1965 Moke shaped rust pile.

[clm]

I could probably increased the quality of the work but my driveable in June deadline would never have been possible to meet >.<

Chris

[clm]

It's been kind of slow lately but things seem to be creeping along. I had an idea on how to mount the roll bar and use my top bows at the same time.



I have decided to pull the rear feet in towards the center and build some brackets that wrap around the edges of the wing so they both fit :)

On some other news, I tested the oil pressure on the 1100... I will let the picture explain.



It seems to be a fair amount for cold oil but eh. I guess it will work for hopefully 500 miles :)

I also went ahead and welded up the fuel tank.. scary but seems to have worked although I need to rebuild one of the mounting feet now.



Following that I did a rough mod on the idea I have had for a while.. the "blow your mind/why hasn't someone done this before?" mod.

First, build a bar that can bridge across the front of the pedals.



Next add some screws that can adjust the stop point of pedals so they don't spring back too far.



Then you take the push rod out of the master cylinder...



..And carefully grind the ball at the end smooth with the rest of the shaft.



You will likely want to bolt the push rod to the pedal assembly so you can get slight friction so the pushrod stands straight up with the master cylinder body off.



You can now swap a master cylinder FROM the engine bay with ONLY two bolts. The screws under the pedal bod adjusts the free play.

And you get...



I will be doing this on all future minis I own without fail... :)

After that I decided before I can mount the fuel tank I needed to setup the wiring that goes behind it so had to diverge on a tangent putting together the three to two wiring for my rear tail lights.







If you noticed the pair of dual filament lamp holders on each side, that is because all 4 lights will act as the brake lights and both lights on each side will act as that sides turn signals. Along with that all 4 lights will be the normal tail lights which should give me twice the rear lights of a normal mk1 moke without actually having any more lights! :)

Oh and I built up and tested my relay pack before finding a place to mount it.





And that gets us up to the time I posted this. I now need to get the fuel tank mounted and ready for fuel next and then continue the wiring forward.

Moke Crazy Chris

[jedduh01]

Chris

Great job in every way - Astounded by the effort and completion so far. Are you going to get real familiar with a grinding wheel and bump down those spot welds?

Whats the plan for the final outcome? Color Fittings.

  I might need to call and talk and ask some advise.. I just brought in a 66 Moke -  looks more solid than yours but Toe Board floors and RH Side rebuilt!

Keep up the hard work!

[clm]

Oh yes indeed, very familiar with the grinder. The final outcome won't happen for a while, at least until I get a custom top made. It should save ruined paint at the least :)

Before you start cutting brace that thing up, without a roof the floor is the only source of strength. And when you are rebuilding it, pay particular attention to the triangular sill section. Make sure you paint the inside before you assemble it. It is the mokes Achilles heel.

Chris

[clm]

I have been wiring lately, taking the original wiring harness and the late harness and merging them together. Lots of work and not alot of time for pictures.

Here is the harness before binding it,



And after binding it.



And the fuseboxes, the two fuse one is for normal use the 4 fuse box is for the relays. It has a relay for main beam and for dip beam, a relay for normal running lights, a relay for accessories, and a 4 relay block for tail lights... as for those tail lights, here is a little video.



BTW yes I know the brake light on the upper right light was not working in this video, this has been fixed :)

Chris

[jedduh01]

In case your interested..

My wire harness to my Moke is pretty complete and will be re used in its entirety -  The fabric wrapping has fallen off, however -  While working at the Volvo Dealership -- we used a Black Fabric Tape to re do or insulate any electrical repairs that were done.

Tessa- Tape - Germany... It actually has a Volvo Part number if you wanted to get it from a dealership.,
One roll will wrap an entire MIni / Moke Harnes.  Black Fabric- Felt ish - sticky on one side.

Can get part number from Dealership friend if interested.

I think it gives the classic BMC Fabric look without the new plastic modded covering look.

[clm]

That wire wrap looks nice, but I am just going to use modern stuff, I am not worried about concourse points, this will be my fun car ;)

Well after wiring I said heck with it and slapped the front subby in even though I still need to band the cv boots.. and had the satisfaction of having the moke back on 4 wheels finally :)



And did the next sensible thing, tossed a few parts on for good measure.





