Mrs Flash's '74 Moke

[Flash]

We have owned this little Moke for about 4 years now and since I'm starting to do a bit of work on it, I figured I'd start a thread as it might be of interest to others.

So, first up a bit of background.

When we lived in NZ, Mrs Flash owned one of those newish 1275cc SPI Rover Minis. It was a Jap import that someone had done quite a bit of back dating on. A lot of the changes were fairly subtle, but the most notable things were the fitting of 10-inch Watanabe rims to replace the original 13-inch units and the removal of the modern dashboard that was replaced with a classic centre mount speedo. The car was a little rocket and super fun to drive. Sadly, we made the decision to sell it before heading off on our Australian adventure and last I heard it was somewhere in Christchurch.

So fast forward a few years and we are now permanently OZ based and looking to get back into some classics. We often thought back to the fun that we had with that little Mini and decided that owning another little Leyland would be good. The climate over in tropical Queensland lends itself to something a little more open and so we set our sights on a Moke. After checking out a few we ended up pulling the trigger on a fully restored 1100cc powered 1974 Californian look alike that was going for reasonable money. When I say  reasonable I really mean that after doing my own sums I concluded that I couldn't have restored a clunker to this level for the money that was being asked. 

So, after swapping a few calls with the current owner together with the studying of some detailed photos a "deal in principle" was struck pending final inspection. We grabbed a hire trailer and headed south down to Noosa hoping to be returning with a loaded trailer.

Gave it the once over, took it for a quick drive, some cash changed hands, and this happened:

 

In my next update I'll talk about the maintenance undertaken to date and then a little bit about the current work being done.

Thanks for looking.

[Flash]

When we purchased the little Moke it had only travelled 1614km since being restored born witness by the odometer reading on the brand new Speedo. The story goes that a father restored the Moke for his disabled son. The son was wheelchair bound and old mate had even fitted 12 volt rams to the rear hinged fibreglass roof so that he could get the youngster in and out of the passenger seat. Problem was that the youngster didn't have much upper body control either and nearly fell out of the Moke on the first outing. The family got such a scare that the Moke got parked up for a while before they sold it on to a young fella from Noosa. I think that the new owner fell in love with the idea of owning an old classic without realising that it isn't like driving a modern hatchback with all the mod cons. He was also not mechanically minded so he ended up farming the maintenance out to a local mechanic and after receiving a few repair bills the novelty of owning the Moke wore off. And its at this point that Mrs Flash and I stepped in to take over the reins.

 

So, both inwardly and outwardly the Moke looked absolutely immaculate as borne out by the below photos that I saved from the original advertisment:

 

[Flash]

However, during the pre purchase inspection I picked up a few things in the engine bay and suspension wise that placed some doubt on how far the mechanical restoration had been taken. Nothing major, but just little signs that some items still needed attention.

On getting it home, the first thing that I did was to fit an electronic unit to the existing distributor in the hopes of resolving an intermittent misfire. We then clocked up about 1000km during which time I was almost constantly fiddling about to try and get the timing right. In desperation I eventually pulled the dizzy out for a closer look and discovered excessive play in the shaft, so I ended up ordering a brand-new distributor from MiniSport in Adelaide. The new distributor came with its own set of electronic internals already fitted so the old unit went into the parts bin. This solved the misfire, and we ended up enjoying another 500km of trouble-free motoring until one day the Moke just suddenly cut out and left us stranded at the side of the road. Luckily, we were close to home, so I walked the rest of the way and returned with our Holden ute and a tow rope. After a bit of troubleshooting, I pinpointed a fuelling issue which turned out to be a faulty float valve. Got a new one sent up from MiniSport and we were back in business. Shortly after that the actual carby started playing up - again excessive wear - and we ended up ordering a reconditioned SU from MiniSport.

Since then its literally been an annual oil and filter change and the fitting of a new battery and we are now up to around 2400km of travel that we have undertaken since purchase. 

And that pretty much brings us up to this point in time.

In my next update I'll cover some additional maintenance work that has happened over the past few weeks.

And no one likes a pictureless update so here is a group photo of our small fleet:

 

[Flash]

Since day one of ownership the Moke has always whiffed of fuel when parked in our garage. At first I attributed the issue to the cork gasket on the fuel cap which was badly shagged. I ordered a new one from Minisport but it made no difference.

