Bedford D Type 1957

Thankyou for all your input fellas, I appreciate what you're saying, and have practised all those situations previously except for Jarrod's. Half moon would not have worked any better than the open end ring (that I ultimately used) due to the space constraints, and an Allen screw would have been the solution I would have used when working for Generous Motors. :whistle:
As I said previously I will reduce the bolt flats down to the next (anything) socket size that will allow clearance. That will be only require a little time and patience with a grinder/file. NB This is in preference to reducing the diameter (and potentially weakening) one of the many 9/16" AF sockets I have laying around.

Still undiscovered and progressing at the same rate as a lethargic snail . . .

Generally manage to squeeze in a little time on the "spare" truck on Friday mornings. The starter motor has been off again to improve earth contact and to make extra sure ran a cable straight to the negative terminal. I didn't bother with the original manually operated solenoid but used a surplus unit which is electrically activated (not connected through to the ignition switch as that is kaput too!).

The front guards are so high on this truck that I have to use a small step ladder to lean into the engine bay OR climb up over the front and sit on the guard under the bonnet! I never had problems like this when I was younger. With this in mind I then considered where to mount the solenoid where I could access it (it has a manual button on it too but try as I might I couldn't find one that was within reach and still be convenient to wiring it in (electrical, NOT farm wired in :lol:). Eventually I decided to mount it anywhere and spotted two holes down on the chassis rail. They were barely six inches away from the starter motor, and with the correct hole spacing to suit the solenoid. Obviously this was not easy to reach from inside the engine bay but as it turned out was accessible under the wheel arch and behind the wheel - all good, and short cables to ensure good power supply.

The carburettor was given a good clean out and choke linkage repaired (but no cable fitted yet to replace the original non working one). I even got really carried away and pulled the distributor cap and plugs to clean them! Having done that I replaced the renmants of the plug leads but have yet to put a coil on it.

No rush with this but least it turns over now.

After cleaning up the driveway with my pressure washer I thought it might be timely to knock off some of the built up crud on the D Type.



Coil now fitted, but not bothering to check "life" as I thought the battery could do with a bit more oomph before trying for a miracle start. :lol:

This is the super solenoid location (follow the chassis rail back).



Definitely more accessible under the front guard with manual button facing outwards.

Late news: Having finished working on my O Type (removing the guard and adjusting one nose cone bracing strut) I thought I might as well grab a length of wire and hook up a live wire to the coil on this truck . . .

A drop of "old" petrol down the carby (kept for cleaning the odd items that need it sometimes) it actually made a reasonable attempt to start! :woohoo: Tried it again three times before running out of petrol - each time spluttering for maybe three or four cylinders before dying BUT a very promising result all things considered. It lives again.

Another update:  Nothing has happened here at all, even though I have bought another electric fuel pump. Just no time to get onto it basically because of that bloody verandah/carport that consumed three moths of my life.

Wife was wandering around while I was transferring sections of gutter (which I had stored on the rear chassis section) and let me know of a friends unexpected death. In her somewhat distracted state she stared at the truck but didn't seem to be aware that it was there!? 

A month later she asked why didn't I move the triumph 2000's from the caravan shed into the shed alongside . . . "I can't do that, that's where the spare truck is."

Obvious response, "Huh, what spare truck?"

And my glib reply, "The one with the two speed rear axle I said about six months ago." 

Followed by wife's, "Oh."                    Sometimes you get lucky.