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Kiwibirdmans 1962 EJ Holden Wagon


Kiwibirdman

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My mate who has been doing a lot of work with me on the car came round with his Mig welder to start on the exhaust. While the car was still on teh ground I decided that this was as good a time as any to connect up the battery and spin over the engine. No fuel pump so it was never going to start.

After a couple of false starts, not having the main fuse in make the electrics go badly, the engine spun over OK. DId it a second time and heard a funny noise. Next thing smoke started to come out of the general area of the alternator. I whipped the battery cable off and the smoke stopped escaping. Pulled all the power leads off the alternator and every thing looks OK. Suspect the alternator has a short, 

Trying to build up the motivation to start pulling it apart. I'm hoping that I don't have to pull the radiator to get the bolts out. Normally this is a 10 minute job on a Holden motor, not so much in this car.

On the plus side we have a plan for the exhaust and have started chopping bends and welding pipes.

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Alternator got dropped off Friday to the Auto sparkie to get the smoke put back in. 

Spent a few hours working on the exhaust. I have to get the front pipes stretched to fit over the head pipes, no space to put flanges on the join and I want to be able to get the headers out so no welded joints. I will also put flanges on the tail pipes just after the mufflers.  Plan to get the exhaust finished this week, should heave the fuel pump/sender unit back next week then get it started. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got a couple of hours in the garage this afternoon. Alternator back on, battery tray and battery in, some more wiring finished off. Still got some wiring under the dash to finish off, small stuff like connecting the lights from the auxiliary gauges up to the dash lights, plugging the fan for the heater in to the fuse box, connecting the brake light switch........ 

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Got some more time in the garage today. Cleaned up and painted the gear indicator for the column. Also did a bit more wiring, nearly all done. Last one was to play round with the wiper transmission. I need to find a source of bronze bushes to replace a couple of damaged ones Rare spares show reconditioned wiper transmissions, $500 exchange in Australia and they look like they have new bushes in them. I might give Rare spares a call and see if they have them available.

Hopefully the fuel sender/pump will turn up this week and then car will run. So close but still so far.

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Friday last week I ordered some Torana V8 lowered King springs. Tuesday this turned up

image.png.42e264eb961b5ce68c605c1f02fefe30.png

I got motivated tonight to put them in. This is what I started with. The problem wasn't clearance around the tire, I could get full lock bothways with nothing touching, there was only 75mm under the swaybar mounts and the sump for the auto.

image.png.2f3fab09d19eeaceb1b648b78e2bebfa.png

After less than 2 hours we are here

image.png.2e05301b57f6e9794bca0b7b50a47c59.png

Now have 115mm under the sway bar and the car sits almost flat, 190 mm from the sill to the ground at the front and 230mm at the back. I have some full height 185 tires that I might try on the car, had enough tonight to be bother to dig them out and put them on.

The semi sealed beam headlights I ordered Saturday turned up this morning. Another job for the weekend. 

I also chased Robinsons and they are hoping the fuel sender will be done tomorrow. Last thing I need before the big fire up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent most of Sunday working on the car, fuel tank in, fuel inlet sorted out, breather sorted, wiring to the pump and fuel gauge done and made nice. 

Tonight was meant to be the big start up, did lots of little finish of things like put in the O2 sensors, put on the shiny new Supercheap locking fuel cap..........

My mate turned up with his jump pack to help the battery. We connected up the alternator and all the smoke stayed inside.Added the jump pack and turned the key. Fuel pump primed OK. Gave it a few prime and then tried to start. Lots of turning over, no firing. Found my old school timing light and checked there was spark. Spark was OK, and it decided to fire on one cylinder. By this time the starter was smelling a bit over worked.

Gave it a break for 15 mins and tried again, still firing on one. I pulled a couple of plugs and they were dry. Figure it was injectors and pulled the fuel rail. Lots of blocked injectors. Not surprising since the engine has sat for 6 or so years

Tomorrows job, clean the injectors. Anyone have a good idea on cleaning injectors?

