I ended up driving tipper wagons, and welding gates on a farm, for two weeks before the network of people (who know people who know people) got me another job; I'm now something akin to a junior truck mechanic at a recovery firm. More hours, more tired, but hey.
Anyway! Since quitting the week leading up to Christmas, here's a run-down of what happened on the truck (Bearing in mind, throughout this, that my ex-employer was supposed to be out of that yard by Christmas. Then by the end of January...):
February 2019
The number of trucks in the yard finally reduced enough that there was a slight clear path from where the Bedford has been sitting for two or so years, that I thought I'd take advantage, and scoot to somewhere with fewer puddles.
Careful careful past the dead van...
And back into this convenient gap here!
Late March 2019
Taking advantage of higher energy than usual, and a couple of dry weekends, I did battle with the brake pipes.
Let's get that back axle piping sorted out, shall we?
Begone with those ugly joined bits that sorta half-assed followed the factory pipes...
Much better.
The next weekend saw a major milestone achieved...
Yes, that's right; your eyes do not deceive you, there's a pipe! Connected to the master cylinder! But wait! There's more!
Early April 2019
What's this? Brake shoes going back on?!
...oh, yeah. Hub has to come off to do these.
Phew, back together. (About 45 minutes total, from 'cold', since I'd not touched them in a couple of years.)
Well, except for these heavy foxing things.
Phew.
While I'm here, is there anything else I can do that is easy enough to do from laying down in the shade under the truck? Hmm.
Let's check that front axle level... Could do with being topped up.
Wonder what the hubs are like... ...bet this one's a bit low. Pity it's the one with the level plug tightened by the freaking Hulk.
Really needs cleaning off, and those new seals fitting...
But I am hesitant to start any work that leaves the truck completely immobile for any longer than a few hours.
...let's run it for a bit, while we're here! And find there's an oil leak.
Rocker cover just wasn't sealed, and apparently I'd not run it long enough -- until that point -- for enough oil to get pumped up to the rockers to start dribbling out from under the rocker cover.
Early June
Remember that video I mentioned in the other post?
The rest of my struggling with the brakes, from the day after -- when most of the visible work got done -- didn't end up in that video, because my editor was becoming clumsy and struggling with the footage I'd already loaded into it. I'll probably make a part 2 with all of that stuff in. Maybe.
...in about a month, at the speed I edit video.
Anyway, more brake stuff happened! More specifically, I fit those two front brake cylinders, plumb them up, and get the system properly filled with brake fluid. I also sorta bled it, but managed to destroy my cheapie vacuum bleeder by having the little fluid-trap pot end up upside down, and the pump pulled fluid in, which just wrecked the O-rings.
I also re-fitted the brake shoes on the nearside, as well, so that the cylinders have some resistance to push against. All those shoes will have to come back off again at some point, either to be cleaned up (where they're of adequate thickness and not contaminated) or to be re-lined. At that point, I'll properly clean & check the drums to see if any of them need resurfacing, and how close they are to end-of-life spec.
For now, though, there's a hint of braking if I pump the brakes a lot, which is a good sign. I just need to get more fluid, and either a helper, or another (better) vacuum bleeder...
Early July
July turned into electricals month, it seems.
Nothing really major, just a bunch of minor pieces.
How about some work-lamps?
More importantly, how about an isolator switch?
The isolator switch install isn't 100% complete, because I need to relocate the alternator's B+ feed to the battery side of the switch, so that flipping the switch cuts off all power to everything even when the engine is running; at the moment, the alternator can keep feeding everything, which isn't ideal. Making the change isn't a big job, I just haven't gotten the supplies ordered yet.
Anyway, at this point, I should note that thing about my ex-work having to be out of that yard by January? Well, by this point, the housing developers are getting a bit miffed at all the stuff still piled up around the industrial estate -- including stuff like truck-mounted equipment that was dumped near the original building they were working at -- and have started condensing the stockpile of curse word into that one yard.
I got to the yard and found that there's a truck-body blocking the Bedford's escape route... Uhoh.
Also, not only am I tripping overscrap surplus equipment, I'm now being hunted by dinosaurs.
Some weekend work saw more tidying & fixups done to the wiring loom. Stuff like re-running wires that were run in a stupid way originally, now that I know better.
...and then a jailbreak happened.
I really do regret not having put my video camera on charge the night before, like I'd considered doing. (But I thought "Ah, nah, I charged it after the last time I used it.", which turned out to be wrong. I'd used it for the brake videos, then dumped it on my desk and not touched it since. The memory card was full, and the battery was empty.
.)
Put it in gear, crawled on up to the box, and thoroughly shoved it out of the way with the front tow-bar. Turns out, also, that if I try to use the bumper for that, it pushes in and the driver's side wheel arch bulges out as everything squooshes. So, on the tow-bar it is. Must fix & perhaps strengthen that bumper, too...
Wherein the truck fled to a different car-park.
(And it turns out, it's not massively bigger than a Range Rover.)
