I thought this was meant to be easy!!

I went to give my AR its annual service and tune sounds simple.

Dropped the sump plug and left it draining while I went to work (voluntarily) at Puffing Billy.

Got home replaced the plug and filled the sum - no problem

went to change the oil filter cartridge and as it points up above the sump it drains into the sump when the engine is stopped so if I change it now before I start the motor there is no mess. The old one came out easy but when I put the new one on it wouldn't do up. Several hours of trying later I removed the rubber seal, did it up tight and it didn't leak.

I mentioned this at the truck club meeting and people were horrified "fix it properley before you leave home or you will be doing it in the rain at night on the side of the road".

Dave - A friend from Puffing Billy not Foggy) came around to check the timing and found the top bearing in the distributor rebuilt 2 years ago had collapsed again so pulled the old one out for me and left. Podge came to the rescue with a Bosch distributer in good condition to replace the Lucas one. Mrs P went and got a new cap to suit.

DAve reappeared on the weekend and after checking the bearing in the sump the distributor fits into and ensuring that it had no lateral movement, fitted the "new" distributor we went to attach the leads and found that under the covers they were screw in leads. The new cap required push in leads.

Ask Mrs P and another mechanic friend about how many hours after the promised delivery time Burson's finally delivered the leads (due 10:30am, arrived after several phone calls at 5:30pm) to a workshop that is a regular customer!

Dave appeared tonight and after a bit of stuffing around the Inter is finally running. We checked the oil filter housing and found the thread had wound itself up the shaft, shortening itself so we lengthened the thread, reinserted the rubber seal and did it up tight. Tested it again and problem solved!

The only issue now is with the exhast manifold that is leaking, as this is the second one that has cracked maybe it is time to go for extractors. At least this time I may get a decent note out of her.

Sounds like a frustrating set of days but, on the bright side, a lot of new things learnt and you are even more familiar with the AR!

Who rebuilt your distributor. I need to get one done off an AR148.

I am not sure who rebuilt the Lucas distributor originally. I left my XP Ute with a mechanic friend from my vintage machinery club in Eltham to have some work done (he and his business partner did ther apprenticeship on XPs and love the chance to work on it so mates rates and discounted parts- he isn't real keen on the truck though) and left the Lucas distributor on the passenger floor. He looked at it, saw it needed repair and got one of their suppliers to do it. It died again within 4000 miles. That guy was in Greensborough somewhere.

The caps etc for the Lucas Distributors are getting hard (read almost impossible) to find and they use screw in leads which you need to get custom made. The parts for the later Bosch Distributors are everywhere so I suggest you get and fit one of them - it slides straight in and is less problems in the long term. Neither Automotive Surplus nor the bainly british parts bloke (whose name I can't remember right nowe) in Burwood Highway Ferntree Gully had any caps in stock.

There is a mob in Melbourne called Performance Ignition Systems ( www.performanceignition.com.au/ ) who were going to rebuild the Lucas to use standard Ford / Holden Parts for around $200 or using standard parts with electronic ignition for around $300 which is the option I was considering and still may do as the motor never goes out of tune and therefore saves fuel. They made up the leads for me for the Lucas at a fair price but I haven't had them do a distributor yet. While i was there there were several people walk in with magnetos off Drag Cars and restorations and they really seemed to know their stuff.

Anothe possibility is Makin's in Poath Rd Chadstone. They rebuilt my generator after it failed and seemed to take care and do a good job. They could probably do a distributor as well

Other people on the forum may know of other places or people that can help out