Everything is working so far except for engine wiring and it's not in yet and front calipers which are not on yet. One thing I wanted to toss out there is this... when I picked up this moke it had this small Desmo light mounted on top of the speedo pod for an interior light, I have decided to keep it seeing as it has a fair amount of history with this moke. Unfortunately it has lost it's lense/diffuser somewhere and I would love to find another one to put back in, any help on that would be appreciated as I can't for the life of me find anything online. Here are a couple pics of it.





I ran oil pressure tests on the remaining assembled mini engines I had with disheartening results. The original moke engine only pumped up to maybe 40 psi cold on the starter, however it did this almost immediately. And the 850 that came out of my original mini would not pull oil pressure no matter how much I primed it. So engines came apart so I could swap out the really low final drive to the higher 3.7 final drive transmission from my original 850. For right now it's going to be a straight transmission swap.

The 1100 engine I have seems to be a strange beast in it's own right. As I received it in the wrecked wagon it had the 3 sync remote box with 4.27 final drive, big bore smog port head, dual 1 1/4 su carbs. And then when I pulled it from it's box tonight? I found more interesting stuff; a brand new clutch disk with a double spring coil spring clutch... 12 total stacked like double valve springs,



and when I get it pulled completely off I am greeted with what appears to be a balanced/modified crank and rod set, what looks like a new cam, decent looking cross hatch marks in the cylinders, and a squeak that was determined to be piston rings as the engine was rotated by hand. A squeak that sounds like a squeaky rubber seal.







I'm thinking it is not fully run in yet, but that it is my best bet for an engine for the moke for now, hopefully it will have no problems with the 500 mile trip I plan to take in June.

Until next time!

[clm]

I have gotten my tires ordered and I am waiting for a clutch seal to allow me to finish assembling the 1100, I have however got some more jobs taken care of. Speaking of the 1100 I had a chance to glance in it's intake ports, they are nice and cleaned up :)



As for the jobs, I got my front shocks mounted, I have no idea what brand they are, they are some kind of adjustable ones and they seem rather long.. at least the back ones do. A friend said they might be spax "penny adjust" shocks.. but *shrug*



Oh and while I was in there.. I discovered a rather horrible issue. Apparently standard 3 1/2 inch wheels don't fit correctly with 'S' brakes! GAH! And I find this out AFTER I have tires ordered. Upon investigation they are hitting these lumps, you can just see the shiny spot.



So I have been forced to buy some thin spacers and get a little creative with the flap disk until I had no more interference. Now this might make some of you scream out in horror, but it will work out all right. Even modified slightly for clearance they are still by far better then rivet wheels! =)

Another couple of projects I have been able to check off is rear bumper and pannier side plate mountings. Yeah yeah bolting them on and clearancing the wheels are somewhat bodgerific but it's just so I can get it on the road now and still get in there and clean up the side boxes later. The pannier sides will eventually be fully welded on!



Along with that I found some creative ways to bend more curve into the bonnet and have been able to get it where I can latch the hooks now... yay!



And the last bit for today.. another sort-of mod. Sort-of seeing as it actually doesn't mod the moke any and easily lets me move the seat back for a bit more adjustability. After thinking about it a bit I decided to use a couple pieces of angle iron a little over 13 inches long. I used angle iron as the 90 degree return strengthens the thin strip on the bottom which allows the strip to be thin so the seat is not raised by hardly any height compared to the passenger seat. It turned out quite well in the end, although I realized too late that I only needed 4-6 countersunk holes and not all of them countersunk :)



Driver seat set up in the rearmost adjustment point with both seats adjusted all the way back, rear passenger seat also all the way back.



Still at the rearmost adjustment point, but with the driver(LH) seat slid all the way forward, others are still slid back.



It works rather well and gives a ton of adjustability if I do say so myself :)

Here is one last view of it.. from the other side.



