Charlie's Echo (12)

Filed under: truck by tamber
16 Tachwedd 2019 @ 22:16

16 Nov 2019

Freed the clutch, and I must say I've seen much worse drive into the workshop.

A clutch pressure plate leant up against a plastic box. The surface is very dark and corroded-looking, with shadow-imprints of the rivets of the friction plate still on it.

The clutch friction disc leant up against an oil drum. It is quite heavily used.x

And the flywheel:

The engine flywheel's clutch surface, blackened and with plenty of corrosion. Also showing shadow-imprints of where the friction plate's rivets had been sitting while the truck was non-running for so long.

I'd like to note, just for reference, since I struggled for ages and didn't find directions in the WSM (Which means I'll find them, now, looking for something else): You have to take the flywheel out before you can take the clutch-housing off, because five of the seven bolts that hold it on, are behind the flywheel!

The engine on the cradle, now with the flywheel housing removed to completely expose the back of the engine.

Anyway, with the housing off, I could finally bolt it to my new engine stand. Now, I expected it to struggle a little with the weight & bulk, despite being rated at 560kg SWL, but...

The engine bolted to an engine stand. It is sagging very badly. There is a jack under the front of the engine, and yet the engine is sloped down at a 30 degree angle.

An emoticon of a face with wide staring eyes, and mouth in a sharp downturn, as if staring in shock and horror.

That was with the hydraulic part of the jack all the way down, and only the screw portion of it still holding the engine up.

Excessive droop detected! More bracing required!

I'm significantly more impressed at my "shoddy" little cradle, having seen that. To be fair, I didn't expect it to fare too well holding up the Bedford lump, but it's a lot easier to start from something rather than building a stand entirely from scratch.

The real trick is going to be bracing it up while making sure it's still disassemble-able, to save space. I have a plan, though.

17 Nov 2019

Housing:

The flywheel housing on the workshop floor, tilted onto its back to show the wide opening in the bottom for the removal of the flywheel.

And with the tin bottom cover (ooh-er!):

The flywheel housing on the workshop floor, tilted onto its back, now with the stamped steel lower cover fitted, that closes in the gaping hole for the removal of the flywheel.

The little dangly rivet thing is factory. Presumably to prevent the drain-hole from becoming blocked-up.

Today was another productive day! More strip-down ensued, and there's video. Anyway, some discoveries were made, some not so good...

Close-up of a cam lifter, with pitting in the centre of the surface.

Gonna go out on a limb here and say that's not right clever, for the running surface of a lifter. The cam lobe looks flawless, though. This is the lifter for that stuck valve, which may possibly be part of its issues? The lifter for the intake valve of that cylinder is absolutely fine, so I don't think it's caused by running without the load of pushrod & valve spring...

So that'll need investigating & sorting. After that, I'd run out of excuses; time to play executioner...

The engine on its stand, with the head removed to expose the cylinders and pistons.

Off with her head!

More surprises: Number 4 piston looks like it's had some excitement in the past!

Close-up of the piston in number 4 cylinder, showing speckles of damage in the top surface of the piston, as if it's been hitting some small debris.

But it doesn't seem like this head has seen any of it. (Though this appears to have also been the cylinder that has been sat with the inlet valve open while the truck was in the breaker's yard, since it shows signs of corrosion; nothing too worrying, though.)

Close-up of the head for number 4 cylinder. It has some pitting on the quench pad area, but no noticeable signs of damage from foreign objects or debris.

And, of course, there was the non-surprise of confirming that the exhaust valve on number 2 is stuck. Doesn't seem to be bent, at first glance, but I've not done a detailed inspection.

And, since I can now measure one of those chambers...

Close-up of a tape-measure being used to show the depth of the combustion chamber in the head. The chamber is approximately three quarters of an inch deep.

Apparently I don't have a more accurate measuring tool than a tape measure up at the unit, but still... near enough 20mm deep from the face of the head, to the top of the chamber.

ANd that left us here, tonight:

The decapitated engine on its engine stand, with plastic rubbish-bags wrapped around it to prevent contamination

Block oiled up, and under plastic to keep any grinding dust and other detritus out. I should probably shift focus back to the compressor, get that back together then I have fewer pieces knocking around to get broken/lost. Plus, then it's one more thing I can tick off being done!

28 Nov 2019

Amazingly, I did a progress today. (Honest, I did! ...Okay, it's technically yesterday, now, but same difference.)

Step the first: Extract the oil control ring & retaining clip from that NOS piston, to fit to the old piston...

Two small pistons, one darker made of steel, and the other a lighter one made out of aluminium. The aluminium one has all its piston rings, but they're rusty. The steel piston is missing its lower ring, and there is also a very slight hairline crack at the bottom edge of the piston.

Can you see the problem yet? I hadn't, at this point!

Okay, extract the ring and then clean the surface rust off, easy enough

Close up of the underside of the piston's skirt, showing a semicircular impact mark and a hairline crack in the cast iron piston.

Mm. That's not good; guess I'm fitting the whole NOS aluminium piston, since the original cast-iron one is cracked. Not sure when that happened, but it might be why the original oil-control ring snapped when I went to remove it. Who knows. New rings filed, piston fitted to rod and dropped into the hole. Fits quite nice. Should probably pop it back out and give the bore a quick hone just to help the rings seat, which isn't really a problem, it's not all torqued up yet since I didn't have the spec to hand.

At some point my steel order turned up, and I added reinforcing to the engine stand, and then...

The truck engine rotated upside down on the stand.

Engine wants belly-rubs!

The engine with its sump removed, exposing the innards.

Looking good in there!

The inside of the sump, showing quite a heaviy sludge build-up in the bottom.

And not all that bad in there, either! Only quarter of an inch of sludge at the bottom of the sump!

Spent the rest of the evening cleaning out the inside of the sump back to nearly spotless, and hammering out the dents, since the sump appears to have met the front diff at some point.

Frankenhealey said: Usually that means 'DBS' or Driven by Squaddies, or Destroyed by Squaddies in the worst case.

Interestingly, Richard Farrant on HMVF has noted that I've got the wrong sump. The 4x4s are supposed to have a front-sump, which gives more clearance to the diff, and also a sump guard to make it marginally more difficult for aforementioned squaddie to rip it right off on something.

That would explain the diff-print in the sump, then.