Team Idris

I was really struggling to get the TIG welder to start up an arc and to re-start at the end of a weld. My boss came and had a go with it and said it felt like the high frequency wasn't working at startup and was failing intermittently during the run. It had a white tip in at the time, so after much fiddling with the controls we tried the red tip tungsten. It was instantly a completely different welder and back to its normal self. We have to conclude that the two year old tungsten tip had gone bad. We never have this problem at work because they are regularly worn away. But if you are struggling, then give it a shot !

I started work on the drivers side because the truck was backed into the garage. It had become time to go for the look of a normal tray back, which isn't that hard because underneath the panel work it's a tray back! one change has been to cut out the two angle steel 'B' pillars and change them for 40 x 40 box. This is the ally tig work on the left hand side

I think you need both four and two pot calipers on the back to work properly. Because Milner fiddle brakes are too big in the piston for landrovers. if truth be told the job needs four pot all round and a bias valve set that operate by direction, but that's harder than fitting abs. going back to the original question it is normal for the four pot to work fine with the standard master cylinder so it must be air or the calipers mount isn't on square?

It moves minionda has been great fun to build

Yes, good ones are super rare. It's one reason I went dry-sump. As the cam gives out the oil pump gears score the timing cover. Then they won't self bleed.

I managed to oh so carefully remove the exhaust manifold bolts by drilling the flat on the nut and tapping it loose with a punch. I guess like a gentle nut splitting with a chisel? I tried phosphoric acid on the screws and it worked well %5BURL=http://s146.photobucket.com/user/teamidris/media/IMG_1014_zpsfrdqo3yy.jpg.html%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r256/teamidris/IMG_1014_zpsfrdqo3yy.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D

It moves my favourite 'belt supplier' is Millenum Bearings in Lichfield, so I pootled off there to drop some cash on some nice bits. (obviously this isn't getting the winch challenge truck finished, which has no door or rear wing, but this is way more of a giggle)

My bro pulled a mini bike side car 50cc kids motorbike out of a friends garden for me to resuscitate. Oh boy was it stuffed! All the UV damaged plastic work broke up nicely to fit in the dustbin when I stamped on it and the chain was rusted solid. The engine was full of water and that's bad for an air cooled two stroke. first job was cut the bike out of the side car and then fit the donor engine, a 5hp Honda generator engine then hive it a 6" frame stretch......

Thankyou, it worked great until I bust it easy fix though really pleased with it!

1935 kg without the ground anchor. It went well yesterday. The fairlead mod went well until I bent the winch mount. I also stuffed the door and totalled the rear mudguard, but it's only an MSA - ALRC token gesture anyway.

By fabrication and machining we eventually got a very nice winch rope 'director' that would push the rope where we needed it on the winch drum and still work as a perfectly normal aluminium fairlead. This year I have gone a step further to make it operable from the drivers seat. All I needed was some thin steel tube, a 3/8" wobbly joint and some string ! How the movement works; How it forces the rope accross the drum;

It would, but needing to operate it under load hasn't really been an issue over all these years, as we pretty much know how a pull is going to pan out before we start. Also, I absolutely don't have any train weight left to play with for motors or rams, which is why it has taken so long to do the mod

I finally made the sliding fairlead work from the cab https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DjyW93DB3Eg Untested as yet, but even being able to pull the pin will be a help.

Those Zeus kits look pretty swish! I wonder if you need power assisted brakes or if they work fine on the standard master cylinder?

I have Mig and Tig. Tig is great and is like gas welding of old, but for lashing stuff together Mig is king. Get Tig if you want to do aluminium or small steel parts. My Rtech 161 Tig also does stick-welding. The 180 cebora Mig I have now is good, but if you want to eat 6mm plate then the bigger machines are better for sure as said. Any college courses in your area?

Full speed ahead on van repairs, and 'full speed' ain't what it used to be 20 years ago The front panel in the box had to go as the 3/8" ply is resin covered and the wood had rotted. Same for the side at the front so the first 4 foot is now 2mm ally. Luckily Darren at work helped me loads or I would have really struggled and failed as opposed to struggled and won As usual this job has hours of knock-on work from wiring to plumbing.

