mazungumagic

I'll be doing the same with my clutch plate when I get around to the engine, but have you worked out where the oil came from, ie rear main or the gearbox ?

I think we can now say that we've finished the LH side floor - might even draw parallels between Rolls Royce and hand made vehicles. The effort involved in crafting up this floor was something I'd never been involved with before, but Tony made it look easy. We cut the two holes in the floor for the torsion bar adjusters and lipped them as per the originals, as well as the drain hole in the rear floor, just behind the battery box. That took a little doing, particularly the torsion bar holes because they are located very close to the edge and there's little metal available to limit distortion. Nevertheless, it was done and the floor is now fully welded into place. We tested the location of the torsion bar adjusters before the floor was fixed in place, but fortunately no adjustment to the holes was required.

Also took a photo of the work from underneath ....

That'll all be cleaned off and painted later when we invert the chassis and check if we need to weld some of the joins from the underneath, as well.

The centre rear rust area (pintle hook location) has proven to be something of a metallic iceberg, with much more rust under the surface that was at first apparent. We are going to have to do major surgery here, which will include the replacement of the main link between left and right chassis rails as well as all of the three or four skins of metal which seem to meet in this location. Didn't get a shot of this, but we've completely cut out the area around the pintle hook and will rebuild it from next week onwards - it will take a while, I suspect.

I'll put another oddity on here, showing one more difference between engines. These two fittings are the oil pressure relief valves found on a 5A and a 2A/4 engine. The same, but different !

By the look of it, I can be the first to congratulate you on your showing at Champ Camp, though it sounds as if your summer is like our winter.

I see only one snorkel and an interesting Vickers - it would be a great place to go for spares !

You must be elated to have done the work, achieved the goal of attendance at Evesham and being one of the 100 Champs on display. I'm working towards my first showing being ANZAC Day 2013.

A slipping clutch is certainly not the end of the world as we know it, just a rather large PITA - though I'd guess there may be more issues that might come to light when you extract the motor (and gearbox ?), which can be fixed at the same time. So a mixed blessing, p'raps ?

This is the clutch plate I found on mine - I doubt yours will be as bad. If it gripped at all, this one must have slipped badly and been aurally punishing.

Didn't seem to get a great deal done this Wednesday, but as anyone who has done a restoration can probably attest, some days are like that.

We worked mainly on positioning and fixing the captive nuts under the replacement LH floor and putting in the original rib across the back floor -

Once that was done, we cut out and bent the two (fore and aft) bottom sections of the battery box, where the previous incumbent had rotted away.

.... once the floor is welded in, we can then cut these replacements for the two vertical sections (fore and aft) of the battery box, to the correct length, cut out all the half moon shapes at the bottom and weld them to the remaining metal. We will also cut out and lip, the apertures for the torsion bar adjusting brackets which enter from below the floor.

Here is an overhead shot of the progress to date -

We hope to finish this off next Wednesday and go onto the only remaining large chassis rust problem, just above the fuel tank -

.... a bit of work to do here !

Do you mean around 4,000GBP (or $AU6,200) ??

Not many come up for sale here, but I would assume a decent one would be worth about the same - perhaps a little less. For some reason, possibly related to the maintenance issues and the general negativity associated with them, they don't seem to have much appeal to buyers here.

How about that - just noticed that I went straight from Lance Corporal a few days ago to Sergeant already.

We're enjoying the challenge of following in the footsteps of the great British designers !

Seriously though, everytime I have the opportunity to think about it, I realise that the original Champ design project must have been an extraordinary undertaking. While there is a lot of the WW2 jeep in the basic design, 90% (just a plucked figure) of the vehicle is original thought or at the very least, an improvement on a design feature which might have been plagiarised from the Jeep.

The cost of the project to the long suffering British taxpayer, at a time when rationing was still in place, must have been difficult to justify ?

