Swill1952xs

As most of you know; My Albion is the only one of its kind and will have a lighting upgrade in the name of safety when restored. Regardless of its rarity; no doubt I will come across someone who knows where there are hundreds of them, wil point out the numerous flaws with parts used for the restoration, the incorrect lighting etc, but as Rambo says, military vehicles were subject to being upgraded during service, so there will always be items that weren't as they left the factory. Spose we'll have the last laugh though..............sad bu**ers. :-D

You are probably right..........thanks for the encouragement. Rumour has it that there are a lot of parts stashed away in Oz. I haven't started searching yet, and I don't give up that easily.

Fantastic work.........something to really be proud of. Nice workshop too..... ............the grass needs cutting in mine........dooh :-(

Cheers for the phone numbers. I was going to try Bob McCulloch first as he was the one who sold me some head gaskets for this engine. :thumbsup:

No doubt many of you are familiar with these vehicles, but as I've never seen one before; I thought I'd post up the pictures anyway. Neat little fing innit......... This picture was taken at The Cuckoo Fair at Laughton. Oh an' P.S. in case you haven't seen one before........ It's a Ford GPA, based on a Jeep. I presume the initials mean "General Purpose Amphibian" This one's a swimmer too.

I was wondering if it was possible to get the bearings re-tinned and line bored while clamped in the con rods. In theory, it should be easier than re metalling a con rod as there is a smaller amount of metal to deal with. I have been told that bearings aren't available, but I will try every source before I give up and resign myself to this shameful bit of bodgery I had in mind. Mrs Will keeps telling me she's going to win the lottery, but she's not sure when. Hope it's soon so I can decide how far I go restoring this engine.

Pistons again.................. Got the barstewards out this afternoon........... it'll take more than a lump of rusty metal to beat me. :-D I got them out by disconnecting one of the stuck ones, as there were two travelling in opposing directions. Loaded up the flywheel with me big springy bar, and put a bottle jack beteeen the front axle and the big end cap. That did the trick. :-D Here are some pictures of the pistons as they were removed......... Number two........... Number three........... Rusty enough for you.........they cleaned up very well, but one had a broken bottom oil control ring......... no, it wasn't me that broke it. The break was well rusted. The top rings have a spacer above the them, and one of these was broken too. They were probably fitted to allow the top ring to clear the wear ridge if they had been replaced after the bores had been used. What we used to call "Ridge dodgers". They cleaned up well, but I need to take the gudgeon pins out to check they are free. I have some pictures of the cylinder bores, but they don't show the extent of the corrosion that well. I think it actually looks worse than it is. The worst of the corrosion is right at the bottom of the cylinder bore. If you look closely, you can see what appears to be a step on the outer ring of the liner. If this turns out to be an eroded edge, then this one will have to be replaced too. This one is number two. Apparently new big end shells aren't available, and the top shells are just going through the tinned surface. The top shell is different from the bottom in as much that the shells are located by a peg in the big end cap. As new shells aren't available; I had thought of drilling a new hole in the top bearing shell and inverting them, as the top shell always wears out first. I know it's a bit of a bodge, but it wont be doing millions of miles and should last ok. I doubt whether I could afford to have the shells reconditioned, so this may be the only option. Hopefully I wont find any more horrors when I remove the remaining pistons. I will also need to remove the liners to reset the protrusion above the block. Number six has some nasty marks on the top face of the liner that will mean it will probably need to be replaced. The tops of the remaining liners will need cleaning and inspecting for wear or damage. At least now the engine turns, so that should make things a little easier and quicker. Still a lot of work though and it's distracting me from what I should really be doing............ getting on with the restoration of the complete truck, but I can't do both at the same time. Wanna see some sludge........the bottom of the sump :-D

Do I dare e mail him and ask how much the postage would be to East Sussex. :-D:rofl:

If it's a mechanical fuel pump; it can leak petrol into the sump, but still pump fuel ok. They usually leak only one way. Is the fuel tank Higher than the pump itself. If so it could be leaking all the time into the sump. Carburettor flooding could cause oil to get into the crankcase when the engine is turned off as it can drip into the manifold, leaking past valves and pistons. A leaking or poorly seated float valve could be the cause of the running rich problem. The amount coming from the carburettor wouldn't be enough to increase the oil level substantially though.

I dunno what Varsol is either........do you put it on your hair?............er..... is it for treating hemmae.........hemer........ oh bu**er I can't spell it....you know ........piles or sumfink. Nuff of the stupidity, and just another idea......... are the brakes vacuum assisted, and if so does it draw its vacuum from the manifold, assuming it's a petrol engine; or does it have a vacuum pump? The reason I ask is because I had an Iveco van that blew oil out of the breather really badly, and that turned out to be a split in the vacuum pipe allowing an excessive amount of air to be discharged into the crankcase from the pump. Another idea if it has a vacuum pump............ could the brake servo be leaking brake fluid into the vacuum line and depositing it in the engine oil. You could easily tell if the brake fluid regularly needs topping up. That could also make yer oil smell wierd. Like Varsol????????? praps. :-D Jus tryin ta be helpful.

