180-971 F1 Crane Truck

[john.k]

When you have a crane ,no other help is needed.You use the outrigger leg to push the case away from the lockrings,any one ever owned a bricktruck soon learned how to use the crane to change tyres without any effort or swearing.You also use the outrigger as a jack to change wheels.Another handy trick is using a forklift mast to change wheels on a forklift.The boss s son couldnt figure it out,and told me not to do it,cause "it was dangerous".Regards John.

[Ravvin]

^ This is how they do it when they change a tire on the skidders and forwarders. They even made up a shaped plate that fits in the end of the crane boom so it slips under the ring and pushes the tire off the seating bead.

I just came in for lunch after playing with the truck all morning. Getting hot earlier every day now.

Here is a pic of my tire changing block. It works really well.



You have to get the height right or it won't work.  Too low and the tire touches the ground when you try to break the bead on the front under the lock ring. Too high and it gets knocked over when you drop the wheel onto it to push the rim out. I have to lower this one about 2 inches to be perfect.

I started off by stuffing the tube back into the tire and fitting the tube protector band. I partly inflated it to pop any wrinkles and creases out. Next I lifted the rim centre back in. Then, I realised i couldn't get the valve stem back far enough to go through the slot in the rim. I pulled the rim, tube and tube protector band out again and squeezed all the air out of the tube. I carefully stuffed it all back in, then slid the rim in far enough so I could get my hand in from the front to shove the tube back enough to get the valve stem lined up and through the slot. From there, I was able to slide the rim in further, working the tube and protector around so they weren't pinched between the rim face and the outer lip of the tire. Once I had the tube aligned just right, the tube protector band just slipped into place by itself. From there, all I had to do was let the wheel fall onto it's face. The weight of the rim dropping like that almost seated the bead on the back. I slathered on some lube and carefully rolled it over to the tire stump and flipped it on. The weight of the tire pressing down was enough to give me enough room to put the outer ring in place. I had the valve out so I gave it a quick squirt of air to pop any creases out of the tube them stood on the ring for a while to squeeze much of the air back out. I put the lock ring in place, with the open ends directly opposite the valve stem, and walked it around with just my weight. This was enough to get the lip of the lock ring aligned with the edge of the tire. From there, I was able to start at the open end of the lock ring and flogged it into place with a soft-faced hammer. It's really not difficult, but you need to keep your weight on it so it doesn't pop back out as you work your way around.
With the lock ring securely clipped onto the rim, I put some air in the tire, slowly and in squirts, to push the tire up a bit at a time so I could get the outer ring to line up. I think this is why people get the tires letting go when inflating. The ring is loose until the tire is aired up, and if you go fast the ring can hook under the edge of the lock ring on one side and be loose on the other. As I slowly inflated it, I was able to lever the ring across into place with a big screwdriver. At this point I doubt the tire even had 5 psi in it, but there was just enough to push the lips of the tire out a bit.
From here, I rolled the tire out the back into the paddock, connected the air hose and laid the tire face down on 2 sleepers so the locked-on inflater wasn't squashed into the dirt. I connected the other end of the hose and wound the regulator up to 40 psi. When it stopped hissing, I left it for a while, then wound it up to 60 psi.
Once filled, I went out and had a look. The bead had seated on the back so I flipped it up and took the hose off. The front had also seated properly. I checked the valve stem and there were no bubbles. The pressure showed 62.5 psi. I left it a half hour and checked again.  43.5 psi. Not good. I noticed a slight hissing when I touched the valve stem. Turns out that the valve stem is leaking where it joins the tube.
This tire was flat when I took it off the truck, but the valve was screwed almost all the way out. While I had the tube out, I had pumped it up to see if it held air, but I never put any real pressure into it. I didn't know what would be safe with it out of the tire, so just put enough in to make it round and firm. It was the same when I let it down the next day, so I figured it was good.
Once I let the tire down again, I rolled it over to my stump and had the lock ring off and the rim out in under 5 mins. That's the easy part. With the tube out, aired up and slathered in water and detergent, I was able to see the bubbles coming out of the whole where the valve stem is fitted. It looks like the tube has a pocket and the valve stem has a rubber disk about 3" across that fits into the pocket. I think it was already leaking when I took the tire off the truck, or I pulled it loose trying to get the stem through the slot in the rim. It may be fixable. I'll take it into Beaurepairs on Monday and ask. They are the only local place doing truck tires.
When I got the truck, I also got 3 used but good tires and 3 tubes and tube protector bands. I hadn't even looked at them. I dug them out and all the bands look good. One tube was actually a 10.00x20, not a 12.00x20, so I wasn't sure if I could use that. The other 2 tubes had a metal shield on the bottom of the valve stem and they needed a good wire brushing to clean the surface rust off. I aired up all 3 and found that the 10.00x20 was stuffed. It had a section about 2" long that had perished on a fold and as soon as the air started going in, it just split open. Oh well. One of the other tubes looked really good, with no odd patches or signs of perishing. The last tube stayed pumped up but has some patches with cracks and roughed up areas. I don't want to risk it so I will give it to the local scout group for their rafting trips.
I gave the good tube a wash down and squeezed all the air out. I fitted it back into the tire, with the tube protector band, and got the rim back in. This time it went a lot faster, but it's still heavy, tiring work. I aired it up a bit and got the outer ring and lock ring fitted and aligned. I rolled it out the back and aired it up again, same process as last time. I left it an hour and it is holding pressure. I have to bend the valve stem a bit though, as it is pressing hard against the hole in the rim.



