218 replies to this topic

[liirge]

Morris, has been in the family since his original purchase in 1966 by my grandfather, We are farmers, and the moke was used on the farm so had to take quite a punishment. In 1993 the car finally retired to a farm building after what my father said was a bad drive shaft. In August of 2007 i expressed some interested in restoring her back to original condition, i have never rebuilt a car, more farm machinery and tractors, i knew quite a fair bit, and was unaware of how big the mini scene was. I finally decided to start work in October of 2007, and i have taken photos through out the work. I would like to say that were the car is, there is no running water (im working on it), I was also told te car had a 1275GT installed into it (Later this was found to be incorrect)
Enough of my talking, and here are some pictures of how she was:



Notice that is mud that has managed to build up between the arch and the Wheel.

Edited by liirge, 19 February 2008 - 05:38 PM.

[miniman retford]

Hi looks a great project keep us posted with progress

[liirge]

~29/10/07~
WORK HAS BEGUN
The moke has been jacked up and brand new tyres have been installed. The next step is to take apart the wheels hubs as some of them have seized. I am waiting upon a tool to arrive to do this.
Rear Wheel hubs are siezed, handbrake possibly left on?

[liirge]

Hi looks a great project keep us posted with progress

Cheers, will do!

[liirge]

~01/11/07~
Well, Handbrake was left on! The passenger side Drum has been restored using Emery Paper, that was a chore. The Shoes however are going to have to be replaced.
The Wheel Arch has been Cleaned by me it took 3 hours, but the results are pretty amazing if you check out the pictures you'll see what i mean!!
I FOUND THE IGNITION KEY!!!! The Brake master cylinder needs replacing, the whole system needs bleeding. Both the Master and Slave Clutch Cylinders are also in need of replacing!

[Juju]

~01/11/07~
Well, Handbrake was left on! The passenger side Drum has been restored using Emery Paper, that was a chore. The Shoes however are going to have to be replaced.
The Wheel Arch has been Cleaned by me it took 3 hours, but the results are pretty amazing if you check out the pictures you'll see what i mean!!
I FOUND THE IGNITION KEY!!!! The Brake master cylinder needs replacing, the whole system needs bleeding. Both the Master and Slave Clutch Cylinders are also in need of replacing!

Holy Moly, you're a brave bloke!! You can't see moke fer mud!!

Keep it up, Chappie!! I'm gonna watch this thread & pick up some tips for my GT.......

[liirge]

~05/11/07~
The other rear (Drivers side) Wheel arch has been cleaned, and the drum for that side has been restored aswell. The wheel bearing on Drivers Rear side completely broke as i took it off, theres still part of it left on the stub axle. I hope the stub axle is OK. The Grease nipples for the Radius arms are gonna need replacing, there not working so well!!!!

[liirge]

~12/11/07~
The rear Wheel Bearing came off with a puller, what a chore. The Stub axle is fine, the bearings ruined!The Front has been worked on i managed to remove the backplate on that aswell as the shoes. The plate was attached to the Engine bay by a rubber braking pipe. The bolts all were so corroded on that all spanners and sockets used on it just rounded it. After hours of work and BRUTE FORCE they came off and new brake hoses have been ordered.
Now to get to the other front brakes on the passenger side the Radiator has to be removed. I started work on this today, and its one hell of a job, The rubber piping has perished and useless, one of the retaining clips for the hoses has stuck, A bolt on the engine block going into the thermostat has sheared off, Oops!
NOW on a normal mini it wouldn't have been to hard to loosen and remove, as the front grill comes off and you can just reach in. HOWEVER the moke is different the front grill DOES NOT come off. In the end we had to undoo the sliding nuts on the Dynamo and slid the drive belt off. Now from underneath and with great difficulty and several dislocated joints the bolt holding the radiator at the bottom came off!!!

[liirge]

~14/11/07
The Good The Bad and The Ugly!
Well letsa start with the good news! The radiator has come out finally and looks in good nick, im going to air clean it. The Brake pipes have arrived aswell, so hopefully in the new weeks the brakes will be up and running and can be tested for leaks!
The front passenger side brake hose came off slightly easier than drivers side, but it was still a couple of hours work.
Now the bad news. The Thermostat wasn't properly installed! and who ever last replaced it sheared part of the cylinder head. i have been informed that it was actually a problem when the moke was last used, apparently it overheated BADLY! so it could be a £200 Cylinder head for me. The CV Joints are caput, and i really mean completely gone, theres oil leaking from the gearbox, were the drive shafts attach, so there gonna have to be taken out, and replaced!!





Notice the oil leak!

