Blue Husky - Safe and original

[graham_h_miller]

Right I picked up a new Husky about a month ago so I thought I ought to start a thread for it. Not much has happened to it yet, I've fitted a new coil and had all the flexi brake lines changed. Anyway, enough talking, and on with the pictures!











Oh yeah, two more comments. Firstly it's ex-Keith Evans and secondly I'll be selling the VX-220 soon so I've been practising the cool and edgy photography. Maybe I should try for a more classic approach next!

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

Slightly less ambitious than Noddy but I have made a tiny modification.



It's a big bit of cardboard! I figure it'll cut down on road noise while driving. And if I should ever need to kneel or lie down to work on the car to work on it, it'll make life more comfortable whether it's hot and I'm wearing shorts, or if it's cold and rainy. And if it gets all old and tired, just hack up another cardboard box!



And with the carpet in place, it hardly even shows!

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

So I need some chrome trim? OK, added to the list!

Just had an exciting ride into Usk (nearest town). Halfway down the road, with the air-con on full, and the tax disc holder fell off and all the old discs fluttered everywhere. Luckily I had eldest son as a passenger and somehow he grabbed one that just happened to end in 14. All the others are now decorating the verge - it's a derestricted section so I'm not going to risk my neck looking for them!

So, I now have a bit less history for the car and am waiting for a fixed penalty for littering

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

Yeah, there is a matt trim in there so it won't keep me up at night. I am building up a list in my head of little bits that need doing.

Now some under seat pictures. I'm getting rear belts fitted so I thought I'd get an idea of what's already there. Weirdly there are spreader plates fitted but the bolts appear to go from under the floor upwards into the cabin. And there are some old buckles where some belts have been fitted before but no sign of either buckles at the edge of the floor or high up for the shoulder belt.







Graham

[graham_h_miller]

The results are in. I got the letter from the DVLA with all the previous owners on it. At first I was disappointed as there were only four owners, including myself and Keith. The computer printout said that the first owner was a Nigel Beck, taking possession on the date of first registration. But the next page was a hand-written sheet (VE60) with rubber stamps dated March 1970 that showed Granada TV Rental first had the vehicle registered at Ampthill Road in Bedford. After almost exactly two years, they punted it on to a dealer in Wolverhampton, who then sold it on to Nigel Beck. He then sold it in 1981 to Derek Smith who held on to it until 2008 when it was passed to Keith.

So it was, unsurprisingly, given that I've been told so many times, a Granada TV Rentals car.

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

As there was no interest on my seatbelt thread I thought I'd put the pictures here. This is how I've got rear belts in the Husky:







Pictures are pretty self-explanatory. Under the seat, the mechanic cut off the old buckles, drifted out the bolts and reused the holes with new spreader plates.

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

I doubt they are anything official - they are hopelessly out of line and most of them are on the left. My only thought is that a void is behind there and someone went to inject Waxoyl or similar?

When I get a minute I'll post a photo of how irregular they are!

And yes, I love stuff like that. The trouble is when they went from green VE60s to computerised logbooks it was a bit haphazard. From what I've read on the 'net it looks like some people lost them or they were illegible or they couldn't be bothered. It seems to be a weird double-standard as they microfilmed the VE60s but then ignored the data and reset the computer count of previous owners to the date it was entered!

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

Yep that was it. LSW Eleanor was taking in to do a week's work in Edinburgh. Any other weekend, you wouldn't have to ask!

Well, this is a bit of a WTF?!? moment. I've been out to have a look and found something rather odd. Totally odd in fact.



This is a photo of the only bit of the oil filter left. The rest of it is gone. Unsurprisingly there is oil everywhere, all over the back.

Off to post a wanted ad for an L4 engine!

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

Time for a bit of an update - I've got a good engine lined up and hopefully it'll arrive at the beginning of September. In the meantime my lower back is objecting to camping so every day I'm doing a bit of spannering to get the engine out. The rear crossmember is being a bit weird because of the tow bar. It's not quite how I remember it, but I've got most of the bolts out. Including one that was bent and with a way-to-long thread so I hacksawed it off!

Now need to jack it up and get to the underneath bolts before I go even further with the crossmember. And start a shopping list of spares - already need rear engine mount, rubber shroud clips and some bumper bolts!

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

Now the engine's out of the car, here's a couple of really clear photos of the con-rod doing it's best to escape through the side of the engine.





So I'd say that's conclusive!

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

Right so. The charging light was looking wavery so with much help from the How-To on this forum, I fitted an alternator. I haven't properly checked it yet but tomorrow I'll have it out for a run to make sure all is good.

Here are some before and after shots:





And here's the remains of the control box that makes a nice place to hide fuses when I sort out the wiring!



Graham

[graham_h_miller]

Yeah, you gave me pause for thought. But I went back to the documentation that came with it and it's very clear that the tag on the side is for the warning light and the tag on the back goes for live. If that is true (and I can't start second guessing the documentation) then I'm OK as I've used a 6mm wire to do the main feed and the one you can see is for the warning light and definitely up to the job.

