harvs ek 327 wagon

[Craig Allardyce]

Looking goo Harv. I'm interested to know what the steering arm arrangement is with the front mounted rack. Did you have any issues getting correct toe out on turns (i.e. Ackerman principle)?

I hope you get the engineering side through. It disappoints me greatly in what they have done to make it so restrictive in that you have to engineer a red motor into a FB/EK which ostensibly is not much different to an EH. I went through this many years ago with an EJ. Trying to convince the authorities of their stupidness was waste of time. I agree with rating the engineer requirements to percentage of HP increase but it needs to be done in a graded rating, not just blanket anything above 10%. After all 10% above 70hp is bugger all. The average red in an EH was 30% and the manufacturers in the day didn't really change much in the car apart from slightly larger brakes.

[Harv]

Looking goo Harv. I'm interested to know what the steering arm arrangement is with the front mounted rack. Did you have any issues getting correct toe out on turns (i.e. Ackerman principle)?

The basics of the steering were strung together 10 years ago, when choices were few and my understanding poor (there are now more choices, though my understanding has only improved slightly ).

Steering starts with an aftermarket wheel. I would have rathered an original wheel, but couldn't work out how to do it at the time with a collapsible column. Wheel is mounted on an LH Torana column, held by the a cut-down LH breakaway mounting under the dash and a modified floor plate (column has to move to one side to clear the engine). Torana lower rag knuckle is connected to a piece of brightstock roundbar, with a retaining groove milled in it for the cotterpin.

A bit sad... when I first screwed all this together, GMH still stocked those cotterpins as aftermarket spares .

Brightstock bar passes through a groove in the HR front crossmember (CRS make the groove by heating and belting with a ballpein hammer), with another rag joint attaching to the rack. Front rack is LX-UC Torana, mounted on gussets welded to the crossmember by CRS. Fancy hex adjusters pick up the steering arms. Steering arms are original HR, heated and bent by CRS to address toe-in, and run on the opposite side of the vehicle to normal.

The graph attached shows the CRS bumpsteer assessment.


Steering lock is pretty bad... I'm going to end up with arms like Popeye driving this thing every day, though must admit it is pretty light even with the Chev sitting over it. I can live with it, but would truly like that original steering wheel - my kingdom to anyone who can mount an original EK steering wheel on an LH Torana column

Cheers,
Harv

[Craig Allardyce]

Sounds like the exact set up I had on my FC years ago. I ran the same HR arms re-bent and flipped over. I was running HQ stubs and discs but my problem was the centreline of the steering arm couldn't be bent out far enough as they fouled on the rim and tyre. The end result was the centreline of the steering arms did not point to the diff and it caused the opposite and wrong toe out on turns. As you state with yours, mine was heavy as hell when turning and at full lock it scrubbed the tyres really bad. The only way around it would be to run really skinny rims and offset them outwards so you can accommodate a more outwards angle on the steering arm. Interestingly though I was almost thinking of running HQ steering arms as they were shorter and faced forward and would get it closer to the correct steering angles.

[EK JAY]

Harv ive been playing around with the whole original wheel thing on mine for a while now and so far
I know the fb ek wheel fits to a ht holden steering column shaft / spline
And that shaft should fit into the torana column it's just getting the right steering knuckle
To fit on both ends of the shaft ht / torana combo

[Blacky]

VN is the same too according to a post on here about building your own column that I can't find right now ....

[oz_ek]

The original solution to correcting the geometry of the HR front end with Torana rack was these flame cut steering arms, needless to say these arms were soon canned by certifying engineers.

P1050116.JPG (194.84 KiB) Viewed 1839 times

[Harv]

Sounds like the exact set up I had on my FC years ago. I ran the same HR arms re-bent and flipped over. I was running HQ stubs and discs but my problem was the centreline of the steering arm couldn't be bent out far enough as they fouled on the rim and tyre. The end result was the centreline of the steering arms did not point to the diff and it caused the opposite and wrong toe out on turns. As you state with yours, mine was heavy as hell when turning and at full lock it scrubbed the tyres really bad. The only way around it would be to run really skinny rims and offset them outwards so you can accommodate a more outwards angle on the steering arm. Interestingly though I was almost thinking of running HQ steering arms as they were shorter and faced forward and would get it closer to the correct steering angles.

I had major troubles with fouling of the tie-rod ends on the rims (pretty much where a wheel-weight clamps on). Most of that drama though was due to the Commodore positive offset. The 26P (instead of standard 43P) rims fixed that drama, but took a lot of research to work out. CRS indicate that you can pack out the arms, and I have seen at least one car doing this (Stinky's, from the FE/FC forum).

