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another Diamond T 980 restoration


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  • 1 month later...

evening every one

finally got round to wiring the head lights in, got to say for someone who absolutely despises wiring and most things electrical, the electrics are one of my favorite jobs i have done on the whole truck. so the lesson really is don't hate it till you tried it!

planning to take her out this sunday for a road test and will be the 1st time it has been on the road in over 20 years. got the new registration number few weeks ago from the dvla. was very impressed with their 4 week turn around so no complaints here. like to thank Richard Adams and John Wardle from the MVT for sorting out all the verification paper work etc both very helpful chaps. 

will be taking her to the Diamond T 80th anniversary event at Wartime in the Vale at Evesham 2021 and Capel military show, obviously depending on covid. 

till then enjoy the short walk around vid and there will be more vids coming in due course.

regards sam 

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43 minutes ago, Rootes75 said:

Absolutely superb. I really do like the look of this truck.

Would like to see it in the flesh at Evesham.

cheers rootes going to try and get 3 of my T's there for the 80th.

the 980 and 2 project trucks, looks like there is going to be a really nice selection next year so will be worth coming along.

regards sam 

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4 minutes ago, Trooper 3/9 RAAC said:

What a superb looking brute of a truck.

Great job Sam, its a credit to you have watched this thread with great interest.

cheers

Pierre

thank you very much Pierre glad you have enjoyed following progress. 

i am restoring a 1899 fowler road locomotive that came back from Oz at the moment as well, it came from Nundle in NSW

originally worked in south africa during the boer war then went to Australia in 1904, came back to the UK in 2003.

regards sam

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8 hours ago, the DT guy said:

thank you very much Pierre glad you have enjoyed following progress. 

i am restoring a 1899 fowler road locomotive that came back from Oz at the moment as well, it came from Nundle in NSW

originally worked in south africa during the boer war then went to Australia in 1904, came back to the UK in 2003.

regards sam

The Riker thread has just been talking about machines used during the Boer war!

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, johnwardle said:

Hi Sam, did you manage to get out on a road test? If so how was it?

afternoon John went out sat/sun last weekend and been out again this after noon. it goes very well and makes all the right noises!

had a few minor things to fiddle with after the 2nd run out which were all easy to deal with. just getting used to all her natural rattles and vibrations as you'd expect it to have. 

will treat her to her first wash tomorrow as most of the truck is no longer green!! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

got the refurbished bonnet fitted yesterday, nice to have the final big piece fitted. onto sorting out the hand full off little things like wind screen wipers which i have stripped down tonight and got them half reassembled. need to make some bits for them which isn't to difficult. other wise just a tiny bit of wiring and will be there.

merry christmas every one 

best regards sam 

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  • 1 year later...

It's been some time since you posted, I hope everything O.K. I have seen  picture's of a Diamond T in the Western desert campaign  and through into the mud of the Italian campaign with part sections of German Panzer mk 1V tank tracks wrapped around the rear drive tyres to aid traction the same as Scammell's. They would have been heavy to handle. 

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22 hours ago, john1950 said:

It's been some time since you posted, I hope everything O.K. I have seen  picture's of a Diamond T in the Western desert campaign  and through into the mud of the Italian campaign with part sections of German Panzer mk 1V tank tracks wrapped around the rear drive tyres to aid traction the same as Scammell's. They would have been heavy to handle. 

good afternoon John were still kicking but the truck has been parked up since July as i had a serious injector pump failure which has been a bit demoralizing as it had been done and not even got 500 miles on it. turns out the injector pump came off a turbo charged C6 RR generating set engine so the governor is not set up to run in my application. also found out the guy who rebuilt it for me the 1st time didn't clean out the fuel filter in the back of the pump which was full of crap which led to injector problems as well. 

but on a positive note the injectors have been re done again and i have new injector pipes, the pump has been rebuilt but the guy who is working on it at the moment is trying to re set the governor to work in a vehicle application rather than a generator set.  

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Ok let’s crack on with the Rogers so sad to say John that is just a pic of when it arrived it certainly doesn’t look like that know. So I’ll bring everyone up to speed. 
this set of pics is some of the initial disassembly, which at first looked generally ok which is why I purchased it but that soon changed!!

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Next stage removing more parts such as winch rope shieves and starting to cut the rot out of the neck. Though this quickly went to everything inside of the neck was bad so ended up cutting the lot out as it just made sense to start again. The whole construction of these trailers is littered it rust traps and the necks can be horrifically bad like mine is.

