2006 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

Bob sees his shadow and decides to stay inside for the next six weeks...

[RHClarke]

-6 degrees C this morning at the barn. Lucifer still had some life after Bob and Grant's axle assembly Saturday marathon. After restoking and filling the fire box, the heat started up in earnest.

I spent the morning organizing the nuts and bolt bins. Now they will never find what they are looking for. Following that fun, I broke out the grinder to remove the remaining rust and scale from my six bolt rims.

Grant arrived near 0900hrs and Bob joined us shortly there after. The dynamic duo set to finishing up the other end of the axle and made some good progress. The attached photo show that the modern "mechanic" needs four hands to do the work of the solitary wartime mechanic. Bob and or Grant will post some shots later. Lunch at Chez Marie was as good as always - or as Bob says, "It's the best lunch I've had today". Our usual server was there today, so we could misbehave without worrying about having our bunnies boiled...

The sun came out around noon and soon we were serenaded with the sounds of large slabs of snow and ice slipping off the barn. By 1500hrs, the barn roof was mostly uncovered. All in all, it was a great day at the Hammond Barn.

[RHClarke]

Grant provided the photo. Anyone recognize the NATO (?) Stock Number? Part Number?

[Grant Bowker]

According to the AETNA Beraing Co., the A-1570 thrust bearing is discontinued (and no replacement is listed). I hope nobody's hopes were raised too high and then dropped onto the hard floor of reality.

[Bob Carriere]

....by know everyone knows we worled pn rebuilding my fornt axle last weekend.

The following series of postings will show what we did, why and how we did it agian properly the second time.

First picture is of the "egg cup" firmly mounted to a home made stand attached to a regular engine stand. We were very concerned about sliding in the long axle shaft and possibly damaging the new oil seals installed at the mouth of the axle flange. After the first egg cup was completely assembled ready to go into the main axle casting....... we suspended the front axle vertically from the overhead crane and basically lowered the assembled egg cup and axle shaft into the axle casting. It was very heavy to lift the assembly overhead to slide it in. We did it without a hitch.

So here is the first photo when the parts were still relatively grease free.

[Bob Carriere]

....forgot to mention the internal axle....R-Zeppa style.... was previously disassembled, washed clean and reassembled with hand rubbed Moly grease.

Next picture is the egg cup partly greased..... we very patiently emptied a full cartridge of grease with the new automatic grease gun. air powered...... I held the trigger and Grant did the cake decorating......

This was followed with squirting moly grease suing a large hypo needle attched to the grease gun fitting..... again I squeezed and Grant did the decorating. This will insure that the inner parts of the R-zeppa willbe filled with freash lube.

[Bob Carriere]

While I think about it....... Grant and I have a very strong recommendation to give everyone.......READ AND FOLLOW THE FRIEGEN MANUAL........ The MB C2 from Alex is priceless..... and if you intend to work on Rzeppa do get the Ford F1 or 2 manual which is more comprehensive than the Chev book.

Now down from the soap box....... the old guys did know best follow the instructions....... we actually installed the brake plate on the wrong side...... after walking tot he field to check on eof the trcuks in the cemetery section..... we.... first realize that we had the wrong side.... and further more.... in BOLD letter the brake plates were stamped LH and RH....Duh!!!!

At this stage the new bearing races had to be installed..... and before I forget......DO clean ALL the tapped drilled holes ... it makes reassembly so much easier....

Now some hidden talents were discovered.... enter the "Lord of the Rings"....... never knew Grant could tap tap tap ....dance so elequently..

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally posted by Bob Carriere
....forgot to mention the internal axle....R-Zeppa style.... was previously disassembled, washed clean and reassembled with hand rubbed Moly grease.

Next picture is the egg cup partly greased..... we very patiently emptied a full cartridge of grease with the new automatic grease gun. air powered...... I held the trigger and Grant did the cake decorating......

This was followed with squirting moly grease suing a large hypo needle attched to the grease gun fitting..... again I squeezed and Grant did the decorating. This will insure that the inner parts of the R-zeppa willbe filled with freash lube.

Bob..
Have to be careful not to over grease ..To much grease in the housing will take the seals out faster than anything..
And the manuals are esential,to hold the cussin' down..
Good looking job and well documented..