Anyway! Since quitting the week leading up to Christmas, here's a run-down of what happened on the truck (Bearing in mind, throughout this, that my ex-employer was supposed to be out of that yard by Christmas. Then by the end of January...):
February 2019
The number of trucks in the yard finally reduced enough that there was a slight clear path from where the Bedford has been sitting for two or so years, that I thought I'd take advantage, and scoot to somewhere with fewer puddles.
Careful careful past the dead van...
And back into this convenient gap here!
Late March 2019
Taking advantage of higher energy than usual, and a couple of dry weekends, I did battle with the brake pipes.
Let's get that back axle piping sorted out, shall we?
Begone with those ugly joined bits that sorta half-assed followed the factory pipes...
Much better.
The next weekend saw a major milestone achieved...
Yes, that's right; your eyes do not deceive you, there's a pipe! Connected to the master cylinder! But wait! There's more!
Early April 2019
What's this? Brake shoes going back on?!
...oh, yeah. Hub has to come off to do these.
Phew, back together. (About 45 minutes total, from 'cold', since I'd not touched them in a couple of years.)
Well, except for these heavy foxing things.
Phew.
While I'm here, is there anything else I can do that is easy enough to do from laying down in the shade under the truck? Hmm.
Let's check that front axle level... Could do with being topped up.
Wonder what the hubs are like... ...bet this one's a bit low. Pity it's the one with the level plug tightened by the freaking Hulk.
Really needs cleaning off, and those new seals fitting...
But I am hesitant to start any work that leaves the truck completely immobile for any longer than a few hours....let's run it for a bit, while we're here! And find there's an oil leak.
Rocker cover just wasn't sealed, and apparently I'd not run it long enough -- until that point -- for enough oil to get pumped up to the rockers to start dribbling out from under the rocker cover.
Early June
Remember that video I mentioned in the other post?
The rest of my struggling with the brakes, from the day after -- when most of the visible work got done -- didn't end up in that video, because my editor was becoming clumsy and struggling with the footage I'd already loaded into it. I'll probably make a part 2 with all of that stuff in. Maybe.
...in about a month, at the speed I edit video.
Anyway, more brake stuff happened! More specifically, I fit those two front brake cylinders, plumb them up, and get the system properly filled with brake fluid. I also sorta bled it, but managed to destroy my cheapie vacuum bleeder by having the little fluid-trap pot end up upside down, and the pump pulled fluid in, which just wrecked the O-rings.
I also re-fitted the brake shoes on the nearside, as well, so that the cylinders have some resistance to push against. All those shoes will have to come back off again at some point, either to be cleaned up (where they're of adequate thickness and not contaminated) or to be re-lined. At that point, I'll properly clean & check the drums to see if any of them need resurfacing, and how close they are to end-of-life spec.
For now, though, there's a hint of braking if I pump the brakes a lot, which is a good sign. I just need to get more fluid, and either a helper, or another (better) vacuum bleeder...
Early July
July turned into electricals month, it seems.
Nothing really major, just a bunch of minor pieces.How about some work-lamps?
More importantly, how about an isolator switch?
The isolator switch install isn't 100% complete, because I need to relocate the alternator's B+ feed to the battery side of the switch, so that flipping the switch cuts off all power to everything even when the engine is running; at the moment, the alternator can keep feeding everything, which isn't ideal. Making the change isn't a big job, I just haven't gotten the supplies ordered yet.
Anyway, at this point, I should note that thing about my ex-work having to be out of that yard by January? Well, by this point, the housing developers are getting a bit miffed at all the stuff still piled up around the industrial estate -- including stuff like truck-mounted equipment that was dumped near the original building they were working at -- and have started condensing the stockpile of curse word into that one yard.
I got to the yard and found that there's a truck-body blocking the Bedford's escape route... Uhoh.
Also, not only am I tripping over
Some weekend work saw more tidying & fixups done to the wiring loom. Stuff like re-running wires that were run in a stupid way originally, now that I know better.
...and then a jailbreak happened.
I really do regret not having put my video camera on charge the night before, like I'd considered doing. (But I thought "Ah, nah, I charged it after the last time I used it.", which turned out to be wrong. I'd used it for the brake videos, then dumped it on my desk and not touched it since. The memory card was full, and the battery was empty.
.)Put it in gear, crawled on up to the box, and thoroughly shoved it out of the way with the front tow-bar. Turns out, also, that if I try to use the bumper for that, it pushes in and the driver's side wheel arch bulges out as everything squooshes. So, on the tow-bar it is. Must fix & perhaps strengthen that bumper, too...
Wherein the truck fled to a different car-park.
(And it turns out, it's not massively bigger than a Range Rover.)
Got up to the heady speed of an indicated 30 miles per hour, and only thought I was going to crash into a fence twice!
There's also [ REDACTED ] to be fitted, along with another long list of parts to be ordered & fitted, a lot of which cause other work to need to be done. It's basically a sub-project of its own. (And at some point, I've still got to pull the engine out and rebuild it. Which will have to wait until I have somewhere more stable to store the truck, that has somewhere indoors that I can work on the engine.)