Next time I have the paint open I will give it a coat of olive drab. If I get a chance I'll weigh one of these.

While the tire was resting, I took the plain steel rimmed tire off the F1 and switched it onto the MK3, as it had a single galvanised rim. I'll swap that tire over next which will give me 2 cleaned, painted and roadworthy wheels for the rear passenger side. 2 of the tires that came with the truck are in really good condition, so I will put them on the front. The other "new" tire and one of my other spares will go on the rear driver's side.
I ran the grinder and wire wheel over the rail that fits between the chassis rail and the tray cross-members to remove the flaking paint and clean up the rust patches a bit.



On closer inspection, I found another issue. How surprising. 



There's a hole right through. The rail is just a folded up U section with some stiffening pieces put in where the chassis tie-down bolts sit. It is 140x75. I think I could replace it with a length of heavy-wall box section. This would have to be stronger. Looking along the rail, I can see areas where it has started to squash down.

Enough for now. I have to go mow the jungle. The neighbours are all out on their ride-ons and I only have a push mower. Wish I could concrete it all.

Greg.

[john.k]

If you had an early Landrover,you could hitch up a slasher and mow the yard.I once knew a little guy with one arm who could change wheels on a scraper by himself.Regards John.

[Ravvin]

I started removing the tire from the galvanised rim that I took off the MK3 yesterday. I'm glad I didn't try filming it. It certainly wasn't easy like the other one was. The cat and my neighbours may have learned some new words today.
The tire sidewalls were incredibly stiff. Even with the valve core removed and me standing on the tire, it wouldn't go down. I flipped it face up and gave it a good flogging all around the edge and managed to force the tire down just enough to lever the lock ring out. With that out and the outer ring removed, I flipped it over onto the tire stump and tried to break the back bead. No matter what I did, it wouldn't move. I flipped it back and found that the front bead was still tight on the rim. I tried levering it out with tire levers, but it immediately pulled back in. I got mad with it and hooked the compressor up. That got it out. I cut blocks of wood and stuck them into the gap between the rim and the tire and let it down. Now the weird thing. As the air came out, the tire actually pulled itself off the back bead. I managed to get the tube protector band out by working it around with 2 tire levers and then was able to remove the rim. From there it only took 30 mins to get the tube out. Yep, 30 mins. The tube was stuck to the inside of the tire, every square inch. At first I thought it was glued in and I had to get it started by working a tire lever down between the tube and the sidewall, levering it apart. Once I got to the stage where I could get my hand behind it, I worked it out enough so that I could lean back and pull on it. I couldn't move it. I rolled the wheel around until the loop of tube was at the top and leaned it up against the work bench. I climbed up and put my boot in the loop and jumped up and down, trying to pull it out. After falling over a few times, I gave that up. I eventually had to work it away from the sidewalls the entire way with the tire levers. I don't know if it had a coating that stuck it up like that, or if it was just age and deteriorating materials, but it was a real pain. I hope the 5 on the F1 aren't like that.

