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

I began modifying the HT shock mount crossmember to suit the FC -

Firstly, I moved the fold at the front 12 mm rearwards.  Apart from folding the metal itself, I had to drill three spot welds in each of the large anchor plates at the front, then slice maybe 8 mm off to clear the new fold line (I'll seam-weld along the cut to restore some strength now that three of the five welds are gone).  And I checked that the shock mounting plates don't foul on the new fold.

Second, mark up and cut a 90 mm section out of the middle, then tack-weld the two halves together.

And third, make some cuts and folds to accommodate the two ribs in the floor.



In the HT, this section of boot floor in front of the fuel tank is flat.  I was hoping that it would be also in the FC.  It is, to a first glance, but in fact it's slightly domed up.  So I'll need to "relieve" the floor in a few places to make the donor HT part sit flat on the underneath.

I'll also have to make new returns for the right and left side.  One thing at a time, though.

Provisional verdict: I think I can make the modification work.

Rob

[had]

Yes, utes and wagons are also prone to breaking the top shock mounts.  (The top mounts that Neil provided for me came from an FB wagon.)  I'm not familiar with the utes, but I think you get access to the top shock rubbers through one of the body members that the floorboards attach to.

But it's also worth saying that I have an extreme case here.  The car has had superlift shock absorbers on the rear, and they had seized up solid.  So the next thing to give way was the top mounts.  It all depends on what kind of use the vehicle has had.  Superlift shocks are notorious for causing fatigue failures of the mounts, and if the car's been used as a paddock-basher, you're at risk (obviously).  Examine the top mounts for fatigue cracks.  They'll also look like rusty zig-zag lines.

I also had to weld up the top mounts on the HD X2 I bought in '85.

For "normal" service, the factory top mounts will be fine, as long as they're not cracked or torn.

B.t.w., I also have a pair of ute/van rear springs for FE-FC, surplus to requirements . . .

Rob

Rear Shock Absorber Mounts (Top) -

Plan A: Modify HKTG top mount crossmember to suit FC.



I think that by the mid '60s, GM-H finally decided to do something about the flimsy top rear shock absorber mounts on Holdens.  The HKTG top mounts are a lot beefier than everything FJ-HR, and have the advantage that the shock's top stud goes into a mount plate, itself held onto the body by three bolts.  No longer do you need to take everything out of the boot, mat included, and work through a little hole, dropping hardware into places where it never comes out, and being careful not to bounce the rear suspension getting into the boot so that the shock absorber doesn't compress, causing the top stud to fall out of the hole on rebound.  You might think I'm talking from experience here.

Plan B: Replace the original top mounts, with two helpfully provided by FireKraka.



Seriously tempting.  It's a lot easier, even with the extra effort of welding a couple of gussets inside the "V"s to strengthen them up.

For the moment, and until it proves too difficult, I'll go with Plan A.  I drilled a lot of spot-welds to separate the crossmember from the floor panel.  Here's the crossmember, seen from the inside (that is, top):



It is very solidly constructed.

The distance between mounts is about 505 mm for HT, and about 420 mm for FC.  I'll need to cut'n'shut an 85 mm section in the middle.  And the distance from the mount to the "slopey-up" part of the rear floor is about 55 mm in the FC.  The HT rear shock mount plate is 120 mm wide.  If I move the fold at the front of the HT's crossmember 10 mm rearwards, so it just touches the shock mount plate, and if I push the FC's rear floor pressing about 6-8 mm forwards, the mounting holes should be in about the same place as originally.

And, of course, there'll be a fair amount more forming the HT donor piece to shape to suit the FC body.

Rob

A half-marathon with the spot-weld drill, and the LH upper rear shock absorber mount came free -



And then, after another, the RH upper rear shock absorber mount came free -



Note bonus shock absorber rubber, which had been rattling around inside the cavity for who knows how long . . .

The southerly buster has just blown in, so I have put the cars away and run for cover.  No broken roof tiles (yet).

Rob

The major show-stopper with re-using pistons is worn top ring grooves.  Roll the second compression ring around the top groove and measure the side clearance with a feeler gauge.  Anything above 0.003", and your oil consumption will rise.

It'd be interesting to see if your crankshaft is still nominally standard size, given that the pistons appear to be . . .

Rob