1964 Bedford J6

It's been a few weeks since I last posted and there has been quite a bit of progress in that time! Firstly and perhaps most importantly, the tipping body is now off, with the help of a friend's mini digger and some careful persuasion it came off pretty much exactly as planned and with no damage to the lorry whatsoever.

Once that was done, I started stripping some of the chassis components off, including the spare wheel carrier, wiring loom and two speed axle pipework.

Also managed to test fit the new rear crossmember, which looks fantastic and fits perfectly!

It was at this point things started to go slightly wrong, I decided to drain the engine oil so it could drip out while I was away during the week, hopefully removing the worst of the sludge from the sump without too much effort. This proved to be a bit of a challenge as the sump plug had previously been overtightened and no amount of leverage would break it free, as you can see I ended up knocking it loose with a hammer and chisel in the end. I then got a little carried away and removed the sump and the main bearing caps too! Amazingly, all 30 flat head screws holding the sump on came out with very little hassle and the main bearing shells looked to be in great condition and the Plastigauge check showed the clearances to be at almost new values. Then came the big end bearings which as you can see from the pictures were not so good. Replacements were ordered and with another Plastigauge measurement showing them to now be well within the correct clearance range, I fianlly had a complete rotating assembly again!

I even had time to make a start on removing the front end panels

Stripped the oil pump down for a quick check over and a clean today, surprisingly little wear on everything and all the clearances were within spec so that was nice and easy! Cleaned the pickup screen and rebuilt the pump before re-fitting it to the engine. Also replaced the oil and fuel filters while I was there, with the oil filter having a label on the box showing it was packaged before I was born!

The sump plug I destroyed the other week is apparenlty not a Bedford part so it looks as though the sump may have been replaced with an aftermarket item at some time and was fitted with an obscure plug that is no longer readily available. So it looks like the best solution is to re-tap the boss in the sump and fit a more common 3/4" BSP sump plug. Seeing as the tap I've ordered for the job hasn't turned up yet I decided to carry on removing the front end panels. As so often happens with these things, an old repair came to light during which someone has welded the bolt on outer wing to the inner wing, so off came the bonnet to provide enough access to chisel through the inner edge of the wing around the repair (must remember to take the grinder with me more often!). Then came the front grille and slam panel, all coming off with very little hassle after plenty of heat on each bolt. Looking very bare now but luckily I haven't uncovered any rot or damage that I didn't already know about, we will have to see what the sandblasting uncovers in the future.