Tag Archives: cab

4/10/2026

A good start to the week, with all of the underside of the front canopy almost ready for paint.  A minor diversion was the repair of one of the route number box bulb holders, the contact spring for the bulb having broken.  I found this when I went to install the correct size 12W bulbs.  Once the underside of the canopy and the area around the cab emergency window had been stripped, I cleaned the surfaces thoroughly and cleaned up the paint shavings.  Next I applied a coat of no.1 rust beater to all the steelwork, then primed the exposed wood work.  Whilst that dried, the last job of the week was to treat the rusty steelwork of the rear route number box with ACF50, it being impossible to access it to replace it, without dismantling the whole of the rear dome.  This was the last job of the week.

21/9/2025

Work continues on the braking system with the refitting of the offside rear brake drum.   I next removed the grease nipples from the brake cam shafts and pumped strong pentrating fluid into the holes, in the hope that this will release the adjusters.  I intend to repeat this several times before final greasing.   After that, all the studs on both rear wheel hubs had a die nut run down them and nuts matched to the thread and lubricated with copper grease.  I have enough (hopefully) new wheel nuts to replace all the rounded-off and missing old ones.   Since my only means of adjustment of the rear brakes is now the operating rods from the crosshaft, I removed the O/S one fairly easily and cleaned up the threads, noting that one end had a left-hand thread.  The nearside is proving more stubborn, as the pin through the cross shaft lever is well stuck.  The nut was removed easily enough, using an angle grinder and hammer and chisel.   Some powerful BDX penetrating oil was then applied and left to soak over night.  A long application of heat loosened it and then I was able to move on to the large rear brake servo just behind the cab.  BDX was applied to all obvious fastenings that need to be undone, then a short break while I painted a cab window component red.  Then back underneath the bus to remove the nut from the fork end of the rod from the servo to the first joint.  Surprisingly, it came off easily, although of course the pin is reluctant to move.  I gave it a good heat with the blowtorch, it was left to cool then more BDX applied and left overnight.  I then turned my attention to restoring the threads on the two rods removed earlier.  The pin I left soaking in BDX came out after another heat session, so I turned my attention to the brake pedal rod.  Removal of the enormous return spring is proving difficult at the moment, but will no doubt be accomplished next week, then I can move on to removing the rear brake servo for overhaul.

7/9/2025

started the week by preparing the MW for Berden, then working on the stuck pin by the N/S rear adjuster but twisted my back in the process so that put a halt to that for now.  Work resumed with the cab window, a tricky and time consuming job. A problem occured with the welds on the bottom channel which I think will fix adequately with strong chinese epoxy.  Otherwise the window is ready for tape removal and fitting, assuming the correct screws are available,  MW preparation for Berden Fete then ensued, so all work ceased temporarily.