Ol' Rusty - FB/EK Sedan

[In the Shed]

Love your work Scott and admire your have a go approach using equipment most of us have in the shed. You’re good at multi tasking too!

Regards
Stephen

[Blacky]

A bit la de da - puddle lights and even gaps , very flash !!!!!

Love the have a go attitude mate

[funkyscooter]

A bit la de da - puddle lights and even gaps , very flash !!!!!

Ha! Not sure that will catch on but maybe its the next level up - Standard, Special, Ladeedah.

Had some time today so I jumped on SketchUp and modelled my puddle light. It's going to hold 5x5mm White LEDS as from the tests I have done that seems bright enough and stays low cost/DIY.
Printing one of the four attempts to get the size right with clips that will hold it in place. Should have just printed slightly too large and ground out the hole in the door - would have been quicker.

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Don't have any white LEDs at the moment so had to make do with RGB LEDs using just the green channel. Masking tape to stop the red and blue legs from shorting.

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Pretty gloomy in the shed today with the lights off so a good approximation for early evening. Phone did brighten things up and tried to make the green white.

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This is more what it was looking like to the naked eye. Ended up with a nice soft light, not too harsh which LEDs can sometimes look. Think this is going to work quite well once I get the white LEDS.

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[Harv]

Love the puddle lights.

Might need to think through how to make them watertight. FB/EK window seals are not very sealy, and the water collects in the bottom of the doors. There are drain slots in the bottom of the doors, and corresponding cutouts in the door rubbers to let the water drain. The bottom of the doors ends up moist and silty.

Cheers,
Harv

[funkyscooter]

Good point Harv - was planning to lather them in hot glue and heat shrink. The car will not be spending much time in the elements, but will try to place any wiring away from the window drip zone with a drip loop close to the light in the wiring to discourage water from wicking into it.


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[funkyscooter]

More puddle lights!
Printed final version with locking ring. Unfortunately when I designed the locking ring, it was arse about so its lefty tighty, righty loosey. NOT printing this again.

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Fitted - nice and flush

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I can just get my hand in there to lock the ring on.

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Adding white LED to each light. Note I have 4, so either 2 go on the shelf or I try and work out how to put them in the rear doors as well.

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Control for the lights - 1 for each front door - with this combo of transistor/resistor/capacitor I have 3 circuits fade off over 3 seconds. 1 Blue, 1 Green and 1 White.

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Blue/Green == Teal light for ring light behind tweeters. Totally unnecessary but want a bit of bling in the doors as they are now power function. White light circuit will be for puddle and courtesy light (maybe)

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Puddle light test - nice and bright for a moonless night.

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Tweeter Light Test - A lot of effort and design to flush mount a tweeter in the door which is still not done. Need to bite the bullet and put the hole in the door and the brand new door cards. Figured as I went so far, I might as well add the bling.

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[funkyscooter]

To get all this electrical shenanigans into the door I need a bit of cable management. So out with the sockets for some more dimple die action.

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Doesn't look it from this angle but the end going into the A pillar is flush. Not looking forward to fitting the door side. Will need to hang the door, mark and drill, cross all fingers and toes, and then make the holes oversize for a sloppy fit and further adjustment

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Test running some fishing line to see where I can get wires to go and the size of this caught my eye. Not really going to work as the front seat belt will be in the way.

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[Blacky]

Fancy pants

[Errol62]

Very clever indeed. Those jamb sheaths are trick aren’t they? I’ve seen them in a kit, but then Malcolm whatsit made his own.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[funkyscooter]

Started the long journey to getting steering sorted.

A while back viewtopic.php?p=265090&hilit=Steering#p265090, I pulled the steering box apart only to find that the worm shaft has pitting on the top thrust bearing face. I made a few enquires regarding hard chroming repairs but no one was too enthusiastic about taking the job on.

Started looking for HR steering boxes on Ebay/Gumtree, and in a moment of desperation I bit the bullet and purchased a FB/EK major overhaul kit. I figured worse case I would have to go back to the 14:1 ratio. Then I had second thoughts, left the search reminder for HR steering boxes on, and found another shiny thing to play with.

Flash forward a year and I started thinking about this again. Decided to bite the bullet and try to get a 'good' secondhand HR column, strip it for the shaft which will end up being cut up and grafted onto a collapsable column anyway. Found one on ebay, got in contact with the guy to confirm that after 30 years of dry storage that the shaft turned smooth and freely. He said it did, sells them all the time - no complaints. Ordered, it arrived, and I unwrap the package and give the end of the shaft a twist.

