I'm going to give voice to an unspoken rule of thumb about vehicle restoration, and put it in writing even, so I am most likely violating a taboo:

Life Gets In The Way.

My brother died this morning.

Work on "Found Object" will no doubt take on a different rhythm . . .

Rob

A Foretaste of Things to Come -





I'd been carrying the retrimmed back seats around in my grey FC since about September.  I picked up the newly retrimmed front seat last week.  On the subject of which - the trimmer told me it "needed work": frame required welding, six or seven broken seat springs on the driver's side to repair, frame wire needed replacing, and a coil spring inserted on the driver's side.  The trimmer also covered the seat surrounds in vinyl.  He said, "Otherwise, it's just black plastic."  And I replied (possibly before completely engaging brain), "Except, that's how Standards were originally.  Doesn't matter.  I quite like how it looks in red."  The seat's missing a couple of sheet metal brackets to reinforce the seat surrounds, but I'll copy them from the grey FC.

Meanwhile, Martin Frigo e-mailed to say that the front, rear and boot mats were on their way.

It looks like I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I figure the best place to store bulky parts is in their intended location.  The seats are covered in old curtains for the moment.  Although . . . I'll have to pull the mats and seats out to finish the underside of the body.

And in other news, I've bought another engine.  Still have to pick it up.  More details soon.

Rob

The replacement diff pinion oil seal is a flimsy imitation of the original, and is very easy to distort when installing.  The original has a leather inner seal, and a felt outer.  The replacement is a spring-loaded rubber lip seal.  You'll probably find that your pinion flange is grooved, making it very difficult for the replacement seal to seal up.

All Holden diff pinion oil seals leak.  The shop manual says, "An occasional drop of oil is to be considered normal and does not warrant attention."

The newer-style 3.89 diff centre was introduced part-way through FJ production.  At about FE time, the pinion oil seal was revised to the leather-plus-felt type.

Rob

The number 1 body crossmember on the driver's side has a retaining clip for the fuel and brake pipes.  I decided to weld it on today.  I tipped the body shell onto its side, got out with the old fuel and brake pipes, lined them up by hand, marked the place with chalk, and then wondered why I went to all the trouble when I could have just taken measurements from an "example" FC sitting not ten feet away in the carport . . .

. . . which I did, and confirmed that my chalk marks were in the right place.

And then, since the shell was on its side and the afternoon sun was shining gently down, I strip'n'cleaned a few weld seams on the underbody that I really should have primed about three years ago . . .

. . . and primed them.

Rob

You could try Old Auto Rubber, (02) 4721 1414

Unit 6, 20/21 Lambridge Place, Penrith

Rob

Take the guard out into the back yard and put it painted side down on the grass.  A mulched or wood-chipped garden bed will work just as well.  Then stand on the creases.
If you have a rubber mallet, work the lip of the wheel arch back towards its original profile.
You might need to twist the bottom rear corner of the guard back into true.

Then you can bolt the guard on and examine your work so far.
Everything's repairable, it's just a question of the effort to repair the guard versus the effort of finding another good one.

Rob

Late this afternoon, it looked like the rain was going to hold off long enough for me to tack-weld into place the retainer strip for the rear-seat-to-boot divider.  I used the old divider as a template.  Figured it wouldn't matter if I charred it or set it on fire. Hmm. No smoke.  Not even any smouldery smells.

Putting the replacement divider in place was, of course, not without its challenges.  I had to bend many tabs and even the seat squab hook to clear the holes in the new divider, but here it is, sitting in place in the retainer strip:



And then I pulled the divider out, laid in a few more welds, dressed them, and breathed a layer of primer over.

Oh, and also - one of the seat squab fold-over tabs had broken off.  While I had the welder out I welded a new section onto it.

Rob

Nick,

With the bulb in the socket, repeat the test with the multimeter, but with the positive lead on the indicator housing and the negative lead on a known good earth, for example the front bumper.  If the multimeter shows voltage when the indicators flash, you have a bad ground connection between the indicator housing and the car body.

Undo the mounting nuts and pull the indicator housing out.  Wire-brush the mounting studs clean.  Wire-brush or sand around the mounting holes on the inside of the fender.  Put external-tooth lockwashers between the nuts and the body.  Tighten down securely.

Rob

Rod,

I have exactly the same "hunting" problem with my grey FC, ever since I started driving it.  It's apparent with a 51 main jet, and goes away with a 52.  The car also has an off-idle hesitation, which I can compensate for by pulling the choke out a millimetre or two (no idea why this would work - maybe some magic with idle discharge holes.)  As far as I can work out, it's an engine-specific problem.  If I put the FC's carburettor on my Humpy, the Humpy runs like a clock.

So thanks for the 1.3 mm drill suggestion.

Also - 149 EHs were prone to lean off-idle mixtures.  NASCO suggested a work-around, to drill the upper idle discharge hole out from #70 to #69.  Read the May 1964 "Accelerator" at hrc.au

Rob

P.S. - you may retorque your head bolts, but I don't think it's necessary.

If I do nothing, nothing gets done.

I had a couple of hours in the late afternoon, and I made a retainer channel for the rear-seat-to-boot divider.  I made it out of the 25x0.8 galvanised strip with holes in it that you use for, among other things, cross-bracing a wooden deck so it doesn't sway.

Rob

Craig,

I've got one, but in the immortal words of Monty Python's "Meaning of Life" (Live Organ Transplants),

"But I'm using it."

Maybe, just maybe, by the end of the year, I'll have the body shell off the rotisserie . . .

Rob

An XU-1 at the Mt Druitt shops?  That would be like putting a sign on it saying, "Steal me".

Craig,

You wrote, "you will need to rejet the carbys or they will run rich as you are doubling the fuel intake which will be too rich at idle/low revs and foul plugs"

This is a common misconception, but in fact isn't true.  Here goes -

Carburettors are designed to deliver a constant air-fuel mixture over a wide range of intake airflow rates (within reason, and excepting full-throttle enrichment).  In a twin setup, each carburettor has half the airflow compared with the equivalent single setup.  Half the airflow means half the fuel delivery in each carburettor; but because you have two carburettors, you have two times half the fuel delivery, in other words, the same as in a single setup.

Conclusion 1: You don't need to re-jet carburettors in a twin setup.  Two BXOV-1s with 1-1/32" venturis and 0.051" main jets will give the correct air-fuel mixture in a grey motor.

Example: the X2.  X2s use two BXUV-2 carburettors with identical jetting as the 149/161 (1-3/32" venturis and 0.055" main jets).  But why did GM use the smaller carburettors when they could have used two BXV-2s, the same as 179/186 (1-5/32" venturis and 0.059" main jets)?  Imagine you're idling along in heavy traffic, in first gear, in your new performance-model HD and a hole in the traffic opens up, and you want to fill it, fast.  You put the foot down.  At idle speed, there's not enough airflow to pull fuel effectively out of the main discharge system, and your hero model Holden bogs down until the revs have climbed enough to get the main discharge system flowing.  Low-speed driveability is why GM went with the smaller carburettors in the X2s.  So then -

Does this problem exist with twin-Stromberged grey motors?  Most assuredly, yes.  In my over-confident youth I hotted up the ex-family EK (rebore, balance, steel timing gears, 20-60 Bert Jones cam, Yella-Terra head, twins, extractors), and it did not like the wide-open-throttle-at-walking-speed treatment.  Not at all.  But the faster it went, the better it went.  I got the better of a 3.3 VB Commodore at about 80 mph near West Wyalong coming back from Perth one time . . .

Enter the venturi restrictor.  In restricting the venturi, the velocity of air at a given volumetric flow rate is increased.  Mister Bernoulli then says that the vacuum in the venturi throat is increased, giving a greater "signal" for the main discharge system to work on, and this results in better driveability.  Except that there's a strict relationship between the venturi size and the main jet size which must be obeyed.  Thus -

Conclusion 2:  When you fit venturi restrictors to improve the driveability of your twin-Stromberg setup, you need to reduce the main jet size to preserve the design air-fuel mixture. 0.046" to 0.048" main jets are the right size here.

