P6B S Project Car

The spare mufflers came with olives, but almost certainly off an auto - is the front muffler going to connect to my manual front pipe, or is the size wrong? the book lists olive gex7470 for autos, and GEX7439 for manuals...? Some sites list GEX7439 as fitting 2.5" pipes. The olives I have are 1.75" across the small diameter. MGBD list GEX7439 as fitting 2.25" pipes.
thanks

Auto intermediate and rear boxes can fit to the manual front pipes, the later big bore auto silencers are a lot easier to fit than the early small bore ones, but they can be made to fit as well, the join just doesn't look too pretty.
 
Thanks Harvey. By 'can fit' do you mean the olives and flanges fit OK,or is some fettling required?Any pics of the ugly joints with the big bore silencers?
 
Had some fun putting new foam on the heat control flaps -the two that move together. I had some nice self adhesive foam, but its thickness and hardness was just too much to allow the flaps to close well, despite some time spent trying to get there. This stuff was bought from a well known source of rubber stuff, big range of types and sizes, spent quite a few $ there. Ducked down to outlet of large hardware chain, and hiding in amongst some rolls of narrow foam was a long(> 1 m) wide (250mm) roll of 3mm quite soft self adhesive foam for $8! Ideal, did the job very nicely, flaps shut well. Enough left over to do severalmore heaters! Refitted the bulkhead foam, as it was in pretty good shape, so its basically ready to go back in now. Going to leave it for a bit while my ribs recover - deep breaths or coughs produce quite a crunch somewhere in the 3 floating ribs - apparently I have damaged the cartilage there.
 
Feeling a bit better today after resting some, low activity. One of my wiper spindles had a frozen clamping nut, so I deided to tackle it while the heater is out - need to wriggle it out as the nut wont loosen - the whole spindle turns and nut wont loosen. After some WD40 and judicious application of vise grips I managed to get the nut to move a little back and forth, then a bit more, and finally got it right off. Culprit was some corroison on the threads , so gave it some wire brushing and silicon spray , and the nut now winds all the way down smoothly. Reassembled, done.
Quiz - whats odd about those nuts?
 
Its not uncommon actually, The male thread on the spindle is aluminium... I've had them where the nut completely stripped the thread and was still in the starting position....I had to change the whole spindle. I suggest coating thread with never-cease to prevent the corrosion and wire brushing before removal...
 
Didnt think of anti-seize, thanks. Just have to slacken off the nut and apply some. Have both copper and aluminium stuff - recommend one over the other?
 
Got the accelerator shaft support plate back in place. What a complete PITA that is. With the ARB and the trackrod restricting access and the angle you can turn a spanner through, just doing up the two nuts took ages, even with the bolts captive. NEVER going to touch that thing again! More expletives issued getting the ball joint on the end of the shaft - if you get your fingers/hands on it,you cant see whats going on.
Slackened off the wiper spindle nuts and applied some anti-seize - should be good for another 48 winters now. ribs improving, but not quite ready to refit the heater yet.
 
Looking at the wiper spindles again - can anybody verify which side should have the longer unit please? I think I have heard/seen here that its the left side. Looks like I re-assembled them wrong last year, as the rhs looks longer...
Even the grommets look different ?
cSHSLYn.jpg

thanks
 
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Here is a better pic, showing the different lengths of the spindles, and different rubber lengths. The left spindle is close to 2" long from the plate, the RHS is < 1.625.
STnojhW.jpg
 
Heater is nearly back in....real PITA to manoeuvre , would be much easier with the steering box out, but thats just too much to tackle. Difficult part was getting it far enough to the off side to get the short control levers through their hole - the articulated lever was set straight initially and it seemed to go in OK. Thinking maybe my home made horizontal seal was too thick, but eventually it fell nearly home. Then I looked at where the articulated lever for the top flap went - the one with a rivetted crank on it - the rod going sideways to the control lever was way out of line, at least an inch away from meeting the hole in the control slide. It was fouling on the ducting moulded in the base bulkhead, and access is very difficult to try to move the short link . eventually I got at it with long handle plier type things (cocky-beaks we call them) through the hole above the radio, and it looks like it will connect now. Now I find that the metal part on the console that carries that slide is loose on the console, and I cant see the screws that hold it try to tighten them - maybe they are gone altogether? The book shows 2 screws with NUTS! I think I need a mirror and a good light in there to see whats what.....
update - no sign of any screw heads on the metal plate , possibly one hole visible that might have had a screw, but it almost looks like its threaded, which would mean a screw came in from the other side...which is impossible to replace without dismantling the whole speaker surround stuff.