Sounds a nice engine/box

Did I put a link to my jiggly wiggly Syphon? It was six quid and it works really well https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UrgELwmyKTU Work at the moment is about straightening the left sill and bracing it underneath with inch box. Also on the go is making the sliding fairlead operate from the cab. This wasn't feasible easily until the winch re-work last year. Now it is a lot easier to pull off. And will save our legs when the going is steep. If I can I will do a vid of it.

I think half inch npt being American. The half inch bspp I used only goes in one and a half turns. My apologies if it is 3/8 rather than 1/2 inch. It certainly appears tapered if you mean the 3.5 v8 carb engine.

Nice set up The handy thing is I only want the shock there, the spring can stay as it is. I suppose if I had been well ahead in thought I could have CNC stamped out a pair of those. But the idea wasn't there untill I saw how much stronger the new arms were.

The inside of the chassis is kind of full of things. There is a lot of rear rad stuff going on. Interesting idea though The rear bush would have a hard time and if I was speed racing it would have to move back. But I think I will get away with it on slow stuff? If it's a clamp it needs to be very tough. At the moment I am thinking it needs to be billet ally. Maybe a job for the winter..... I'm currently making the sliding fairlead slide from the cab. That should save me hard cash in rope damage

Bowie69- yes the spirally bits inside the tubes is something you only see on big tubes now. (Inch bore) The best dodge is to dimple the tube which is a lot easier and mixes the water just as well. Speed it up every few inches and it turns it. Boydie- that could be the cuprobraze process then. The copper-brass equivalent of the brazed aluminium process. That will be a very good radiator and well worth the money. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CuproBraze

I have my new Gwy Lewis HD trailing arms and they are quite substantial. I'm thinking of mounting my rear shock on the top of them about 6" from the back. Advantage: obvious and many ) Disadvantage; cocking around, welding, getting geometry wrong and bending one. My initial thing is finding some fairly butch U clamp thing to grab the radius arm. If you have an opinion, chuck it below

Boydie If it's a cheap copper unit then ally will outperform it. Ally rads have tubes covered in a thin layer of high silicon content aluminium. The pure aluminium of the tube melts at 600 degrees centigrade thereabouts, but the rolled-in coating melts at 575-580. It is like the whole surface is covered in aluminium solder. Which is exactly how some copper rads were made. You get an aluminium core that becomes one piece of metal. However, many copper rad cores were dipped horizontally into a solder bath so that only the first 5mm was mechanically joined. The bit in the middle only works by contact and performance drops off with corrosion. Many classic mini rads are like that. I don't know how many copper rads are like that now, but it's an easy way to save on lead solder, so I bet it still happens. Fin machines are identical. One thing worth looking out for on both products is a hemmed edge. The 1mm edge is rolled back on itself and that makes it easier to pressure wash without bending fins. Most rads have a hemmed edge. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnc9H-lvldk As an aside, water rads don't have internal tube fins. The water passes heat readily, so no need. Oil coolers and intercoolers do. Those internal fins really boost performance. They easily put 10% on an oil cooler.

Ta da ! An expert has arrived Yep, it's a mine field My take on it as an off-roader and as Senior Design Engineer in a heat exchanger factory that makes everything from race car rads to big 2m square industrial rads 138mm thick is; I like copper, especially in off-roaders. It appears to be stronger at the header plate to tube joint. (Sorry work). But ally is fine for everything in truth. And freely available. Metal conductivity between copper and ally is so small by comparison to the hideous ability of air to shift heat it really isn't worth fussing over. The toughest car rad you can get is Plate-and-bar. Hardly anyone but Armco smacking drifters need it in cars though. It is literally 'throw it down the stairs" tough. The thicker you go the less air goes through a rad. Let's say you see 200 Pa on a 30mm deep rad. Double the depth and see 400 Pa. The fan can't do 400Pa so air flow drops to a point where the fan can push air. If you have the option you go bigger. A layer of stationary water or oil or air is on the inside face of the tubes. The flow is highest in the middle. If you go "double pass" the water speed doubles and that layer reduces. But that only works if your pump can shove the flow in the first place. A good fan cowl is better than anything ! Make that fan work and every little fin in your rad ! My 1972 transit van has no fan cowl and that is the worst case. Best case is a close fan ring and a sealed cowl with a rubber joiner. So to sum up: Most things you can do to improve performance takes two steps forward and one back. For example, if you have a rad with open fin you may reduce rad cooling, but you will reduce under bonnet temperatures, which also cools the engine block better.