attention bulkhead experts!

[akelly]

Hey everyone - I'm preparing to give the SIIA a birthday in preparation for getting it back on the road and this issue has dogged me for years. I have asked about this before in other posts when I first got the car back in 07, but never got any resolution, so giving it another go.

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It's got a holden conversion, very professional job, and when they've done it they've put a different bulkhead in. I can't for the life of me identify what this bulkhead is originally out of. It's like a mix and match monster. Have a look at the pic and give me your educated opinion :)

I'd rather not a series of random guesses - trust me I've scoured the internet for bulkhead pics over the last 10 years and I can't find anything that looks like this. The particular issue is the gearbox diaphragm cover, it's like nothing I've seen anywhere. The tunnel is a 6 cyl 2a one but otherwise I have no idea.

Cheers,

Adam

[Moocar]

Hi Adam, a mate of mine is restoring a SiiA 6cyl with a somewhat butchered bulkhead. We have searched high and low on the internet but pictures of that bulkhead are rare. The square cut-out for the gearbox surround/flange thingy is the only give away. By sheer coincidence he has found a donor chassis to replace the rusty one he has and that appears to have the same bulkhead, unbutchered, that is almost exactly the same. We are heading down this week to grab the chassis and I will try to remember to get some photos of that chassis.

[JDNSW]

I've never seen anything like it. I wonder if it is a local (not Australia) variant, perhaps from somewhere like South Africa - I seem to remember that during sanctions a variant was produced there with a different six cylinder engine.

[Brisruss]

Hi Adam.
It looks exactly like mine which I believe is a 67 2A and was originally a six. It has a Holden 186 in it now and no cutouts were needed in the front cross member to put the holden in. It has the horizontal grill as well which I think is an Australian thing. Someone will correct me if I am wrong.
Cheers,
Russ

[akelly]

Hi Adam.
It looks exactly like mine which I believe is a 67 2A and was originally a six. It has a Holden 186 in it now and no cutouts were needed in the front cross member to put the holden in. It has the horizontal grill as well which I think is an Australian thing. Someone will correct me if I am wrong.
Cheers,
Russ

thanks Russ - so yours has that same bottom section (gearbox diaphragm cover)? I'd love a pic because I really have had a hell of a time trying to identify this over the last 10 years!

[Moocar]

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Here are the photos. This is, according to the chassis number, a SIIA RHD 6cyl CKD. It was a factory ute and appears very original. The second picture is the "Diaphragm" being held in place. Apparently there were 11,000+ SIIa 6cyl built plus possibly 7,000 more CKD ones assembled, maybe 10% of the production numbers. This is the third bulkhead like this I have seen in Perth, but it is hard to find pictures in the interweb. This may be an earlier version as it has straight support rods rather than angled, according to Pegasus' website. What is your chassis number, Adam? First three digits should be between 345 and 354, maybe C or D suffix. There is a diaphragm and tunnel cover up for online auction for 180 pounds sterling somewhere in Ireland. I do have some more detailed photos. This truck cab will end up on another friends coils sprung chassis, and the chassis will replace a rusty SIIA 6cyl wagon one, with a few minor modifications, so this lovely example will live on.

[S3ute]

Hello from Brisbane.

I hadn't given this thread much attention before, but had an inkling that the bulkhead in the photo looked a lot like the one in one of our trucks on the farm. That was a 1972 S2A that was fitted with the 2.6 litre engine.

That would be consistent with the previous post.

Cheers,

Neil

[akelly]

If you look closely at the pics of mine and those 6cyl ones you'll notice two differences: I don't have the little angled rebate on the top passenger side, and my gearbox diaphragm cover (the thing being held on by two fingers in the pic above) is different - mine is nowhere near as deep. This is what prevented me from mounting a Smiths shin-burner about 10 years ago and sparked my frustration with trying to work out why.

My conclusion is that I'm dealing with something made especially for the conversion. They've gained the depth of the 6cyl bulkhead without moving the gearbox rearward, and have compensated by "cutting and shutting" the diaphragm cover. That's the best I can come up with. It's certainly been well done, like the rest of the work some distant PO did to this landy.

It will stay as is for now, but next year the ute is getting a full reno and it will be going back to a 4 cyl diesel, so I'll rebuild the bulkhead back to original spec when that happens.

Cheers,

Adam