I began to notice that the smell was particularly bad when the tank was anyithing above about half full.

We lived with the problem for a good while until one day I decided it was time to do something about it. Crawled underneath and removed the under tank cover plate for a quick look see. Sure enough there were signs of old fuel drips on the inside of the cover plate.

At this stage I suspected the problem to be the sender unit rubber seal that sits on the side of the tank. So out came the tank and I removed the sender unit and replaced the seal. Sadly still no luck.

In desperation I decided to drop the tank one more time, then filled it up with fuel to just past the sender unit to see what would happen. And .... a slow leak from one of the spot welds that hold the tank sender locating collar in place.

I ended up chucking some JB Weld over the spot and that solved the issue.

 

[Flash]

Earlier in the week whilst I was checking fluids, I noticed that the brake reservoir was pretty low. On closer inspection there were signs of a fluid leak around the reservoir itself.

Yikes, that's not good.

I then lifted the front rubber mat and discovered another patch of brake fluid on the floor.

Figured it was time to rebuild the master cylinder, so ordered a kit from Minisport in Adelaide. I always try to order a few parts at a time just to get the most bang for buck out of the shipping cost, so I also ordered a new set of bonnet straps as the existing ones were looking a bit dodgy. At $30 per bonnet strap the new ones were pretty spendy, but they are Australian made so I figured they would hold up in the local sun a lot better than their Pommy cousins.

Last item included in the parcel was a new alternator to replace the ailing Lucas 16ACR unit which hasn't been charging properly for a few months. The alternator light would remain on for anything below about 2000 RPM, so I knew it was on its way.

Parts arrived promptly and I cracked straight into the master cylinder rebuild.

As you can see from the photo below the paint overspray on the parts are definite signs that the master cylinder was left in situ during the body restoration. Another sign of neglect was the perished dust boot.

Stripped it down and gave it a good clean before closer inspection. Seals were hard and nasty looking. Bore was still perfect, but I gave the cylinder a light tickle with a bit of 1200 grit sandpaper anyway before lubing up the new seals and chucking them in. Replaced the seal on the reservoir at the same time. The master bled up easily which was a win.

Next task was the alternator replacement.

Again pretty straight forward. Minisport were out of stock on the drive belt, so I had to source a new one locally.

Finished off by fitting the new bonnet straps and all is good in Moke world once more.

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flash]

Mrs Flash is a wee gem. In early December she asked me if she could get some new bits for her Moke for Christmas and the top item on her shopping list was a new set of rear view mirrors. The old ones were looking a bit manky and would flap about in the breeze when travelling at anything over 60km an hour. In this photo the passenger side mirror is so loose that it is hanging upside down, LOL:

Also on the shopping list was a new exhaust system. I've patched the existing muffler a good few times over the years, but sadly it's reached the end of the road. Anywhoo we duly ordered the parts needed from MiniSport and it took a few days to sort out the shipment due to the size of the exhaust system, but everthing arrived safely and the parts have been languishing in the shed while we finished building a new garden fence.

Yesterday I finally got a gap, so thought I'd start with the new mirrors.

Got them out of their packaging only to discover that the new mounting "bolts" are now metric so are a bigger diameter than the hole in the mounting bracket.

Nothing that a light tickle with a reamer couldn't solve.

After replacing the supplied zinc plated nut and spring washer with stainless steel equivalents, I fitted up the first mirror. Instant fail.

The new items are pretty loosey goosey in terms of adjustment. Not as bad as the old ones, but still not stiff enough for my liking. Bugger !!

Modifications were needed so I stripped the new mirror down to its components. There is what I would loosely describe as a little "ball joint" that rotates in a plastic half cup moulded into the back of the mirror. The mirror is attached to the ball joint using a round plate that is also slightly cupped and held in place by 3 self tapping screws. Looks like so:

 

Scratched my head for a bit then decided to try fitting a washer between the ball joint and the mounting plate in the hope that it would stiffen up the ball joint. Found an appropriately sized washer that fitted the bill perfectly:

With the extra washer sandwiched between the ball joint and the round mounting plate I reinstalled the 3 self tappers and then fixed the mirror back in place.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner. 

Repeated the process on the other side and then celebrated by giving the Moke a wash and a polish.

I'll tackle the exhaust when I next get a gap.

Thanks for looking.