Here endeth the lesson.

Rob

Craig,

You can still use the 23-3001 on a twin setup.  The only difference of any note is the vacuum advance port is drilled to give full advance at idle.  You will, for example, be able to use the 23-3001 in the rear position with the advance port plugged, and the 23-105 in the front position, and connect the vacuum advance pipe to it.

Rob

Craig,

You might have some luck over at FB/EK with Drew's FB Standard wagon thread.  He did an excellent job of troubleshooting his twin Stromberg setup.  And while on FB/EK, get yourself a pair of venturi restrictors.  FJWALLY is the right person to approach.

Carburettor Service Company used to be my one-stop shop, but they've shut down.  I'm at a loss now for rebuild kits and jets.  Extreme Fuel Systems in Narellan?  I think Clay has a good supplier of parts in SA.

Rob

Craig,

You're not doing it quite right.  You're putting the resistance across the B+ and sender pins.  The resistance is supposed to connect from the sender pin, to ground, like this:

Battery (+), lead to fuel gauge B+ terminal, lead from fuel gauge sender terminal, resistance, lead from resistance, battery (-), with fuel gauge case connected to battery (-).

Rob

Harv,

That's the conclusion I came to.  Either the pressure plate face got machined down too much at reconditioning, or weak pressure plate spring.

Rob

(Off-Topic Post)

Executive Summary:  Grey FC's clutch and pressure plate replaced.  Cylinder block water jacket hosed out.

No-Shit-Sherlock Moment:  No, I'm not in my early 20s any more.  Attempting to lift the gearbox back into place defeated me.

TLDR:

I took the flywheel off and removed the welch plug at the back of the block.  My goodness.  Was there some mud and scale in there.  Working from inside the car I hosed the sludge and scale out until it ran clean.  Then I put the welch plug back in.  Yes, I know.  You're not supposed to do that.  But this appears to be a superior-grade stainless steel welch plug, and I Silastic'd the hole in the block and the plug before driving it back in.

I'm stumped as to why the "old" clutch slipped.  The old driven plate and pressure plate appear to be in perfect condition.  The flywheel face is fine.  No grooves, no hot spots, no discernible wear.  I chose not to get the flywheel machined.

Faced with defeat at the bench-press, I improvised a transmission jack by cable-tying a 15x6x1" piece of wood to the trolley jack, which I could sit the gearbox on.  But I still needed to get the gearbox onto the jack, under the car.  See "bench-press", above.

But I can tell when I get tired.  I do things in the wrong order.  Screws which normally behave want to cross-thread.  Parts don't line up.  I wondered why I couldn't get the clutch cover screws to start.  I had put the clutch cover in backwards.  The passenger's rear engine mount bracket bolts didn't feel like they tightened up right.  I had caught the exhaust pipe bracket between the gearbox face and engine mount bracket.  I used a hacksaw blade to clean the slots in the transmission tunnel cover's screw heads with a hacksaw blade and then, predictably, the blade slipped and the red stuff came out of my finger.  The transmission tunnel cover itself gave me grief.  The screw holes didn't want to line up.

Anyway, it's done now.  The Exedy clutch kit seems to be of good quality.  Interestingly, the Exedy driven plate's quite a bit lighter than the PBR/Clutch Industries one.  The facings are the proper 203 mm/8" OD.  Pedal effort is less than before, and it takes up 1/3 of the way off the floor, rather than 3/4.  It doesn't shudder or rattle on engagement.  Let's see what happens in 10000 miles.

Rob

Yep.  I surprised myself.  Once I got my welding-helmet-clad head into the wheel arch, access wasn't great.  Also, it was getting late in the afternoon.  Normally, these two things mean crappy welds, but this time it went well.

Rob

Signing out of imgur and signing back in seems to have done the trick.  A bit like the old "have you turned it off and back on again?" thing.

Here's Sunday's repair:



I went in with the strip'n'clean disc and breathed some black primer over the repair so it won't rust.

Rob