I pumped the tube up and it is holding air. I'll have to go over it and see if there is a date anywhere. It looks like it is in perfect condition, with all of the writing on it as clear as the day it went in, but the metal plate at the base of the valve stem is half rusted away. I'm starting to think it might pay to buy new tubes now, rather than reusing these and running the risk of having them blow out on the road or off in the bush. In the rain. At night. The usual. Nothing was open on the weekend so I will ask locally about pricing during the week. Cheapest I found online was one mob doing heavy duty 12.00x20 tubes for about $75, free freight, so I can use that for a comparison.

I went out and stared at the truck for a while, but still can't work out what half the valves and things on the crane do. If I knew how to work it, I would have used the stabilising legs to pop the beads and squish the air out of the tires. While there, I noticed it was leaking oil out of the breather on the crane reservoir again. It did it a bit when I first parked it and it killed the grass, so that was good. It stopped over winter and seems like it has started again since its warming up. I suspect that the seals in the control valve assembly are perished and are allowing air to leak in and the oil in the rams and hoses to run back down to the tank. I know it used to leak from the control valves as there is evidence of oil running down the back of the cab and someone has stuffed a big bundle of rags between the chassis rail and the cab to catch it. The top of the spare tire was swimming in oil and the rubber is badly affected. The spare was a plain steel rim, so it was protected from rusting.
I grabbed an empty oil drum and my hand pump and sucked out 10 litres. That dropped the level down to the Low mark on the dipstick. The oil looks like standards 20w-40 engine oil in colour and viscosity, but doesn't seem to have any smell and washed off my hands very easily. Odd stuff.

I started cleaning up the rim and rings. This one is off the MK3 and has had a lot of nasty chemicals from whatever they used to cart run over it. While it totally ate the tray, the galvanising has protected the rim pretty well. There is a thick layer of white zinc oxide on the back but when I hit it with the wire wheel on the grinder, it came off easily and showed clean, smooth metal underneath. There is still a bit of the galvanising left, but I have a drum of 2-pack zinc epoxy, so I will give it a coat when I mix a batch up to do the 4 rear mudguards and the stone guard from under the fuel tanks. It's good stuff. They use it for priming the metal when doing restoration work on bridges and wharf pilings, as it's able to handle salt and immersion in sea water. 8hr pot life when mixed, so plenty of time to get it all done. 

Greg.

[john.k]

Its a lot of years since I last saw an Abbey crane,but they are a loose copy of the Hiab 174.To get the outriggers to work on the Hiab,you need to pressurize the system by dead ending another function,then run the ram up or down with the handle on the square top part.The handle must be returned to neutral,or the leg will go down under load.The Abbey may be the same.If so,you will need two persons to work the outriggers with the cabtop controlls.Some years ago I repiped an Abbey to work from the side like a normal crane,but the owner was determined to leave out the breakaway valve for the slew.Ok if the crane is only used on the level,dangerous otherwise.Anyway ,Ive got more trouble with the council,this time at my other yard,which has just been rezoned,and the rates put up to astronomical level.Regards John.

[Ravvin]

The last tube I took out of the wheel off the older MK3 has been left pumped up. It has held the air, but I found patches all across it that look sort of scaly. I think it is perished and didn't want to risk putting old tubes back in with the "new" tires so I ordered 6 new tubes for $66 each. They are supposed to be heavy duty and with the correct TR179A valve stems. I had to send them a photo of the rims as they couldn't understand why it mattered. If the valve stem was even 10mm shorter, you would have to remove the wheel to pump them up. They should get here early next week. 

Over the break, I have been working on rebuilding the middle axle, between the rain and other disruptions. Today I got the torsion plate, brake expanders and stub axle all refitted.
All have been cleaned up and repainted. The brake slave got a light hone and a new rubber seal. I bought enough seals to do both sides of the middle axle and also the 2 front wheel ones. Same brake slaves, and they are much simpler than the rear axle ones. If anyone needs them, ask at Repco or similar for P1499 1" brake seals. These were only $6 each.

