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Another question - did the cold-start system use ether? And does "cold start" mean less than about -20C?!

Hi i have never looked in to the cold start system. But i believe it works on the same system as the old tractors the tank was filled with derv or parrafin and when pumped sprayed fuel on to a heated element in the inlet manifold causing it to ignite. Or at least thats how it worked on an old Knackered civillian crusader i had many years ago. Next time i tilt cab i will have a look for you. If the batteries are in good order you should not have any problems here in the UK. That is if you can stand the eyewatering moments when it starts and is getting up to working temprature

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So I had my first drive in 34KE59 today. (Prior to that, my son James had moved her round.)

Steering: *extremely* heavy, as if the power steering was off. Occasionally seemed to become light.

Couldn't engage 4th or 8th gear.

No light on when "body electrics" green button pressed. (Looking at the state of some of the red emergency "off" buttons/boxes on the e.k.a. body, I suspect one of them my be failing to disengage.)

Clearly a lot to sort out, but I'm sure we will get there eventually.

But what an awesome piece of equipment.

And we are slowly getting together the c.e.s..

Thanks for the various suggestions; I have asked Mr D. Crouch about ground reaction plates and he is going to get back to me. Regards, Dan

Gear Change there is mounted on the horizontal shaft that comes out of the top of the gearbox a cam with a collar arrangment that is located with a grub screw. this screw works loose and gives the same symptoms you discribe. Getting at will be niegh on impossible with the spare wheel on but is easy to sort out and put back to correct position. On mine it had been loose for that long the centre had worn oval and i simply threw it away.

Power steering check oil level first.

Body electrics if its all there it should basically a case of working through a stage at a time but gets very confusing as various stages are live when operating others must have no power to them or it cuts the whole or part of the system. Basically it will have been working recently so just a case of checking through bit at a time. To start check the main relay(s) on the vehicle relay panal the ones you need have a dotted white line printed around them on the relay panal or are shown on the wiring diagram behind the dash panals.

The plates you refer to will be available. I threw mine in the scrap bin when i was on a wieght cutting exercise. and replaced with various lengths of good sleeper timber 18" long with holes drilled in and rope handles fitted. The two i use under the back legs when on hard ground have a strip on 3"*1.5" channel screwed to them

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I take your point. My question about the cold-start was more curiosity really. I have a Bedford RL with a diesel engine that has the remnants of a cold start system just like you describe. I read somewhere about the foden system using some highly volatile liquid which made me wonder if it was like "quickstart". The foden started up yesterday having stood a few months without any problem. The only problem is the smoke! It is indoors and I really need to either buy a gas mask or figure a way of ducting the smoke out of the building. BTW I would still like to buy that replacement rope from you. Just a question of logistics. Rgds, Dan

 

Hi i have never looked in to the cold start system. But i believe it works on the same system as the old tractors the tank was filled with derv or parrafin and when pumped sprayed fuel on to a heated element in the inlet manifold causing it to ignite. Or at least thats how it worked on an old Knackered civillian crusader i had many years ago. Next time i tilt cab i will have a look for you. If the batteries are in good order you should not have any problems here in the UK. That is if you can stand the eyewatering moments when it starts and is getting up to working temprature
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I had a TM that poured out smoke (unburnt fuel) when cold - made the eyes smart. Which made me sure it was the cold start system which lets derv into the manifold. I never got round to checking before selling it on but guessed the valve was leaking.

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Hi There `i served 22 yrs as recy mech and used and Instructed on the Foden Eka,

I see youve extended the boom, the Axles fitted are GKN rated at 10t each whats your max lift going to be and how will you get around overloading the axles, as we were always told that we were overloading them as soon as we put Bogie blocking in and when we had a land rover on support never mind bigger stuff, althought there were never any cases of the military being prosecuted even when Crown Exemption was removed many moons ago

John

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When using the crane always deploy the side and rear stabilisers, it will tip over quicker than you can blink, just power the legs and side stabilisers down onto dunnage if you have no base plates for the them, do not raise the whole vehicle off the ground, I used to use & Instruct this vehicle from 86 when it came in until I left after 22 years in 98

 

John

Hi EKA Wrecker,

 

In my past I did a lot of work with Foden recovery vehicles, and also did all the testing of them for our area at the time (crane, winches, hydraulics, etc). I carried out overload testing when required, to ascertain that the safety systems were working and can tell you that it is quite a stable machine, but obviously if using it on soft ground you would have to be aware of legs sinking, etc. I cannot remember overload weights, but may come across them and post for oyur interest.

