Phillip, a chap over here made his cups by forming them from a white industrial plastic sheet. He told me he heated it in the oven, then pressed the sheet with the suspension ball and an arm. I cannot report on how well they have worked though.
It is great to see that you are having a go at a new angle.
Enjoying your thread. Thanks.

I made some replacement cups out of some pvc drainage pipe years ago. It was a case of simply cutting to approximately the right size, heating until soft then forming the cup by forcing the softened plastic into the socket using a spare suspension ball and the appropriately sized hammer. Then it was just a case of trimming to the right size and forming the slot. They seem to work alright and have been in place for 25 years. Haven't pulled the suspension unit apart to see how well they've worn though. I don't think the cups need to be particularly strong though... and I like the idea of using graphite.

Wheely, Wheely Good......
 

Its been slow progress over last few months, seem to be making small amounts of progress across a number of areas but no milestones achieved:

- Engine is all in pieces, waiting on parts;
- Diff is all in pieces, waiting on parts;
- Suspension is all in pieces, waiting on parts;
- Gearbox is all in pieces, waiting on parts;

:giveup

Hopefully not too far away and all the ground work on the above will suddenly create a jump in progress.

Finally got the wheels up to Perth where, thanks to Wayne Henderson, they are now on their way to Hugh Davies in South Australia for the magical re-rubber treatment.

Good Move Phillip ! With the high Quality resto you are doing it will be the Icing on the cake Dale

A shift in time.....
 

Thanks Dale,

I've been on the road and today I had my hands on two NOS Wheels. Unfortunately the owner (a MV collector) has left them outside for some time and they have rusted to the point where the the rubber is perished away from the rim :doh:

The gear selector rebuild has been completed, ready for when the final gearbox bearing arrives so I can rebuild that :coffee

Hi Phillip it's a good idea to cut off those two lung mounts flush with the side of top cover plate , as they can get in the road with gear change movement . Dale

Phew...
 

After 'boiling' the engine in molasses for two weeks, its now clean of scale and rust - just incredible what came out of it.

Pulled the engine studs out, after reading about this process, I took it easy but found that only two of the studs made a cracking sound, the rest were a fine line between "are they shearing or coming out".

Finally got the hang it after braking four studs (oops). Best process was heat the stud, cool, test, reheat and retest. Some really stubborn ones came out after about six sessions. I used this bearing type extractor as it grips very low and it worked awesomely.

Engine is now completely stripped and goes into the workshop tomorrow. :thup2:

Hi Phillip. Here's what I had suggested to me. Don't run a tap through those head stud threads in the block. Find the best looking old stud (thread wise) Then put a couple of hacksaw cuts in the end or grind a notch in it, so that it forms a sharp scraping edge as it is wound in. then judiciously use it as a thread cleaner in all 24 holes. the idea here is that you will not take any meat out of the block and your new "rolled" threaded studs will fit fairly neatly. Then when you "set" your new studs in with a good sealer, you should have little trouble with leaks.

Gearbox selector
 

Just out of interest we were looking at the "correct" way around that the top of the gearbox should go. It seems that the lugs can be on the left hand side, so there is no need to cut them off, and they should not interfere with the angle bracket for the spring plunger for reverse as well. When assembled you can bench test through all gears , just to make sure the arm over the top of the gearbox does not hit your filler plug , there should be 1/2" clearance. I have also seen a gearbox with the filler plug on the other side as well, so no issues there with interference. Cheers Andrew.

Crack-testing the block?
 

Hi Phillip,

Assume you will be getting your block crack-tested?

Not unusual to find a crack between the water jacket and the valve seats, which will cause you problems down-track.

Mike

Andrew, I am sure you will have the full collection of gearbox tops. Some with no lugs, some with short lugs and some with long lugs.
My carrier has a gate, but no lockout for reverse on the gate. So, I chose to use the LP2/2a guide bracket with the sprung loaded detent that all you LP2/2a guys are familiar with. The result was that I had to change out he gearbox top because those lugs were too long for the Australian bracket (which bolts down from the top with lid fastening bolts) The two lug foul the guide plate.
The LP2 gearbox needs the top with the short lugs while the riveted carrier uses the long lugs to mount its guide plate (where the bolts go in from the side)
I hope that helps.

In the soup....
 

Thanks to all for the tips on the gearbox top. This is the original as fitted to this carrier but I can see the potential for those long lugs to foul the gear mechanism. :confused.

The top only goes on one way around so me thinks those lugs will have to come off.

I've had a few enquiries around 'boiling' the engine block. Attached is my apparatus, essentially 3/4 of a 44 gal drum up on blocks with a fire underneath.

I poured 8L of molasses into the mix of water and every few days lit a fire underneath to make the solution 'warm'. It's surprising how little of a fire it takes to heat this quantity of water.

Wash the parts with a soapy, high pressure hot water/ steam cleaner to stop them flash rusting. Viola.

Phillip your lugs look to protrude about 25mm from the side. your bracket should fit. It is the 40mm ones that are too long.

