Flash's 1965 Ford Thames

[Flash]

Proceeded to offer up the Express strut rod to the Thames in the rearward facing position. Not ideal as the shortness of the rod would place the chassis mounting point way off the Thames chassis rail. So I put the Express rods to one side and took another look at the Starwagon ones.

On closely inspecting the bottom of the Starwagon A arm I noticed that there are a total of 4 mounting holes with only 2 ever being used. This got me wondering if it would be possible to swing the Starwagon rods around from forward facing to rearward facing with the correct angle being achieved by using the alternate mounting holes.

[Flash]

Gave the Starwagon strut rod it a quick try in the backward position and got an instant win.

Bonus is that the opposite end of the rod lands nicely in the triangle formed by between the main chassis rails and the shorter angled rails that normally support the standard Thames gearbox cross member and there is a lot more meat there to mount a bracket.

Running the strut rods rearwards really cleans up the real estate forward of the suspension beam, so I'm definitely going down this path.

Few pics of the mock up for your viewing pleasure. 

Thanks for reading.

[Flash]

So with the preferred strut rod position finalised I once again climbed under the Mitsi Express to check out its sway bar setup. First thing I discovered is that I was wrong in yesterday's posting. Without having a proper look I had assumed that because the strut rods were rearward facing the sway bar was the same . Wrong !

The Express sway bar actually sits in front of the suspension beam.

[Flash]

However, looking at it closely it is the opposite setup to the Starwagon in that the centre mounts fix directly to the chassis as depicted in the first picture below and the long rod type fixings are attached to the lower A arms.

My first impression was that this setup is more suited to what I am trying to achieve so I pulled the bar out and laid it next to the Starwagon one for comparison. Pic two below shows the differences in the setup.

[Flash]

Feeling pretty excited at this point I then grovelled around under the Thames with my new prize. Wrestled the bar into place and the first thing that I noticed is that I only had to move the centre mounts about 40 mm inwards in order to match the Thames chassis rails. This is way better than the 100 mm that I needed to move the Starwagon centre mounts in order to clear my steering rack rag joint. You can see the clean space on the bar where the mounts used to be in the pic below.

Second win is that one of the holes where I drilled out the rivets holding the now defunct Thames front chassis beam is in the perfect spot for the U shaped mounting brackets. Used cable ties to secure for now as I was too lazy to crawl out and rummage through my spare bolts.

Third win is that its current location is far away from my steering rag joint, which again can be seen in the pic below.

[Flash]

Here are some additional pics showing how clear the steering rag joint is with this setup.

[Flash]

The lower A arm mounting points for the sway bar are way different. The Starwagon has a U shaped bracket as shown in pic 1 whilst the Express has a round eyelet as shown in pic 2.

All I'll need to do is cut the respective mountings off the arms and then glue the Express eyelets onto the Starwagon arms. Shouldn't be that difficult.

In conclusion I'm pretty chuffed with the new setup. It's way neater having the bar tucked up against the chassis and the steering rag joint now has heaps of clearance.

Thanks for reading. 

[Flash]

Another fruitful morning spent mucking about in Flash's private Pick a Part.

The goal for today was to figure out what direction I'm going to take in terms of the steering column and column mounted gear selector for the Thames.

Having already discounted the column from the newer Mitsi Express because it is a split column with a bulky steering wheel angle adjuster in the middle that would look out of place in the Thames, I'm down to three options but in order to progress my selection I first had to remove the steering column from the older Starwagon so I could take a good look at it.

I was then able to line up the three choices on the floor for some closer inspection. 

Referencing the pic below I'll run through my initial thoughts:

The column on the left is the column from the HiAce. Whilst it doesn't have one of the newer steering wheel angle adjusters, it is still a split column with a UJ in the centre. This results in a thicker diameter outer column which again would look out of place in the Thames. The only reason that this column hasn't been completely discarded is because the 2 gear shifting arms at the bottom of the column are a match for the Toyota gearbox that I will be running in the Thames. The Toyota shifter uses a standard H pattern selection with 5th gear opposite reverse. I may still need some parts from the shifter, but the steering column itself is a fail.

The middle column is the standard unit from the Thames. It has an integrated column / steering box, so the actual steering rod would require some modification to allow the bottom to bolt up to a UJ. From a shifter perspective the Thames column has 3 selector rods. I suspect that the third rod is to do with the fancy reverse selector which entails pulling the gear shifter outwards and then down to select reverse.

