How to clean the inside of a 2a chassis?

[Ozdunc]

There seems to be no way of getting crud out of the chassis once its got in.

There's no decent sized holes in the chassis rails except just before the rear spring mount. The crossmember under the bellhousing has no drainholes at all.

I've just punched a hole through the rusty bottom of the drivers bulkhead outrigger and felt a heap of sand and crud inside. Putting a high pressure hose in through the rust hole has brought a small pile of sand and rust out, but I can feel more in front of the outrigger, but if I face the hose that way its just going to push the detritus more toward the front of the chassis where there seems to be no way out.
Has anyone added extra drainholes to a chassis? If so where?

[geodon]

Errrrm.........Cut and Shut?

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/series-land-rovers/147112-gb-crossmember-converted-bolt.html

[Ozdunc]

You're joking?! One main drain hole on the chassis rail and a sealed x member was how it was designed!
I'm incredulous.
Im very tempted to drill some 1" holes into the chassis.
Well away from stress Points like shackle mounting, etc and maybe a couple of some access holes on the sides. My 80 series has a heap of them with a much thinner chassis so any good reason why not to do it?

[geodon]

Hey, dude!

You asked, I replied. I'm NOT joking, as you can see I've done it.

If you have a MIG welder, it's no big deal. With modern ultra-thin cutting discs on your angle grinder & some magnetic clamps it's very do-able and you don't weaken the chassis by perforating it.
Did you miis the point? I suggest cutting an access hole, cleaning out the crap, applying a rust inhibitor,eg fish oil etc etc then shutting the hole you made.

[Warb]

If you have a high pressure cleaner, you can buy a drain cleaning attachment for it. It's basically a long high pressure hose with a brass nozzle on the end. The nozzle has rearwards/outwards facing jets, so it pulls itself along a pipe...or a chassis member, and it blasts the dirt backwards.

So, if you insert it through a hole in the chassis it will pull itself down the length of the chasis rail, blasting the dirt backwards....

Each of the crossmembers should have a drain hole. It could be that one has been patched. On my wifes '59 we replaced the bottom of one crossmember because it was so smashed and bent that there was little choice. So we split away the bottom face with an air chisel, then hammered the flanges flat and faked spot welds along it's length to mimick the original. I put 1/2" drain holes in it, the same as on the section we removed, but it would have been easy to forget!

The bellhousing crossmember on that same vehicle was completely filled with hardened mud, such that initially I thought it was three sections with no internal link. After a great deal of work with lengths of fencing wire, the pressure washer and a couple of 1" holes in the top face, I eventually cleaned it out. It was set hard, almost like concrete, and I used lengths of high tensile wire in an electric drill to bore through the hard set mud and then thrash around breaking it up.

Funny thing, after all that cleaning and then painting, whilst I was assembling the suspension I noticed something poking through one of the original 1" drain holes. It turned out to be what I can only assume was the "hole" from that same hole, if you see what I mean, a 1" circle of steel with a small flange around it. I'm assuming it was left inside the chassis when it was made (the hanging chad!) and finally reappeared 53 years later.

[Ozdunc]

Hey Geodon
I didn't mean to imply I thought you were joking. I was just amazed that the chassis was designed the way it was.
I don't have a mig but after this afternoons fun and games I'm defiantly going to need one.
Both your and Warbs suggestions make a lot of sense, just a bit more work than the Toyota 'stick a high pressure hose in one end, watch a load of muck come out the other' technique.
I've drilled two 6mm holes into the x member and a small lake came out. I'll enlarge the holes tomorrow, but for now I need a beer.
Thanks fellas your help is much appreciated:twobeers:

[4bee]

I have large drain holes around the Driver & Pass. door areas & if you look at the rear cross member in line with the chassis rails, you could also see 2 rubber blank plugs.
Remove those & you can get a long tube jet in & along. I used a piece of 1/4" copper pipe with some holes in it's blanked end. Got a lot of red dust out as her previous address was a Sheep Station in the north of SA.

[Ozdunc]

Well I bought a drain cleaner attachment for my pressure washer, and it seemed to do the bizz.
A bit too well!
I now have some extra areas to patch when I do the outriggers:eek:

But good to know and loads of rust and sand came out. The PPO patched the chassis but just patched over the problems rather than cutting out.
Bummer, but still, not too bad. But the proof will be when I start cutting into it, although I'll wait until the riggers arrive so I can plan my attack.