[Bob Carriere]

.... Grant did the bigger outer ring.......

Have to give him credit for being patient and very attentive to details.......

Wanting to do this job once and for all I replaced all bearings and races.....parts were readily available...... approx cost of bearing set $225 Cdn...... inner seal about $12 (x2) and the large big seal from the front drums about $25 each.

[Bob Carriere]

.... hard to stop when you are on a greasing streak.......

The next step was to install the new pivot bearings that I had obtained from Chris Vickery almost two years ago.

We discovered one tool I did not have in my toolbox.... a lousy can opener..... so I did the honorable thing with a pair of side cutters...... worked very well as the cans seemed to be aluminium... and promptly spilled the 60 years old oil that was inside all over.... oh well.

BY all accounts the ONLY source left is Dirk in Holland..... so the elusive pivot bearing are precious..... and they do not always have to be replaced..... forcing lube to the inside using Phil's technique can be a life saver.

Also copied on Phil when installing the bearing using a large 5/8 threaded rod and using the impact..... which you can actually stall if the bearing bind.

First the can.....

[Bob Carriere]

.... the bearings are very hard to get started evenly..... remember the egg cup is a curved surface.... although we had deligently cleaned the recess with a Dremell tool and wire wheel.......

Inevitably when we applied pressure one bearing would slide in like a hot knife in butter will the other end would get hung up.

We made use of brass hammer and brass drift bars.... the best weapon... I mean tool.... which we toltaly destroyed was a home made lead hammer. Got it as a gift from a technician from NRC.... they had their own brass mold and casted there one. Soft lead really works well but doesn't last long....

Here is the home made tool....

[Bob Carriere]

The pivot pins were selected from a used part bins. Each were cleaned by using the 3 jaw chuck on the wood lathe.... and emery paper. Pivot pins wwre then washed and lightly lubed. They actually went in rather uneventful fashion.

I am now sorting out the required shims and waiting for the new ones from Dirk to finish the set up of the pivot bearings.

Once the seperate bearing housing is intalled and the pins in place you can tackle the felt seals. Again using new seals is time well spent. Following the manual's istrcution is paramount.

The flange as to be assembled and fitted dry then loosed and the felt presoaked in light oil installed.... that is when I notices that Grant had athletic fingers.... pushing that oil felt in a groove half the size of the felt is tentamount to picking fleas from a Nun's belly button while wearing boxing gloves. Job well done which required 4 hands..... keep in mind we were working in ideal condition with the axle on a stand..... I have now gained great respect for army field mechanics lying flat on his back trying to do a good job.

I have now wasted too much space and the system will not let me include the resized picture.

[Bob Carriere]

.... before the flange and seal was installed.

[Bob Carriere]

.... which we at first installed the wrong way.....

New wheel cylinders..... the little sheet metal covers have been cleaned, sandblasted and repainted in POR 15...... inside the plates are grey outside is black..... all to be overpainted with a polyurethane binding coat and them ulti OD coats.

For the purists...... have you noticed that the bolts for the flange are all mounted backwards..... no big deal since they will have to be removed one at a time to be drilled for the cotter pins to fit inside the castled nut. I opted for new grade 8 fine thread bolts, washers and nuts.

Drilling them 16 little suckers will probably take an afternoon....


Next week we finish installing the cleaned and turned brake drums...... Grant again installed all the bearings and new seals. Shoes have been relined and arc ground to fit the arc of the drums. All adjustments have been loosed and lube with light oil.

With some luck tires will slip on and we can roll it under the front frame......... that little truck has not stood on its own tires for about 2 years. It is a slow process. Grant and I worked about 11 hours so far on the front axle......partly explained by the fact that neither of us are trained mechanics in the first place.

It was a satisfying weekend.

NOTE in passing....... we worked very carefuly not wanting to hurt one another or damage the parts...... you will noticed the heavy stands and use of sturdy overhead chain falls...... them babies are very heavy and could be potentially lethal.

[RHClarke]

Excellent work! Ladies and Gentlemen, we are looking at some of the best restoration work in the CMP "business". This truck will be a sight to behold (until Bob and the Larose forest collide).

Again, great work!

