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New project - Mk 1 Knocker 6x6


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If you can just pop it round the back that will be fine thanks Rob. If you see Stuart the farmer who owns the site let him know its there, he likes to keep in touch with what's going on! :-)

 

Haven't had a chance to try the valve yet - next thing on the to-do list after making sure the silencer works. :)

After that its a case of some interior cab work including letting a bug bomb go for a couple of hours as I am sick of having to clear a forest of webs before I can get in and work every week :)

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If you can just pop it round the back that will be fine thanks Rob. If you see Stuart the farmer who owns the site let him know its there, he likes to keep in touch with what's going on! :-)

 

Haven't had a chance to try the valve yet - next thing on the to-do list after making sure the silencer works. :)

After that its a case of some interior cab work including letting a bug bomb go for a couple of hours as I am sick of having to clear a forest of webs before I can get in and work every week :)

 

Spiders are not keen on citrus, leave some lemons in there!

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If you can just pop it round the back that will be fine thanks Rob. If you see Stuart the farmer who owns the site let him know its there, he likes to keep in touch with what's going on! :-)

 

Haven't had a chance to try the valve yet - next thing on the to-do list after making sure the silencer works. :)

After that its a case of some interior cab work including letting a bug bomb go for a couple of hours as I am sick of having to clear a forest of webs before I can get in and work every week :)

if i were you neil i'd make sure its ok to leave it there first as he dosen't like suprises or bits just appearing ask dave!

or see if fred will put it in his container otherwise it may get binned.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Spiders are not keen on citrus, leave some lemons in there!

 

Cheers mate - I will try that and see how it goes. :)

 

if i were you neil i'd make sure its ok to leave it there first as he dosen't like suprises or bits just appearing ask dave!

or see if fred will put it in his container otherwise it may get binned.

 

Bit hard to do that Stu - I was away in Belgium all week with almost zero phone signal, let alone data. Only got home in the early hours of this morning.

 

Tyre delivered, as promised.

 

Thanks Rob - much obliged.

 

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Tucked it in on the near side behind the cab. Didn't see Stuart, he's away in Turkey this week, but did see a crowd of guys working on cars in the shed opposite.

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Back over to the Militant today - and this time I remembered to take the keys with me!! So fired her up to see how the new silencer worked. All seems good on that score now so another box ticked off.

 

 

 

However you will not in the video the temp gauge is still dancing all over the place and the fuel gauge is not working at all. Still need to investigate these two problems.

And I have another, new, issue now - the air is not building enough to stop the warning buzzer going off. It was prior to the remains of the silencer being removed and the hunt for a replacement. And just to add to the fun now when the revs drop down to idle (about 400 - 450 rpm) the air pressure rapidly drops to 35 psi. This was not happening before. I am hoping - perhaps optimistically - that it is linked to the prior problem of air leaking from a fault valve in the foot brake valve. I got hold of a replacement at Newark but looking at it today compared to the existing one it seems fundamentally different. The existing one only appears to have two ports on the sides and one on the base whereas the replacement has 4 ports at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock with a smaller port between 2 of these.

Existing valve

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Replacment valve

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Next time up the old valve will have to come out and be compared physically to the new one - but I am not optimistic that they will match.

 

Next job was the horn. The old carrier was re-drilled to take the new horn and lucars connected to the ends of the horn loom, the power feed and the earth feed. Once all connected up it was tested and worked OK so another box ticked off.

 

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Then I turned attention to the drivers door. Getting the winder mechanism in this one was a LOT harder than getting it in the passenger one. I think the holes for the 4 mounting bolts are smaller this side so will deed drilling out but more critically the kinked over end of the lifting arm seems to have more of a problem this side. The original arms in addition to be longer were dead straight. So I am wondering whether to remove the mechanisms and either get the arms straightened or remove the short arms and fit the old, longer, straight ones. I was tempted to just refit the old ones - but the drivers side has a problem - a broken tooth I think. Anyways - for today I opted to leave it and think on it.

 

So - got on with rubbing down the radiator surround then fibre-glassed the inside of the drivers wing and started filling it back into shape.

