MiketheBike

Well...my first W&P in an MV...loved every minute apart from the 4 hour drive home because the ferret was playing up. Next year I will have to plan better and get down there for a week. I would like the thank the Essex boys for letting us pitch up with them, and making us welcome....I did not realise they were all celebrities until I looked back through my CMV mags.....I wonder if ANY of the essex lot have NOT been in a feature!!!! :-)

The guy I bought my Ferret engine from has found two crates with reconditioned gearboxes. I went and had a look and they are still sealed in the crates, freshly reconditioned. They have labels with: LV7/ML 2520-99-829-0201 The crates are marked up "BL motor cars". He thought they were also for the Ferret, but obviously are not. He has no idea of the value, or what they are for. If he does not sell them he will be putting them in a skip!!!! Any takers? I think he is up for almost any offer. I have his contact details is anyone is interested, he is at Fleet, Hants. Mick

Hey Tony, take it along to Beltring and have a paint stripping party. Option 1: Just drive it into one of the tents one evening, supply the beer and HMVF do the rest. Option 2: Paint stripping competition. Joe public gets timed to strip 1 sqaure foot, £1 to enter, £50 for the fastest time....I reckon you would make about £250 which should easily cover the cost of the paint stripper.

Clive, I have to admit, the transfer box on my ferret gets pretty damn hot, so maybe that is normal? Maybe the diff is sucking oil from the transfer box? Does that also have a breather.....maybe the temp difference between the two is a factor there?

Tony...I would have to disagree: Volvo/flat cap brigade, followed by mini-cabs

I tried to get my head around this with the Ferret bevel boxes, and came to the (incorrect?) conclusion that: the tech notes say there should be a preload of 0.000 to 0.002 inch. So rather than bolting the plate down to preload the bearing, hold it hard against the housing and there should be between 0.000 and 0.002 inch with the correct spacers...if that is correct, bolt it down and it gives the correct preload. I would guess if there are too many spacers it could equally heat up as the bearing would not be seated correctly and you would get hot spots on teh bearing? http://www.tpub.com/content/construction/14273/css/14273_197.htm

Andy/Richard, well the oil seals are all of £3 each from Banisters, so I bought 4 and will most likley replace them all. It took all of 1 hour to do the front right, and half of that time was taking out the prop shaft tunnel and drivers seat to get more access!! I took the plate, held on by 5 bolts, off the bevel box and replaced it quite easily, did not have to disturb the shims as they did not move. I haven't filled the bevel box up and tested yet, but it all seemed good. Thanks Mick

I have spent the last 30 years in IT. Datacomms, Unix systems admin, email support for the past 10 years and have finally moved over to Microsoft Exchange support. Would love to move out of IT, but cannot afford to :-(

ahem...time to own up....it may have been my fault. It had a fairly good leak to start with (I think it had not been run very often over the past few years). I topped up all the bevel boxes when I got it, and I have not been checking them. It suddenly dawned on me "hey, that one stopped leaking"....should've known better.....if anything stops leaking its for a reason....the bugger is empty!!!

Andy/Kewelde, can I replace the oil seal without taking the bevel box out, or do I still need to remove it from the vehicle? It looks like I can just take the small bevel off and do the rest from there? Would that be easy(ish) on the front right? Oh, and are the seals fairly easy to source? Cheers Mick

Hi guys, typical....10 days to go, and a bevel box decides to blow a seal!!! Its the front right bevel box, and its decided to ditch the entire contents of oil into the footwell. I guess that means the seal for the prop-shaft has gone. Can I just replace the seal or do I need to get the bevel box out and maybe replace the whole unit? Can I take it out without all the hassle of dismantling everything on the outside of the hull? Thanks Mick

Thanks Chris, I may well take you up on that offer :-) Mick

Tony, I keep thinking about that, but I just bought a new engine and the missus might divorce me if I spend any more money. I will be trying to get the engine in before Beltring...I must be nuts! I am not sure if I can manage it before the event, but I'll try!!!! Mick

I have booked in but can only get a couple of days off work, so I hope to come along on 18th and pitch up for the night. Will it be easy to find a pitch? Do I just grab a space and claim it? is there a certain place Ferreters normally pitch together? Cheers Mick

Neil, The only postings we have at the moment are in Hereford. I work in Cobham, Surrey and I can certainly ask there on Monday in the other business units. I know a company in Middlesex that will be doing a big recruit in the next few weeks, they are mostly SQL, if either of those are not too far let me know and I will put out the feelers. Mick

Thanks Andy. It did sound a pain in the @rse removing the shafts etc from the transfer box and taking the gear and transfer boxes out when all I want is to remove the engine. The pics help, I can get my head around what it looks like out of the vehicle. Thats a nice shiny fan you have there :-) Mick

I have got hold of a reconditioned B60, still on the packing case mountings at what I think was an absolute steal (the guy had it advertised as a diesel tank engine), so I'm going to replace my engine, then recondition the old unit and keep it as a spare :-) My wife is really very happy for me :whistle: I have read through the Field Repair manual and it appears I would remove the engine including the radiator, fan assembly, oil tank, gearbox and transfer box as one unit? Are the manuals usually pretty good, or are there any short-cuts or better ways to remove/replace the engine? Cheers Mick

OK, new condenser fitted, also replaced the rotor arm (the original appeared to have a small part missing...a small curved bit of metal retained by two springs on the top of the rotor arm), plugs cleaned up (they did look OK). Paul...when you say adjusting the fuel mixture, is that the two idling jets? I have opened those up just enough to have the engine idling smoothly. Only thing left would appear to be the coil? Is it just a standard coil that slots into the ignition coil housing? Cheers Mick

Thanks guys...looks very much like it could be that then. I got a couple of .2mf condensers from Unity Motors (33710), so I'll see how it goes. Mick

Thanks guys. I had changed the condenser, and the new distributor came fitted with another new one...but thinking about it now, I did swap that out for the one I had before...if you see what I mean. The condenser seems the easiest/cheapest quick check. I will also check out the rotor arm (I may need to print and read your instructions on that ;-) ). Starting is on the button...it hardly needs turning over without choke over the past few days, and the exhaust is clean. I am running the carb idle as slow as possible with it running smooth. I'll see if I can get a condenser on teh way home today. Cheers Mick I just had a thought after reading up on timing. If the condenser is flakey, would that cause the ignition to be artificially retarded? To have the engine running smooth, the distributor is turned almost all the way anti-clockwise against the bolts holding the distributor....so as advanced as it can go. A stupid question, but what position...roughly...should the distributor be in....kinda parallel to the engine (the straight sides of the dist housing parallel to engine)?

Whats all that about then. I drive to work in the morning...the ferret runs nice and smooth. I drive home in the evening and it starts to run as rough as hell half way home...about 5 miles into the journey. I use the same roads, with the same amount of stop/start and traffic. I have already renewed all the HT and LT leads, and put a NOS distributor in. All new plugs also. I don't think its fuel, although I could be wrong. It idles fine, and at low revs it is also fine. Its when it gets above 2000rpm that it all goes pear shape. It splutters, pops/backfires and feels like its cutting out. My next guess is maybe the coil is on its way out? Maybe because its been hot from the morning run? How do you test a coil? Are they easy to source? Cheers Mick

I was thinking of taking the ferret for a few days (maybe Thu, Fri, Sat), but now sure what the score is about how to register and set up camp. Any advice for a beginner?

Fred, yes indeed, and they have been VERY useful....its handy to be able to print off the few pages to take outside. :-D

Or hire Chris to go look at them with you!!! The fees may help fund his new toy?

here you go: