will also add that the original generator and regulator seem to be charging ok according to the time honoured test method of pull a battery terminal off and see if the motor keeps running! i am not very savvy with a multimeter but we will get to all that. having fun anyways.
got an hour in tonight; changed tact and put dash wiring in the 'luxury. basket for now and got back to essentials for the proposed mission at hand. i may have mentioned stablemate only firing effectively on 4 cylinders so pulled some plugs, played with an old compression gauge, swapped couple plugs around and determined plugs the problem as expected. can always use donors from patina if i cant source some soon; you must understand i live 200 miles from the nearest town of any subsequence.
dropped the water ; including this time the block drain plug i have neglected till now. pulled generator to ease access to leaking coreplug. went to undo wires but wasnt happy with the way the generator terminals wanted to turn with the nuts. dont have a clue what is insite this old generator but can well imagine how perished any insulating washers or somesuch may be so left wiring intact and relocated generator out of the way.
dragged the oxy over and twice heated offending coreplug to a very dull glow. (you may have noticed i am a fan of heat and use that for everything; helps stop me breaking stuff). anyways left it at that for tonight. new coreplug is due back from the city with a mate this weekend. hope its the right size! 50mm right? thats what i ordered. and carby kit apparently in the post today.
Looks like you are having fun. In your photo's I noticed vertical struts on the firewall side of the cowl going down to the frame? Are they stock? Could they be supports from when it was cab only? Curious John
it seems that all aussie 25s have those support rods; for what purpose i dont know. must be something B&D motors did when they built the bodies over here. they were discussed briefly in my old 'technology reaches westralia' thread (before i decided to make seperate threads for my 2 projects). there are more pics of stablemate over there also. fwed made the comment that it odd the cab is rubber mounted while the rods are bolted direct to the chassis.
i bit more done tonight punters. popped my coreplug out and pulled the entire cooling system again; that took about 3 minutes. had some vague plan about trying to wash out the block water jackets while plug out but still pondering the method and merits of this. still awaiting coreplag so got back to some more important issues. like the horns....
there is no way i can be taking old stablemate on a beery backroad 60 mile maiden voyage to a mates wedding (actually they both very good mates) and turning up without a horn.....
super impressed with the horn insulator i found. this was rotted to nothing on project patina and i had to make something out of something; i forget. but thats just the difference in climate i guess, stablemate came from 2000 miles away in the milder south east of the continent. cleaned the contacts, and the points in the relay and got power through the circuit. did a temporary install of the lovely pair of original horns and tested them individually; they both worked but noticed a distinct difference in tone between the two. paused for a celebratory beer and repulled the horns for carefull cleaning; they were filthy. it was only then we noticed the hornets nest in one horn; we laughed lots about that. i try a pic
i had been soaking the seized up choke and throttle cables for some time with a spray of crc or wd40 in passing and to my surprise they both freed up nicely. another win. now i need to do something about my broken throttle knob. not sure how it disconnects from the cable but havent studied this too closely yet. next i cleaned a few contacts and got all the dashlights working; pretty dull but they work. also found a much better rubber plug for the wiper manifold vacuum leak than the alfoil i was running. was just one win after another. probably spent about 3 hours at it all but considerable time was spent drinking beer and trying to come up with a hornets nest horn joke to no real end result so pass that one along to you. we were also working on the aforementioned green ek ute with success in that department too. horn and throttle
apologies i meant choke and throttle. anyways a couple of questions....
*the right click on the light switch? is that park lights? i have power through the switch but cant pick it up downstream anywhere. next i try a better clean at the connection that leaves the switch.
*any hints on changing the throttle knob?
*does anyone have a horn relay cover for me? looked through most my junk but seems these vary a lot in the early years. this is what i have.
*any thoughts on correct wiring harness placement? the one that bugs me leaves the firewall, wraps around the steer column, then heads out under the beercan to feed the horns and first terminal block. seems very scrappy the way it is at present.
thanks for the wiring diagram; i still tinkering with this.
changed tact a little tonight. i really not happy with the pinion play in the original rear diff, and it needs attention sooner or later. after a discussion with aussie25 he sorta shamed me into doing something about it; particularly seeing as we barely able to raise a pair of original diffs between us. pulled the diff cover and driveshaft and got my first ever look at a 25 diff. all seems ok to the cursory inspection of an untrained eye
some slight condensation rust. i had done some measurements and determined a 45 shaft i have will probably do the job lengthwise with a later donor diff. in the fading light i went and pulled the donor tailshaft from parts wreck no.1 with a little help from my favourite station jack
i had pulled the front diff from this wreck when she donated front axles and etc to project patina, that is sitting on the shelf and is my possible donor. what worries me now is the driveshaft clearance where it crosses above the chassis crossmember behind the gearbox. the thinner original shaft only just clears and my gut feeling is this thicker donor is not gonna do it. this crossmember is located further to the rear due to the aussie chassis extention b&d motors did to this frame (which got me wondering how said crossmember is situated in the longer fj28 frames). i probably flick out the 25 diff tomorrow and try mock this up. this is option no.1. option no.2 is see what my local mechanic guru thinks about rebuilding the original diff at short notice. option no.3 is reinstall and tread lightly as is for now but this adds a worrying element to a perfect beery backroads maiden voyage. in any case think i will run the original diff under my mechanics more proffesional eye tomorrow to see what he thinks
next i pondered my coreplug. at left is the pulled original. middle is an old gm stamed 1 15/16 example i had among my junk, noy quiet a tight enough fit. right is the very generic 50mm replacement that arrived, not at all oem
there is a recess in the block if only about 4mm at most for the corelpug to locate. this replacement one is about 10mm thick and a pretty solid 50mm wide. i really cant measure much more than 49.9mm diameter across my block even after a decent clean. my current plan is to grind a slight bevel on the outer edge of the new plug and install it backwards with the flat side out. pretty rough but should get me mobile
pulled rear diff yesterday morn and got that to my local guru. had a look at it dismantled later in the day; pinion bearings were completely gone; new bearing supposedly here thursday they have to come from the east. glad i went this route to save damage. someone may need to remind me of that when i get the bill! the lads in the shop are all cruiserheads of 70 series persuasion. they havent seen old stablemate yet but are very interested in the project and the unusual diff (and all attending this same wedding) so hope they cut me a bit of slack in the labour hour.
PO told me he once had a broken rear axle in the 70s and had trouble finding a replacement axle. found the evidence. ballaratt motors and part number
after dark i hopped under the bonnet and started getting a few things back together. installed coreplug as described; not at all happy with this arrangement and consider it one of my weakest links. install cooling system this time with fan shroud and all 6 bolts. had to remove a pair of po snapped ones (love that heat). fitted generator, new air cleaner, new fan belt and horns. is starting to look like an engine again.
a pic of my fans; orange one is 64 replacement, black fj25 original. have chalked the welded crack and the pair of rivets for the pic. the fans are a different stamping but overall dimensions much the same. also a pair of fan pulleys; 25 the shallower on the left, other 64fj45
next step is fit a new set of sparkplugs then get back into the cab. want to fit the battery up under the seat with something better than vice grips for terminals. also the main positive starter cable needs attention; very poorly insulated where it passes behind the gearbox.
i know its traditional to throw the old fanbelt behind the seat for a spare so will do this purely in the interests of tradition and personal amusement; though i think this old stalwart has done its last mile
there only so many hours left in the week that i can afford to dedicate to stablemate but with a bit of midnight oil i am starting to think we might just make it. really enjoying having this self imposed deadline to work to; think i need to tackle more of my projects this way. a few more loose ends to tidy up; especially this end.....
