Day 23, finish transmission & front brakes

Propellor shaft rear section came back from Dunning & Fairbank looking a bit shinier -



but I wasn't too pleased when I saw what had happened to the rear flange (on left) -



Someone was a bit careless methinks; flat file did the trick for getting the mating face flat again (on right, half done).

Torsion damper disc needed a clean on its mating faces because they'd gotten rusty -



Wire knot brush in a 4-inch grinder polished things up nicely & the rear axle flange had a dose of cleaning too.

Torsion damper disc is 9" in diameter, 0.4" thick with centre hole 1.5" diameter. Recess one side to fit the propellor shaft flange is 0.07" deep & boss on the other to fit the rear axle flange is 0.07" high; recess & boss both are 2.37" diameter. (This is for Salisbury axle; boss, recess & bolt hole spacings are different for the lightweight Bedford axle.)

Propellor shaft rear section fitted -



Speedometer cable finished off the transmission refit, starting at the top after poking the cable through the bulkhead -



Facelift & CF2 are clip fit at the top: push cable on until the clip clicks.

Clip under the floor panel next to the steering column aperture -



Then the gearbox end, hand tight only -



Last is the bulkhead grommet once the cable is tweaked for gentlest curves all the way through -



Left side front brakes had the same treatment as the right side, here showing details of brake shoes etc.

Axle stand in view isn't leaning - it's the angle of the camera!

Steady rest springs, caps & pins removal -



Lifting off shoes from the trailing ends -



This makes it easier to detach both shoes together with the pull-off springs -



Once the 4 backplate bolts are removed the 2 bolts securing the brake hose bracket can be removed -



After which the union for the link pipe to the backplate can be got at easily & unscrewed from the hose; the pipe in this case was so thin that it snapped after half a turn of the union nut -



Longer bolts also secure the steering arm & have nyloc nuts.

New brake pipes as for the right side, fit best backplate & shoes that were originally on Margrae's van, fit wheel -



At last, van back on its wheels (although there's the steering rack to swap & the exhaust to fettle yet).

----------------------

Days 24 & 25 exhaust

When the exhaust from the donor first went on, with one of the silencer supports hooked onto the propellor shaft centre bearing chassis bracket so that the front pipe went on the manifold ok, a problem arose -





Actually 3 problems: apart from not a lot of ground clearance for the 140-inch wheelbase the front pipe runs close under the gearbox cross member, which will mean removing the exhaust when time comes to be taking the gearbox out, and the tailpipe landed close enough to the waste water tank plastic drain fitting to coat it with soot, if not melt it.

After a bit of head scratching and chopping pieces from the exhaust from the Frontera engine and welding bits together (and a sizeable amount of cussing as the day got longer) on the second day there appeared one exhaust from two -



The 2 pieces for between the front pipe & silencer have split ends for clamping so that the S-shaped piece can be twisted for best alignment of the system. There's a bit of forethought in this too because I think it might need a flexi section to soak up engine movement in relation to the silencer: easier to fit a flexi with clamp ends welded on. We'll have to see what shakes off first...

The front pipe wasn't too difficult to make although it was windy enough on the first day to blow gas away from the weld even with the CO2 regulator wound to max (+ 2 new legs & storm lashing of the guy lines for the gazebo over the front of the van to keep it from wanting to be a kite; found it upside down on the morning of the first day).

More cussing and re-welding after grinding off crap until I was sure the welds were good if a bit untidy ... but once done the front pipe was well clear of everything that mattered (sump drain plug, clutch cable, speedo cable, fuel lines) as well as go over the gearbox cross member with room to spare -



Silencer mountings were relatively easy: Mini exhaust bobbins that came with the donor exhaust, mounted to work in compression rather than in tension (last longer this way), at the front sitting on the propellor shaft centre bearing bracket -



and at the rear bolted to the Z-shaped stiffener in front of the rear axle -



Silencer in position, about 18 inches further back than before, with the original support bands re-shaped to fit on top of the bobbins -



Tailpipe support bracket stuck on the chassis -



and tailpipe hung on using the strap that came with the exhaust -



Tailpipe is well clear of the waste water tank drain now and a bit of luck too in finding a piece for the extension with a bend in it to use for directing exhaust downwards.

The exhaust must have been on & off 10 times at least before it all fitted but it all lined up in the end when the S-shaped section had one last twist to get the Mini bobbins to sit square after the manifold nuts were tightened. Much relief!

Final fit entailed fitting the silencer & tailpipe first then the 2 pieces with split ends, then the front pipe -





Front pipe flange -



Must remember to do something about the missing nut & washer for the the manifold rear stud...

With the silencer now tucked up close to the propellor shaft there's plenty of ground clearance, maybe 8 inch or so now (hard to tell with the van still on stands) -



What's really pleased me is that the silencer is further away from the original fuel tank position than on the donor so if ever the truck tank on the left side is replaced by a CF tank on the right side then there's plenty of room. Also pleasing that all that's needed to finish it off is a couple of 54mm clamps for the S-shaped section.

