417 replies to this topic

[CLM]

Not to worry, I posted lots of pictures up on the mokes facebook page! 

 

http://www.facebook.com/65moke

 

There you go John

 

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 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!

 

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.photobu...library/MMW2013

[buddylove]

Looks like you had a great time.  Chuck is a friend of mine up here!  He usually has a good amount of stories on hand.

[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

[hughJ]

Hi Chris you certainly keep busy. Is that snow in June in the photo? We are having one of our best summers in a few years here in Scotland. You do work a very clean engine rebuild! Love this wee Moke.

 

Hugh

[jagman.2003]

Excellent story on the show. Fancy seeing another early woody in yellow. I didn't think that was a factory colour. Having said that most of the factory options were pretty dull. I have farina grey!

I haven't had a chance to read your engine built posts yet. Will study with more detail when I get a minute. Good job!

[CLM]

Thanks Hugh and Jag,

 

Yeah factory color it is not, and likely mine won't be going back yellow, but it has a running twin for now :)

 

And yes.. SNOW in the middle of summer while driving a soft top car with no sides!  As for the clean rebuild.. the pistons in the 1275 were starting to show some very minor bruising so I had to put them somewhere they wouldn't be lost or damaged... inside the block seemed the right spot lol.

 

Chris

[johnsn]

Hay Chris! what's up.

john

[buddylove]

Been wondering that myself.

[johnsn]

Wake up Chris!

john

[johnsn]

I have a bad feeling about Chris. I think he may have passed away in 2013.

Is there a way to find his information?

[petey81]

He was last active sep 2014..

[Retro_10s]

Blimey, I was reading through this great thread.... only to be met with a very sombering last few posts

Fingers crossed for good news