Humber FV1600 - ARN 105-819 - Restoration moves forward.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Dave,

Fabulous work done in a short time, certainly when looking at the amount of work that had to be done.

Thanks for sharing the restoration with us.

Hanno

[Allan L]

Beautiful!

[Dave Mills]

Thank you for your comments, we are very pleased with our Humber and will enjoy many happy trips in her. Am currently fitting the tray floor, am using " Grey spotted gum" as the timber planking a great Australian hardwood. Am having trouble sourcing the steel loading strips which run down each join.

Thanks again,

Dave.

[Dave Mills]

Timber floor with winch access panel in place as well as canvas bow structure fitted ready for the canvas. The bows are set at the lower height so that I can get the beast down our drive. we believe it looks nicer on the lowered height. Still trying to source the skid strips for the floor; they sit over each join.

Dave.

[motto]

To see such a comprehensive rebuild through to the end is inspiration for us all. Congratulations. I wish you many years of happy motoring.

David

[Dave Mills]

Well, we have placed about 250 K's on the old girl and she has developed a harmonic type noise at about 48KPH when not under load. Tested the drive train by running her at speed whilst sitting on Safety Stands. Thought it was coming from the transfer case so removed it and disassembled only to find nothing that could be causing the noise. Upon further inspection I found the following;

1. Pinion Dog Gear and securing Nut which was not tight.
2. A marvel of design the Pinion Carrier so easy to remove once you have access.
3. Pinion carrier being removed from the diff housing.
4. The culprit (I think) worn pinion teeth.

To wrap up a long and frustrating story I have sourced a NOS Transfer case and another Pinion in which I will try to mate to the crownwheel and cross my fingers that I get a good tooth pattern and no binding.

I will pick up the parts this Saturday and hopefully get Sunday to play around with them. I am pretty lucky to pick up a NOS transfer case a short 3.5 hour drive from home.

Cheers,

Dave.

[Dave Mills]

After replacing the pinion and setting up the rear diff, replacing the transfer case with a NOS transfer case I have a very quite vehicle apart from the exact same grinding noise at 48Kph at 2400 revs.

Have traced it to the gearbox I think any Humber owner will know the total Pain in the A... it is to get the transmission out. Well I have had mine out and stripped down twice and I am a bit of a master at it. Up and out through the passenger door. Have found that "Fred the Fiddler" some time in the past has been at it and have found the following

1. Stepped pin that holds the 2nd and 3rd gear selector ring in place missing hence trapped 5 k's out of town in third gear travelling at 10Kph home as it slid past its guides.
2. Rear main shaft thrust washer missing.
3. Reverse idler 1/4 inch thrust washer missing

After finding all of this I thought I had it, but no the dreaded noise was still there.

So out the box came again, stripped down and replaced the cluster shaft as the brass bushes seemed a little worn and thought that maybe the nose was tooth chatter due to inconsistent messing, fitted it all up, passed, the cigarette paper through the gears and it came out crinkled but not torn so I was "In like Flynn". At least I had false hope it would seem. (Richard Couttes-Smith shared that little trick with me).

But no, the noise was just the same except the vehicle was even smoother on the road until the noise starts. A phone call to Russell in Stawell and I will pick up another gear box complete to install and see if the noise disappears. if it doesn't I will at least know that my gearbox is OK, if this occurs damned if I know what is causing the noise. I will know in about two weeks.

Some pictures of my parts gearbox stripped down. Built like a brick shithouse and as heavy as can be.

The maddening part about this saga is that upon a visual inspection on rebuild the gearbox looked and felt fine, did not drive the vehicle so could not test it out. Oh well the joys of vehicle restoration and wanting to get it right.

Cheers,

Dave.