Otter LRC CM4647296 comes home

[Jordan Baker]

Its hard to say. I can tell the Otter did get a rebuild by the Dutch at some point as their dark green paint was on a lot of parts. The rad has a Dutch company tag on it too. Simply the fact that it has sat for so long and clearly been in the weather for a few seasons, I was surprised at how well it was. Mind you it does have an armoured roof over it so that would go a long way to keeping out the weather.

[Jordan Baker]

Started in on the transmission rebuild. First up was to get all the old oil spray and dirt off the outside. It just makes things a bit nicer to work on plus it needs to come off anyway for painting time. A power washer sure comes in handy for that stage.

[Jordan Baker]

Now it’s just a matter of following the maintenance manual. As good as this all looked when I took the top off, there was some rusting in behind the main bearing caps. The seals will be replaced as well.

[Jordan Baker]

Working away on the transmission rebuild. The case was fully dissembled, degreased and then sandblasted. It was then given a very good cleaning and scrubbing to get all the blasting grit out. Everything was acid etched and then painted with POR15 then over sprayed with the olive drab paint.

[Jordan Baker]

I also made up all new gaskets for the various covers. The center punch set works great for getting the holes lined right up. I was able to then use a handheld die punch to cut perfect holes. It worked great on the gasket with 8 small holes.

[Jordan Baker]

I’m glad I fully took apart the transmission as two bearings needed replacement. On closer inspection both had a bit of a “hang up” when rotating. I was able to find a bit of rust on the bearing inner race surface of one of the bearings. Two bearings have been ordered from a supplier. Hopefully I’ll have them in a few weeks.

Lastly a new output shaft seal was added. This should give many years of good service.

[Jordan Baker]

Next up, the transmission case top and gear shifters. All was in great shape with next to no wear. However there was some metal flaking and grit inside. So for the sake of getting everything nice and clean, it was taken apart. This also allowed me to sandblast the top and wash it all out.