Identification of F15 2WD?

[Ganmain Tony]

What a Saga!

Finally has come to an end.

Mac's cables are no good. Spring end that goes to the actuator in the drum is way too short.

Tried to get longer cables made in the new old stock ones... no good.

Decided to take a risk and modify the new old stock ones ourselves.

Had some amazing help again from a capable neighbour, below is what we did.

Step 1 get the steel cover off the end of the outer conduit.

Step 2 Hold back steel cover with pliers

Step 3 cut outer conduit whilst praying you don't cut the cable

Step 4 breath sigh of relief then realise you have to cut another inner section with grinder and pray you don't cut the cable.

Step 5 Stay tuned

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Tony,

Great photos, and how to do it. As the old saying goes "Necessity is the Mother of Invention".

For close cutting work I have found my Dremel tool invaluable even for automotive work. I have used it numerous times on the truck. The small cutoff wheels go through thin steel like a knife through butter but give you great control. One of them might be good for step 4!

Think I mentioned it before in another thread but my first use of a Dremel for automotive work was to cut off a muffler on my car back in the seventies. With their small cutoff wheel I split the inlet and outlet without touching the head or tail pipes and the muffler practically fell off.

The small wire brush is also handy for getting rust off a threads in a tight spot if you wish to save the fastener. The Fuel tank retainer strap bolt is a case in point. They snap easily as I found out the hard way if not cleaned up and drowned in penetrating oil.

Note: If you use a wire brush in the Dremel tool slow it down and do not use at full speed otherwise the wires may break prematurely and fly out at great speed. New ones have inbuilt speed controllers but my old tool doesn't so I run it through an external speed controller.
Full speed is fine for cutting however.

Look forward to step 5.

Regards,

[Ganmain Tony]

Well, mission accomplished.

Step 5 - gently nick inner conduit which can then peel off. Lowers risk of cutting it with angle grinder.

Step 6 - remove some of outer conduit spring. Crap yourself. Realise you may have buggered it when outer wires splay apart.

Step 7 - think "Bloody hell we have stuffed it!!"

Step 8 - use vice jaws to recollect wires and twist metal reinforcing end back out over conduit wire.

Step 9 - exhale/inhale for the first time since starting the proceedure.

Knocked about and inch and a quarter off the end. Spring has not lost its integrity either.

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Tony,

Should add:
Step 10: Pour yourself a good one and celebrate a job well done!

Cheers,

[Ganmain Tony]

Thanks Jacques,

Glad to have it behind me quite frankly.

Interesting to note - the spring around the cable that is located in the drum, does not seem to have lost any significant tension.

I also thought I might have taken a bit too much off. One line was at its maximum stretch when I put it back in.

Fortunately when I sat the truck back down on all four tyres, some load came back onto the rear leaves and has provided JUST enough slack. It should improve again when the box is put on the back.

[Ganmain Tony]

Getting my backside "into gear". I decided to tackle the transmission.

Did not take any photos of the hours of removing sludge and crap from everything.

Good news is everything cleaned up extremely well.

[Ganmain Tony]

You have to keep reminding yourself this stuff is 80 years old.

I replaced all the bearings as they were a bit noisy, and the races and balls looked a bit worn.

Putting it back together went smoothly.

Rear mount must have been loose for a long time in its working life as the wear on the cross member and mount was horrendous.