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Got the injectors to play ball, the last one decided that it was going to need a beating to get it going. All have had plenty of carb cleaner spay through and the spray patterns look ok. Putting the injectors back in the fuel rail and took a chunk out of one of the O rings. I have to go to Pakuranga tomorrow so will stop off at Seal house and get a fresh set of O rings.

Burger night tomorrow so maybe not getting it back together. I might finish work early and get it together.

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Here is a photo of the H4 Headlights, I'm happy with how they look

image.png.10b3823295be0a83b45190ff3cbd4079.png

I spent ages yesterday getting the front indicators working, the lower panel is a bolt on and all the flash paint acts as a really good insulator. An earth wire to the drivers side lights made the passengers ones go as well. One bulb in the back and I have tail lights and indicators. At the moment the indicators work back to front, indicating left gives right, should be right at home with all people on the north shore who don't have a clue. 

Next thing I learn't today is VT commodore alternators don't work unless there is a warning light connected. Another wiring job is done and we have 14 volts while running. The tiny battery has started the engine at least 7 or 8 times, driven up the road and had the lights on for about half an hour and still been good. 

I also pulled the throttle body to get to the temp sender which is buried under the intake. It isn't reading right according to my cheap Dick Smith multi meter but it doesn't look like it is the problem. After swapping a couple of messages with @vk327 it looks like the tune on the computer is the problem. It wasn't a wasted exercise because I found my water leak, th e little hose from the water pump to the intake was loose and well ready to be replaced.

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The throttle body got a good clean while I had it off

image.png.709bc38e32a5d1aad747a16e1cae4d78.png

 

 

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Here are a couple of photos from last weekend when I put the tank in

Filler tube. It the original extended to meet the tank

image.png.c0f7ddbb52b431bc4a15064830389caa.png

And the breather. The wiring at the top of the photo is the power and fuel sender to the tank. Reusing the original fuel line hole through the body.

image.png.362eb2c9ddc77fa79c753a7f4fe338ba.png

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got some more bits knocked off my list. Clearance created by the oil filter, a few minutes work with a power file did the trick. Wired up the interior light, complete with a flash LED bulb.

image.png.d960e77005d29f26162c34b5fc7eba39.png

Its way brighter than the original type bulb. Still killed a couple of hours by the time I soldered the wires together, fixed my multi meter so I could trouble shoot why it didn't work and finally fix both door switches.

The other job that got done was making some clearance between the brake pads and the hub. I am using Torana stubs with HQ discs and HZ calipers. The discs were turned down 12 mm to fit and it all bolts together. It was a Peter Brock fix back in the day of XU1 Torana's using HQ calipers. I went round to a mates place to use his linisher. Half an hour catching up and bitching about the cold and  useless Politicians, 5 mins on the linisher, then another half hour to sort out the mk1 Escort wiper mother that he was playing with.That all put a dent in the morning. It all went together and plenty of space. The pads had a lip on the bottom edge that went below the friction material, that is gone now so there wont be any probles as the pads wear.

I also figured out during the week that the IAC valve had died. Tried to buy one on Friday with no luck. I'll get one ordered Monday. I have pulled the intake track apart so many times I can just about do it in my sleep. Hopefully this will be the last one for a while.

Last one was buying some flanges and tube to make the balance pipe. I had to go to Pakuranga for work so easy to get to Auto Bend to pick up the bits. The flange will go in the middle so that the exhaust can be split and removed. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

A bunch of stuff done

Cross over pipe made for the exhaust, exhaust painted and fitted. I used pot belly black. The cross over pipe has taken the bark out of the exhaust and dropped the noise but not too much. Sounds like it should.

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New IAC valved fitted. Engine now idles

Number light plate fitted. Here is the little LED I got and bracket made. Much brighter than the original.

image.png.b031f3aa6c70e0746e839bdc88f5985f.png

Replaced the leaking flare nut on the rear brakes, no more leaking there. Now have to fix the paint on the diff where the brake fluid ate it. One more leak on the front brakes to find and fix. I bought a new flaring tool that is much better than the old one which was pretty much stuffed.

Note to self through out old tools that don't work properly any more.

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