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After a few weeks of gutting the next and tidying it up I needed to do a few motivational jobs which involved removing the filler plates either side of the neck as these were corroded. They simply prevent the tank tracks from catching on the I beam as a Sherman only clears the neck either side by a few inches. Luckily this was a really simple task which made a nice change, after which I decided to remove the dolly to aid working and cleaning around the neck.

at that point I decided to farm out the dolly as a complete assembly as I knew the fabrication required on the rest of the trailer plus juggling 2 family businesses wasn’t going to work. The dolly is with Jason Jefferies near Bristol being completely gone through. This involves full dismantling of every nut and bolt followed by blasting & paint. All new break linings are being fitted long with a full set of new timkin wheel bearings. 

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A nice wet day job involved dismantling the 2 hand break wheel/shaft assemblies. These are really simple with a separate wheel and gear slid over a single parallel key, with a grub screw to lock the wheel in place and to stop the shaft from dropping out. Obviously 70+ years out in the elements means it’s never going to just slide apart so in the lathe. 
 

this is the kindest way as it prevents any unnecessary shock on the cast wheels. Making new shafts and key’s is simple enough to do with a bit of hand fitting required. At the same time a friend in Holland was making shieves for the snatch blocks and the chocks that would be used to help secure vehicles. So these were ordered and are sat in the painting pile.

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Back to the fabrication which after days of needle gunning I realised the central longitudinal I beam which carries the rear break chambers and linkages was near enough non existent. So out that came and the only reason this I beam is as so bad is it had a tray welded on top of it and it was just trapping water under neath.E190CDDF-2F06-435B-8BA6-0D293340C225.thumb.jpeg.e08c0b90c5bd1c9c846504176cf8cee8.jpeg

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part of the central I beam removed which wasn’t to hard to flatten it out by hand!!

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you can see below I’ve had to put a new corner into the left corner of the I beam in front of the wheels as it was badly corroded. The big gap in the next I beam is also due to rotten material needing to be cut out.

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closer pics of the original break arms and mounts fitted to the new I beam.

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few more of welding the new filler plates into the neck.

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Due to this trailer living in a hedge for a number of years all the inboard welds that secure the deck needed re doing.

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welding the new front I beam into the neck, which is actually a “T” beam as I left the bottom flat of the original I beams welded to the 5th wheel plate. So as to help prevent warping when the welding started.

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By this stage I had used 3 boxes of 3.2 mm welding rods!! 

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Original cast fuse box cover with new brass mounting studs and new plate welded to the trailer neck to mount it long with the front junction box.

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2 pics of the rear junction box showing how these trailers were originally wired. Basically all the black wires are the side/tail lights and the yellow is break lights. As the truck/trailer is positive earth all lights are earthed direct to the trailer frame and earthed back to the truck via the jumper cable linking the 2.

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managed to get a full set of new 8.25/15 18 ply tyres ex mod.

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new hand break shaft and mounting plate for the dolly as original was badly corroded.

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next set of pics is the new king pin strong back I made which originally was a single piece of 3/4” plate. But at the time steel prices were just going up all the time and I have tons of 12mm plate led around. So I tack welded 2 pieces together, machined to shape then riveted with 3/4” dia shank rivets so it’s nearly 1” think. It’s a tiny bit over kill but it will do the job.

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Finally as she sits today, removed the main rear axle trunnion pins (2 weeks ago) which to say they were tight is an under statement as the 50 ton jack wasn’t keen. One pin came out easy ounce I got it moving but the other took 3 solid hours of jacking plus rocking the whole assembly with the telehandler to help persuade the pin to move. But it’s always going to be a tuff job as the pin goes through 4 4”long bronze bearings so you got 16” of steel and bronze binding together. Plus the grease that was in there had mixed with dirt and set like concrete!!

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new pulley mounts for the hand break cable to run through to actuate the rear axle breaks.

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new mud guard plate that is welded underneath the hand break mechanism. Originally was a piece of 1/16 thick tin with a welded on bead round the edge. But I had some 5mm plate sat around so copied the shape but simplified the design. Also getting rid of the bead gets rid of a lot of moisture traps to.

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last pics to bring you all up to date with todays activities, needle gunning the bottom side and assessing the rear cross member and the rear chain locker. Oddly the chain locker floor is really good just everything round it is knackered. More cutting and welding required, lucky me!! 

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