Crossing my fingers that whoever fitted the silencer to the donor knew what they were doing & the relatively small bore outlet isn't too restrictive on engine power. Only one way of finding out but there's still a pile of stuff to do yet before the van can be driven.

----------------------

Day 26, cold start aid reservoir, wiring changes...

Reservoir

The reservoir came with the original bracket bolted to to the bottom (single bolt); the bracket is fitted to the body with 2x 1/4" bolts & nuts -



The fuel system already had been vented at the filter & injection pump so it didn't take long to fill the reservoir by operating the lift pump; fuel emerges from the central hole inside the reservoir -



The cap on this reservoir has a small valve in it with a light spring holding it closed (up) -



Fuel supply to the igniter is by gravity feed from the reservoir when a valve in the igniter opens as it heats up when the cold start switch is held on; the cap valve will open then to admit air.

Some reservoirs have just an air bleed hole in the cap & some have a spigot with a vent pipe attached with or without a restrictor in the end according to the 'head' or height of the reservoir above the igniter.

Starter solenoid relay & split charge diode pack

Logical place for the diode pack is as close as possible to the starter solenoid, to keep increase in length in the main charging lead as short as possible.



The relay is to protect the ignition switch from arcing damage when the solenoid field collapses, something to expect given the size of the starter motor fitted to the Perkins 4.154; CF ignition switches aren't exactly easy or cheap to get hold of anyway...

The split charge diode pack is just that: 2 diodes rated at 70A with common centre terminal stud for the alternator lead and 2 separate battery terminal studs.

To fit the diode pack tidily the under-bonnet harness had to be taken apart, a step backwards, but in the process this makes wiring for the relay a lot neater too. Or it will be when it's daylight again: working with a bundle of brown leads in the dark isn't my idea of fun.

----------------------

Day 27, alternator

The alternator was working but the bearings were noisy when the engine was started up before the transplant. However, when I fitted the fan belt to work out where best to route the wiring to the alternator, I discovered that the bearings had seized, so off it came to fix it now.

It wasn't just noisy bearings that were a problem: the drive end mounting hole was elongated & the brush end sleeve fell out; something more to fix. Pulley & fan came off easily enough though -



Woodruff key & spacer next, then the plastic end cover -



Brush holder comes off with the single diode still attached -



Once the 3 casing bolts are removed the drive end separates with the rotor in it -



The field coils always stay with the brush end casing because the windings ends are soldered to the rectifier.

The rotor removed from the drive end (front) bearing -



Normally I'd use a thin leg puller with the jaws through the casing slots & around the bearing housing but I hadn't brought one with me so it was a case of much easing oil & carefully bumping the end of the rotor with the nut fitted to protect the threads.

Bearing removal from the casing usually is easy once the circlip is levered out -



& if the bearing won't budge then heating the casing usually does the trick.

To remove the rear bearing the slip ring first has to be un-soldered from the rotor winding ends & levered off -



This slip ring was worn in the middle so it didn't matter how it came off because a new one was going to be fitted. If a slip ring is to be re-used then the small clip that keeps it tight on the rotor shaft mustn't be lost (new slip ring should come with a new clip).

Strip-down stops here unless the rectifier has any burst diodes (usually obvious) & needs replacing -



Reassembly starts with the rear bearing, pressed onto the rotor shaft to just touch the plastic shield to keep it in place, then the slip ring -



The end of the rotor shaft should be square; this one looks like it has been battered & then cleaned up in a previous repair, possibly because a bearing wouldn't come off. It's best not to square off the shaft end because this will affect the position of the slip ring in relation to the brushes & the slip ring will square up on the shaft anyway with a new clip.

The slip ring has 2 small lugs inside that engage with the slot in the end of the rotor shaft. Once the slip ring fits nicely the ends of the rotor windings can be soldered on & the fit in the rear casing can be checked -



When the front bearing & shields are fitted in the drive end casing the rubber seal between the front shield & bearing needs compressing in order to fit the circlip -



This can be done with a bolt & nut & 2 washers, the smaller washer needing to a clearance fit within the rear shield.

When the circlip is home in its groove the rotor then can be fitted into the drive end casing -



At least it can be if the spacer doesn't mysteriously disappear; found it eventually, several yards away from where I was working & I still can't figure out how it got there.

Long spacer next, Woodruff key, then fan & pulley -



A chain wrench is handy here, wrapped in the pulley groove so that the nut can be tightened.