When I removed the hub, I found that one of the brake shoe springs was on backwards. It was touching the back of the grease trap cover on the back of the hub. You could hear it when you turned the wheel by hand. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the spring though, and only some paint rubbed off the back of the grease trap cover, so no real problem.

I have to replace the outer bearing as it has a lot of score marks on the rollers. Oddly, the outer race is in perfect condition. There isn't a single scratch or mark on it at all. The rear bearing is good and I'll reuse it. The seal at the back of the hub is one of the old leather ones and was leaking a bit and will get replaced with a modern one. The grease was clean but was the colour of bright orange mashed pumpkin. I don't think it was the correct grease. At a guess, I would say that most of the oil or whatever makes grease slippery had leaked out and left the filler there. It's all cleaned out now though, and I have a big tub of bright blue axle grease to replace it with.

I took some pictures today, trying to get some clear shots of bits of the crane, and I think I might have worked out how it operates.



In the pics above, you can see knobs on the end of a long rod. The rod is attached to a valve that the RPS describes as a "valve, ball, stabiliser isolation & speed control". There are 2 of these valves on the crane and the other one is on the control box. I can read enough of the instruction plate to know it is the speed control. I think the idea is that you either pull or push the rod behind the cab, which lets the fluid through to the stabiliser leg control unit so one person can raise and lower the legs. When finished, you push the rod in and it shuts off the flow of fluid.

I got up on the tray and got a few good close-up pics.



In the first pic above, you can see the pressure gauge and overload cut-out box on the left. I think this works like the overload unit on the winch, and shuts off the engine if you overload the system. The glass in the gauge is totally opaque. I'll have to see if I can either rebuild it or get a replacement. It's fluid filled, so might be tricky.
The ball valve on the far right is the speed controller. It is currently in the Fast position. I am guessing that it works by allowing some of the fluid flow to bypass the control box and return to the pump or reservoir, slowing down the crane movements.
As you can see in the pic above and to the right, the oil is leaking down the back wall of the cab and getting all over the chassis rail and front suspension. No rust there. It seems to be leaking out of the bottom of the 2nd Jib control valve. Looking at the parts diagram in the RPS, the valve units seem to be pretty simple. Most seals are O'rings. I'm looking forward to pulling it all apart, cleaning, painting and fixing the leaks.



The pics above came out very clear.



Unlike the one that tells you what the levers do.
When you get the angle just right, you can make out what each does, so I did a bit of photoshop on it. I drew over what I could see and left the rest.
Standing on the seat facing the back of the truck, the lever on the right is the First Jib. Pulling it towards you is Up and away from you is Down.
The second lever from the right is the Second Jib. Same directions as the first.
The third lever from the right is the Third Jib. Pulling it towards you is In and away from you is Out.
The left-most lever is the Slew Control. Pulling the lever towards you slews the boom anticlockwise and away is clockwise.
On the very left end of the control plate it shows that valve I mentioned before. The lever position shown in the pic is for Fast operation. If the valve is turned so that the lever is aligned with the pipe, it is Slow.
As you can see, the instruction plate has had an extra bit riveted to the end and a hole drilled through it from the back. No idea why. I suppose it must have come off another truck, as the plate inside mine states that it is a standard F1 GS Cargo.

Something that concerns me is that someone has scratched across the First Jib and Third Jib instructions. Whether they were inoperable or someone has connected it all up wrong, I won't be able to tell until I give it a run. Before I can do that I have to get the fuel tank mounts cleaned, repainted and refitted so I can put at least one of the overhauled tanks back on.

Thanks for looking.
Greg.

[Chazza]

Thanks for looking.
Greg.

Thank you for posting! 

Easily one of the most enjoyable restorations, of all of the forums I look at on the net!