Lugs for the memories....
 

Lynn,

You are absolutely spot on. Picked up the roller cage bearing and assembled the gearbox last night.

Fitted the detent bracket and found all the gears and yes - reverse just misses the 25mm lugs. :thup2:

Just waiting on the pinion seal to finish it off completely.

It's electrifying.....
 

I need to turn up the Bakelite grease seals/ bushes in the suspension so that I can start re-assembling, however I decided to tackle a job I was not looking forward to. Wiring.

I tracked and labeled all the wires and made all the connectors. Having all the wires the same colour makes life interesting and I've still got to make up the coloured tin tags to identify each wire.

This whole process was made a lot easier by assembling the conduit in sections and feeding the wires through a little at a time.

Getting the wires through the little t piece underneath and then up into the junction box is going to be 'fun' 10 wires in such a small diameter conduit :doh:

Nice work Phillip! Now about the seals. Where do you get bakelite from?
The Aussie seals do go hard, but the material is a rubber type, which twists in itself when the arms move. I had a few injection moulded, but the guy would only do one set for me. (a trade for a favour) Old stock British/ Canadian ones remain pliable.

Bogie seals
 

I just use 10mm nitrite rubber. The local gasket guy does it with his CAD program using a thermal knife cutter, but you can also water jet the rubber out for a reasonable job as well. I believe it is only there for a water proof seal for the grease.

Andrew, that sounds like a good way to do it. I'll keep that in mind for the next one (maybe in my next life :))

Rubber :doh:

Mine were so hard I thought they were Bakelite but closer examination shows them to be, yes - petrified rubber.

We only have one firm in town that offer CAD cutting, I'll have to see if they can cut rubber, then I'll have to find some nitrile rubber sheet.

Another option may be a seal, is there any sideways force on the seal?

Yes there is quite a reasonable lateral pressure. The seal surface (pin collars) is grooved and the compressed seal is forced into the grooves under compression. The seal twists in itself as the suspension arm rotates, effectively no movement at the mating points. So, no, not a conventional seal. Find someone with a water cutter.

Thanks, can anyone give me the accurate measurements for the new seal seals, I assume mine are a little compressed and if made to the same size would not seal.

I have one here that is 12mm thick. I suspect it is compressed to 11mm. It may be less.
There is a lip in one end of the bore (i.d.) measuring about 29mm, however the rest of the bore is approximately 31mm. i.d.
The lip is approximately 1mm wide.
It has a Patent no. (pat. no.) 360168 moulded into the side.
The o.d. is about 49.5mm but is scalloped (sp?) in the center (about 46.5mm. o.d. at center)
I'd ignore the lip and the scollap and as Andrew said have some cut from a piece of Nitrile (11mm is about the same as 7/16")
I had a box of NOS Aussie ones. If you dropped them on the floor they would break like glass.
When you install the shaft and collar, you will compress the two seals to get the bolt through. It would be good to do this with the bogie arm pointing at its normal working angle.
I hope that helps.

Measure the width of the Bogie fork and then measure your gap between the suspension unit and divide x 2 to get the thickness of the seal. All the lips, etc in the original are there to over complicate a rather simple application. Do not make the seals too thick as you will swear a lot trying to get the fork in the housing, without wrecking the new seals. You may find different measurements for different housings, and you only need 1 mm or 2 mm compression on the rubber seals to work, and inside dia. is only a snug fit for the dia. of the shaft that goes through the fork. Cheers Andrew.

Seals
 

It would be a shame to open the box but is this what your after Phil?

Thanks Euan, That's just teasing :giveup

But yes, I must have missed this picture it in the spare parts cattle dog (or it's on page 13, which I still don't have!).

It does confirm that my seals are out of original specification as they measure over 2" in external dia. From Andrew and Lynn's posts the sealing comes from them being squashed laterally. Given the material, I'm guessing that this 'squeeze' will be minimal so the thickness is what I need to work out.

I've now just got to find a company to cut them.

Euan, if you do open the box,you will probably be disappointed (that is, if you wanted to use them) To look at, they will be fine. I have tried to soften them, with no joy.

Check out the thread I started post #2, "Carrier Soft Parts" It relates to riveted carriers, but I am guessing the Shafts, Collars, Bushes, and Seals would inter change across to the Aust. Carrier. If I recall, the Aust. seal does not have the internal lip or the external scallop, but looks rather like it is wound from a thin strip of flat rubber.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......
 

Wiring is not my strong point so it has been with some relief that I have got the dash installed and that all the lights, horn and starter solenoid seem to be working.

Now just waiting on diff, engine and suspension parts to progress.

Thanks to Euan for the horn button. An original Spartan horn that has been sitting on the shelf for over 6 years looks the part and even makes some sound :thup2:

She is looking very smart! You're doing a great job Phillip!

Fantastic looking carrier Phil . In the second photo is that grey on the front ready for como Dale

It IS the camo!!

(Very brave of you, Phillip!)

M