Flash's 1965 Ford Thames

[Flash]

Alternator upgrade - Step 3

Next step was to bolt the alternator into position.

I had to muck around with a few spacers to get the belt perfectly aligned, but its looking good now. 

Just need to chuck a few wires on this puppy and I'll call it done.

[Flash]

I'd previously harvested a beefy battery cable from my Starwagon donor van that will work nicely on the Thames.

The main cable has to traverse the engine as the battery is located behind the driver's seat and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't running too close to the exhaust manifold.

Scratched my head for a few minutes then fabricated a few small holding brackets that should keep the cable safe. The bigger bracket bolts up to one of the engine mount bolts and holds the cable midway between the engine block and exhaust manifold and the two smaller brackets attach to the uppermost bellhousing bolts so that the cable loops over the gearbox before coming up through the floor just behind the seat.

Mounted the holding brackets then attached the battery cable to the back of the alternator. Fitted a short earth strap too while I was about it.

And that's another small job ticked off the list.

[Flash]

After morning smoko, I was itching to get the engine and gearbox back in.

So, this happened:

[Flash]

Clutch woes - Chapter 1

Had one of those "oh no" moments earlier this morning, but luckily I managed to avert a crisis.

With the engine and gearbox now bolted back in, I thought I'd put my new clutch setup through its paces before going any further.

Quickly fitted the hydraulic line and gave the system a bit of a bleed. No leaks so that was a relief, but the pedal felt a bit iffy.

Threw the drive shaft in and slapped the gearbox into gear, then with my pry bar on the main crankshaft bolt I got Mrs Flash to depress the clutch pedal, my hope being that the crankshaft would rotate once the clutch engaged.

Instant fail.

Bugger.

Gave the pedal a try myself and it felt really soft. Gave the system another bleed but no air was present, so that's not the issue.

Sat down for a bit of a think. Then grabbed a measuring tape to check how much throw I was getting on the slave cylinder push rod.

Turns out I'm getting 13mm of clutch fork travel when pedal is fully depressed. 

Seemed a bit short to me, but what do I know.

So I ended up posting a quick question under general chat to see if anyone could confirm.

[Flash]

Clutch woes - Chapter 2

Just to recap I'm running a Hillman Imp master cylinder with a HiAce slave cylinder.

I'd previously worked out fluid volumes to come up with this combination, so my first thoughts were that maybe I had cocked up my measurements somewhere along the line.

So, I moseyed on over to my shed and dug around until I found the original Toyota clutch master and slave cylinders. 

Stripped the originals down to re-check my measurements, but my calcs are spot on.

Now something that I had noticed when I assembled the clutch was that there was quite a bit of play on the slave cylinder push rod.

While I had the original push rod handy, I thought I'd compare it to the new one that came with my replacement slave cylinder and .....

The new one is 9mm shorter than the old one.

WTF.

[Flash]

Clutch woes - Chapter 3

Grabbed the crusty looking original slave cylinder push rod and slapped it in place.

Gave the pedal a push and I could feel a slight bit of resistance just before the pedal hit the floor, but clutch still wouldn't engage.

Feeling pretty confident that I was moving in the right direction I rummaged around in my parts bin and uncovered an old brake push rod. Not sure where it came from but it's about 10mm longer than the crusty original.

Slapped it in and called Mrs Flash out to do the pedal thing while I manned the pry bar and .... success!

And the pedal feel is amazing.

What a bloody relief.

Comparison photo of the three rods with the longest and crustiest one now being the weapon of choice.

I'll give the pushrod a few tweaks and a clean before calling it done Thanks for reading.

 

[Flash]

Well, it's been a week full of mundane jobs on the Thames, but I'm slowly moving towards engine fire up day.

Today I started grafting in some of the HiAce engine bay wiring, mainly the stuff for the coil and its ballast resistor and the carby related wiring. The jury is still out on whether I'm going to keep the factory Aisan carby with its electric choke and all of its emission control equipment, but I'll keep that wiring intact for now.

My cert guy says all that is needed is a PCV valve and a charcoal canister on my fuel tank vent, so I'm thinking about upgrading to a 32/36 Weber further down the track.

Some photos of the extra spaghetti being added to the pot: 

[Flash]

I've started giving the front and rear axles a bit of loving. First job was to strip down the front stub axles and brake assemblies.

Popped the first dust cover off the first of the L300 stub axles and there are definite signs of a lack of regular maintenance. Dirty looking grease and a few "hot spots" visible on the stub axle. I can't do much about the hot spots so I'm just going to have to hope that a freshly greased set of new wheel bearings will delay any further damage. There is a 1mm lip on the disks, but I may as well chuck on a fresh set with new pads while I'm about it.

Will give everything a good degrease and a quick spritz of satin black before I re-assemble.

[Flash]

And in other news, it took me the whole morning to carve out a pathway through all of the crap in my shed to get to my original Thames and the spare Toyota rear axle.

These are now languishing under the back carport. Plan is to swap the Thames spring perches across to the Toyota unit and again I'll give it a good clean and a paint before final assembly. 

Whilst the existing rear axle that is in the van is also a Toyota unit it was only fitted for mock up purposes and is slightly on the piss, so hopefully my second attempt will be spot on and I can then fix the alignment on the original so I have a spare.

[Flash]

Spent a few hours scraping 40 odd years' worth of crap off the Toyota rear axle.

Then made a start on giving the whole thing a once over with my small wire wheel.

More of the same planned for tomorrow.

