A reasonably useful week. The headlight bowl has been fitted to the cab, as has the horn, using rubber gaskets made from the sealing material for the cab floor. The steel front section of cab floor had a final coat of paint and the pedal/steering column aperture has the holes tapped 1/4 UNF for the sealing rubber clamp plate. The steel for that has arrived too. The conduit carrying wiring to the horn and headlight/panel light has been secure to the cab outer wall and a length made up for the sidelight. I devised a way of adapting the conduit to fit the sidelight by soldering a piece of tinned steel tubing into the threaded part of the light assembly. I cut the new front o/s corner panel and am in the process of attempting a temporary fit so the sidelight conduit can be installed, then all the front external wiring will be done.
Monthly Archives: July 2023
23/07/2023
The speedometer cable has been finished and tested and the speedo has been installed in the dash. Also installed is a brand-new vacuum gauge. The pipe from the exhauster to the autovac gave some trouble with the steel nipple at the exhauster end not soldering well to the steel pipe, so I replace it with a brass nipple. Hopefully this will be a better joint. The pipe has been fitted at the exhauster end but not yet to the autovac to give time for the soldered nipple joint to reach full strength. Work in the cab has continued with the refurbing of some of the fittings, the horn button and panel light switch in particular. Both have now been installed and wired up. I chose not to bring the conduit for this wiring into the cab but ran it through sheathing from the conduit which is now fitted flush with the cab side wall. The bracket for the indicator switch has been installed and the 5-core cable for the switch has been ordered. The wiring cover for the cab rear wall has been painted and refitted, not without some difficulty. The wooden bases for the panel light switch and tax/cof discs have been painted and the metal brackets to hold them recovered from the original disc holders, derusted and painted silver ready for refitting. The cab floor forward panel has had the budget lock fitted and material for draught seals has arrived.
18/07/2023
Tidied up the wiring through the cab. Stripped and painted the cab headlight mounting and pod, ready for refitting. Made a new outer for the speedo cable which entailed turning a new speedo end fitting from aluminium and devising a way to lock it to the the cable outer, which I made from flexible conduit as used for the wiring. After several 8uncuccesful attempts I cut slots in the fitting where the outer cable slides in, annealed the fitting then calmped it tight with a jubille clip. Remanufacturing the speedo cable too the best part of a week. Next I stripped the paint from the cover that fits over the through wiring in the cab , primed and painted it. Next job to be addressed was to manufacture a new vacuum tube to the autovac from the exhauster. I managed to get it the right shape after a bit of trial and error but having trouble soldering the steel nipple at the exhauster end so will replace this with a brass one.