Jan 2009

Boot/Radiator/Springs

The rear end moulding finally gets refitted after 3 years moving it from place to place inside the shed! and the boot doors fit too!

The new radiator and cowling have now been fitted back together and the fan mounting has been overhauled ready for refitting. Not bad considering how rotten it all was when Steve took it off.

 before                                                                         after

26th Jan 2009

New front springs ordered @ £700 a pair, ker-ching and ouch!

30th Jan 2009

An early start on this bitterly cold day - our intention was to remove the front axle and springs.

Ably assisted by Pete Johnson we set too on what is essentially our first major mechanical job undertaken on this project. With the replacement leaf springs on order from Rossendale Road Springs (see links) we thought it would be a good idea to remove the old ones sooner rather than later!

First job was to get the bus up onto stands to give us enough space to drop the axle before the springs could come off.

To make the axle beam lighter and easier to manoeuvre both brake assembles were removed from the stub axles, followed by the removal of the axle beam itself.

Once away from the bus and placed on the work bench Pete began dissembling the axle and discovered two worn king pins - although we anticipated these would need replacing.

With axle beam out of the way both springs were easily accessible. After some gentle persuasion the shackle pins were removed and the springs came free.