The Dynalite ones are indeed a lot more expensive - this was £125 inc postage. From what I can tell, the Dynalite looks like a good quality dynamo and the Dynamator looks like a cheap Chinese one. I'm not overly bothered as I could've picked up an alternator for about £40 - £50 so I'm guessing they can still make money on it.

I have scrapped the dynamo wiring and put new leads and terminals on. The only thing I didn't do is unwind the loom between the control box and the solenoid as they're so far apart on a Husky. Instead I used the B terminal on the box to bridge the solenoid wire back into the loom. If you see what I mean.

I'll have to ask my brother (who understands electrickery better than me) some questions, but so far so good! I will keep an eye and see how it goes.

Thanks

Graham

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

If its all working and safe then its all good , warning light one will be fine
6mm wire which is 84strands of 0.30 mm wire is good for 42 A , doesnt look that big in your pic which is why i was worried .
If you have any doubt then simply count the strands as this will tell you the rating

chart 1 on this link

http://www.autosparks.co.uk/index.php?content_page=52

84 / 0.30 wire is the size of the big brown wire on the bottom right and left terminal on my solenoid

[graham_h_miller]

So... it went to get a hole in the floor fixed and the mechanic made a huge hole trying to find some solid metal to weld to. Luckily it was under the passenger seat and flat so he could plate it without me buying half a floor panel. It was so bad it didn't even have the catch for the seat left!

Better news, I used an internet tyre company and got four new Nagkang 155/80R12s put on at home for under £200! So now it's a lot nicer and more predictable to drive.

Now I've got it back and I need to use it as the main car so Eleanor can take the Multipla for a bit. And it has a flat tyre so I'm using it as the only car this weekend and then if it behaves it'll become the main car for a week or two!

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

Hi

Well, I survived three weeks without the modern I have had Imps as main daily drivers before but I've just changed the engine and haven't properly settled in with it yet. And, we live in a tiny village where you can't even walk to the shops with three children to ferry around.

But it passed with flying colours, only developing a small oil leak that it's in for fixing as I type. (I know where it is and it's a complete pain without putting it up on ramps!)

So I'm dead chuffed and feeling lots better about it now.

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

I've been thinking about this for a while now. I'm aiming for "original but safe".

I bought one of these from ebay - despite appearances it's a red LED bar. Made from machined aluminium it's sold by a bike shop and designed for the custom bike and trike world.



And stuck three magnets to the back of it - again I love ebay! They are the super-strong neomobydium (how the hell do you spell that?) magnets. Three appears to be enough to hold it but not be impossible to remove.



Then I found out that when they made the Husky, they split the feed for the rear brake lights by using a two by two bullet socket block. As it's one in and two out, there's a spare +ve for the high level. So I just put a bullet on a red wire and plugged it in! I also wired in a new earth while I was there with a spare tail to earth the rear lights properly.



And here it is when I was testing the light. The wires go that way as it was hanging over the rear seat.



This is how it looks from the outside. I figured the panel gaps around the rear hatch were bigger than on the battery or engine cover.



It needs a big tidy up in here. But I figured out as I was driving around that I can Araldite some cable ties to magnets and then tie the two wires together and have it all neatened up.



Action shot! And now I need to either change the R/H bulb or deploy that spare earth to make the ordinary brake light work!



And a close up.



The good news is that when it goes to a show I can unstick the light, take out the cables and all that will be left is one white connector in the engine bay. Shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes and will keep originality.

Graham

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Going back to your high level brake light i did this the permanent way and its quite tricky to say the least

[Dave ' Linwood ' Lane]

Looks like this during the day , not too bad I think , its the older non-led type with a single 22W bulb

[graham_h_miller]

That does look very neat and securely done (and harder work than my magnet based approach). When it stops raining and I stop stripping the engine I need to figure out why the lights are so patchy across the back. I suspect it'll involve removing lots of tow-bar related wiring and running extra earth lines in.

Graham

[graham_h_miller]

Final three borked engine photos. First, check out how far the big end cap bent compared to an original one:



This is what's left of number 2 piston:



And this is what it did to the bore of the cylinder, along with all the other damage!



Graham

[graham_h_miller]

Time for an update. I took the car out today for a shake-down run as it's been in the garage for so long. Did about 20 miles round trip without a hitch. Temperature stayed between an indicated 70 and 100 regardless of road type. I think I had it up to around 65ish (the speedo isn't reliable) on the dual carriageway and also while it was running around town in traffic. The heater hoses warmed up and the heater worked. It was weird after all these months off, but I only tried to change into fifth once and a couple of times it bogged down because I went up through the gears in a modern low-revs way instead of the proper Imp way!

But overall, apart from a few minor niggles, it seems to be absolutely fine to drive around. I still want to pull the dash, remove some not working gauges and find out where the loose connections are and install the stereo.

So, all good now, until it's sold!

Graham