paulob1

there are b80 CYLINDER HEADS ABOUT. You just have to keep asking...one will appear...

yes i think thats more the truth, no tax or MOT...its a system that is easily abused and the rules put in place to catch them actually annoy honest decent drivers more than the criminals.

My personal examples

80 pounds for not SORNING my tax free M62

80 pounds for not SORNING my tax free stalwart

80 Pounds for not having a tax disc 11 days after the old one had expired. Even though the new one covered the whole of the month once it was taxed...and I was in the car park of the post office going to get my tax disc. the reason for the delay, tax and MOT run out end of december, you try to get an MOT before the end of the year, so its wait until the New year, and then one day leads to another and you are at the 11th big deal. I had a very very nice foreign speaking man from the DVLA who could not speak english properly trying to tell me I had to pay up, and I should have walked to the post office to collect my tax disc.

I refused to pay every single one of the fines. Choosing to let the courts decide what is right. i never paid a penny. I dont mean to be a rebel but this is madness gone beyond.

I have over 40 vehicles all with various tax discs, some free some not, all are a pain in the administration butt...and sometimes I forget that the bike that has stood in my garage for the past 5 years needs yet another form to be filled in to tell them it is still there...how stupid is that.

THE DVLA make up rules and statistics to help them justify more fines to keep themselves employed. (simplistic I know but not overly so) They will use these stats and manipulate them to say just what they want...REMEMBER THE BIKE FIASCO A FEW YEARS AGO...45% of all bikes are untaxed. They forget to add that of those 45% SOME 90% ARE ACTUALLY OFF THE ROAD..this was their attempt to have chips fitted to the number plates of cars...that one nearly got through, luckily they were found out to be not telling the whole truth.

It is only partially about road safety, road sensibility and road responsibility...and in my personal opinion, only very very very partially to do with the latter issues. it is more primarily another tax department. ANYONE THAT THINKS DIFFERENTLY HAS HIS EYES SHUT OR WORKS IN GOVERNMENT FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE OR EVEN WORSE THE DVLA.

The MOT is just another part of the process of control, money extraction and job creation. The latter commendable but not at our expense...

I didnt say the current MOT system does not work but I felt it was a waste of time effort and not really doing what it is meant to do, it is better than nothing and any change would be a fundamental process.

Those who are anti change I can understand...however I do believe in our over regulated world we have come to the point where more regulation is just antagonistic rather than helpful.

There was a clamp down done recently by one of the police forces on dangerous vehicles...I think they found 2 out of hundreds stopped. They had bald tyres with the bare threads showing on one....amazingly dangerous...NOT. I think it was a waste of police effort and proof positive that cars today are not generally dangerous, the owners on the other hand may well be......

The current system for sure works..to a degree. One can go over it again and again, there isn't much point.

However If we had an a mileage based service check, which covered all important items then this would suffice and likely be a better solution than the annual isolated MOT.

6 weekly checks are obviously not necessary for a domestic car. Perhaps one has to spell these things out in words of one syllable.

If cars were tested as part of a service program then we would see many more cars serviced properly and maintained properly...this would make older un-roadworthy cars less economic to keep on the road and we would see a higher turn around of old and new vehicles...

This would benefit the economy the world and promote greater recycling...so reducing waste and would continue to fuel industry. Something sorely needed..

hence why the MOT is an outdated unneeded and unworthy element of motoring, there are better options.

thats my dog telling it a thing or two...

ooh it breaks alright, infact they are generally not as reliable as people make out. what they are is harder to break once working...they seem to just be tough via being simple in design...

cant imagine why I would want to drive it on the road...I do like the missile carrier version...may take a few thoughts about that away with me and see what I can come up with...

miss use ruins the brake bands...easily done if you use the gear engage pedal as a clutch...

Well the engine is totally sorted now, runs sweet as a dream. Still only have a top speed of 52 mph, real pain that is and the gearbox is a dog, but manageable now i have the hang of it...its a combination of rush, wait double de clutch, revs and a few prayers...

Other things to do:-

Body work getting worse all the time, have two new wings but need to do a bit of welding on the off side..

Could do with new dampers on the front, anyone know where to get these. Will try local truck factors first but not always fruitful.

Lights are awful, just had the alternator rebuilt but suspect that it has a charging problem still...any one know if these things have a regulator and where it is.

I want to fit a rev counter but the alternator is an old type and does not have a c-post pulse post so cant use the modern types...anyone know how to get around this...

I am looking to make it a bit quieter in the cab, anyone got any ideas, i was thinking of insulating the underside with fireproof insulation then some in the cab in the form of carpets and things...I have a straight through exhaust which doesnt help so going to get a unit made to take away that booming, makes you deaf after a while, it has to be done.

Also need to sort the cab heater and screen wash and some other bits and pieces...new mirrors and reversing camera needed.

anyone know where I can get body parts, old doors etc...

cant help but think that an annual MOT is a pointless exercise, for high mileage cars/trucks parts will fail in the year and will need to be fixed. Full stop.

for low mileage cars parts may fail, and so a check cant be bad but is it really needed.

Servicing records seem to be the way heavy trucks are going, think cars should ultimately be the same...

A bit more on towing. When I first got involved with towing 40 years ago things were different to today’s practices. In those days nearly all towing was done on poles. Reason only the biggest operators had equipment that could safely lift and carry large commercial vehicles. As modern vehicles developed body work became more fragile and they became more and more difficult to pickup and weights increased so making the whole job of suspend towing more difficult.

Today I suspect using a pole to tow a broken down vehicle is the easiest option available to most members of this site.

So a few facts tips about towing disabled vehicles on poles.

Back then the person in the disabled vehicle was classed as the brakeman or steersman and as such didn’t need a licence to drive the vehicle being towed but had only to be old enough to hold one.

The person in the towing vehicle had to have a licence to drive the vehicle he was in but not the one he was towing. The one he was towing was classed as a disabled vehicle and not a trailer.

Disabled vehicle owners could not be prosecuted for having no working lights or rear mudguards.

Now I don’t know for sure but if you regard the vehicle being towed as a disabled vehicle then nothing has changed.

But please check to satisfy your self before doing anything involving above

any update on this one...is this fact...it could be very useful...

Foden DROPS going down M6 on Tuesday afternoon. looked really nice truck.

not a sole interested, crikey.

Yes the english is correct,. this year the AWDC has booked the superb Slab common army training ground for off roading...any vehicle can take part including land rovers to 20 ton M62 wreckers But of late its just been me...and a few unimogs...and 101's plus the usual landrover types etc

I take a zil 131, a ural a stalwart and last week an M62. the next meet is

SUNDAY 26th June. I am away so there will be no heavies there at all...if no heavies turn up the club will eventually not organise them.

that would be a real shame.

next two are

August 28th and November 20th.

On the 28th I plan to be taking:- Ural 375, Zil131 x 2 Stalwart, M62 and likely the GAZ 69 and a UAZ 452. Along with my Foden 8x4 transporter and my leyland DAF. If I can I am hoping they will organise a tracked day too soon so watch this space, then i will take my MTLB and 432 or 434.

So please can you guys with heavy machines get them out to join in. The ground is really soft, very unlikely to do any damage to your machines, it is well supported by the availability of the centurion ARRV. If I am there I can always recover you with something. and the unimogs will come to your aid. The AWDC seems to be supported by the most helpful bunch of enthusiasts i have ever been with, well worth a visit, the marshalls are well trained and mega helpful too, as well as being kitted out with all the right gear.

All that is missing is you guys with the biggies. You just have to come along and give it a go, even if it is just to try out your truck on a gentle off road site. There are a few not so gentle areas and these can be great fun to try...

So come on guys lets get out there and play.

found the problem, its the through chassis brass fitting, it looks like it was mullered from installation and has been over tightened ever since. It is a bugger as the local truck stop doest do the long ones anymore and so we are having a bit of a job finding a replacement..ho hum at least we have the fault found, it will soon be fixed.

thanks all good ideas i think tank removal and clean out is on the cards no matter what, but its the fact that this truck has a clear mark on the pick up pipe that has never ever been corroded because it has always been covered in diesel. its really really odd. there is a clear perfect stop line, like someone designed it to be like that but clearly it isnt supposed to be.

thanks guys, will give it a go tomorrow, thanks for the part number will get that fom the shop tomorrow...it looks new but will try anything right now...

had a look insid with fibre optic scope, cant see anything other than diesel but think we may empty the old girls tank and take it off if we cant find the fault, it has to be a very very small air leak somewhere but where...there are not that many joints to check..but there is certainly something going on with the depth of the fuel in the tank, i would guess that this tank has never dropped below 20 gallons of fuel, ever....

okay on the leyland daf, when the fuel reaches a certain point in the tank the truck refuses to run...

we started at the tank and the fuel pick up shows that it has never been left dry at one point, it is bright shiny coated, the rest of the pipe is time faded...

so my thoughts are that the lift pump cant actually lift the fuel out of the tank once it gets so low. Now that would be silly.

So we get a jerry can put the can on top of the tank and brum away she goes, no more problems running sweet as normal.

so my thoughts are that there must be a tiny air leak in the system, such that when the tank is full or above the specific point it works fine the fuel running freely enough to make the air leak unnoticeable...but once below or at this point the fuel draw is so great that the air leak becomes too intense and she then sucks air rather than diesel...

now we will strip the system down and hopefully find the source of the leak...there are only a handful of joints and they cannot be difficult to clean and secure but I know when i bought it Dave was having the devils only job keeping it running, he woreked on all the pipes and it seemed to work fine, but now its playing up again, so trip and refit is the next step...

Anyone got any other ideas...there are no holes in the pick up pipe at the specific fuel level...it is sucking air, but we have yet to ascertain from where...any ideas on how...we will change both the pre and post pump filters in the mean time...anyone know where I can get them from...assume a normal truck dealer would do them...

thank you sirhc!,..... I have posted a question to him, regarding the seemingly mammouth task....:cool2:

it is a pain in the butt. I have a manual that shows some of the work will look into it.

still wont stop people making mistakes, now they will assume someone has marked the cans properly and filled them with the correct fuel. It will not happen...my motto is fill the can for a specific vehicle and make sure you put it in that vehicle as soon as possible,...the moment it hangs around it will get used somewhere else and maybe not in the right vehicle.

shame there isnt an automatic colour marker in them that changes to the right colour the moment you fill it with whichever fuel...if only...

Okay, have newish rams for the wheels, the self leveling is sometimes intermittent and I have not yet worked out how to power the legs out and in. The air brakes are not working, cylinders leaking but it stops pretty well on the hydraulic drive. Engine all plumbed back in with new fuel lines and filter...runs sweet enoug, computer working but its in a foreign language there must be a way to turn it into english. operators manual coming soon, but will also contact Bofors to see if they can help me in restoring it to full demonstration working order...its great driving around sitting atop a very big gun...

if you need anything more substantial you could use my fh77 155mm, should sort them out..mostly working now.

so that is six sets of my "flower arranging bases with sides" then!

 

R

sound perfect, i will make sure I keep mine full of flowers...

I got two on mine, could do with two more for the 434....