Fleet Maintenance.

I'm writing this partly for your interest and partly as a reference for myself of all the jobs that popped into my head as I was driving the tractor down to the petrol station to fill it with Winter diesel earlier today.

Today I managed to tighten the loose ball joint on the Tractors steering so that it now doesn't swing widly from side to side every time you hit a bump. The castelated nut was too far in and hence the split pin did not stop it from loosning. A couple of large washers sorted this out. I also found out where the coolant was leaking out of. I think I fixed this and I filled the rad up with anti-freeze. I also gave the lawn mower a quick brush off and clean and removed the battery for winter storage in the basement.

It's a long list, and some of these jobs won't be started until next summer, but here goes.

The Opel

Pretty much up to date with servicing and the rest, a few small jobs really.

- Replace the bonnet cable (again) so that you don't need pliers to open the bonnet.
- Get a new clip for the drivers side window winder. I lost the old one whilst I was fixing the door handle.....

The Landy

Plenty to do here, mostly because we havn't really finished restoring it yet (even though I've been driving it for the last 2 years!!!). There's a few service type jobs too. Planning to use the Landy through this winter and then take it off the road for a little while next summer (whilst I'm using the Spitfire.... Yipppeee).

Service Items...

- Purchase and install New dipstick, the old one broke.....
- Fix Sidelights, they've got water in them and don't work most of the time.
- Fill grease into all grease nipples.
- Clean Injectors, it smokes a little too much when it's cold.
- Get new springs for the wiper arms so that they don't lift off the windscreen at 50 mp/h

Longer term...

- Treat inside of Chassis with Dynax S50.
- Clean and re-paint/protect outside of chassis members, as there is already some surface rust showing.
- Paint front wings
- Remove the bits of body which don't fit properly, make them fit and attach them permanatly.
- Rub down all of body and spray a couple more coats of Top coat.
- Attach missing door trims.
- Replace passengers door after accident with 4 post car lift
- Install Door Seals
- Mount front grill
- Sort out interior and seats.

Tractor and Trailer.

Since moving in over 18 Months ago, I've been using my Zetor 7245 quite often and I have, ashamed to say, really negleted it's maintenance needs.

Tractor

- Oil change
- Change/clean all filters, oil, air, diesel, hydraulic fluid and so on.
- Fix the heater valve (was leaking so I've had to bypass the heater)
- New windscreen wiper blade.
- Fix demister
- Find out where the brake/clutch fluid dissapears slowly to and fix.
- Fix hydraulic leak.
- Find out why oil drips out of engine and fix.
- Replace all water hoses.
- Fix lights (most of them, half of them don't work).
- General Clean and tidy.
- Fix temperature gauge (or maybe it needs a new thermostat).

Trailer

- Fix Hydraulic leak.
- Straighten bent light mount, change broken light cluster and make lights work.
- Grease as required.

The Triumph

The plan here is to complete this over the winter so that it is 100% ready for the first days of Spring, as soon as the sun is shining and the salt is gone from the roads.

It's out and driving, but there's a fair bit of body work and interior left to do. a very quick summary here, I'll try to catch up with my project updates shortly...

- Finish body work (bonnet, doors and boot lid)
- Change Windscreen
- Interior

The David Brown

Other than towing this undercover, discovering the 3-cylinder deisel engine is seized, taking the injectors out and pouring deisel down the bores, we've not got any further with this either.

We plan to focus on the garden next year and the bucket of the front of this would be very useful, so the plan is to do the bare minimun to get it usable before next spring.

Sorry about the rubbish picture, it's the only one I could find, from the estate agent, taken before we bought this place. The David browns now tucked in a corner with all sorts of stuff in front of it and hence is not so Photogenic at the moment!. Expect Photo updates when I get working on it.

Before Spring

- Persuade engine to rotate
- Persuade engine to run
- Assumming sucessful in above, change clutch.

Longer term

- Restore.... Paint, New hoses, new glass and so on.

The Lawnmower

Again, for the last 18 months we've just used this and not really given it much attention. The price of new ride on Lawnmowers is rediculous so we really need to look after the one we've got. Not much to do really.

