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1963 AP5's Valiant Regal - Discussion


1963 AP5

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16 hours ago, Valiant said:

Nice to see another AP5 here, oddly mine had a cracked block when I got it.

That is interesting. The casting was very thin around one of the welch plugs on my engine. It may have been that way from day one as I suspect that manufacturing techniques weren't as good as they could have been 50 years ago. I doubt it would have always had corrosion inhibitors in the cooling system over the years and eventually the thin area cracked and leaked. It was quite a challenge to fix as it is difficult to weld 50 year old cast iron that is thinner than you would like it to be. Welding guru however got it done and the repair has held up well so far. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Upper ball joints- I looked at buying a socket for that purpose but as well as the cost, there are different sizes as well.

Might be worthwhile taking the arms to somewhere like autolign and just get them to fit? 

I have borrowed a socket to do them in the past and they are tricky to get in straight / not cross thread them

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Really needs to be a socket as the upper control arm is made of pressed steel and is turned up at the edges.

I guess it would be easier just to find a suspension shop with the right tools and get them to do it but if I can get my hands on the tool I am keen to do it myself.

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I have a home made socket that "Goes hard for what it is" 

I find it is easier to do them with the arm on the car stil.l It's very hard / impossible to hold the arm in a vice without wrecking the arm.

Could post it up to you if you pay post.

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On 2017-5-21 at 09:37, 1963 AP5 said:

That is interesting. The casting was very thin around one of the welch plugs on my engine. It may have been that way from day one as I suspect that manufacturing techniques weren't as good as they could have been 50 years ago. I doubt it would have always had corrosion inhibitors in the cooling system over the years and eventually the thin area cracked and leaked. It was quite a challenge to fix as it is difficult to weld 50 year old cast iron that is thinner than you would like it to be. Welding guru however got it done and the repair has held up well so far. 

You're most likely right there. Never even thought about running anti-freeze in an iron block iron head motor when I lived up north. As far as I know most of my mates didn't bother either.

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Those ball joints are identical to Mazda bottom ball joints.. I bought a 35odd mm 3/4" drive socket and cut it so there was enough meat to catch the ball joint but clear the control arm.. cost me 40 bucks.

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Really that odd thread, 

there are two different kinds of replacement joints. One has a proper thread, the other it actually a press in jobbie. Ovoid the press in kind like the plague.  

They're not hard to get out.  Just get a big pair of pipe tongs (24 or 36)  and slide a Metre or two of pipe over the handle. They unscrew right out. Had a lol when a guy at a parts shop who had done a Val insisted we wouldn't be able to get them out with the arm in the car. Then told us, yeah you gotta mark the position of the eccentric bolts blah blah. I've done it, and I'm telling you you won't get it out with the arm in the car. 

Mayte,  its already out. 

You can screw them back in with pipe tongs too, but as said getting the thread started not cross threaded is the trick. 

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