The rear casing fits easily now (if it doesn't then there's something wrong) & the 3 bolts can be fitted & tightened progressively so that the rotor spins freely -



Replacing outer brush -



and then the centre brush similarly -



Brush holder fitted, then the plastic cover -



At this point it dawned on me that I'd put the alternator together as 'right hand' so the cover had to come off again & the 3 casing bolts removed in order to rotate the drive end casing to 'left hand'.

The loose sleeve for the rear mounting is a split type: a few smacks on a chisel in both ends of the split opened it up to fit tightly in the rear casing -



Not much can be done now about elongation of the front mounting hole (needs a bench drill & a sleeve to fit in an enlarged hole centred with the rear mounting). However, with new bolts with nyloc nuts for the mountings this shouldn't matter.

With the alternator back on the engine I managed to almost finish the under-bonnet wiring too before it got too late; photos will be better in daylight...

----------------------

Days 28, 29 finish wiring, fit control cables, swap steering rack

Under-bonnet wiring harness after completely re-wiring it to re-route the alternator cables & also accommodate the split charge unit (diode pack) -



I'm much happier with this than the first attempt because all the wiring is now tucked up safe in the body clips under the cab floor toe panel with extending the alternator cables. While I was at it the single 84-strand cable was replaced with twin 44-strand cables with using a Lucas alternator plug wiring kit. Everything else just dropped into place once the alternator cables were long enough to follow the rear wiring harness under the driver's side toe panel.







Accelerator cable relay lever & link rod took a bit of fettling to get them right -



The relay lever was very sloppy on its pin on the cable bracket; pin is 5/16" diameter yet the relay lever hole is about 3/8" diameter. What it needs is a small 'top hat' bush; what it got was a plastic nut from the donor front number plate shaved down to press into the relay lever then drilled out to fit the pin on the cable bracket. Add 2 washers, a dab of white grease and a new E clip: like new nearly.

Link rod was a worry early on because it was missing from the engine but when the donor cab got stripped out the rod was found under the passenger seat & only needed a new E clip to fit on the injection pump accelerator lever.

Only thing wrong with the accelerator now is the cable; operation is a bit heavy. However, because the pump won't accelerate faster than its hydraulics will allow this won't matter because any jerkiness the heavy cable could impart is damped by the bias spring on the link rod (behind where the link rod fits on the pump lever).

Return spring for the accelerator lever on the pump didn't come with the engine; a spare pedal return spring hooked onto a new bracket made from 20x3mm flat steel bar did the trick, there being a bolt in the engine near the starter motor for a return spring bracket.

Stop cable is an all steel single strand steel cable in a spiral would outer cable (3-metre one with about 200mm trimmed off to fit) with a simple knob appropriately marked -



Large ('mudguard' or 'repair') washers both sides of the threaded mounting ferrule are to accommodate the larger hole in the panel left from removing what appeared to be a manual 'split charge' switch. Some semi-matt black paint should blend in the outer washer with the panel.

Problem with this type of all steel cable is that it needs to be insulated where it runs under the dash and also under the bonnet where it could chafe and rattle. End result was a mix of plastic fuel line tubing, some old fuel hose where plastic could wear through at the rear of the engine and heat shrink tubing here & there to hold things together -





There was some head scratching for a while because the stop lever on the pump refused to return to off every time the control was pushed in. After trying a few different return springs with no joy I realised that the angle of the spring was wrong because the bracket on the back of the exhauster for the spring was under the wrong bolt. Sorted.

Starting to look a bit more finished now -





Steering rack swap was straightforwards & a full set of fixings came from the donor to fit the recon rack that Margrae had to have fitted for the last MoT test -



Fitting the steering column wasn't much hassle either once the bottom end had some fettling to persuade the circlip to stay in its groove -





It's a toss-up whether to slide the column tube up as far as the bush will go while fitting the shaft to the rack or to pull the tube up further & let the bush sit on its thrust washer like in this photo (checking everything fitted first) -



& then have to locate the bush peg in the tube slot afterwards; that's not much fun though so I didn't try.

Getting the shaft onto the steering rack without the bush coming out of the column tube means loosely fitting the pedal bracket clamp without the rubber insulator so that's what happened to get the shaft onto the rack. Eventually. After nipping fingers in the shaft universal joint. Twice...

Once the column was bolted to the floor & pedal bracket the top bearing (oiled, including the felt oiler ring) was tapped in place & the spring fitted, this with the rack flange cotter pin just nipping the rack shaft -



The trick now is to bump the rack flange upwards, tighten the cotter pin nut a bit more so that the column shaft stays put while fitting the steering wheel or there may not be enough threads showing to fit the steering wheel nut.

Pinch bolt can be tightened now but the cotter pin has to be loosened & stay that way until the steering geometry is checked/adjusted with the axle beam having been changed.

Driver's seat was fitted to finish off the day -



Easier said than done: the rise & fall mechanism needed fettling, like everything else...

With something to sit on now the clutch operation still felt too heavy (couldn't be sure before) so a new cable was fitted: transformed, now light and precise.

