daz76

I have been in touch with Morris oils and Forest lubricants. Forest are phoning me back with prices tomorrow as they want to cross reference the OMD classification first. This is how is stands at the moment: OC600 Beware! Both companies say that SAE 140 is too thin an equivalent for this. I'm sure some of you have had no problems using this though. I'm only passing on their advice. I don't know the ins and outs but apparently OC 600 has a viscosity of 400+ and SAE 140 only manages around 300. Morris makes "Compound T Steam cylinder oil" and Forest make "C 600" which is similar stuff. Forest says their C600 has been used successfully in rear axles etc of old military vehicles and is around twice as heavy as SAE140. This sounds like it is a closer match to the original and in any event the man from Forest says a steam cylinder oil would be preferable to use than an SAE 140. You can also use this in Torpedoes :captain: if you wish, although I've yet to fit this accessory to the Explorer!!! OMD330 Morris calls this "AG90" and Forest are checking before giving advice. Both say the SAE 90 (gear use) or SAE 50 (Engine) is a much closer match to OMD330 than SAE 140 is to OC600. I will post Forest lubricants prices when I get them, but here is the quote from Morris's of Shrewsbury including VAT and delivery when purchased through their "Steamers' Account". Current at 20/04/09. OC600/Compound T steam cylinder oil 5 litres = £25.30 4x 5l = £71.07 25l = £85.39 OMD330/AG90 5l = £24.38 4x 5l = £69.23 25l = £84.53 Hopefully more news tomorrow and I'll post their web address and phone nos. if anyone needs to get in touch. I've just worked out that to do an all over oil change I'll need 40l of OC600 and 12l of OMD330, so i'm just off to lay down in a darkened room..:sweat::sweat::sweat:Perhaps a check and top up will be fine for now.

Ps I think there's a couple of other companies too- Forest lubricants and another one. I'll try to find the best price. :sweat:

Thanks for the info Croc and Thor. Just didn;'t want to fill the old beast up with the wrong stuff and ruin something before I even get him back on the road! Got some winching of trees to do before long. Will take pics of course! Andy-I'll get on to Morrisssssss's this week and post my findings. :cool2: Daz

Thanks Andy mate! Just need to find the modern equivalents to these so I'll get in touch with Morris oils and see if they can shed some light. Looking at this the whole rear axle (ie diff and walking beams) uses the same OC600 throughout whilst the front axle shares the same as the gearboxes. Great help Ta. :yay:

Mmm- Seems like we've got partially conflicting info Rob. I don't know how different 90 and 140 are. Hopefully someone will shed some light. Hope the rebuild's coming along nicely. Daz

Hi. Can someone who has an Explorer on the road tell me which oils I need to get hold of as I want to change all the gear/axle/diff oils soon. This is what I understand so far: SAE 140 for the rear diff SAE 90 for the gear/transfer boxes and rear walking beams Does the front axle use 140 or 90 and what about the winches, front swivel housings and steering box? I'd appreciate advice from anyone as I've heard conflicting advice. Don't want to order the wrong stuff obviously. Thanks. Daz :-D

Mike- I have some photos of HFO 990 taken a few weeks ago by my Dad. Malcolm Bowles still has it and it is in pretty regular use. He has another constructor for spares. I have no way of scanning photos at my current location, but will put them on as soon as I can. Best wishes. Daz

Haven't been on here for ages. How's the cab coming along Thor? Glad the telegraph pole worked for the roof sides. I haven't worked for ages on my Explorer but hopefully there'll be time in the Summer. I've made all the panels, but need to get time to fit them now! cheers. Daz

Fantastic! Glad to know Herman is still around! I'm not at all surprised by what you say as he did some pretty serious jobs during his working life. Thanks for your info nptimber. I was pretty enthralled by this old Scammell as a boy.

Mike- It's Alan Rogerson. An Explorer he was breaking yielded a cab/ bulkhead and loads of other bits to put mine back together. This Mountaineer was in fine fettle when I saw it.

Don't like wasting paint in the Fowler workshops either by the look of your new Avatar Andy!. They look nice and shiny. So Daisy's going green then?

Thanks Andy mate. If I can get him back on the road before I'm too old and infirm to drive I'll be a happy man! The weather's been so bad when I've had the time to work that I've only managed a couple of small jobs since summer 08 and now the land rover resto is my priority. Still, the chance of getting a barn up is not to be missed and should speed things up.