Cheers Charlie

[john.k]

I hope the crane isnt full of polyurethane piston and rod seals.These turn into crumbly mush with time,and all need replacing with new made[not nos]seals.You often find that a leaky valve bank is caused by a ring of corrosion around the valve spool in the rest position ,and this needs a hardchrome and hone job.At least the Abbey used standard commercial bits,unlike Hiab where everything is odd,and only replaceable with genuine.Be careful with the valve bank,and preferably only pull one spool at a time.Dont get shims and springs mixed up between spools.On all these old cranes the lifting capacity can be increased a lot by shimming up relief valves.Still,without pullout outriggers,be careful not to bend the truck chassis.Ive tipped a few of the early Hiabs up,it happens suddenly with the short outriggers,you get no warning.I remember when we bought a truck at the sales,the Hiab 950 on the Volvo would lift a 6x6 acco onto the dog trailer in one go.Always impressed the army guys hanging round looking for a job for their 8ton forklift.They used to charge $25 a lift,which went a long way at army wet canteen prices.A can was 10c as I remember.Regards John.

[Ravvin]

I had a bit of a poke around in all the pipes on the crane and found that the long rod with the knobs on the ends is definitely the divert valve to send pressure to the outrigger legs. There is a long spring attached to it that pulls it back into the closed position. To drop or raise a leg, you would have to pull/push the rod, (depending on what side you were on), then twist the lever on the top of the leg to raise or lower it.
It's hard to tell if any of the connectors or fittings are leaking as the fluid leaking down from the control valves is covering everything.

Today I got the brake shoes and springs refitted to the intermediate axle and then got the bearings repacked and the hub refitted.
The axle went back in pretty easily and all the new nuts and bolts around the back of the hub got painted.



This is a pic of the passenger side as it was this morning. The chassis rail extension out the back got cleaned back and primed to see how it came up. The paint comes off easily enough with the wire wheel on the grinder, but it takes time to get around all the nuts, rivet heads and suspension hangers. Sand blasting these areas would be faster. I offered to "dispose" of around 1.2t of lead contaminated garnet grit for the guys at work, but they needed a certificate of some sort to say they had done it properly. I'm sure I could have knocked one up in Photoshop. Oh well.
I have now cleaned and primed the rail from the back to the chassis tie-down U-bolt that you can see just next to the toolbox. If the weather is ok tomorrow, I will have a go at cleaning up the springs and other bits, like the diffs and suspension linkages. I think it might be a lot easier once I get the tray off as I can sit under the truck without being hunched up or belting my head all the time.

At the moment I am trying to work out the order of priority for the things I need to do. As an example, I want the tray off so I can get at the diffs, transfer case, power dividers, winch and prop shafts. They all need cleaning and painting, and the transfer case needs new seals. I can do those without removing it.
Before I can remove the tray, I need to get the truck to the point that I can start it and drive around the paddock. To do that, I need fuel. Both tanks are now clean, primed and painted with 2 coats of the camo green. Yesterday I cleaned the 4 tank support brackets and gave them a good coat of Ironize to neutralise any surface rust.



As you can see in the After pic on the right, 2 of the brackets had the back plates removed. The rust had eaten into these plates as you can see in the pic on the left. The steel was spalling badly and the inside of the channel was packed with rust chunks. I couldn't leave them like that.  I cut the welds and cleaned up the dags. The rust chunks inside were all from the back plate, The channel cleaned up nicely. The original back plates were 3.7mm thick and 100mm wide. I checked around and I can get either plain steel in 3 or 5mm, or galvanised in 5mm. Nothing in between. I think I will go with the heavier option, but can't decide on whether to get plain or galv. Galv is a lot dearer, but I only need 2m so it's not too bad. The 4 supports are going to be washed down with thinners to remove the varnish stuff left by the Ironize. It's done it's job of neutralising and converting any rust and the 2-pack Zinc-Epoxy I want to use on them needs bare metal to work properly. I will coat them in the epoxy and then cover that with primer, as the epoxy doesn't like Alkyd paints, and the Protec Camo Enamels are Alkyds. Once epoxied & primed, I can weld the new back plates on. I'll pre-paint them the same way as the supports and just grind enough away for the weld to stick to. I know the paint will burn with the heat, but it's better than not being treated at all. I don't want to have to do this again.
Before the tanks go back on, I need to refit the brake master unit. It's all painted and ready to go, but I need to clean and paint the chassis rail before I can put it back on. Too fiddly trying to work around it afterwards. I don't need brakes to move around the paddock. I'll just use the handbrake. I need to replace the brake lines that run from the master cylinder units to each axle and they are tucked up in the chassis rails and really hard to get at. It will be a lot easier with the tray off, so it can wait until then.
I also need to strip, clean, repaint and refit the driver's side intermediate axle hub, and drain the diff before refilling with new oil. I want to do that before moving the truck as I have done the passenger side and don't want nasty old dirty oil slopping across to that side as I have cleaned the axle tube out and the truck is leaning towards the driver's side.