While I was underneath the van adjusting the clutch I had a do at sorting the battery cables & connections &, once they were right, connected the ignition switch plug and then connected the battery. No sparks & no smoke ... so switch on the ignition.

No oil warning lamp. Duh. I'd completely forgotten that the oil pressure switch was duff when the engine last ran. A case of bugrit, throw on the oil filter, tidy up loose stuff (vacuum hose, clutch cable) to clear the fan blades -



& let's see whether the engine will start.

Bite me, it did and with only about 15 second on the igniter button. Couldn't run it for long with no radiator but long enough to check out the alternator (fine) and listen for noises that the worn alternator bearings could have been masking (none). Even gave the engine a boot up to governor maximum speed: nice.

The split charge unit is a worry though: there's about 1V drop (loss) across the diode between alternator output & battery supply cable. It could be the battery being low with standing for 2 months or so & the diode showing a relatively large volt drop because of the load so the battery is getting a long trickle charge to see what happens when the cooling system is back in one piece & the engine can run for longer.

Nearly there now; might be a race against the rain that's getting heavy now but it's shown up a cab water leak along the gutter rail below the screen that's easy to sort while the front panel is still off so there's one good reason to be getting a bit damp round the nether regions. Maybe.

----------------------

Day 30, front panel, cooling system & a couple of problems.

Front panel was easy enough to fit -



One issue to resolve was the misalignment between the radiator fan cowl and the Perkins fan; the fan is about 3 inches higher than the fan on an Opel diesel -



The answer was to mount the radiator about 70mm higher -



At the same time the bonnet was fitted to make sure that it didn't foul the radiator cap -



Success -



Enough clearance all round the fan to extend the shroud if need be (e.g with a rubber sleeve) but even at idle speed there's plenty of draught through the radiator.

With the radiator 70mm higher the original hoses from the donor & cross tube connecting the Perkins bottom hose to the radiator outlet fitted perfectly too.

Air cleaner unchanged from when it was on the donor wouldn't fit without fouling the top of the radiator; sorted by bashing the bracket that bolts to the front of thermostat housing & twisting the S-shaped intake hose around to suit -



Heater hoses next -



The hose to the water pump needed some insulators where it runs close to the radiator & under the air cleaner. I was going to get some grey domestic plumbing lagging (cheap!) until I remembered the soft polyurethane foam sleeves from the Frontera engine; these were tight enough to be a sod to fit 5/8" heater hose even with lots of soapy water so I don't expect that they'll move once they dry out.

Hose from the thermostat housing needed securing to pass over the air cleaner so an extra clip was added for the wiring harness & the hose was cable tied to the clip.

Heater end -



Cooling system filled at this point, heater vented and the system pressure tested to 15 psi. A 4 psi radiator cap was fitted though: this is the pressure specified for the Perkins engine.

With plain water in the system to flush out any crud before filling with 50% glycol mix antifreeze + corrosion inhibitor the engine was run for a while to check the system. This is when the fuel problem arose: the cold start reservoir started leaking.

At first the cap seal leaked; rather than disturb the original hardened seal (I only had seals either just too small or too large) the cap had a wipe of black RTV silicone that was allowed to skin over before refitting the cap. That worked.

Then fuel started weeping from the air valve in the top of the cap. This surprised me because the air valve isn't designed to be a pressure seal: there shouldn't be any pressure to speak of in the tank return line, or even any fuel getting up to the air valve if the tank return is working as it should.



To check this out I added a couple of small O-rings each side of the soft rubber seal of the air valve and ran the engine again. The valve still leaked and when the engine was revved fuel started pouring out.

Ah. A restriction in the tank return line I thought, so I went looking & altered a couple of joins from ferrule sleeves to push-on rubber hose. This didn't change things so I had a look at the tank filler cap when I found that when I blew down the tank return pipe for long enough it blew back at me. The cap is a plastic screw thing that Margrae got from Adrian Bailey (ABC) in Leeds -



Er. It's not a vented cap: the tank vent is teed into the filler neck so a vented cap is required. So out came the O-ring from under the
screw top & the return line stopped blowing back at me.

This improved things but the reservoir cap still weeped every now and then especially when the engine had been running for a while & then was revved.

Then the penny dropped: its the fuel tank that's the villain because none of this happened when the front of the van was on axle stands. With a non-vented cap there's more fuel consumed than is returned to the tank so if anything a partial depression (vacuum) should start to build up in the tank.

At present the tank return is more than twice the length compared to when a CF tank is fitted and the top of the truck tank is above the top of the chassis whereas a CF tank is slung under the chassis, a difference of about 9 inches with respect to the tank return.

Between the two leak-off from the injection pump & injectors is struggling to find its way back to the tank, in effect requiring some pressure to push fuel through the total length with b-all help from gravity. No wonder the air valve is under pressure & leaking!

