Fortunately, Brân the spaniel puppy has proved to be a most amenable and intelligent dog and after a few weeks his demands have become much more manageable and normal life has resumed to a large degree.
That meant a return to the dirty and tiring work of cleaning-up the nearside front hub area, which occupied a couple of intensive sessions but there was relief when coats of primer were applied. Both (aluminium) hub-caps were also given special primer and a first undercoat.
A fascinating day was spent working with the Drains Gang on the top-end of the Ffestiniog Railway. Sadly, the only train was hauled by Funkey Vale of Ffestiniog but extreme drought has ended steam locomotive operation until further rain. Yes, even in a legendary, wet part of North Wales.
Back at the bus, silver paint was applied to the nearside hub and the search for the nearside driving-mirror bracket was resumed. After it was found, green undercoat was applied to all parts on the 'green' list e.g. the hubcaps.
Another vexatious issue surrounds the replacement bowden-cable for the accelerator, which turned out to be almost perfect but not a like-for-like replacement because the termination rods came out about 2 inches longer than the original and beyond the range of adjustment available.
One possibility was to move the front support bracket back by those 2" by drilling new fixing holes, but that would be hard work and invasive. The alternative was to cut and re-terminate the rod at the front, which I decided was a better course of action because it did not change the basic structure of the bus.
The worst case scenario was a new cable, but putting a new thread on the end of a 3/16" steel rod does not appear to be 'cutting-edge' engineering (pun intended). Sofar, the only fly in the ointment has been the requirement to purchase the necessary 10/32 die to augment my UNF set.
The other little job was to take some measurements off the driver's seat with a view to replacement. Both Peter (MB90) and Keith (SM88) have offered advice on this point, and so far as I can tell the seat on SM106 is from a low driving-position 1MB type vehicle.
According to the Chapman Seating website, the seat base that I require is the lowest of the low at 242mm pedestal height; what I have is the highest of the high, and my legs hit the underside of the steering wheel! Let's see what we can find now that we know what we are looking for.
Very swift (pun intended again) work by my chosen supplier AND the Royal Mail meant that the necessary tooling had arrived on my doormat by the time I had done all the morning chores, so I set off with intent to deal with the bowden-cable.
A gadget that I made to grip the rod turned out to be ineffective, so I had to bite the bullet and grip the rod in my bench-vise. Luckily, being old and British, it does not have serrated jaws that wreck anything you try to hold.
After a dry-run on the off-cut that I had produced, it was on with the real cable and without trouble in short while I had a new threaded end an inch long ready for deployment. I do enjoy a bit of old-school metalworking! My first screw-thread was in the second form at Hitchin Boys' Grammar School, in the happy days when such skills were regarded as useful.
Thereafter it was just a matter of a dab of moly grease and reassembly with care to position and lock the unibal correctly on the new threaded end.
Keeping a number of alternative worksites open has always appealed to me, so I have re-started an interior decorating task which will run for a long time: painting the saloon ceiling progressively.
The state of the destination blind flap is rather poor, and preparation would be difficult in situ and hampered by many attachments. It turned out to be tricky and intensive to remove all the screws and fittings, but we have 'been there and done that' before. The material is a laminated composite with a thin aluminium sheet on both sides, and has a large number of screw holes as well as the peep-hole cutout.
By the end of the session it was clean and flatted-down ready for undercoat, and bearing a message I have never seen before that tells drivers not to attempt adjustment of the small interior-view mirror associated with the big convex mirror at the exit area. I did not rub it away, so maybe someone else will find it again eventually.
At the next visit the first task was to cut the grass before the promised rainy season, the mower is starting and working much better after attention to the magneto and timing (Thanks, Gav), and a bit of tinkering with the carburettor. It is all a bit remarkable considering that it is not a lot younger than the bus!
In case of venturing out onto the road, the bus is now insured, but there is a way to go before it is roadworthy. Which brings us neatly to the subject of brakes, and the re-fitting of the prettified shoes. It was pleasing to see that the the toe-end pins and rollers could be tapped fairly easily into place after cleaning and lubricating lightly.