So from all that, it looks like my first step is to clean the springs and suspension bits on the passenger's side, then prime and paint them. Then I can put those 2 wheels back on. Ah crap, another hitch. I have to wait until my new tubes arrive before I can put one of the tires back together. And I have to pull the old tube out of the one I have already changed. Should be easy enough now. That will be the third time I have changed that one. First time was a leaking valve stem that I missed. Second was when I replaced the leaky one with a spare that came with the truck, but no telling how old it is and the other 2 that were included are no good either. One split open along a crease and the other is perished and looks like crocodile skin.

Right. So clean/paint the spring and suspension, change the tube, fit a "new" secondhand PC50 tire to the second rim, refit both tires, drain the intermediate diff, pull apart/clean/overhaul/repaint/refit the driver's side intermediate hub, clean the driver's side chassis rail, repaint it, clean/epoxy/prime the fuel tank supports, weld new back plates to 2 of them, topcoat and refit them. Then I can refit the 2 fuel tanks and I can finally start the truck. Simple. Should have that done by winter. 

While looking for something simple to do today, I knocked a hole in the deck to have a better look at the winch to see why the cable is so tight and why it won't wind out.



As you can see, the thimble on the end of the cable has been sucked into the rollers on the back and spread the plates that hold the guide wheels.
I tried levering it out and got nowhere, even with a full-length crowbar. The cable is so tight under the truck that it twangs when you tap it.



I reckon I found the problem. I'd say the overload cutout is disconnected or has failed as there is no way that it should allow it to put that much load on the winch.
Now for the scary part. The winch actuator is in the Engaged position. In fact, the damn thing is stuck there. I took the clevis pin out of the air actuator and pushed it out of the way. Oh, it slides in and out fairly easily, which is nice. There isn't a lot of room between the steel rails that hold the deck boards, but I was able to belt the actuator arm pretty hard with a 4lb hammer and it won't move. It's a bad design. The steel bar of the actuator is round with a flat machined down one edge. It goes through the aluminium housing and has a washer and split pin on the far end. It looks like the aluminium has grown onto the washer. I had to drive the shaft out of the winch from the MK3 and it looked similar to this one. I will try giving it a good squirt with CRC and see if it frees up a bit. What worries me is that when I fist got the truck, I was able to turn the driveshaft to the winch with a big screwdriver through the yoke, and later tried running the truck in reverse with the PTO engaged and it didn't move the winch drum at all. I could see the winch brake drum turning on the far side, so the main worm-drive shaft and the chain drive unit are ok. Thinking about it, the main worm could be damaged, or the worm gear wheel could be stripped. Or the spline in the middle of the worm gear could be stripped. Or the main winch shaft could have stripped the splines down where the dog clutch engages. Or the dog clutch could be stripped. Or the 2 lugs that bolt to the cable drum that the dog clutch engages could gave sheared their bolts. This would be the best scenario. I still have the winch from the MK3 in pieces and all it's bits are in really good condition, so I can make 1 out of the 2 if it's more serious.

