Morris, The Mini Moke! - 56k Warning by liirge

12 minute(s) of a 73 minute read

Well, you may expect that loads of work has happened as i haven't written for a month and a bit, well your in for a disappointment. I'll go through the order of events.
The engine from the moke was lifted out and put onto a DIY work surface i made. The cylinder head was removed to be replaced at a later date. The oil filter removed as well as the inspection hatches.
The removal of the engine from moke, allowed a closer look at the oil leak, The plate that covers the Output drive was removed, but i cant seem to be able to get the rubber seal out, i think its been bodged in the past with gasket sealer.
I then spoke to the man at the re-spray place to get a preliminary booking, it was decided that he should respray the engine bay, and do the under seal as well as weld the Rust spots! i have decided to clean up the Engine and paint it back to BMC green. I purchased 2 cans of GUNK to degrease and clean the engine.
THEN WE WERE ROBBED on the 5th and 6th of December.
THEY DIDN'T TAKE THE MOKE THOUGH!!!!
And since then it has been hard to do any work due to lack of tools and police work, but i have started to clean the engine, its going to take TIME!! i mean real time.
I hope to start work again next week.

~12/01/08~
Work Stared on the moke again, Front suspension is the name. Have removed the upper suspension arm on the moke, this involved compressing the rubber cone spring, and then prise out the trumpet from the knuckle joint. and then drifting out the pivot shaft. It was hard to pick up a thread on the rubber cone spring, but eventually we managed by putting allot of force downwards and turning the tool.
The Nearside however is a different story. The rubber cone was perished, well the thread inside was anyway, so we had to tap a new thread into it, that was interesting. and then compress the spring, we did so and, the tool lost grip and bang it uncompressed again. So we managed to pick up a thread again and compressed very slightly. This allowed us with ALOT of work to prise out the trumpet from the knuckle joint.
The Pivot shaft however will not budge, i believe the spacer has rusted in the subframe, and therefore the pivot shaft cant drift out. there is very little room to hammer the shaft out from the other end, I've decided i'm going to drop the subframe out, this will give me enough room to hammer it out and force the spacer to loosen.

~14/01/08~
More trouble, the Idea today was to drop the Front Subframe, a usually quite simple task of undoing a few hard to reach Bolts, and carefully lower the frame away, trying not to bend it. However, this is the moke, and nothing is simple. The Fittings and mounts for the subframe underneath the footwell have completely rotted through, leaving a couple of welded bolts, unwelded and spinning on them selves.
Spoke to the coachworks today, Decided that he needs both the subframes off anyway, so tomorrow i'm going to crack the nuts, with a nut cracker, and hopefully drop the front suspension, remove the pivot shaft, and start work on the rear suspension. Ive set a deadline of Friday, for the moke to be completely ready to be taken away and have necessary done to it over at the coachworks.

~15/01/08~
Front subframe dropped today, it was quite allot of work we had to completely destroy the bolts holding the subframe in from the bulkhead under the footwell, Used nut crackers, Hacksaws, pliers, screwdrivers and mole grips. The subframe was awkward to remove from the body. The Extension bar to the gearbox made it hard to lower the subframe without breaking it. The pillars on the subframe meant we had to lift the car up quite alot and remove it sideways once it was loose.
Once the subframe was removed i bashed the Pivot arm on the upper suspension arm out, all the threads are wrecked and i tried to Die them but it was no good, so im gonna need a new pivot arm.
I also removed the balls from the trumpets. And i found out that the windscreen isn't welded but just bolts on (I was told my grandfather had welded it as it broke once), so i can remove it before i send it off to the coachworks!
So, what do you guys wreckon??? looking forward to hearing from you!

Most of the knuckle joint was still inside the Upper suspension arm:

~28/01/08~
The removal of the both subframes has happened, and through this job i have never had to break/shear/crack or saw soo many nuts and bolts. The subframe mountings on the body are all rotten and need completely re-making. The moke has been stripped of everything including the Gear Change, The Sub frames, The seats, the windscreen, the guiding poles for the canvas roof and the petrol tank. The petrol tank should have been an easy job of removing some bolts and dropping the cover However the Under seal is actually a tar used on wooden stumps and made all the bolts and nuts seize to one another. Also some of these bolts have been bent out of place, it funny actually, the bent bolts follow a line of destruction along the bottom of the car, starting with bent body work, dented Extension box and scratched underseal. Now everything is off, its a case of getting it up to the Coachworks for the welding to commence. I rang them Monday of Last week, and they were meant to have the builders in that week, and to ring back next week (Today). I rang today and have been told the builders are in this week, and to ring on Friday to see were we stand. This is a huge Knock for the deadline of May 18th.

That not me!

So glad to get rid of that ugly strip of metal to protect the electrics, SOO ugly!