Restoration of Canadian Scout Car Ford Lynx I, Mk.III No.1726

[lynx42]

The gearbox was one thing that I did not have to worry about too much. About 12 years ago I did a swap deal with Alan N. in SA. His part of the deal was to completely rebuild the gearbox for me. That rebuild involved new bearings, seals etc. His gain was a quantity of Avro Anson gauges and other parts for the one he had ideas of assembling.

The gearbox is only found on the Ford Lynx Scout Car. It has standard Ford Blitz gears but the housing is completely different in that the gate is on the side not the top as in a Ford Blitz. This is linked with rods to the fulcrum mid way along the chassis to change a pull to a push and vis-versa.

Regards Rick.

[lynx42]

Next came the gear change tower. As the Lynx has the engine in the rear and facing backwards, the gear linkage has a pivot (known as the Bracket and Lever assembly) to change a push to a pull and vice-versa. (SEE Post #16 for those photos)

This pivot was re-bushed and so were the linkages where necessary.

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This is the tower as taken out of the chassis.

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There are packing gland seals at both ends of the rods and boy where they a challenge to replace. The gland nuts were seized solid and I did not want to apply heat as I needed to see the type and size of the gland packing. The gland nuts were close together too close to get a grip with anything I had in the workshop so made up a tool like the one you use to undo an oil filter only much smaller. After three or four tries with different straps I was able finally to undo and later tighten the packing glands.

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This is the inside of the tower showing the slides which press onto the base plate.

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There is a type of turn buckle set into the rods to allow gear change alignment or adjustment to be made if necessary. These two photos are taken of a Lynx under restoration in SA. You can see the adjustment nuts near to the cross member.

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In the tower where the lever goes in there is a pin to locate the lever and to stop it spinning around. This pin and the collar on the lever were worn and a bit of welding and the machining up of a new pin soon fixed that. New gaskets and a good clean saw the tower ready to be refitted.

Rick.

[lynx42]

One part I have not yet located is the bracket that the air cleaner sits on which is bolted to the engine.

These photos are not too clear but show the part I need.

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It bolts to the left cylinder head and the air cleaner.

I know that it is a Ford part and was also found on the sedans and station wagons.

So who has one to spare?

Thanks Rick

[lynx42]

The marker lights were badly rusted and needed replacing.

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The rusted right marker light.

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Left front.

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Rear lights

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I had looked around many swap meets over the years without any success. It looked like I was going to have to break out the lathe once again and machine up the rusted extension tubes. 38 years of collecting and a couple of moves meant that I had Lynx and other vehicle parts hidden all over the place. One day I was hunting for something and I came across a tin box I didn’t remember before. Opening it I found that there were 9 NOS marker lights inside. I couldn’t believe my luck. I have no recollection of ever purchasing them.

I pulled them apart and replaced the wiring. The springs were all OK and the white and red lenses were in excellent condition but the rubber gaskets were beyond repair. I punched out new gaskets out of thin neoprene after machining up some hole punches. It took quite a few goes to get the outside and inside punched out successfully as the gasket is only about 1/32" wide and thick. I then cleaned the contacts and fitted new globes all round. It was a bit hard to find single contact globes that fitted into the tubes so that the spring would seat the lens against the gasket to seal the unit.

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The new marker lights and new headlight drums after spraying them.

The painting stand came from a clothing shop and was very handy as it could be adjusted for height.

Rick.

[lynx42]

These are the finished and mounted market lights. These photos are a bit out of rebuild order but I needed to place them here to show the difference from the previous post of the before and afters.

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New shielded wiring and new grommets help finish them off.

All of the holes you see have a use and will be filled eventually with the under mudguard fittings and those also on top.

Rick.

[lynx42]

FINALLY I received word that the sandblaster was ready for the hull.

It was 232 days, or 33 weeks or 6 months and 8 days, since the Lynx was pushed into my shed on the 10th March, but who was counting.

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Off the stands and on to the trailer it went and off to Bairnsdale.

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A fork lift was arranged to get it off the trailer and into the sandblasting booth.

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A large wooden beam was placed onto the floor to sit the hull on. The forklift then went around to the front for the next lift.

Rick.

[lynx42]

The hull had to be turned around to get it into the booth.

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It was set up on my saw-horses from home so that it was high enough to get under it for sandblasting the floor underneath.

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Strong toms were put each side to hopefully stop an unwanted fall off the saw-horses.

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I would not work in there for all the money in the world.

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Finally things were happening to the hull.

Rick.