And with that I will call it a night... Tomorrow I plan to take my 5 bare rims up to be blasted and powder coated and likely pick up some steel for a spare tire mount, but that is later. :)

Chris

[clm]

Well as I stated before, I took my 5 wheels in to the powder coater, and I picked up some steel for the spare tire mount... which I think I promptly overbuilt :) As I have plans to put larger wheels and tires on the moke I wanted to make the tire mount switchable in case it needs to be raised up later. AND I ran into the issue that my back panel was somewhat bent.. (Bent!? Never!) and would not allow the spare mount to sit flat so I added a bar between the mount and the bumper. Adding the bar gave me a shelf that I found fit a small scissor jack perfectly. :)









I also broke down and fixed the old number plate light holder from the old tinny wagon I had years ago, and once repaired mounted and wired in my licence plate light, hopefully my plate holder will show up from California eventually so that it can be bolted on as well.



The 1100 engine is more or less back together, I just need to torque down the clutch bolt and bolt the wok on. I should have engine mounts to mount the engine Monday. While going through my clutch parts I singled out the best friction plate I had.. which oddly seems to be a built up plate as opposed to the one piece that my other ones were built up on... odd.





I dug up an interesting netting stretch bag that seemed to be made to fit in the back of a Moke :)



The windscreen was interesting to fit into the frame, interestingly enough it still had a registration sticker on it from New York 1979.



Oh and.. a couple donuts ready for the their creamy center :)
Vredestein Sprint Classic 145/80sr10. They should work for now.




Mokingly,
Chris

[clm]

Another update and another tip toe closer to driving!

First thing on the agenda, I welded on the replacement bonnet hinge bracket..  (although I didn't take a picture until after the engine was in!)



After that, I received the rest of the parts I needed to assemble the engine, all hoses replaced, new belts, good radiator bolted on... a 1275 top rad bracket due to the 1275 head. And it was ready to get off the bench :)


And to meet the moke :D



I like that pic for some reason... it has character ;)

Once everything was lined up I brought in the cherry picker and rigged it up using a vice grip for a hook and a heavy duty tiedown strap to pick it up... Sounds risky but it worked fine. Once everything was rigged, I proceeded to stuff the engine in the poor moke ;)







And finally..



And once the engine was sitting inside I doubled up the strap and used some stands for safety... And lifted up the whole front of the moke to get to the bolts underneath!



And you thought it was flaky lifting up JUST the engine with a vice grip and a tie down strap! :D

Yeah the cherry picker is missing all of it's chains.

Actually quite easy to install... bolting the engine mounts in were a different story, but you all already know that :) I don't yet have the dive lines hooked up as I still need to grease my u-joints in my metal QL500s. Although I did install my shift lever, my still in bag shift knob ;) and tossed my carb setup in to make sure everything fits.







Tomorrow I plan to grease the u-joints so I can get it back on  4 (somewhat flat) tires and do more work in the engine bay and once everything is good see if it starts :)

Until next time
Playing in the dirt.
Chris

[Mudhen]

WOW!!!  Engine is in?!?!?  Awesome!

Scary, but awesome!   22.gif

Love that tire carrier, too.  Good stuff.

[clm]

Thanks Muddy, Yeah I tend to fake things a bit when I don't have the right tools for the job!

Chris

[clm]

Nothing really photographic to show, but I have gotten the quite a ways since the last post. The engine is fully in and it runs. I had a small hole in the radiator that had to be patched... Putting it back in was almost hell, I had to enlarge the hole in the bottom of the lh inner fender to actually re-install it. I picked up a Gunson Eezebleed and proceeded to blow a hole in the clutch master reservoir... Which I patched. I have my temp and oil pressure gauge mounted below the speedometer pod for now.

And ... scratch that I took some pics :)



Checking out the top







I retrieved my rims today from the powdercoater... 3 weeks and they haven't been touched, I cleaned them up the best I could and tossed some paint on them along with a few rubber accessories (tires :p ) I found it really easy to mount the 10 inch tires, easier then I had come to believe mounting car tires was. I have also... insured and registered it!! So I can make the test drives legally... minus the seat belts of course.. grandfathered cars are fun! lol

I pulled out my nasty top and upon closer inspection the biggest problem with it is the rather large seams that have come undone, the top didn't rip however, it was the threads that failed. I should be able to get them restitched and the one major hole in the top patched and be able to use it until I get another one. (yay)

My fw2 wiper motor works fine... manually :) But no go electrically. I tried putting the new armature in it and it was a no go. The old armature had wires sticking out of it in random directions so I figured it was probably no good. I will end up sending it in to be repaired properly eventually, but for now I paid $39 for a generic shaft mount wiper to use in the mean time.

