Manky's Pop.

[terry t]

Being feeling a bit down lately -just the Winter blues. All I seem to do is go to work, traipse round the streets in the pouring rain or freezing cold, spend the afternoon's in the garage, then go to sleep ready to do it again the next day.
So I'm taking a day off to go for a walk in the countryside while the sun's shining -but I'm I'm sure I'll end up back in the garage later. I've also only had intermittent internet access, so apologies for not posting more often recently.
Nice to see Mr Bay chimp yesterday. I'd shut the garage door down to warm it up to paint some parts. The gas was running out in the heater so I was trying to get it done while I could. Then someone turned up & opened the door & let all the heat out -then the gas ran out, so my painting plans were buggered. Hello Bob
We chatted for a while then I locked up & went in search of a gas supplier. Got a bottle from the local supermarket petrol station in the end. 42 quid if you have an empty bottle. No contracts or forms to fill in.
So I went back & painted my bracket & gently wound the dome nuts down onto the diff housing while the paint was drying. The bracket holds a brake pipe fitting & goes under one of the nuts, so I can't torque them down till it's fitted.

Andy you want to look around for gas. I have just got one 13kg bottle off butane for £30.00 delivered. what motor is that axle of.

[Manky Monkey]

My bottle's a 15kg. I just grabbed one locally so I could carry on working.
It's a 2 litre Sherpa, (actually the later "Pilot" model).

[Manky Monkey]

I've been trying to paint a piddly little bracket that holds a brake fitting on the back axle. Although the garage is nice & warm, the bracket's warm & the aerosol's warm, the paint's constantly running & wrinkling like crazy. I need to fit the bracket before I can tighten down the bolts on the diff housing, so have now given up & will nip it over to the local powder coater this morning. I suspect the axle & fitting' s have been contaminated with gear oil while the Pop was on the road cos it's all suffered from paint reactions when the rest of the vehicle hasn't.
It'll take a week to get coated, so in the meantime, I'm looking inside the cab at other stuff that needs refitting.
The brake master cylinder is under the driver's floor. I've got a tangled pile of pipework that came off it that includes 2 residual valves & a pressure valve. So I'm trying to work out what goes where so I can re-make the pipes.
When we were trying to get the Pop through the SVA test, we had a problem with the brake pedal needing to be pumped a couple of times after it had sat overnight. The residual valves stop that by holding a small amount of pressure in the lines. I've just bought new ones, then discovered I've got 4 more already! (2, 2lb ones for disc brakes & 2, 10lb ones for drums if anybody needs any).
The pressure valve is from an early Fiesta & stops the rear brakes locking up before the fronts -in the test they required the fronts to lock first, but as I'm going to have less weight on the back of the Pop now, it's important to re-fit it. All this stuff's quite corroded, so I'm replacing it to be on the safe side.

[Manky Monkey]

I'm waiting for Mr Funky Hiboy to see if he can get hold of the Fiesta valve cos they're expensive, so took a look at the brake servo.
The only place we had room to fit one was behind the dashboard, so we used a remote servo for, (I think), a VW T5 van. That means the servo's the highest point in the system & made the pipework incredibly complicated, but it worked & I'm not changing it now. There wasn't quite enough room for it though, so we simply cut a hole in the top of the gearbox tunnel & let the servo hang through it by a couple of inches. So for the whole of 2013, when I was driving the Pop about, rainwater & road crud was being funnelled up under the tunnel & flung straight onto the back of the dashboard electrics.
The long, l-o-n-g rebuild has involved a lot of fixing stuff like that. Sometimes I look at it & can't figure out why we did it like we did. I think we were just in a rush to get it tested before the SVA test was phased out & replaced with a much tougher one.
So Hornet made me a stainless tray ages ago, which I had powder coated black. It bolts into the tunnel to allow the servo to hang down while still sealing the cab from the elements. A bit of thumping with a rubber mallet to get the flange to follow the curve of the tunnel & it's bolted in.

[Manky Monkey]

There are holes for the servo vacuum pipe & the speedo cable. I'm waiting for some rubber grommets for those to arrive in the Post. The engine's not bolted in place by the way. It's hanging precariously from one mount so that I can paint the chassis leg under the other mount. So it sits lopsided at the moment.

[Manky Monkey]

Next job is to fit the frame that sits behind the dash & supports the servo, pedals & steering column.

[Manky Monkey]

The insurance renewal notice for the Pop has just arrived by email. £185 fully comp' with Adrian Flux. I've kept it running while the Pop's been off the road, so have just renewed it again.

[Archie]

nice little job done which'll jump it forward

[BikerGran]

What Archie said - it must be good to have something to show for your efforts!

[stinkey]

Adrian Flux 🤬?

[Manky Monkey]

Yeah, used Flux for all my trikes & chops for years. Never had a problem with them.

[Manky Monkey]

I've re-located the brake light switch. It used to be on the front corner of the chassis. No idea why we put it there, but the wiring should be a lot tidier now. Also fitted 2 new residual valves, (colour coded, red for the rear drums & black for the front discs).
Yes, it bugs me that they're not in line with each other.
Yes, I've already bought a half inch spacer from Ebay to fix it.

[Manky Monkey]

I think I managed to fit the frame loop behind the dash without damaging any paintwork, but a check in proper daylight tomorrow will probably prove me wrong.
This used to be welded to the chassis -until I realised during the rebuild that it would stop the body being removed from the chassis, (not that I ever plan to now).
I spent weeks hacksawing it off, (had to use a 6" length of old saw blade as access was so tight), having slugs machined & welded into the tube ends, drilling the stubs left on the chassis & slotting them so they'd bolt up tight around the slugs. Surprisingly, it only took a few minutes with a file to get all 4 bolt holes to line up, (almost unheard of for me), but I did manage to burr one of the bolt threads. They're a real tight fit, so I'm not taking it out again. I've learnt from years of frustrating mistakes not to force stainless nuts & bolts as the pressure of tightening them welds them together. So tomorrow I need to buy a small triangular file & spend however long it takes to clean the threads up. Then I can start hanging the various fittings on the frame loop.

[Manky Monkey]

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[stinkey]

Looking good dude 👍😎crack on.