Back into it yesterday with the removal of the rusty LH floor and the cutting out of a replacement, complete with hole for the diished drain area under the batteries -

After making sure that the replacement matched the panel already cut out, we fashioned the dished area to be welded into the cutout hole -

That was a bit of a struggle - the new sheetmetal is thicker than the original, at around 18ga - but once it was done, we welded it into the hole and as the Chinese say "voila" -

That was as far as we got, which may not seem much, but there were a few distractions during the day. The owner of the workshop had just purchased another WW2 Ford Jeep which he took it out for a run, only to blow out a core plug. After his rescue from down the road and sundry other repair work, that completed our day.

Next week we will be looking at fixing on the myriad of captive nuts and brackets, under this repair panel - it's where the exhaust is fixed - then fashioning the lipped holes for the torsion bar adjusters to poke up through the floor and welding the lot into the original floor. Probably another couple of weeks work (at one day per week) there.

Must make Corporal soon !

Thanks, John - I'm sure a replacement floor panel would be easier to use than making up the various pieces to replace the rusty floor bits, but - and call me perverse if you wish - we've got the sheet metal and the time and reckon we can make almost as good a job of it, as the real thing.

One of the considerations for me, is the cost of restoration. At least in Oz, these vehicles are not worth a great deal in comparison to your average Jeep or WC, so at around 250 GBP for each floor panel (so says the Champ Spares catalogue) when we can produce a similar product for a dollar or two, I am conscious of effects of over capitalisation. Obviously money has to be sent on some parts such as tracta joint boots, engine mountings etc that can't be fabricated, but where we can do it, we will.

We have the usual problem with rusty sills on the body shell, but have a couple of other body shells, from which I think we can cut out some side panels and graft them onto the shell to be used. That's a job for the not too distant future, but I'm quite sure it will produce an acceptable result and be far cheaper than knocking on Champ Spares door.

Jack

We started work on the LH side of the Champ floor yesterday.

This is what we started with -

....and we began by renewing the side rail which is probably the first building block. We left as much of the floor as possible to give good reference points for the new metal - but I don't think there will be much of the original floor remaining when we've finished this side. The floor is hanging by a thread in this photo, but was soon persuaded to let go -

... after that we cut out most of the horizontal floor back almost to the rear wheel arch and then fabricated and welded in, the outside section of the battery box.

The battery box floor is completely knackered, so we'll have to fashion a replacement, probably next week along with the front and rear vertical sections of the box itself. Amongst other things it will be just a trifle difficult to create the lipped holes in the floor, for the large torsion bar adjusting rods - we'll see. Then comes the task of aligning and welding in, all the captive nuts and connecting bits, under the floor.

We've also renewed the jacking points on both sides now, though I would be very reluctant to use these - it seems too much to expect the vehicle to remain intact with all the weight at either end and jacking in the middle !

Didn't get much done at all this week - we were otherwise committed to providing WW2 vehicles (Chev 8cwt, Bren Carrier and a 25 pdr), for a film production detailing some reminiscences of the few remaining Rats of Tobruk. Ignoring the portable dunny on the LH side, here's an example -

Nonetheless, I managed to get to the workshop for half a day and began cutting out the extensive rust on the LH side of the chassis. Made up some replacement sheet metal which we'll weld it in next week.

When we removed the gearbox from the engine, it became very apparent that a previous owner had installed the clutch driven plate the wrong way round, with the result that the spigot bearing housing had been badly gouged by the centre clutch plate spline and although you can't see it in this picture, the spigot bearing is broken as a result of the force applied. It must have been very noisy !

The second picture shows the remains of the driven plate - I've never seen one quite this bad till now. Interesting that there are no springs in the driven plate.

Carried on with the rust work yesterday and finished off the RH side of the chassis -

The last bit we did on the RH side at the rear -

The LH side involves the same work but a little bit more of it, as the battery box floor is non existent -

Battery box floor -

We also managed to get the sump off the engine and plasti gauge #2 big end and main bearings. The readout was .001" for the big end and between .002" and .003" for the main bearing. I think that's OK - the shells showed absolutely no sign of wear, so that's encouraging. Also checked the piston ring gap which came out at .025" so that needs a bit of thought ! I had a quick look through the Tech Manual and the three additional parts of the "workshop manual" (ie Field, Unit and Base) but couldn't find any specifications, so I'll do a little research.

