1965 Moke shaped rust pile.

Started by clm, September 21, 2012, 07:59:09 PM

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joltfreak

i also have a couple extra speedos stashed away if you need one.
check out the official website for updates!!!!! 


clm

I wouldn't turn down a random 90mph speedo that was somewhat functional. :)

Hey all, it has been a hectic past week.

The speedometer I rigged together failed... the needle now no longer moves... however the odometer is still working!

Last Saturday was the local town parade, car show, and cruise. I was determined to drive the moke in it and all set to take it out Saturday morning... when the u-joint fell apart! ARRGH! Apparently one of my steel ql500 caps slipped out of the U bolt... crap now I need to find another one to complete my set :(

I quickly pushed it up on ramps and proceeded to pull the remains of that joint from the moke and put in an old rubber cross joint. With everything all bolted back up tight I pulled it down from the ramps and pulled the parking brake... and the knob flew out of the end of it! O.o The Moke was not happy! But I managed to get it down to the parade starting point and shortly before the start my grandmother and my cousins daughter showed up to ride through the parade with me.

The Moke really was not happy creeping the couple miles of the parade but thankfully it did not overheat!


click me!

After the parade I put the moke in the car show, it was the only non-American car in the whole show! And being fairly unusual it received it's fair share of attention.



After the car show there was an hour and a half cruise though the town of which the moke managed to survive without going nuclear :) I managed to win an award for having the most unique vehicle in the cruise. It was fun :) ...although I did not get many pictures due to driving the moke.

Today I took the old nasty top in and had the ripped stitching as well as the tear in the top sewn up and proceeded to mount it. For being so bad it turned out quite well if I should say so myself :)







All in all a fun past couple of weeks :)



Chris

Mudhen

Quote from: clm on June 03, 2013, 11:19:41 PM
Last Saturday was the local town parade, car show, and cruise. I was determined to drive the moke in it and all set to take it out Saturday morning... when the u-joint fell apart! ARRGH! Apparently one of my steel ql500 caps slipped out of the U bolt... crap now I need to find another one to complete my set :(

:-[

You know, most people would have given up right there and not gone...you just don't know when to quit, do you?

4.gif

Pat

clm

#103
The thought did go though my mind... but it was the right hand one that fell apart which is easy to get out and I had a rubber cross in the shop and it's only 8 nuts to remove.



I am seriously in need of a replacement cap now however as the one that fell out has disappeared, thankfully the u-joint is easily replaceable IF I can find a replacement cap.

Chris

94touring

Great to see you enjoying the car after a build like this.

clm

Yup will really enjoy it when I get the bugs worked out!

I had a run out to moms house today to pick up the lawn mower, on the way back I tried pulling the choke while driving and found the general lethargy of the engine cleared up and I was able to accelerate up to the road speed of other drivers... That tells me it's running a bit lean at the top end I think...

It's running the 1100 engine with a 1275 smog head, a cast iron manifold, and a 1 1/2 SU with biased needle. The needle it has is an AAC needle currently, any suggestions? :)


Moke being used as a pickup truck! The horror!

Chris

clm

Fuel flow and vent are good, I also checked for air leaks and did not find any... so far...

I am thinking I need to replace the distributor as well as the timing seems to move around a fair amount.

Aside from that... I think I have found an idea for how to fit Australian rear arms in my English moke and keep the little wheeler look :)


An image from the web I modified to show my idea.

I am thinking of extending the bodywork slightly to move the rear panel back far enough to clear the larger tires. I think it could be done smooth enough to still look like a stock little wheeler if it isn't sitting next to another moke. If anything it would only add 2 inches to the load bay which could be mostly hidden by some form of storage box.

... Oh, and the camper trailer I am thinking of building to tow with the moke... :)


Also borrowed from the web and modified ;)

Chris

Mudhen

Quote from: clm on June 07, 2013, 01:06:38 AM
... Oh, and the camper trailer I am thinking of building to tow with the moke... :)


Also borrowed from the web and modified ;)

Chris

That would rawk!!!!

clm

It's a prize winning Moke!



...ok it's more of a gag trophy but all the real winners got was an engraved glass ;)

I'll take some pictures close up tomorrow, just got home from Mini Meet West and I am beat!

But I want to add something else... While I was there I read up on some oil pressure issues and I think my oil pump may not be in very good shape. It doesn't seem to build pressure on the starter motor only after it fires, which seems to indicate it's bleeding down. The oil pressure seems rather variable. I am thinking of pulling it and taking it to Jet Motors in Portland OR to have the bottom end inspected and corrected if need be.

And while we are on that subject, they did a bit of tuning to the moke at Mini meet, now the engine has PLENTY of torque... It will happily drive in 4th from 20ish all the way up over 65MPH. First second and third gears? Who needs them!... well ok maybe I should put the taller final drive in it like I have been wanting to do ;)

But I will try to get more story and pictures up tomorrow...


oh.. ok, here is a couple.