Rough as. Slump shoulders - buyer beware and all that - pull it apart to see how bad it is. It's bad, worse pitting than the one I'm trying to replace. Nothing in this box can be saved.

Give the guy a call. Super apologetic, had another one that he nearly sent which he thought was smoother , will send it to me if I pay postage. At this stage what have I got to lose.

Days pass, it arrived, give it a twist and it's perfectly smooth. Contemplate leaving it as is, and switch over from the current box which I thought was HR. Pull the box out after a year and rediscover that the box out of my car has 3 holes to mount it. The 2 HR boxes I now have are two hole mounts. Slump shoulders again. Search the internet for pictures and there is it - my steering box is an EH/EJ box, with one hole plugged and redrilled to matched the FB/EK pattern.

So it is back to the original (lazy) plan of new(er) HR guts in my modified EH box. Strip the HR box, everything is in good condition, bit of wear but overall very happy. Thrust bearing cup on both ends of the box are smooth and I figure I might as well switch the steering shaft adjuster nut over to the HR one which, based on everything else, looks to be in better nick. Then I remember that the pitting on the steering shaft on my box is on the upper part of the worm drive, and I never looked at the thrust bearing cup face inside the top of the box.
Slump shoulders yet again. It has pitting that is at least as bad as the shaft so I need to replace this cup.

Search up replacing steering thrust bearings which takes me straight to Brett's Wilma build (viewtopic.php?t=23663&sid=89f215cfd2447 ... art=75#top). All good info here, and I'm pretty confident I can do this and have the first HR box to test with. Just need the bearings, which are in the major steering upgrade kit. Seems a shame to break up this kit for a couple of bearings so start to do some research, using the assistance of the part numbers that Rob supplied in the Wilma build. 5666683 worm thrust bearing cup. 5666693 worm thrust bearing. Down the rabbit hole we go, a few good links with dimensions......

Cage OD 1 5/16" (33.34mm) Cage Center Hole 13/16" (20.64mm) Bearing Cup OD 1 1/2" (38.1mm) Bearing Cup Hole 1 1/16" (26.99mm)

......but no local sites selling 5666683/5666693 with the above dimensions (assuming that they are right). Then find an American site that says the part is interchangeable with a bunch of other brands/cars/forklifts/ride on mowers.

5666683/5666693 (GM) (MBS),311142+311161 (SKF), 8537 (Timken/ C&H), BCA-8537,J3200492, 5691731 (Crown Automotive ),F-110085 (INA), C2AZ-3571-A (&*#@), C2AZ3571A+C2AZ3552A (&*#@), T199, N1534, M86381, 072062,21847, A2954, 32004913200492, 3200491+3200492, 76867/76868, 510945800/5106598

Further down the rabbit hole for about 10 minutes, multiple tabs open, some ID dimensions are different etc., eventually I decided to give up and call ABC bearings in the morning.

Morning comes, more thinking, look at box again and compare with HR box. Looks like there was a spring missing in the EH box pitman shaft which might explain why the steering was a bit 'floaty". Pitman shaft is worn all the way to the end so no doubt the bushings are not the best. Time to admit defeat of my half arsed plan and actually do a full reco on the EH box, using the HR worm shaft, ball nut and pitman shaft. Search and find what seems to be the last available minor repair kit online from Resto Country. Ordered. Clambering out of the rabbit hole and dusting myself off. Will hang on to major steering repair kit until the steering is done just in case.

[ardiesse]

Scotty,

Yes. Steering boxes are the pure essence of disappointment.

Statewide Bearings in Smithfield has replacements for the sector shaft bushes. To remove the old ones, I used an M27 tap to cut threads in the old bushes, and a length of M27 threaded rod, an M27 nut and an old clutch throwout bearing. The new bushes would need to be reamed to size after installation, though. Wear in the sector shaft is something to watch for, but not a complete show-stopper.

If your ball nut has wear marks on the teeth, but is otherwise serviceable, tip it upside-down on reassembly.

And you're hopefully aware of the trick for removing wormshaft bearing races: lay a good-size fillet of weld on the bearing race. When it cools, the race shrinks and drops out.

