Sean N

Shows how easy it is to do though, if you're having an off day.

Tamber - I hope that's a turn of phrase and you haven't torqued the hub nuts - or it's not the bearing nuts you're referring to - or your bearings will die very quickly!

Plenty of people out there making vinyl stickers if you have the artwork - all you need is a decent hi-res image. Might the reversed ones be signwriter's error? Wouldn't be possible to reverse a self adhesive vinyl, and it seems unlikely a waterslide one could be reversed.

They're signifiers for the brake lining material.

No, sorry, I'm not great on arms, unit symbols and so on. It rings a bell but I can't place it. Might also be reversed given the propensity to affix symbols the wrong way round (see also dhows) Lion rampant dexter with a crown above is Scottish Yeomanry, but that has crossed lances behind.

I believe that's a lion rampant sinister ;-)

Justin, what Andy says. Bostik C is a black solvent based adhesive for bonding rubber to metal and is still available. I'd guess a good adhesive seam sealer that will bond to rubber would also do the job.

Aye, what I'm getting at is that the pressure marked on the sidewall would be the maximum inflation pressure, not the normal running pressure which is what Hutch is after.

John, only max inflation pressure marked on the sidewall, surely?

That's the feller. Thought it was familiar.

Thanks John, that confirms that the 200 strokes refers to the lift pump hand primer and that the reservoir is normally filled automatically unless exhausted by failed starting attempts.

John, thanks for chipping in. You confirm my recollection that for an engine in recent use there should be no need for priming - I should have made that clearer in my original post. I'd forgotten about putting the rack on the excess fuel. What Stephane refers to as a woosh I am sure is the woof noise of diesel igniting, but my experience with engines that use these (typically Bedford and Perkins) is that you often can't hear this next to the engine and rarely or never can from in the cab.

Sam, did this thing come from Dorset - St Leonards area?

Stephane, what I'm going to say is just an educated guess so take it with a pinch of salt if you wish. My guess is that the cold start device you refer to from the manual (prime with 200 strokes) is either an ether type device or a diesel fuelled device which is manually primed. Looking at the photos I can see no sign of an ether device. I can see two thermostart plugs in the inlet manifold and what looks like a reservoir above them. If you look at your third photo you can see the two thermostart plugs, one in the elbow and one just below and to the right of the rocker cover breather pipe. They're the things that look like a hex head plug with two electrical connections and a metal pipe. If you were to pull them out you would see they look similar to a car cigarette lighter, with a coil of electrical resistance wire. They also have a small bimetal strip valve in. When you press the cold start switch the coil heats up, the valve opens, diesel fuel drips through the thermostart and is ignited by the heater coil, so you get a similar effect to hot ragging the engine. You're supposed to be able to hear a 'woof' sound as the diesel ignites but in my experience you often can't, even when they're working OK. The thermostarts will be fed from a diesel reservoir which is often fed from the bleed-off for the injector pump, filter or similar. In your case the reservoir looks like the square thing on a bracket on the inlet manifold, the one with two fuel lines going into it. The reservoir seems to have an electrical device fitted underneath (round thing with two cables) which I would guess is either a pump to prime the reservoir or to pump fuel to the thermostarts, or a heater. I've never dealt with TMs or MJs and the 466 and 500 diesels I have dealt with have a much simpler device. I have had a TK with the 220 turbo diesel, of the same age and with the same system as yours but I can't recall the set-up exactly. I don't recall it having anything other than the heater button though, or having to do anything other than push the heater button to make the thing work. You have to keep your finger on the button for a while - 20 seconds or so, if I recall correctly? Given thermostart reservoirs are fed from the fuel system it might be that your 200 strokes refers to 200 strokes of the hand primer lever on the lift pump (the little lever on the right hand side of the lift pump cosrec referred to); or it could be it refers to an earlier system or ether system not fitted to your later truck. I have found in the past that thermostarts tend to be prone to burning their heater coils out so it would also be worth pulling and checking them. You could also check the fuel hasn't waxed in the cold, though I'd expect it would have the approprate fuel for your conditions. If it's close to going it may be that a heater under the engine or a block heater might do the trick, or possibly hot ragging it but make sure it doesn't try to swallow the rag. I've had Bedford diesels take a bit of starting in the cold, but not that cold that I can recall and none so stubborn they wouldn't start unless there was something wrong. I do have an engine I can check and manuals for the MJ and TK but I can't look at them until Wednesday earliest. It may be someone with a better memory for these things than I have will see this in the meantime!

Hello Ron, didn't think you'd have missed that one but just putting my thoughts in anyway! Clive might be the chap for this, or Wally, if they see it.

That sounds like the stuff. It's not so much the adhesive qualities though it does need to stick to the substrate; it's that it fills the gap, doesn't shrink, doesn't harden, crack or go brittle, which would allow moisture penetration and entrapment. Often feel we have massive advantages over the 1950s builders due to advances in materials. Mind you, they had the benefit of a factory to build the things...

Ah, OK. That must be a very late 570. If you have a look on the VIN plate in the cab you'll probably find the model details - the VIN will be in a format something like SKFSHL2BCODTXXXXXX and the letters give all the model codes. Not sure if I have any information but I'll have a look.

Just had a look at a 1984 TK750 / TK 220 / SHL2BCO brake set I have. Both shoes have full length linings. One shoe has a cutaway to clear the brake bisector - this is the one with the thin lining.

I asked because I didn't see anything in the photos. The AEC stuf is probably an early seam sealer. I'd use a modern seam sealer or Sikaflex or similar; silicone sealant won't stay flexible or adhesive and if it separates, hardens or splits it'll form a moisture trap and encourage corrosion again.

You guys that are stripping and refitting panels from Militant cab frames, when you refit are you using seam sealer in the joint at all?

Ron, bit of a guess but if these are new or newly issued bikes might they be storage markings for (reliability) Class 1A?

When I stole a wok to make a sump I was quite up front about it!

Couldn't tell from Rob's / Andy's photo as it looks dark here, so went back to my original photos. Andy is absolutely right, the colour that to me looked black in the photo above does look to be green and does appear to be in many of the same places as on the 1999 photo, the kinked mirror arm and headlight guard and notably the damage to the OS mud wing that '11th Armoured' pointed out are all the same. Here's my photo for comparison: I think we have a winner. Need to get rid of that Q plate though.

Don't think there are enough distinguishing features in those photos to tell. Yes, it's yellow, but a lot of Militants have been. The n/s lamp guard is bent back to about the same extent, but again that happens on Militants. Need to see more detail and common distinctive features. If Andy could establish whether that gloss black lining out is or isn't on the seams and window frames it would tell you.

I'm not sure I would; it's designed for a different job, typically in static situations; and in my experience in the places you're using anti-sieze in close proximity to friction materials (e.g. anti-rattle shims on brake pads) you're using a very thin smear so contamination risk is very low.