The pin-retaining bolt was missing from the bottom shoe, and a new one has been made from ¼" steel rod, with both ends threaded (basic skills again) for a UNF nyloc nut; there is no turning force and it won't come adrift. In any case, it is better than no locking pin at all! New split pins were put on the pivots.
Having put it all back together, I had a silly moment when I thought that the rollers - which are of different diameters - had been transposed, despite keeping all the bits in labelled pots. It turned out that it was just the drum hanging crooked on the studs, which made the visible gaps to the brake-drum different at top and bottom. Funny how the nearside brake-drum is loose while the offside is tight!
With that all wrapped-up, the green gloss was opened and all the parts on the green list were given a coat - hubs, hub-caps, nearside mirror parts etc. - and an orderly retreat executed. On my way through Llanrwst, the sun was perfect for a snap of the Conwy Fflecsi FC1 which has eluded me for years due to its lack of a fixed timetable.
I had just completed the installation of the bracket for the nearside driving mirror and trying to orientate the mirror correctly before sitting down with a cup of coffee when my phone rang. An important inter-bus-garage call from the vicinity of the M25 ensued.
It was great to chat to my MB mentor who had been measuring his driving-seat post and passed on the useful information that the driver's seat on a 2MB (he had the benefit of measuring two examples) is the same as that measured from a 1SM a while back. A useful and amiable chat followed, during which interesting information about a possible reversal of fortune for MBS588 was divulged. More on that in due course, I hope.
Then it was back to the front hubs and the installation of the hubcaps, which was easy on the offside but less so on the nearside, by virtue of ALL the studs having unscrewed during the removal phase. A happy hour was spent taking the nuts off the grubby studs, cleaning everything thoroughly and using the nuts locked in pairs to insert the studs to their full extent in the hub once more.
I learned that trick from my father when I was a Meccano student in the 'sixties. The real mystery, however is why the studs are metric, M8 in fact? The parts list gives 5/16" BSF, and not something you could drill out and make a new M8 thread. Another of life's mysteries.
After lunch it was a case of putting the offside brake drum back in place after temporary removal for application of a second coat of Lincoln Green to the hub face. It all looked very pretty. The nearside hubcap and hub also received the same green gloss ready for their reassembly in the near future.
I made a note to myself to check the PRV model picture for the nearside driving mirror mounting, and had a good look at the mess that is the chassis lubrication pipework before the wheels are re-fitted. On the offside, the pipes to the spring pins have all been sorted, but the three pipes to the swivel are all broken at the hub manifold. The fourth pipe to the drag-link ball-joint is intact.
Sadly, my source for long compression olives has dried-up, and particularly so because they were so successful. An alternative source must be investigated, but they will undoubtedly be expensive and the number required will not be small. Funny how we are still looking at tiny parts stopping the job.
On the nearside I was able to make elbows fit into the spring-hanger pins, but nothing will enter the forward pin, and sadly my parts list is elusive on what the necessary thread form should be. "So it goes", as Kurt would say.
The nearside hubcap was attached and the drum mounted, which was solid progress and made me happy. The driving mirror was fixed quickly, after I discovered how to convert it from offside to nearside! It now looks like PRV's picture. The problem of the radiator-stay came into focus after I realised that the riser pipe to the header tank fouled the leak-off pipe from the hydraulic motor.
In adjusting the vertical position of the copper pipe bend (fortunately I had made allowance for a lot of overlap with the flexible hose) I had cause to look carefully at the radiator fixings. It was very obvious that the old fixing holes for the chassis outrigger were in almost exactly the right location for the stay-rod.
A new chassis bracket will be needed, but otherwise it looks simple enough, and while I was discussing making olives with my favourite metalworking establishment, I bought a suitable offcut of mild steel to make the new bracket. As this was a homework project, I dusted off my progress on the new pin for the rubber bush in the eye of the stay-rod. Positive steps!
Not fancying anything too intense, or dirty, I took my Stanley knife and cut a piece of Treadmaster flooring for the ramp in the upper saloon, and spent a happy hour fettling it to size. Fortunately, given its ridiculous, modern price and dubious unavailability, I was relieved when this irreplaceable item turned out a great success and I look forward to sticking it down in due course.
