George takes a trip

Today George went to Reading.
With some trepidation I set off up the A4 from Newbury heading towards junction 11 of the M4.

Not exactly the road trip of the century but further than he has been for a while.

Overall the trip was great fun, with a small amount of hooning where appropriate of course ;-)
The downside was that the alternator tensioner is buggered, the bracket has slipped and the bolt head has sheared off.
So, the next job will be to fabricate another bracket using a different fixing point.

Test Drive

Having finally fitted the front propshaft we took George for a test drive yesterday, just a few miles up the road to a couple of byways near Cold Ash.

Other than being quite noisy due to the silencer being knackered, there were no major issues. The steering was somewhat wandering about and the headlights decided not to work.

I have had a go at tightening the steering box adjuster, so am hoping that this will help with things as all the other steering bits seem tight.

There is still a problem with hot idle speed being far too high. Not sure what to do next though as I have now had both SUs off and been through the setup process. There is new vacuum hose to both the dizzy and the brake booster and I can't find any other obvious air leaks.

Anyway, now for some pictures.

Test drive

Local Byway

Local Byway

Next jobs are to sort out the roof / windscreen fixing to stop it banging and clattering, sort out the lights and  to fix down all the flooring and panels.

Back on the road

Eventually after much buggering about, George is again fit for the road, well mostly.

The electrics have been sorted (only a couple of small things need doing now). Some bits still need tidying up.
Amazingly, all things seem to be working and nothing major has dropped off on the runs I have made so far.
Some pictures:-

Fuse Box - Prior to connecting

Fuse Box - Work in progress

Fuse Box - Completed

Fuse Box - View from above

Coil fixed and connected.

I have made a start on the monster list of things to do, I have fitted a new seat belt on the drivers side and have removed the sliding windows from the truck cab. That was a bit of a pain to do, but will make things much better when I get some new, clear perspex in there.

Some oil has been added to the steering box and relay, as well as topping up the gear and transfer box. The handbrake has been cleaned and adjusted, but I think that the pads will need replacing as they were somewhat oily.

The road tests were fun, but the steering is not quite right, it is a full time job keeping George on the correct side of the road. I will see if I can adjust the slack in the steering box a little to help with that.

One other thing that is spoiling the drive is the idle speed gets stuck at 1500rpm when it gets warm, I have taken a quick look and can see that the carb pistons are not dropping fully back down. Not sure why, but have bought some new brake vacuum hose to replace the current knackered one just to remove it from the equation.

I am tempted to take George off to a garage who can do a proper job of setting up the carbs and timing, I would think the cost would be offset by the reduction in fuel consumption. I think a new exhaust is required as the left ear takes a bashing. Am hoping I can get it to be a proper 4 -> 2 setup.

Progress Report

Just a quick update for all my followers.

A fair bit of progress with the electrics have been made. I now have finally decided where the fuse box will go (to the left of transfer box) and have made up a frame for it to sit in.

The wires running into the box have been passed through the glands from an IP65 junction box, I will need to drill some 22mms hole in the box to fit them into.

The tricky bit is ensuring that there is enough flex inside and out to enable removal and maintenance in the future without having too much flapping around.

Hopefully I can design something that is functional yet not too untidy.

8 is a great number

tAt last, George has all 8 cylinders working, in the end it was just a tiny piece of paint/plastic in the inlet valve of the OS carb float chamber. This is the result of having no filter installed in the original Facet pump. Now I have two.

Took him for a quick run up the road, and am still grinning like a muppet. Not only does he run, he starts on the button too.
The bits I bought from SimonBBC all seem to work great, sadly I had to spend another £40 as I killed the first ignition unit with reverse polarity). Good service too.

Now I really need to get the electrics finished and get onto the road. The good news is that most of the new wiring is tested and working. I shall be making smaller neater fuse/relay board (new chopping board :-) ) and have some ally plate to make the dash switch/light panel.

Fuse box testing

To my great surprise I found that most of the functions on the fuse / relay board worked first time.

In the end I seemed to definitely only blow one fuse, and that was due to my clumsiness with the test wires.

A little bit of rework was needed due to some swapped wires and poor connections, but it all seems to work now.

Next task is to do a trial run fitting it into George, once I get it to work I will either redesign it smaller and neater or just leave it for a while until I get the engine running.

I do think I have missed something though. I will let you know when I do.

Fuse box construction

Tonight I have finished the first attempt at the fusebox. Such a simple word for a complicated thing.

Anyway here are some pictures of the finished article. The mounting board as you can see is a natty chopping board. The benefit of which is that it is non conductive and fairly easy to cut.

Fuse box, switch out connections at bottom

Fuse box, power out connections at bottom

Fuse box, rats nest

The basic idea is that all major things are controlled by relays, 15 in all (2 are in the dash for the blower and windscreen wipers).
The controls switch to earth with the exception of the brake pedal switch which has a loop out and back.
The fuses are split into two groups, permanent live and switched live, the key relay dealing with that.

The starter relay also is designed to turn off most circuits while it is energised. This feature is extended by the addition of the 'wading' switch, which can be used to turn off the cooling fan, lights and other things that won't like getting wet.

Although the rats nest looks bad currently, it is like that as I want to remount things on another board as a final design. Having thought about things a bit more there are some layout issues I want to fix.

Next step is to test it and try to plumb it in.

Prizes for guessing how many fuses get blown.

Some more bent metal

Another task started over the weekend was to create a bracket to mount both the ignition coil and radiator overflow tank on.

Original overflow and horn

The overflow tank was originally mounted on the off side wing near the horn.

