restoration Another Pioneer

[Jimh]

No pictures just now because the camera is away on a job. There has been some progress while I was away playing sailing so the next pictures should look a little more intact.

 

Clutch stop and transmission brake shoes have been returned relined. This made up for the disappointment of checking the clutch linings and finding that they were wrong after all. Rats.

 

The front panel has been cut, drilled, checked and painted. It can get bolted in once we have finished building the engine. The engine is now all sky blue as are all the bits which bolt to it. The water pumps, fan/compressor bracket, oil filter, fuel filter and starter motor are all back on. As much as I dislike sky blue it does look quite good looking all clean and new.

 

The gearbox, front axle, perch bar and front half of the chassis are now DBG. I started bolting things back on last night so most of the front axle is now back together. It seems to take more time raking round the big piles of clean and painted bits trying to remember what went where. Once we are happy that the engine is as sky blue as it needs to be the whole front end can go back together. It was irritating that the clutch linings were wrong because that is kind of holding things up.

 

Pictures to follow in a couple of days. With a bit of luck it will look even more intact by then. Maybe even Pioneer like.

[Jimh]

Better have some more pictures before we go any further.

 

Clutch stop shoe relined and ready to fit when the correct friction plate linings turn up.

 

 

Transmission brake shoes relined and ready to fit.

 

 

New front panel cut, drilled and painted ready to fit once the engine is finished. You'll see we didn't drill the holes for the cab uprights because we haven't made the new ones yet. We'll drill them together once they are in situ.

 

 

First fit on the NS axle. Can I find the bolts for the top covers? Can I bobbins.

 

 

Front guide roller and bracket. I think you'll agree that a little flatting down is required on the fuel tank bracket prior to the second coat.

 

 

Gearbox and chassis in DBG. Winch brake Neate brake brackets in place

 

 

Engine out of its shrink wrapping. Just look at all that polished aluminum which should be there but isn't. At least the injection pump won't be painted.

 

 

From the front. The front hubs can go back on this weekend. Great, that means I get covered in grease again. Have I mentioned that I hate grease?

 

 

Offside. For those that don't recognise it the bracket arrangement at the front of the block is to support the larger compressor which is belt driven off the crankshaft pulley.

 

 

Nearside. The decompressor shafts and links are still to be fitted.

 

 

And the offside again.

 

 

Does anyone know if reproduction manufacturer's plates are available for the inlet manifold? We had something similar made for the Sentinel but they were very expensive for small quantities because of the artwork costs. If there aren't any available how many people would be interested in one?

 

The inlet and exhaust manifolds are just sitting there ATM. They can't get bolted on until the retch blue has been finished on the engine.

 

 

And that's about it. Should get the engine somewhere near this weekend. After that the front panel can go on and the whole front end can go back together. Should look like a lorry again soon.

[radiomike7]

Jim, my knowledge of Pioneers is limited but would the engines have been blue from day 1 or only after being reconditioned?

[Jimh]

As far as I am aware they were sky blue from the start.

 

If anyone knows different I'd ask them to stay schtum. If it turns out that the engine could have been Gardner grey with all the alloy polished I'll have a right paddy.

[croc]

I had assumed that you were doing it in a post-war scheme for a reason, it will make it stand out from all the WW2 stuff. I am looking forward to seeing the finished article, keep up the good work :thumbsup:

[Stormin]

Looking fantastic Jim!

Are you going to go over those bare metal nuts with more paint or is the intention to leave them bare but oiled up?

 

Don't worry to much about the lack of polished alloy on the engine, I'm sure it's correct for a military spec model. You've still got a few brass and copper bits to polish, if there's not enough already on your Sentinel.

[Jimh]

The nuts and bolt heads will be spot primed and caught with the final coat of green.

 

The good news is that the clutch linings weren't wrong after all. We were measuring the linings which were on the centre plate when it arrived and it turns out that they were wrong, not the ones Chelsea Friction sent. The clutch plate now has abour 40% more area.

[gritineye]

Good progress, nice work Jim, I see you have slipped a nice shiny pipe on the engine, :shocked:, I'm very sorry to tell you this but I have read somewhere in a user handbook that pipes should on no account be polished! :cry:

 

This is because they can become thin and hardened and so lead to fracturing, apart from catching the sun.

[Jimh]

The thinking was that they were probably shiny when they went on but then were left to go dark and horrid over time. I wasn't planning on polishing it again.