An hour was spent with a vise, hammer, angle-grinder (fitted with a wire brush) and a paintbrush to straighten, clean-up and prime two lengths of pyramid strip to complement the new Treadmaster on the 'ramp'. A sensible quantity of pyramid-strip nosing was recovered from the remains of DMS1067 back in 2005, when the bus was dismantled for spares - most critically, the Leyland 680 engine which went to restore WMPTE 6311 - at Wythall.
I am still impressesed that the bench-seat footstool dimensions are so compatible between an SM and a DMS! Well done PRV for standardisation. Having said which, I'd be seriously concerned if I was trying to recreate the quadrant at its rear end!
Lottie the Lathe was kept busy for an evening with progress on the radiator-stay pin, which now attaches securely to its bracket, and then railways took over for a whole weekend (the first of two, as the Ffestiniog Jubilee approached). On Saturday the infrastructure train was loaded with new drain-chamber lids, and on Sunday they were deployed on the line from Tan y Bwlch to Glan y Pwll between service trains.
Upnor Castle provided ample motive power and all the right Gardner noises. Working on the line at the top end of Moelwyn Tunnel was a fine experience and worth setting my alarm for 0515.
Another railway story, told to me by my MB mentor, is that early diesel locomotives (as observed on a Class 31 during the NYMR gala) ALSO used the same Chapman seat-base with a long column, but a different seat unit with armrests! What a fabulous product, that must have made a real profit over the many years in production.
Unfortunately for SM106, the FR has rather dominated life recently, with volunteer duties at Boston Lodge over the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, but it was truly a spectacle almost beyond belief as all the locomotives assembled on the Cob at Porthmadog. The shunting, sorting and scheduling of the necessary workings was an equal spectacle, and my location at Boston Lodge Halt provided good visibility.
The later part of the afternoon provided an unexpected pleasure when I conducted a circuit with RMC1490 on the bus shuttle which was in operation. Doors to close made this doubly enjoyable!
RT3148 makes a fine sight at Epsom on 418 Heritage Day.
Photo © R.Hastings
|
SM106 at the same stop 50 years ago, but on a Sunday 406 duty.
Photo © P.Graves
|
Coverage of the vehicles assembled and participating in the Route 418 Heritage Day, shows a fantastic event which appears to have taken place in perfect sunshine. Sadly, the only LCBS Swift which survives from service on the 418 was 'indisposed', but there is a fine picture in a familiar location which evokes a long-lost period of bus history! One has to love a green RT, but what a contrast with a historic picture of SM106 at the same stop; How that tree has grown!
Meanwhile, back at my bus garage it was all about radiator stays. The pin for the radiator bracket has been finished and is ready for installation, and the chassis bracket had been cut and shaped with a ½" hole drilled ready for offering-up.
I found two suitable bolts in stock (real bonus) and popped the bracket in place with one of them while setting the position and marking the second by poking a drill bit through the second chassis hole. Luckily, the bracket fits well between the fuel filter and chassis outrigger. Unbolted and back to the vise for drilling, it was found that the marked hole was very close to the mid-line and given a good centre-pop as a prelude.
The large power-drill that I inherited from Maurice did the trick fairly promptly, and its high torque and variable speed made it easier on the pilot and ½" holes than my drill press at home! A trial fit was perfect, which surprised and pleased me, and the position for its bend was marked for another day (in case my luck ran out). Short of something else to do, I went underneath and freed-off the lubricator pipe which runs to the nearside front spring-pin.
The chassis needs cleaning and wire-brushing, so that was a start before painting and then extending the (broken) pipe with a new union.
It was a particular pleasure to visit the Llangollen Railway's Classic Transport event and meet with the 'A-Team' who were centred around the Dynamic Duo of BL88 and RF539. An auditory feast ensued, with a GWR Pannier Tank, a DMU with Rolls-Royce engines and a Swindon Class 14 with a Paxman Ventura on rails, and sundry road vehicles with engines by AEC, Leyland, and Gardner.
