igor

You must be an absolute wizard at rust work. You've done bloody well to save that thing.

@danger?

SU carbs are brilliant because they are so simple. In 36 years of BMC ownership the only issue I've had with them is the piston getting stuck either fully or partly down resulting in not starting in the former case and only running slowly in the latter. Loving the way this project just keeps developing by the way.

I had the misfortune to drive a colleague's automatic Bighorn from somewhere north of Bulls to Tauranga one night. It was a truly horrid car. The automatic kept changing gears at inappropriate times. Being raised a bit on huge mud tyres probably didn't help in that respect.

Finally got the pedal box out of the parts car today. Got the column out last weekend with some most appreciated help and advice from @smokin'joe. We ended up leaving the linkages to the trans all connected and removing the shaft from the shift lever up by the steering wheel. One bolt. Like many things it became obvious with another pair of eyes looking at it. I'm getting my wof guy to do the swap into the good car cos it was super cunty getting it out and I broke some stuff. @kiwiplymouth, I've been there with those horrible pins. The first time I took the motor and gearbox out of a rod change Mini back in the '80s. Had no idea what it was and ended up cutting the socket with a grinder.

Are paper gaskets alone providing an insufficient seal?

This was standard starting practice for our MF135 back in the day. Any random piece of steel to bypass the shagged starter solenoid. Used my sheath knife once cos I had nothing else handy and blew a big gap out of the edge. Not thinking very hard that day.

Anyone? There must be a relatively simple way to take these things apart surely.

Sure does. That's like 177 mpg. I used to get 115 mpg (2.5ish l/100 km) out of a CG125 and thought that was pretty good. I'd love to be able to participate in events like this. Have to get my fun by reading the stories of others' exploits unfortunately.

It is exactly this that dampens my enthusiasm also. Much as I would love to meet up with you all my budget does not permit it.

A while ago now I broke the pedal box in my manual EA coon. My wof guy welded it up to get me mobile but he reckons it will break again. He also reckons automatic pedal boxes are the same and that they just have a longer rod to hold the extra pedal. Today I started removing the column from the automatic parts car I have here in order to be able to remove the pedal box. Everything came undone easily except for the column change linkages. I can't see how to disconnect the linkage anywhere between the column and the trans without cutting or breaking something. There must be a way to do this. What am I not seeing here? Thanks in advance for any and all helpful advice.

How far South are you coming? I've been following this for a while and I'd love to see it.

You didn't go over Finlayson Road from Waihola and up the coast road to get to Dane's place did you? That road's questionable even with a small trailer.

Is that cos modern lead free shit?

Agnetha, love it.