Clancy's Moke Restoration

[94touring]

I bought fancy straps just for tying down by the wheels as to not damage suspension.  Have emergency chains loosely in place but considering how beefy the straps are, it would take a major event for the chains to be required.

[MiniDave]

As far as I can tell, Moke Panels is the only one who sells a Moke seat in steel ...they're currently out of stock but at £237.50 plus £122 to ship, that's $515 American - for one bare steel seat!   :-\

If anyone has a better option (he won't accept fiberglass) I'm all ears. If not he may bite the bullet and order one.

He's been driving the Moke but it still needs some more tweaking - the carb needle is all wrong and the damn brakes went out again after we finally got them to hold fluid and pump up. I think it's the damn master cylinder - I'm really not happy  - it was a brand new cylinder, we put a new and supposedly correct kit it in, and the bore looked fine but here it is again. We had to replace the seals in the brand new calipers too as they were leaking too!

Still have to wire in the turn signal switch - I'll do that next time I'm up that way.

[Red Riley]

You can buy aluminum bomber seats from the hotrod/speedshop places for a couple hundred bucks or less. Might be an option to consider. They even sell them on Amazon.
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/shop/speedway-motors-car-seats~8207-10191-4322-129-199-14108
https://www.amazon.com/Aluminum-Hot-Rod-Bomber-Seat/dp/B01I48G9EK

[MiniDave]

He wants OEM English Moke seats....I suggested going with a later style seat too, both for availability and comfort! He says this is mostly a race track pit car, although he did get it licensed and insured for the street and he plans to do a couple of Mini events in 2012 - assuming there are any by then.

[Willie_B]

Nippycars is who is making the seats. They are on facebook.

[MiniDave]

I looked on their FB page and also their Ebay UK store, didn't see them....gotta link?

[Willie_B]

I looked on their FB page and also their Ebay UK store, didn't see them....gotta link?

Found them on their FB page but they are listed there for 275 pounds.

[Scargo]

Have you tried M-Parts and Runamoke?

[MiniDave]

Yes M-Parts, they only offer fiberglass seats, not heard of Runamoke - have to look them up.

Nope, Runamoke don't offer the seats - at least they don't show on their web page.

[MiniDave]

Been a while since I updated this thread, I did order a seat for the Moke - it was pretty damn spendy by the time it got here, about $500 after exchange rate and shipping! Then he had it powdercoated to match the others too....

So, the Moke came back like a bad penny to my shop again. My brief is to fix the brakes, get it to run right, and fix all the electrical stuff that I fixed before, oh and straighten out the front end......more about that in a minute. Leaving it out all winter in the rain and snow didn't do it much good I guess.

The first part of the running issue was easy, a worn out starter, tho they're not so easy to change when the front panel doesn't come off. Did they not think these cars would ever need service?

Once that was sorted it was on to other electrical bits. I had bought and installed a correct Mk1 turn signal switch, but before that came in I had rigged up a temp toggle switch, like a Bugeye has. It was no longer working so I decided to wire up the correct one - but it didn't work either. I had to take it apart, lube it so it would move and straighten the contacts that must have been bent out of shape when someone forced it to move while frozen up. It took a bit to sort out where the wires went too as the colors on the switch did not match up to those on the harness. It only has a two prong flasher relay, so I ordered a 3 prong too so the little light in the end will work.

The headlights were also dead, that needed yet another new switch as this one had clearly gotten wet and corroded. Once all that was fixed I started it up for the first time - it ran like crap. It would only start on full choke and ran really fast, if you pushed the choke in it just died. Today I pulled the top off the carb and immediately figured out what was wrong - no slinky! All the springs I have are for HIF carbs, but I called around a few friends and one had an old junk HS4 that we could steal the spring out of. With that in place it fired up easily and once I got the mixture set approximately right it idled nicely and runs up fine.  I also installed an air filter that I had gotten from WilieB for my car - but it didn't fit mine......fit's perfectly on this one!

Next - suspension.....he had put brand new tires all around and in less than 50 miles completely ate up the front two! Of course I have no idea how he drove it at all with no brakes (did I mention it has no brakes?) and running the way it did. I ordered in some adjustable lower control arms - it already had the adjustable tie bars  - and once I pulled the wheels off I could immediately see what was wrong - the tie bars were cranked all the way in - it musta had 20 degrees of caster! So I went ahead and installed the new lower control arms, reset the tie bars about where I thought they should be and viola! the wheels are straight again. I had told him when he installed the subframes to get an alignment and he never did - no idea who cranked the tie bars all the way in - but it cost him two new tires.

