Around 5 months ago I went to just this side of Birmingham and began a very slow, hot journey home in this 
it's exactly as the title says! Being the builders pickup it's got quite a high bed (the bottom of the drop sides is bed level) as under the bed are stowage boxes both sides and a ladder "rack" accessed from the back lift up flap that runs the length of the bed underneath the bed but above the floor level you see from underneath. Originally it was a petrol but at some point over the years it got fitted with a Perkins 4.108, it's noisy, hot, only manages a 50 mph cruise speed but is loads of fun, have some more pics:
The black around the bottom is years of being coated with what appears to be a mixture of grease and old oil, it's still a little crispy in places underneath but structurally is sound.
It's been bought by my dad to use at the weekends for a bit of fun and also to take his collection of vintage rotavators to working days, here it is at the first it attended:
It's also had a lot of use over the last couple of months as my parents have recently moved so it's had to work for a living with frequent dump trips! Although dad is the main user (and he paid for it!) I'm constantly reminded by him it's as much mine as it is his - I think this is to keep me happy while I'm under it getting covered in old grease and oil fixing it for him/me!
So far we haven't had many issues, the first was the heater plug push button falling to bits but I carefully reassembled it and it works fine again. The next was the wire from the starter solenoid to the starter failing due to corrosion, again this was easily fixed with a new piece of wire. A couple of weeks ago we had a more annoying problem, while out on what was going to be an all day trip there and back the alternator light started flickering, knowing it doesn't need any power once it's running we weren't overly concerned until it came time for a driver change (around 1.5 hours is long enough before needing to stop and give your ears a rest!) we noticed that while the light was on (by this time more frequent than off) we had no lights on the truck at all. At this point we decided it was definitely time to turn around and abandon plans (collect another old rotavator) as no lights is not good and picking up another old rotavator can wait! We got home to find the battery still had plenty of charge and it restarted the moment the key was turned. After an hour or so of messing around with limited tools (I'm the mechanical one, not dad hence not many tools at his!) including not having a multimeter with me or a test light I'd got no where other than for some reason instead of having the light on all the time it was back to barely flickering again.
It's been like this since until today, staying at theirs dog sitting this weekend I thought I'd have another quick look (still no tools, and definitely not dressed for it!). Straight away I found a wire almost off the fuse box (a block with two fuses - very high tech!) put this back on, noted that I need to take it all off and clean it up and put new terminals on at a later date and fired it up. Except it didn't start, it spun over a few times, as it did the solenoid clicked and cut the starter out a few times and then cut it completely. I think the solenoid is dead, you turn the key it clicks but the starter doesn't turn. If you put a screwdriver across the solenoid posts it starts spinning it over. I did notice while doing this that either the alternator terminal or the ignition terminal on the solenoid (hard to tell, they're both the same colour wire and go into the completely covered loom) was starting to smoke and also shows signs of being previously hot, could this be down to a short or something in the solenoid?
Anyway that's enough for now, I'll get a new solenoid ordered and get that on and see how we go from there.
Thanks for looking.
it's exactly as the title says! Being the builders pickup it's got quite a high bed (the bottom of the drop sides is bed level) as under the bed are stowage boxes both sides and a ladder "rack" accessed from the back lift up flap that runs the length of the bed underneath the bed but above the floor level you see from underneath. Originally it was a petrol but at some point over the years it got fitted with a Perkins 4.108, it's noisy, hot, only manages a 50 mph cruise speed but is loads of fun, have some more pics:
The black around the bottom is years of being coated with what appears to be a mixture of grease and old oil, it's still a little crispy in places underneath but structurally is sound.It's been bought by my dad to use at the weekends for a bit of fun and also to take his collection of vintage rotavators to working days, here it is at the first it attended:
It's also had a lot of use over the last couple of months as my parents have recently moved so it's had to work for a living with frequent dump trips! Although dad is the main user (and he paid for it!) I'm constantly reminded by him it's as much mine as it is his - I think this is to keep me happy while I'm under it getting covered in old grease and oil fixing it for him/me!So far we haven't had many issues, the first was the heater plug push button falling to bits but I carefully reassembled it and it works fine again. The next was the wire from the starter solenoid to the starter failing due to corrosion, again this was easily fixed with a new piece of wire. A couple of weeks ago we had a more annoying problem, while out on what was going to be an all day trip there and back the alternator light started flickering, knowing it doesn't need any power once it's running we weren't overly concerned until it came time for a driver change (around 1.5 hours is long enough before needing to stop and give your ears a rest!) we noticed that while the light was on (by this time more frequent than off) we had no lights on the truck at all. At this point we decided it was definitely time to turn around and abandon plans (collect another old rotavator) as no lights is not good and picking up another old rotavator can wait! We got home to find the battery still had plenty of charge and it restarted the moment the key was turned. After an hour or so of messing around with limited tools (I'm the mechanical one, not dad hence not many tools at his!) including not having a multimeter with me or a test light I'd got no where other than for some reason instead of having the light on all the time it was back to barely flickering again.
It's been like this since until today, staying at theirs dog sitting this weekend I thought I'd have another quick look (still no tools, and definitely not dressed for it!). Straight away I found a wire almost off the fuse box (a block with two fuses - very high tech!) put this back on, noted that I need to take it all off and clean it up and put new terminals on at a later date and fired it up. Except it didn't start, it spun over a few times, as it did the solenoid clicked and cut the starter out a few times and then cut it completely. I think the solenoid is dead, you turn the key it clicks but the starter doesn't turn. If you put a screwdriver across the solenoid posts it starts spinning it over. I did notice while doing this that either the alternator terminal or the ignition terminal on the solenoid (hard to tell, they're both the same colour wire and go into the completely covered loom) was starting to smoke and also shows signs of being previously hot, could this be down to a short or something in the solenoid?
Anyway that's enough for now, I'll get a new solenoid ordered and get that on and see how we go from there.
Thanks for looking.
Thanks for the suggestion of which diff/OD box, I'll keep a look out. For now though, on the last trip I accidentally found a good way of making it quieter inside - I lay my thick jacket on the engine cover and the noise level dropped considerably. So a suitable thick blanket (I have said it really shouldn't be tartan - Dad's only just in his 60's!) put on the cover will help keep it quieter.
