Started the week by grinding off the welds on the front mud wing, revealing a few pinholes along the way, most of which I managed to weld up succesfully. The results look very good, so far. A few other odd jobs included installing the remaining screws in the horizontal beading where the holes had become enlarged and needed padding out. Attention then turned to reassembling the MW nearside rear axle and starting work on the offside, which required a lot of cleaning down. In between I continued work on the new battery boxes for HUO.
Tag Archives: battery boxes
13/4/2025
Started the week working on the MW’s rear axle oil seals. I can see lots of places where axle oil could have seeped out, as it’s all so worn in there, but am proceeding slowly by cleaning everything down and renewing gaskets where appropriate. I did have another go at painting the top bar of the cab window, still not perfect so I may try once more time. I cut the bases for the battery boxes, A simple job that was more trouble than expected, then started on the sides. Not much progress this week due to other commitments, although Geoff Brown messaged to say the front wing parts were ready, so collecting that will be one of the first jobs next week.
31/1/2022
I have been stripping down underneath the cab this week, including removing the mudwing which is the wrong type. This gave access to the main power and battery cables and the cab bulkhead which has a lot of surface rust but is not rotted through anywhere. This work was preceded by removal of the battery boxes from the offside, both of which need to be replaced as they are excessively corroded. Originally there were four 6v batteries fitted in pairs either side of the gangway. It is my intention to continue to use a pair of 12v batteries and it would make sense to fit them on alternate sides to balance out the weight, I have yet to remove the nearside boxes but the two that are now redundant will have floor plated over and the box covers retained for storage.
Other work has involved correcting some poor work done by the previous owners – trimming the bolts on the offside front springs/rear hanger to prevent them binding on the chassis and replacing the felt washers on the ball joints and various missing split pins and washers. However, the cold weather and health problems have prevented me from completing work under the cab for now so today I dismantled the first of the rotten offside half-drop windows with a view to preparing the parts ready for installation in the new frames I made last year.