OKA #251 Rebuild

Talk to Paul or Dean about the gearbox selector linkage with 2 bolt holes. New selector linkage only has a single bolt hole. I added the smaller second hole because there was a second hole on the gearbox side of the linkage. The single bolt arrangement was loose as buggery. I paid for a new smaller hole to be 'machined' in the selector arm so it was on the centreline. There was no meat left so they 'made' a slot.
Refit putting the bigger bolt in first.

Reversing light switch, which doesn't work, is from a Landrover.
There is info and a link about it in this forum.

Happy 251 will live again, sad I never had the space to do it justice.

peewee65 wrote: Talk to Paul or Dean about the gearbox selector linkage with 2 bolt holes. New selector linkage only has a single bolt hole. I added the smaller second hole because there was a second hole on the gearbox side of the linkage. The single bolt arrangement was loose as buggery. I paid for a new smaller hole to be 'machined' in the selector arm so it was on the centreline. There was no meat left so they 'made' a slot.
Refit putting the bigger bolt in first.

Reversing light switch, which doesn't work, is from a Landrover.
There is info and a link about it in this forum.

Happy 251 will live again, sad I never had the space to do it justice.

G'day Pete,
No worries, I sorted it in the end, they did a bit of a hack job on the slot!
Haven't got as far as the wiring yet, but yes I remember you telling me about the reverse light switch.
251 will slowly come back to life, went and bought myself a new welder today, as I anticipate there will be a bit of welding involved along the way and my old mig was absolute crap!

Also borrowed a lifting beam from work to get the cab off when I find the time.

Cheers,
Steve

Slow us your new toy Steve !!! Love a new workshop edition !

Dane wrote: Slow us your new toy Steve !!! Love a new workshop edition !

G’day Dane,
It’s nothing too flash, but much easier to use than the old piece of garbage I had. It’s a Unimig Viper Multi 195, Mig/DC Tig/ Arc.

Very easy to get setup for whatever needs welding. Does it all for you after inputting your parameters. I’m going to grab a gasless wire nozzle for it, as I will rarely use gas.

My welding ability is not the best, but I think I’ll be much better at it by the end of this project!






Rebuilt NP205 bought from East Coast OKA spares. I’ve also elected to go with a heavy duty rear output shaft.





Going to pull the Rockwell out this weekend and Paul will send me the NP205 so I can fab up some mounts prior to pulling the engine etc.

Pulled the cab off on the weekend, all went according to plan.





Cheers,
Steve

I love my unimig machine makes it so easy. Do yourself a solid though and forget the messy spattering gasless stuff and get an e size bottle of gas from bunnings. 300 dollar refundable deposit on the bottle, 185 per swap for gas and I get a bottle to 1 and a bit 5kg spools of mig wire. So much cleaner, and far easier to weld with.

Dane wrote: I love my unimig machine makes it so easy. Do yourself a solid though and forget the messy spattering gasless stuff and get an e size bottle of gas from bunnings.

The vast majority of my welding will be outside, so I’m subject to the wind most of the time. If I can ever convince the missus to get rid of her 20 years of crap from the shed, I’d have a better place to work! I’ve been trying for 15 years now, LOL

Cab is removed along with the doors and windscreen. I did a botch job removing the windscreen rubber, mainly because I didn’t realise it was a one piece seal, I thought it was an inner and an outer rubber. Lesson learned!

The passenger cab door gave me some grief as every allen head bolt just stripped the head. Tried all the usual tricks to remove them and ended up welding a nut to each one.

There is a fair bit of corrosion around the windscreen channel, it looks like a small surround section is welded in there. Any advice on the best way to deal with this? Is this a part I can buy? I’m not sure how I’d get the corner curves to DIY.

Also removed the front crossmember that is well overdue for replacement!

3rd video is up on YouTube.

Hi Steve,

Don't despair about that seal, it isn't all that expensive and really should be changed as it will have deformed with the rust that was in the channel on that truck.

Those door bolts are brutal ! The thread that sticks through the frame gets crud on it and hey presto you break the heads off. I took 3 days to get them out of the driver door on 173. When refitting use the shortest bolts possible and coat in never seize, then ser a reminder in your phone to remove, clean, re never seize and install every 6 months to prevent it happening again. I have heard of a mod to use a bolt in place of the Allen head bolt and need to talk to Dean about it when I'm there next.