If the best you can find is a wormshaft with pitting on the thrust bearing faces only (that is, none on the worm), you can get the thrust bearing faces hard-chromed and reground. (Belay that. I've just re-read your post.)

McMaster-Carr in LA stocks the recirculating balls, but you need a business address for shipping.

Best of luck,

Rob

[Errol62]

Scott,
I like to do things myself like you. I bought myself a major overhaul kit for the hydramatic column intended for my van. When I converted the ute to all synchro three speed however, I got Roger Hancock to convert the column. At the same time, he also rebuilt the box. The whole lot cost me $1100 at the time, and it is perfect.

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[Brett027]

Hi Scott,
The Rares major overhaul kit for FB/EK is actually HR parts I was told by Rares peeps. The pitman shaft supplied doesn't have the recess to take the FB adjuster, but rather uses the bolt for the HR, which in early kits fitted HR boxes but not long enough for FB/EK. The major kit had the balls worm thing etc so was a complete overhaul. Why wouldn't you use it?
The other thing that you said was about welding the column shaft. Have you discussed this with your engineer? My fellow was ardament that the column shaft was not to be welded under any circumstances, hence all the stuff I went through to get the torrie column to work on my ute. I could weld and mod the column anyway I wanted it, but not allowed to make any changes to the shaft. Fortunately the two sections slide so length was not an issue.
Forgive me if I am off track, but posts that long are hard

[Errol62]

The ratio, and by deduction, the worm and nut geometry, was changed at EJ I believe. Doesn’t mean that a matching pair won’t fit in the same case of course, but there would be more turns of the wheel, lock to lock, and lighter steering of course.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[funkyscooter]

Statewide Bearings in Smithfield has replacements for the sector shaft bushes. To remove the old ones, I used an M27 tap to cut threads in the old bushes, and a length of M27 threaded rod, an M27 nut and an old clutch throwout bearing. The new bushes would need to be reamed to size after installation, though. Wear in the sector shaft is something to watch for, but not a complete show-stopper.

If your ball nut has wear marks on the teeth, but is otherwise serviceable, tip it upside-down on reassembly.

And you're hopefully aware of the trick for removing wormshaft bearing races: lay a good-size fillet of weld on the bearing race. When it cools, the race shrinks and drops out.

If the best you can find is a wormshaft with pitting on the thrust bearing faces only (that is, none on the worm), you can get the thrust bearing faces hard-chromed and reground. (Belay that. I've just re-read your post.)

McMaster-Carr in LA stocks the recirculating balls, but you need a business address for shipping.

Good advice as always Rob - might end up getting the bushing pressed in and reamed at a local shop, and do the prep and rest of the rebuild myself.

I like to do things myself like you. I bought myself a major overhaul kit for the hydramatic column intended for my van. When I converted the ute to all synchro three speed however, I got Roger Hancock to convert the column. At the same time, he also rebuilt the box. The whole lot cost me $1100 at the time, and it is perfect.

I'm a sucker for a challenge Clay. But having said that, if I knew of people that I trusted in their workmanship, then I would leave it to the experts. Unfortunately I have been burnt in the past. If I cock it up, I'll only have myself to blame!

The Rares major overhaul kit for FB/EK is actually HR parts I was told by Rares peeps. The pitman shaft supplied doesn't have the recess to take the FB adjuster, but rather uses the bolt for the HR, which in early kits fitted HR boxes but not long enough for FB/EK. The major kit had the balls worm thing etc so was a complete overhaul. Why wouldn't you use it?
The other thing that you said was about welding the column shaft. Have you discussed this with your engineer? My fellow was ardament that the column shaft was not to be welded under any circumstances, hence all the stuff I went through to get the torrie column to work on my ute. I could weld and mod the column anyway I wanted it, but not allowed to make any changes to the shaft. Fortunately the two sections slide so length was not an issue.
Forgive me if I am off track, but posts that long are hard

Hey Brett, yes a long post and no pictures which makes it a hard read even for me! The major kit was purchased as a back up plan if I could not get the existing worm shaft rechromed. Did not realise that the parts are HR, and never opened it up to check. My bad -I will have a closer look and report back.
As for engineers and welding shafts, haven't got to the point of getting an engineer (waiting to finish all the major body stuff), but plan is to use a billet collapsible column mated to the EH box with the steering shaft shortened and modified to accept a DD uni joint. At least that is the plan - will not do anything until I have spoken to an engineer.