Thread: Gav's 101.

Hello Gavin,

That gearbox certainly sparkles! Is it coated with something to stop it anodising? If so, what is the coating?

It took a lot of effort with scrappers, wire brushes, scribe points and copious amounts of degreaser to find my 2A ambulance's gearbox under all its caked on mud and grease. However, once it was all cleaned and hosed off and dried, the top surface started to anodise.

If I return it to its military fettle the whole engine and gearbox was painted in camouflage paint. I am not sure whether this was standard practice? Maybe the apprentices needed a job to keep them busy for a while?

I was going to spray the cleaned surface with a lanolin product. However, I am concerned about residual layers that may interfere with future re-painting. Unless the wax and grease spray will take care of any lanolin film?

How is the Jaguar going by the way?

Kind regards
Lionel

Hi mate, I think the coating is just a rattle can of silver paint over the cleaned housing components. Maybe the guy that rebuilt it can elaborate further as I paid a professional to do this who knows these boxes inside out. I have rebuilt gearboxs myself, but this box is up a level or two from my comfort zone.

Jag is going great - it now lives in the garage as it should and gets an outing here and there. Runs beautifully since I tuned it and apart from the window switches, has been kind to me recently. 👍😊

Lionel, you can buy "aluminium" spray paint in a rattle can. VHT make it.

Gav, have you thought about fitting the larger perentie style hand brake assay to the gearbox? I don't know if you have the room for it under there. Would be a better hand brake, I would think, than the tiny rangy one (Same as I've got).
Cheers Rod

Hi mate, I haven’t thought about upgrading the handbrake no. Biggest reason I suppose is the current one in Chucky works perfectly well so never thought about it. Remembering a 101 is a tonne lighter than a rangie so that probably helps a bit. 😊

Ok, with the garage cleaned up and usable as a workshop again, it was time to get stuck into the rear wheel carrier. As I have 2 spares now - 315/75/16’s, there’s no way they can go in the back or even one fit where the spare used to be, so a rear wheel carrier is the go. Rather than just do something that only serves one purpose I thought I’d make it a dual purpose design. To that end, I have designed and started to construct a fold down carrier that will also serve as a small deck/step up into the back. There are pros and cons of this, biggest of which are easy deployment and the extra room out the back required, but the first one will be sorted with a small electric winch and the second I thought hard about but can’t seem to think of a situation this will cause too many issues.

Given that this carrier needs to support 2 spares at around 40kg each, I’ve overkilled the design. The unit mounts where the bumperettes go - these bolt through the entire rear cross member with crunch tubes in between. The rear fairlead attachment also uses this, so the are is very strong and well up to the task.

So, design calls for some tubes with bearings in them — of course the wrong chuck is always in the lathe and this is the only time I find my lathe a little large - there is a small crane planned to do this mounted in the corner in the future so it will be much easier, for both chuck changes and loading larger stock.
Untitled by Gavin Gregory, on Flickr

Turned out the centres of some tube to fit the bearings. Even doing small stuff like this in a big lathe is easy as, so no regrets in getting this beastie - it covers off everything I need all in one machine. Maybe a bench lathe for stuff smaller than say 5mm, but that’s not going to be common work for me.
Untitled by Gavin Gregory, on Flickr

Fully welded these into the main uprights, then pressed the bearings in.
Untitled by Gavin Gregory, on Flickr

Next came the supports. Again, overkilled as I slotted the plate then welded the 10x50 supports from both sides.
Untitled by Gavin Gregory, on Flickr

Untitled by Gavin Gregory, on Flickr

Bolted the uprights on and welded the cross race in. Measured everything up and it’s dead nuts square and works like a charm.
Untitled by Gavin Gregory, on Flickr

Untitled by Gavin Gregory, on Flickr

Removed it and welded the top in, a bit of primer and that’s it for the day.
Untitled by Gavin Gregory, on Flickr

In case your wondering, the frame is the size it is for a reason - which you’ll get to see in the next instalment which will show a bit more on how it will all work. 👍

Looking great

Nice to see a lathe cleaned up after use....that was nearly flogged into me as a 2nd year apprentice. Every night oil all slides as well.

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

Nice to see a lathe cleaned up after use....that was nearly flogged into me as a 2nd year apprentice. Every night oil all slides as well.

you should see mine, ive got a couple of years worth of chips on the floor behind it and the bed stays covered in swarf until next time I need it. Just not enough hours in the day. good thing DLI don't do shed checks