Under the tray, bolted to one of the cross-members, is a roller for the winch cable. I can't really see much point as it doesn't really do anything. It has a grease nipple in one end and the winch cable had slid off the end of the roller and gotten hung up above the grease nipple. This meant all the cable was piling up at one end of the spool. I guess they must have winched in the cable with very little load and it would have flapped around, getting hung up like this. The next time they winched they weren't paying attention and sucked the thimble into the rear rollers and when the load came on, the cable cut down through the layers and has been there ever since.
I tried using tyre levers to pop the cable over the grease nipple, but I couldn't move it at all. Soon fix that. I got my arm up under the back and managed to cut the cable right up near the thimble. There was a LOT of strain on it. It was just like in the movies where a rope twangs and untwists as it is cut, only this was steel and close to my hand. Luckily, it didn't get me and I have only lost about 8" of cable. I still couldn't lever the thimble out. I'll have to try undoing the bolts holding the plates and rollers together to get a bit of room. Nothing is ever simple.
I tried levering the cable out of the drum once the strain was off the rope, but there is just no room to manoeuvre until the tray is off or the winch is out. Thinking about it, I will try to get the cable free before dropping the winch. Once I get the thimble out of the rear rollers, I can refit it to the end of the cable, but right up close to the drum, then hook it to my hand winch and try pulling it out. If I can turn the winch drive and the drum doesn't turn, then there should only be a bit of friction holding the drum and it should be possible to pull the cable out. Hopefully.

Oh well, that's enough for tonight. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Greg.

[Lionelgee]

G'day Greg,

I know you have gone to a lot of trouble with the angle iron brackets for your fuel tanks with painting them all up. This suggestion is a bit like closing the gate after the horse has bolted.... If you are going to use the galvanised flat do you have any local galvanisers who could have galvanised the angle for you?

Next time you are cutting wire cable under tension - if you have room you might want to get some steel saddle clamps and position them either side of the area you are cutting. Or perhaps a series meaty cable ties side by side and clamping the diameter of the wire - or even a series of rounds of tie wire.  It might save some skin.

This is one of my must see threads as you do excellent work Greg.

Kind Regards
Lionel

[john.k]

Its virtually impossible for one operator to use an underbody winch without wrecking the cable.I have an Acco winch in the tray of my Leyland,hydraulically driven from one spool of the crane valve.I have only one layer of cable on the winch,about 40ft.Even so,it wants to overlay as it winds on,and I need a small sledgehammer to keep the rope coiling evenly .The Acco ignition cutout works at about 9ton linepull,and that is enough to seriously damage everything in contact with the winchcable.The Mk3 winch had a shearpin ,which was pathetic,and generally replaced with a HT bolt to get more pull.If you have a solid tree in the yard,you should be able to uncoil the wire,using the pull of the truck and unwinding the winch under power at the same time.The old Blitz winch was a lot trickier,if you released the clutch with load on the wire,it would spin the lining from the clutch.Regards John.

[Ravvin]

Hi all.
Got some more done this morning.

Lionel, I never even thought of getting them re-galvanised. I think there is a place in Launceston that could do them. I'll give them a call tomorrow and ask.
Great idea about the cable clamps. If I had of thought it out a bit more, I could even have put a couple of heavy hose clamps on it and cut through the gap between them. It never even occurred to me, and yet I was fully expecting bits to spring out. I was lucky this time.

John, I think the ignition cutout may be faulty or disconnected. If it had been working, I can't see how they could have managed to get enough strain on the rope to pull the thimble through the rear rollers like they have.
I sprayed some CRC on the bolts holding the roller plates together and will see if I can undo them later this afternoon when its a bit cooler. There are no trees in my yard and the line of old eucs along the neighbours fence are all dieing and are very likely to fall over if I pull on them. I'll get under it later and try turning the winch drive shaft again and see if the drum turns. If I can get the drum rotated 180°, the cable pinch point will point almost straight down. I can poke the free end up through the deck and hook it to my hand winch and setup a tripod on the deck to winch off. This should allow me to pull the cable out of the pinch without having to rotate the drum at the same time.

I decided today that I will concentrate of doing the jobs necessary to get the truck registrable. It's hard. I start doing something and find other jobs that need to be done. As an example, today I decided that I want to get the passenger's side rear wheels back on. Looking at that area, I saw that the spring pack looks pretty bad, with the paint all flaking and orange rust wash all over the place. It looks bad and might draw attention to that area in an inspection, so I needed to clean it and repaint.
I started cleaning the spring leaves and found old caked grease on the bolt heads on the cover cap for the cross-shaft bearing. I clean the grease off and find that the cap is pretty rusty. I can't get at it properly to clean it right back, so I take it off. This is what I found inside.



