Lewis and I had a small working party today. Lew carried on with building his locker, the base was offered up to the appliance and mounting holes marked and drilled. I carried on with fitting the operators consul deck. This is now back on, just the light mounting to re fit. Then the jack operating lever can be re fitte
Yesterday we had all the ladder sections out and steamed all the old oil and grease off them, this completed the steam clean and the steamer was returned today. Paul had cleaned off most of the runners on the top extension, Steve got most of this painted today (the rain prevented him from finishing it). Trevor made a start on red leading the chassis and got a good half of it completed. Lewis spent his day turning wood into sawdust! (see photo) Seriously Lew has just about completed the frames for the first locker so this can be assembled soon, just the front to cut with it's various holes!
I got on with renovating and rewiring the light in the operators platform and the wood work and platform is just about ready to be re fitted Pete Weight and I spent the day at Wicken. The jack sensor has been replaced with new O rings and is working with no leaks. The turn table and main ladder section has been fully steam cleaned and we had time to do a bit of the detailing on the chassis.Back again on Tuesday with Paul and Trevor, the plan is to get the engine and under the cab all cleaned off and finish detailing the chassis.This will just leave the ladder sections to do, so might have finished the steam cleaning by Wednesday
Trevor and I collected the steam cleaner this morning and towed it back to Wicken where we made a start, until the hose burst! A trip back to Newmarket for a replacement, got back... wrong fitting so back for another hose! Having said that we managed to get most of the chassis done, we will still need to go back around and "detail" it but the hot pressure has cleaned it off well.
The ladder has been painted with silver "hammerite", I propose to get some in before our next visit as well as some "red lead" for the chassis, UNLESS anyone has a contact to obtain some at a discount price. I shall also attempt to find a silencer to fit along with fan belt and hoses,and finally, I will try to hire a steam cleaner to finish off the chassis,Steve did a great job on it but it just needs a final degrease that steam should achieve.
Sunday saw Lewis, Pete and myself at Wicken, Lew carried on with his carpentry skills working on the lockers, Pete finished the ladder section that had been worked on the day before.I removed the leaking stop sensor from the rear jack, the O ring was triangular! I shall get some replacements. Then the silencer for the water pump came off, more holes than metal! and the fan belt came off and measurements taken for the perished water hoses.
A very good working party today, l got up here yesterday and did a couple of hours before the Guvnor (Colin P Farrington ) turned up to check up on me ! Joined today by Paul Wing and Graham Pearce. I've been jet washing the chassis and anything else left on there ! Nearly 3 buckest full of crap collected up at the end of the day ! Paul and Graham have made a start cleaning up the ladders, like the Forth Bridge, one section done, well done team ! Tomorrow is another day !
Today was a success, all three ladder extensions have been removed and stored under cover. It turned out that several things like pawls had to be removed but we got there!I can now confidently say that everything that needs removing is now off the appliance and we can get on with cleaning and reassembling. The next item I am trying to locate is a high pressure steam cleaner to clean off the chassis properly so we can get a coat of paint on it.
With the ladders finally down, we carried on cleaning years of muck off the chassis. Once it was parked up Steve cleaned off the pad whilst I removed the jammed filter unit off the pump to take home to free off and service. Another very successful day.
Attending today were, Colin Farrington, Paul Wing, Graham Pearce, Pete Weight, Frankie Ward, Steve Houston, Lewis Orrow and the hospitality was as usual provided (free again!) by our Chairman, Peter Russell and his good wife lady Julia. Thank you both so much.
The whole team got stuck into stripping off all the original woodwork, chequer plate and just about anything else that would move. Once this was done, we had a chance then to get a really good look at the chassis, all the moving parts and the sticky jack. The ladders had been elevated to aid in the dismantling, unfortunately they decided to stay vertical for most of the day despite our best efforts! However, they eventually came down and the bodywork is off so it was time to take stock and plan the next steps. The ladder sections need removing to clean and paint, I will liaise with Peter to try and get a local hiab or teleporter to help. The chassis needs the rest of the muck removing and prepared for coating/ painting. Any suggestions on what to use? The mudguards need repairing/ replacing, anyone with welding/ bodywork skills, they are off the appliance so could be transported to your workshop. The bodywork is starting to be rebuilt (thanks to Lewis, Paul and Graham) more help with this will move it along. As regards to more working parties, I will work out some dates and will try to get one of the dates as a weekend, maybe once the ladders are off so that there is plenty of work. After searching the manuals and tracing pipes we identified the ram that operated the ram safety locks was not working correctly, we finally proved that although it was operating, the locks there was not enough pressure getting through it to operate the non return valves at the base of the rams, so the ladder would not depress. This has been removed for a clean and service.
