so we ended up fitting a 175/70/14 to my old Dragway. While I was there I pulled the trigger on a new set of wheels, which I'll talk more about in my next post. Back home I still had the spring and shock out so it was a doddle to fit the test wheel and put the suspension through its paces. The good news is that the 70 profile fills the front guard much better than the 65 profile. The bad news is that the 175 is really close to rubbing, so I'm going to take the chicken's way out and stick to a width of 165. The first two photos show the difference between the two profiles both sitting at current ride height and the third photo shows the van sitting on the higher profile fronts.

Wheels - Chapter 6 All is not lost though: Now that I know that a 165mm wide tyre gives me sufficient clearance, I should be able to fit a 165/70/14 which combined with a little more low, may fill the fender gap enough. The good news is that the 70 profile tyre will comply from a load rating point of view. The other option is to go for a 165/65/15 that also complies from a load rating point of view. In order to compare the look of a 14 inch to 15 inch diameter wheel I quickly pinched one of the 15s off the Mustang. At this moment I'm leaning towards the 15s in terms of looks. The Mustang wheel is an 8J with 225/50/15 rubber and it looks really good on the back. Once I get the rear leaf springs reset, I reckon the 8J would look absolutely perfect on the rears. Pity I can't get 8Js in my wheel choice.

Wheels - Chapter 5 First task this morning was to pull the driver's side front spring and shock so that I could check tyre clearance at full suspension travel. The good news is that the borrowed 165/65/14 clears the bodywork. The first bit of bad news is that it looks absolutely puny with heaps of guard clearance. The second bit of bad news is that the road clearance between the front cross member (the lowest part on the van) and the road with this tyre fitted is currently 120mm so I can't really drop the van enough to lessen the fender gap to something more decent looking without running afoul of the cert rules. The third bit of bad news is that the tyre rating is just below the required load rating for my van, so again something that would prevent cert.

Wheels - Chapter 4 I treated myself to a lighter day in the shed today and played around with some wheels. In terms of my current wheel choice the news hasn't been good. The local importer for American Racing Wheels has confirmed that there are currently no 4, 4.5 or 5J Torq Thrusts in the country. They can be ordered from Merica, but the anticipated lead time is somewhere between 6 months and a year. To add insult to injury 8J wheels in my preferred style have been discontinued. Double bugger! The readily available sizes are 6J and 7J, so with that in mind I turned my attention back to seeing what I could achieve with my 6J wheels - purely as a proof of concept before pulling the trigger on a new set. My 6Js are currently fitted with a set of 185/14 commercial grade tyres which although not specifically marked, appear to be an 80 profile tyre. Apart from sitting proud of the body the current tyres rub on the bodywork. I was chatting to Blake my local wheel and tyre guy earlier in the week and he offered to fit a narrower loan tyre to my wheel for test purposes. So on Friday I headed into town and we fitted a 165/65/14. You can see the difference between old and borrowed in this photo: