E83W Restoration page 2

Well I have finished the chassis, cleaned it up, primed it and top coated it with Chassis black.  The Suspension and king pins look fairly good so am going to leave them well alone, bar a good greasing!  Even if they do need work in the near future they are easily accessible and fairly easy to do!  I have also mounted the engine with new mounts both front and back.  I have made a start at the engine and it only needs a couple more things doing before I try to start her.  Many thanks to Steven Edgar who helped on this!  Me and Steve also made a start on cleaning and checking the brakes, because the engine had to be put on hold due to lack of parts and also a small accident with the battery (more about this later)!  

March 2008 - finally finished and legal !! Took a while and with some help from a friend in Scotland, I've now got the pickup on the road. Took it to Llandudno for the Victorian Extravaganza at Easter, end of March 08.  An adventure in itself but all good fun , see below...

The pickup had started playing up, not very impressed, considering 9am the following morning I was driving to Llandudno!  Got up 6am'ish, and thought right, re-torque the head nuts, check all plugs, dismantle carb....... etc etc.  About 8.30am, faced the fact that I had missed my target of Llandudno after all the effort, how angry!

Then I thought what the heck, lets just go for it, so I did, got in my Ford and drove to the A55, stopped for an hour or two, cooled down, drove to Colwyn Bay, cooled down and drove to Llandudno, took a fair few hours, but I was there, really chuffed!  The thing that I decided to do was increase the throttle stop, so it was revving a little too fast, but not cutting out.

Saturday, I decide not to go on the road run, but to go and see the original owner, or one of them, and got there no problem, bar crawling up some hills and rapidly losing revs in second gear!  Come back, and what do you know, I get caught up in the road run, so busy - don't want to join in!  The marshals are pointing for me to turn right, I point left, and they are furiously pointing right, their faces as I pull left and continue to the West Shore!  I stop for a hour then go back when it is quiet, to save overheating!  The van next to me, got stuck for ages behind the tractors, he wasn't impressed!

The Sunday night, I decide to miss the road run, and go for my own run, much better, no problems, then come back.

Monday, very hot day, continued to be warm, very warm in fact, it cooked me, I resembled a tomato - I never thought I would need sun cream in early April!  That night go for a little drive around the field, just to keep Ernie mobile. Decide to come back the following morning, as there are many miles of queues reported from Llandudno to Chester, and the coast road is busy too. Wake up and leave at 5am, hoping to miss the traffic, make good headway, stop in a lay-by as I have just crawled up a hill, in second gear, 9mph or less on the A55, had a fair few queues! 

Then see a service station, get some breakfast and fuel, and cool down, then decide to press on, Ernie thought otherwise, so I dissemble the carb, and try again, hooray it starts!

Take off, only to get round the corner to see a huge queue, I had hit traffic for Chester in Rush hour! Decide to switch off, and what do you know, when the queue has gone, it won't start again! Start playing with the carb, and then my battery dies doesn't it! Ah well, out I pop, get my starting handle, but I felt a little, or rather a lot vulnerable, with the wagons passing by, so call the breakdown people, he comes, but is all kitted up for 12Volt. (Has anyone ever seen a 6V boost pack, I want one!) so he asks his mate to come with a wagon, I was tempted to give it a go, as it went quiet traffic wise, but what do you know, the wagon comes, so my first adventure ended not under my own steam, saved me some fuel, but we were a bit disappointed, Ernie was a little upset too !

08/08/08 Update

Well, we had a little problem a couple of weeks ago at a local rally, got there fine, then when it came to a run at mid-day, Ernie would not start.  This is quite strange actually, although the starter motor is not in use, he normal starts on the third turn of the handle, two for the fuel and then pull the choke, and off she goes!

Anyway, got her going and the day went fairly uneventfully until it was time to go home, but we got it going!

The day before as I was checking him over, ready for the show filling with fuel, and I was about to look at why the starter motor wasn't working, but that was scrapped when I broke the steering box, the casting had broken!

I shot off to a friends place and got a spare, then carried on fitting it until about 9.30 pm, a bit annoying as the old one was perfect with no play in the steering hardly at all, so this winter I will have to swap the internals from the old one into this new casting somehow, as it is harder than you think to do!

The quad ring is also leaking badly, so have to constantly keep topping the steering box oil up! 

I also will be looking into casting some new parts for the steering boxes, if anyone needs some let me know!  email me.