Finally, I have attached below a picture of the Qualcast water pump, which has the grease nipple tapping on the LH side rather than in the middle. When I attempted to fit the V shaped lifting bracket onto the motor, I found this button head grease nipple, fouled the bracket and therefore had to be removed to allow me to bolt on the lifting bracket. It's the only water pump I've seen to date with this issue - all the other ones I've seen, have the grease nipple fitting at the top centre of the water pump, where it doesn't interfere with the lifting bracket.

I wasn't at the workshop yesterday - I had to spend a little quality time with my ophthalmologist, getting a piece of steel out of an eye. I wear safety glasses almost religiously, but the buggers still manage to get in and leave their mark !

Anyway the remainder of the crew set to work without me and apart from a little bit of welding, concentrated on the stripping down the engine.

On the bench with most of the LH side accessories removed -

Tappet cover off -

The block - pistons look good and apart from a carbon line, there is little evidence of any ridge at the top of the cylinders -

.... and finally, the head -

As it is with the majority of these engines, this one doesn't seem to have done much work. Hopefully we can verify that next week, with a look at the bottom end and then re-assemble.

Once again, the comment was made about bolts being universally easy to undo. A lot of "Never Seize" or copper grease or its 1950s equivalent, must have been used !

Did a little bit of bodywork on the Champ yesterday - and have got a lot more to do !

We started on the RH side just forward of the rear mudguard where the rust was evident (in the corner).

Removed that spotwelded panel or most of it.

and welded in a new piece

That done we moved onto the rusted RH edge of the floor - you can see the prepared angle we will use along the outer edge, on the bottom right.

It needs a fair bit of work and time only allowed us to get the first piece welded in.

We anticipate finishing off the RH side next week, then it's onto replacing the battery box floor - fairly usual for Champs, I guess.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60967[/ATTACH]

RR,

Did you put some type of brake light switch into the braking system ? If so, what type and where ?

Jack

Both diffs are out ! They are relatively simple to extract, once you understand the design and identify all the important bolts.

That, together with the removal of sundry attachments which were still on the vehicle such as the rusted up brake/clutch bracket, took all day. So, I think next week we'll be starting on the removal/replacement of the rusty sheet metal. A fair bit of scope for pictures there !

There are a couple of cracks in the two front wings welded to the chassis, which may have been caused by some cross country manoeuvres, but they'll be welded up along with the bodywork.

Last weekend, we attended a classic car show and one of our members brought along his cutaway Champ. Here it is being off loaded.

It was a hit with the spectators who seemed quite taken with the opportunity to look inside a Champ, more or less.

Managed to finish off the two jeeps we were preparing for ANZAC Day and return to 1824

Lifted the motor out using a load spreader borrowed from a friend who had fabricated it, following the guide provided in the Champ manuals (or was it the EMERs ?)

.... put it on a trolley for attention later,

and then gave the chassis a tub.

I removed the sump guard and cleaned the crud off half of it ...

If the sump guard is any guide, this vehicle has done some serious bush time !

Next week, I hope we will get to remove the diffs (we've already just about completed the unbolting of the front diff) and check their condition.

Hi Simon.

I don't know about soda blasting - I like to do most of the work myself, but admit that I will probably be obliged to find a sand blaster for the chassis and front attachments. I've been lucky in that I've wrecked another couple of Champs (they were only Archie Marshall imports !) and so I've got a fair number of spare bits which are getting some restorative attention.

Haven't really returned to the Champ yet - we've just packed off one jeep to a new owner and are now flat out installing the motor/gearbox etc in another. That went in last Wednesday and the vehicle will be trialled up a few hills, this coming Wednesday.

Apart from that, I found time to look at my fuel tank - I had never seen the inside of a Champ tank before. This one had had the fibreglass treatment over some largish rust holes, so I cut away the bottom with tin snips and if I can't find a replacement tank, I'll weld on a new bottom section. The baffles look the worse for water, so a replacement might be the go.