[Stormin]

Good progress, nice work Jim, I see you have slipped a nice shiny pipe on the engine, :shocked:, I'm very sorry to tell you this but I have read somewhere in a user handbook that pipes should on no account be polished! :cry:

 

This is because they can become thin and hardened and so lead to fracturing, apart from catching the sun.

 

That's good to here. I had absolutley no wish to polish the air brake pipes on my Ward, despite encouragement from a few `friends'.

[gritineye]

The thinking was that they were probably shiny when they went on but then were left to go dark and horrid over time. I wasn't planning on polishing it again.

 

Dark and horrid is good, they won't show mine up then!

[madrat]

As far as I am aware they were sky blue from the start.

 

Unless reconditioned my engine is sky blue under the green. Although interestingly the bracket for the larger compressor is red primer under the green!

 

I like the look of this gardner:

 

[madrat]

As far as I am aware they were sky blue from the start.

Unless reconditioned my engine is sky blue under the green. Although interestingly the bracket for the larger compressor is red primer under the green!

 

I like the look of this gardner:

 

 

mmmmmmmmm

[SV2S]

it was my understanding that wartime period 6lw's would have been Gardner grey when new which is very similar to Ferguson grey??

[Richard Farrant]

As far as I am aware they were sky blue from the start.

 

 

 

Jim,

 

Sky Blue was used for engines after about 1950, previous to that Eau-de-Nil was used. Some engines, such as Rolls Royce B Range were painted in this colour from new, others were done on overhaul. It is so that water and oil leaks can be seen, from what I was told. As you are restoring the vehicle to as it was after undergoing a rebuild in the 1950's, this will be right. The Scammell Explorers engines were the same when in service........unless the vehicle had been repainted without the bonnet sides on !

[Guest catweazle (Banned Member)]

The early champ engines supplied by Rolls were black,as were i think there car engines,As Richard said Sky blue was used for the rest as they were assembled by Austin.CW.looks great mate.brave move post war top man.

[radiomike7]

it was my understanding that wartime period 6lw's would have been Gardner grey when new which is very similar to Ferguson grey??

 

I rather suspected that, thanks SV2S but don't tell Jim.

[Jimh]

Sky Blue was used for engines after about 1950, previous to that Eau-de-Nil was used. !

 

So it was either horrid blue or horrid green. I think I prefer the horrid blue. And talking of horrid blue here is some more of it. Clutch relined, new output shaft bearings in place, new shielded bearing fitted to the release bearing carrier with the greaser deleted and slapped together. Slapped together is a slight fib because it took a number of hours to set the fingers on the pressure plate up. Whoever had shimmed the fingers up last hadn't made a very good job of it.

 

After that the bellhousing cound go on with the clutch stop drum, the shoe and the muff coupling. The clutch stop shoe should probably have been light blue rather than green. Ah well.

 

 

Steering box and drag link fitted. However, it is now going to come apart again so we can adjust it. It had been thought that it was near enough but if we've come this far we really ought to make it right.

 

 

Other side of the bellhousing showing the muff coupling in place. I know the pipe you can see is shiny. It won't be shiny for long.

 

 

Offside of the engine with most of the stuff put in place. Water pipes, decompressor levers and manifolds bolted in and the various bits touched up

 

 

Offside of the front axle. It took most of yesterday to fit these up. One of the problems was that whoeverhad rebuilt the front axle had made a right pigs ear of it so it took a while to set the thrust bearings up.

 

 

It also involved grease which is the most depressing thing in the world to work with.

 

 

And from the front.

 

[Austin]

Looking good.

[Jimh]

Better have some more happy snaps before things progress too far. Injection pump cleaned. Those who saw the video of it when it arrived will know that it was hunting somewhat. We had assumed this was because the govenor had got gunked up. Turns out that everything is squeaky clean inside so that can't have been the issue. After speaking to the good people at Gardner Enthusiasts the spring on the back of the pump which controls the excess fuel valve is critical and being completely knacked and floppy as our is would cause this problem. It's nice when problems are easily fixed.

 

From what we could see the fuel pipes had never been painted so we just cleaned them up and left them. Wiping some turbine oil on them should keep them clean enough.

 

 

£25.00 bought a rebuild kit for the lift pump. The diaphragm was on the way out so it was money well spent. The little bowl at the bottom was full of crap too.

 

 

The fan now uses shielded roller bearings so there is no need to keep greasing it any more. If I recall correctly the manual talks about stripping it down and regreasing the bearings every 1000 miles. In fact I was reading the manual last night and it was telling me that the front hubs had to be stripped, cleaned and repacked every 5000 miles. Amazing what modern seals and lubricants can do for us these days.

