G’day Suby Spanner,
That’s a great trick using the high temp silicone for exhaust gaskets. I’ve done it for many years now but failed to do it to that one in the pic. I put some on the second one today as well as on both of the Y pipe mating surfaces. Worked a treat!
As for the struts I’ve already sourced some second hand ones so it was quite a quick drop in affair when I picked up the wagon from the wreckers.
Today was finally the day where I found out if it drives or not. But there was a bit of work to do first. I fitted the passenger’s side spacer block for the exhaust and had to use one of the original shorter stubs for the second torx bolt because the one I had was somehow bent. It can be seen in the pic below. This side went quite smoothly since I knew the process.
I fired it up and let it idle. It was nice to be able to hear other noises rather than a light aircraft spec noise since it now has a whole exhaust on it. This was the point I started finding all the little painful issues such as the sticky throttle pedal. The pivot is rusty and even though I got it moving and lubed up it just wasn’t enough to return to its resting position.
So pedal swap time it was. Luckily for me the brumby halfcut project still sported its pedal box with an operational accelerator pedal. Out it came then off to the wagon for the same treatment. It was easier to remove the wagon’s cutch pedal and cable off the pedal box and drop the steering down to get it out than it was to keep the clutch pedal attached.
^ brumby pedal box waiting to go in. I didn’t really want to go to this extent but my hand was forced and in the end it was much easier anyway.
With that sorted I found a pin hole in the upper radiator hose and the clutch cable was fitted weirdly. Whoever was at it last time had used the two nuts to clamp the clutch fork rather than have the two nuts lock together at the appropriate spot for good clutch pedal feel. So that’s sorted. Next up was a miss at idle. That issue seemed to be cyl3’s spark plug lead being a bit too short and wasn’t seating properly at the spark plug. I removed the boot at the plug a rerouted the lead so both ends engaged properly.
Then it was time for a short drive - mainly in reverse and without brakes at the pedal, and no interior because that is still beyond grose… but it went well!
I was pretty stoked to have it moving under its own steam. There was another issue I found and that was the thermo fan not kicking in, I thought the temp gauge was lying to me as it was up at the HOT line but then came down after a rev or two but was then back up at it again. A check of the temp sensor wiring to ensure it wasn’t earthing out confirmed it was fitted to the temp sensor properly. There wasn’t any boiling sounds or overheated sounds that I’ve heard before with overheated engines so wasn’t stressed.
Then moving the wagon it was up on the hot line again. I checked the thermo fan wiring and visually it looked like it was connected to the thermo switch at the radiator, but upon physically checking the plug it wasn’t connected with anything other than the outer sheath, that was flicked off and the connector gently squeezed then fitted, the thermo fan kicked in and pulled the temp down quick which was good. It then clicked on and off at the just over half temp mark as it should so that confirmed the gauge was working properly. Happy days.
The AC was tested and it turns on, the gas window at the dryer had the little bubbles that usually indicates it’s working ok, they were consistent anyway. It was blowing hot in the cab. I didn’t realise the heater was on and it seems turning the knob to cold didn’t do anything so there’s something to look into there, either a stuck heater tap and/or a cable that’s slipped its mount.
So good day had and I feel a great result too. Very stoked!
Of course it was a good time for a pic of the two moving MYs at home:
Now to work out where to go from here with the wagon…
Cheers
Bennie
Good to see another MY wagon saved from the scrapper, they're more rare than Brumbys by a large margin. All the best with it 
Luckily it had enough in it to maintain the bearings etc so it should be good for a long time. 
It's always the ignition system on these engines that people set up wrong or neglect, always causes problems. 
That's why Liam was so good. 
Nah, really that came about because I rotated the dizzy the wrong way. After that I went back to the original position and then a little further - complete guess work. And that’s when it fired up after that little change. 
