We cut out and pressed in new bushing on the springs, three per side.
Here we are pressing the new bushing in. Francis is a Kikuyu who is loving every minute of work as he is learning about mechanics.
This is so you can see the faces of the two crazy people who attempted this rebuild.
Everything on this truck is tired. I had noticed that the rear of the truck seemed to move around a lot in corners. I found after taking the springs off that the hole that centers them had wallowed out. I drilled it out to one inch in this picture.
I am now setting up a bushing to weld in the hole. This will bring my inside hole back to 14mm. This is one of three problems that we found on the rear axle assembly.
These are lifters. Their job is to ride on the cam shaft and push the 'push rod' to lift the valves so the engine can take in air and exhaust air. As you can see, my engine was having serious problems breathing. The ticking noise that I was hearing was coming from the right one. The roller is worn through.
This is what happens to the cam shaft when the lifters wear out. It is supposed to be perfectly smooth. This groove shows how bad the lifter cut into the cam. We have a new one on order.
A rebuild in the bush means you do all the work. We cleaned every bolt with a wire wheel to remove rust and old sealant and now I am cleaning every bolt hole in the block with the correct size tap to do the same in the holes.
This is one of a couple of things that you really don't want to see. The block has worn and should be rebored. Here in Kenya there isn't the ability to do this with confidence. Before I go that route, I will look for a new engine block from America. One is needed. This is probably a .020 lip. Not good, but it will still work.
This is what we are doing instead of reboring the block. It is a stone brush the will take off any grit and leave horizontal scratching to help hold the oil on the cylinder walls.
We have finished welding on the frame and are now getting it cleaned up and ready for paint. This is Josh, one of my workers on the right.
Before we can paint, we had to add all of the bracing to the frame. We turned the frame upside down and were able to weld in lots of bracing. Notice the 4mm plate on the left of the frame rail waiting to be welded on. This was then tied into the whole frame be adding a large 3mm plate that wraps around each side of the frame, completely overlapping the bottom.
These are the cab mounts. 3 of the six mounts had collapsed on the old frame. I decided to strengthen these before it saw any weight.
This is another cab mount. You can see again how the frame is upside down by this rear cab mount. The longer side of the mount is the factory bed mount and isn't used with our style of bed.
Most bolt holes for the springs and axles were reinforced with grade 8 hardened washers that were 1/8 inch think.
The Primer is on the truck frame and the brackets that hold the springs.
We also repainted the axle as I have rebuild the brake backing plate, diff cover, and spring perches. (The brake backing plate is the 'flat' plate on the inside of each brake drum. We welded washers on the emergency brake cable holes and tightened the screw holes (4 each) that hold this to the axle. These had wallowed out as well.)
This is one of five large frame braces that were welded on before we primed.
This is another brace that was welded on the inside. Each picture also shows other braces like on the engine mount. Notice the 12mm round bar that is welded to the bottom of the engine mounting bracket. I am hoping that I have increased the strength enough that it won't fail again. It is much easier to weld it now than after the cab and engine are on. LOL