[Grant Bowker]

Yesterday evening I was summoned to the barn to view the latest development. Bob had, with no effort on his part, acquired an near Olympic sized swimming area. This was the result of the culvert under the access road to the barn having an ice plug frozen inside. Spring is definitely here with the snow melting and running off. Unfortunately this same runoff was threatening the access road, running over the embankment (a total depth of about 7 feet) rather than through the culvert. Since the road would have eroded without prompt action Bob dragged out the pressure washer and ran a water supply hose out from the house. It never fails, the faster you need a small gas engine to start, the more heaving on the cord it takes. Once it started Bob fulfilled every boy's dream, playing with water and tools to make a mess. The pressure washer was used to bore a smallish hole in the ice plug. Once a passage was opened we settled in to watch the water level upstream drop. The downsteam flow that had started as little more than a tickle gradually grew as the rest of the ice plug melted until the flow was more of a raging torrent than a placid trickle. Bob reports that 2 hours later after he had finally warmed up (did I mention that like all boys playing in spring runoff water he had not only gotten thoroughly wet but nearly frozen himself?) he was out on the back deck to feed the birds (or chase off a shunk or some other feeble excuse) and he could still hear a sound like Niagara Falls running. By this morning the stream was a more normal size and the road to the barn had been saved.

With worries over the road removed Bob and I set out this morning to finish assembly of Bob's C15A front axle. Steering bearing preload was set according to the manual, brake shoes and adjusters were put in place, replacements were found for small parts that had mysteriously gone missing, we speculated on whether early cab 11 trucks with small steering joints used different plates to hold the steering pivot plates in place since the early plate wouldn't fit on the later axle, put the hubs with brake drums into place, did a preliminary wheel bearing adjustment, replaced the tie rod ends with NOS parts that Max Hedges had sent Bob from Australia and insalled the tie rod assembly. Then we paused to take a photo and I promise you Bob was smiling.

[Grant Bowker]

...to admire the results we decided that the axle would look better under the frame, sitting on it's own wheels. Bob's overhead beams and hoists were most useful in positioning the axle and then dragging the frame into place over the axle. There was relatively little drama in installing the axle once we worked out which of the u-bolts should be placed first to reduce agravation. It was great to see the frame on it's own two axles and able to be rolled back into place as a rolling chassis. Details remain to be attended to but overall a very satisfying day. Bob's smile when the axle assembly was done was nothing compared to that when the frame and axle were mated. I suspect his face is getting sore about now from the ear to ear grin he's been sporting.

[Bob Carriere]

Edgard Allen Poe step aside...... Grant is a fantastic story teller...

In all the excitement I had left my camera at the house. Grant was gracious enough to catch the special moment.

Truck stands on its own 4 wheels after 2 years on stilts.......

....... what a satisfying sight.....

Now to finish the tranny and T-case and install the engine.... etc..... there is no end to this thing until it drive out of the barn under its own power.

Thanks for your help Grant.

BooBee

[RHClarke]

Originally posted by Grant Bowker
...to admire the results ...I suspect his face is getting sore about now from the ear to ear grin he's been sporting.

I suspect it is because like Bob, his truck is wearing light socks with dark clothing...

Bob recommended that we dispatch with this Thread and start another...so, more to follow on the Hammond Barn Trio!

[Bob Carriere]

I beleive it is about time we closed this chapter..... I am concerned that we may be eating up too much band width by carrying such a long thread...... besides it becomes clumsy when one wants to search for specifics.

After over 6200 hits we will start a new Barn thread

......Spring time at the Hammond Barn!!

Thanks all for following our trials and tribulations.

Bob C.

[RHClarke]

Originally posted by Bob Carriere
I beleive it is about time we closed this chapter..... I am concerned that we may be eating up too much band width by carrying such a long thread...... besides it becomes clumsy when one wants to search for specifics.

After over 6200 hits we will start a new Barn thread

......Spring time at the Hammond Barn!!

Thanks all for following our trials and tribulations.

Bob C.

Bobsie,

I tried to start a new thread last night, but it would appear that it did not appeal to the management and they merged the threads for whatever reason...

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by RHClarke
I tried to start a new thread last night, but it would appear that it did not appeal to the management and they merged the threads for whatever reason...

Oops! Sorry, I thought you did that inadvertedly. I have unmerged it again.

H.

[Bob Carriere]

Thanks Hanno