 

 

[Flash]

So, on to the installation of the new exhaust. 

Minisport offer a number of exhaust related components that can be mixed and matched to create your system of choice. In our case we aren't chasing increased performance so for simplicity's sake we decided to retain the original cast iron manifold while upgrading the rest of the system to a 1.75" OD pipe. In order to achieve this the first item on the shopping list was a downpipe with standard neck flange manufactured by Maniflow in the UK. Mrs Flash does like a bit of bling so she chose a centre exit muffler in polished stainless steel. They offer the centre pipe in either mild or stainless steel. We chose mild steel for no real reason other than to keep the cost down a bit. Lastly we included their recommended fitting kit.

Parts looked like so:

 

First order of business was to get the Moke up in the air:

The old single piece system came out quick smart and quickly revealed how shagged it is:

Thought I'd start by fitting the new Maniflow down pipe that looks like so:

 

Now giving the chaps at Minisport fair dues, they did give me the heads up that I would need to modify the mounting bracket for the gear selector in order to create enough clearance for the fatter exhaust. Offering up the downpipe showed the extent of the issue:

There is no way to line up the manifold joints with the original mount in the way, so a plan was definitely needed.

The Mokewerx website describes the easist option of simply bending the driver's side of the bracket up at 90 degrees and chucking a bolt through the floor of the Moke. Yeah nah.

Second option is to buy a pre fabricated bracket from Minisport :

But with this option you have to drill two holes in the floor to mount the cottonreels and then get to enjoy the sight of the protruding threads, washers and nuts for ever after. Mrs Flash and I both have strong OCD tendencies so this would drive us absolutely crazy.

We went for the third option which was to create something bespoke that could be hidden away.

So out came the cereal box and after spending a bit of quality time under the Moke I came up with these two masterpieces:

A bit of cutting, a spot or two of welding and a splash of my favorite VHT satin black and I ended up with this:

The beauty with this bracket is that I can use button head bolts that are hidden under the factory floor mat. Sans floor mat looks like so:

And with the floor mat back in place it looks like so:

You can't even tell that some hackery lies beneath.

From the underside she looks like so:

Next step was to put on my big boy pants and hack off the original mounting tab on the driver's side ... gulp:

There's no turning back now:

With the new mounting bracket in place and the factory tab removed I offered up the downpipe and it fitted perfectly, so I'll take the win.

Next I moved on the the muffler installation.

So there are signs that the MOke once had a centre exit muffler installed as the original hanging bracket was still in place:

As you can see old mate didn't really have an eye for detail. It would have taken him 2 seconds to pull that mount off before he painted the Moke.

Same goes for the hackery that was used to install the old muffler:

Nice !

Anyhoo, I removed both defunct mounts and marvelled at the finish I was left with:

Sigh ....

Anyway, onwards and upwards...

Next step was to install the fresh centre mount:

And then I poked two new holes in the rear chassis cross bar for the two cotton reel mounts that hold the muffler:

Ended up looking like so:

Notice my attempt to patch the paintwork where the original mount was. Not a perfect match, but at least its all in more or less the same colour.

Last job was to hack a few unnecessary bits off the universal connecting pipe (The extra bends are needed if you are using a side exit muffler and an exhaust branch) :

Slipped a bit of pipe, chucked on a few clamps and called the job done:

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flash]

When I was replacing the exhaust I noticed that the rubber gearshift boot was looking a bit sad. Looked on the Minisport website and they wanted moonbeams for a new one. I tried another supplier who specialises in stuff for old British cars and he had one in stock at half the price, so I pulled the trigger and it pitched up today.

Out with the old:

And in with the new:

Just a small step forward, but satisfying none the less.

 

[Flash]

Checking fluids recently for my good lady Mrs Flash, I noticed that it was rather wet looking around both the clutch and brake master cylinders.

I'd rekitted the brake master cylinder a while back and at the time I noticed that the reservoir had a slow weep, but figured it would keep for another day. 

Decided to pull everything out for a closer look.

Yep, definite signs that fluid has been making contact with the paintwork underneath:

The base plate was pretty crusty looking too:

In the photo above you can see the business end of the clutch master cylinder with definite signs of a leak.

Decided to treat Mrs Flash to a new pair ..... of master cylinders I mean

Clutch :

And brake:

Started off by giving the base plate and spacers a good clean, a hit of sand paper and a spritz of my favorite VHT satin black engine enamel.

