Thread: SWB 2A with a difference

It's first time out of the shed after many, many months, to get all the dust washed off. I painted some mushroom headed screw red and used them to blank the holes in the wheel arches where the flares were riveted on. Also have to unplug the indicator wires in order to get rid of those plastic headlight surround/fascia's. Next job is to pull the left wing off, then it's onto the trailer, and off to the exhaust shop to have new header pipes made up, as the standard ones do not have enough drop to clear the firewall. Hopefully the original collector can be used to pick up the new header pipes, then a section of new exhaust fabricated to join up with the original pipework, just under the seat box. I will go stainless with all the new exhaust work. After that it's back home to have the wing, the radiator support panel and the radiator refitted, then maybe back into town for a roadworthy certificate.


Cheers, Mick.

Left wing removed for easy access and temporary header pipes in situ.


Cheers, Mick.

Just curious is it still running the fibre timing gears if it does be warned it will suffer the fate of your typical gmh junk .
I am told the alloy timing gears work on the ****fire

I fitted an alloy gear when I rebuilt the motor. The engine takes the same components as a six cylinder engine (2850cc/173ci). I am not sure if the fibre gears are actually available anymore, as all the replacement kits have both a cam and crank gear in them (alloy cam gear and steel crank gear). I am not sure exactly when, but sometime back the cut on the gears changed to a metric measurement and thus people were making the mistake of running the later model cam gear with an older imperial crank gear which lead to a noise and failure.


Cheers, Mick.

The alloy gears were always noisy I can remember fitting them back in the late 60s early 70s & the customers would come back to complain about the noise . Then we gave them the choice either alloy with the noise or fiber that would eventully brake again.

Originally Posted by 1950landy

The alloy gears were always noisy I can remember fitting them back in the late 60s early 70s & the customers would come back to complain about the noise . Then we gave them the choice either alloy with the noise or fiber that would eventully brake again.

Funny i have fitted alloy gears and really you would hardly notice any difference.
In a Holden of the time i thought a bit of noise would just blend in with all the other noises
I put what you say down as anal owners
Sorry for the hijack Mick carry on the great work

Most the time those gears were noisy was when the timing gear only was fitted and not both gears. The new alloy gear would take a long time to bed into the wear patterns of the old crank gear, and thus be noisy. The only trouble i ever had with a noisy gear was on a starfire where the alloy gear was almost worn out due to lack of lubrication coz holden had forgotten to drill the hole through in the engine block for the oiler. It was a common fault with later starfire engines im told. Ive seen only 2 with the fault out of probably 10 to 15 that ive done timing gear sets on. The starfires sound like a diesel motor when the alloy gear gets worn.
I know u've checked urs Mick.

Cheers Rod

Fired the engine up today.
At first had a fair bit of trouble getting it to run properly and run at low revs.
I kept thinking it must have a vacuum leak or crap in the carby.
The carby, an Aisan from a Toyota Corona with the SF engine had been sitting for a long time.
I dismantled it and gave all jets, venturis, galleys, etc. a good blow through before I first put it on the engine. On the pulling it down a second time for a good blow through I twigged maybe the fuel cut out solenoid was the issue. Sorted that out and problem solved, it idles perfectly.
It's a bit noisy with straight out header pipes. Booked in to get the exhaust done next week.


Cheers, Mick.