Does anybody have a pic of a dismantled console ,showing the RHS where that slide fits please?
 
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Got the inside levers connected easily, using long socket extension from driver side as suggested - thanks! Top flap control is not quite right yet, some adjustment required on heater box, but it does open, and the fan works correctly, and is actually quite audible! Now to reconnect all the engine bay stuff that was disconnected to gain access in there...
 
If you look at the covering panel, you will see the spindle holes are also at different heights. They are matched sets but there were a myriad of slightly different arrangements used on the panel. mostly its the hole size thats different. Early ones had small holes with rubber on both sides of the panel locked in place directly by the spindle rubbers. Or just one hole like that. Later ones had a grommet around alarger hole and a plate clamped to the spindle which pressed against the grommet. the plates are specifically shaped for their position, mirroring the panel, and also vary between panels....Technically the tall spindle should go on the drivers side position as the panel is higher up there.

Ps. re heater box - remember to connect the earth lead from the switch level to earth... and its pivot point is the rod in the box and you can maneuvre the linkage (across the car via the pivot joints) to get good contact with the speed buttons in the console. on later cars the mechanism is plastic and bad contact melts it...
M
 
Mike, your comments on 'covering panel...spindle holes' have lost me, no idea what you speak of?
 
Er sorry, that 's because i was one step ahead of you...oops. At one point I tried the two rubbers in both positions. If you swap them around from what you have you will find that the motor part won't line up properly. it's to do with the curved piece of tube being bent in only one plane from memory. I've a vague recollection that the slot in the rubbers where they mount to the car may be sloped (slightly) also, you need to turn them to align the spindles paralell. if you are fitting new blades don't buy the plastic backed ones, use the old style metal backed rubber as the plastic ones get a set on them at rest and cease to wipe the middle of the drivers side window after a while...You can buy just the rubber bit and change it out. Let me know if you need parts I have a box full of them.

the heater switch mechanism is held on by two (I think, at least two) BA size set screws. The metal versions are threaded but the plastic ones have nuts captive to the plastic. Unfortunately it's pretty well impossible to get to them, or even see them, while the console is in the car. They are located at the very top and bottom of the slot. On the inside. However it isn't just a slot there is a spring loaded plate slide that the lever rubs against. the springs are tiny and nothing is designed to be worked on. I have a couple of consoles up north and will be there later in the week and will try to get pics. The NZd built air con cars use a two inch long set screw to join the console lever to the heater box lever as you can only get the nut on the very end of it....
 
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OK, got you now! Will look carefully at the wiper spindles to check that they are parallel. I have had the tube and spindles out twice now - once to get the nut turning properly, second time to check that the LHS had the long spindle. I replaced the grommets for the wipers in the valance, and noticed that in the LHS one the spindle was distorting the rubber - will check more carefully this time when I refit the valance. Re the screws holding the metal base of the RHS lever, I think I can see a threaded hole in the metal frame, but I can see any way of getting a screw in there , or what it would fit into. Badly need pics of what it looks like from the bulkhead looking back. Only mirrors I have are too small to show me anything useful. Having said that the lever seems to open the flap OK, and it does operate both fan speeds.
 
The wiper spindles were well out of parallel, but some playing with the rubbers enabled me to get them very close.
Got the choke reconnected today, after initially panicking when i couldnt find the little ferrule that clips onto the carb body. Then when I fired it up, it would only run at 2k. WTF?? Throttles were well off the stops. WTF?? in the end the only reason I could think that might have moved the pedal position was ....the new grommet on the shaft at the bulkhead. In the end I had to shorten the vertical link from the counter shaft to the near side carb - lock nut size on the ball joint ends ?? < 3/8", >5/16", very tight 8mm ?? All works as it should now, so nearly finished this lengthy task.
 
Got the wiper spindles as high as I could, but they still dont sit well in the valance grommets. The near side wiper spindle outer washer (asymmetric one) doesnt seem to sit properly, dont know quite how its supposed tofit.? Then I had alot of trouble getting the outer small screws fitted - I suspect that my new home made rubber seal on the heater top is either too thick, or too hard, making it hard to seat the valance. Might have to come back to this area.
 
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