The top and bottom of the tank:

G'day Simon,

I haven't spent a whole lot of time on the Champ over the last few weeks, our little group of retired military vehicle enthusiasts, have been putting priority into getting two WW2 Jeeps ready for ANZAC Day and we got one out of the workshop today - the other hopefully next week. I can then return to the Champ.

I intend to remove the engine and then the two diffs, which will leave just the chassis and the scuttle. At that stage I'll take it to a sandblaster and have him do his work which should include priming.

I spent a little bit of today doing some work on my fuel tank which was very rusty on the bottom and the previous owner had fibreglassed the two worst spots. I don't have a photo of it, but I have now removed the bottom of the tank, with tin snips and once it is cleaned, I'll shape and weld a new bottom in place. I'll have a photo of the de-bottomed tank soon.

Jack

RR,

I had the same problem on my switchboard , though I had the older domed type coloured lens and there was no convenient place to apply twisting pressure to free them from the fusing effect of aluminium corrosion. In the end they were trashed, the threads cleaned up and some (albeit bleached) later type lenses were screwed in.

If you do come across any more serviceable items, I think there'd be a number of interested parties !

Jack

Got a few things done yesterday and in the week leading up to yesterday.

Refurbished the generator wiring from generator panel to generator. there seemed to be a lot of dust coming from inside the outer covering of woven mesh, so after some deliberation, I decided to strip off the mesh and see if I could thoroughly clean the dust out. Found that it was actually rust from the inside concertina wrap, so that was wire brushed and painted - doesn't look too bad and it may have arrested the rust for a time.

Stripping the mesh

The end result

Then it was onto the bumper bar, which not surprisingly was bent. What is surprising is that with all the other refinements on this vehicle, the bumper is such a flimsy piece of metal that a bend or two is inevitable.

Before

and after - there's probably a few imperfections left, but they will be sorted out when we marry it up to the vehicle

Now the fun part - reverse flushing the radiater. One of my co-workers produced his radiater flusher and we connected it to an air line and the hose and spent some time opening and closing the air to the rad internals which were filled with water to shock any rust/chemical buildup, out of the tubes and tanks. Seemed to have worked well as there's a good clean flow now - it was quite refreshing on a warm day !

Jack

P.S. The reason I misspelled "radiater" is to stop what appears to be a mob called VIGLINK, from linking the correctly spelled word to an ebay site.

Nope - it is going to be one of these -

They were made in England to what I'm fairly sure, must have been a War Office design and shipped out to various locations including Palestine. I've not yet got a Lewis, but I can borrow one !

The front badge is the Australian coat of arms with a centrally placed palm tree.

Jack

No chance at all, of that, Robert.

I've finished the Model T wiring - not an involved task !

Jack

RR,

Don't mind working on the electrics - not that I know much about them, but I am learning how to use a multi meter !

I haven't got a timetable for the restoration, which could well be a two edged sword, though I think this blog will help keep me on the job.

I didn't get anything done on the vehicle this week as I was fully employed wiring up an ex Australian Army Landrover trailer for another fellow. The floor and some of the sides were extra rusty and that's all been cut out - we're just about ready to put the tub back onto the chassis, but thought it a good idea to wire it up before joining the top and bottom bits. I'll see if I can get a photo of it next time. They're quite similar to the Sankey, I think and have been in Army use since the 60s. A very good and capable trailer.

Jack

That's looking very flash - you're a good year ahead of me, I think.

Jack

Finished the preparation of the engine, for removal - or at least I hope I have. All the hoses and mechanical connections I could see, have been removed - I was surprised how easily some of them came undone, particularly those which could have been awkward had they so chosen, such as the clutch arm and 4WD linkage clevis pins.

All the wiring has now been stripped out of the vehicle, the bolts are out of the rear engine mounts and the nuts are off the front mounts, so Wednesday should see engine/gearbox out. I'll then prepare the chassis for sandblasting.