 

 

At last some proper progress. Those who know their Pioneers will know that the body work is fiendishly complicated with multi radius compound curves forming the sweeping lines that we all know. I understand that to the uninitiated it looks like a sheet of eighth plate with some holes drilled in it but well, yes, that's what it is.

 

 

The good news is that I remembered to fit the bottom bracket for the hand throttle spindle before the front panel went on. The steering box was stripped and adjusted and now there is very little play between the worm and roller. For those whose Pioneer is a little loose at the helm adjusting these boxes is a doddle. You just remove the rocker arm from the box and rotate the roller assembly on its splines. The roller assembly is on an eccentric so it takes up the wear when you turn it. The one on ours was a mile out.

 

 

Back of the engine with all the gubbins in. The prickers arrived from GE so the injectors could be cleaned and refitted together with all the valve gear. That's pretty much the engine done now. The sharp eyed amoung you will notice that the clutch stop shoe isn't right yet. The lining is a little too thick so we'll have to modify the adjuster to make it fit.

 

 

And from the engine side. You've probably spotted by now that none of the rubber hoses (Hoseworld in Berwick - dead cheap, sell almost all sizes and next day delivery - www.hoseworld.com) don't have any clips on them. That's because we are having hell's own job getting hold of them. What I'm looking for are the Jubilee Aerospace clips BS2SP91 which are mild steel cadmium plated.

 

These have got just the right look for the period instead of the more modern st.st ones with the hex heads on the worm drives or those horrid looking wire ones. Thing is that almost no one stocks them and those that do tend to be of the aircraft maintenance type company who aren't very excited at selling a few clips to us. Anyone know anyone who sells them in small quatities? Is there anything else which would look right?

 

There is a product sheet here: http://www.jubileeclips.co.uk/pdfs/Lit%20-%20Jubilee%20Aerospace%20Clips.pdf so you can see the ones I am talking about.

 

 

From the top. Should the rocker cover thumbwheels be painted? The bolt in the top of the air intake spout is filling the hole left when we removed the butterfly valve for the ether carb. We felt that it had caused us enough trouble already and we were unlikely to use the vehicle in sub zero temperatures so we deleted the flap.

 

One question. The equipment list in the handbook states that the ether carb was only fitted to every third vehicle. What does it mean by that and why?

 

 

And finally from the nearside. Now the front panel is on most of the rest of the front end can go back on.

 

 

Then there will be no excuse for no finishing the cleaning on the rear axle.

[abn deuce]

Wonderful work , very crisp and so CLEAN!!!

 

Lets see I composed a reply but the Dang forum software this said it was too short and deleted it:argh::argh::argh: seems to happen only in quick reply and not advanced , any how back to the reply at hand.

 

The equipping of only every third vehicle would seem to be a cost cutting measure , that perhaps they felt the chances of a large number of the fleet being ever used in Arctic conditions was remote so settled for have a few units set up ,equipped so as to be operational in those conditions which in turn could be used to jump/bump start the remainder if needed ?

 

As to the clamps , very sleek indeed , whats the smallest lots they will sell them to you in ? Perhaps if you bought them and kept what you needed you could sell/barter the rest on to others that would like the proper clamps but like you dont need a dozens of extras ?

[Niels v]

I am speechless, that is such a beautiful work you and your dad are doing.

[madrat]

Hi Jim,

Those hose clips should be relatively easy to get, they just look like good quality motorsport ones. Have a look here:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Samco-Hose-Clip-Kit-Aprilia-RSV-1000-98-03-APR-1_W0QQitemZ290315579044QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Motorcycle_Parts?hash=item4398282ea4&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1683|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

 

and here:

 

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?cls=MSPORT&pcode=SAMCK01/HT

 

Hope that helps?

[Stormin]

Hi Jim,

Those hose clips should be relatively easy to get, they just look like good quality motorsport ones. Have a look here:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Samco-Hose-Clip-Kit-Aprilia-RSV-1000-98-03-APR-1_W0QQitemZ290315579044QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Motorcycle_Parts?hash=item4398282ea4&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1683|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

 

and here:

 

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?cls=MSPORT&pcode=SAMCK01/HT

 

Hope that helps?

 

Those Samco ones have hex head slotted drive screws! The ones Jim wants are round and slot drive only.

[Johnny]

If it's just the screws that are the problem, you could use modern Jubilee clips and just replace the hex screws with round slot heads.

I would have thought they'd be a standard size thread.

Edited June 5, 2009 by Johnny