Flash's 1965 Ford Thames

[Flash]

And that's the a/c pipework all done.

Not that easy to photograph but I've done what I can to show you the final results.

The driver's side front fender well is looking a bit like spaghetti junction.

The radiator tunnel looks slightly neater.

I've put a bit of spiral bind at strategic places to give the pipes additional protection against possible rubbing due to road and engine vibration.

Inside the cab things look slightly neater with everything tucked behind my relocated cover panel.

In the above photo you can see the exposed main wiring harness that stands out like balls on a greyhound, but I've got a cunning plan to create a cover panel using an old roof rib from one of my Toyota donor vans.

It currently looks a bit shabby, but the profile looks pretty close to what I need and with a bit of effort it should tidy up okay.

In conclusion all that is left to do on the a/c front before the big gas up is to wire up the relays for the thermo fans and to fit the condensate drain.

The thin-walled condensate pipe supplied with the evaporator kit is for a standard car installation so isn't long enough to poke through the floor on the Thames, so I'll need to see if I can source some more pipe when I'm next in town.

 

 

 

[Flash]

Yesterday arvo my favourite courier pitched up with a parcel of goodness so today I took a break from a/c related wiring to fit said goodness.

But first a bit of background and I'm afraid it's another longwinded tale of woe, so grab a drink or snack and settle in while Uncle Flash tells you a story.

Now those of you who have been following along will recall our spark related breakdown in early December where we ended up getting the Thames transported home. At the time I suspected either an ignition coil or condenser failure and ended up replacing the condenser which solved the issue. Then on the last Friday night of 2023 we headed off in the Thames for our usual burger cruise and a couple of k's from home the engine started to stumble, not badly but just enough to make my arse pucker. Foolishly I pressed on and things got worse to the point where the engine would idle but would not rev cleanly. At that point we turned around and started to limp home. Nek minnit a loud backfire and it was good night nurse. Managed to coast to the side of the road and broke out my emergency kit which included a working ignition coil. Swapped over the coil, but still no spark. By this stage it was starting to get dark,so I gave Steve the local towie a quick call and he came to our rescue once again.

The next morning, I started tracing voltage to see where things were going wrong and the fault appeared to be somewhere in the distributor itself. 

By this stage I'm well over dodgy distributors as this is the third spark related breakdown that we have suffered since getting the van on the road. The message from the long-suffering Mrs Flash was "Just get rid of that bloody distributor" so I decided to make it so. After my awful experience with an eBay sourced one that resulted in the first breakdown you can appreciate how keen I was not to repeat the same mistake, so my first call was to the Toyota dealership in town. The parts guys there are helpful as, and after making a call to the centralised parts warehouse in Brisbane, the message came back that the points-based factory distributor is no longer available. "What about the later electronic distributor that came out in the late 80s?" I asked. "Sorry mate also no longer available". Yikes !!

So, at this point I put a call out to my fellow oldschoolers hoping that someone would be able to recommend a reputable supplier of an aftermarket distributor and @AllTorque comes to the rescue by introducing me to his parts supplier. They turned out to be good guys too and put me in direct contact with their supplier who just so happens to be OZ based.

For those of you who are still awake at this point, here are a few images of distributor related goodness:

Full of electronic goodness including a built in coil. Lovely.

 

Yep, I know another Chinesium part, but @AllTorque's NZ supplier has sold around 20 of these units over the past 2 years and hasn't had one return. On top of this the OZ based import agents are a company called Goss Automotive who have been in the aftermarket parts business for over 80 years, so that gives me some additional reassurance.

Anyhoo, that brings me to this morning's exercise which included the installation of a fresh 12-volt source wire directly from the ignition switch.

And here she is in all her glory:

Thanks so much to everyone who has made it to the end of this update. Your staying power is amazing.

 

 

 

[Flash]

Yesterday I finished off the last of the a/c wiring being a pair of relays for the condenser thermo fans. I poked a few mounting holes in the RHS chassis leg and the relays are now tucked up in a sheltered spot. I ran out of single wire sheathing, but I'll grab some on my next town run just to neaten things up a bit more.

I then spent a bit of time carving up an old HiAce roof rib to create a matching cover for the main wiring loom.

Ended up with this:

I need to get some paint colour matched, but in the meantime I've just chucked on a few coats of primer followed by some appliance white.