 

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Rubbing down just removed all the lose paint this time. Next time I'll take an orbital sander with me to fully clean it up ready for painting.

That all took me up to 19:00 at which point I was getting tired and hungry so I headed home. :)

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Can't really help you with the forgetting the keys issue, 'cept perhaps secreting a spare set on the truck somewhere. But I do know the feeling, my tanker is stored 40 miles away from home and I quite often get there to find I have left something important behind, and have to change to plan B.

 

As for the rest, try this.

 

Leaking foot brake valve.

 

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This pipe is the main air feed in. If it is constantly leaking the problem has to be at the bottom here. Remove the pipe, then undo the triangular shaped plate above.

 

Behind this is a plastic disc is a little metal frame

 

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Should be nice and clean in here with a rubber 'O' ring providing the seal. When the pedal is at rest this should move right in, and with air pressure behind it, it seals tight. If it's bad, you can "carefully" ease this bit out to clean and polish the seat and replace the 'O' ring.

 

Alternatively, it may be that the pedal is stuck, partly open. Not enough to apply the brakes, but enough to hold valve open. Best way to attack this is to remove the whole assembly, separate the pedal from the main body and free off the top valve. There's a good chance it's all just covered in 60 years of dirt grease and old paint, and wants cleaning off and working up and down.

 

 

Temperature Gauge.

 

This is almost a stand alone unit, when compared to the rest of the dashboard. It's wayward performance would suggest this is a bad connection, more than anything serious. Under the dash you should find 2 cables that run the gauge. Power comes from inside the gauge pod, through the gauge itself and out through a cable marked "R2 TEMP" This runs directly to the sender unit at the radiator top hose. A second cable returns from the sender to earth under the dash and this is marked "R1 NEG" Nothing else gets involved. Check these for continuity or short circuit.

 

Generally speaking, the sender units are pretty sound, they either work properly or not at all. Which would then point to the gauge misbehaving. To test the gauge, unplug the R2 cable. gauge should stay at zero. Run R2 directly to a good earth and gauge should jump to max.

 

Fuel Gauge

 

Militant fuel gauges are famous for working when they feel like it. I wouldn't panic about it. Wait till you have had a run up the road with her, and the diesel has sloshed about a bit, it may well start showing a reading.

 

Hope all this helps

neils foot brake.jpg

423 Foot Brake Valve Overhaul.jpg

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Many thanks Rob. That valve is coming out next weekend no matter what - this air issue is all that really stops me using the old girl right now. We have (had?) fully working lights, indicators, horn - just the wipers needing attention as they are hit and miss - more miss than hit currently :)

 

Not so worried about the cab gauge at the moment - but the one on the side of the tank should work and doesn't. Martyn from the AEC Society says he has some parts for those - but I need to get the fuel down below half a tank to be able to get the gauge out.

 

The real bugbear at the moment - apart from the air issue - are this window winders. They should fit and work OK but...... The passenger side went in OK but the arm hits the crossbar on the inner door that carries the mechanism. The drivers side didn't want to go in at all and took a LOT of persuasion to fit and if anything the situation with the arm looks even worse.

I've been thinking about this on and off all day and and coming to the conclusion that what I am going to have to do is refit the old ones so that the doors can go back together freeing up the inside of the cab to get to work on the other issues freely. Then once all the interior stuff is sorted take them off one at a time and look at either straightening the arms or - perhaps better - swapping the raise/lower arms for the old ones.

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Right - foot brake air valve is out - and what a GODAWFUL job it was :(

I was working completely on my own and discovered to my horror that AEC had not heard of/embraced the concept of captive nuts in the floor pan - So I had to work out how to hold the bolt head still whilst I crawled underneath to undo the nuts. Got two of them off - the third I wound up grinding the head of the bolt off because no matter what I did I could not secure the bolt head adequately. Six hours of solid, back breaking work. Lessons learnt - life would be a lot easier if the front wheel was off!!

By the time it came off it was 19:00 hrs and time to head home so dismantling will have to wait another till tomorrow. The union looked pretty gungy though

 

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Looking at the replacement unit I have on approval I think its obvious that they are not alike so if this one cannot be fixed quickly I will have to look for another.