Moke in a snowstorm at Mt Bachelor.



Commandeered by the Stig and the Queen!


Rusty and Moke 2XS

Chris

clm

Just to put a finishing touch to this mad 4 month long saga, The "Rusty POS terd" moke made it to the MMW and won one of the two unique awards, while it may have lacked the bondo from the title of the award, the moke fit the spirit of the award rather well :)





Towing the moke to the event using my front bumper mounted towbar was a bit sketchy seeing as the front bumper is only held on by 4 bolts through sheet metal, however nothing moved and everything stayed tight. The Gearbox doesn't seem any worse for wear to my untrained hand, although it's just an old used 850 magic wand gearbox and not worth hardly anything. The Nissan I used as a tow vehicle was very gutless especially going up the hills... I thought it was because it was towing the moke, but later when I drove to Mt Bachelor I realized the weight of the moke was not really having any impact on it!

I had been seriously amped up prior to MMW and had not been able to get any sleep at all since Saturday night, Thankfully I managed to drive the 250 miles uneventfully, got my motel room, and then found the Hotel MMW was going to be held at... Although I was early :p It was 4 hours before the registrations opened and someone finally relieved me of my entrance fees.

After registering the car wash opened up. Although there really is not much to wash on Rusty, the person heading the car wash egged me on that he could put a shine on anything... He was not ready for my moke however ;) Irregardless I washed the tires and the chrome and any mud splats I found off the primer. I also washed the hood and hosed off the windshield... inside and out... followed by hosing out the whole inside of the moke! You got to love vehicles without any real interior! :D

After that scene I wandered around a bit and met some people saw some great cars and the Alan pulled in with the Yellow moke, I didn't realize at this point it was 2XS, not until the show and shine the next day did I realize that. I also saw quite a few other cars including a black Crayford Riley Elf and the one car of the week that totally blew my mind...



This estate was almost an exact twin of my bent one, a couple months newer and an Austin instead of a Morris.. but.. That yellow internal tank smooth roof woody gives a good indication of what mine looked like once :)




I had a blast there driving the moke on pretty much everything but the autocross and the rally, I missed the rally due to not having a navigator and well, Jet motors was tuning up the engine until after it started so I just hung around at the "pits" The Moke in it's pre-tuned state fared fairly well on the run up to Mt Bachelor which has been the longest single drive since I got the moke driveable. Speaking of Mt Bachelor... dang that was cold! I was under the impression it was going to be fairly warm for Mini Meet... Snow flurrys were not something I was ready for! Thanks to Mt Bachelor resort for loaning me a coat to wear so I could drive back to town and buy a coat of my own! And well, it has no seatbelts so was ineligible for use in the Auto(snow)cross and the funkhana was canceled.



Even with the shinier mokes there I am surprised on how many people commented favorably on in saying to not change a thing... not something I can do however as I don't want it to re-dissolve ;)

After the snow storm I headed back to the motel room to rest before the parade, upon exiting the room so I could get something from the Nissan, what did I see?



Apparently I wan't the only mini person who was staying in this dive of a motel! It turned out to be Chuck Heleker when I knocked on the door. We chatted a while he told me of past mini escapades I showed him some of the work I had done on the moke to get it here and then I let him get back to working on his speech for the get together that evening.

The Parade was a blast, I showed up somewhat early and they kept flagging me forward.. and forward.. and forward. Right up near the front I had a couple ask if they could ride in it through the parade, I had no problems with that, they asked if I could put the top down, it was slightly sprinkling at times... but it is a moke, very little water will hurt inside it... So the top came down... Then I saw they were dressed as the Stig and the Queen and she asked if she could sit up on the folded top! I mentioned it might not be too comfortable so she acquired a cushion and rode that way during the parade. I did offer to let the Stig drive but apparently  he was tired of driving at this point so I chauffeured them through the parade ;)




As mentioned earlier I missed the rally with the Jet Motors people tweaking the moke, although this is likely a good thing I don't know if the oil pump would be up to a 3-4 hour drive and I had no co-driver :)

I can't wait until next years Mini meet but rather annoyed it's 2/3 the way across the US to get there! At least I have about another year to get a decent engine together and do the final bodywork on the moke <IMG SRC="/sysimages/SF_Smile.gif" width=19 heigh=19 align=absmiddle class=msgSmiles>

I am very very happy and content I purchased the infamous Spank Moke, If I had to do again I would purchase it all over again without a moments hesitation.