All of which pointed once again to the simple fact that SM106 is not receiving the attention she deserves! One potential sticking-point has been removed by the delivery of the bulk-pack of 3/16" olives for the chassis lubrication pipework, but I need a blowtorch to heat and bend the radiator stay bracket. Instead, I glued down the Treadmaster on the upstairs ramp and tried a new olive for size.
Very tasty, so that's promising and I removed all the flexible links to the offside swivel, and the air-pipe as well, which was harder as it was steel-braided and difficult to cut into to free it from the spigots.
A blowtorch was soon loaned by a friendly plumber neighbour, so on a day when Tuppy insisted it was 30°C in the shade (and a lot hotter in the garage) the steel was heated to a dull red in the vise and given some advice and guidance towards the proper angle when standing on duty. Lesson learned, the bracket was offered up with the stay rod and it looked just fine, so the generator was fired-up and the requisite hole drilled for the rod end.
After a bit of painting, that task will be signed-off and I can move on. The garage floor was cooler and more inhabitable, so I moved on to the flexible link pipes at the offside swivel, and a battle to remove the old pipe for the brake chambers. The jubilee clips were easy, but the pipe turned out to have wire armour and required a hacksaw to destroy sufficient braid for the pipes to be pulled off the spigots.
A complete set of flexible pipe links on the nearside swivel.
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
Freeing-off the de-mister supply pipes.
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
At the next opportunity, I visited my favourite hydraulics emporium and the conversation went like this. "Please can you sort me out some new hose like this?" To which the main man replied "Why are you using that hydraulic hose on your bus?" "I don't know, someone else did it along time ago"."Where are the fittings?" I indicated the jubilee clips. "They are no use, they won't squeeze steel-braided hoses!"
I was offered a sensible alternative, standard 3/8" air hose rated at 300 psi and departed with sufficient for two swivels in exchange for a brown note. While focused, I went to the nearside swivel and found that it was different, and used regular, textile-reinforced hose! "So it goes", as Kurt would say. As only one lubricator pipe needed repairing, I set to and completed the nearside pipework with a new brake hose. Now, only the spring pin oil feed remains to be sorted (a real mystery).
I also tried to apply a grease-gun to the brake camshaft and slack-adjuster, but someone had swiped the nipple! Sadly, it looks as if I have already taken the one from my spare (rear) slack-adjuster. More aggro!
Well-aware that there is a gross leak (yes, even today water runs out at unexpected intervals) by the union (for the nearside heater matrix) in the water pipe running to the front de-mister, I thought that a good prelude to radiator-filling would be sorting some water pipework. The pipes are copper, with insulating sleeving, and one pipe at a the three-way junction was almost completely detached. Removing a short section of pipe was easy enough, once the pipe-clamp and union behind the exit step-well had been undone.
I took some bits home for measuring, Unfortunately, the copper pipe turned out to be imperial, ¾", which is utterly obsolete and a will prove an interesting problem to overcome! In other news, the balcony-step nosing has been glued down and a medium-distance foray across the border yielded an exchange seat-pedestal which appears to be the correct height for a 1SM. I am grateful to all my colleagues that have been involved for their assistance in this quest. I am looking forward to trying-out the replacement and fettling it when it proves to be correct.
Trial fitting of the replacement seat-base.
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
The improvised oil pump device connects to each point in turn.
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
The very next day saw the seat-base installed and tested for position and function, both turning out exactly as required. In no time at all, the seat-base was stripped down, cleaned and lubricated and tested for freedom of movement in the lift-screw and the column. Both were absolutely fine, so the parts were set aside for preparation and painting, being only cosmetically corroded.
Flushed with success for a change, the next task was to rebuild the automatic slack-adjuster on the nearside swivel. They no long work automatically, but must be present and correctly assembled for the brakes to work and be adjusted manually. At long last I have assembled the necessary pipework to connect a grease-gun filled with lubricating oil to the swivel unions, and proved that oil goes where intended if it is applied at pressure.
In fact, so much was delivered to the swivel-pin bushes that it continued to ooze out for some while, but after a drought of more than 30 years I don't think that is a bad thing. It will be interesting to see if the same can be achieved by operating the lubricator unit with air pressure.
