Just a minor update, as I seem to have been doing everything BUT work on the truck lately.
A while back, after I sandblasted, primed and repainted those air fittings, I noticed that I was getting a lot of hydraulic oil dripping from somewhere on the second ram of the Abbey crane. After spraying everything with degreaser and wiping it down I found that it seemed to be weeping through cracks in the hoses. As you can see in the pic I posted below, from the last drama I had with the extending jib hoses, there are 2 that go in through the hole in the boom, to the second ram. I think that's the boom. Not too sure on the correct terminology on cranes.
The 2 hoses are the same length. One goes down to the far end of the ram and the other curls around in a tight loop and goes to the pivot end of the ram body. I wanted to take one hose off so could take it in to get a pair of new ones made up, so I fired up the truck and wiggled the crane around, inside the shed, to where it was positioned as you can see in the pic below. The end of the jib is resting firmly on the ground.
I followed the hose from the bottom of the ram back to the valve box and carefully cracked the line, to release any pressure and caught the oil in my drain pan. I undid the hose and drained it out as well as I could. I couldn't get it back through the hole in the boom as the hoses were cable tied together, so I figured I would undo the far end and then reach up and cut the ties. Standing on the chassis rails in shorts and thongs, I realised I had undone the wrong hose at the valve box when a big fan of hydraulic oil sprayed out all over me, the chassis rails and the wall of the tent. Seems the 2 hoses had crossed over somewhere up in the box body of the boom, before coming out the hole.
Once I re tightened the hose, I went back and undid it from the valve box and finally got it out. In doing so, I dropped one end, which of course fell down and hit the oil drain pan that was sitting on the chassis rail, catching the dripping oil from the ram. This fell down and emptied itself onto the nice clean black plastic sheet I have under the truck, to catch dropped tools and small truck bits. After I got the worst of it soaked up, I cleaned myself up and dropped the hose in to get new ones made. It was only when I got back and walked into the tent that I realised that running the truck in the shed was not a good idea. It reeked from the exhaust. I'd never noticed it earlier. The truck only ran for a few minutes, but it runs rich, needs the tappets adjusted, the timing set and all fluids changed. Working on oily chassis rails in thongs probably wasn't a good idea also.
So, after all that, I decided I needed a way to pipe the exhaust outside. Bunnings sells a 4" aluminium ducting, like a vacuum cleaner hose that stretches out to 6m. It can handle temps up to 150°C, so should be fine. I planned to tape it to the muffler outlet with the aluminium tape that the HVAC guys use and run the ducting out under the side of the tent. When I got down there to tape it on, I realised that the old muffler was stuffed.
It's home made. Just a tube with the old ends from a proper muffler welded on. The outlet pipe extends back inside to about midway, but the 2 inlets just open directly into the muffler tube. You can see the patches over the large hole and ding where they hit something. There is another hole eaten through on the back. When it was running, I used to think it was a lot louder than the MK3, but put that down to running the dual carbs and being way out of tune. Guess not.
Previously I had painted up one of my new NOS mufflers that I got from Bushman, using a full can of high temp engine paint. I pulled the muffler off the old MK3 and noticed that the paint had oxidised a bit, so thought I would give it a respray. I scuffed it down with a green scratchy pad and went to wipe it down with wax & grease remover. The old paint just wiped off! Right back to bare shiny metal. I think these mufflers may be tinned on the outside. Its not zinc and there's no sign of rust on this one or the other one stashed away until I need it. The texture on it looks very similar to what I found when I cleaned the paint off the fuel tanks, which are definitely tinned. Anyway, I cleaned the whole thing back to bare metal and gave it a few coats of Rustoleum High temp BBQ paint. Says it will handle up to 1200°F, or 93°C. Americans.
Looks pretty good. It's going to stink when I run it next, so I'll wait for a northerly and open the front of the tent. The bracket that supports the end of the muffler was bent way back, probably from when it got the big ding in the front. I had previously made a new hanger for the MK3 as the old one was almost rusted through. Mine is a lot more sturdy, so I will use it. The tubular bash guard that protects the muffler doesn't seem bent, so I'm not sure how the muffler got hit. When I removed it to get to the muffler, only one of the bolts sheared off. There may be just enough to weld a nut onto the end, but if not, I'll heat it up with the oxy and try to drill it and use an easy-out. Not too bad, really, as on the MK3, every single bolt sheared off.
The twin down-pipes are pretty rusty, but they can wait for now. When I was working on the MK3, I found that it's pipes had been replaced recently as they had no rust at all. I cleaned them up and painted them with high-temp paint, and they are still rust free, so I'll use them later when I work on the engine. They need to come off as I have to remove the exhaust manifold to put a new gasket in. I noticed when I first ran it that it leaked from there and found that some of the studs had been screwed half out and left. I tightened them up, which seems to have worked, but the gasket is probably stuffed and I want to replace it.
Plenty to do, just need to find the time, money and willpower to get started.
Thanks for following along on this stumbling trip from problem to problem.
I'll post up more when I get something achieved.
Greg.