Apart from the colour difference the two cover panels match up fairly okay.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flash]

We are deep in the rainy season here and I'm a bit over getting sprinkled with liquid sunshine, so while in town today I wheeled by my mate Ben's place, and he worked his magic.

 

[Flash]

It's a toasty 32 degrees Celsius in our part of the world today, so a perfect time to visit this place:

To get this done:

And I then enjoyed a cool ride home.

My DIY a/c hoses are holding up so far. Time will tell how long that lasts.

I'm getting a bit of a/c belt slip, so some adjustment is called for, but apart from that all seems good.

 

 

 

[Flash]

Well according to the Captain's Log it's day 656 on the Thames build and I thought I'd celebrate the fact by adding a spare wheel.

When we bought the van it had no spare, but the factory wheel carrier and lifting mechanism was still in situ.

The original mechanism was pretty complex, so I suspect that the Dagenham based propellor head responsible for the design was on an hourly rate and decided that it was time to milk the system for everything it was worth.

Schematic of the system looks like so:

Unfortunately, the threaded rod, ... ahem ... I mean the trunnion spindle, was seized solid and no amount of lubrication would free it up, so I ended up taking to said spindle with my grinder of angles way back when I refurbished the underside, and the van has been going commando ever since.

So as part of my Christmas present, Santa popped one of these fine marvels of modern engineering into my stocking:

And as previously mentioned today was the day to figure out how I was going to mount the thing.

So I grabbed the bull by the balls and headed under the arse end of the van for a look see.

Turns out there is a perfectly placed chassis cross brace that looked like it might do the trick.

The first part of the exercise was to try and make the new mechanism line up so that the crank handle hole in the rear Thames badge would still work.

So, I started off by poking an appropriately sized steel rod through the hole in the badge and then through the corresponding hole in the chassis cross brace. The rod was able to temporarily hold the new lifting mechanism in place. Next step was to prop the spare wheel up on a few blocks of wood and then drop the lifting chain to make sure that it lined up with the centre of the spare wheel.

As luck would have it things lined up perfectly, so it looked like I was off to a good start.

Slapped some white paint on a spare bolt and poked it through the threaded nuts attached to the mechanism and I now had a good guide for the mounting holes:

The flooring in the load area is still the original ply that was rubber lined by the previous owner, so I figured the easiest thing to do was to lift out my false chequer tiled floor and then drill some pilot holes through the chassis cross brace and then up through the ply. Eventually ended up with the correct diameter holes and bolted the mechanism up. Worked perfectly and I ended up with these countersunk beauties:

Next step was to attach the spare and winch it up into position.

These vans were offered from factory with two wheel options, option 1 being 13-inch diameter and option 2 being 15-inch. Again, the forward-thinking engineers had allowed for both options when it comes to the spacing of the abutment plates which is achieved by moving the captive nut thingies to the appropriate holes:

Unfortunately, my spare is a 14-inch wheel so I had to mix and match the spacings to get the wheel to sit snuggly, but it's all good now.

Tomorrow exercise is to turn these little bits of scrap into a crank handle for the mechanism:

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flash]

And that's the spare wheel crank handle done and dusted.

Works like a charm.

 

[Flash]

Okay, so having a spare wheel doesn't really help if you haven't got a jack ... duh.

So today I thought I'd remedy that situation.

Rummaged through the pile of leftovers from my donor vans and I have a choice of two scissor jacks and a bottle jack. I'm not a fan of scissor jacks so the bottle jack got the nod.

Pulled it out into the light of day. Looks a bit crusty but it does come with a crank handle that looks just as crusty:

 

First step was to check that the jack still functions and that it has enough bottle to lift the Thames (did you see what I just did there .... absolute howls of derisive laughter Bruce)

Grovelled under the van and it will lift either of the back wheels perfectly. Tried the fronts. Bottle is too tall to use under the front beam. Bugger. Scratched my head a bit then decided to try using my strut rod mounts as the lifting point and she lifts a wheel, but it's just on the borderline and I doubt that she is high enough to get my commercial profile spare on. So I grabbed a bit of timber which will make a solid base for roadside lifts as well as giving enough lift for the front. Perfect.

With the functionality box ticked I then focused on the aesthetics.

Took to the jack and the handle with my wire wheel of death and it started looking a bit better:

Quick wipe down and a spritz of the usual satin black.

