All good here mate, I keep an eye out for people I know, like yourself. I’m still working on Billy’s interior, it never seams to end.
That’s good to hear, been rather unusual few months. Nope it doesn’t end, if one bus works the other tends to act up too. It keeps you on your toes
Another busy few days with good progress. I posted the gearbox clean up elsewhere but I'll pop the photo's here: A while back I asked about the gear linkage fork, I ended up going for a genuine VW one from Schofields. The rubber pieces are spot on however, the metal frame is poor and the pin through the middle was the Marmitetiest piece of folded tinplate you have ever seen. One piece of 10mm diameter bar, machined down to give a nice fit, not tight but not rattly loose either, ends threaded..sorted. The starter motor was looking sorry for itself, that's been cleaned up, the contacts cleaned up shiny and a few coats of paint. One gearbox refitted and looking good Getting there!
Mark have a look at the CSP gearshift coupler. It uses a proper bolt and sleeve instead of the self tapper and folded tin method. About £25 but so much better. I got one for the bus now going to get another for the buggy.
The original coupler hosing was in great condition, with new genuine rubber inserts and a substantial sleeve, we are sorted. The sleeve is silver steel which will be tough enough to withstand gearchanges but not too hard to wear the end of the gearchange rod away. Next time I'll look at one of those and see
Loving the colour combination, yellow, grey and black, super cool. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Another update. Cleaned the driveshafts up, degreased, wire brushed carefully, rubber boots inspected and all four are okay. New grease massaged in and refitted. I wasn't looking forward to doing them! All torqued up, just need the paint touching up as a bit of black had been missed.
Here is a question for them that know. I have a 180W Solar Panel connected to a Vitronic MPPT Controller. One out put will connect to the leisure battery, the other, the main starting battery. Do I need to incorporate a split charge relay between the MPPT and the starter battery ? 140 Amp Split Charge Relay For Vehicles With Auxiliary Batteries (vehiclewiringproducts.co.uk) Or do I not need to worry about the starter battery at all and leave well alone (once we are parked, all it will run is three LED lights, which I can always switch to the leisure circuit)?
Sorted now mate thanks! I spoke to Matt earlier and whilst chatting, mentioned my thoughts. Keep it simple, forget the starter battery, re route the led wiring onto LB & it'll be fine!
Keeping the thread in line with what’s been done regarding the motor swap, I’ll add a few images. Back in late September Major went away Mock up motor popped in to get things such as support bar lined up etc Inlet manifold got colour coded to match the engine bay Motor mounted on the gearbox in readiness to be built up.
Looking better with the manifolds on ready for the alternator to be mocked up Air filter pipework sorted Matt didn’t tell me he was having the cam covers decorated, that was a pleasant surprise
Another superb part of the build is the Buttys Bits throttle linkage, the smooth pedal action is worlds apart from what was on, I guess 44 years of wear takes its tole. With all that done, it was MOT time, which as I’ve said elsewhere, we passed with flying colours and an advisory on a wheel bearing. Now it’s time to finish what we started, back in 2016!