It's Very annoying when a rare vehicle is sold for scrap. Sadly we can understand why someone in business would do it. Do you keep it for ever more waiting for someone to buy it for five hundred pounds, or scrap it for two hundred pounds a ton and get something nearer two thousand pounds for it. I recently contacted a dealer who had four Albions of a similar model to mine for spares. He scrapped all of them, even though they are extremely rare. Very annoying and very sad, but as you French say "Cest la vie" :-(

Now that's a real toy. I like the earthmover tyres. That sort of gives the game away about its weight before you start looking at anything else. Could you imagine doing foam parties with that? One quick blast and it would be a week next Wednesday before you'd see the revellers again. :-D I presume the top end weight would be due to the amount of water it carries............. probably about 50,000 liters :shocked:

The one in the picture is fitted with the C.A.P.P.B cannon. For those of you not familiar with this type of weaponry.........its a compressed air ping pong ball model. Uses standard ammunition and has a range of about five metres. :-D

I think the thing that made them special was the running gear. The downside was the lack of four wheel drive. Most of the running gear was either Westwood or Bolens. They were actually designed for mine clearance but never actually saw service. The early ones had a three rotor mowing deck fitted. :-D

Never seen or heard of one of those before. Nice looking truck. Is that a crane cabbed Militant on the left of the picture. Be nice to have one with the crane still fitted. Could be very useful.

Haynes manuals used to be brilliant years ago.......... now they have detailed explanations of how to change headlight bulbs, and the things you really want to know about, you can never find. :-|

As regards the oil filtration setup; or lack of it in this case; my visitors told me that they are in the process of fitting a full flow oil filter to an Albion engine. I discussed with them my thoughts on how it could be done, and I was told that there is a blanking plate on the side of the engine which covers two oil galleries. They are having a plate made up to replace this and fitting a remote oil filter, connected by hydraulic hoses. They desperately want totally clean engine oil circulating around their expensive restoration and will let me know if it is successful. They are also keen to use modern high quality detergent engine oils to eradicate the sludging problem. On the subject of filtration......... they also told me that it is possible to get a modern fuel filter element to fit my filter housing, replacing the gauze and cloth one currently fitted......... better still... clean fuel too.

Yesterday a group of people came from The Albion Club to photograph my complete Albion. They seemed very impressed with the engine, which as usual, fired up straight away. That truck wants to be on the road. You just start it up, wait for the air pressure to build up to 100 psi, let the handbrake off and drive off with it. It's saying to me.... never mind the rust, lets go for a run up the road. While they were visiting I took them to see the donor truck. One of them is going to copy a manual for the engine. Another of the visitors was a walking workshop manual in his own right. He took one look at the engine with the heads off and immediately said; the reason why the head gasket went is because the liner heights are wrong. Most of them are much too high, so they all need to come out. The height of the liners would weaken the gasket substantially as the fire ring would be well trapped, but weakened by the lack of support from the rest of the gasket behind it. One of the liners has a sloping edge where the gasket has created a step. It may also be that as it was one of the lowest liners, it could have been moving about, helping the edge to wear. Compression would easily allow the slim fire ring to be pushed off the edge of the liner, causing it to fail very quickly. The liners are push fit dry liners, which should be fairly easy to remove according to them. Apparently they often are loose enough to come up with the pistons, and normally have to be clamped down. I was rather stunned that they presented me with a cardboard box, containing three cylinder liners for my engine. One had a little wear, and the other two had been honed out and looked like new. I assured them that I would only use them if absolutely necessary. Hopefully then; if someone else needs some desperately, there will still be some available. Apparently crankshaft bearings are not available, and to overcome this problem they are looking at having some of the con rods white metalled to help restore an engine they are working on. I now have the sheet steel for the front, back and one side of the cab, so I now need to get the steelwork for it sand blasted so the rebuilding of the cab shell can go ahead. Sadly yesterday was about the only day when it peed down with rain. My nice new shiny steel sheets turned up on a dropside truck......... dripping with water. I commented to the driver about it, and he said if you had told them they would have wrapped it for you. I would have thought anyone with an ounce of common sense would have realised that sheet steel is crap once it has got wet. Start of the rust problem. :-( I don't seem to be getting on very fast with the truck as spare time is very limited, but I have three more weeks holiday to come, so hopefully things will get done. Just wish my wife would win the lottery

Firstly welcome to the forum, (From a humble member), At the risk of sounding like a smarty pants, what thread are you looking for. There are a few suppliers on E bay who specialise in imperial bolts. Failing that; just put a search on imperial bolts and sift through the results. You will find quite a variation in prices. http://stores.ebay.com.hk/GREAT-BRITISH-BOLTS http://www.fastfixdirect.co.uk/

What colour is the smoke.......... blue, grey, black or white? Not taking the Mickey, but the colour of the smoke often tells you where the problem is. Does the smoke reduce when the engine is warm? Is the smoke only there when the engine is pulling? Has the engine spent a long time running while the truck is stationary? Does it smoke and / or misfire when it starts up? Have you changed the air filter since you had it? Has it had any work done on the engine before you bought it? Does the fuel in the tank look and smell ok? Contamination? Does the exhaust sound ok? (Silencers have been known to collapse internally and block the gas flow) If you can answer these questions, it could help diagnose the fault. I wouldn't have thought the oil leak would have much to do with the smoke problem. Head gaskets can leak oil without affecting the cylinders and compression in any way. It could also be that a good "Thrash" down the motorway could do it the world of good. Er..................jus' tryin' ta be helpful. :-D P.S. answer all the questions and you win a night out with the forum cheerleaders........... and here they are... :yay::yay::yay::yay::yay: :noyay:Sorry.......theres always one..........wassup Cynthia? In the wrong place again..........Doooh Oh......... an' welcome to the forum.

Must have forgotten to put a parachute on that one then.......... oh fuuu :-D

Pretty little thing innit? Probably quite cheap to run too. I shall look forward to seeing it with its clothes on. Nice to see a restoration like yours.

Yet another masterpiece..........:thumbsup:

A true sphincter puckering moment............ it's not as if you can sit in there with her and grab the handbrake if it all goes pear shaped. Did you have a plan as to where you would live if it all went horribly wrong .........you know........ like she decided to take a short cut :-D

What a brilliant piece of work. I envy model makers ability to do such intricate work with so much detail and precision. Making small parts that look right is very difficult. I will look forward to seeing it painted.