Looks like fun Thor! Hope you've got a good heater. I think you should leave the panels off as there's less to rust later on and it's a huge saving on paint. It's been working for me for the last few years and I'm sure you'll get an extra 2 or 3 yards per gallon due to the reduced drag and weight :cool2: The 'bikini' look is all the rage on Explorers this season I believe. Good luck with the rest of the job mate. Daz

Removing the cab. I should have mentioned that the floor was completely rotten and held in place by bits of rubber matting. The first pic shows how bad the bulkhead was. You can see the holes in the bell housing firewall. Oddly enough the bulkhead was much worse from the centre to the nearside. We used a block and tackle to hoist the rear cab frame clear in one piece after removing the the (totally scrap) roof frame. At this time we still thought we had to rebuild the one we had as nothing else was around. The photo from above shows the rust on the nearside of the bulkhead quite clearly. The 3rd shot shows the very impressive wiring layout! So much wire, yet nothing worked! Wish I'd taken more photos at the time as these are all a bit general. I tend to get stuck into the job and don't stop for photos really. Sorry about that.

It was a lovely place to work and a nice change from being outside. Dad had it built for his retirement to restore tractors, but then my parents moved house!! :shake: Ever since it's been back to the good old tarps, but I've persuaded my in-laws that in return for all the free recovery I've provided there's room for a pole barn for the Scammell at their place. Roll on the summer!! :yay: Sorry GPS- I'd put the kettle on any time mate, but sadly all you'll find in that shed now is plasterboard by the lorry load I could find space for a Yurt or Teepee if you don't mind a few sheep around the place? :rofl:

I'd love to say yes Thor-it moves about (see HMVF TV) but has no brakes and no panels or electrics...May be a while yet :cry: Still, I get to play every now and then when other younger lorries get stuck on the farm and need a tug :cool2:

Thanks Antar. I can't find a Mountaineer gallery. If there's not one I'll turn this into one.

By this stage of the restoration we were concerned about what to do about replacing the cab. It looked like being a full rebuild from scratch.

The strip-down begins. It was decided to strip the cab and front end and restore this first as this would allow the vehicle to be moved around more easily. The cab was in a very bad way. All the panels apart from the upper panel in the middle of the back of the cab were rotten. We removed the doors and stored them to take a pattern for replacements. The badly made replacement screen was removed and the front of the cab just disintegrated. The roof cupola had been removed before my ownership and the hole patched over. The heater unit and all the pipework was removed. Many of the smaller air pipes to the wipers etc had been cut or badly damaged. The seats were intact but torn, so we found some suitable canvas and recovered them. The seat frames were cleaned, painted and stored. The radiator grille was buckled slightly, so this was removed and pressed straight. One of the air tanks was removed and a large leak repaired. We sought advice from Duxford, who gave us the correct paint numbers and the front of the chassis was needle gunned and painted with grey primer after steam cleaning. The two black pipes in the engine bay were quick replacements for the cracked water pipes. A proper set will be fitted at a later date. This is the end of 2000 and beginning of 2001.

One of the last jobs with the Scammel before it's strip-down was to remove some trees to make way for a new workshop. The tarps had to go! Finally installed in it's new shed.

My parents had recently retired from running a coach company. This was a huge advantage as they still had the yard with facilities for 'heavies'. The nearside walking beam had wedged up when coming off the transporter. I removed the grease nipple and regularly squirted thin oil into the hole. I applied downward pressure with the jack and after a couple of days it came down after running the lorry back and forwards a few times. The scabby bulkhead can clearly be seen here. fortunately the engine side panels were still with the vehicle, although slightly damaged. The wiring in general was pretty poor and very few of the electrics worked.

Right, here's a few more pics. This shows the intial inspection on getting the Scammell home. You can see the fairly typical rust in the side of the cab, doors and fuel tank surround. I had a new frame and tank surround made up and the tank professionally repaired as it had sprung a leak. The cab doors were really beyond economic repair as the frames too had rusted so badly. A favour from a friend sorted that out and we now have a beautiful set of doors waiting for the better weather to be fitted, along with the rest of the cab panels. More of that later. The front mudguards were removed and patched and painted ready to store. At this point the restoration was taking place under a tarpaulin. A new set of batteries was fitted and with a lot of bleeding the fuel system the Explorer was coaxed into life and ran well.

This is what I'm led to believe is a Mountaineer. I photographed it several years ago. It was owned by Alan Rogerson and beautifully preserved in fantastic condition.

There you go Andy! Sorry mate...:-D

Cor! That looks and sounds good. Thanks for posting Thor.