South African '71 microbus project

[marco]

Starter motor fixed, just removed, cleaned and regreased the solenoid and rotor and cleaned up the terminals before refitting and hey-presto :mrgreen:
no more cooking the battery while I try and whip off the earth lead :shock:
Fired her up and tuned up to get rid off stalling at low revs then noticed fuel pouring out of the float chamber and spindle shaft :shock: :shock: praying that she didn't catch fire as the engine was nicely warmed up!!
Time for a carb rebuild and some extinguishers methinks :roll:

 

[marco]

Carb rebuilt and starts fine now, fast idle is nice and smooth, once it's warmed up it idles ok but stutters and stalls when trying to pull away :? Replaced the knackered exhaust with an empi single quiet pack which sounds nice but now can't connect up the heat exchangers (not that we need them at the mo').
Stripped the front brakes down to discover that the later thick pads have been shoehorned in so waiting on some new discs, have pads etc already.
New brake hoses fitted to the front, calipers rebuilt, new cylinders to fit at the rear.
Sliding door now slides smoothly (took out tons of old grease from the runner channel)
Spent a bit of time polishing her while I'm waiting for the discs.

Damage caused by sliding door coming off it's middle hinge( roller was completely knackered )

Just need to polish the roof

Nice new hoses

 

[68_early_bay]

looking good cleaning up a treat

 

[61 stu]

love it, lookin good fella 8)

 

[marco]

Cheers Guys, itching to get it on the road, but all in good time I guess.
Need to finish the brakes then get it mot'd to see what else it needs.(hopefully not too much 8) )

 

[sucram]

Nice one good to see another South African bay, I think our 69 Church mini bus must come from the same part of South Africa, as like yours the under side was covered in red dust, also the last two digits of its registration number were GP.

 

[marco]

Nice one good to see another South African bay, I think our 69 Church mini bus must come from the same part of South Africa, as like yours the under side was covered in red dust, also the last two digits of its registration number were GP.

It came from from Pretoria, no sea water or road salt to kill it. :mrgreen:

 

[sucram]

Nice one good to see another South African bay, I think our 69 Church mini bus must come from the same part of South Africa, as like yours the under side was covered in red dust, also the last two digits of its registration number were GP.

It came from from Pretoria, no sea water or road salt to kill it. :mrgreen:

Just checked with my partner who's Bus it is and she tell's me that it did indeed come from Pretoria.

 

[marco]

Nice one good to see another South African bay, I think our 69 Church mini bus must come from the same part of South Africa, as like yours the under side was covered in red dust, also the last two digits of its registration number were GP.

It came from from Pretoria, no sea water or road salt to kill it. :mrgreen:

Just checked with my partner who's Bus it is and she tell's me that it did indeed come from Pretoria.

Nice one :mrgreen:

 

[marco]

Having fun with the brakes!!

Calipers don't match :shock:

pads don't fit :evil:

bigger than the og pads. :|
Now waiting for some new calipers and pads.

 

[marco]

More bodgeness discovered, took indicator switch off to get to the bottom of no high beam and found a piece of bean can inserted to earth the horn button to the column, then after some research discovered that it has the early chrome stalk switch from 68-70 models fitted.
Having fun doing the ' 1 step forwards 2 steps back' dance :roll:

 

[marco]

New calipers and pads ready to fit, if only it would stop raining
Brakes international gave a first class service, Thinking I'll replace the pipes while I'm at it, then I'll have new brakes throughout, got some cuprinickel or whatever brake pipe, just get the local garage to form some nipples and I'm sorted.

 

[Grazy]

Well done on getting the cuprinickle stuff , much easier to shape ive heard

8)

 

[marco]

Well done on getting the cuprinickle stuff , much easier to shape ive heard

8)

Just some I've got in the shed from previous fettling of old knackers.
Got some hose to caliper pipes made up today as I didn't like the look of the brazed repair to one of them :shock:

 

[marco]

Today I fitted my new calipers, along with new discs and pads and some new pipe from caliper to hose. The splash shields are nice and solid and everything seems to come apart with out too much hanging off spanners.
nice new n/side...

nice new o/side...

dodgy braze repair on brake pipe...

Also did the n/side rear brake hose, couldn't undo the o/side so left it soaking in wd40 overnight.
Just the rear cylinders to do and the brakes to bleed and it'll be safe to drive.
Now I have some electrical issues to sort out re the ignition switch and the main beam then some cv boots to replace and it's off to the mot garage to see what else it fails on :mrgreen:

 

[marco]

More PO bodgeness...

Also found 4 lots of these!!!

Brown Widow Spider nests :shock: , thankfully very old, but wishing I'd never watched Arachnophobia yrs ago :?
Just need to do the n'side rear cylinder and bleed the brakes and that's all new brakes except master cylinder.
Need to take drive shafts off and clean and regrease and reboot. Getting there slowly.

 

[marco]

Still paranoid after taking a wheel off and finding a very alive brown widow spider looking at me, (wasn't alive for very long) a few weeks ago.

Finally a dry weekend so bled the brakes and fitted new front shocks. Also have fitted an accuspark ignition module and coil, just need to find out why she backfires and stutters when touching the throttle at low revs, I suspect the carb bottom spindle or air leak somewhere.
R.h. side driveshaft off to replace cv boots.
Trial fitting of 1/4 light seal and glass etc, (man what a pain that job is)
List of jobs to do before she's ready for the road,
1. l.h. driveshaft to remove to replace cv boots.
2. Electrics to sort out ( no main beam ) sorted
3. windscreen washer to fix
4. tyres
5. seatbelts
6. welding
7. windscreen
8. think thats about it.

 

[marco]

Not much in the way of interesting progress, replaced c.v. boots on the driver's side, sprayed the driveshaft while I was at it, need to do the same to the passenger side one now.
Soldered the 2 wires that had come off the indicator/dip switch and found a lose connection on the relay board for main beam, job sorted.
Removed the tailgate glass and the sliding door 1/4 and 3/4 light glass ready for new seals. Need to repair the 1/4 light upright part of the frame(the riveted on bit) and fit the new seal and try to reassemble it all.
Started treating the small rust areas that were hiding beneath the seals and thick s-african soil.

 

[marco]

Some more piccies,

Waiting for new headlights to arrive

Rear window out while treating some pitting, not too bad considerin how much dust there was underneath the old seal

Have you seen the light!!!

 

[61 stu]

looking sweet mate 8)