[Flash]

Rear axle alignment – Chapter 1

I previously mentioned that my mock up rear axle was a bit skew on its mounts, so I need to come up with another way to get the alignment spot on.

Apart from the fact that I am a total noob when it comes to swapping in different rear axles, I’m thinking that the fact that I don't have a perfectly level welding bench or similar working surface is causing a wee bit of a challenge. When I did the mock-up, I recall battling to find reference points on the axle that I could work off as nothing seemed to be perfectly uniform.

What I need for my next attempt is a different approach, so I’ve come up with the idea of using the wheel mounting face on the brake drum as my reference point on each side.

My cunning plan is to bolt a wheel on and then use an appropriately wide straight edge across the back of the wheel to determine the position of each spring perch.

So, started off by bolting on one of my mag wheels.

Instant fail.

The bloody wheel doesn’t have enough back space.

[Flash]

Rear axle alignment - Chapter 2

With my mag wheel banished to the naughty corner, I moseyed on over to my shed for a good nosey at my collection of spare wheels.

First one I grabbed was a Mitsi Express factory rim that has heaps of back space. That will do nicely I thought.

Spent a bit of time poking about the rear of the rim with my steel ruler and punching a few numbers into the calculator on my phone. With the magic number now worked out I rummaged through my bits and bobs and managed to cobble together a dodgy looking straight edge using my long spirit level, a few 1.5mm builder's packers, a length of aluminium curtain rail and a bit of gaffer tape.

Not the finest looking bit of kit, but I put it up against my long aluminium straight edge and it is straight as.

And that's just how we roll here at Rough and Ready Restos.

 

[Flash]

Rear axle alignment - Chapter 3

With the finest tool in the land safely in my grasp, I thought I'd start off by checking out just how bad my mock-up axle is.

Chucked on the Mitsi wheel, waved my rough as guts straight edge about the place, used my cheap as digital vernier to get a fix and .......

Yep

Right-hand spring perch is 1.4mm on the piss.

Left hand perch is 0.7mm on the piss.

And there we have the issue.

[Flash]

A few weeks back when I was testing my electricals, I noticed that my brake lights were staying on permanently. 

Like most of the British cars of its era, the Thames uses a small inline pressure switch to activate the brake lights. Turns out that these switches can go bad when left dry and they either seize up in the on or off position.

They are a relatively cheap item, so I ended up ordering a replacement from a local Mini specialist. 

At the same time I thought I'd sort out the brake pipe junction that the pressure switch fits into. Now that I have converted to a dual circuit brake system I need to blank off two of the outlets on the brass junction, so on my last visit to town I dropped by our brake specialist hoping to get some blanking plugs. He suggested that I just replace the 5-outlet junction with a 3-outlet junction that he had in stock, so I grabbed one and headed home. And that is where things turned interesting.

I couldn't get the new pressure switch to screw into the new junction. Rather than forcing it and running the risk of damaging the threads I decided to do a bit more investigation and its lucky that I did.

Turns out that the thread on the pressure switch is not a 3/8 UNF as we had assumed but is actually a 1/8 - 27 NPT tapered thread. No wonder the pressure switch wouldn't fit the new junction.

So, looks like I will be dropping by the brake specialist on my next town visit to see if we can come up with an alternate plan.

 

[Flash]

It being Sunday I thought I would give my neighbours a break from my angle grinder, so gave my stub axles and the disc brake backing plates a quick hand job. 

I'll give them a final tickle with a flapper disk tomorrow when everyone is back at work.

 

[Flash]

A good while back when I was setting up my toe in as part of the bump steer test, I noticed that my tie rods were right on the thread limit on the rack ends, probably due to the older series L300 suspension being slightly narrower than the newer version that the rack came from.

Figured I'd sort this while I have the rack out for hopefully the final time.

Grabbed a cheap and cheerful M14 x 1.5 die nut off eBay which arrived on Friday, so I thought I'd crack into it today.

Cut an extra bit of thread on each rack end and then lopped 10mm off each end.

And that's one more small item off the "still to do" list.

[Flash]

The neighbours are back at work today so I figured I could happily make a bit of noise and spray dust without pissing anyone off. They are good people so it's worth looking after them.

My steering rack and brake line brackets spent another night in the vinegar bath, so came out as good as I am going to get them. Hit the stubs and backing plates with my wire wheel of death on my baby grinder and called them done.

Got my washing line all hooked up and then gave everything a coat of primer after morning smoko. Wind is really pumping today but my back carport is pretty sheltered.

Thought I'd post this update while I'm waiting for the first coat to dry.

[Flash]

Managed to apply a few coats ok 2K black to my latest batch of parts today.

[Flash]

Earlier in the week we took a trip into town and I dropped by the brake specialist.

We came up with a plan B for blanking off the two redundant outlets on my brake line junction.

Hopefully this pair of 3/8 plugs will do the trick.

Also took along my existing front brake rotors to see if I could get replacements. Bad news is that he had none in stock. Good news is that he took some measurements, and the existing rotors are still well within spec, so I'll just give them a clean up before I chuck them back on.

Also dropped by the bearing shop and he was able to match up a set of front bearings and seals for me.

Photos of the new bits because my life is quite sad:

[Flash]

I got to drive the Mitsi Express donor van before I pulled it apart, so I know that the power steering rack that I am using is a good one. 

Gave it a good degrease and hit it with a bit of sandpaper before I treated it to a rattle can reco.

Used that VHT brake calliper paint which goes on really well.

Did the same to one of the front hubs whilst I was about it.