restoration Scammell Pioneer Rolling Rebuild

[madrat]

The morning of Thursday 12th June was a special day for me, it was the last morning that I woke up a Scammell Virgin! I got a call about 9.30am to say that my new toy was on its way and would be arriving shortly!

 

I headed down to the unloading point to be greeted with the following:

 

 

 

Oh what a glorious sight! The next bit was interesting, see I haven't ever driven a scammell before and the clutch and steering are a bit heavier than I think they should be. Oh and to add to the fun the trailer was a bit higher than I had expected, did I mention there are no brakes?!

 

Anyway with a bit of messing around we got it off the trailer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been dying to try the crane out, we went to see a 'mint' explorer at £6k whose crane had been painted over so many times it no longer worked so it was a pleasant surprise to find everything worked a treat. The winch that raises the vehicle is REALLY slow to wind!

 

 

 

 

 

I have been desperate to remove the awful rear body that has been added to the truck, it was completely rotten so I had no feelings of guilt and attacked it with a pry bar!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am quite sure you will agree that looks much better! :yay:

 

 

 

 

[madrat]

The floor was also completely shot so that got stripped off too:

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a load of add-ons at the rear of the truck which needed to go:

 

 

 

 

 

For say 2 hours work she is looking so much better, I can now see what I am working with. Everything looks good with the exception of the winch laying on gear which has a broken bracket, and the upper roller for the winch is missing!

 

 

 

 

 

Now the engine is losing water, diesel and oil but I thought I'd have a little run it just to check the walking beams weren't suffering from Croc-itis as I believe its known? :coffee:

 

Anyhow as you will see from the following picture she was given a clean bill of health :-D

 

 

 

 

 

I have now received my manuals from the owners club and have noticed that the low oil pressure I was getting is actually the gauge for the gearbox! :n00b: The engine oil gauge which is hard to make out climbs rapidly to 50psi at idle so that great news on the engine front.... :yay:

 

I am going to the workshop today to start on changing the head gaskets so expect an update on that very soon!

[abn deuce]

Well done !!! New toy at home AND already making progress on the Vehicle . I m sure that with the other Scammell owners they will be able to point you in the right direction to find a few of those missing bits although it may take a while .

Good luck on the rebuilding the home front as well .

[gritineye]

All good stuff and progressing with commendable vigour, looks a whole lot better already :thumbsup:

 

The gearbox should read about 15 psi cold, but the important bit is 3-5 psi when hot, at road speed, the poor old gauge needs to be accurate to read this, so as long as there's any pressure at all it should be OK

 

You'll be glad the jib winch is slow when you try to lift summat :-D

[madrat]

The gearbox should read about 15 psi cold, but the important bit is 3-5 psi when hot, at road speed, the poor old gauge needs to be accurate to read this, so as long as there's any pressure at all it should be OK

My poor gauges are all rusted and smashed to pieces! Any ideas on replacements?!

 

You'll be glad the jib winch is slow when you try to lift summat

The place that I got it from was kind enough to give me two spare tyres which I rolled out the back with great gusto! Then I figured that I needed to get them back to the shed... Figured I'd lift them up with the jib... half an hour of winding later I decided the forklift would be a better option! :argh:

 

Me and 'Mrs Madrat' are just back from taking the heads off, I shall post an account for all to see!

[gritineye]

two spare tyres which I rolled out the back with great gusto! Then I figured that I needed to get them back to the shed... Figured I'd lift them up with the jib... half an hour of winding later I decided the forklift would be a better option! :argh:

 

I meant something HEAVY :sweat:

 

can't help with gauges, but shouldn't be hard to find.

[madrat]

I headed down to the shed this morning to change the head gasket on the pioneer, its been leaking water badly and I was told that there are rubber seals between the head and block and that these would be the cause of the problem!

 

I got the manual for the engine (Gardner 6LW) but to be honest its not the easiest thing to follow and kept referring to other sections of the manual that I hadn't printed off :argh:

 

I have put together a series of pictures that may help someone else needing to do the same job, I'm not saying its the right way to do things, just what worked for me. Spent most of my time covered in oil so wasn't taking as many pictures as I should have!