Meanwhile, Lew and Steve have been working hard on the bodywork, they would have had the O/S lockers off if we had had an angle grinder to remove the rusted bolts. They removed most of the metal cladding and re dressed the edges so that it is ready to go on the new timber. During June, Work carried on, unfortunately as we progressed it was found that the rot in the underlying timbers was much worse than we originally thought so it was decided that the whole of the bodywork and deck from the back of the cab rearward would probably need replacing. Fortunately the metal coverings are not damaged and will be re-useable. The photos will give some idea of the state of the wood we found. Much of this crumbled as we started to remove the fixings, although having said that there were several rusted and stubborn bolts that took some effort to move and in a few cases we were forced to take a hacksaw to them The head gear and monitor situation is nearly resolved. The head gear has now been stripped down and Colin has obtained some metal of the correct sizes to remake the missing half. The mounting arm is now complete and he just need to find a way to bend ¼” steel plate to make support for the pulley rod. Below is a picture of the set up on a similar appliance registration number CBY 1, It will be necessary to make up a pattern to cast the brass connector to join the monitor to the mounting and make up the pulley and “red brushes” and this will be ready to be fitted to the ladders once they have been refurbished and repainted. Additional information from Colin:The way the rescue line was used in London differed from the rest of the UK. London (as most of you will be aware) had a fixed pulley as part of the head of the ladder, whereas the rest of the UK had a pulley with a snap hook rove onto the rescue line and this was clipped to an eye on the head of the ladder (having done all my TL work in County Brigades this is what I was expecting to find).
A look at CBY 1 at Acton soon sorted this out and I now had an idea of what we needed. Our task however, has been made so much easier with the very generous donation by Mike Heberd of half of the correct fitting for the head of the ladder, along with 2 monitors, the correct one for 240, but with a broken mounting, and another one from an earlier TL but with the correct mounting tag. This single donation means we can now definitely achieve our goal of having 240FLM looking absolutely correct once she is completed. Thankyou Mike!
We arrived at Turner’s wash area. After a short wait for a trailer to be cleared off the ramp 240 was driven in and handed over to their staff. A very thorough clean was carried out and I don’t think any of us could believe the colour of the water that was streaming away from the wash.The ramp was then lowered and the body work was also cleaned, especially around the stuck jack, at least we can work on it without getting covered in grease and muck. We need to give a big thanks to the staff at Turner’s of Soham for all their help A successful day with things moving forward a little more.
The wheel nuts that would not shift last time have been loosened so we are now going to be able to change the flat tyre (we did not have suitable jack and axle stands there today). The communication cable has been removed from the ladders for replacement. The indicator “ears” were refitted with new rubbers and the movement and cut outs were checked. We did not have time to refit the relay and switch so we planned to rely on arm signals and escort vehicles for the short run to Turner’s for the steam cleaning. The lockers were emptied, the jack was bolted back and the rear lights were refitted and tested rea Another successful day working on 240. Although the jack is not yet moving it has had a good "drink" of WD40 and fresh grease has been forced through the bearings.
We have all the ladder cables removed and I now understand how they work and how they are adjusted and we found a couple of parts that must have been removed when the broken top extension cable was removed so they are safely stowed away. Trevor Barnwell, Lewis Orrow and myself spend time last Thursday working on 240, some things went well and others need further tools/ investigation.
A brief update on what we achieved: Attempted to change wheel which has a flat tyre, unfortunately, we were unable to undo wheel nuts, we need a rattle gun or longer bar. Checked out jack that is not coming down, screw thread appears seized but as far as we can see mechanism is trying to work. Trevor fitted one of the blue light "inards" he had had made to make sure they will fit. Removed all of the indicator equipment, switch, flasher unit and front indicators to be re furbished. Removed all seats to be re covered. Removed all chrome work, handles, light surrounds etc for re chroming. Attempted to remove locker hinges but found some of the wooden frames very "ripe" so this will need further investigation/ replacement. It was a successful day (despite the cold and drizzle) and most of the parts that needed to come off for refurbishment have been removed - hopefully this can be done over the winter so that they are ready to go back on in the spring. |