Right. Tank from the donor is going on next. Besides, I'm not sure that the truck tank is as full as the gauge shows: it's unlikely that the sender unit matches the gauge anyway. Hopefully it shouldn't take long to grind off the sparrowsh!t welding holding the truck tank hanger brackets to the chassis.

The second problem arose when I decided to check the cooling system thermostat rather than trust to luck & removed it to test in a pan of water. It's shot: won't open all. It's a standard 82C thermostat though so somewhere local should have one.

Another problem was the cab heater: hardly any hot coolant was going through the heater hoses although some was getting to the top of the radiator via the thermostat bleed hole & no air would come through either the footwell ducts or the screen vents when the blower was switched on. It was late though & I was going to leave it until daylight, until I had good light inside the van while packing up. Some silly sod had fitted the heater controls facia upside down...
Sorted.

----------------------

Day 31 2 steps backwards...

Removing the truck tank was too easy, apart from it being more than half full & needing to be supported while removing the hanger brackets. This is because the brackets were so thinned by corrosion and poorly welded to the chassis that they only needed wobbling sideways to start coming away from the chassis -



This is what they were holding up, sort of -



I reckon that it's a 30 gallon tank; avoiding that hitting the deck unexpectedly has to be a Good Thing.

Fitting the tank from the donor was relatively quick because the straps & hook bolts are in good condition. The insulators had long disappeared though so some sticky-back closed cell PU foam strip was used -





The PU strip was bought for the cab engine cover aperture so some more will be needed for that now. An unforeseen consequence of using relatively thick section was that it padded out the used tank straps - they stretch over time - & the tank is nicely secured now.

Sender unit got checked for resistance for 'empty' (left) & 'full' (right) before fitting the tank -



The filler neck extension hasn't been so easy; in fact, it's been a real pig to sort out because I'm using an existing aperture above the camper body floor rather than re-instating the original aperture below the floor line that's been covered over and would have needed just a straight extension piece.

Extension so far -



What I started with was the white body fitting with what seemed to be a home made screw cap that was disintegrating & shedding lumps of silicone sealer that had been used to glue the pieces together and a hose that had been pierced where it protruded into the storage space under a couch & had been cut off just below the camper floor. The hose is in three parts now (hose from the truck tank was too large a diameter & the wrong stuff anyway - melting near enough).

The filler cap is the original threaded inner part with a new Metro Flexicap cut down to fit inside with a bolt & washer to hold them together; venting is via the Flexicap hole into the cavity between the two parts then through the side of the threaded part below the thread itself.

The longer piece of steel tube needs shortening by an inch or so at each end to fit nicely so it won't take much now to finish fitting the tank but the heavens opened so I thought it was time to stay under the gazebo over the front of the van & swap the thermostat.

The new thermostat came as a QTK100 kit with a handful of gaskets, one of which fitted the Perkins thermostat cover. New thermostat tested as a matter of course: fully open at 82C.

While I had the air cleaner off to get at the thermostat I had a re-think about the heater hoses too because I'd found a couple of heater hoses that I'd forgotten about when I was rooting in the spares pile for suitable bits of tubing for the tank filler neck extension; these hoses were from the donor...

The result -





The flow through the heater is reversed from before with the longer hose reaching the water pump inlet from the upper spigot on the heater matrix & the shorter hose curving nicely from the thermostat housing to the control valve.

This makes more sense that the other way about because the control valve is the thermostatically controlled one; it's only early CFs with the heater matrix in the cab part of the heater box that have hot coolant from the thermostat housing going to the top of the heater matrix.

I'm a bit miffed that I didn't remember the donor upper hose being longer & look for the right hoses but it looks so much better now with the air cleaner refitted -



Incidentally, the correct oil level to fill to -



Something that needs sorting yet is the exhaust being closer to the tank than I'd expected. More on this when I've done something about it.

----------------------

Crossmemebers.

Day 32 back on track, almost

New oil pressure switch arrived in the morning post so that was fitted -



Thread is National Pipe Taper Fine, 27 threads per inch, common to Massey Ferguson, Volvo F10, Perkins & some LDV models. It wasn't too difficult to replace despite looking very hard to get at: there's enough room to swing an open-end spanner between the starter motor & crankcase. Oil warning light works now.

Fuel tank filler extension in its final position -



This took a while to make it so that it can be fitted from underneath the floor & without taking any more material from the floor opening than absolutely necessary. This involved adjusting the pipe length and then the positions of the jubilee clips bit by bit until the extension could be rotated as it passes through the floor then leave enough clearance around the 2 clips obscured by the floor thickness once both ends were secured.