 

Here goes...

 

 

 

 

 

So once you have removed the bonnet and whatever engine side panels you have you will be faced with the above. Then do the following:

1) Loosen hose clip on air cleaner pipe

2) Remove bolt from top of elbow

3) Remove both nuts to rocker cover, then remove the complete elbow and pipework.

4) Remove the bolts from the rocker covers (Should be finger tight) then remove both of the rocker covers.

5) Undo the decompression linkage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the rocker covers are off do the following:

6) Undo the injector pipe unions at both ends and remove all 6 pipes

7) Undo the 6 unions on the return pipe plus the union at the fuel filter and remove the return pipework

8) Using a screwdriver lever up the rocker arm so that the pushrod can be moved to one side and lifted out. Take care to label the pushrods for correct re-assembly.

9) On each injector remove the two nuts and the spreader plate that holds the injector down. If the injectors are loose enough then remove them (Pull upwards) at this point, otherwise wait until the rocker arms are removed so that you can lever them out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10) Remove the 4 bolts holding the exhaust manifold to the downpipe. Hopefully you wont find that your manifold is broken like mine was :cry:

11) Undo the 6 nuts on the manifold spreader plates and remove the inlet and exhaust manifolds.

12) Undo the top radiator hose and the hose on the underside of the thermostat housing. Then remove all 8 nuts from the water rail. The water rail complete with the decompression linkage can now be removed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13) At the front of the engine undo all pipe unions to the filter housing and remove the two securing bolts. Remove the filter assembly (Already removed in the picture)

14) Remove the banjo bolts from the oil supply pipes at the front and rear of the engine, also remove the blanking plugs from the middle of the engine.

[younggun]

u sure dont hang about madrat ull be rallying soon at this rate

 

she defanatily looks better in the buff with naff body work removed :shocked:

[madrat]

 

 

 

 

15) On each head undo the 3 square headed screws that lock the rocker shaft in place. Then withdraw the rocker shafts starting at the front of the engine. There is one short shaft for each cylinder, i found that they moved reasonably easily out the front of the engine. At the rear head they withdraw out the back of the engine. Keep everything in the right order for reassembly.

16) If you have not already done so you can not get better access to pry up the injectors, mine took a bit of gentle persuasion.

17) You will need to remove the accelerator linkage bar to get the rear head off the engine!

 

 

 

 

 

18) Working at the rear of the engine remove the split pin from the decompression shaft

19) Move the shaft backwards in the direction of the arrow, this will release it from the front mounting.

20) The securing nut can now be removed and the complete assembly taken away.

 

You are now ready to remove the 19 large and 3 small head bolts and lift the heads off!!! :-D It should then look something like this...

 

 

 

 

 

Last step is for 'Mrs Madrat' to take a picture of her dirty hands to prove she actually helped out with the operation:

 

Unfortunately for us the head gaskets I ordered were the wrong part :argh: so we had to call it a day! Watch this space for the reassembly guide....

 

 

[gritineye]

Madrat' to take a picture of her dirty hands to prove she actually helped out with the operation:

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Madrat, you seem to be fading away in the background, get some Old malt down yer neck ASP...........Hiya Mrs Madrat, nice to meet you :cool:

[madrat]

Mr Madrat, you seem to be fading away in the background

 

I've been out of focus all day, having a beer just now to try and cure the problem!

 

Hiya Mrs Madrat, nice to meet you :cool:

 

I've told her to register and introduce herself, then she can tell the truth about my posts (Like how I ordered the gasket kit for the 6LX instead of the 6LW) she also fancies a ferret :sweat:

[AndyFowler]

I think this "rolling rebuild " has got you hooked good and proper ! The shed will make a lot of difference ! Have you looked at these sites for Adverts ? http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Scammell/ http://www.scammellregister.co.uk/index.htm http://www.milweb.net/classifieds.php?type=8 http://freespace.virgin.net/scammell.man/ Good luck mate and keep a search for Scammell Pioneer on Ebay for parts ! These handbooks are on there now ! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110260426895&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=001 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110260426820&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=001 Don't look like it's gonna take you very long at all ! Unlike my Explorer !:cry: Andy F.

