Bedford D Type 1957

Okay, new thread, away from the never ending A is for Austin etc etc thread.

Don't expect much to happen here - if anything. That having been said, development's following no signs of life after fitting a battery. I worked my way under the dash to see if I could induce some movement into the cable operation. 'Well solid' as the Brits might say. I moved under the bonnet to inspect that end.

Contact assembly connections cunningly placed right in the middle behind the head. :huh: And contact unit doesn't appear to be readily removable.


With guards that are four foot high you have to go mountaineering to get into the engine bay and once in there have to try to get yourself into a position such that you can actually reach/work on the item in question. This can be inside the engine compartment under the bonnet or dangling guts down across the guard, not comfortable at all for an old fart like me.

Despite the above I disconnected cables and used a surplus solenoid to give me a sorta-switch to attempt getting the dirt encrusted starter to turn . . . But not a glimmer of action.


Removed the starter motor. Which sounds easy, until you try from underneath and over the mountainous guards with little success. The bottom bolt WAS easy from underneath, but when the upper bolt head refused to accept a socket (insufficient clearance between socket and starter motor body) I had to resort to an open ended spanner - one flat at a time because of virtually no space to swing it. The only good thing with this was the fact the bolt was loose (they probably had the same problem when it was tightened!?). Two or three hits with a hammer and the starter was off. What a mess, although it turns by hand the sliding gear doesn't (slide or turn) and the very light spring has corroded to barely nothing. :ohmy:

Ah well, another job for another day while wife is not around. Why do I get involved in these old trucks? I must be mad. :blush:


For those not aware, this truck is an acquisition I don't really need, and which wife knows nothing about . . . yet! :whistle:

Well not sure how long you can hide this but good luck with it

Paul

Something that will help with reassembly is to run a tap n die along the threads, that way they can wind in most of the way easily.
I would spray the solenoid when next you visit inside the bonnet area to help or make sure it does move and not stick.
After stripping and cleaning the starter a quick test with some jumper leads first before getting all twisted up fitting it again.

PDU wrote:

(For those not aware, this truck is an acquisition I don't really need, and which wife knows nothing about . . . yet! :whistle:

Show Her on Sunday Morning, & shout MERRY XMAS, Darling..:woohoo:

cobbadog: Spot on, you could have taken the words/actions straight from my head - except for spraying the solenoid (that isn't really a solenoid, just a bridging contact) as it is all enclosed, awkward to get at, plus I can't see any attachments to the bulkhead so I'll just use the electrical activated one instead. + All the threads undid quite easily and a little WD40 is all they might need later. + Not expecting much from the starter motor but I will have a go at resurrecting it. If that fails to show promise I'll use the starter motor hanging off the side of my as yet untried J Type engine that was treated to a new head gasket about a month or so ago. That was the O Type's original starter motor and works just fine.
Hmm? I guess that probably gives an indication of how many things are in various states of progress around here!? :blush:

hayseed: It would be a quick end to Christmas if I did!
We'll be away in our caravan so not so easy, but a while back she said she was fed up with hearing about my cars and didn't want to know. Perhaps I'll use the ploy, "You didn't want me talking about the trucks."
ALSO: She was given a book about trucks and a magazine for me by a friend of ours in Adelaide, both had articles about two speed diffs and I had said one might be useful in the O Type I've been working on (in my other blog). No doubt that was what had caused her to say she was fed up with hearing about what I was doing? Needless to say the D Type has a two speed diff in it, :whistle: and being a good little husband I obediently didn't talk about it when it became the latest shed filler. :blink:

Whatever; Bfor is my O Type, so perhaps the D Type should be Dfor as in D for dangerous maybe?

PDU wrote:

cobbadog: so perhaps the D Type should be Dfor as in D for dangerous maybe?

D for DIVORCE.....

Seeing this photo brings back a memory of many years ago when replacing an engine into a D Bedford with the help of my bride of not too many years, with the engine hanging on a jib on the back of 185 MF tractor, after instructions how to operate the linkage to lower it down { what could go wrong} so under the truck I go to feed the gearbox in the clutch, slowly the engine come down [ hell how easy is this maybe I was thinking ] in goes the shaft .... beautiful, calling woa that will do ........... See that throttle linkage and on our Bedford was fuses mounted on the firewall, well my beautiful wife not been told what to do next pull the tractor linkage lever back up and out flew the engine and then in fright push the lever back down and down came down the engine and with me yelling #**#!!!!! up the engine went again......##***#!!! Well the throttle and fuses were no more attached............ 49 years later. yes the marriage has survived

hayseed: Whoa . . . I reckon I'll stick with the D for dangerous. :oops: Not that it needs the last word anyway, just Dfor is all I want to refer to it as.

Mairjimmy: Scary stuff - closest I can come to that was putting what was going to be a revolving metre cube on top of a pole using a fork lift, about 15 foot up in the air and with the forks pointing out over the morning peak traffic, (bumper to bumper). Sneaking it forward with the forks out over the traffic slightly with a mate up a ladder to line up four holes and bolt it on safely. I bet some of those drivers would have been worried if they had known I didn't have a fork lift licence. :lol:

Starter cleaned up okay and appears to be functioning nicely on the bench . . . hopefully it will do likewise when put back in the truck. One job to address is reducing the bolt head down to a slightly smaller size so I can get a socket on it! (Do not suggest reducing a socket, reducing the bolt is a long term fix and sockets can wander. :huh: )

This will now be on hold until the new year as wife is home again and we'll be going away for a week in a day or two.

In the good old days when on the spanners i had a "Half Moon" or the shape of a banana spanner. Not sure of the sizes . It was
a double ended ring spanner which was made for that starter motor job. It wrapped around the starter to get to that top bolt.
Another way be it all a bit "RUFF" is to slot the head of the bolt , then you can run a long s/driver along the top of the starter.
Screw it in most of the way then finish of with a ring spanner. If you won't to get really "Ruff" put the oxy on a ring spanner and
bend into a banana . Just my thoughts. "Desperate men must take desperate measures".