7 replies to this topic

[jd lj]

Hi guy's,
I'm hoping that someone can measure the diameter of the holes in the chassis rails for the clips that hold the brake line to the passenger side chassis rail and the fuel line to the drivers side chassis rail.

My car is a July 73 model but I've seen that some of the latter 73 models have clamps screwed to the rails to hold these lines instead of the little spring loaded clips found on the earlier cars. They also have more clamps to hold the lines in place. I assume that this change was introduced to stop the fuel and brake lines vibrating against the chassis rails like mine used to do.

Many years ago I detected this problem and cut some 1" sections of suitable sized rubber hose, cut a slit along its length, fitted to the line and cable tied it on to stop the rattle. But I feel that more clips are required along the length so what I intend to do is where possible reuse the existing holes and add some more and then fit nutserts/rivnuts to which I'll screw cushioned "P" clamps to hold the steel fuel and brake lines firmly in place and also off the chassis rails and this will eliminate any rattles.

By using the stainless rivnuts to screw to I can easily remove the "P" clamps at any time if needed compared to if I pop riveted the clamps to the chassis rails.

So if someone who has there car on a hoist or rotisserie without the clips fitted could measure the hole diameter it'd be much appreciated.

I'm thinking that they're probably around 8mm from memory which would suit a M5 nutsert.

Thanks

James D

[Cook]

Hi James.  Excuse my ignorance but if you are going to use nutserts wouldn't you just drill the holes to suit the size of the intended nutsert.  I am looking at doing the same thing and that is all I will be doing (unless I've missed something).  Cheers Ron

[jd lj]

Hi Ron,
Where possible I'll reuse the existing holes and then add a few more where necessary.

[Cook]

No worries.  When I bought my nutsert kit it came with a few different size nuts which I will just try against any existing holes and go one bigger.  Given original holes will be for imperial I suspect you may have to adjust to metric anyway. Cheers Ron

[rodomo]

My 4/72 has 1/4" holes.

[grumpy xu1]

Hi guy's,
I'm hoping that someone can measure the diameter of the holes in the chassis rails for the clips that hold the brake line to the passenger side chassis rail and the fuel line to the drivers side chassis rail.
My car is a July 73 model but I've seen that some of the latter 73 models have clamps screwed to the rails to hold these lines instead of the little spring loaded clips found on the earlier cars. They also have more clamps to hold the lines in place. I assume that this change was introduced to stop the fuel and brake lines vibrating against the chassis rails like mine used to do.
Many years ago I detected this problem and cut some 1" sections of suitable sized rubber hose, cut a slit along its length, fitted to the line and cable tied it on to stop the rattle. But I feel that more clips are required along the length so what I intend to do is where possible reuse the existing holes and add some more and then fit nutserts/rivnuts to which I'll screw cushioned "P" clamps to hold the steel fuel and brake lines firmly in place and also off the chassis rails and this will eliminate any rattles.
By using the stainless rivnuts to screw to I can easily remove the "P" clamps at any time if needed compared to if I pop riveted the clamps to the chassis rails.
So if someone who has there car on a hoist or rotisserie without the clips fitted could measure the hole diameter it'd be much appreciated.
I'm thinking that they're probably around 8mm from memory which would suit a M5 nutsert.
Thanks
James D

Hi James, if you're going to use p - clips with the rubber, why don't you just use a fiber washer on the back, that should absorb the rattle i think. Is there any way that you can keep the factory clamps & tighten them, to stop the rattle ? Gary.

[jd lj]

Hi James, if you're going to use p - clips with the rubber, why don't you just use a fiber washer on the back, that should absorb the rattle i think. Is there any way that you can keep the factory clamps & tighten them, to stop the rattle ? Gary.

Hi Gary,

I considered bending the original clamps the hold the lines tighter and spreading the prongs that insert into the chassis rails to also hold it tighter there but I also think that they are spread too far apart. After talking to a friend about it today it seems to be a potentially common problem and hence why GMH changed the design late in the model range. Normally I try to keep everything mostly original but some things just were poorly designed and need to be improved.

Were you intending for the fibre washers to go between the "P" clamps and the chassis rails?

Rob, thanks for the size that you supplied.

Talking about doing things better than the original GMH design, I've come up with a better design for the fuel tank vent pipe on the std LJ fuel tank to stop it from dribbling fuel onto the diff.

James D

[jd lj]

Last week I finally got around to doing this mod. I increased the 1/4" holes in the chassis rails from the original clips to 7mm and used a M5 stainless steel nutsert. The factory clips are also spread too far apart so I added one extra P clamp between the ones that I put in the original holes. I think that there were only three clips originally on the chassis rail which just isn't enough for such a small diameter line spanning that distance.

So there'll be no more possibilities of my brake line or fuel line rattling against the chassis rail. The brake line only required an extra two clamps. Rattles annoy me, so the less my car has the better.