The Babylon Rat

Progress this weekend at last!!!
Saturday's work:

Fuel tank & gearbox now in.


Shocks fitted, although there's a bit of an angle on the rubbers, even after myself & Mr. Parsons heated up the top mounts to bend them back a little.

Also had to swap the top bolts on the swing axle conversion round as the nuts fouled the shocks



Got as far as I can go at the moment with the rear axle as a phone call to Paul @ T2D revealed that the rear bearings are on the correct amount, but I'll need to get the deeper Ali billet bearing covers that Paul supplies, so while I was at it I ordered them, my dropped spindles & a new set of link pins

Sunday's work:
As I was at a stand still with the rear axle awaiting parts I thought I'd crack on with stripping down the 1600cc engine & robbing all the bits I need for the 1776cc long block that will be residing in the engine bay very soon

Powder coated tinware removed from the old engine & cleaned.

Hope I can remember where all the bolts go!

Doghouse cooled fitted.

Poorly looking 1600 engine been robbed of parts .... although it will be rebuilt up with replacement tinware that needs spraying up before it goes into the Vamp

First trial fit of the BMD Serpentine pulley kit that Sharon bought me for Xmas

Engine from the back with new fan fitted .... And when I was swapping it over I realised that last time I had it off to fit the Alternator, I'd fitted the wrong size washer & that was why it sounded like I had a bag of nails in the engine bay when the revs were high & the fan was rubbing the back of the fan shroud Tis now rectified

Engine looking a bit more complete with the worm drive & dizzy swapped out of the old engine.

Loving the Pulley Kit! Looks spot on.

xxxx

Looking good dude.
Hopefully not too much longer before she's rollin' again?!?

Really liking the look of the serpentine belt system ....they do make a big differance to the look of the motor

Cheers guys

It's nice seeing bits going back on at long last!!!

The engine is going to look super clean as there's an electric fuel pump & regulating fuel filter being hidden away in the engine bay, so all the fuel pipes will be tucked away behind the engine out of sight & the twin Dells will be by the sides unlike the progressive Weber that was on it before that dominated the engine front!

Dirty Dave wrote:

Looking good dude.
Hopefully not too much longer before she's rollin' again?!?

Hopefully not too much longer mate ..... going to use the time it takes the T2D boys to machine up my dropped spindles to get the other bits sorted, then rip out the front suspension & get her properly in the weeds

Nice work rick getting there bud

Nice one ricky baby..

Looks ace Rick!

i wouldn't worry about the rear shocks - Bella's are 100 times worse on the front! and the MOT man wasn't worried about them - as long as they worked, which they do.

Lookin geat rick.. Cant wait to see it in the flesh

P.S Did you get your mate remaking them interiors that you had a final fling?

Shamrockez wrote:

Looks ace Rick!

i wouldn't worry about the rear shocks - Bella's are 100 times worse on the front! and the MOT man wasn't worried about them - as long as they worked, which they do.

Cheers Lucy .... That's comforting to know that the angles aren't too bad! I've moved the suspension arms up & down & the shocks do the job, so happy days

delboy wrote:

Lookin geat rick.. Cant wait to see it in the flesh

P.S Did you get your mate remaking them interiors that you had a final fling?

Hi Mart

Yes the interior is made & in the garage awaiting staining
We used marine Birch in the end, which is tougher than marine ply as it has 9 laminations in a 10-12mm thick sheet.
We used stainless steel piano hinges & all the joints are properly made, glued & nailed for strength.
We also had the table top/bed middle section top face finished with a laminate which is touch & wipe clean, so it won't get ruined.
Ended up costing us £775 at cost so we would probably market it fot about £850 - £900, as it's a superior product than some of the others on the market
The Oak laminated version might still be on the cards at a later date, but at this stage was prohibativly expensive what with all the other build costs on the van, but it would have been laminated with real wood & professionally spray varnished

Dude it is about time we had an update on here for Babylon

Dub Mayhem wrote:

Dude it is about time we had an update on here for Babylon

Maybe later Lee.....as another day of Pooh hitting the fan....will get Rick to explain....

update needed

Hi guys,

Yes as Sharon has intimated .... 1 step forward 10 steps backwards

I inlisted the help of my mates Vince & Dave from the Headcrackers to help give me a boot up the rear end this weekend on the bus.

We were going to sort out the handbrake cable issues I've been having (will explain further when I have more time!) & fit up the 4" slam beam as Vince has built up many bus beams in his time.

Well the handbrake cable wasn't having any of it so we started to check the geometry of the rear hubs to find that the n/s was sitting about 10-15mm out of alignment compared to the o/s
We checked everything & it seems that the Bus Station straight axle kit is basically poo! so we stripped out the rear brakes & took off the s/s kit & arms.
We then drove back over to Berrow & collected a set of Vince's 'Billett 56' S/A kits & modified the original splitiie arms to fit this kit. We also stripped out my front beam from the bus .... and this was Saturday's work.
Then was back up the workshop at 7.30am this morning to carry on with it. We have got the back end trial fitted back up on the bus, complete with wheels on. Then as Dave's Splittie had failed the MOT on the fact it had been lowered on the front (in US before it came over to the UK) by removing all but the centre torsion bar on both top & bottom tubes
So we decided to fit my surplus beam to his bus. While Dave & me were doing this Vince was getting the slam beam built up. Vince & myself pressed in the bearings to the dropped spindles. then we found out that the top arms we had left on the beam that went into Dave bus were the wrong size link pins (I think they are) and the whole assembly from the arms out needed to come off so we could swop over the arms to my slam beam & re-use Dave's arms & his spindles onto my old beam.
And to top everything off the grease seal that goes on the steering idler pin won't fit onto the slam beam, but we've fitted it up for the time being I'll just have to re-grease the pin monthly until we can build our own narrowed adjustable beam & sell the slam beam on so I can get some of the money back on it!

What a total nightmare dude i'll catch up with you properly later on in the week.

Sounds like a funkin knightmare dude, that why i got rid of my 62 split, just ran out of patients with it, but kind of regret selling it now, but hay ho!!

It'll come good Mart, just gotta pull my finger out and finish the running gear so I can get the engine in!

Now play fair Matty .... I've had several crappy set backs, but with the help of my friends Vince & Dave who are stars, it's back on track at long last. Just needed someone who'd done it before to spot the crapness & out of alignment of the Bus Station S/A kit!

oh giz a kiss you miserable old bear!

wurzelspice wrote:

oh giz a kiss you miserable old bear!

I'll second that well the miserable old bear bit anyway but surely it should be pirate not bear though