The horn is now hidden between the near side headlamp and the radiator, the tank is now tucked in by the radiator on the other side of the engine bay on a new bracket.
Luckily there was a handy pair of lugs on the chassis rail to bolt onto.
The idea is to to put the coil in a waterproof tub with the lid mounted on the bracket. Just need to find a suitable sized one now.

A little bit of paint will finish it off

New bracket

Coil and Dizzy

Indicators and hazards

The fuse box from the old Nissan has been dissected into smaller more useful chunks for reuse. Luckily most bits were separated enough to run a saw between them. A bit of tidying with a flap disc in my angle grinder and it all looks pretty good.

I now have a couple of fuse blocks and an assortment of relay bases. One bonus part was a three pin diode, which has been used to build the hazard circuit.

The first circuit attempted was the indicators

Indicator relays and fuses

Temporary dashboard, showing Tex cables, hazard and flasher

A pair of relays are connected from the two red fuses and then on to the indicators via the yellow and green cables. The switching is handled by the Tex Magna which has been rejuvenated with a clean and a new coat of paint. Even the green light still works.

Tex Magna in used condition

Tex Magna inards

 The hazard switch is connected via the diode which keeps the offside and near side electrically separate. I will be ordering an LED type flasher unit as the old one doesn't fire due to the low current draw now it is on the switching side.

Amazingly it all worked according to plan.












The indicator switch has a clever mechanical cancelling mechanism. The roller is in contact with the steering wheel and acts on the lever arm as the wheel is turned back to the centre.

Very simple, the only issue is that the arm is not long enough for the diameter of the steering wheel.

Freshly painted

All out frontal attack

After the fairly simple job of the back, I started on the front.
Now the existing wiring was all run down the nearside wing, into a couple of waterproof boxes and then to the lights, fan etc.

This has been removed and replaced with some 12 core 'trailer' cable. Not exactly rivet counter compatible but simple and robust.

This now runs from the passenger seat box, across and along the right hand chassis rail, then up through a hole and across the top of the fan to behind the nearside headlight.

Currently connected with temporary choc blocks all the front stuff is connected here.

The driver side lights have had their wiring extended to keep the number of joints to a minimum.

The coil is to be located above the left hand chassis rail in a waterproof tub, which means another attempt at metalwork.

Hopefully this layout will eventually be fairly neat with minimal visible cabling.

Behind the light - messy but temporary

Headlight mounts

New lights OSF

New lights NSF

Starting at the back

After a long gap of being busy or rubbish weather, today I managed to get some time working on George.

I did a check of the rear lights, hoping that I wouldn't have to touch anything.

Ha, no such luck. So onwards and upwards.

The existing 'system' uses 7 core trailer cable front to rear and some skanky rubbish going from left to right.
Not to mention the usual mass of red crimps

OS Rear

NS Rear

Admittedly I have replaced the crimps with 2x 8way connector blocks. Heresy I know, but as I do want to replace some of the rear lights with new ones I decided that for now it will do,

Anyway the end result is:

The proof of the pudding

Tomorrow, hopefully I will get to do the front lights, and the tricky one that is the hazards...

One small step forward, one or two back.

It seems that I am not able to make much progress on George at the moment.

Lots of other more important things keep cropping up, however I did spend an hour or so removing more of the old wiring at the front.

I am glad I did as I found more part melted wires and nasty joins. I also removed the overflow tank from the O/S wing as I am going to move it to the right side of the radiator where it will be a bit more out of the way.

Engine bay original

Engine bay original

And now

Engine bay

Looking better

Rewiring started

I have now spent most of my recent free time on fixing up George.

The main change has been to relocate the fuel pump from the driver side bulkhead into the seatbox near the fuel tank. I made/lashed up/bodged, a bracket that loops around the chassis rail as I really don't want to start drilling more holes.

This frees up some space to allow me to place the new fuse/relay box there. I have also moved the washer bottle into the same area, it looks pretty nasty and is much better tucked out of the way. This is fixed with a loop of metal strip around the crossmember. Not a pretty solution but it will do for the time being.

Seat box area

Fuel pump and bracket

Washer bottle

While I was in the area I had a go at adjusting the fuel level float so that it actually floats and doesn't foul on the pick up pipe. Hopefully this will result in some sort of sensible reading on the gauge.

I have now started running the wires to create the new loom, I still need to buy a few bits but I should be able to make some headway in the next couple of weeks.

Eeek - Oil leak root cause

 I have found the root cause of the leak from the oil pressure gauge.

I have been tracing the wiring rats nest and found that one of the wires in the headlight circuit had overheated and melted itself and some others insulation. This also burnt the oil pressure line in 3 places, hence the leak.

Looks like a rewire is the most sensible option, this time it is going to be done with relays and fuses everywhere.

As luck would have it... a large heavy box arrived on Friday containing the complete loom from a Nissan Patrol v6. I am stripping it down and will use it to generate a new loom for George.

I will try an fashion a replacement fascia for the control switches and lights when I work out what I am going to do.

Waiting for spring

Too damm cold and dark it is.

I have borrowed a timing light to attempt to get the ignition sorted, but it is just too dark and cold outside by the time I am getting home.

Having checked with the vendor, the ignition module is the correct one, it just one mounts with one screw, which does put it further round the dizzy from where the old contacts were located.

Anyway I have added these photos of the old setup, someone may find them useful.

Lucas 35D8 41176 Distributor

I will post some pictures of the new setup when I get some daylight.

New electric bits

I decided to replace the rest of the ignitions parts as most of it was worn out and tired.

George now has a new coil, HT leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm and a new fangled ignition module to replace the points.

I think I have received the wrong one as there is only one mounting hole on the distributor plate, whereas the Hall Effect switch has two. Optimistically fitting it anyway now seems to cause it to be far too advanced, I will contact the vendor and try to get a replacement.