 

Your mention of instability, reminds me that the actual vehicle when driving, has a maximum inclination of 27 degrees if my memory serves me. I was involved with these from date into service until 1996, so a little while ago now!

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I know im a few years behind having just joined the site but

there was a set procedure to get 6 wheel dig, diff locks first then axle locks then low ratio, never keep it in 6 wheel too long as the steering goes stiff release axle locks then it will free off, always used that procedure and didnt get stuck

 

 

Hi,

Our Foden GS 6x6 Wrecker will not engage 6 wheel drive. We have changed the high / low range selector in the cab which leaked air in the low ratio but it appears to only be trying to engage 6x6.

We jacked up the front axle, rotated the front wheel but the teeth appear to be 'chattering'.

Has anybody got any ideas as got it stuck winching a dozer last week which was heading for a lake and had to use the AEC Militant to recovery the Foden!

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Hi There `i served 22 yrs as recy mech and used and Instructed on the Foden Eka,

I see youve extended the boom, the Axles fitted are GKN rated at 10t each whats your max lift going to be and how will you get around overloading the axles, as we were always told that we were overloading them as soon as we put Bogie blocking in and when we had a land rover on support never mind bigger stuff, althought there were never any cases of the military being prosecuted even when Crown Exemption was removed many moons ago

John

 

Hi quite right as a suspend tow machine the EKA Foden is next to useless. When i bought the truck it was in a rough state and rather than put back to mint i decided to make more useful for the civillian world rather than a machine that was nice to look at. I think i have outlined most of the mods in my posts, But to sum up i hacked of every buit of steel that i thought was surplus to requirements. eg the foot holding brackets brackets on crane lockers mudguards army tee heads foot plates sparewheel bracket etc etc. Any kit i put put back on was placed forward and low down. As a result of mods i did with the crane i ended up with a 360 swivelling crane which i can put over the cab when doing suspend tows. Result of all this i have ended up with a truck with rear bogie wieght of 13660kg Mt ready to suspend tow I believe it now has much greater capability than standard even with longer bottom foot. All though if you read i put it would not be used much for this purpose just it would be handy to have if needed. the picture with the 8 wheeler on will have been lifting around 3.25 ton and i suspect the axles will still be with in design wieghts. With out using bogie blocker ( what an abortion of a design that was to get around front end light, load up rear axle to twice its limit but thats just my way of thinking)

Edited by cosrec
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Hi There `i served 22 yrs as recy mech and used and Instructed on the Foden Eka,

I see youve extended the boom, the Axles fitted are GKN rated at 10t each whats your max lift going to be and how will you get around overloading the axles, as we were always told that we were overloading them as soon as we put Bogie blocking in and when we had a land rover on support never mind bigger stuff, althought there were never any cases of the military being prosecuted even when Crown Exemption was removed many moons ago

John

 

Also you must be stationary when engaging axle locks and Low range or damage to the drive shafts can occur many got bent by lads not following the procedure, remember full air supply needed too. Things keep springing back to me now, also be awae the crane had only 2 postions to lock it out when stowed straight ahead & the other was nearside (uk) passenger side, there are onlt 2 holes for it to locate, My Mate Kennys Freddy

 

 

Kennys Freddy.jpg

 

 

Base plates.jpg

Edited by Bag4life
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Various literature available ebay

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Foden-Recovery-Vehicle-6x6-Operating-Information-/310569631840

 

http://www.mod-sales.com/direct/vehicle/,31,/28632/Foden.htm feet for stiff legs etc

 

Also you must be stationary when engaging axle locks and Low range or damage to the drive shafts can occur many got bent by lads not following the procedure, remember full air supply needed too. Things keep springing back to me now, also be awae the crane had only 2 postions to lock it out when stowed straight ahead & the other was nearside (uk) passenger side, there are onlt 2 holes for it to locate, My Mate Kennys Freddy

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]74066[/ATTACH]

Edited by Bag4life
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Gear Change there is mounted on the horizontal shaft that comes out of the top of the gearbox a cam with a collar arrangment that is located with a grub screw. this screw works loose and gives the same symptoms you discribe. Getting at will be niegh on impossible with the spare wheel on but is easy to sort out and put back to correct position. On mine it had been loose for that long the centre had worn oval and i simply threw it away.

 

Q: WOULD YOU ADVISE LIFTING SPARE WHEEL DOWN FOR THIS THEN? AND THEN I PRESUME SOME FLOOR PANEL OFF?

 

Power steering check oil level first.

Q: WILL DO. WHAT IS THE CORRECT FLUID TO USE PLS?

 

Thanks for the guidance. Dan

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Gear Change there is mounted on the horizontal shaft that comes out of the top of the gearbox a cam with a collar arrangment that is located with a grub screw. this screw works loose and gives the same symptoms you discribe. Getting at will be niegh on impossible with the spare wheel on but is easy to sort out and put back to correct position. On mine it had been loose for that long the centre had worn oval and i simply threw it away.

 

Q: WOULD YOU ADVISE LIFTING SPARE WHEEL DOWN FOR THIS THEN? AND THEN I PRESUME SOME FLOOR PANEL OFF?

 

Power steering check oil level first.

Q: WILL DO. WHAT IS THE CORRECT FLUID TO USE PLS?

 

Thanks for the guidance. Dan

 

My apologies thinking of something else when i mentioned spare wheel all you have to do is tilt cab and you get at it under rear walkway at back of cab from N/S.

 

i use standard hydraulic oil on all our heavy wreckers no doubt somebody will come along with correct grades etc

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Some oil manufacturers advise their hydraulic 32 oil meets OM33 spec. I guess OM33 is a standard 32 hydraulic oil with some anti wear additives. Try Morris oils for advice, but without doubt any hydraulic oil will do the job in a truck power steering system. I do as Cosrec does.

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Hi There `i served 22 yrs as recy mech and used and Instructed on the Foden Eka,

I see youve extended the boom, the Axles fitted are GKN rated at 10t each whats your max lift going to be and how will you get around overloading the axles, as we were always told that we were overloading them as soon as we put Bogie blocking in and when we had a land rover on support never mind bigger stuff, althought there were never any cases of the military being prosecuted even when Crown Exemption was removed many moons ago

John

When Crown Exemption was removed many moons ago is that when the army started using the AA to arrange on road recoveries for them

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When Crown Exemption was removed many moons ago is that when the army started using the AA to arrange on road recoveries for them

I like going out to the green fleet stuff great when you go to a Wolf or Daf and you say I've got one of these

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I like going out to the green fleet stuff great when you go to a Wolf or Daf and you say I've got one of these

i dont go out to them that oftence now but have been amazed over the years reasons why vehicles cant be driven. I picked one up from a police station in Hull in the middle of the night driven by two MPs who had just picked up a very sorry looking squadie and they refused to drive the landrover back up North as it had a headlight out on main beam

Edited by cosrec
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i dont go out to them that oftence now but have been amazed over the years reasons why vehicles cant be driven. ...

 

There is a story on here about an entire tank transporter convoy held up in Wales for 2 days over a bank holiday just because an outrider motorcycle was low on oil - apparently under the lease terms the users are not allowed to put oil in, only the approved contractor? We can be quite confident they would have topped it up had there been a war on :nut:

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Daughter and I spent a few hours with the truck today. Day didn't go quite according to plan. Went prepared with 25L of "hydraulic oil 32" but couldn't find extension lever to raise cab, and no convenient bits of pipe to hand, so checking power steering reservoir, bleeding system, etc, couldn't happen. Steering wheel virtually impossible to turn at times. Other times nice and free.

 

Re gear shift - turns out dolt had been driving it with transfer box in low range. So today it went along a lot better through all 9 forward gears.

 

Bogie blocks had been extended, so retracted them. (That system seems to work anyway.)