 

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Quick question - in the photos below the hole indicated by the yellow arrow is threaded but has nothing in it. Is there a reason for this ? Exhaust valve or ???

 

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Tonight I started to strip the air inlet side down as per Robs suggestion. However - nothing is EVER that simple. The pedal assembly came off OK as did the three nuts holding the top of the valve body on.

 

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That's where easy ended. Two of the three studs were free and easy to move but number 3 looks to be rusted solid. So right now its soaking in WD40 over night to see if it will free off. If not then I am going to have to try and find a way of applying heat to the valve top around that stud. Not sure a hot air paint gun will be enough :-)

 

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Other point of concern is the top of the valve where the pedal actually operates. The large dia piston (?) has a polished surface for about half of its circumference - the remaining half is a very different story and has a chewed up look to it as though its gone through extreme wear.

 

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So right now I am unsure if this one is actually repairable with long term prospects - or whether seeking a replacement might be the wiser course??

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Yes, that threaded outlet is the exhaust port. Presume the thread is for a different application other than the Militant. The top plunger bit on my tanker was well scored like yours, I polished out the worst of it with some fine emery and a good dollop of oil. Took a bit of working up and down to free it right off.Might be better to drill that seized nut and split it rather than introduce heat which may cook the delicate innards

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Yes, that threaded outlet is the exhaust port. Presume the thread is for a different application other than the Militant. The top plunger bit on my tanker was well scored like yours, I polished out the worst of it with some fine emery and a good dollop of oil. Took a bit of working up and down to free it right off.Might be better to drill that seized nut and split it rather than introduce heat which may cook the delicate innards

 

Cheers Rob - nice to have a suspicion confirmed re. the exhaust port. Might be mice to see if I can get a filter to fit over the open hole.:)

 

Its not the nut that's seized on - its the cap to the stud. All 3 nuts and washers came off quite easily to my surprise. Right now I am trying leaving it to soak in the WD 40 then alternating between sharp taps with a shot weighted mallet and tying to pry the cap up with a heavy duty screwdriver. Then re-soaking. I can feel an teeny bit of movement - and I do mean teeny - so maybe it will free off tomorrow.

 

Top plunger is moving OK - just that the forwards facing section is, as you say, well scored. Running a thumb nail over it feels shockingly bad compared to the polished section. But I'll try fine emery and oil and see if I can polish it out without going too far out of round.

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When looking for a decent freeze spray I found that Maplin sold one for testing PCB's works well.

Have used it on stuck fasteners and to shrink outer bearing races for fitting.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Nothing I tried would free off that stuck cap - 2 weeks soaked in coke, freezing it or applying what limited heat I could. So I part exchanged it for a replacement unit from Erenetek. Brakes are not an area I want to take any sort of risk on.

 

New unit arrived just as I was leaving for W&P so it is still here. I am hoping to get over on Saturday and fit it. First though I have to get the blanking cap for the rear port back from the suppliers - I posted off the old one and then remembered I had not removed the blanking cap from it! Doh... Talk about a brain fade moment. My excuse is the UAZ was acting up again and I was focussed on that at the time! :)

 

One new D1 valve

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One other thing I need to do is swap the long bolts around that go through the floor pan and secure the pedal in place as in its current layout the pedal is 180 deg out. :)

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The best laid plans of mice and men...... Getting over this weekend to refit the brake valves went out the window. - my own fault though, Sitting indoors of an evening staring at the brake pedal assembly it struck me how crappy it looked and how much easier it would be to strip and paint it here......

 

Started off by swapping the bolts around that join the body of the valve together so the three long ones are in the right place for the pedal to go back on in the right orientation. And refitting the blanking plug the supplier kindly returned to me.

 

First problem was getting the split pin out of the end of the cross-shaft. Suffice it to say I now need to replace the pin as the old one is in about 4 pieces

Once it was out and the crosspin driven out I started - three days worth of Nitromors treatments removed the thick layer of IRR green and the OE layer of Deep Bronze green leaving me with a nice clean pedal and base. These were then rubbed down by hand and coated with Bonda Primer. The new foot brake valve was also wiped over with thinners to get any residual grease etc off and given the same treatment:

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Once that had dried for the time stipulated on the tin - 7 days IIRC - the first coat of Deep Bronze Green went on:

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This was allowed to dry for the time stipulated - 16 hours then it was lightly rubbed down and the second coat applied:

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The crosspin is back in place for now - but I think it might need to come out - it goes so far then stops dead so I am wondering if it is a tapered pin. Tomorrow I'll pop it out and try it the other way around.

