Rod,

It's best to check and adjust pedal free travel and throwout bearing clearance before doing anything else. So -

Pedal Free Travel: Best done by hand on the clutch pedal.  Gently depress the clutch pedal by hand.  Only the top inch of travel at most.  You'll be overcoming the assist spring, but you should feel a slight "bump" as the master cylinder pushrod contacts the piston.  Adjust the master cylinder pushrod until there's 1/8" free travel at the pedal before you feel the "bump".
Alternatively - reach up under the dash and grab hold of the master cylinder pushrod.  With the clutch pedal fully released you should be able to wobble the pushrod slightly, and as you depress the clutch pedal, the pushrod should feel firm.  This will allow you to gauge the free travel.

In short: back the master cylinder pushrod off a few turns and gradually adjust it up until you have between 1/8" and 1/2" pedal free travel.

Throwout Bearing Clearance:  Working from under the car, grab hold of the clutch fork with your fingers, and pushrod with your thumb.  Try to push the pushrod back through the clutch fork.  You'll feel the throwout bearing contact the pressure plate.  There should be about 1/8" free travel at the end of the clutch fork.  If you can't move the clutch fork relative to the pushrod, your clutch is out of adjustment.  Wind the adjuster nuts down the pushrod toward the slave cylinder until you achieve the right free travel.

Both these adjustments right?  Time to check whether the system's bled properly.  This is best a two-person job.  Have someone push down on the clutch by hand while you observe what's going on at the clutch fork.  As soon as the pedal free travel's taken up, the slave cylinder pushrod should start to move.  The end of the clutch fork should move nearly an inch with a full stroke of the pedal.

To me, it looks like something's not right with the actuating mechanism.  I'd try checking first that the slave cylinder piston's not stuck in its bore (pop the rubber boot off and shine a light inside).  And the pressed steel clutch forks can crack or break, producing symptoms similar to yours.  Unhook the return spring, remove the pushrod, remove the spring and covers from the clutch fork, shine a light inside the bellhousing and inspect the clutch fork to see that it's not bent.

Rob

Brett,

Buying your motor would be the sensible option, but I like the idea of building something up out of discarded parts.

Rob

Brett,

Down in the dungeon I have a well-used Repco Special Sports 3-3/16"-bore B-series motor which I got from Stan Bennett.  It might have been his speedway car tow vehicle's motor.  The head's been ported and had red motor valves fitted.  It could do with new valves, guides, rings, bearings and a balance (I have a lightened flywheel to suit) plus a reground cam, as I think it's running a stock cam at the moment.  It'll give me something to play with.

Rob

Factory preparation for the Armstrong 500, or perhaps Jack Davey's work for a round-Australia trial(*) sound plausible, but my favourite would have to be Repco upgrade.  Wasn't it Lou Kingsley who had a Repco-headed FE, and used to tow his caravan between meetings with his race car? (**)

Finding a Repco head might be a challenge, though.  For the moment I'll be satisfied with a 3-3/16"-bore motor, worked-up Holden head, twin Strombergs, headers and some work in the camshaft department . . .

* "Dust and Glory" by Evan Green.  A retelling of the Australian section of the 1968 London-Sydney marathon, but set in the late 50s.

** Rumour has it that Lou, for laughs, used to take his FE to an unsuspecting garage, whereupon the young apprentice mechanic would say,"it's not idling that well," take the car for a blat down the road and come back ashen-faced.

Rob

Aa-and -  Here's the rear shock crossmember, welded in place:



It almost looks original.  Enough so it won't attract attention, come blue-slip time.

I discovered (because of rain) that I can work in the carport with the body shell raised enough so I can get underneath it.  As long as I don't try to rotate the shell.  Don't want crease marks in the roof.

Rob

And here is the rear axle hump, with hedgehogs removed and some paint applied, ready for the rear shock crossmember to be welded in place:



Rob

The more difficult side turned out to be easier.  I'll put it down to having done the other side.  But this time I needed to slot and bend forward the return of the rear floor to get better access to the seam at the front.



And with more drilled spot welds, I could line this piece up exactly.

Rob

Craig,

I've got one, but don't use it often.  Instead, I use the harmonic balancer as the alignment tool: with the timing cover loose, drive the balancer onto the crank just far enough to engage the seal, then tighten the screws.

Rob

The easy side first.  Here's a section of the HT upper boot floor cut'n'shut into the FC's upper boot floor where the access hole for the top shock absorber mount used to be.  I even managed to get the drilled spot weld holes into alignment:



I then turned my attention to the big hole on the left side, but, predictably, it rained.

Rob

I am now "working from home".  Or -

My "coronavirus project" is now indeed my coronavirus project.  Well, it's been two years since my last case.  But this time I have no symptoms, except maybe the hint of a sore throat from time to time.

I am isolating by working outside.  Today I put in a couple more self-tapping screws, and tapped the side returns down so they conform to the bodywork and tacked them in place.  Then I took paper patterns and cut the filler pieces out of 2 mm sheet, taped them in place and laid some tack welds in.

Which leaves the gaping holes in the boot floor.  I'm going to re-use the part of the HT boot floor which was spot-welded onto the "dimples" of the rear shock crossmember.  I've marked it up ready to cut out the sections I need.

Photos to come, when it's not dark or raining outside.

Rob

. . . and today the rain held off long enough for me to zip the slot up shut, dress it down and breathe a layer of paint over it -



Rob

I would very much like to have brought home a supercharged, 427-engined '62 Chevy II coupe that I saw in the carpark of the Route 66 Diner on Central Avenue, Albuquerque . . .