I even fed my OCD by giving the wooden block a few coats of flat black fence paint.

Tomorrow I'll work out a nifty way to store everything, so it doesn't rattle around in my storage compartment.

Thanks for looking.

 

 

[Flash]

Tiny step forward today.

Sorted out a hiding place for the bottle jack and associated bits.

The bottle jack slides under the wooden side panel in my front storage box and jacking it up a notch to press against the underside of the side panel holds it firmly in place. I wedged the wooden block between the back of the jack and the side of the van so she ain't going anywhere either.

I then fitted two little plastic clips that I found amongst my stash, and they hold my spare wheel crank in place.

I've rolled up a thin piece of marine carpet that I've also stored in the same compartment just in case I ever need to crawl under the van for a roadside repair.

While I was mucking about in the two front storage bins, I figured it was time to fit some kind of stay for each of the lids as I'm a bit over them closing on my fingers all the time.

Scratched around in the shed and found some more leftovers from our kitchen reno:

Chucked in a few wood screws and the lids now stay open all by themselves.

I did think about fitting my new voltage sensitive relay to add the house battery to the charging loop, but it's so bloody hot here at the moment that I packed up and went to wallow in the pool instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flash]

Did a supply run to town this morning and when I got back to the van it had done a little wee.

Stuck my head underneath for a nosey and it looked suspiciously like it had originated from the radiator overflow pipe.

I keep an almost constant eye on my temp gauge, so I knew that she hadn't run any hotter than usual.

Grabbed a rag and popped the radiator cap off and he didn't spew his guts, so I figured that was a good sign.

Cap spring felt pretty weak to the touch and on closer inspection it looks pretty crusty:

Luckily Repco was just a block away, so I strolled on down and grabbed a new one.

The new cap is the same 0.9 bar rating, but I could definitely feel the difference in the spring resistance compared to the old one.

Made a few extra stops before heading back home and no more piddles, so looks like that's another win.

 

 

 

[Flash]

The van has been running really well of late, but I've noticed that it tends to leave a a few drops of coolant on the floor after it's had a hard run.

At first I assumed that I had overfilled the radiator after replacing the radiator cap and figured that it would sort itself out over time. However, it's been getting steadily worse and this morning I woke up to this:

Lifted it up for a closer look and noticed this:

Bugger .... it's not the first time I've dealt with weeping from this joint.

Anyway, wiped the drip off the hose, ran the engine up to temp and no sign off a leak. With the system now under pressure I switched off and sure enough after a couple of minutes the first drop of coolant appeared on the hose joint. Grabbed the black hose further away from the joint and gave it a good squeeze and the coolant drip turned into a steady trickle coming from the joint in the hoses.

Last time this happened I replaced the hose clamps and the problem went away for a while, so this time I got desperate in true "Rough & Ready Restos" fashion:

 

Looks bloody awful but I've gone through a few heat cycles and some more vigorous squeezing of the hose with no drips experienced so I'll take the win for now.

Time will tell, I guess.

 

[Flash]

Put the Thames through a few more heat cycles this morning and still no coolant drip.

Flushed with success I thought I'd give the system a spring clean:

Hope you noticed what I did there. I'm just so funny ..... not.

Anyway, after doing that I figured I'd tackle another little leak, but this time of the oil variety.

Again, tell-tale signs of a little drip, nothing alarming, but enough to be annoying:

On closer inspection it looked like it was coming from the sump drain plug and since I've now got 1000 km on the freshly rebuilt 3Y I figured I'd do an oil and filter refresh while I'm about it.

Pulled the sump plug and yep:

 

No sealing washer fitted. What a numpty I am.

I've got this pack of appropriately sized copper washers in stock, so I'm going to give one of them a go:

I'd also picked up a new filter and some oil on my last town trip, so everything was good to go.

 

And that's another job jobbed.

 

 

 

[Flash]

Our usual Friday night cruise followed by burgers at the beach. 

[Flash]

It's been a few months since my last update. The Thames is still going strong although I've got a few niggly bits to sort out. My a/c unit is on a 30-amp fuse which occasionally blows on startup so I'm thinking of fitting a auto-reset circuit breaker instead. 