I also found a grease nipple that I was not expecting, so that received a dose as well, and on the other side to match.
Surface corrosion of the chassis by the spring-pin bracket.
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
The chassis lubrication distributor pump, and pipework.
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
The crusty state of some parts of the chassis which have not yet received attention continue to demand action, and with the chassis lubrication system being flavour of the month (and progression on a rear-wards trend) that seemed a good area to start. First, it must be noted that where there is abundant oil there is no rust!
Second, how could oil be seen to exude from the spring pin clamp when there was none evident in its delivery pipe? "So it goes", as Kurt would say. After an hour spent with scraper, wire brush and Jizer (or paraffin) things looked a lot better. However, more on the mysteries of the hook-on grease nipples which abound, but insufficiently to satisfy 106's full complement......
All of the attachment points for grease or automatic lubricator share a mysterious screw thread, whose dimension suggested ⅛" BSP, but certainly were not. I discussed this dilemma with my favoured supplier of pipes and unions, Dragon Hydraulics at Llandudno Junction, who very kindly lent me his set of thread gauges and documentation. I had but one (loose) example of this thread to work on, and it was damaged and shorter than ideal.
Notwithstanding, 20 tpi looked like the best fit, and the diameter was close enough to ⅜". Going to Maurice's prized ZEUS data tables suggested that only one thread has 20 tpi and that is British Standard Fine, a thread standard that turns up in many fittings on the AEC chassis and indicative of its long history of engineering. Most suppliers of grease nipples have only BSP and ISO fittings, but Stephens Lubrication of West Bromwich list the required size among a comprehensive set of standards, but only on terms that deter casual callers, such as orders in lots of 100s!
I was delighted, therefore, when I was sent an evaluation sample of a few nipples free of charge after pleading hardship and unstinting dedication to British Engineering Heritage. Truly, businesses near the banks of the Birmingham Canal Navigations seem to be the ones with the best attitude in my experience. Thank you again for this generous gesture. Next, we have to find out why one front spring-pin has a different fitting - which obviously eluded Blue Lake, or a predecessor who fitted a grease nipple somehow, but declined to use it!
The triumphal first-use of the reinstated grease nipple.
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
After its successful installation the new grease nipple was given a couple of priming pumps of grease, and the vacancies caused by concentrating operable nipples in the working area were given new nipples and primed. Then, by way of penance for such indulgences, it was back to the crud-mine underneath the chassis.
The saloon-heater air-box and the lubricator tank create a very congested zone where the chassis rises, which is perhaps why it has suffered from a general lack of attention. Either way, it is a cramped and unpleasant area for working and I was very pleased to crawl out at the end of the afternoon having made my best efforts in cleaning the rust away and applying rust converting primer.
Preparation and painting of the replacement seat-base.
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
Cleaned, prepared and painted: work on the chassis continued.
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
The replacement seat-base has been cleaned, rubbed down and given grey undercoat, a satisfying and enjoyable task in contrast with the chassis.
After significant periods of incarceration beneath the chassis, and the application of de-greaser, wire-brushes and paint, the whole area to the front of the offside spring looks vastly improved. The lubricator body was not painted because it is an aluminium alloy casting and not prone to rust.
Persistent leakage was attributable in part to some of the screws simply being loose. I assume they are bleed-screws of a type, but there is still a slight weep from the body of the pump where it bolts together on its mounting-plate. I shall also chamfer the corners of the mounting-plate, because they are capable of delivering wicked head-wounds to the unwary.
In recent news, however, is an answer to the long-running dispute with the nearside spring-pin. Many screw types have been offered to the recalcitrant pin; to date I have tried 1/8" BSP, 3/8" BSF, 3/8" UNF (5/16" UNF just slides in, so it is too small), 10mm and 8mm (also much too small). All to no avail.
Any of those could be damaged, of course, but as a last resort I had a 3/8" BSF tap on order in case it is what it should be but damaged - I was concerned that case-hardening would make things difficult, but we had to try. I have never approached metal with a tap more cautiously, but in the event it started to bite quite easily, and continued to cut metal as intended for a good 3/8" - more than enough!
The little brass balls which characterise the pipe fittings (see above image for an example) sit on a short adaptor between BSF and BSP threads, and I was delighted to find my spare adaptor screwing into the newly threaded hole. Now I just need a replacement for the 'ball' and we are home and dry, or lubricated, as Kurt would insist.
In the present heat-wave a bit of painting on the seat-base and a second coat of silver on the chassis were all I could stand, but it was a great session all round.
Installation of the bulkhead edge trim.
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
The replacement seat-base ready for installation .
Photo © J.Wilkins
|
A final coat of black paint for the seat-base started the next session, easily completed and good for morale. After that it became technical as I rooted around in my pneumatics box for bits of pipe and unions that would connect the portable compressor to the chassis lubricator, in the same way that the door engine was tested some moons ago.
I was delighted when it proved possible to connect it via an air solenoid valve which had proved unsuitable for doors service; without its coil it could be actuated by lever or button (or finger). Applying pressure from the portable compressor resulted in an unexpected 'thunk' sound from underneath the bus, and when the pressure was cut off there was a hiss and a click.
Eureka! A test rig for the Clayton Dewandre RP Automatic Lubricator! And, it delivered oil to the distributor plate and at least some of the remote outlets (a small pool was building-up by the offside, front spring where the pipes were disconnected). Naturally, I am concerned about the selective delivery, but after 30 inactive years the outcome was much better than expected.
That took until lunchtime, after which I set about the trim for the minimalist 'front bulkhead' aft of the entrance. Back in 2009 the state of the bulkhead with its stress-cracks was a concern, solved by riveting a doubling plate over it, but I have never reinstated the channel trim which covers the edge of the metalwork. The slot needed to be widened a little to cope with the thickness of the new sandwich, and then bent carefully to follow the profile.
For a couple of years the fabricated trim has lain with the original part in my home workshop because I needed to think carefully where to drill through for rivets, and maximise the grip on the metal sheet. One afternoon, with nothing better to do, I measured and drilled the channel with my drill-press to ensure that the holes were perpendicular. I opted for four fixing holes though the original had only three.
Back at the bus it was a case of tapping the channel home (a tight fit, of course) with a hammer and block and drilling through the bulkhead using the trim as a pattern, then countersinking for solid rivets. The result was close to perfect and cleaned-up nicely with a file and emery cloth ready for some careful painting. There's nothing like a bit of classic metalworking, in my book at least!
Later the same evening I found online a PDF of the Daimler Fleetline chassis of 1969, which contained a section on the Clayton Dewandre RP Automatic Chassis Lubricator, and discovered that I had performed most of the testing instructions correctly. There are also other tips which I will explore at length.
The next visit saw the driver's seat reassembled and installed, looking pretty while raising and lowering more smoothly and easily than its predecessor! Then back to the lubrication lines at the offside swivel manifold, where I calculated and then tested a half-inch garden hose to gather the bundle of four pipes for protection.
Another success, so a set of olives was broken out of stores and the compression joints to the chassis manifold were made up and tightened. I wanted to see oil emerge before the swivel ends were connected-up, so I charged the compressor and set to trying to find any pattern to the behaviour of the RP lubricator. It turns out that a considerable amount of oil was being ejected from what is labelled in the book as the 'breather' for the 'operating lever chamber'.
I didn't think that was good, "but we're working on it, working on it (Ooh)" as 10CC sang famously, back when SM106 was still earning a crust at Leatherhead. I have formed an opinion that oil is delivered where outlet is below the RP unit, but not where it is higher (e.g. rear springs).
In the last session before our traditional September holiday the radiator stay was installed finally. It took longer than anticipated because I had not done a good job of the hole for the split-pin and it required opening out while in-situ, but the radiator was finished at last and very solid, too, with its new rubber bush. I had no stomach after that for extended tussles with the RP lubricator, but disconnected (for examination) line number 2, which should feed the fan-drive.
Of course, there isn't one to feed and I have often wondered what the orphaned pipe was for, but now I DO know I am more concerned that there was no sign of oil being delivered. Neither, of course is it alone, so finding out what's not occurring will be the first job for the autumn season.