This was necessary in order to be able to fit the body aperture moulding last so that it could be properly sealed to the body although this involved crawling into the storage space under the couch above to get at the last clip -



Body aperture -



Although the plastic filler aperture moulding had been bodged on with rivets & a filler sandwich to make up the gaps around the moulding the position above the camper floor is a great improvement on the original tank filler opening below the floor line, notorious for fuel spillage on left hand bends for having an almost horizontal filler neck extension (my last CF350 with a Hawson body was like this as well).

To overcome enlargement of the rivet holes in the aluminium skin, too thin really for rivets with being just outer cladding of the insulation sandwich with board panel inner face, speed nuts for self tapping screws were fitted over the rivet holes to secure the moulding & allow a good amount of Tex (Indasa) body caulk to be run around the moulding before fitting the screws. Even with 6 No 10 screws in it still needed another 6 No 8 screws to pull the flange tight against the skin -



While I was at it the original PETROL vinyl lettering was peeled off after warming with a hot air gun & while the caulk skinned over about 5 gallon of diesel was put into the tank.

Once the caulk had cured enough the surplus was removed using Polyclens (but anything containing xylene will clean off part-cured Tex body caulk) & some white paint was slobbered on before any rainwater could get at the screw heads -



After a (relatively) quick session of re-routing fuel lines the tank unit was wired up using the original bullet connector in the chassis harness plus a new earth lead between one of the unit securing bolts & the screw of the nearest brake pipe clip, star washers under both to make a good connection. Gauge settled at between 1/4 & 1/2 full, this with the van still on stands -



Once the fuel system was vented at the filter leak-off connection the engine started as easily as before & so far the cold start reservoir hasn't leaked at all however much the engine is run & booted to governor maximum speed.

What is remarkable though is a substantial reduction in exhaust smoke apart from initial acceleration. Bearing in mind that the engine isn't reaching normal working temperature (& won't until the van is driven on the road), it would appear that removing back pressure in the tank return line has cleared another fault too: obstructed tank return is high up the trouble-shooting list for excessive exhaust smoke. If nothing changes once the van is on the level again & the extra O-ring seals in the reservoir cap air valve can be removed then I will be very pleased.

Also, with finding & fitting the original heater hoses from the donor and fitting a new thermostat with a small air bleed (about 1mm diameter) instead of a jiggle pin hole (about 3mm diameter) the heater is getting hot coolant through it a lot sooner than before: another gain worth the effort.

Meanwhile the exhaust is mighty close to the fuel tank -



There's a bit of leeway in the silencer mountings to position it another inch or so away from the tank but the best remedy will be to find an Opel 2.3D front pipe to chop & marry the Perkins downpipe to it; this will allow the silencer to be moved to the left side of the propellor shaft, tailpipe modified to suit. First find an Opel front pipe...

For now though a heat shield seems the quickest way to get the van usable so the donor has had a bite taken out of the cab rear panel -



and this is the general idea -



The shield is held to the tank straps with vice grip wrenches prior to shaping & making something to hang it from the chassis or the exhaust itself. The only problem is lack of tin bashing kit with most of it being at home now apart from a grinder but I don't think that's going to stop me from making something that works however untidy it might look & I can always improve on it later.

----------------------

Day 33 a great leap forwards ... but another step backwards

In daylight a solution to supporting the exhaust heat shield presented itself: use an exhaust clamp for the front, make a bracket for the back & fit Mini exhaust bobbins in the existing 5/16" holes in each tank strap below the hook end.

While I was waiting for some bobbins to arrive the brake master cylinder reservoir came off for a clean out. Warm water quickly shifts the black crud from inside & dries off fairly quickly indoors. Several rinses with brake fluid makes sure there's no water left in before refitting the reservoir.

The tops of the inlet ports on the master cylinder were a bit rusty so they had a seeing to with a Dremel clone & brass wire brushes (front port seal left in & plugged with red rubber grease to stop bits falling into the port) -



Seals refitted using some Girling red rubber grease -



Reservoir refitted -



and filled with brake fluid ready for bleeding the brakes -



First thing to do is get some brake fluid to the master cylinder ports; least messy way is to leave reservoir cap off then loosen a brake pipe union & wait for fluid to weep out -



then tighten the union; repeat for the other one -



It's possible to bleed the brakes single-handed by using a stick, to wedge between the driver's seat & the brake pedal down at the end of each pumping operation. This keeps the non-return valves closed while the bleed nipple is tightened.

With the brakes bled the pedal free play was minimal so the reservoir was topped up the the bottom of the filler neck: job done, do something else.

The something else was fit a new fan belt. The one that came with the Perkins engine was flapping about loose after adjusting it once the engine had run a while, partly because it was starting to disintegrate with age & partly because it was too wide for the alternator pulley -



Wear groove is where the belt was riding on the edge of the alternator pulley.

New belt is 1175mm, standard width -



and it fits the crankshaft & water pump pulleys without bottoming in the pulleys.

