Practically Classics Forum

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Cheers,

Minispares finally sent my parcel of gearbox goodies late least week. Quite why it took them two weeks to process a simple order is beyond me. For about $100-150 more I could have bought the same parts from my favourite local supplier and had them within two days.

I discovered my gearbox had the rare "Economy" 30 tooth primary gear and 28 tooth input gear. This gives a 0.9333 drop gear ratio which is not what I want!

Note the line on top of the teeth:



and on the input gear, there is extra groove machined in the sleeve part.



So now I am seeking the regular unmarked A+ 29 tooth primary gear and 29 tooth input shaft gear so I can have a regular 1:1 drop gear ratio. An annoying setback.

Meanwhile I've never been happy with the standard bush on the rear of a rod change gearbox. This is the bush that holds the steady rod between the gearchange housing the gearbox. They tend to fall apart far too early resulting in a mushy gearshift. So I had a friend in Sydney machine up a Lurethane one for me.

Unfortunately he drilled the main hole 1/4 inch and it should have been 5/16. Happily a suitably sized socket held the bush nicely while I drilled it out.



One of the threads in the diff housing was stripped so I drilled it out, tapped and fitted a "helicoil" thread insert. You can also see the new bush fitted with white grease.



I purchased a heater from T7 Design in the UK which fits neatly below the passenger side of my custom dash. It is only ducted to the footwells, I don't need screen demist or face vents in a Moke.



Finally I picked up these two NOS Toyo 720F Mud and Snow tyres at Ballarat swap meet (Autojumble). Road legal mud and snow tyres in 13 inch sizes are incredibly hard to find in Australia now. Mainly because most of the 80's Tercels and Subarus have all died.



Unbelievably another two NOS 720F's in the same size popped up on Gumtree Australia last week. So I have purchased them to make a set of four. As I have 11 13 x 5.5 Hotwire alloy wheels I will now have a set of road tyres and a set of mud tyres for off road playing.

Cheers,

Quite bit of progress has happened on the old Moke in the last couple of months.

First I rebuilt the gearbox. Every bearing, the baulk rings, synchro hub balls and springs and the first-second gear selector fork were replaced. I also fitted a centre oil pickup and a four pin diff as big wheel Mokes are very hard on diffs. I kept my 3.94:1 final drive ratio. With the new 175/70R13 tyres that will give me a 3600rpm crusing speed at 100kph. Just nice.

Next I received the machined engine bits back. The block had a 30 thou rebore (1301cc), the crank was ground to 10/10 thou and crack tested. The rods were resized and fitted with lovely new 9/75:1 pistons. The camshaft had slight wear so I had it reground to a very mild Wade 112 spec, similar to a Mk1 Cooper S. The head off my old Automatic engine was cleaned up and treated to new stem seals and a valve lap. It had been reconditioned only a few thousand miles before I pulled that engine out of the Moke so it didn't need much.





So it was time to reassemble with my helper.



End float approved!



Lovely shiny pistons.



Short block finished and put on the gearbox





The engine and box are now completely assembled, with a new clutch, thermostat, plugs, dizzy cap, yada yada. I've spent a fair bit of money on this build but I want to put it back in the car and not have to touch it other than servicing for another ten years plus.

Hopefully I should be dropping it back in the car this weekend. I am both excited and nervous.

Cheers,
Brett.

World's fastest lawn cart?



It's been very handy for moving an engine from one shed to another!

With my helper I dropped the engine into the Moke.



.. and hooked everything up.



I started the new engine for the first time on August 4. After priming and getting some oil pressure up it was turning over but coughing through the carb. I soon diagnosed I had the distributor drive 180 degrees out. When I corrected that it fired up straight away and sounds sweet. My helper was delighted.

I let it idle for 15-20mins at 2000rpm to allow the new cam to bed in. Set the timing and idle at 1200rpm then took it for a drive.

It's running very nicely and I've put up 35 gentle miles locally already. Much of that was with my helper.

I haven't taken it over 3,500 rpm yet or given it full throttle, yet it seems to have plenty of go. The low down power is so much better than before. It loafs along at 80kph on just a smidgen of throttle, even with a slight headwind. I'm looking forward to getting some miles up so I can explore the new potential.

My only gripe is the 3rd to 2nd gearchange is a bit notchy. It does not crunch, it's just difficult to slot it in. I think the problem is most likely in the shifter as it was third that was difficult before the rebuild. I'll fiddle with it a bit more.

I chickened out of taking the Moke on the interstate trip. I used the Beetle instead. I was kind of glad I did as my four day trip turned into six and I had a 730km sprint to get from the Goulburn NSW area to home on the last day. That journey took a lot less time in the Beetle at 110kph than it would have in the Moke at 90ish due to the new engine.

Cheers,

Great work Brett!

Excellent stuff. That mild baulk ring issue sounds to me like an excuse to fit a 5 speed gearbox from a late Cooper or the Jack Knight version, either of which would go into the available space in any 4-synchro mini housing.