There and Back Trip for Floor Change Gearbox...
Recently I contacted Ewen Duthie, from Wanaka to see if he could point me in the right direction to procure a floor-change gearbox for my A90 Westminster. I met Ewen at the All British Charity Run at Outram earlier this year. Ewen owns an immaculate, fully restored A90 Westminster.
After making some calls, Ewen put me in touch with Ray Willoughby, from the Canterbury branch of the Wolseley Car Club. I rang Ray and he said they had three or four floor-change boxes in their parts store and that he would sell me one.
Ray said a group of their members usually met every Wednesday morning out at the Wolseley Club premises, at McLeans Island, so that would be the best time to come up, plus there would be a guaranteed helping-hand, from "younger" members of the club, to lift the gearbox into the boot of my car.
Michelle and I headed for Christchurch on the Tuesday afternoon, staying in Timaru overnight, then going on to Christchurch the following morning, to meet Ray at the club at 10.30.
Arriving at the club, we were made most welcome, introduced to everyone there and were politely told we had to have a long chat over a coffee, before worrying about going looking for gearboxes.
Ray and his wife Nancy were wonderful hosts and along with the other members that were there, I had already learned so much more about these British C-series cars and their own club history, by the time the social gathering ended.
As many of our club members will know, the Wolseley Club was devastated by the Christchurch earthquakes, being out at Waimaire, near Brighton at that time. After a lot of hard work and much cleaning, they are now well established at McLeans Island, in what is the now-famous Christchurch earthquake style, of doing amazing things with shipping containers.
So, while Michelle stayed and chatted with the ladies in the "canteen", Ray and I went to look through the gearboxes. The first three boxes were all 3-speed overdrive models, which I wasn't particularly keen on, with having to deal with all the hook-up from scratch to make that work. But the last box was an all-synchro 4-speed, without overdrive, so this box was the obvious choice for what I wanted. There was even a "bag barrow" on hand to bring it out to my car, so it was just one lift into the boot, which was nice and easy.
I had brought with me a list of measurements off my column-change box, to compare with the floor change, to see how hard or easy this conversion was going to be. Although these two gearboxes don't look anywhere near alike, to our amazement, they were identical everywhere in the measurements that mattered, except the mounting system was a bit different, but at least it was the same distance back from the bell-housing face. So, a new "bearer" for the Wolseley mounting system is all that is required to make it a bolt-up operation. The Wolseley Club guys were as stunned as I was, at this outcome. Of course, there will be a little surgery to poke the floor-change through my tunnel.
The size of the parts inventory this club has blew me away. There is enough of everything to keep their cars going for centuries, rather than decades and they are still adding to it. Ray recently purchased five 6/110's off a farm out Leeston way, in varying states of preservation, for breaking down for parts. Ray was also able to supply me with all new rubber g/box mounts and rubber anti-bounce block, to install with the new gearbox.
They have a huge "garage" at the complex too, where car repairs and restoration takes place. While we were there, a black 6/110 was just being finished off after extensive mechanical work, ready for the owner to fly in from the North Island the following day and drive it back home.
After a complete tour of their complex, we all said our goodbyes and Michelle and I headed back to Invercargill. It had been a great day. We met some wonderfully, friendly and helpful people, made some great contacts for the future and I had come away with a wealth of knowledge on C-series cars, compared to when I arrived.
A big thank you to Ray Willoughby and all the Wolseley Club members that were at McLeans Island, on Wednesday, October 17.