I don't seem to have a picture of the Lawnmower, but it's pretty much like any other basic ride on jobbie.

- Oil Change
- Wash
- Top battery up and charge it fully before storing it in the basement for winter.

Snow Blower

Last but not least on our list of Internal combustion engines. I got this as a spares or repair before last winter, got it working and made good use of it. I reckon it's really good, Mrs VL, reckons it's too noisy and heavy to use!!!!

Before the snow comes!

- Check it still runs, we've had no snow yet this year!
- Oil change.
- General Lubrication/greasing.

Longer term

- Restore/Paint.
- Fix clutch so that it always stops when it's supposed to.
- Fix the wire/handle that rotates the spout.



Plenty to do, I'll try to fit time in to post updates as I work my way through these tasks!!

Oil Change

As those who know me are aware and those who don't have probably guessed, I am interested in all things mechanical, regardless of age, speed, power, function and so on.

Whilst I am still playing catch up with the Spitfire project reports, I thought I would come right back up to date with last weekends trip to Mrs LS Uncles farm on an Island outside of Bergen on the West Coast.

The farm and the farm machinery is not new to me as I lived there during my first 6 months of our time in Norway. Mrs VL's uncle is house bound and the farm is mostly held in control by some sheep which are grazed on the land. For this reason the last time this very peculiar tractor was used was by myself together with Mrs LS and "the thoughtful scotsman", 18 months OK, to assist us with loading the 7.5ton lorry we used for moving, as seen here.

First job of the weekend was to chop up some large trunks with the chain saw (also not used for over 18 months, started first time) and to fetch these up along with a few other piles which the Sister in Law had already chopped up by hand. So we trudged down through the inevitable mud and found the tractor exactly as we had left it in the bottom of the barn. Did all the normal checks, fuel, oil, clutch still went in and out, brake pedal and lever still moved freely. On opening the fuel valve fuel leaked out of the top of the carb, probably a bit of muck, which I hoped would clear once we got some petrol flowing into the engine (as indeed it did).

I got the starting rope out the little tool kit, wrapped it around the main pully and gave a gentle tug to make sure the engine stil turned, not really trying to start it. "Put, Put, brrrrr", it fired into life first try.

We got our hands on some suitable oil, drained the old stuff out,

filled the new, found out how little it took, drained some of the new back out again so that it wasn't over filled,

found a grease gun, greased the umpteen grease nipples and gave the whole thing a good clean.

Leaving it ready to be put into good service for the weekend. Mrs LS's Uncles wet and hilly litle farm is really suited for such a vehicle. A real full size tractor would make such a mess.

Project Spitfire Update #3

After the dissapointment of not making the date for the test, a new date was booked for the 29th of September. At the same time we arranged hood fitting for the 25th so that the car would have a test run before the test and that we wouldn't be so reliant on weather on the big day.

After our trip to England and Ireland in the Opel I had a weekend concetrating on other things before getting back to the spitfire.

I had arranged for a mate to come and help for the Saturday before the big occasion. Before this I had completed the following,

Re-wired and tested the overdrive.

Changed the reversing light switch and got them working.

Sorted out the fuel tank sender wiring, which I got worng such that battery had discharged.

Attached the front quarter valences and got the sidelights and indicators working,

and charged the battery....

Two of the main jobs for the Saturday were to fit the tunnel and to sort out the Carbs, which were still a little bit sticky and tempermental.

As typically happens, my assistent was assigned what turned out to be the days most difficult job. This was drilling/cutting the neccesary holes and fitting the new fibreglass gearbox tunnel. No way near as easy as we first thought.

It took concentration

caused mild insanity



but in the end fitted nicely.

We also corrected the incorrect fitting of the wiper mechanism, fitted new wiper blades and then got those working. At the same time Mrs LS worked on the hood frame, which by now was in component bits.

The next, and again not as easy as expected, job was to fit new seat belts. These took a bit of figuring out and were a little fiddly to get right but in the end we got them to fit.

At the end of a long day we were tired but satisfied,

and felt justified in allowing ourselves the pleasure of a little test drive.

The Carbs had to wait for another day (which meant again we were starting to run short of time). Another update later (who knows, maybe the blog will catch up with real life shortly)....