There's no sign of water or anything bad, but the grease is very old and has dried out. There is nowhere near enough in there.
I would really like to do this properly by dismantling the whole thing, cleaning it out, checking the bearing, repacking it all and repainting it. I just can't. If I start doing this, I will never get it ready for a roadworthy.
What I did was scrape off all the old dried grease, clean out the cap with turps and repack it with new grease. I refitted the cap and primed it.
Once it is registered and I have access to a shed that I can work in, I will go back and do the job properly. I will pull out the spring packs, dismantle them, clean each leaf and repaint them. Same with all the rest of the suspension bits. And the truck in general.

I cleaned up the spring pack, top, front and bottom, and primed everything I could get at.



In the first pic, I had already started cleaning it up. It looks pretty good once primed. The back of the spring pack is still rough and rusty. I just can't get at it. Once the tray comes off I will be able to do it properly.
I figure if it looks clean and has fresh paint, it may not catch the inspector's eye.
The power dividers and drive shafts are going to be a real pain. They are rusty, greasy and have lots of flaking paint. A big part of the problem is that the seals on the power dividers and the winch chain box are the old leather type and don't seal well when left to dry out due to long periods of inactivity. For now, I will pull each driveshaft out and clean them up, repaint them and replace any worn uni joints. The power dividers will get a good degrease, a rough wire brushing and be primed/painted. I'll replace the seals with the units still in the truck, but one day I want to pull them apart and do it properly.

My new tubes arrived during the week and I can now mount one of my "new" secondhand tires. Then I have to put a new tube in the first tire that I did. I'll start this later today. I'll paint the spring, suspension and chassis rail later today with Protec OD and that will be that area finished for now.
Its good to actually see bits going back on.

Greg.

Edit -



And painted.

[Philthy]

Looking good Greg!

Cant speak from experience but would a good soak with oil on that winch cable help?

Good luck with it all.

Phil

[Ravvin]

Hi Phil.
It won't make any difference to getting the cable free from the winch drum as it is actually pinched under other layers of cable. From what I can see, the cable got hooked around the end of a roller under the tray that was supposed to help it lay out flat on the drum on winching.



This caused all the cable to build up in a heap at one end. When someone stuffed up and winched the thimble into the fairlead rollers, spreading the plates and jamming the cable thimble between the pulleys, it caused the wire rope to cut into the mounded up layers. These layers have slid over the top and pulled up really tight as the winch kept turning.
In the pic you can see a rusty section of cable. No idea what caused that, but it looks like it is the only rusted section on the whole winch rope. The rusty section is only about a foot long.

Once it is freed up and I get the winch operational, I will run the whole length out, coat it in cable lube, wipe off the excess and winch it back in properly. The cable has a hemp core that should soak it up and keep it lubed for ages.



Ok, cancel that.
I just went out and took the pics in this reply, and I found that my cable is different. It looks like the hemp cored cables were on the earlier trucks.
The newer F1 RPS that I have says it is actually "Rope, wire, steel, galvanised, 6x25 IWRC type, 16mm, 16.4tonne breaking strain".
Looking at it closely, it has 5 bundles of wires, with 25 strands in each wire. When I zoom right in, I can see that there are 19 large strands and 6 smaller ones making up each bundle. These spiral one direction, while the bundle in the centre, where the hemp normally goes, spirals the opposite direction. Searched the net and found this is Right Hand, Ordinary Lay, with Wire Core.



There is no sign of it ever having been lubed.

Greg.

[Lionelgee]

G'day Greg,

With the cable biting into layers underneath it is there enough room to get a length of heavy gauge fencing wire on one turn of the cable either that is clamping the loose end of the cable down? If so you might be able to hook up the fencing wire and use a set of chain style fencing wire strainers with one end anchored off the chassis rail. The strain on the fencing wire could break the tension that is holding the part of the cable you are trying to clear. Any lateral movement of the bound up cable should eventually make things a little looser.  Or you could attach the wire one side of a bight of obstructed cable and use the stain to pull the cut end of the cable through the restricted area. Once you get one obstruction cleared each binding should get just a little bit more loose.

Those chain style fencing wire strainers are pretty handy items and have got me out of trouble a couple of times. Not just while I have been using them for the job they were designed for - strain fencing wire either.

Kind Regards
Lionel