Rogue Trooper

[hunterbynature]

awsome prgress rogue how much ground clearance do you have, i guees its about the same as the front crossmember? i think were gonna be up your way at xmas, would love to come and have a catch up sometime then if your gonna be around?  keep up the good work mate cheers stevo

[Rogue Trooper]

You would be correct. It is roughly the same give or take 5mm. It should end up being just a little more by the time I'm finished as the front is sitting a little high due to less weight over the front wheels. Once I've got the thing actually on the road I'll have the springs retempered and set so the front drops to the normal ride height.

I'm certainly going nowhere at Xmas. I make it a policy never to go away on public holidays. Too many people on the road who shouldn't be there and everything costs twice as much to do anything or stay anywhere. If you would like to stop in you would be most welcome. Give me a yell when you are sure of your plans and I'll flick you my number and address.

[BusyKiwi]

looking good

is the new cross member about same height as the 6 cly one? ever have any clearance problems with the transmission or anything?

[ben]

The Jag diffs came in varying sizes but they are all too short for the bedford. I am very lucky that a good friend of mine has recently disposed of his van from many years ago and he had a Jag diff underneath that he had had the arms and axles professionally lengthened and he has offered those to me.

ok thanks, anyone wanna buy a jag rear end? looks like its up for sale now lol.

ben

[Rogue Trooper]

looking good

is the new cross member about same height as the 6 cly one? ever have any clearance problems with the transmission or anything?

To be honest I haven't actually measured the cross member in the car. I had to get the engine at such a height that it wasn't lower than the front cross member but not so high that it interfered with the seat mount. As it is the seats will mount a bit higher than the standard van but I have the Commodore seats in there now elevated higher than normal anyway so it's not an issue. I think it's pretty much now bang on.

Not too sure what you mean by clearance problems with the transmission. If you mean underneath then the sump of the trans sits about the same height as the engine sump and there's plenty of room all around. The trans sits a little furthur forward than the old trimatic I had hooked up to the 186. When driving with the mid mount the only problem I ever had was with judder bars. The front wheels went over fine but then once they were over the far side of the judder bar the judder bar then sat directly under the engine and some particularly high ones did cause a scrape or two. Generally taking the judderbars slowly at an angle solved that one.

[Rogue Trooper]

Been working on the overhead console trying to get it mostly done before I start work on the engine bay. The trans mount is finished so we're now fastening it up underneath the van bolting it through the main chassis runners. We'll finish off the front engine mount next and I can then get the donor car up to my place and start finishing off the hole in the floor of the van. Hoping the mounts will be finished off this week.

Got a call from the engineer who is modifying my petrol tank last week. Only about 5 weeks since I dropped it off. He couldn't remember exactly what I wanted done. Haven't heard since. Just as well I'm not in a hurry.

The overhead console has been interesting as there is nothing to fix to at the top so it was a bit of lateral thinking to come up with a way of providing fixing at the top but supported from the bottom fixings. Anyway I'm quite pleased with the way it's coming along and it's quite rigid. The box section I've used is extremely light and that's helped a lot. There is a tiny bit of flexing but that's coming from the bulkhead that runs across the top of the windwscreen. I thought that would be solid but it seems not. It may disappear once the windscreen is back in.

[Rogue Trooper]

Well the weather is absolute crap today and the rain is driving into the carport where I do most of my welding so doing some more on the overhead console is out. Decided to sort out the axles for the diff instead. Here is a pic (just for interests sake) of the standard axles from the XJS diff sitting beside the axles that were lengthened specifically for the Bedford.

[Rogue Trooper]

Time for another update because it's been busy, busy, busy!

Did a bit more work on the overhead console and pleased with the way it is starting to shape up however have decided to put it aside for the moment to use as a fill-in if I have to stop work waiting for something else.



Got the fuel tank back and quite pleased with the the job there. I had the fuel pump mount and baffle from an EB Falcon station wagon grafted into the bottom of the tank and the top mounts for the original fuel feed and sender units welded up as these are now redundant.





I made the final cut to the hole in the floor for the engine, enlarging it for the final fitting. I have also moved the two innermost seatmounts on each side. Looking at the height the engine cover is going to be I may actually bolt the two innermost seat fastenings to the engine cover instead. Will see how it shapes up as the cover progresses.



Got the donor vehicle up to my place at long last and pulled the engine and complete wiring loom from the vehicle. That kept me occupied for a couple of days. I will only be using part of the loom but doesn't hurt to have everything just in case.



Decided that to save removing the engine again I would clean and paint around the entire area underneath that would be inaccessible with the engine and transmission fitted. What a shit of job especially as the last 2 engines I had in there leaked like a sieve. I now have a newfound respect for anyone who has done this to their van. Did five coats of sealer, primer and enamel over a week, racing to get it done in time for last weekend and then it just pissed down so had to postpone the engine fitting. This weekend looked like being more of the same however I decided enough was enough midday Sunday and went for it. 3 hours later we were in!





Other things I've done is partially fitted the radiator. The top mounts are done however had to wait till I'd towed the remainder of the car to a mates (so he could remove the diff for his project), so I could grab the bottom radiator crossmember as I will be grafting that in. Have also made the mounting bracket for the secondary transmission cooler. Will finish these while I am sorting out the air intake as well as having the accelerator cable made up.

[MaTTe]

hey mate, looks good!
You've obviously been busy, and the quality of the work looks high also.
It doesn't look like there's much room for the seats, but nothing some fabrication can't fix..

I tell you what, i'd much rather be doing customisation than body work.. it's giving me the shits...

Anyway, keep up the good work. Achievements are good motivation!

[grandad]

keep up the work and the updates