But today, despite appearances, it didn't rain, so I took advantage of the lull.  I massaged the rear shock crossmember a little more, then massaged the slot I cut in the body shell, then marked up the centreline of the rear shock top mounts on the body and crossmember, and then, all of a sudden, the part I was modifying to fit looked like it wanted to fit.  So a couple of self-tapping screws and a row of tack welds later, here it is, temporarily installed:



This way I could make the bodywork fit the rear shock crossmember.  More work from the passenger compartment with a hammer, and then I laid in a row of "bridge-welds" (complete with hedgehogs, which I'll grind off when time comes to install the shock crossmember for good).



The wire-frame of the rear seat squab doesn't hit the modified bodywork, so that's a bonus.  And I think I'll fold up a channel to retain the bottom of the rear-seat-to-boot divider and tack-weld it in place while I'm at it.

Still to do: the returns at the right and left side of the crossmember.  I'll make them conform to the body's profile and then fill in the gaps with 1.6 sheet.  And then the donor piece might even look like it was part of the car originally.

Rob

It looks like if I don't post, nothing gets posted (Clay excepted) . . .

So I had an hour or so free this afternoon, marked up the floor behind the rear sat squab, cut a long transverse slot, and pushed the metal forwards (duck-bill vice grips work very well for this).  It still cleared the frame of the rear seat squab.  I call that a bonus.

I'm off to Parkes for a week.
I get back from Parkes, spend a day at home, then get on a plane to Texas to chase an eclipse.
I come back from Texas, and nine days later, I get on a plane, again, to fly to the US, again, this time for work.
Don't ask the obvious question.  I tried, and was was shut down even before the thought could be articulated.

Franz Kafka is the patron saint of bureaucracy.

Rob

Vern,

Basically yes to all your questions.

The early conrods need to be drilled at the top of the small-end when using new big-end bearings.  This change was made half-way through FJ production.  I think the pin bushes have an internal groove.
I was advised not to drill through the bearing shell because of the risk of burrs. Apparently, the shells are drilled, if needed, before the bearing metal is applied.
And the fourth ring groove is below the piston pin, less than half an inch above the skirt.

Rob

Vern,

You go to the heart of the issue.  The motor Jeff decided to use is a 1950 or 1951 build, with rifle-drilled conrods.  You can't get big-end bearings with the extra hole for piston pin lubrication any more; I was advised against drilling the bearing shells to suit.  So we had the conrods drilled from the top of the small-end, with new bushes and piston pins, all done by a shop in South Windsor, where Jason (ex-Duncan Foster, and general grey motor guru) now works.

The pistons are 3.000 + 0.020" four-ring pistons.  JP was happy to supply the rings with an extra set of three-piece oil rings.

Rob

. . . and looking at the FE Standard rat-rod thread has given me ideas.  DIY exhaust from commercial bends, namely.

It rained yesterday, and today I got distracted: six pistons and conrods installed in an FJ engine build.  In doing which I flogged out the ratchet in my piston ring compressor.  Junk.  Forty-some-year-old junk.

So not much to report.

Rob

. . . you've just inspired me to do my own exhaust.

B.t.w., the clamps and flanges look almost exactly like the ones we use at work for vacuum systems.

Rob

Craig,

I have a Warren and Brown reamer to suit FX-FC king pins.

It's unlikely you'll be able to get by with replacing just the bushes (and then I remember I did just that . . .).
The Rare Spares king pin kits are supplied with 0.010" oversize pins.  This is good in that you don't have to replace the old bushes.  It is bad in that you have to machine out the steering knuckle supports to take the larger pin.  I have it on good authority (Drew at FB-EK) that this operation is a complete pain in the arse, due to the difficulty of setting up the steering knuckle support in a machine, and the hardness of the forging.

So - check the fit of the pins in the uprights.  They're supposed to be almost size-for-size, but the king pins often loosen, start to rock, and flog out the hole in the upright.  If your pins don't rock in the uprights, you may be able to replace the bushes only, if the pins aren't worn.

See https://forum.fefcholden.club/index.php?topic=26930.0

Rob

Imgur has decided, in its infinite wisdom, to "change things a little around here".  One of many casualties is the "resize image" button.  Trial and error has now shown me that "large thumbnail" corresponds to 680x480.

\rant

I've briefly turned motor body trimmer.  Because I have to move the HT rear shock top mount crossmember about half an inch forwards to get the mounts in the right place.  Which means modifying the upswept floor section behind the rear seat squab (cut transverse slot, bend metal forwards, and re-weld).  And I need to confirm that the change in the bodywork's profile doesn't hit the rear seat squab's wire frame.  It's easiest to strip the squab down to find out.



This is what remains of the squab cover.

And the squab wire-frame in place -



The whole frame's out of whack.  I think it got run over at some point when it was out of the vehicle (I can't think of any non-series-of-pratfalls chain of events to explain this . . .), but that's beside the point at the moment.  The good news is that there's enough clearance to accommodate the modification.  For once the engineering gods are smiling.

Rob

7426656 suits the plastic reservoir, and will have wider flange webbing than 7409631 (Clay, please verify).  There would have been a wide-flange but small-thread master cylinder to suit EJ-early HD, which 7426656 superseded.

7423384 will probably have the narrower webbing, and will have superseded 7409631 for FE-EK.

This is my best guess anyway . . .

Rob