I know the fb ek wheel fits to a ht holden steering column shaft / spline
And that shaft should fit into the torana column it's just getting the right steering knuckle
To fit on both ends of the shaft ht / torana combo

VN is the same too according to a post on here about building your own column that I can't find right now ....

Hmmm, now that would be neat. Swap out the LH column internals for a VN one (HT might be hard to find). Anyone got a spare VN column shaft for me to play with?

Cheers,
Harv

[Blacky]

heres the link to the how-to Harv , very comprehensive guide thanks to FBIDEK

http://www.fbekholden.com/forum/viewtop ... 24&t=19100

[Errol62]

That link took me back to this thread. Try this:
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?share_ ... are_type=t
Cheers
Clay


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Blacky]

I am currently playing around with a Cortina TE/TF rack and HQ steering arms which is the same setup as on the front of Bumpers dads V8 FB . I haven't driven it but apparently it drives well.

Will document and do a thread on the forum as it develops.

[Harv]

I think I had the Midas touch last weekend... everything I touched turned to crap .

Got the old boy to give me a second opinion on my handbrake setup, as I could not get enough tension to engage the brakes. He spotted that my fancy new intermediary lever was making the front cable rub sideways on the cable pulley. Relocated the pivot point, made up a new lever and it now works. Just gotta resize the bolts and tidy it up. Must have been the only job that went right.

Hunted down a trans leak to the pan gasket, and tightened it up. Leak stopped... temporarily

While we were under there, we decided to tidy up the shifter and speedo cables (I had them cable-tied temporarily). Routed them properly, only to find the shifter adjustment bound up. Fixed that, and went for a test run.

Came back to find sump oil blurting out. Looks like the dipstick came loose, probably where I had bumped it earlier. Cleaned up the mess, reseated the dipstick... all good so far, except that the oil that leaked looks green. Like glycol green. Suspect I may have water in the oil. Will let it settle, then take a better look .

After letting the wagon cool down from the test run, the gearbox decided it didn't want to come out of Park. Of course it does this when parked away where I can't get at it. Back wheels lifted (trolley jack under the diff) and towed it out of the shed with Grace's ute. Gearbox pan off only to find that the selector shaft nut was loose, preventing any gear change. Suspect it had never been tightened by the bloke who built the gearbox . Nut tightened, pan back on and now it will select gears again.....

... except the pan leak came back.

So after a weekends work I now have a handbrake that works, have found a hidden problem in the guts of the gearbox (perhaps better now than at freeway speed later), but still have a trans pan leak and suspected water in oil. Two steps forward, one step back.

Cheers,
Harv

[EK JAY]

I hear ya Harv they can drive you
Sometimes

[Errol62]

Good to see dad can still straighten out the youngster. Apart from the green oil it's all just bedding in. Wouldn't the oil go white if it gets water in? I know, its glycol but.....
Good luck on that one.
Cheers
Clay


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[EK283]

Harv,

I feel your pain, I tried to start my F&$* XB last week for rego and the bugger would not run, Checked everything over no fuel, ok no problem.

Motor runs when I put fuel in it so maybe the pump, can't be its not long new. Run a hose and a jerry can to the pump car runs nice. Blow the fuel line out and bloody hell its blocked. Disconnect from the tank and blows through no problem. Here we go its the sender, pull it out and its caked with varnish. Looked inside the tank and you guessed it rust and crap and its awful. Out comes the tank so I can clean it maybe repair if I have to.

So there you have it 1 day and 3 arvos just to get the damn thing regoed and I'm still not finished !!!!!!

By the way glycol will be green unless its mixed with the oil for a while, I think from memory it floats on oil or vise versa.

Regards Greg

[Harv]

Working with the old man is awesome. He did his trade when EHs were still coming in for service, and parts still available for FB/EKs. Things that take me a day to do he gets done in an hour. Learn something every time I talk to him.

The oil was a funny colour - see through, green, and very, very slightly milky after a 5 minute run. I'll let it settle for the next week, then drain it and see if there is any free water. Figure it needs an oil change and filter anyway after run-in. I can pressure test the radiator cold, then figure I'll pop the rocker covers. Clean out any oil/water, then run it again and see if one of the head bolts are weeping... hopefully that's the cause, and not a blown head gasket, port job that has struck water or split bore. It's hard to see if it's using water, as it only runs for a few minutes every couple of weeks.

Cheers,
Harv