Otter LRC CM4647296 comes home

[Jordan Baker]

The post office had a nice delivery for me this morning of my bulk wire order. Now I can start making all new wiring for the Otter. First up was to finish the wiring for the dash. This section was made up of a number of separate wire jumpers to all the lighting toggle switches. I also made up the wire for the fuel gauge to the fuel gage switch and the wires for the trouble lamp socket. Thankfully the original wiring was mostly complete for determining how all the connections were made and lengths of wire.

[Jordan Baker]

I also replaced the original wire on the fuel tank sender wires. These units were NOS items in great shape. I just do not trust 80 plus year old wiring. However I was able to reuse all of the original connections. It’s interesting to see the production differences in the original connectors compared to the new made ones.

[Mike K]

Looking neat . You have an eye for detail that's for sure.

I am always looking for these old electrical connectors at auto swap meets or ham radio fests. Usually they are $1 or $2 for a box full .

Years ago, Bill Drew had a big stack of NOS Chev CMP main wiring harnesses, wrapped up in sealed boxes. I did buy one, the rest of them would have been scrapped along with the other treasures.

[Jordan Baker]

Removed the crankcase breather tube tonight. Sadly it had been crushed when the Otter rolled and the engine hit the hull. But this will provide a nice pattern to make a new one. Also comparing some very NOS khaki green#3 painted parts that had been sealed to the dash paint. I’m quite happy with how close the new paint is. Lastly got a nice ignition switch lever to replace the badly pitted one.

[David Dunlop]

Nice find with the Ignition Switch, Jordan. That original one left no clues at all it had been stamped with its ID.


David

[Jordan Baker]

The original breather tube is all fixed up. It’s not perfect, however it came out pretty good. I ended up having to cut the tube at the crease and then slowly work the metal back into shape. Once that was done I welded it up then sanded down the welds to get it smooth.

I had tried to bend new tube using sand but it did not work well for me. In the end I’m glad it didn’t work as it meant the original ended getting rebuilt.

[Jordan Baker]

Todays allotted time in the shop (kids are napping) I managed to get the original battery tray removed. It was held in by 4 carriage bolts. I tried removing the nuts but the bolts ended up spinning around in the wood. In the end I used a Zip disk to cut the heads off the bolts. Yes this did mean that I had to cut into the wood and produce copious amounts of smoke in the shop. However the wood was too far gone to use again. Lots of dry rot had taken place.

The wood shall provide a very nice pattern to make a new one. I should also be able to use all of the original metal parts. It’s a simple construction of three pieces of white oak with a tongue and groove slot. Two metal angled pieces along the long top sides. One the end there is two flat bars with the vertical retaining rod and counter sunk holes for screws. It’s refreshing to see true 1” thick pieces of wood.

The last picture shows just how much crud came loose from the tray’s removal. The area had been vacuumed prior to removal.