[liirge]

~27/11/07~
well, there has been a lot of discussion and arguments since the last update. I will try and update in order of happenings. The Drive shafts came out, after a hell of a palaver involving the purchase of a Ball Joint remover - that required an ever increasing size of mallet to finally separate all of them, The rubber on the ball joints has to be replaced. were the drive shafts came out one side was pouring oil from the Gearbox\Differential.
I have loosly Wire brushed both front Wheel arches. The Dynamo has come out finally, and left a gaping whole in the Engine bay.
The Big Debate since last time, was should i buy a second hand engine that has been run recently for about £450ish, or replace the Cylinder head and pray to god that neither the Clutch or Gearbox has caput.
We rang some people (M&M Mini's www.Mini-Metro.co.uk) and they have spent the last 2 days looking for an engine that will actually fit the parts we have, but our chances are SLIM to say the least. If they cant find anything by Friday, its a new Cylinder head and divine intervention!!!
Other parts to have come out this week are the Manifolds both exhaust and inlet, and with that the Carb. also. While i was at the Manifolds i decided it would be prudent to take the WHOLE exhaust system off!! im now feeling the aches from that decision. The moke has been moved from the bottom of the Store, to the top by the Workshop. I have removed the Shock absorbers, one was Knackered completely and the other one was on its way out, both need replacing.
So alot of stuff has been taken out but not much new stuff has been put in!! there are a LOT of boxes full of bits and bobs.

[liirge]

~29/11/07~
Well today marks the 1 month anniversary of starting work on the moke, its been quite slow, but other commitments are taking there toll, but there seems to be an awful lot taken off and not alot of new bits put back on!!!
Yesterday i cleaned the floor pan, and discovered RUST!! its not to bad, but it looks expensive. I dont know anything about body work, and i can weld but not well, so not up to MOT standard.

[liirge]

~03/01/08~
Well, you may expect that loads of work has happened as i haven't written for a month and a bit, well your in for a disappointment. I'll go through the order of events.
The engine from the moke was lifted out and put onto a DIY work surface i made. The cylinder head was removed to be replaced at a later date. The oil filter removed as well as the inspection hatches.
The removal of the engine from moke, allowed a closer look at the oil leak, The plate that covers the Output drive was removed, but i cant seem to be able to get the rubber seal out, i think its been bodged in the past with gasket sealer.
I then spoke to the man at the re-spray place to get a preliminary booking, it was decided that he should respray the engine bay, and do the under seal as well as weld the Rust spots! i have decided to clean up the Engine and paint it back to BMC green. I purchased 2 cans of GUNK to degrease and clean the engine.
THEN WE WERE ROBBED on the 5th and 6th of December.
THEY DIDN'T TAKE THE MOKE THOUGH!!!!
And since then it has been hard to do any work due to lack of tools and police work, but i have started to clean the engine, its going to take TIME!! i mean real time.
I hope to start work again next week.

[liirge]

~12/01/08~
Work Stared on the moke again, Front suspension is the name. Have removed the upper suspension arm on the moke, this involved compressing the rubber cone spring, and then prise out the trumpet from the knuckle joint. and then drifting out the pivot shaft. It was hard to pick up a thread on the rubber cone spring, but eventually we managed by putting allot of force downwards and turning the tool.
The Nearside however is a different story. The rubber cone was perished, well the thread inside was anyway, so we had to tap a new thread into it, that was interesting. and then compress the spring, we did so and, the tool lost grip and bang it uncompressed again. So we managed to pick up a thread again and compressed very slightly. This allowed us with ALOT of work to prise out the trumpet from the knuckle joint.
The Pivot shaft however will not budge, i believe the spacer has rusted in the subframe, and therefore the pivot shaft cant drift out. there is very little room to hammer the shaft out from the other end, I've decided i'm going to drop the subframe out, this will give me enough room to hammer it out and force the spacer to loosen.

[liirge]

~14/01/08~
More trouble, the Idea today was to drop the Front Subframe, a usually quite simple task of undoing a few hard to reach Bolts, and carefully lower the frame away, trying not to bend it. However, this is the moke, and nothing is simple. The Fittings and mounts for the subframe underneath the footwell have completely rotted through, leaving a couple of welded bolts, unwelded and spinning on them selves.
Spoke to the coachworks today, Decided that he needs both the subframes off anyway, so tomorrow i'm going to crack the nuts, with a nut cracker, and hopefully drop the front suspension, remove the pivot shaft, and start work on the rear suspension. Ive set a deadline of Friday, for the moke to be completely ready to be taken away and have necessary done to it over at the coachworks.

[liirge]

~15/01/08~
Front subframe dropped today, it was quite allot of work we had to completely destroy the bolts holding the subframe in from the bulkhead under the footwell, Used nut crackers, Hacksaws, pliers, screwdrivers and mole grips. The subframe was awkward to remove from the body. The Extension bar to the gearbox made it hard to lower the subframe without breaking it. The pillars on the subframe meant we had to lift the car up quite alot and remove it sideways once it was loose.
Once the subframe was removed i bashed the Pivot arm on the upper suspension arm out, all the threads are wrecked and i tried to Die them but it was no good, so im gonna need a new pivot arm.
I also removed the balls from the trumpets. And i found out that the windscreen isn't welded but just bolts on (I was told my grandfather had welded it as it broke once), so i can remove it before i send it off to the coachworks!
So, what do you guys wreckon??? looking forward to hearing from you!

Edited by liirge, 19 February 2008 - 07:28 PM.