Knucklehead Saloon

Installed a UHF 6.5dB antenna on my Brumby's rollbar. Made a bracket from ally flatbar Mounted the antenna Pushed a coat hanger wire through to the cab and taped the lead to it. Used a rubber grommet to make it waterproof. Looks like this when installed. Cable run. Finished. Cheers, Knucklehead.

Ooh I likey !! Heaps clever mate.

I had urathane rubbers in a little packet in my pocket once... no wait... wrong rubbers haha ! But seriously, over the years I've put them in a ton if cars, swaybars, radius rods, shock absorbers etc. I used to use antisieze as lube and it lasted very well. Also used waterproof grease on occasion but didn't last as many yrs as the antisieze. The kits I used on Skoob came with their own lube. Pretty sure its a black molybedenum grease. Dry swaybar bushes are far and away the major cause of squeaky front ends. Cheers.

Cool. If you can find it I'll take it!

Yeah that's my ugly mug under the car right there haha.

Yikes!! I cut the end of my pinky off (1/4" on a diagonal through the nail) last yr chopping spuds pissed haha... damn thing grew back too ! Hospital schmoslital.. I hit with isopropyl alcohol instead. Hurt like a mofo but zero infection and stuff. I gotta bit of Swiss in me too but it'll have to wait till I get my mill/drill/lathe later this yr. Good info though and thanks. Hope your fingers bounce back like mine did Bro.

Amsoil is the best DaveT !! Scary expensive down under though. Every oil test Ive ever seen put Amsoil out in top. Better than mobile1 full synth too.

Jono: man gbox and diff oil smell disgusting regardless of synth / mineral. Almost makes me retch every time haha !

Oh and you'll need the 250ml tube to treat 4l of oil (they also sell 125ml tubes of the stuff).

Sorry jkinz that was a typo. Its Nulon G70 not N70. Ebay linky https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F331798313713

Right !! Got the pics working (thanks el_fredo). Turns out google photos was the culprit. Went with tinypic hosting instead and works like a dream.

El_freddo: compression is stock afaik and seems fine (havnt put my gauge on it yet though). Plugs come out dry and a good brown color on the electrodes. PCV is deleted. Jono: I was thinking that too. Its got a reco cardmone dizzy from 2wd leone in it and centrifugal advance was something I was pondering. My initial thoughts were to limit max advance as well. Do you think it would be possible to drill and tap the dizzy body from the side to take a bolt that will act as an advance limiter or do the stopper slots spin as well (meaning brazing is the only option) ? Having an adjustable stopper means fine tuning max advance and makes alot of sense to me. How many mm of braze did you use ?

Jono: one kit was 22mm and the orher 17mm ID

Jono: mate I bought em a while back from ebay, from memory they were 70 bucksish delivered. Carfreak 85: thanks for the tip mate !

Ok does anyone know how to make the links show up as photos pls ?

Hey Gang ! Today I replaced my worn old rubber bushes with Nolathane ones on my front swaybar. The job was a cinch, took 35 mins all up and was doable without jacking the car up. I ordered the parts from ebay and have included pix for anyone else looking to do the same. The Nolathane kits were great as they came with bushing lube as well. Skoob handles the corners a whole bunch better now and sits better at highway speeds as well.

I'm hearing ya Scott !! I did my fair share standing in front of a 100watt Marshall amp too haha. I'm kinda reluctant to cut the hoses and here's why: I've run with the hoses cut for the last 10k miles and light throttle ping has been an issue since day 1. Ambient intake charge temp plays a big part in controlling pinging (I'm sure you know this already). The manifold gets hot coolant from both heads before heading through the thermostat and back to the radiator. Logic dictates that the manifold therefore runs at hot coolant temps. The only cool coolant from the rad that can enter the manifold is from the waterpump bypass hose, hence my reason for reconnecting the hoses (sans perished thermovalve) and sending it in there. Since doing this mod the car pings a great deal less and I'm gonna go with that for the next 10k miles and evaluate the results. As you know pinging is a result of many factors but the main 3 are fuel grade, ignition timing and intake charge temp (itself a function of ambient air temp + manifold heat soak). So in short... call it an experiment with the best logic my brain can come up with. Please feel free to poke any holes in my thinking that you see. Cheers, Knucklehead.

Gday all, I'm running a 91 Brumby with the EA81 engine and the stock 4 speed trans with 218,000kms on the car. 16000 kms ago when I first got the car I changed out all the fluids including the g/box oil. I used a name brand mineral oil the correct weight and volume etc but it has only taken this ling for the shift quality to nose dive hard into sucks-ville. I'm guessing the mineral oil doesnt stand up so well. This time I went with a semi-synthetic oil and thought why not give that N70 stuff a go as well. I'm not usually a fan of mechanic in a bottle stuff but I'm thinking after 27 years of wear on the dogs and synchros in the box it can't hurt. Worst case scenario is if the stuff was crap I'll dump the oil and start again. Well... pleasant surprise. The new oil improved shift quality alot. After adding the N70 as well the box became realllllly smooth to operate and easily selects 1st gear while moving now. So far so good. I'll report back after I clock up some miles and let you know how its holding up. Cheers, Knucklehead.

Man they look well made hey. Took Skoob out for a 20 minute flog in the hills just now and good news (its a cool 27C day here). Temps rock stable at a shade under 1/2 way and the light throttle 3000rpm ping almost gone. I'm on the right track there I think. I'll try a higher octane fuel next (currently running 94ron).

Just put an ally radiator in my 91 brumby.

Subaru Scott: Cheers for the info mate. Those little hoses will be doing some cooling too. Where I live it often hits 108F (or higher) ambient in the middle of summer. Keeping cars cool is a bit of an artform out here !

Here's the one I got. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F172672533280

Thanks Jono. The cap with the rad is bypass already but I can up the psi rating with another cap if it doesn't cope. Just nicked down the shops and noticed the car now taking longer to warm up. Good sign. I'll give it a 30 minute flog at highway speeds on the way to work tomorrow night. I'll let you know how it goes.

Gday Everyone, For a while now my Brumby has had a cooling issue. I've fixed leaks, fitted an overflow bottle, replaced the thermostat etc etc. This made the car a whole lot better but it would still climb right up the temp gauge when working hard at lower speeds.The only thing left to replace was the radiator. For 130 shipped I couldnt go past an unbranded ebay special. Its an ally unit that has been vacuum brazed and tig welded. I know EA81s are marginal anyway cooling system wise so I got creative and orded a rad for an auto (mine's a manual). I hooked up the heater circuit bypass that cools the manifold to one side and the intake manifold coolant inlet to the other. I had to make up new hoses around 1.3m long to do this. Why? Well.... I noticed that whenever the temp gauge started climbing over 1/2 way I get pinging issues around 3000rpm and its definitely thermally related. I figured that blocking off the coolant inlet to the manifold like everyone does is not necessarily a good thing and lets the coolant already in there get too hot. This in turn makes the inlet charge too hot and presto.. ping city. I havnt had time to road test the car yet but here's some install pix. Old Vs New Metal fan bolted right up and had to drill 2 mounting holes for the plastic one (lower mounts). Installed a new thermoswitch, this one is listed for an alpha romeo and kicks in 10C earlier. Mounted the trans cooler fittings to take my inlet manifold mod. Here it is installed in the car. I'll report back here with my analysis on how the mod is working. I let the car Idle in my driveway to check for leaks (none) and it reached operating temp. Thermofans kick in just under 1/2 way on the temp gauge and keep temp stable at a little under 1/2 way. Cheers, Knucklehead.

That looks mint !!