After running the engine to bed in the belt a little & adjusting the tension I noticed that the brake fluid level in the reservoir had dropped. A quick check all round to make sure I'd not missed a leak first time after bleeding the brakes revealed nothing so the vacuum hose was pulled out of the servo to check for fluid in the servo: lots.

The reason why -



The hole in the push rod seal should be small enough to seal on the push rod poking out from the middle of the servo. The O-ring bodge would stop audible hissing but does nothing to protect the master cylinder from being subjected to vacuum.

A quick check on the brake pedal by holding a steady pressure on it revealed the worst: the pedal slowly drifts down, indicating that the at least the main seal in the rear section of the master cylinder is shot. That should not have passed an MoT test...

The master cylinder from the donor is shot too (it's seized) so it's hunt for a master cylinder time, or a service kit; meanwhile there is some braking so the master cylinder is back on so the van can be moved at least.

The solution to shielding the fuel tank from exhaust heat seemd simple but it was a case of measure lots, cut/bend/drill/shape once in order to maintain about 20mm minimum clearance between the shield & the exhaust & tank. Yet again the exhaust was off & on a number of times but once the silencer front mounting was shifted about 30mm towards the propellor shaft everything dropped into place.

Part way through, front end -



Almost finished, from the exhaust side -



From the tank side -



Tank clearance from the rear -



Exhaust clearance from the rear -



The new exhaust bobbins came from Andrew Page & aren't as thick as OE ones; a good thing really because using 2 new ones for suspending the exhaust dropped the silencer enough to shift it closer to the propellor shaft without fouling the centre bearing support.

Moment of truth was when the van was back on its wheels: the cold start reservoir didn't leak so out came the extra O-ring seals. However, I managed to hook out the original seal too & in the process it snapped. So one of the O-ring seals was refitted but it's half the thickness of the old seal & the light spring that holds the valve closed went slack as a result; cured by fitting another O-ring seal under the swaged top of the valve pin.

Still no leakage when the engine is running & once tank return flow is established it's possible to flip the screw clip off while holding the cap down against its seal & press the valve pin down & still get no fuel coming out. Smoke emission has reduced some more too so I'm well pleased despite the toil in swapping tanks & keeping the exhaust on the 'wrong' side of the van.

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Days 34, 35 steering geometry, lectrickery

With the surface that the van is on being gravel most of the work in checking the steering geometry was digging holes, to temporarily bed some flagstones on sand for a level foundation for the steering turntables -



The turntables needed to be in line & level with each other & also with where the rear axle of the van would be, about 140 inches away -



Once everything was level some timber was used to back fill to & prevent the turntables from moving when the van was driven onto them.

Front wheel nuts were tightened (290 Nm, 215 lb ft) -



& tyre pressures were adjusted (45 psi) then the van was driven onto the turntables; first attempt wasn't too accurate -



but after a bit of to & fro the wheels landed centrally on the turntables & the locking pins could be removed.

Checks done were toe out on turns, camber angle, castor angle & kingpin inclination using a Sealey GA450 magnetic gauge. With the bearing dust cap removed the gauge locating pin engages in the central drilling in the stub axle & the magnetic base sits nicely on the hub once paint lumps are scraped off.

For what's involved in checking the geometry see http://www.justoffbase.co.uk/pdf/ins/GA450.pdf; for the turntables see http://www.justoffbase.co.uk/pdf/ins/GA44_V2.pdf

Toe out on turns was 3 degree out both sides but this came right once the tracking was corrected from excessive toe in with the steering rack being swapped. After that everything else checked out fine so that's the axle finished with now & all that's needed now is a tracking check.

Time to finish the steering column, starting with the pinch bolt in the universal joint (left) & the cotter pin in the rack flange (right) -



Nut used for the pinch bolt is a cleveloc type because they tend to be more reliable than nyloc nuts. Cotter pin tightening is best done as a combination of tightening the nut & tapping the head of the pin until it goes solid & the nut won't tighten any further with a ring spanner.

A change from previous at the top of the steering column: I remembered the split ring that should go between the spring & the top bearing (oops) -



The column switches are easier to fit before replacing the steering wheel -



Spacer goes to the front so that the stalks line up centrally in the slots in the column plastic covers; rear screw clamps the switches to the column tube.

Switches wiring plugs can't be mixed up -



Mounting plate for the column lower cover (star lock washers under screw heads), then the covers -



Screws holding top to bottom cover are larger than original because as ever the original ones must have been lost long ago; at least they're all the same this time around.

Before fitting the steering wheel the indicators cancelling sleeve must be secure or it'll try to twist out & bust the plastic cancel arms on the switch -



The arrowhead shaped locating pegs were loose in the holes in the alloy of the steering wheel boss; a twist of about 30-40 degree with pliers was enough to make them bite again & stay put.