[gritineye]

It would be nice to get both sides of the story, what does the ferret have to say about it?

[madrat]

Not much 'rolling' going on just now, hopefully get some replacement gaskets ordered up this week. Next job will be the cab :shake::shake::shake:

 

It would be nice to get both sides of the story, what does the ferret have to say about it?

lol, nothing to say.... :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[madrat]

Ok,

So I got the heads back on today, fairly straight forward and after bleeding the fuel system she fired right up. Good news is that with oil up to temperature I'm getting 45-50 PSI for the engine and about 5 PSI on the gearbox :-D

 

Brakes are starting to work and the stupidly heavey steering and clutch are getting better! Still hard work though with no power steering :sweat:

 

Decided it would be rude not to test out the limits of traction so me and BaronVonCooper headed out for a play. Loads of videos to upload but heres a taster:

 

 

[Stormin]

I'm not familiar with gardner diesels.

What does the decompression shaft do? Is it to enable different fuels to be used?

[N.O.S.]

Stormin, it lifts the valves off their seats to allow you to turn the engine over on no compression (imagine trying to turn the 6LW over with a starting handle :shake::shake::shake:).

 

Thus you can build up a bit of momentum (and some handy extra fuel in the cylinders!!) before dropping the decompression lever and enjoying the smoke effects :yay:

[gritineye]

Looking good, you must be tough up there, I'd have shut the door with all that wind about. :-D

[madrat]

The flappy door is rather annoying, although with no passenger door theres not much point in shutting it!

 

I've added the first video and another one to the HMVF TV site:

 

 

http://www.hmvftv.com/watch/1bc419542ce9fa43902d/Scammell-Pioneer-Off-Road

 

http://www.hmvftv.com/watch/f78948b91f03172341b7/Scammell-Pioneer-Off-Road-2

 

Loads more video's to add, just need to edit out some of the language :nono: that steering off road is hard work!

[madrat]

Ok so I was feeling brave yesterday and thought I'd have a go at the cab (As you do of an afternoon) theres no going back now! Funny how 3 hours can result in so much change.. here goes :-D

 

 

 

 

I started by removing bolt on things, took the cage off which weighs a ton! Although it had collected a lot of dirt whilst off roading :nono:

 

 

 

 

 

The sides came off easily enough and I was able to talk the door into falling off :cool2:

 

 

 

 

The rear of the cab wasn't as easy, lots of inaccessible screws and other parts passing through it. It was obvious that the cab went on before the winch and back body! Large hammer consulted.

 

 

 

 

Starting to tackle the other side now, the roof came off very easy indeed!

 

 

 

 

 

3 hours later this was what I was left with! A Scammell Skeleton!

 

 

 

 

 

I guess I can't go back now! Time to break out the wire-brushes and sand blaster :cool2: anyone free at the weekend?!

[younggun]

ime free at the week end :cool2: ull have to come and pick me up tho

 

work seems to be progressing well mite take some putting back together tho :-\

[madrat]

mite take some putting back together

 

Whats the guesses as to how long it'll take to do the cab?! It needs a new floor and some parts of the frame are too far gone! Someone give me a challenge :cool2:

[younggun]

by they way u have been working on it ide say ud be prity much have the cab done in a mounth or so :cool2:

[Grasshopper]

These things have a habit of taking longer than you think. Always an unforseen problem waiting to bite you in the behind.

[madrat]

ide say ud be prity much have the cab done in a mounth or so

 

A month!! :shocked: I was thinking it might take me a few days!

 

I think that the weekend is free and mrs madrat is finished teaching for the summer so theres no excuses for her... I shall post progress for your amusement :cool2: anyone taking bets?