 

Next weekend is Laycock at War so no work will be done then.

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Finally some good news to report!!

 

The braking system is now working 100%. Spent all Saturday fitting the new valve first making the classic mistake of bolting the thing onto the floor plates before connecting the unions. Stu's brother Neil was down for the day so got pressed into helping me with this. An hour later it was unbolted again and then rotated to get the Outlet adapters to be fitted and be tightened before being "wiggled" to allow their pipe unions to do up. With that done the Inlet did not line up but looking up I could see the holes in the floor and the bracket did not line up.

So - back up in the cab and a little leverage got all 3 bolts in. This more or less lined up the Inlet side of things - Neil got press-ganged again to help re-bolt the pedal back into place again and now the inlet lined up perfectly.. 5 or so hours work and another badly bruised left shoulder had the whole system re-assembled.

Started her up - and whilst the first leak source was sorted we had another. Pressure would rise to just over 60 psi then drop fast as soon as the engine revs dropped to idle. Wound up with all three of us tracing air lines trying to find the leak without luck.... Then Stu had a look up inside the chassis rails about halfway towards the back and found a little valve with an arrow on it - and in the best traditions of Army Engineering hit it with a hammer. Bingo!! No more leaks. Air pressure now builds to 120 psi as it should, holds there when the engine drops to idle and holds when switched off - took about 30 minutes to drop from 120 to 110 psi. We assume this is some sort of shuttle valve for the trailer brakes??

 

So that is one more job crossed off the list. Next one is the engine cut-off adjustment. Lift the pedal and it tries to kill the engine but doesn't quite meaning I have to resort to stalling her out. Not a good solution so next time I am over there its on the "To Do" list.

Next item on the shopping list is a socket to fit the wheel nuts and a 1m breaker bar. If I have to get under the front again I will have the road wheel off to save my back and shoulders :)

 

One thing I did notice when uncovering the cab to do the work was those taped seams on the roof. Even though the cab is covered with a 9x9 canvas the keep it dry they are bulging up and pressing on the bulges produces an horrible crunching noise. I am more than a bit worried about those now with winter coming on.

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Nearly ready for a road test, then?

 

Very much so :)

All the lights now work.

Horn works

Brakes work

Handbrake works.

 

Only things that don't are the wipers- and I haven't tested them since the air pressure came up to full strength is the wipers.

Ideally I want these and the engine cut-off working before road testing. Oh - and I need to drop the spare and see what condition it's in - almost forgot that!!

Other than this - the doors just need to be re-assembled. Those new winders are causing me severe grief where they are cranked at the end as its hitting the cross bar on the door that carries the wiper mechanism. Need to either get them straightened or else get the arms switched over.

 

Everything else is cosmetic

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another half a days work - had to wait in because the daughter Mk 1 had her driving test at 09:00 - she passed!

But still progress. I was bugged by those winders not working so took them out again. The cranked arms were definitely catching so with the help of a chap from the racing shed opposite we got the arms straightened out. I think if I were using the long arms of the originals it would not be a problem however changing the arms over would be a nightmare and a cut and shut welding job was out due to a lock of a welder. So any way - I refitted the winder with the straightened arms and they work a lot better. Going down is no longer a problem. Coming up one has to thump the glass with a fist to get over the "hump" as it were.

Basically the bottom channels for the windows have "blown" due to corrosion and need total replacing - which was out of my ability at the moment.

Inner door skins are now on - I got some stainless steel screws same size as the originals but they are VERY loose in the holes so I am thinking I will replace them with pop rivets - or the next size up screw.

 

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Don't look too bad though.... I had to give the insides of the doors a touch up of DBG from where the winders were fitted so I used the remains to do the front vice to get a feel for the colour externally fitted.

 

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So what's the group thought - to light or is it right???

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