G'day OD, maybe I can shed a little more light on this project as it was actually a project of mine that I (regretfully) onsold to Warren. It was taking me too long to complete and I was feeling older! The car was a straight, rust free, CA car which came out of a garage of a house that had been sold. It seems the buyer of the house hadn't looked in the garage so didn't know it was there until after taking possession, but didn't want it. After it was bought and imported to Oz, it was sold to the person I bought it from. He is a very clever panel shop owner and set about doing the RHD conversion. He said it took many hours of trial and error until he got it, in his words, perfect. He reckons too many RHD conversions don't steer or handle properly and he didn't want that. He also has other businesses eating into his time so decided to sell it. I had him paint the body and fit it to the already reconditioned chassis and took possession. Warren now has it and is getting stuck into the restoration. When finished, I reckon this will be one 400 that is out of the box. Cheers, John

Just following up on Riki's queries. I went with the non-greasable uni joint because of the advice that I had received from three driveline specialists, including the US company that supplied the diff yoke. Essentially I was told that the 1350 series uni joint is still being used in new cars today and that it is built with double seals to ensure the good stuff is kept in and the bad stuff kept out. Under normal driving it should last for a long time. However, if the vehicle is subjected to severe use, or if an owner prefers, I understand a greasable 1350 is available. Next, the driveshaft flange is replaced - the old one cut off and a new one welded on, and yes, the locks are on the outside. I also enquired about the possibility of the same setup with "U" bolts instead of straps but it seems there are none available in the Dana Spicer catalogue with the required dimensions.

All up this modification owes me AUS $435, which includes $72 for the diff yoke and strap kit and $73 for shipping (the parts to the supplier and then on to me). This is a lot more than I was expecting to spend when I first started out on servicing the driveshaft, but I couldn't come up with another option. Also, I wasn't going to mention this but USPS nearly caused me apoplexy. When I first received the tracking notice it showed the destination to me living in Austria, not Australia, even though the supplier had advised USPS of the mistake. Unfortunately the tracking system wasn't updated until just before I eventually received the package 19 days after delivery (supposed to be 6 - 10 days). For about 12 days I didn't know where it was (Austria?), but it eventually arrived. The plan is to have it all fitted tomorrow. Cheers, JP

Thanks OD, I wasn't aware of that. The number I was referring to is the number that is stamped at the front of the engine near the water pump. When I get a chance I'll see if I can identify the Utica Plant number. Cheers, JP

Let me add my two cents worth. Firstly the engine number. With my car the engine number is exactly the same as the body number stamped on the door placard. Secondly, timing. I have a Pertronix kit fitted and started out with the timing at 10.5 degrees, backed it off to 10 and am about to go to 9.5 as I've heard some very occasional pinging, which suggests that it's not far off the right spot. At 10, I can drive for ages without hearing any pinging at all but, as I said, occasionally it happens. Perhaps of interest to us aussies, if I am to hear any pinging it's more likely to occur when I've had to put Shell petrol in the tank. Over here we have three basic grades of petrol - one standard and two premium, and I think the RON octane ratings are 91, 95 and 98. I usually use the mid range 95 as the car seems happy on it, and she seems to have a particular preference for BP. Cheers, John

G'day Men, it's taken awhile but the mod's are now complete and the driveshaft is now ready for reinstallation. Just to recap, I bought a replacement Spicer diff yoke (# 3-4-2111-1) and strap kit (# 3-70-28X), which I understand are Jeep parts. The reason for this selection is that the inner, outer and length dimensions of the yoke shaft are the same as the original, which means the seal fitted previously is the correct size. The uni joint is a readily available non-greasable Spicer 1350 series. I was told that this is actually more heavy duty than the original, which is rated about 1330 series.

I had the front ball and trunnion serviced at the same time and was told that the grease was pretty old but the joint itself was in good condition, although wear was evident where the trunnion spends most of its time. When the driveshaft specialist was modifying the driveshaft to take the new uni joint, he also lengthened it so that the trunnion now will spend most of its time about 3/8" further forward. In other words, where there is no wear at all. He then balanced it all but found a slight bend in the driveshaft which he straightened. He reckons it will now "see me out".

I've attached some pic's so you can see what I've been rabbiting on about. The new yoke looks a lot bigger than the old, and physically it is, but the shaft is the same. The slinger fitted to the new yoke actually came off the old one as it isn't supplied with one. It seems I made a mistake in removing the old yoke from the pinion as I should have marked where the pinion nut was and counted the number of turns to remove it. As it happens, I needed an air gun to undo it so I couldn't count 'em anyway. This posed somewhat of a dilemma when I found out about this, and I really didn't want to remove axles etc to have the pinion preload setup properly. However, in talking to a diff specialist, he said the best I could do in the circumstances is to apply red loctite and then tighten the pinion nut, and then go a further 1/8 turn. I have to say that at 68 and laying on my back under the car, that extra 1/8 turn was bloody hard to achieve, but with the help of a 2' socket bar I finally managed it.

I haven't fitted the driveshaft yet so I'm optimistic that everything will fit OK. I'll be doing that later this week and I'll let you know how it all goes. Cheers, John

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Riki, Motorcraft part # COAZ-9202B looks like it relates to a tank sender unit float, not carby floats. Is there another number for carby floats? Cheers, John

Riki, do you have a Ford reference number or model number for the floats. I would like to follow up on this as I know my carb has floats that are different in shape and one set are a little buckled. I'm pretty sure they don't leak though and the carb seems to work OK, but I would like to make sure I've got everything in tip top condition. Regards, John

My car did this when I first got it, although I've forgotten which side. Like Howard says, the probable fix is to work on the front torsion bar pegs. I've now got a four groove peg on one side and a two groove on the other, and it looks pretty level. This hasn't changed anything else about ride and handling that I can tell. Regards, John

For what it's worth, my '56 Patrician has a/c which I rebuilt last year using a Sanden compressor. The existing condensor and evaporator were flushed and reinstalled. The temp guage in the car usually sits around the 1/3 mark and will creep up to 1/2, or just over, on a hot day with the a/c on and then sit around that mark. It only has a 4 blade fan but I have fitted an electric pusher fan which comes on automatically when the a/c is switched on. I'm guessing here but I think the overheating issue could be to do with radiator capacity rather than condition. According to the fellow I bought my car from, he had fitted it with what he called a factory heavy duty radiator which Packard produced for a/c cars. I had a leak repaired in the radiator when I was rebuilding the a/c system and asked the repairer about this. He agreed that it was a heavy duty radiator but said that compared to a modern radiator, it would be nowhere near as efficient. He said it's all to do with the number of cores and especially the number of fins per square inch. John

When I started out on this project last year I was informed that Kanter would have these available Sep/Oct 2012, but that didn't happen and so my quest to come up with suitable modification began. I should mention that I mentioned repro uni joints to my driveline specialist and his advice was to be very wary. He said that most he had come across had failed prematurely, usually because of inadequate hardening. While this may be a generalisation, it is something to consider if thinking of going down this path.

For those that are still on the hunt for an original uni, or those that might come across one while wandering around a swap meet, I have come up with some part numbers. It's really quite hard to verify this stuff so don't hold me to it - buyer beware! Republic CB-7325, B-W 114-325, Neapco 281000, Precision 301, Detroit 7325-2. Sadly, I could find nothing to match any of these numbers over here. Good luck hunting, John