The column on the right is the one from the Starwagon. Again it is an integrated unit, so would require the same modifications as the Thames unit. The gear selector is again a standard H pattern with 5th gear and reverse opposite each other. The neat thing about the Starwagon selector is that instead of running two selector rods through the chassis to the gearbox, it runs a cable for one and a rod for the other. This got me excited as a cable is way easier to route than the solid rods which have to be straight and in the case of the Starwagon require two pivot points in order to clear the chassis rail and work correctly. 

So, having given each column a cursory look over I started focusing on dimensions. As can be seen clearly in the picture the HiAce and Starwagon columns are a good bit shorter than the Thames unit and after taking some detailed measurements inside the Thames I concluded that neither column will work without serious modification.

This leaves me with the Thames steering column as the clear leader at this stage. 

[Flash]

I'm really happy having selected the Thames steering column. It allows me to retain the standard Thames indicator stalk that is housed in a metal cup that forms part of the outer column. I can also retain the standard Thames steering wheel for that really old interior look if I so desire as the splines match. lastly I can use the standard top column fixing as the bracket on the outer housing is a match for the standard Thames under dash mount. 

The only thing I'm not happy about is the Thames gear selector mechanism. Although it looks the part with its quirky looking handle the 3 selector arms at the bottom of the rod are not fixed, but pivot on the shaft with little keys that determine which selector moves at which time. Of the gear selector mechanisms I'm currently leaning towards the one out of the Starwagon. Although its handle isn't as quirky looking it is still pretty slim and I can always shorten it or reshape it if it looks out of place in the cabin. What I do like about the Starwagon shifter is that the rod selector arm is on a spline so is a fixed movement with no "wishy washy" cutouts and keys like the Thames has. Also the fact that one of the selectors uses a cable has me foaming as this could potentially solve some challenges that I am expecting to encounter when I start mocking up the gear selector mechanism that runs to the gearbox.

Below is a close up pic of the cable based selector on the Starwagon.

[Flash]

With my focus no fully on the Thames option I proceeded to strip the steering column / box down to see how I can achieve what I need.

Thought I'd run an autopsy on the steering box while i was about it as the box was half dead before I pulled it out. Sure enough there were immediate signs that the box has not been properly lubricated in the past. The top ball bearings and race were dry and rusty indicating oil top ups done at the box rather than half way up the column. The tapered peg on the output shaft has also seen better days with a grotty looking flat spot which was clearly the cause of the steering binding up every quarter of a turn. Having uncovered this damage I don't feel too bad modifying the column.

Picture of the rusty upper ball race on the left in comparison to its lower counterpart that has seen lubrication over the years.

[Flash]

With the Thames steering disassembled I can now share the details of my plan.

I'll use the column outer depicted in picture 1 below exactly as is.

The top mounting on the column outer will fix to the standard Thames column bracket that incorporates the hand brake lever as shown in picture 2. 

At the bottom end of the column outer is a welded in plate with 4 bolt holes that usually mount the outer column to the top of the steering box casing as shown in picture 3. My plan is to fabricate an L shaped  bracket below floor level that will bolt to the chassis rail on one plane and these 4 bolt holes on the other plane thus fixing the bottom of the outer shaft rigidly in place. This same bracket will feature a mounting point for the lower pivot point of the Starwagon gear selector rod that I plan to use. The upper mount for this selector rod will be the standard Thames mount that forms part of the metal cup that houses the indicator mechanism. I'll need to increase the length of the Starwagon gear selector rod to match, but that should be pretty straight forward. 

I'll then get an engineering shop to machine the worm gear off the end of the Thames inner steering rod and cut in a spline that I can then match to a u joint. I'll also need a lower bush machined to ensure that the inner sits nice and snug inside the outer. Pic 4 shows the inner rod in its standard form and pic 5 is a close up of the worm gear that will need to be machined off.

The new uj will connect the bottom of the steering column to the angled steering box that came out of the Express. Pic 6 is of this angled box.

I'm obviously making this up as I go along, so please shout out if there are any glaring errors or inadequacies in the proposed plan.

All feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

[Flash]

I had some other things that needed done today, so only got about an hour to potter on the Thames. Thought I would spend that time figuring out how the Starwagon column shifter works. As mentioned in a previous post the Starwagon shifter has two selectors, one a flexible cable and the other a rod selector.

It was a fruitful exercise as I was able to confirm that the flexible cable selects the shift gate plane (my terminology is probably off but what I mean by "plane" is either 1st and 2nd on plane one, 3rd and 4th on plane two, or 5th and reverse on plane three). The rod mechanism then selects the gear on that plane.

I'm mildly optimistic that I can get the cable to work for the HiAce box with a few brackets and swivels.

I'd like to investigate replacing the rod selector  with a second flex cable so tomorrow I'm going to strip the gearbox selector mechanism out of the Express van. Even although it's a floor shifter, it uses flexible cables for both selector mechanisms and there may be a remote chance that I can use one of the cables as a replacement for the rod shifter on the Starwagon mechanism. 

Just before lunchtime, the courier pitched up with another box of British goodness from my mate Sandy at the Thames 400E Owners Club.

I'm now the proud owner of a full set of newly manufactured exterior door handles. The Anglia 100E shares the same handles which are still being manufactured on a small scale in the UK. Sandy provides either a 2 handle set for the Thames ute or a 4 handle set for the bus. I went for the bus set as it gave me the T handle for the back door as well as a spare passenger handle for my panel van which isn't equipped with a load area side door. I figured having a spare handle in stock wouldn't be a bad thing. The added bonus is that all 4 handles come equipped with a matching lock set and a total of 8 matching keys. Appeals to my OCD as my current 3 handles are each operated by a different key.

The box also contained a NOS Thames badge for the rear. The hole in the badge is for the handle that lowers the spare wheel.

I'd also ordered another indicator lens as one in the last batch was a different shade of orange which has been driving me crazy. I'll keep the unmatched one as a spare.

Sandy included a full set of new lens mounting screws as these were inadvertently left out of my last parcel.

The last gem in the box was a new seal for the engine cover box which has an interesting profile. I'll miss breathing engine fumes in the cabin when I fit this.

Pics of the UK goodness below.

[Flash]

Managed to pull the cable shift gearbox mechanism out of the Express van before morning smoko.

Spent a few minutes sussing it out and I'm cautiously optimistic that I can substitute the rod shifting mechanism on the Starwagon column shifter with one of these cables.

This would be a huge win as the rod shifters are pretty unforgiving if there is a chassis ladder, front beam or some of the steering mechanism in the way. Much easier to route a flexible cable around any obstacles.

Pic of the Express shifting components pictured below. 

[Flash]

I've now pretty much wrapped up the "proof of concept" phase and took a few minutes to update my list of parts that will be used.

In summary the list is as follows:

• Toyota 4Y engine out of a mid 80's HiAce using standard engine mounts cut off the HiAce cross member and glued on to the back of the Mitsi Starwagon suspension beam. Final fueling option still to be confirmed but is either going to be a single side draft carbie on a slightly modified inlet manifold or full LPG.
• Top hung side shift 5 speed gearbox also out of a mid 80's HiAce. Using a standard gearbox mount that is rotated 90 degrees and shifted slightly forward to clear the Thames chassis cross brace.
• Clutch actuator will remain hydraulic using the standard HiAce slave and the Thames master (I haven't tried this but if I encounter issues I'll revert to the HiAce master).
• Gear selection will remain a column shift using a column rod fabricated from the upper portion of the Thames rod using the Thames upper mount and the lower portion of the Starwagon rod using a fabricated lower mount. A second cable sourced from the Express will replace the Starwagon shift rod that connects to the gearbox.
• Complete rear axle out of a mid 80's HiAce fixed in place using a heavy duty 4 bar rear suspension kit sourced from a Hot Rod shop and fitted with coil overs.
• Drive shaft out of a mid 80's HiAce cut to the correct length.
• Mid 80's Mitsubishi L300 Starwagon complete front suspension beam, including all suspension and braking components. Mounted to the Thames chassis using fabricated l brackets that pickup the standard Thames mounting holes along the chassis rails.
• Mid 90's Mitsubishi L300 Express power steering rack fitted with the earlier Starwagon rack end joints and mounted using the original mounting lugs removed from the Express suspension beam and welded on to the front of the Starwagon front suspension beam.
• Mid 80's Mitsubishi front beam strut rods mounted rearward facing. Bolted on to the Starwagon lower suspension arms as per standard.
• Mid 90's Mitsubishi L300 Express stabiliser bar located in front of the suspension beam, with chassis mounting points moved 40mm inwards on each side to line up with the Thames chassis rails. On the suspension side the bar will be joined to the Starwagon lower arms using the mounting lugs cut off the Express lower arms and welded on to the Starwagon arms in the same location.
• Steering will use the standard Thames column, steering wheel, indicator stalk housing, indicator lever and upper mounting point. With the Thames steering box now deleted, the lower mounting point for the column outer will consist of a fabricated L bracket picking up the Thames plate at the bottom of the outer column and the standard steerign box mounting holes on the Thames chassis. The existing worm gear at the bottom of the inner column will be machined off and a spline cut into the shaft. A new universal joint will be sourced to attach the inner column to the steering angle box out of the mid 90's Mitsi Express. The shorter steering rod out of the Express that uses a rag joint to bolt up to  the steering rack at one end and a factory welded universal to mount to the angle box at the other end will be shortened to the correct length for the Thames by cutting off the UJ and machining a spline into the shorter shaft what can be mated to a newly purchased UJ.
• An electro hydraulic power steering pump (final make to be confirmed) will be sourced from a wreckers to power the Express rack. All credit to go to Browndog for this suggestion.
•  The Toyota HiAce brake master cylinder will be used in conjunction with an aftermarket remote booster setup.
• Smaller bits and pieces will be selected on an "as needed basis" when final fitting takes place.

Hope I haven't overlooked anything major. Please shout if I have.

With my list updated I figured it was time to drop the Thames back on to its wheels as I'll need my axle stands elsewhere for the next phase.

It's not the greatest picture but this should give an idea of the final front ride height with the L300 suspension in place. The back is still standard Thames ride height as I haven't mocked up the back. The ride height difference is noticeable. Please forgive the manky front wheels. I still need to source metric lug nuts for the Dragways.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

[Flash]

Over the weekend I'll embark on Phase 2 of the project.

This entails getting my complete donor HiAce drive able so that I can confirm the running condition of the supposedly reconditioned 4Y as well as the condition of the drive train. As part of the exercise I'm also going to convert the HiAce from rod shift gears to cable shift so that I can prove my concept.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those of you have guided me along the way thus far. I have no physical support mechanism across here in OZ so I greatly value all of the encouragement, comments and suggestions that have been put forward regarding my Thames project. I also value the detail that others have provided in their own build threads as this is often fruit for thought.

I really appreciate the oldschool community.

Thanks all.

[Flash]

Spent the weekend converting an old bicycle into a trundler for our paddle board which we took on its maiden voyage down to our local beach yesterday, so only got back into van world this morning.

Today marked the start of phase 2 of the project which entails getting the donor HiAce running. Started off by stripping out the front seats and the engine and gearbox covers to give me a clear working space. With everything now on display I was able to give the mighty 4Y a quick glance over. Most of the engine has been painted a lovely shade of matt red/brown, and looks suspiciously like a rattle can reco rather than the real deal. 

Quick and nasty pic below.

[Flash]

Second observation is that the engine bay wiring is an absolute rat's nest with almost everything disconnected and lots of wires cut. I spent a bit of time trying to figure out which wires should go where, but eventually gave up. Figured it would be less time consuming if I just jury rigged my own wires to get the engine running. It was easy enough to identify the main power lead for the starter motor so I re-attached that. I gave up on identifying the exciter wire for the starter motor so ended up running a wire directly from the positive terminal on the battery via a push switch to the small terminal on the starter so I am now able to get the engine to crank over.

Moved on to the coil which again had no wiring present. Managed to find the lead from the distributor so attached that to the negative terminal on the coil. There is an existing wire that runs from one terminal on the ballast resistor to the positive terminal on the coil. All of the other wires near the coil have been cut.

It is at this point that I need some help as I've no idea how the ballast resistor that is attached to the coil should be wired. 

Below is a pic of the setup. Is anyone able to confirm what I should have wired to terminal A and what I should have wired to terminal B ?