Turned out like so:

Whilst I was going through the brake system I also noticed signs of a leak from the left hand side back brake cylinder. 

Popped the drum off for a look see. Yummy:

 

So got a pair of fresh back wheel cylinders added to the same order:

Came to strip out the offending cylinder only to discover someone had been here before and had managed to round off the flare nut. Luckily I was able to remove the old cylinder complete with hard line.

Clamped the flare nut in my vice and took to the cylinder with a pipe wrench. Nothing subtle about my methods:

Got everything back together, gave both systems a good bleed. Much neater and we should be good for a while longer in the brake and clutch departments.

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flash]

Thought I'd treat myself to two easy jobs for a change.

First up the the replacement of the bonnet hinge support rubbers.

The Moke has an interesting setup in terms of bonnet hinges. It consists of two rounded metal tabs on the back edge of the bonnet that "clip" into a little holding rubber and then swivel in that rubber when opening or closing the bonnet. The nice thing about the setup is that you can take the bonnet completely off for engine maintenance just by unclipping the tabs from the rubber.

The old rubbers were looking a bit sad, not to mention being covered in overspray:

 

Looks like old mate had painted the body with the rubbers in place, so I was a bit worried about what I would find paint wise once I'd removed the old rubbers.

Luckily not too bad.

The rubber is held in place by a split pin pushed through from the back. Close up of the old rubber once removed:

Installing the passenger side replacement was a breeze. Here is a photo taken from inside the Moke cabin showing the locating split pin in place :

I nipped the ends over after taking this photo just to keep the pin in place.

Moving on to the driver's side it was immediatley clear that it wasn't going to be that easy as the back of this rubber sits behind the wiper mechanism cover plate:

Luckily not too bad to remove which then revealed the wiper setup.

I was expecting to find a cable driven wiper setup like that fitted to the older Minis so this was a bit of a surprise. 

Anyway, quickly swapped in the new rubber on that side and buttoned up the wiper cover once again.

Went to refit the bonnet in its new support rubbers and the hinges felt far to loose for my liking allowing the bonnet to easily slip off the rubbers. With visons of bonnets crashing off and taking great gouges out of the mudguard paintwork in my head I quickly removed the bonnet and gave the rubbers a closer look.

Turns out that the original rubbers had fatter sides that sat nice and tight in the metal U bracket, whereas the newer rubbers have thinner side walls. You can clearly see the gaps in this close up:

Yikes, what to do to remedy this without damaging the paintwork. Scratched my head for a bit then came up with just the tool:

A few slow turns of the clamp screw followed by a little rest period between turns and things were looking much better. Even managed to do it without stuffing up the paintwork.

Took to the other side with my clamp setup and then slapped the bonnet back on. Needed a good push to get the metal tabs into the new rubbers, so I'm a happy bunny once again.

Next on the list was a set of replacement wiper blades. The old ones were well flogged and the driver's side one had started to come apart:

A set of fresh ones that I sourced from Minisport, but originally supplied by Minispares UK if the packaging is to be believed.

 

Gave the original stainless steel wiper arms a good polish with some Autosol before installing the new blades.

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

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flash]

So with our 66 Mustang having headed off to pastures greener, this left us with a free bay in the main garage, much to the delight of Mrs Flash whose little Moke had been banished to the back carport.

But before moving the Moke into its new home we decided to treat the garage to an epoxy floor which is now completed. What a difference this has made to the feel of the garage. Feels almost like another room in the house.

So with the Moke moving into its sparkly new home, we decided that it was time to give it a bit of TLC.

Living so close to the sea and even although the MOke has been under the cover of our carport, the salt air has still been unkind to the poor thing. Nothing major but just a few things that need to be put right.

First up were the wheels. The Moke is currently sporting a set of Sunraysia wheels that were standard fare on the Californians. The centre caps and wheel nuts were looking really manky:

Luckily Minisport stock stainless steel caps that mimic the original items. A bit spendy, but worth it, I reckon.

At the same time I got the boys from Minisport to send us up a fresh set of wheel nuts.

Spent this morning swapping in the new bits. Took the opportunity to clean tha backs of each wheel while I had them off. The powder coating is generally in okay condition but the rears of the wheels are starting to show signs of rust on some of the factory welds, so a strip and recoat might be in order sometime in the future.

