Its a good idea. When were away (whever that is lol!) i usually hang a rucksack on mine to put knickknacks in?
MOT passed without drama on Saturday morning. Well I say without drama but Friday night was another story. Approaching Grantham to collect Big G from Campershack who had been doing an electrical upgrade, and the bus started missing. It was an odd miss, a bit intermittent and seemed load/speed dependant. Pulled over & checked timing. I'm still carrying the gun following the pertronix install a few weeks ago. Everything OK up through the rev range, in fact spot on. My usual pessimism kicked in & I assumed the engine had finally decided to give up, just before the MOT & next weeks holiday. So jumped back in the van & limped through Grantham towards Hougham. As we drove Mrs Monkey commeneted on the fact we'd not long since filled up with fuel & could it be that... ...unlikely I said but then realised that it might just possibly be the fuel filter. I had last changed it in France 2 years ago following the same symptoms & TBH it was proper full of crud. Obviously, I carry a spare & ten minutes later had whipped off the old one. Sure enough full of crud! Happy days, all sorted & away we went! Yesterday whilst chilling out on the campsite before we left I decided it was time to investigate why the battery light on the dash has been getting dimmer & dimmer over the last few weeks. First things first, I swapped the bulb with the oil light bulb & hey presto, full illumination. So it's the bulb, & not one I want to fail coz as we know it energises the alternator into producing all those amps we need! I've got some spares in the bulb kit so easy swap....no, all 5 were dead. Couldn't believe it. I've left the good bulb in the battery light holder & the dim one is in the oil light so tomorrow's task is to track down some 12v 1.2 w capless 286 bulbs at the local motor factors. We'll see
Cheers @pkrboo , I'll try there tomorrow. We're away early on Friday so it may be cutting it fine with the post but thanks for the offer. I may yet be asking you to post on to a campsite haha!
Oh & I should have said thanks again for the coffee, chocolate pastries and wind-up on Saturday morning whilst I fretted over the MOT!
haha, not this year sadly. We're off down to St Davids for 10 days or so. Haven't been there for about 15 years apparently. The plan is to chill out around that stunning southern coastline for a few days & then drive north up along Cardigan Bay into the Llyn Peninsula. Can't wait & although it's a short week it's dragging already.
St Davids is lovely, I cannot fault you one bit you know the rules, no photos, the trip didn't happen!
Sounds like a great trip. Llyn peninsula is beautiful, even when it rains! Which I hope it doesn't for you Have a great time
Drawer runners. This was a job I was going to do at TE, but realised ripping down batons of oak on a table saw in a field is neither practical or sensible. I'd initially fitted the two small drawers in a bit of a rush so we could get away travelling and had literally just made a supporting shelf and slid them in. That was two and a half years ago So finally bowing to the threat of a total withdrawal of conjugal rights on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour I decided to use the gorgeous weather today & fettle the drawer runners. The easy bit. The drawer aperture allowed for 6mm batons either side of both drawers to form the bottom runner. The not so easy bit. It's hard to tell on the pic but the upper runners are different widths either side due to the way we've configured the internal divisions on the cabinet. So these were custom ripped on the saw & then I used 2 block offcuts, below, to set the cupboard runners 1mm above the lower drawer runners. Glued & screwed the runners... ...and presto. This now means the drawers no longer swing from side to side or drop out when opened more than half way. It's funny how the simplest of things can get a marriage back on track
So, I've mentioned before that compression was a tad down & therefore there was a plan to pull the motor over winter. Fortuitously, a conversation with @davidoft revealed he had the Euro exhaust system plus heat exchangers that I needed to replace the US system. Most of our weekends are booked until Xmas so I muscled us into his already crammed schedule with him agreeing to fit us in at ridiculously short notice. I played the ultimate sympathy card bleating that his reputation and knowledge made him our number 1 choice so being the nice chap that he is he misguidedly allowed us onto Hayling Island. This happened... I got myself a job as a trainee. When working with a skilled man the 1st rule is to do as he says...so I became a cleaner. See bottom right, that's @davidoft 's Snap-on beanie. Gotta have the tools to do the job... David's attention to detail is a thing to behold. I'm a bit OCD on stuff but I've learn't that there really is no substitute for experience and good training when it comes to engineering stuff. Con rods came off & new mains were installed. Then every new piston ring was gapped to its individual barrel. Then all the valves in the replacement square port heads were lapped. It wasn't on the remit to replace guides & springs etc but visually all the valves seem to be in good nick so they went back in. We ate quite a few cakes from Heidi's patisserie and chewed a lot of fat. Blah blah..
We had a few challenges, this old engine fought like a good-un, but eventually it was all back together So off the stand & onto the jack, down on the deck for a new rear seal to match the new one already knocked in behind the fan. Here's some man on man pole action... Flywheel re-torqued, and clutch mating surfaces fettled. The clutch was re-used as it was in tolerance. No point in replacing stuff unnecessarily. Due to the fight we'd had with the lump over the previous long hours, we had both nearly lost the will to live. Here is @davidoft looking for his in the dark recesses of the engine bay... Two man job ideally, so respect to all who do it solo We found him here 12 hours later... xxx
get the bumper cleaned Good job! how did it drive afterwards and have you done another compression test?
Ray, I ain't gonna elaborate but at one stretch we were both up for 37 straight hours so cleaning the bumper is a bit down the list. Actually it isn't even on the list!! We got back to Shardlow at 03.30 am yesterday so I haven't had a chance to do anything yet. Compression is not an issue, I know. David did multiple compression tests and even a leak-down test at one point. All pots were over 130 dry, i.e. only the assembly oil aiding a seal. It pulls like a train & we didn't even notice hills that previously bogged us down. I've got to be careful until it all beds in for the first 500 miles or so & David has given me a list of jobs to do (oil, lifter pre-load, idle etc, etc, etc,) before we next run the bus for any distance.
I forgot to mention that the bores were glaze busted. What I haven't got is any shots of the US oval port heads that came off. We've done a summer on these, with loads of camping and a 10 day tour of Wales knowing since April that compression was down to 70 psi on number 1. @davidoft , if you get a few minutes would you pretty please be good enough to load up some pics onto the thread please. I reckon some peeps will be really interested to see the port cracks, the squish cracking, the cracks across the valve seats, the valve regression plus the petrol pouring out of the closed valve coz. it was pounding itself diagonally in the guide....
awesome! Nice one guys Id be interested in some pics of the heads Glad to see Chip is sorted and (fingers crossed) running superb again
It was an exciting few hours that's for sure, lots of fun was had by all and lots of learning on both sides, during the war it was much more difficult @theBusmonkey said I'll get some pics of the heads and try to get a video of the lack of sealing of the valves