T16 restoration starts in earnest

[Lynn Eades]

Looking good . Your on the down hill run now. (btw.I think your little helper could do with an upgrade on her safety boots) I take it that you have that front guard thing sorted out.
Lynn

[andrew honychurch]

thanks Lynn. I wondered whether anyone would comment on the boots and safety gear. To be fair, she only brought me the cup of tea and I said I would put her on my blog! Naturally I wouldnt have the kids around that sort of work, it would hurt big style if it fell on you! By the way Lynn have sent you a pm

[RichardT10829]

do it..... slave labour ! my boys foolishly showed an interest one day... they were scrubbing rust from metal for the rest of the day

[andrew honychurch]

Indeed Richard, any help is good help as far as I cam concerned. I have a stepladder to get in and out of the T16 but inevitably I have always left something in or out of the blessed thing and have to get in or out to get it. My knees are taking some hammer so little helpers are very useful.

Axle now bolted in, took a little more lining up than I thought but the old advice from my father of getting all the fixings in before tightening any up worked a treat.

[andrew honychurch]

I wrote a long and detailed account of the days work and then accidently lost it!

Cant bring myself to do it again so here are the photos anway!

[eddy8men]

there's nothing worse than spending half an hour doing a post then the bloody thing gets lost somewhere and you have to start again, been there many times. great thread by the way.

[andrew honychurch]

Thanks for the kind comments Rick.
indeed it is most frustrating after all that typing! Anyway, the short version was that I managed to get the front bogie bracket bolted into the hull, but it was more tricky than the rear. There are quite a few, approx 16 or 17 bolts and screws to line to get it fixed in ok. There is quite a bit of flex thankfully for this task in both the sponson side and the bulkhead which enables one to line up the inner fixings near the centre of the vehicle. The TM states that mating sufaces should be sealed to enable deep fording, so I applied a straight forward black silicone which I am able to trim off when its set.

I fitted new rope seal around the rear of the suspension unit and front where it seals up against the inner edge of the bogie bracket and the outer thrust washer. I imagine this is a two way seal, one to stop water and grit ingress the other is to retain as much as possible of the grease held within the suspension unit. As I am sure many of you will have already discovered, lifting these units onto the bracket is really a two man job, but somehow I managed now I have a weeks recuperation on holiday and plenty of mental planning for the next stages of the restoration. Eventually got hold of Nordian Services and I should be in receipt of some NOS main bearings awaiting my return. More soon.