Mrs Flash elected not to fit the little Leyland stickers that were supplied to the new centre caps and I think she made the right choice.

 

With all four wheels done, it was time for a side on photo.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

[Flash]

I've never been a fan of the aftermarket steering wheel that was fitted when we purchased the Moke. Just looked a bit too modern for my liking.

I've had a Momo Corse sitting on the shelf for many years and decided to give that a go.

Much better I reckon and we even splashed out and bought a new centre in matching red.

Looks the part I reckon.

In other news I refreshed the non standard aluminium radio panel that the previous owner had fitted. 

Before:

And after giving it a light sprinkle of my favorite satin black:

 

 

 

 

[Flash]

With our Thames van still languishing at the upholsterers we are left with Mrs Flash's Moke as our only mode of transport at the moment. It really is a fun little thing for hooning around our village. 

Since Mrs Flash is the usual pilot it's only now that I'm driving it that I've noticed a few things that need sorting.

First up is what I can only describe as a type of stumble when backing off the accelerator whilst driving. My first thought was possibly a carby tuning issue so I pulled a plug to check out it's colour.

Apart from looking a bit weathered the condition seemed okay but from the colour of things it looked to be running a bit lean for my liking.

Dusted off my old Gunson Colour Tuner and popped it in for a look see. Yep, a bit lean but an easy fix on the old SU carby. Quick few turns of the mixture adjusting nut until the colour of the explosion looked better, back in with the standard spark plug and then back out for a spin around the village. Much better.

Thought I'd celebrate the win with a filter and oil change which I already had in stock so that was a breeze.

Next up I thought I'd take a look at the fuel gauge which has been acting erratically lately. Pulled the main wire off the tank and bridged it to earth. Sure enough gauge climbed to full. Okay gauge is good I thought. Time to check out the sender unit, so out came the fuel tank. 

Ah, fuel in the little plastic float. That will do it.

Slapped the tank back in and ordered in a new one from Minisport with a few other bits and bobs that I had added to the list. New parts arrived in 2 days which was a win. Tank out, sender out and new float in before morning smoko. Refilled the tank to check the gauge and ......

Still showing on reserve when the tank was half full ...... bugger.

Now while I was pulling the tank out the first time  I'd noticed something interesting. In addition to the earth wire on the sender unit there was also an additional earth wire that had been teed into the main sender wire. WTF

Doesn't look factory so someone has been here before .... it just didn't make sense. Anyway, I stripped off the heat shrink where the wires joined only to find an interesting pair of resistors that have been connected in series and then to earth. Even more interesting is that the leg on the first resistor had broken off (probably due to me fiddling about with this wire during my cycles of tank removal and re-installation)

Scratched my head for a bit and then the penny dropped.

The PO had fitted an aftermarket gauge cluster as part of the resto.

And I'm guessing that the aftermarket fuel gauge in the cluster doesn't play nicely with the factory sender unit in the tank. So a little bodge has been thrown into play.

Anyway, I'll grab a replacement resistor when I'm next in town and hopefully that will restore the accuracy of the fuel gauge.

Also in the Minisport parcel was a new diff housing support bush for the rod change. I was hoping that this would resolve a gear stick rattle.

Pulled out the rod changer.

Then pulled the old bush off the gearbox housing.

The bush was still in pretty good condition, but the actual housing on the gearbox has worn oval over time. You can see the witness marks on the actual bush. Not good news.

I ended up making up a little half barrel shim out of some shim steel that I had lying around and then pressed in the new bush.

Much better.

Last job on the list was to sort out the inertia reel seatbelts. The passenger one has been playing up for a while. On closer inspection the plastic cover on the reel has suffered sun damage and has disintegrated together with a few other plastic parts in the mechanism.

The actual fault turned out to be excessive wear in the shaft which is so badly worn that it flops down and the little teeth on the ratchet no longer disengage.

Hit "Buy Now" on a Black Friday special and a new pair rocked up in 3 days. Fitted them up this morning and things are back to normal.

The roll cage is looking a bit tatty so a sand blast and fresh powder coating are on the menu, but that will have to wait until we have the Thames van back and can take the Moke off the road for a bit.

And that's my story.

Thanks for looking.

[Flash]

The Moke has always been a bugger to start. Mucho starter motor crank over is required before the old donk fires into life. I'd never really given it much thought until my mate Grunty commented on the fact that his little 850cc Morris Mini starts first turn of the key. That spurred me on to investigate.

So, what I'd always thought was just a stiff choke turned out to be almost no choke at all. Allow me to elaborate:

Started off by getting Mrs Flash to pull the choke while I observed from the engine bay. Turns out that the little arm on the SU would move about 15mm before hitting hard up against the body of the carby. That's no bloody good. 

Turns out that the little crimp bolt thingy that the choke cable pases through is blessed with a bolt head that is much larger than the standard part and its the bolt head that is making contact with the side of the carby.

Ordering in the correct crimp bolt would have been the logical choice, but where's the fun in that.

Instead I figured I'd fabricate a spacer to move the offending bolt further away from the carby.

Grabbed this scruffy old bit of aluminium U section that I had lying around:

A little bit of carving with my grinder of angles followed by the poking of a hole and I was in business.

Next step was to fabricate a holding bracket for the outer cable sheath out of a little bit of offcut steel plate that looks like so:

 

The first hole that I poked through the plate ended up being in the wrong position due to the angle of travel needed, but my second attempt was spot on. 

I used one of the bolts that holds the dash pot onto the carby housing to afix the plate which is prevented from rotating by drilling a further hole and slipping the bracket over the original brass gubbins that held the outer cable in its factory position. The distance gives you a good idea of just how much I had to space the cable.

I've left everything in a raw unfinished state for now partly because I want to give it some time to make sure everything works okay and also because I've run out of my favorite VHT satin black rattle can paint.

I'll grab a fresh rattle can on my next trip into town and will then strip the parts off for final trimming and tidy up but here is a photo of the current setup as it currently stands.

 

Not my finest work, but I reckon I can make it look a lot better.

Clebrated the win by giving the Moke a little bath and I then slapped a bit of Meguiars wet look wax about the place, just to show I wasn't cross.

And here it is hogging the garage while the Thames is in the upholstery hospital.

 

 

[Flash]

Earlier this week out Postie pitched up with a box of goodness from Minisport in Adelaide.

Thought I'd start by fitting the new rear shockies as the existing ones are toast.

Of course just another example of old mates work with the original shocks painted over.

The passenger side one came out pretty easily but instead of the nut coming off the lower shock mount the whole stud unwound itself from the suspension arm.

To add insult to injury the shock's mounting sleeve had almost welded itself to the stud.

Luckily I managed to clamp the stud in my vice and after some liberal shots of WD40 I was able to use a punch to get the sleeve moving.

On the driver's side I was not that lucky. The nut on the top mounting wasn't giving up the fight that easily.  I was afeared that I might end up breaking my 1/4 inch spanner that I was using to hold the flat portion of the rod just above the thread so gave up on that and decided to break out the angle grinder.

Not wanting to cover the rear seat in hot filings I decided to remove it. The mounting bolts came out pronto but when I tried to lift the seat out it wouldn't clear the rollbar so I ended up pushing it as far left as I could.

I then built a little shield around the work area using cardboard and a couple of old towels.

Then grabbed the baby grinder and I did a thing.

I thought that the sliver of leftover nut might fight me, but a quick tap with a punch and out she came.

Turned my attention to the old shocks and they are well and truly shagged.

Popped the new jobbies in and things are looking much better.

Last job before calling it a morning was to sort out the rear wheels while I had them off. In one of my previous Minisport orders I included a fresh batch of chrome wheel nuts and at the time the part listing mentioned that the sunrasia wheels would need to have their bolt holes camfered at 60 degrees in order to accept the new nuts. Since the camfer tool listed cost moonbeams and our old nuts looked very similar I thought I'd take a chance that our wheels had already received the treatment. Sadly not, so I ended up fitting the old nuts back. So this time around I dusted off the old wallet and sprang for the camfer tool.

It came in a fancy little box which was pleasing considerng the cost of the bloody thing.

Chucked it on the old battery drill and gave each bolt hole a little tickle.

Did all 4 wheels and I have to admit that the new nuts bottom out really nicely now. At $4.31 per hole I should bloody well think so.

 

 

[Flash]

The little Moke only leaves a few light drops of oil on the garage floor which is quite surprising for a British vehicle. I've previously spent a bit of time trying to track down the source of the leak and I'm almost certain that its coming from the rod change on the gearbox. So I included a rod change anti leak seal kit in the latest order from Minisport.