 

[Flash]

When I last updated this build thread I was struggling to get the donor HiAce to start. With some guidance from Browndog I managed to get the coil wired up correctly but wasn't getting any spark at the plugs. After swapping a few further yarns with Browndog it became apparent that the distributor needed a birthday. I had planned to source a new set of points and condenser as well as a fresh cap and rotor, but got offered a brand new replacement dizzy at a keen price, so decided to go down that path. Picked up the dizzy yesterday as well as a new fuel pump as the old one was shagged.

Fitted the new dizzy first thing this morning. Chucked some fuel down the carbie. Twisted my temporary wiring together and was amazed when she fired up on the first go. Only ran for a few secs as I haven't fitted the new fuel pump yet and no exhaust so didn't want to piss off the neighbours.  But to say that I am suitably stoked would be an understatement.

Figured whilst I was on a roll I'd try to restore the original wiring so that I can use the ignition key rather than having to twist wires together. Only took me a few hours to sort out the wiring puzzle and she now starts with the key. Found the missing piece of exhaust in the back of the other HiAce, so fitted that too.

This van hasn't run for a good few years so I was a bit dubious about the condition of the fuel tank and its contents. Figured I wouldn't fit the new fuel pump as I didn't want to fill it with crap. Dropped the bottom bung out of the HiAce fuel tank and was amazed to see that it still had about 10 litres of fuel in it. Fuel looks surprisingly fresh with no sediment so I'll take that as another win. Replaced the bung and put the juice back in the tank.

Plan for tomorrow is to plumb in an inline fuel filter and fit the new mechanical fuel pump.

Talking about the fuel pump I see that it has three connection points. One of the connectors has a small hole, so I'm guessing it must be some type of vacuum pipe.

Can anyone confirm this ?

Thanks for reading 

 

[Flash]

Earlier in the week I managed to get the HiAce donor van running. Started off sounding like a tractor, but I managed to swap out the blown muffler with the one from my second donor van and after tweaking the timing and giving it a couple of heat cycles it is now running sweet. Fitted the drive shaft and hooked up the gear shift mechanism, so the only thing preventing me from taking it for a sneaky squirt down the road is a leaking clutch slave cylinder. Managed to find a new Girling unit on eBay for less than the cost of a rebuild kit, so I'm just waiting for that to arrive.

I've also been spending a bit of time thinking about my fueling options. You may recall that I don't have enough space in the engine box to run the standard Toyota twin downdraft so I've been looking at alternatives. I started off thinking about a DCOE side draft, but they are pretty spendy and the mighty 4Y wouldn't really do one any justice. I posted a few times in the OS Tech Section and got some really good suggestions from Valiant and Nominal. A bit more pesting on the Tech Forum also got me some good info from sr2. My sincere thanks to the aforementioned gents and everyone else who has stepped in with advice and suggestions.

I gave LPG some thought but this being a budget build I just can't justify the cost of the conversion. I also spent a bit of time investigating a TBI setup suggested by sr2, but kept gravitating back to a carbie option for its simplicity and relatively low cost.

Valiant and Nominal got me thinking about a SU carbie and sr2 spurred me on in this direction too so I did a bit more homework and came across a crowd in the UK who have been fitting 1 and 3/4 inch SUs to old Landies to replace the single choke Zenith. Their adapter setup looks very similar to the photo of Valiant's adapter that he shared with me.

Pic of the Landy conversion below:

 

[Flash]

Yesterday I came across a listing on Gumtree for a HIF44 SU at a pretty decent price. It was previously fitted to a Harley so I'll likely need to up the size of the jetting. Not an issue as the UK crowd have kindly supplied the needle size that they run on the 2.25 L Landy engine, so I'll start off with that. The SU comes complete with a home fabricated inlet manifold and although it is for the Harley I can still cut off the inlet mounting flange and that will save me having to fabricate my own.

If it all turns to custard I won't really have lost anything as our Moke could always do with a carbie upgrade, but hopefully it won't come to that.

Anyway with some free time on my hands this morning and armed with the SU physical dimensions that kws provided me, I decided to mock up the HIF44 and an adapter to confirm that it will fit into the cavernous engine box on the Thames.

As you will spot in the pic below, the engine box cover is stepped with the back being a lot higher than the front. This dictates that the SU adapter needs to sweep backwards as well as towards the centre of the engine in order to clear everything else.