Next up on the agenda unfortunately is to pull the motor and find out why my oil pressure is fubar. I am guessing the oil pump is no good, but I may need to rebuild the bottom end if it's caused other damage, check back later for the consensus

Chris

P.S. more pictures are available on photobucket at http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/clm1977/library/MMW2013

Mudhen

Great write up, Chris!  Sounds like MMW was a blast.  Not sure I'd have liked the snow, though.  :-\

Hurry up and create a thread for your Estate build...  ;D

clm

There is no estate build yet it's still an estate storage.... Eventually though :)

Chris

clm

Not many updates recently, I have been recovering from the spending spree getting this Moke to Mini Meet West.

I did take and pull out the 1100 as I said I was going to do, once I had it out and apart I found the oil pump was this side of mangled I could not even turn the shaft by hand, instead needing a screwdriver to pry it around... surprisingly the crank looks perfect and the bearings look like they have lots of life left in them even though I plan to replace them to be on the safe side.

-1100 being pulled-


-oil pump annulus-


-center main bearing and journal-



-number 4 rod bearing and journal-



-random shots of polished/smoothed/lightened? rods and crank in the 1100-




I took the opportunity to put the Original 850 back into the Moke, and after a day swapping out waterpumps a few times managed to get an one that neither howled nor leaked like a fire hose... I had not hooked up the pressure gauge yet so all I knew was the engine ran.

-850 degreased-


-850 back where it came from-


Well the transmission is definitely seriously loose with rather vague shifting but all gears work and it doesn't jump out of any of them, the clutch works well, and it seems to start if you even give the key a dirty look heh. In fact I don't even have the choke hooked up and it doesn't give any indication of needing it.

Yesterday I decided to scare myself and hooked up the oil pressure gauge... Remember I only got maybe 30psi cranking pressure on the test gauge when I was testing.

You know what?

I am blown the heck away.... This engine, the engine that was first bolted in this Moke the day it rolled off the Longbridge line almost 48 years ago, has almost perfect oil pressure and does not seem to smoke or use any oil. It starts up around 60+psi oil pressure stone cold and once it is fully hot with a 7+mile 55-60mph blast down the road... It does not fall below 45psi oil pressure. I have to just about stall the engine to hit 40.

-hot oil pressure at idle, temp gauge not connected (oddly the moke engine had no sender ;) )-


Hindsight is 20/20... If I would have just put the mokes correct engine in It would have easily driven to Bend and back with no problems!

Once again I say INSANE!

Did I mention I have not changed the oil in it yet? This is likely 30 year old oil... I will be changing it this weekend. O.o

I also took the time to start assembling the 1275 silver seal short block I have everything is looking perfect so far...



I am mainly assembling it so the crank and pistons aren't laying around loose to get damaged. I am not going to put the big bore head back on the 1100 as thankfully the block is not pocketed.

-1275 head from the 1100-


And I can do that as I have this which has been laying around for many years on my shelf.. a stock mg1100 head, seems perfect to put on a mg1100 engine for some reason ;)





I am going to need to scrape up some funds now for the bearings oil pump and gasket set for the 1100, but for now the moke has a nice reliable engine to use in the bean time...

850 POWER!!!

Chris

Mudhen

Is it a straightforward swap to put a 1275 head on an 1100 block?  Worth it?  (guessing 'no' since you sound happy to getting rid of it)

clm

It's a straightforward swap if the valves clear, the same can be said for any small bore engine really. I was not so much happy to get rid of it as I was happy to get a surplus big bore head for my 1275 engine :)

Chris

mokegrl

Hey - I want to say Spank You Very Much for your awesomely- detailed resto and documentation. 
This part "...and once it is fully hot with a 7+mile 55-60mph blast down the road... "  captures the true amazingness of Mokes!  As trick as it is to build them up - I found my true joy in learning to properly drive them stock. 
I had mine from 2002 until last year.  I drove yours in at least 3 of Spank's incarnations for LeMons races. I am personally responsible for inflicting some of that body damage (oh, the horror) which you have been repairing.  I tried hard to get those metal seats for mine - but Spank was keeping everything for the next 'someday' owner. My special talent was my amazing ability to NOT BREAK THE CAR while racing! which stemmed from driving mine as a daily driver for many years, including a 5 month stretch of 65 miles each way to work.  I highly recommend running a heater hose up the pant leg, and wearing earplugs on freeways.
Most of my parts are Portugese or Cagiva - but I still have a few odd bits if you are still looking for things.  Look me up,
Sandia

clm

Just browsing some of the old threads, the moke has been off the road for a couple years due to bearings falling apart in the transmission. I am going to get it back on the road this year however in the next couple months. But if mokegirl ever stops by here again, this was not the moke Spank raced, it was one he had bought from an estate sale in new york and then sold on the Minimania site... It does however have the windshield frame and top bars of that race moke. :)

So many projects, not enough money. If only I could win the lottery and clone myself a dozen times...

pbraun

Need to know the last 7 #s of the vin as it might be one of the first 50 imported to the usa. Please.
Prbraun1@gmail.com
Peter
65 Moke
60 Bugeye modified
66 Jaguar XJ13 ( I can wish )