Tiny bit excited

1. love getting new parts in the mail, guess what turned up today. grommets for the pedals from UK

2. fitted into place, thought they were too big at first, its a tight squeeze to get them in, but done.

3. OMG took the sump off, had three lots of different bolts securing into position and found this at the bottom of the sump, short spring, hope its nothing too important, could it be off the distributor perhaps ?

4. sump was filthy, cleaned up and painted in red, now to let dry and then the harder install, have the gasket though i think the holden 186 has a two piece gasket not one, another job for another day...

Joe, I don't think that spring is from the distributor , the only place I can think a spring like that would have come from is the oil pump or oil pressure relief valve , but how it got into the sump I don't know.
Attachment 158014Attachment 158015The spring looks like the spring in this 1st photo & I think it may be under the plug beside the screw on filter thread . You will need to remove the filter & see if the plug is in place , but still not sure how it got into the sump from there unless some thing has gone wrong in the pump allowing it through the oil return of the relief valve.

As BSF says about the hardtop.

That rear crossmember has been rebuilt by the looks of it. On the Series 1 I don't think there should be a seam along the bottom edge.

1. oil filter off and yes there is a hole and i did insert the spring but not sure it had a end to it or it will go back into sump.

anyway cleaned up the bottom of the engine, got all 4 gaskets for the 186 ready, 2 either side, one top and one end. but prior to this i had cut the lawn, and with the constant climbing under the S1 to fit the sump, became light headed and dizzy not to mention filthy. so retired for the day to deal with our plumber fixing some leaks. have a few more bolts to do up at the front so no more going under the vehicle till i recover. i did do the timing as well so just will need oil and fire hopefully.

first with the aid of screwdriver turned the engine till No 1 was at the top of its stroke, then lined up the TDC markings, then rotated the distributor inner to point to No 1, did up the spark plugs (clockwise) with firing sequence order on manifold, just need to secure the positive wire from the coil to battery and then spray 'start ya bustard' and see what happens

Have you done some thing wit that hole in the oil pump , you may find you have no oil pressure if you start it . I presume that plug spring & plunger is a pressure relief valve of some sort or a bypass for if the filter was to block. I would be asking some one who knows like an engine conditioners or Holden dealer. Even have a talk to some one in a Holden Car club.

1. oh the joys of U bolts, hardly no one sells them as a complete kit front and rear with nuts, crazy. managed to get two supplies one in Aust other from UK. heaps for S2 onwards but limited for S1

2. see the difference in height between the two. managed to fit the larger one on the rear but was supposed to come with nuts (not supplied) so waiting on reply from supplier, have temp fitted with old nuts

3. rears temp in place till i get new nuts

4. front temp in place one side only using the shorter one which managed to fit and with its own nuts but there is a small amount of slack with nut and u bolt, not happy with quality really. the longer rears were better made

replacement oil pump on order waiting for arrival and refit with replacement one to sort out the spring issue.

1 replacement oil pump arrived and guess what its exactly the same as mine, thinking that spring must of come from somewhere else, i will remove the spring from the oil filter housing, that hole must be a drain hole of sorts (guessing)

2 rear springs are kinda done, bolted up with new U bolts and nuts tight but will tighten up once more when rest of body is on it, happy with it though

3 gearbox clutch rotates approx 1/4 turn on the outer shaft but there is a lot of slack, so the inner shaft into the box seems to only rotate even less then 1/4 turn, cant be normal??? would hate to fit the box then have to remove. gbox is kinda ready to install

4 had some steel and decided to cut out for the rear tub mounts on rear crossmember, the spring plate where just impossible to drill into

5 held into position and then ...

6 welded into position both sides and the rear, only needed 3 as the others were good enough

also temp fitted the rubber for the vents, they will need to be glued into position
cant seem to find the damn nut for the coil to secure the positive lead, seems to be a special size nut which i cant locate...

Joe make sure you prime the oil pump before you start the engine the first time. It won't pump anything if it's dry. Cheers

1-2 cut out some left over steel to make up nut securing plates for the rear of the rear crossmember grab handles, outer handles bolted up fine but the inner holes are hard to get at so needs a securing plate to bolt up easier and if i need to remove in future, here its being cut out, drilled and nut welding up. needs welding to finish off...

3-4 grab handles in place secured with the outer bolts only until inner plates finished. NB I did paint off the outer crossmember now that the tub securing tabs were welded into position, i did begin drilling holes into these tabs but decided to leave them till tub is in position for perfect alignment of holes later on.

i will need to remove the older oil pump and remove the spring, and ensure the spring is in one of the oil pump before securing and making sure i put oil in them for priming (note taken). just need to find few more bolts for the sump to secure then fill with oil and attempt a start

1. front springs and u bolts fitted at long last, in top of the pic rear of front shackles bottom bolt seems to be stuck in position, need to loosen so that i can rotate the shackle to line up for the bolt.

2. finally have the vehicle moving by hand, moved it closer to the fence, as it sits now...

tried welding the nuts onto a bracket but the holes don't line up well enough so may need to have another go, would like to complete the grab handles on the rear. need to order more stuff like the axle straps and still waiting on aust. supplier for the rear shocks on back order...