Also looks like my decision to fit the second-hand a/c compressor has come back to bite me on the arse. The a/c works well but there is excessive drag on the drive belt resulting in lots of rubber dust and I have to keep adjusting the belt as it starts screeching after about 100km of travel. Dropped by my a/c guy a few weeks back and after checking it out he confirmed that the compressor needs replacing. 

In order to free up some cash for the new compressor I chucked my auto trannies on Marketplace and one of them sold to a Gearbox Repair Centre in Western Australia. Hopefully the next one goes soon.

 

[Flash]

Last week we headed off on a supply run in the pouring rain and as we got into town, I noticed the temp creeping up above normal. Quickly pulled over and switched off and when I cycled the ignition key to the aux setting I noticed no noise coming from the thermo fan. WTF.

Checked the under dash fuse panel and the fuse for the thermo fan relay exciter wire was still good. Lifted the engine cover lid to get a closer look at the inline fuse on the relay power feed. Bloody fuse wouldn't come out. Grabbed a pair of longnose pliers from my tool kit and gave the fuse a bloody good yank and out she came.

Yikes, definite signs of overheating, but the fuse itself was still intact.

Fuse holder looked decidedly shabby too.

Looking at the back of the fuse holder and I could immediately tell that the input wire on the connector had dropped.

Managed to push the connector back into the housing and with a working fan we were back on the road again.

Fast forward to today and I figured I'd best do a proper fix.

Luckily, I had one of those fairly robust auto reset trip switches in stock, so I've mounted that in the battery box and have run a new relay power feed directly from the battery. The relay trigger wire is still ignition switch activated via a separate fuse from the under dash fuse panel.

Longer term I need to replace the crappy thermo fan with a decent Spal unit as the cheapies sure do suck up the amps.

 

 

 

[Flash]

Over the last few weeks, I've noticed a steadily increasing stiffer steering and during last night's burger cruise it felt particularly bad. Figured I'd do a bit of fault finding today.

First step was to remove the intermediate steering shaft to determine whether the issue was on the steering rack end or the column end.

With the intermediate shaft out I fired up the engine and waited the few seconds for the Astra pump to come online. What a relief it was to find out that the issue is not on the rack/pump side of things.

So turned my attention to the angled steering gearbox and the steering shaft itself.

Pulled out the angled gearbox for a closer look.

Popped the cover off to check the lubricant level. Turns out it uses grease - or at least mine is filled with grease. I'm hoping that is factory and not some previous owner's  bodge job. Anyone know ?

Anyway, I neglected to take a photo, but it looked like some of the grease had shifted leaving the top half of one of the gears dry. The grease looked to be clean and still in good condition, so I just topped up the level and fitted the cover plate back on.

At the same time I spent a bit of time fine tuning the little adjusting thingy till I got the mechanism turning smoothly:

While I had the angle box out, I pulled off the steering wheel and dropped the shaft so that I could grease the upper and lower bushes. They were pretty dry.

With the steering wheel off I figured I'd tackle another annoying little issue. For a good while the indicator self cancelling feature on left turns hasn't been working. Works perfect on right turns though. Really aggravating as I keep forgetting to manually cancel the flashers and also pretty unsafe.

Anyhoo, I took a closer look at the mechanism and it was visibly okay. There are two little "ears" on a spring steel collar that press fits over the inner steering shaft. Looks like so:

Each little "ear" engages with a double ended lever attached to the indicator mechanism. One of the "ears" isn't visible due to the angle of my photo, but I've marked up where it is supposed to be.

With a visible inspection not showing anything untoward I enlisted Mr's Flash's help to watch what was going on while I turned the steering shaft from below.

Turns out the little "ear" on left turns was not triggering the self-cancelling lever.

Pulled it out the collar for a closer look. Both "ears" are showing signs of wear with noticeably more wear on the left one. Thought I'd try and give it a tweak, so clamped the offending "ear" in my vice:

Chucked an appropriately sized punch down the centre of the collar to maintain its shape:

Then gave it a little bit of loving with a hammer.

Popped it back on the column for another test and ... success!

With the self-cancelling issue sorted I reassembled the steering and dropped the van back on its front wheels for a quick steering test.

Nice and light once again.

Loaded up my ratchet with the appropriately sized socket and headed out for a road test and also to re-centralise the steering wheel. It took a few goes until I got the steering wheel perfect, but I'm happy that things are now back to normal.

Thanks for looking.