A little more progress yesterday. As suggested in some other threads, we have now ground off a narrow strip around the split rims to make it easier to fit the tyres (that is, when we can find suitable tyres!
). After sandblasting, the rims received two coats of primer, a coat of gloss enamel and later they will receive one coat of matt desert colour.
Then we started assembling the gearbox. All the bearings and seals have been replaced except the roller-bearing, which was replaced by a phosphor bronze bush (that size of roller bearing could not be found). We are still missing the "oil slinger" at the output shaft, and hope its not needed as we are using sealed bearings. We decided not to bead-blast the cogs and have just wire-brushed them, leaving some surface rust. Not happy about the rust, but when the truck is mobile we will drain the gearbox after a short run, to get rid of any small particles. The gear teeth are slightly worn, but at least none of them are missing!
