Mopar Muscle Association UK

looks like i've sold the 318 engine and box to a mate so he can get his (my old) 66 fury back on the road for this summer. i doubt he'll want any of the rebuild/tuning parts i've accumulated but that's fine, i'll buy another non running 318 later when one comes up. it would've been a shame to strip this one as it's so sweet so it's all good really.
neil.

we made a start over the lst 2 days with a open to lsd swap. the lsd is now removed from the jensen interceptor axle and the mk2 daimler axle is now draining ready to pop the 1/2 shafts and open diff. the daimler axle is from my mates 't' beach racer come strip toy. on the strip it'd only do peg leg burnouts/launches so lsd was the way to go. we used my big boys puller to remove the flanges/discs from the 1/2 shafts along with a coil spring compressor. oh and of course we warmed the flanges to help too, lol.
neil.

i bought 3 new 10" wheels and tyres for my trailer today. i got heavy duty ones with 8 ply tyres, a little extra but worth it. on dad's transits which when loaded were always at their full gross weight we swapped from 8 ply to 10 ply tyres and halved our tyre issues re blowouts etc. so it's worth it to me so there.
neil.

the model A truck chassis is now in my garage. pics and job list for us to do will follow.
oh, and i've ordered new discs for the exploder rear axle the A chassis has along with a pair of new scorpio rear calipers with carrier brackets. i couldn't make out from the pics which pads they take so i'll determine that when they arrive.
neil.

we made a start on the A chassis this afternoon. we step boxed the front of the frame rails to match the rest. next we cut the 4 shock brackets from 6mm plate and they're now bolted in place ready to weld to the rails.
neil.

today the bearings and shims for the jag/jensen diff swap arrived so we can get back on that tomorrow. also yesterday i collected an ally 10 gallon fuel tank for the nash.
neil.

the new 'shims' for the ring gear are made and the bearing shims juggled side to side 'til the gear backlash is right. this was made easier as we'd flap wheeled the inside of 2 used bearings so they were a tight sliding fit on the diff allowing them to be removed and refitted while changing shims. we'll get the new bearings pressed on now we have the shim situation sorted. we ended up with 1x5mm and 2x1mm crown wheel shims (see pic) as that's what sheet i had to get me closest to the just under 7mm we needed. that's the reason for the bearing shim juggling as we'd got the bearing preload set with the required shims already. as soon as the longer ring gear bolts arrive we can get it all buttoned up.
neil.

the longer bolts arrived for the ring gear this morning so this afternoon we got the new bearings pressed onto the lsd and the new bolts torqued up. the axle's now fully rebuilt ready to go. we plan to loosely assemble the open jag diff into the jensen axle, but.... with the lsd needing a big lump of shims to get the ring gear close enough to mesh with the pinion this probably means the open diff would be 'too' close to the pinion to fit. to keep the pile of loose parts to a minimum we may just fit the diff with no ring gear so all the other parts are inside the axle.
neil.

the jag/jensen diff swap job's gone back so there's more room now to work on the A chassis. we need to get it sorted as there's a glass 32 3 window (on a 'trimmed' scimitar chassis) coming in that needs to have the under dash birds nest sorted among other bits and bobs before the swap meet.
neil.

no, it's sorted and gone back, lol.
today we welded the front shock mounts to the chassis, the unisteer rack bracket to the chassis, the pedal box bracket to the chassis and the pedal box itself where it'd been narrowed from being a manual pedal box to an auto pedal box. lastly we cut the centre from the gearbox crossmember and welded on flanges to make it removeable. that was after we'd pruned off the old gearbox mounting bracket and made a new one which we of course welded to the centre of the crossmember. so today was lots of welding really
neil.

today we cut the rear crossmember, transverse spring and axle brackets off. this was followed by the 4 link bars and axle brackets. we positioned the axle level side to side on 3 axle stands, the 3rd under the pinion flange to allow setting the pinion angle to match the gearbox output shaft. lastly we cleaned up all the axle brackets ready for reattaching tomorrow.
neil.

after all measurements were checked and double checked we tacked all the 4 link brackets in place. then we offered a coilover roughly where it'll sit behind the axle to decide where the crossmember needed to be. this was cut to length and also tacked in place. we'll knock up the coilover brackets and get them tacked both to the axle and crossmember next, then blow it all apart to be fully welded. lastly here we have to make and mount a panhard bar which'll just leave the rear discs and scorpio calipers to mount each end of the exploder axle. we're getting there.
neil.

oh, you didn't hear it from me but..... i may be sneaking a mk2 zodiac here in a couple of months, ssshhhhh.
it'd make a great gasser with one of the other fe big blocks i have here, lol.
neil.

i just had an email from jay brown in the states. he runs the 'fe power forums' and builds, races and makes parts for fe ford engines. he's had a new batch of his intake manifold adapters made and asked for my address to give me a shipping price. they allow the use of any 351c 4v inlet manifold which as you can imagine are more plentiful than fe ford ones. especially as i intend to fit a tunnel ram to the fe i'm putting in the nash. tunnel ram's are hike hens teeth for an fe so you have explore other alternatives.
neil.

that's the intake adapter ordered then.... ?765 inc' shipping. lets hope i find a 351 cleveland tunnel ram for the right price next. it may seem an expensive way to get a tunnel ram but the only one i've seen for an fe engine was on american ebay at just under $2500!!!
neil.
ps here's a link to what i've bought.... https://fepower.net/Products/feiamr.html