 

Some very nasty clunks once or twice while reversing. I wonder what the state of diffs and diff-locks is.

 

Found out why speedometer not working. From attached photo, looks like entire tacho-generator on transfer-box output is absent! Harness and other wires dangling, including two with 12v battery connector terminals that look they might be something to do with radio batteries.

 

Found in one of the lockers missing channel section that clamps battery box lids down, so batteries (which had been bouncing around) are now both clamped down and the battery box lids both clamped too. Rgds, all. Dan

 

UP-DATE - I have been offered the units in the attached photo. None of these look quite like the picture in the AESP. Could anyone tell me what the hardware on the actual truck should look like? I have a feeling a modification might have taken place to wire in an electronic speed limiter, piggy-backing off the transfer-box output, not shown in AESP diagram.

speedo-wiring-eka.JPG

Foden AESP speedo sender.jpg

Foden Spares Speedo Tachos.jpg

Edited by djwalker
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Welcome to the world of Foden. Right now i feel you must be really worried about the state of the transmission on your new truck and see ££££ disappearing from your bank account. Sounds like a pile driver when you wind the axles up on a tight corner worse if you have any diff locks in.

Relax as far as i am aware they all do it. If you look at ends of rear springs they are located on top of axles in castings with a fair amount of sideways play the clunks bangs are simply when the tyres wind up lets go and the springs bang in to the side of the casting. Put a vidieo on of one of our old foden civillian wrecker doing same thing had quite a few different make trucks do it.

Note to moderators i have desparatly tried to find link to insert this but is not available on my menu so accept my apologies for forth coming bollocking

 

 

 

note to Marmite i have recent pictures from attempt to post on recovery theme and your advise i also remember from a long time back how to display you tube link but i am not getting these options where am i going wrong

Edited by cosrec
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You have absolutely got it in one, Steve. To tell the truth I was pretty dejected driving home: 55 miles thinking, are some cogs missing or broken somewhere, do I look for a donor truck, who's to say it would be any better; mind running ahead 'til 2+2=10! I have just watched your film, that was the best film I could have watched before turning in tonight; I assume those bangs were from the wrecker as it turned in the gates? Sounded very similar to what I heard today. I think it was when I put it into reverse, fighting with the steering wheel that those nasty clonks were heard. I think they were from the back end. So thanks for putting my mind somewhat to rest! Good on you.

 

At some point I am going to want to get this truck on the road, hence through an MOT, so any advice from anyone on how to get the speedometer back working much appreciated. Rgds, all. Dan

 

 

Welcome to the world of Foden. Right now i feel you must be really worried about the state of the transmission on your new truck and see ££££ disappearing from your bank account. Sounds like a pile driver when you wind the axles up on a tight corner worse if you have any diff locks in.

Relax as far as i am aware they all do it. If you look at ends of rear springs they are located on top of axles in castings with a fair amount of sideways play the clunks bangs are simply when the tyres wind up lets go and the springs bang in to the side of the casting. Put a vidieo on of one of our old foden civillian wrecker doing same thing had quite a few different make trucks do it.

Note to moderators i have desparatly tried to find link to insert this but is not available on my menu so accept my apologies for forth coming bollocking

 

 

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take it one step at a time but i think your front diff lock may be stuck in as well read my post from way back.

also if you watch vidieo you will hear bangs about three more times just as truck disappears from sight each time as it changes direction. When you are sat in truck in it can sound like a pile drive driver and make you jump

Edited by cosrec
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  • 1 month later...

live 022.jpg

 

live 023.jpg

 

live 021.jpg

 

Been fairly busy with foden of late alas only got a few pictures of jobs. Anyway today its first proper suspend tow on a Renault premium artic that had flipped completely upside down. Quite impressed how it handled it so much so i thought it earned a service. First of greased it all up every grease nipple except for front spring hanger pins went first time and soon had fresh grease pumping out (used 8 catridges). Piont to note for other owners front cross jionts had rust and water coming out so will keep an eye on these as they look expensive and bad to change. While greasing found various loose brackets and air leaks all were dead simple jobs and soon fixed

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