Popular Post Flash Posted April 23 Popular Post Share Posted April 23 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. 23 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Flash Posted April 23 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 23 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: 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Flash Posted April 23 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 23 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: 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Flash Posted April 24 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 24 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. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Flash Posted April 27 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 27 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. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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