The kit consists of a small factory seal as well as a dust boot for the rod. Included in the kit is a machined aluminium donut that is fitted with an outer O ring. This part is non standard but reports are that it reduces the sideways force exerted on the seal in the hopes that the seal will last longer. Another option is to double up on the factory seals, but the little kit was only a few dollars more than the cost of two seals, so I figured what the hell, let's give the kit a go.

In order to fit the new seal the whole change mechanism needs to come out so that was the first order of business.

Since fitting the larger diameter exhaust I've noticed the occasional knock coming from underneath so I suspected that either the exhaust was making contact with the gear selector mechanism or that the gear selector mechanism was making contact with the body.

Turns out it was both, but the worst one was the gear selector making contact with the side of the floor as witnessed when I pulled off the gearstick gaitor.

My fault entirely as when I fabricated the new rear selector mount as part of the exhaust install I had to shift the selector sideways to clear the fatter exhaust. So I need to deal with this while I have the selector mechanism removed.

While I was waiting for the oil to drain I quickly pulled out the selector and cleaned up around the old seal.

In the box of parts that came with the Moke was a short shift kit that the previous owner had already fitted to a spare housing, so I figured while I had the mechanism out I'd give the short shifter a go.

I made quick work of changing over the custom rear mount, rod connector and reverse light switch from the original mechanism to the short shifter and by that time the oil had drained, so I was able to dig out the old seal. Came out easier than I was expecting.

Then tapped in the little aluminium donut followed by the new rubber seal. Luckily I had a deep socket that was perfect for the job. With that done I turned my attention to opening up the gearshift hole.

It was a bit tricky as I needed to retain the 4 holes for the mounting screws as well as leaving enough meat so that the gaiter would cover my butchery, but I took out as much as I could with my dremel and then tidied the area up with a spritz from a colour matched rattle can that I also found in the box of Moke bits. It's not a perfect match but I'm not too fussed as it is all covered up by the gaiter anyway.

Popped in the short shift mechanism and refilled the oil and it was time for a test drive.

In summary there is something desperately wrong with the short shifter. First gear selects easily. Reverse is a bit hit and miss and 2nd, 3rd and 4th are a complete no go.

I suspect that old mate has assembled something incorrectly inside the mechanism but by that stage I was running out of time, so just reinstated the original mechanism for now.

I'll do some homework on the short shifter when I'm less time poor and hopefully I can get it sorted. 

 

[Flash]

Our Moke has always suffered with an interesting starting problem. Start it every day and she starts almost on the first turn of the key, but leave it for say three days and you need to crank it over for a good while before it will run. This issue wasn't helped by a dodgy operating choke mechanism, but I was able to sort that out many moons ago. However the excessive cranking is still a thing. It's bloody irritating so earlier this week I decided it was time to investigate.

The Moke had been sitting for about a week since it's last start so without attempting to start it my first step was to pop the lid off the fuel bowl.

Bloody dry as a bone !

My next step was to open up the storage unit in front of the fuel tank to check the status of the inline fuel filter that lives in there.

Filter is full of fuel but does look a bit crusty inside so could do with replacing.

Next step was to pop the hose off the outlet on the mechanical fuel pump and see what was cooking there.

Hose end was dry.

Chucked the hose end in a clear bottle and got Mrs Flash to crank the engine over while I watched the bottle.

While she was cranking I did the old "1001, 1002, 1003 .... count" and sure enough it took just under 10 seconds of cranking before fuel started to spurt out of the pipe.

Okay, so to my simple way of thinking this indicates that the fuel pump was completely dry and it took that long to suck up the fuel from the filter/tank.

The million dollar question is why is it so?

I'm thinking it can't be fuel evaporation due to heat soak because this would happen even after a few hours of standing, not just after 2 or 3 days.

It could be some kind of air leak on the fuel line that is breaking the vacuum and allowing the fuel to run back down the fuel line, but since the fuel inlet is at the top of the fuel bowl on the SU carby I can't understand how the carby is being "sucked dry". Unless the breather hose on the tank is blocked and is causing such a massive vacuum in the tank that sucks the fuel out of the carby and pump. Could this be the case ?

 

[Flash]

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/92926-mrs-flashs-74-moke-discussion/