About 70Nm is tight enough for the steering wheel nut for now until the steering wheel is trued up for straight line driving; final torque should be 105 Nm (78 lb ft) & there's no point replacing the plastic cover disc until then.

After a bit (a lot actually!) of messing about with the rear lamps clusters & modifying the plastic headlamp bowls provided by ABC in Leeds with the new headlamps to replace rusty Cibie ones for the last MoT test all the lights work -



The rear sidelights had 21W bulbs in; another black mark for the tester that wrote out the pass...

The plastic headlamp bowls had the backs sawn off so that the bulbs can be replaced without having to remove the grille & headlamps. At the same time the original headlamps wiring was used in preference to the woefully inadequate 0.7mm cables that came with the headlamps although the sidelamp wires were retained & the Lucas 2-pin connectors deleted.

Reverse lamps now have a dash switch because the TK gearbox never had provision for a reverse lamps switch. I've used a spare fog lights switch for the indicator lamp in it & patched in into the headlamp wash/wipe wiring seeing as this option isn't fitted & so that there's just one extra wire, from the front harness connector block by the right hand headlamp to the connector in the rear harness near the gearbox.

Cigarette lighter socket had to be replaced because the 'live' contact kept turning & shorting against the socket body whenever something was plugged in; new one came with a light so that got connected to the panel lamps wiring.

Then came more fun & games removing & replacing the dash panel a few times to make the instruments lighting with capless bulbs work all the time; same again with the rocker switches tops to screw the the miniature ES bulbs in properly. Lucas: Prince of Darkness...

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Day 36 cab water leak, brake master cylinder, front bumper

A cab water leak appeared again below the pedals with the gazebo being moved away from the front of the van when the steering geometry was being checked & an amount of rain since. There had been a leak along the gutter seam below the screen where water was running along the edge & then diving in through grinning gaps between spot welds. However, that was dry now because Margrae had sealed all visible gaps with body caulk.

With the driver's seat in place it wasn't easy to see where the water was coming in but I found it eventually: drips from the driver's side wiper spindle crank arm. This could have been migrating down the wiper spindle itself or creeping under the rubber seal against the body; to be sure both had a dose of looking at.



Once the circlip & washers were removed the spindle seal hooked out without tearing or breaking due to age hardening. (In the past I've replaced damaged seals with O-rings, often one on top of another in the gap between the top spindle bush & washers under the circlip.)



The ring nut needed a Stillson wrench to get it to budge; after that a screwdriver in the slots was enough to remove it.

Once the spindle is loose it can be pushed inwards to get oil into the bushes in the housing, followed by a dab of Keenol (waterproof calcium base grease) before refitting the washers & circlip.

Reassembled -



Loctite 598 was thinly smeared both sides of the rubber body seal before fitting it. Spacer has a flat face on the ring nut side & is curved on the body side. Passenger side spindle had the same treatment.

Driver's side wiper blade lay-over (point where blade flips over on the screen) was about 2-3 inches before the end of its sweep, a precursor for a scraped screen as the blade wears, and the blade also was making a din on the down sweep. Adjustment is best done with the wipers at the end of their sweep (switch off ignition) -



& entails twisting the arm with vice grips or similar until the blade sits almost perpendicular to the screen: very much trial & error to get best lay-over at the very end of the sweep.

Brake master cylinder came off next with having a service kit to hand, NOS Lockheed SSB1223 from ABC in Leeds.



Other than the bodge for the well worn servo pushrod seal, the cylinder seals weren't too bad except for the primary piston outer seal next to the circlip where the cylinder bore had corroded; seal was worn out.

In lieu of a photo (I forgot to do one of the whole cylinder in pieces) -



The worry now was how far the corrosion had crept down the cylinder bore. After honing -



The position of the 2 pits is 1.5mm away from the lip of the new seal (difference between position of pits from circlip groove & position of seal lip from the circlip end of the primary piston) -



A miss is as good as a mile, so with new seals fitted to the secondary piston the cylinder was reassembled. The pressure differential switch plunger was left alone: the 2 small O-ring seals are missing from the service kit & there's no wiring on the van for the switch on the cylinder anyway.

Once the original circlip was fitted (the one in the kit was the wrong size) the servo pushrod seal went on with a dollop of Girling red rubber grease -



Followed by the steel cap & plastic washer retrieved from the servo -



Reservoir refitted -





Before refitting the master cylinder brake fluid in the servo front chamber was mopped out through the vacuum port (seal removed). Master cylinder is now back on & the brakes have been bled. So far everything seems fine: pedal action with & without vacuum is much more precise & the fluid level hasn't dropped any.

Last thing to go on before I packed up was the front bumper -



It's a lash-up at present: driver's side is too low & the passenger side corner bumper studs for the bracket inside the front of the wheel arch are busted but the weather was getting too evil to carry on so I'll have to have a do at re-aligning the bumper next session.

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