N.O.S.

Oh, yes, it counts all right, you don't know how much it counts - just watch this space.......... :whistle: Welcome!

For what it's worth, I've never ordered a shaft seal by part number from a seal specialist. All they need is O.D., I.D. and thickness, also helps to give them application (Thickness is not critical, sometimes you have to use a thinner one if original size is not available - older ones tended to be extra thick!). Quite often you have the option of rubber-coated O.D. face. Also very, very thin shaft wear sleeves are available for where shaft surface is too badly scored. With regard to application, e.g. hub seals, leather ones are not always available nowadays, you have a choice of standard neoprene shaft seal or nothing. Most larger hubs (older lorry and bigger plant) use these, we've never had any trouble. Can't comment on modern truck hubs, no experience. I've no idea what genuine Ferret seals are like - some OEM seals I've used recently have been very hard thin almost metallic material, but again we've also used standard neoprene in the same application in the past (wheel loader reduction hubs) with no probs. Seals seem to priced such that if you buy 10 or 20 plus, the cost per seal is a fraction of buying one or two, so buying a couple from a seal supplier would not necessarily be any cheaper than sourcing from one of the specialsist MV parts people you mention. Hope this is of help.

Only in the jeep do I have the problem of frequently forgetting to put in neutral after stopping, result is a lurch forward as the engine stalls when you jump out. If you ever see a John Wayne war movie, he always does that too - as I'm forever telling bystanders :whistle:

I'm trying hard not to get drawn into this WW1 thing, but I've just learned that of the 25 who went off to the war from our village (at that time about 30-35 houses), 8 died and - one of those died on the 11th November 1918.......... Apparently of the soldiers who died on this day, a considerable number had succumbed to influenza.

Where are we at? We've had a letter from Royal Norfolk Regiment Association, reporting back after their museum trustees meeting. In it they suggest - "There would be real merit in using the stone as a starting point for a school's project linked to the Remembrance theme. Thereafter the stone and the resulting display would be a useful addition to the regimental museum or another museum local to Thetford. It could easily be made portable for use as part of some temporary military display especially as part of any school project linked to the First World War." Trench Maps - A local WFA member experienced in the art of trench maps is going to do a search over the weekend to see what is available in our areas of interest. He has the trench map CDs as well as WFA database.

If you have Freeview, you're in luck. Just caught part of an announcement that it's being run at 5pm, sorry didn't catch the day, starts next week?? Might help if I'd put the channel - UKTVHISTORY :whistle:

Oh bother, I'd only just this minute stuck a second rear axle in the post to you :whistle:

Well, if that's the sort of wisdom that age endows you with, "Bring It On" :-D

Probably a stupid answer :whistle: but I got one from the old boy selling poppies outside a supermarket earlier in the week (mind you, first one I've seen selling them).

Trust you to be first to see the obvious :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: And there was me begining to think it might be something simpler, like the strap holding it back :whistle:

Motors do not like normal spool valves which totally shut off oil when closed - can get a high pressure spike 'cos motor is still turning and trying to overrun. A motor spool is normally open centred (i.e. both lines to return line), but allows creep, so no good for this application. I suspect this shock valve unit is intended to work as a cushion valve for the motor, whilst preventing creep. Cannot think it would serve any useful purpose on the extension rams unless it is to limit max. pressure (why?). The crane looks good, well worth the cost of a new spool valve if you have to, but lets hope not. A bit of o-ring stuck in a valve might be all it is :whistle: If you cannot move rams, spools themselves should be fine. If you do need to spec up a new valve, you'll just need to know if spools are 3/8"BSP or 1/2"BSP size (look like 3/8, fair bit cheaper) to enable you to get a quote - my guess new is £150-300 from HES, but they sometimes have really good offers on, which I've taken advantage of in the past. Fingers crossed!

Yes, and don't think for a moment that we don't appreciate how lucky we are!!! Problem is, especially with larger operations like in your area, the cost of complying with H & S and (more crucially now) environmental regulations is jacking costs of services like this up through the roof :-(

Does anyone remember seeing that documentary on repairing the Superfortress found in Greenland and it catching fire on the ice runway while taxiing for takeoff? That guy sitting in his deck chair watching it burn - :cry: :cry: :cry:

I keep looking at this time and time again. Even if it does take a lot longer than a pro, you have control of the job, and you can do it when it suits you, bit at a time even. If I did not have access to a really good value service I think I'd be ordering one too. But you do need the space to make a g!d almighty mess :shake:

That's what I'd expect to pay my friendly local guy (I'd have to take it all to his yard and be patient). That's a lot of work doing it yoursef. He'll probably prime the lot for an extra £50, tends to fit it in with other jobs. Cold calling on a new blasting company, I might expect to be quoted 3 times the price! They seem to look after customers they know and fleece others! A few years back one professional outfit I tried for Militant wheels wanted £25 per wheel :shake: the guy I use now did them, primed, for £10 :-) mind you he did moan about the multi layered paint, said the shot kept bouncing off! Would really pay to find someone local and get an intro from a good customer if possible, avoids being taken for a ride :dunno:

Optima Red Top - Length 10" Width 6 3/4" Height 6 1/2" case, plus posts Each battery is 56 Ah, but DO NOT be fooled by that when comparing batteries! Zero maintenance ;-) but do not crank when nearly flat, or overcharge.

But I was just wondering if the gearsets had been made in Britain, Chris? :dunno: I've been very surprised in the past at what is sourced by UK manufacturers of equipment from elsewhere (simply due to ecenomies of scale of manufacture), it's always worth checking, especially if and when parts become difficult in the UK. Some long-obselete stuff is still readily available from the overseas gear and axle makers as it might be fitted in some wierd bit of machinery elsewhere in the world. Not quite an illustration of this, but we once needed a long, very thin needle roller bearing cage for the mainshaft in a Humber FV1620 gearbox. "Nobody has any, not been made for years" was the bearing people's response. We then discovered (can't remember how) that a wheelbarrow manufacturer had bought up 20,000 or so of the exact part, and had been using them for years - we got hold of a couple for the cost of the postage!!! And with regard to the last post, yes if they ain't about you have to pay the going rate, but please just read what I'm saying here - you might just be surprised to discover what was, and still is, made elsewhere and how cheap this stuff can be, but you have to know where to look, which is half the point of this forum isn't it? :dunno: Pleased you don't have any supply problems at present :-)

What a fantastic gesture - most if us have much more modest collections, but amongst the run-of-the-mill stuff we all have the odd one or two unique items which are priceless (in terms of historical value if not monetary anyway). We never know what is around the corner, and it's a shame to think stuff like this may well be lost. If I knew it would be a permanent available resource I'd be up for making the same arrangements. A case in point - the post about Nellie the trenching machine, a very substantial leather-bound manual for this (probably the only technical information still in existence) was saved because of the following chain of events: Widow of retired Ruston design engineer has a bonfire to dispose of her late husband's heaps of stuff > fire gets out of control > she asks neighbour to help > he rushes round and gets it under control > sees what is being burned and says this must be saved > phones his friend who is into Ruston history > result some totally unique items are saved for posterity. Lucky or what? But what else was lost for ever?

Sorry to see the extent of your problem, however - Mechanical gore..... :drool: :drool: :drool: it's been a while since such horrific pics were posted, I'm thinking the last few of the planetary will make a great screen saver :banme: On a serious note, are parts readily available for these? If not - It would not surprise me if they are a fairly standard planetary gear set, as they tend to be made by just a handfull of specialist manufactureres, e.g. Rockwell or Clark. Yep, good ol' Uncle Sam. They should have manufacturers numbers stamped on, someone like ETS (transmission repairers) in Humberside are brilliant at importing parts from USA at very modest prices.

Haven't you got a nice simple problem we can help you with? :whistle: The bypass valve is a bit odd - could be some form of pressure "carryover", used when you need to use full pressure in another valve (e.g. for winch) beyond the spool valve. Trouble is most valves like this are not designed to "carry over" pressure without special adaptors, if you do, a gallery between pressure and return side in the spool valve casting may break resulting in the symptoms your valve is showing. This bypass valve looks like it might be a bodge attempt to do this :shake: Can't think what other purpose it would be for :dunno: On the other hand, connecting these two ports may be the proper way for this make of spool valve :dunno: This bypass valve should most certainly be SHUT when operating the crane. Reckon this might have caused your trouble :-( If when it is shut (assuming it is not bxxxxxxd up) there is still quite a it of oil in return pipe when you take a pipe off and operate a spool, almost certainly the valve casing is split internally. The centre spool has an extra block on top - If this is the slewing spool they are "cross line relief valves", to prevent anything bursting should the crane arm be knocked sideways (by allowing oil to move from one side of slew to the other without going through spool). Sorry, but can't help much more with info to hand.

Just a thought - Even if relief valve is u/s, if you take off a ram pipe from the first spool after pressure inlet and work that spool, oil should flow. If it does, then hopefully problem is relief valve. But if nothing at all comes out - Are you absolutely certain the system is piped up correctly? A lot of spool valves have 1 inlet (marked with a P on casting) but 2 outlets (marked T), one by P end, other at far end. Just a chance you have got pressure going into a T by mistake?? If you need a relief valve cartridge, you will need to know what make/model or even just a part number from the relief valve as a starting point. How old is it? Try http://www.grouphes.com (Hydraulic Equipmenmt Supermarkets near Stroud) Tel. 01452 730774. Very helpful guys, if you can give them a make or number they should be able to fix you up, cost should be about £20 - 40 plus vat and post for cartridge). Should come pre-set at about 170 bar, which will mean your pump relief valve will be doing all the work - might want to adjust it so spool valve one is the limiter? Cartridge usually has o-ring seal at base - you removed the cartridge so was o-ring ok? If you cannot identify valve, you'll just have to take it to someone who can :dunno: local hydraulic supplier?

I was chatting with an old boy who was collecting this afternoon. I asked him what era, in his opinion, was it that people thought of when donating. He replied that although the majority still talked about WW1, he felt there was a gradually increasing awareness of RBL activities and conflicts associated with more modern times. To his credit he had a backdrop display of prints depicting not just a WW1 trench scene, but a WW2 battle, a bomber and also a Hercules transport flying over a desert landscape. He said he was really annoyed that he had not brought a picture of a ship, as the Navy was included as well!! Good on him. If anyone is out there collecting, it would be interesting to know what people's first thought is when donating :dunno:

Yes. Sounds like you have tested the relief valve built into the pump unit. Often (and almost always on a crane installation) a spool valve block will have a relief valve combined, at the input end - you need to check this. If not, is there another seperate relief valve anywhere? Is the spool valve housing one casting, or assembled with seperate spools bolted together? Make? (Kontak by any chance?)

They're entitled to, after all, they did recover an Enigma Machine..... :whistle:

Can you explain the nature of your problem? (It's a Health and Safety and Lifting Equipment Regs minefield out there :shake: )