Next up - brakes. the brakes have pedal, you just have to pump it three times. I went to the rear and the rear shoes were all the way in, so I thought aha! that'll fix it. so I adjusted them out correctly and went and pumped the brakes - pedal came up perfectly! a few minutes later I tried it again and we're back to square one. I have an adaptor coming for my pressure bleeder, but I don't think that's the issue. The brand new master cylinder leaked from the first time we tried to bleed it, so I bought a kit and we rebuilt it. Now it doesn't leak, but it does this......

Lastly - Brad I'm glad you didn't powdercoat your Moke, there are rust stains all over the car from seams and such where the powder didn't flow. It might be fine for coating parts, but for a street driven car that stays out in the weather - not so much!

A few more things have been added to my list, he wants me to wire up the fog lights and the electric fan in the wheelwell, and install a horn button.

Other than that.....   ;D

Interesting thing about the tires in the pic, that's how they came off the car, the inside of one and the outside of the other are worn out. When the left tire was straight ahead, the right tire was cocked in at about a 30* angle and had a ton of positive camber!

Oh, and it clearly needs a speedo too!

[drmini]

Looks like he needs some speedo work as well!

[cstudep]

Either that or Dave needs to slow the heck down, his garage isn't quite big enough for that kind of speed! ;D

[MiniDave]

Yes, I would say it needs a speedo. If anyone has one for sale cheap I'll let him know, doesn't have to be a 130 MPH Cooper S version either! Of course, since it now has a 1275 instead of an 850, who knows what ratio is in the gearbox for the speedo?

A couple of other issues have appeared, it has a terrible knock that follows the wheel rotation, I think it's the ends of the u-joint bolts hitting the header, so I'll see if I can knock about an 1/8" off the ends of the bolts for clearance Clarance.

I made up a harness - soldered on those cute little Lucas wire ends so they would match the rest of the harness - added a relay and wired up the fog lights and fan. First time I turned on the fogs I was disappointed that they didn't light. But when I pulled the light apart I could see they had never been wired to the harness, so that was an easy fix. Now one works but the other has a bad bulb.

Then I had to swap the wires on the fan connector so it would suck instead of blow.

Last thing to do electrically is buy a momentary contact switch to use as a horn button, find a place for it, drill a hole and wire it up. I already installed the horns and wired them to the car, but I had no idea what steering wheel he was using, and the one he chose doesn't use a horn button.

Once I'm done with that I'll run it up to the alignment shop. With that done all that's left is to figure out what's up with the brakes. Someone has suggested he left out the little valve at the end of the plunger when he rebuilt the master cylinder, which means finding another rebuild kit and pulling the master again. <sighs>

[MiniDave]

Drove to the alignment shop but they can't get to it till Friday as the fellow who does my cars took his wife to the hospital to have a baby!

The good news is it drove pretty well. I think I can tune the carb a little more but even on this 90* day in stop and go traffic it never went over 190. When I had to stop at a light for a while I kicked the fan on to see if it would make any difference and it pulled it down to about 185, then the light changed. Going down the road even at city speeds it runs right at 180.....I have no idea what thermostat is in it tho.

However, that doesn't help to keep ME from overheating, and man it was hot in that sun today. he had a Bimini top made for it but it didn't fit well, so he's having them fix it.

So, I have a couple of days to sort out the brakes and see if I can find a master cylinder kit locally. Other than that, once the alignment is sorted that should make a good drivable Moke out of it.

[cstudep]

I have a speedo but it's KPH around the outside with small mph around the inside. The chrome bezel isn't in the greatest shape either. Also have no idea if it actually  works or not, so all in all its probably completely useless to him. LOL

[LarryLebel]

Run the speedo up with your electric drill.

[MPlayle]

I seem to recall that if you test a Mini's speedometer using an electric drill, you need to run the drill in reverse to avoid damaging the speedometer.

[MiniDave]

No need to, I can see that it needs to be rebuilt....but I have no good way to determine what the gearbox is....it would just be a guess how far off the new or repaired speedo would be as this engine is not original to the car....in fact I think Clancy said it might be from an Austin America? The tranny could be original, but it feels like it has a much taller diff than an 850 would have had - however I'm just guessing as I only drove it up to about 40 mph. It still has the magic wand shifter too, but I understand a remote can easily be converted to MW......who knows,  it was all done long ago in a galaxy far, far away.....   ;D

I'm just happy that it now runs and drives pretty well.....that's what he was after.....something to use on race weekends as a pit car, and something to take the grandkids to get ice cream in.

Did Mokes ever have seat belts? Even lap belts? My wife won't even go around the block in the car - she feels too exposed she says.

[MPlayle]

Early Mokes had seat belts as an optional extra accessory.  There were two options for the fronts: standard lap belts and a weird three-point arrangement where the should strap mounted on the sides of the rear fenders behind the rear seats.  Only lap belts were available for the rear seats.

The later Aussie Mokes and Portuguese Mokes had seat belts as standard equipment.  The fronts were three-point with the should strap mounting to the roll bar just behind the front seats.

Edit: I put standard lap belts for all seats in the white Moke when I restored it.  The new shell came with the proper captive nuts already in place per the factory setup.

[MiniDave]

I'll have to look and see if this one has the captive nuts, seems like it should. And Clancy being a racer, I'm surprised belts weren't on his to do list.....maybe he has some and just hasn't gotten them in yet....

Edit: Clancy has lap belts to install.

[MPlayle]

This picture should give you an idea where to look for the captive nuts for the front seat belts.  The picture shows the fronts laying on the floor (front seats not installed).  The rears are installed as well but so are the rear seats, so the mounting points are not visible.

[MiniDave]

Thanks Michael, but that metal was rotted out and replaced with a patch panel, so he'll simply drill some holes and put a stiffener on the other side.

Looks like the only way to use a lap belt is a web one like in your pic, as there's no room between the seats for the stalks to fit for a reel type. I suppose you could put them behind the seat....

[drmini]

Early Mokes had seat belts as an optional extra accessory.  There were two options for the fronts: standard lap belts and a weird three-point arrangement where the should strap mounted on the sides of the rear fenders behind the rear seats.  Only lap belts were available for the rear seats.

The later Aussie Mokes and Portuguese Mokes had seat belts as standard equipment.  The fronts were three-point with the should strap mounting to the roll bar just behind the front seats.

Edit: I put standard lap belts for all seats in the white Moke when I restored it.  The new shell came with the proper captive nuts already in place per the factory setup.

The UK Mokes didn't get seatbelts until 1967 when they were in the MK2 Mokes.  The placement of the captivated nuts were in a different location than what Mike Playle's photo shows.  The location he has shown is where they were located on OZ Mokes, as the retractable unit was aligned with the rollbar location. I have attached a photo of an OZ Moke which shows the same location as Playle. The MK2 Moke captivated nut was located more forward than this.  As you can see in the other photo, it is in alignment with the captivated nuts in the tunnel. Also, you can see that the captivated nuts for the rear seat belts is directly below the shock tower in the rear.  Hope this helps.

[MPlayle]

Hugh (drmini),

My shell was a UK Moke MK2 shell built by M-Panels in the UK.  That is where they put the captive nuts for the seat belts.

[MiniDave]

I got a few more things sorted on the Moke, the aircleaner wasn't fitting properly, in fact it wasn't fitting at all over the elbow like I thought it was. He had a 1/2" spacer under the carb, so I thought if I could use a longer engine steady bar that would tip it forward enough that it would fit - I have one in stock so I swapped out the bushings and tried to put it in. But when I pulled it forward the radiator would hit the headlight bucket before the bolts would go in. So, the next idea was to simply remove the carb spacer - but when I did that the throttle lever hit the intake manifold and wouldn't open more than half way.

So, split the difference? Except I didn't have any spacers thinner than that one. So, I got out my carb gaskets and just stacked em up till the lever cleared. It's a temp solution as I'll have the old aluminum spacer milled down to just thick enough to let the throttle lever clear......with that done the air cleaner fit correctly. Result!

I went to the local bike shop and bought a cable to use for the accelerator - the one he used was way too short and would bind slightly, not coming back to idle all the time.

I also took the steering wheel off and reset it approximately straight, the big nut was only finger tight anyway.

Tomorrow afternoon I have an appointment at the alignment shop, and I've ordered a horn button that should be here tomorrow too.

With that done all that's left is to sort out the brakes....I have a master cylinder kit on the way but it won't get here in time. The brakes work fine, you just have to pump the pedal a couple of times.  ::)

It's slowly coming around!   71.gif

It's kinda fun to drive even with all the difficulties I hadn't sorted yet, now with those done and the alignment right, I'll get to do a proper test drive, although with no seat belts and no pads on the seats I doubt I'll be hitting the highway!

(the blue tape on the dash was to mark a couple of possible places to mount the horn button)