The windscreen seal channel is an angle welded in place. It is an odd size and not easily bought. The bend is not easily done. It comes in two pieces. They whole channel can be purchased through your oka parts supplier. The OKA parts suppliers can't actually get any made at the moment but have a few in stock. Some guys have made their own solutions but to my knowledge haven't had trucks on the road for real world testing.

I look forward to watching your vid later today ! Keep up the awesome work mate.

Cheers, Dane

G’day Dane,

The drivers door had been changed to standard hex head bolts and was easy to remove, I thought it was standard, so was surprised when I found different bolts on the passenger side. Will be using anti-seize on the new ones for sure.

Hoping to make up a new front crossmember today and have a look at cleaning out the years of crud behind all the front access panels.

I also bought some feronite converter and primer after seeing you mention it on one of your vids. I’ll use it wherever required.

Don't let that ferronite drip from rusty steel to concrete if you don't want it to turn black !!! But it is magic stuff !!!!!! I'm also using a deodorised fish oil through an underbody deadener gun with a long hose for treating inside the rails while the cross member is off. Ferguson's knock out also came highly recommended.

Cheers, Dane

Pulled the heater core and evaporator out today. I ended up pulling the complete air box out as there was a fair bit of corrosion underneath it. I’ve cut out the corroded section from under the airbox and fitted a new piece of Gal plate.

It looks like the heater core has been leaking for a long time as it was all pretty rotten and damp under it.





Is the heater core and also the evaporator something I can buy, or would I need to take them to a radiator/air-con shop to have them rebuilt?

I’ll flip the heater core while I’m at it and relocate the tap, either that or I’m thinking of going a modulating heater 12v tap with a bypass when the heater is switched off.

I'll confirm on my next trip for parts mate, but I know I have a brand new XT setup but I think I might have a brand new LT heater and evaporator in my stuff. I haven't forgotten the tyre size pic either, been a hectic week here. I'll let you know about the HVAC stuff I have for an LT by Thursday mate.

Cheers, Dane

Dane wrote: I'll confirm on my next trip for parts mate, but I know I have a brand new XT setup but I think I might have a brand new LT heater and evaporator in my stuff. I haven't forgotten the tyre size pic either, been a hectic week here. I'll let you know about the HVAC stuff I have for an LT by Thursday mate.

Cheers, Dane

No worries Dane, no rush.
I'll probably give you a call about some other bits and pieces that I'll need, and come down for a visit at some stage. I'll probably pull the motor/gearbox/transfer out this weekend and get to work cleaning up the chassis so she's all ready for the new engine etc.
As I'm sure you know, one job always leads to something else that you find needs doing on an old vehicle.

I was told the evaporator was off an early Nissan Patrol...

Dave Blythe wrote: I was told the evaporator was off an early Nissan Patrol...

Yep, I read the same, but would need to know the exact model Patrol to be able to investigate it further.

I was told that for an LT the heater core is apparently out of a Torana and the a/c evporator was off a holden/Chev Suburban.
The LT end tanks of an LT radiator are from a six cylinder Cortina. Most with a 6BT have had four core innards fitted.

Peter and Sandra OKA 374 wrote: I was told that for an LT the heater core is apparently out of a Torana and the a/c evporator was off a holden/Chev Suburban.
The LT end tanks of an LT radiator are from a six cylinder Cortina. Most with a 6BT have had four core innards fitted.

Hopefully Dane can sort out the heater core and evaporator. I sent the radiator to Paul and Ian and had it redone as a 5 core, should do the trick.

Just uploaded the 4th video in my OKA rebuild adventure. Found a couple of issues requiring attention and the Spicer gearbox is a bit on the sad side.



Cheers,
Steve

5th video on the rebuild of OKA #251 is now on YouTube. In this one we flipped the cab over on its back and set about tidying up underneath and redoing the sound proofing and heat shielding.

Episode 6 is up on YouTube for anyone interested.

In this video, I remove the windscreen angle, pull out the complete dash, remove the cab roof etc.