All posts by Nigel

18/07/2023

Tidied up the wiring through the cab.  Stripped and painted the cab headlight mounting and pod, ready for refitting.  Made a new outer for the speedo cable which entailed turning a new speedo end fitting from aluminium and devising a way to lock it to the the cable outer, which I made from flexible conduit as used for the wiring.  After several 8uncuccesful attempts I cut slots in the fitting where the outer cable slides in, annealed the fitting then calmped it tight with a jubille clip.  Remanufacturing the speedo cable too the best part of a week.  Next I stripped the paint from the cover that fits over the through wiring in the cab , primed and painted it.  Next job to be addressed was to manufacture a new vacuum tube to the autovac from the exhauster.  I managed to get it the right shape after a bit of trial and error but having trouble soldering the steel nipple at the exhauster end so will replace this with a brass one.

1/07/2023

Work has continued on the electrical side with all the wiring to the nearside of the bus from the cab now laid in, with conduit where appropriate, with the exception of the panel light switch and horn button although the conduit for this connection has been made.  I rerouted the step light conduit over the bellhousing using part of the bulkhead where the gearbox cover rests to hold up the conduit.  The step light is now fitted and wired up, as is the nearside headlight.  I removed the remains of the original fog light and the conduit is secured and the wire there ready to fit  the replacement in due course.  Wiring for the nearside indicator now runs through the cab conduit where the step light wiring would have gone so a neat solution to the problem of adding to the existing wiring.  In the process of fastening the conduit to the firewall bulkhead I had to remove the main vacuum exhauster pipe. This was fortuitous as it is in really poor condition and needs replacing.  I also removed the thin vacuum pipe to the autovac to make up a replacement.   Removal of the vacuum pipe alerted me to the fact that a lot of mud had accumulated in the chassis return flange along the redundant  grease pipe so removed a lot but more remains as do the pipes, which need removing. Wiring for the nearside – horn, headlight, sidelight and panel light has been made up to length including conduit but is not yet mounted.  Noted that the panel light shares the headlight conduit – at least, that seems the only logical way to do it.   Started stripping paint off the offside headlight assembly in preparation for reassembly and applied a first primer coat to the bowl which was showing some surface rusrt.  Finished off bits of painting in the cab today, including the front dome panel from which I had to remove a dent. Someone had previously drilled a hole so I filled it with a 0BA screw after I’d finished with the panel hammer.

10/06/2023

Painting in the cab is largely finished with the exception of the handbrake lever.  The emergency door step has been finished and painted.  Two new lengths of fuel pipe were fabricated to replace the porous and rusty originals.  These have been fitted using brackets and p-clips made by me so they are no longer flapping about.  The dynamo wiring has had the appropriate ends fitted and the dynamo connected up.