Van awning and tent

Misc awning and tent kit pics. The van is too tall for the tent attachment, but I'll solve that at some point in the future. In the mean time, the awning is really nice.

Van Gearbox Pilot Bearing Tool continued

Further to the build-post, here is the home made aluminium LDV126/127 pilot shaft puller tool assembly sequence!!

The entire purpose of the tool is to insert the pilot shaft into the main bearing without any applied forces to other parts, and only contacts those two parts.

The final picture shows how it would be implemented during final re-assembly of the gearbox.

A short piece of solid aluminium tube was created for the "workhorse" end of the tool where the most forces will be applied. I am worried about tool failure here.

The remainder of the split component is retained by an off-the-shelf piece of profile tube with an ID/OD of 30/40mm.

M16 thread is wound into the central split part as far as it will go. I am tempted to make another solid collar for this end...but I think the next part (image below) in the tool-set will do most of the work.

80x80mm profile with a 40mm ID. This is the part that comes into contact with the main bearing and will do the "pushing" as the central components do the "pulling".

The external sheath is longer than the internal components so they can slide upwards as parts are drawn together.

A short piece of scrap flat-bar is used as a monster washer across the top of the tool. Keep cranking down on that nut, and the central components are drawn upwards.

The M16 thread itself does not rotate. It is bottomed out into the split components.

This is where all the action will happen when I'm feelin' the success mojo pumpin'. (It was 40 degrees C today...working outside was no fun. Final reassembly will happen later...)

Another custom tool for a vehicle.

Just a preview of another whacky tool build for a specific job.

I only partially solved the gearbox noise the last time I had it out. Partially in that I worked out the problem...the error was in my re-installation...

In order to speed things up, I modified our TINY press at work (Ross's personal press) and made a HUGE version. I've reinforced this one in various ways you can't see. The specs of parts and dimensions should meet the 6 tonne capacity of the bottle jack.

So now I can put the entire gearbox directly into the press, no problem. Last time was a big kludge nightmare. This is so much better.

In order to correct a previous error (and damage to an internal bearing), I need to "pull" the input shaft into this bearing, NOT press them. The difference is subtle. When the input shaft is assembled against the remainder of the drive-train that it's connected to, a smaller bearing that it locates onto between the two parts is crushed if I apply force through the entire gear-train. I need to pull JUST this nose-cone-input-shaft through the heavy bearing, and lightly "push" the remaining gear-train up behind into the back of the input shaft as it's pulled into the larger bearing...easy...

Of course I'd just use tool LDV126 and LDV127 if they supplied it to the public...

Here I've made the part you can see in the top left corner of the workshop manual image.

It's more obvious to identify in your head when you see it cut open like this (as is the original tool, no, the image is not just a cut-away image...the tool is actually split)

Over 40 minutes of reaming/scraping with the tip of a hand file got this to fit snugly. I had limitations on what I could do with the lathe at work as we're not a fitter-and-turner operation.

I've made up the additional collars and slide-tube for the completion of this tool though they're not shown here. I have yet to ream out the second half of this tool part before attempting to use it. ...who knows... I have a few ideas up my sleeve if this fails horribly.

As mentioned in the previous photo, here you can see the reamed out half, and the untouched half that I have yet to work on. There difference is 1.5mm all-round. Quite a lot of scraping required!!

Campervan road worthy

Just need to address one leaky axle seal, and one leaky rear brake piston. I'm doing both, for both 'cus the problem items were on opposite wheels anyway.

I somehow got it in my head (after the fact) that you couldn't change the brake-shoes without pulling the axles which is bananas. If you look at the photos you can see the rotor is clearly small enough to give ample access to changing out the pads. With the axle/stud rotor removed and out of sight I was thinking it was much larger...

I'll have the van registered and on the road this upcoming week.

Misc unsorted photos below.

This brake cylinder is OK.

...but the axle seal is leaking... The opposite is true on the other side of the van.

It's obvious when you look for it, but the whole back of the brake plate and axle are wet (not a dry dirt covering) from leaks/seep. There're no actual drips, so I think my mechanic was being a little too thorough 'cus I'd covered absolutely everything else, but they are technically leaking.

The diff' needs to be cracked open so the axles can be split/removed. Splitting the axles was surprisingly easy. I was sure there'd be pressed or jammed release pins I'd have to deal with, and assumed I'd have to make yet another tool.

New brake piston assembly installed.

New axle seal ready to install. I'm picking up a 2nd one after this weekend as the supplier only had one in stock on the day. ( bearingwholesalers.com.au have gotten me out of a bind with Ford replacement parts several times on the Transit so far )

Jana's Birthday!

We slept in 'till 8:30am then had french toast breakfast followed by a trip up the thousand steps. A brief computer gaming session happened while I whipped up some awesome-burgers for lunch, followed by a nap...mowing the lawn, and finally getting the van reassembled and started for the first time in months!! We capped it all off with a pizza dinner at La'Porchetta and some cheap supermarket donuts at home. Epic birthday!

This hand-squeeze-primer-bulb made light work of a notoriously hard vehicle to prime after changing out the fuel filter. The intar-webz are full of dudes having headaches getting their Transit's started again after a doing the change.

New fence, new gate.

A new fence was installed between our property lines on the western edge of the house. A new gate wasn't part of the deal so I whipped up a new one from some treated pine and Garrick helped me install it. The old gate was mounted onto a brick pillar that took up much of the available space. It was cracked at the base and was leaning into the neighbours yard so I knocked it over before the fencing guy built the new fence.