restoration Another Matador

[Jimh]

After a lengthy period away while we did things that were not even remotely military vehicle related we've found another project. We did a Pioneer earlier (Here) but never really liked driving it on the road because you always felt you were fighting the gearbox. Talking to a few people with Matadors suggested that they were nicer things to live with as well as looking quite good (the Matadors rather than the people who owned them) so we managed to track one down that had the makings of an interesting project without being ragged to death in a forest.

This might be a bit dull for a few weeks because it hasn't arrived yet but bits of it has so that is a start. I can't tell you much about it because we don't know much about it yet other than it is a Matador, it was an RAF one and I seem to remember that it is quite a late one. It was de-mobbed to Moray Council were it worked as a gritter which seems to have been the cause of its biggest problem namely fairly grim corrosion to the chassis rails at the rear. Nothing that can't be dealt with in one way or another. I'll fill in the details as they come in.

One minor problem with the new project was that when it was converted to a gritter it lost its winch but fortunately a winch from another Matador was part of the deal.  We popped down to pick up a truckload of loose bits including the winch and given that there wasn't much to do over the bank holiday we took it to bits. Normally this would have laid in the workshop until it was nearly done so it seems a bit odd starting a restoration here. Anyhoo, on with the oily bits.

As usual I didn't take my camera out until it was too late so the winch is already in pieces. The winch had a fair amount of water in it for a while which has done for the bearings on the input shaft. This is the outer race of the NDE roller bearing. 

And this is one of the outer races of the DE taper roller bearing. None of them are useable again.

 

The roller bearing is no real biggie but the drive end bearing is a double row taper roller and they don't come cheap. We may look at replacing them with a pair of taper rollers back to back which is standard practice and a fair bit cheaper. We shall see. You may also notice that the worm has suffered in a couple of isolated spots but that will just get fettled. There is no way that is being replaced. 

 

Just to show they are isolated spots. It has just gone where the worm was in contact with the wheel. The eagle eyed will notice that the thread for the bearing retaining nut is a bit mullahed at the end. Whoever had rebuilt it had not torqued the nut up properly so it had only been held in place with the split pin. This had given up the ghost eventually and galled the threads up. The nut had to be machined off rather that risk completely buggering the thread. The damaged section will clean up just fine. 

 

We were surprised how heavily these winches were constructed compared with the one on the Pioneer. I assume this is why they were handy for dragging trees out of woods. It really is a beast of a thing.

 

Next problem was that the clutch had been welded up. Correction, the clutch had been welded up twice. This required a spot of delicate grinding to avoid causing any more damage to the splines. As you may spot an earlier attempt to remove welds had been less than scalpel like. I looks like it had been welded up, someone had removed the welds, found out why it had been welded solid in the first place and welded it up again. 

However, the scars will TIG weld up and with some fettling it will all look good again.

 

The best that can be done with this is just tidy it up. The spline at the end isn't doing very much anyway. 

 

So once the clutch was removed (eventually) it was possible just to unscrew the retaining collar and slide the drum off. Nope, the drum would not turn at all on the shaft. The only thing we could do is drill through the retaining collar sideways to take out the screws to get it off. Even then the bloody thing would not shift. Careful application of a Monday hammer showed up the problem.

The bush which is supposed to be in the drum is very firmly seized to the axle. You can probably make out where the bush has been rotating in the drum. Heat did nothing to free it so it will have to go in the lathe to waste it away. What is slightly annoying is that the bush requires a sizeable chink of cored bronze to make a new one. 

 

And for completeness, the drum. This will need to go in the boring machine to clean out the lands for the bush because they are a little worn. The bush has clearly been seized on the axle for a long time. Might take the opportunity to tidy up the surface for the band brake. 

There are still a few bits to collect for the winch so if anyone has anything lying around we would be interested to hear what you have. 

 

Yes, yes. The details of a winch are endlessly fascinating but what as we actually talking about here ? Surely you have a picture of it? Well, not really. I have some happy snaps of details but the barn in which it has been living does not lend itself to photographs which illustrate the essential Matadoriness of the wagon. The only one I have that looks like a Matador is this one here and that doesn't show much as all.

 

We should have it in our shed in a few weeks time. 

[Scammell4199]

Great to see another british heavy being rescued.

We've very nearly finished a nut and bolt resto on our Pioneer. I've driven it a bit round the trading estate and yes its not the easiest thing to drive. Will get it out on the open road in the next few weeks.

We are also about to start on the resto of my Matador. I have a suspicion that the winch clutch is welded up, but haven't dug too deeply into yet.

It would be good to have a get together of british heavies at a show sometime.

I take it you have tried Matador Matt for any bits you need?

Best of luck with it. Richard

[Rootes75]

Yes, Best of luck. Looks like a great project.

[john1950]

No springs on the cab mountings!

[67burwood]

Look forward to following the restoration, I also have a Matador that’s waiting its turn to be restored. 

[Jimh]

The winch tedium continues...

The shaft was put in the little Swift and the bronze bush machined off it. It was seized solid and the only bit left was the thrust face seen sitting forlornly. It is obvious that the bush was replaced at some point but the clearance was hopelessly tight and there were no gutters for the grease so it never got any lubrication. Fortunately the bearing surface on the shaft is just fine. 

 

We didn't need to do much cleaning on the last project because almost everything was new so all of the wire brushes and crappy power drills had to be dug out to go back to scraping, cleaning and picking. I'd forgotten what a restful, if messy, job it is. 

 

Winch brake bracket with the rivets drilled out of the brake band anchor. The brake band had been cut off at one end so we are rolling up a new one. 

 

And what it looks like after you've spent an hour or so getting it clean. 

 

Other end of the brake band removed and awaiting repair. There is meant to be a longer threaded section on this to allow the band to be adjusted.

 

The winch drum retaining collar could not be removed as it was meant to because the drum was seized solid so the set screws had to be drilled out from the side meaning it is now buggered. Another thing to add to the list of things to make.

 

The remains of the bearing retaining nut. This thread had galled up because it hadn't been tightened properly and it had sheared the split pin which galled the thread. Rather than risk wrecking the thread on the worm shaft it was put in the milling machine and the nut wasted away and split. Which means making a new nut.

 

And here is the start of the new nut. No hex on it yet but it needed the thread cut to fit the the thread on the worm shaft. 

 

This is the worm shaft which got popped in the lathe and had the thread recut fractionally smaller to clean it up. It hasn't suffered to much for its trauma. The green stuff at the bottom of the thread is Time Saver from lapping the nut to it. 

 

New taper roller bearings to replace the duff one. Originally this was a twin row bearing but a replacement was going to be north of £300 so it can live with a pair of single row taper rollers back to back. It is hardly a high speed application and these can more than take the thrust so it's all good. 

Universal joint, stripped, cleaned and rebuilt.

 

And the bottom half of the gear case cleaned and ready to get re-assembled. 

 

Nice and clean

 

It's very nice cleaning stuff like this. It gives to time to think about the finer points of how it might have been made or why something was designed in a particular way. 

 

The axle was seized into the chassis mounting and it took a fair bit of heat and brute force to separate the two. Hardly much else to do to these other than clean them up.

 

Incidentally, from what I can see if this is a fairly late RAF lorry then it would have been painted in drab olive and depending on how late it is would have had matt black markings. Is that the case? It seems odd to get upset about it now but we need to order the paint.