Hi Everyone,
After what seems a month has passed we have finally got back to work on the project.
Week 24 which if we was actually counting weeks we could easy be up in the 40s now however keeping it simple we are only counting the weeks that we actually go up to the bus and work on the project.
Now away from the project a lot has happened which is why the process has been slow. But this week Jordan and Shaun managed to meet up and get some work done but being so long since we attended the bus and worked on the project we was at a loss of what to do and with still a lack of tools to do some of the work. So what did we do?
Shaun managed to extract one of the bolts from the exhaust manifold which we was expecting to be hard work however with a hammer it just simply knocked out like nothing was holding it. We also have a snapped bolt stuck in the head at the Air manifold this we used to 2 nut method to remove. For those wondering this is where you put one nut on then a second on top. Using the first nut you put on to turn it and lock against the second bolt giving you some extra power to remove a stuck bolt without snapping it further. We attempted this on one of the exhaust bolt that was stuck but due to the heat and age the threads was stripped so we just couldn’t get a firm grip to remove it or attempt to. So we have left 3 in the head if remembering correctly which unfortunately we will have to pay to be drilled out.
Next up was the Oil sump which needed to be welded, We took it to who did our body panels a few years ago however they didn’t have the ability to either weld or drill the bolts out the head however they suggested a company called R.Briggs These are located in Accrington and are brilliant to work with if you need anything welding you can contact them on 01254230777 and they will be more than happy to help. They now have our sump and will weld it when they have chance as we have told them there is no rush for it. The estimated cost of the repair is £120 which is better than the originally quoted £4500 for a new one so that is some hell of a saving. That will be ready in the next week or so and once finished it will be able to be reattached to the engine giving us a little bit of more normal back.
Lacking of jobs to do once we returned from that task we decided to tackle the power steering pipes as they are unwilling to be removed in the normal way Shaun took the grinder to them and we have one removed from the bus the second one will take a little more work however as the grinder battery died there wasn’t much we could do. However it is safe to say there is not much ATF left in the system after it split. We then had to chase the pipes that go up and over the gear box to find where they went and how they traversed the bus.
To give us a better view and access we decided that the fan housing that directs the air from the side of the bus through the radiators being sucked by the massive cooling fan. This in its self was a interesting puzzle to remove it. In the end we had to unbolt some of the frame to pull the housing out as it simply would not fit though the hole that was there.
Once this was removed it gave us a good amount of access to many areas of the bus which will help put it back together and repair parts of it with the fan housing being the last thing now to be put back.
With the access that this granted we can get to the ATF reservoir easy as well as a few other parts that need replacing such as the 3 rear air tanks, The 4 way protection valve and the retarder solenoid valve which is ceased or simply doesn’t work. With the extra access these will be much more simple to replace and some work may start on that soon.
The engine though will still be taking the largest priority however before we get it started and back moving we do need to tackle those other problems.
As mentioned we are resuming normal operations as possible, However it may still be tricky at time. The income from YouTube and patreon has dropped a lot in the recent months making things a little more difficult to manage with the 2 rents we pay and the other operational costs. We also have just been hit from the ICO for the Data Protection payment due to the shop we are now running which you can find at – www.merch.mancbuses.com On there you can find lots of different products and they all go to helping the project. The best way to support us is watching our content and becoming a member on either YouTube or Patreon.
We also would like to add a massive thank you to Ethan our editor who through these tricky times has without failed managed to find content to keep the business going and without his help there would of been nothing.
So please do help us where you possibly can and thank you to everyone we are on our way to 10K subs and we never thought we would be this big.
Jordan