If all the planets line up I will be driving it in days... and taking it on a trip to my club meeting Saturday. 60 miles there, 60 miles back :) Should be an adventure!


Oh yeah... I drove it forward and backwards a couple inches to test the clutch ;)

Chris

[Mudhen]

Oh yeah... I drove it forward and backwards a couple inches to test the clutch ;)

Chris

We want VIDEO!!!

Incredible ingenuity.  Love it.

Powder coater should have realized you build entire cars in 3 weeks.  It's sort of like the 'dog years' thing -  3 months = 1 week in clm time.  Do you have kids?  If so I bet you had your wife deliver the babies in just 2 months...  ;D

[batman1usa]

aMAZING!!!  I LOVE IT!1   4.gif   4.gif   4.gif

[clm]

Hey all! Here is your video Muddy, and thanks Batman :)

Guess what? The rubber has hit the road!

But first, I mounted my licence plate in the middle of the grill which should work as a form of moisture block to the distributor. I also got the cheepo wiper motor in the mail so mounted it up and got a 12 inch wiper blade for it.





I am not sure I like how much the front tires poke out.



And then the sun came out and rain went away... So I drug the moke out of the shop and got it to the street.. And it's tires touched the asphalt for the first time since I got it off the trailer a year ago :)



And drove it all over town, even got one offer to buy it... which I rejected :)

Here is a pic of the moke in the wild :D



And if you want to see video to be sure I didn't just push it...


(click this!)

Now to try to build a temporary top for it out of some tarps and whatnot so I don't have to keep bringing it back in the shop!

Until next post,
Chris

[Mudhen]

Awesome!!!

I just went back to page 1 and started reading again...what a project...  4.gif

[batman1usa]

RATMOKE!!!!  That is exceptionally COOL!!!

Where the hell did you get that rather large stunt driver?   :-\  he needs to raise the windshield!!  4.gif

61.gif
need a 126.gif  mounted in the back.

[94touring]

haha love it!

[deanwilhite]

Is that beauty going to be at MMW?

[biketesting]

Amazing! 4.gif

[clm]

biketesting> Thanks!

deanwilhite> Yes, although after my test drives I have decided to tow it, it's legs are just not long enough!

94touring> Thanks :)

batman1usa> Work-In-Progress Moke... 100% Imitation Rat look ;)

Muddy> Yeah I can't believe I have managed to get it drive able a whole month before MMW myself seeing as I only really started wrenching in the middle of Feb O.o

Chris

[joltfreak]

Truly an epic build!!!!

[clm]

Woohoo the Holiday Moke made the front page again lol

I towed it to Florence OR last Saturday as I don't trust the engine enough to drive it that far yet. To tow it I built up some brackets that slid over my front bumper that bolted to a tow bar my father has. It worked a treat, about 5 minutes to hook it up and 5 minutes to take it off. With the way I rewired my tail lights I found I can use a 6 foot trailer light extension and just plug it right into 4 wires on my wiring harness. The Lucas bullet connectors are perfect fit in the 4 flat plug!

I have experienced a failure already though, my speedometer seized and destroyed the hairspring for the needle, I now need to find another 90mph standard 850 speedometer, although I did hack apart a Morris Minor speedometer clean up and lube all the moving parts sparingly and got it working in a blackface 90mph speedo body... although I doubt it reads correctly :)



I also think my clutch master cylinder is failing as it's not always fully releasing the clutch... doh.

Chris

[MPlayle]

Check the numbers on the speedometer face, just above the odometer.  The first series is the serial number, the second is the tpm (turns per mile).  That will help determine a matching replacement.  Post here - the guy that bought my yellow 1961 Mini has the original speedometer as a spare and may be willing to part with it.  I can contact him to see if the tpm is a match - it was geared for a 3.76 final drive.  It was a silver faced speedometer whereas yours is black.  The speedometer works, but the odometer is stuck.