The Babylon Rat

Rick...............

That gear shift coupling you down there is a late one... You need a splitty one dude..

Morning Rich,

Yes I realised that when I was under the bus doing the zinc on Sunday
Problem is that my bus is a change over year so it's Russian roulette whether the parts I order are going to be the correct ones!

Where can I get a urethene splittie one dude? Any ideas please?

ssp, cool air, big boys toys... They all stock them bud..

Cheers dude

Don't suppose you have a worm drive removing tool do you mate?
Just had a call from Red & him & Graham have fitted the replacement engine from Damo & they need to get the worm drive out of the dizzy hole

No mate i haven't sorry...

Been a so, so few days on Babylon as not got quite as much done as I've wanted to, but learnt some new skills along the way



Splittie gearbox, reduction boxes & rear hubs out.

Very bare looking engine bay

Splittie nosecone cleaned & added to the GT box


Read up in the manuals & learnt how to shim up the axle tubes .... Cheers for the heads up that they had to be done Rich

Here's how one of the bearing looked when I left the workshop Sunday evening

Last night Rich & me managed to get the bearings on the drive shafts a bit further, but not fully & I was going to have another crack at it or start getting the swing arms off the bus tonite, but just before & was about to leave to go to the workshop my cousin & his other half appeared at the door ...... I'd forgotten they were down in Somerset for a week's holiday & that they were coming round
Good job they turned up when they did otherwise i'd have been in the dog house

Haven't updated the thread for a little while so here's a start ....



Took these on Good Friday. spent most of the day de-greasing the gearbox arms & cradle .... bit of a $hit job, but it had to be done

Take pride in even the sh1tiest jobs.

After a brief chat with Rich on the blower, I realised that I'd painted up the swing arms, but totally forgotten to notch them out So i rectified that & resprayed them


New clutch arm spring & axle boots on.

New oil seal & clutch release bearing also in place.


While I had the grinder handy, I got rid of the bit of metal that sticks out at the tops of the swing arm retainers too, for maximum clearance

swingnut wrote:

Take pride in even the sh1tiest jobs.

Blimey ..... evening Addy, didn't expect to see you on our forum buddy .... At least i know you're reading my blogs!

You guys still going to pop over from Swansea for the CTTP next month?

Had a day off on Easter Sunday ..... mainly due to a twat of a hang over from hitting the town Saturday nite for my mate Lee's birthday
But got back on it with a vengeance on Bank holiday Monday ...


Got the Urethane gearbox mounts bolted up ..... after several attempts due to me being unhappy with the bolts/nuts positions and which way round I'd fitted them



Swing arms re-fitted, but managed to snap a bolt in the arm retainer cover but at least it came out pretty easily due to using copper grease on the thread! I couldn't get both arms to sit at texactly the same height for flipping ages, then Rich turned up & I showed him the problem & he said about "people go down 6 on the inner splines then back up on the outers" .... so I took it off and went "like this?!" & guess what it was exactly spot on! What's the chance of that happening, eh?


Last but one job of the day was to re-fit the fuel tank, which was a bit of a bitch getting the filler tube up in the right place, but got there in the end & re-fitted the neck seal.

Last job of the day was sussing out a place to mount the Technocar regulating fuel filter, which I decided on the left hand side of the engine bay as you look in to it But I'd routed the fuel pipe out on the right hand side

So went back down Tuesday evening and drilled an identical 18mm hole on the left hand side, fitted a grommet & routed out some new fuel pipe that Kev my housemate had picked me up from work!
Then i set about making up a sturdy bracket up out of some 3mm thick x 25mm wide stainless that I had left from making a support bracket on my bug for the progressive Weber. had to shape it to follow the profile of the fuel filter top & bracket support, drill the fixing holes, bend it & then finally clean it up with the flap wheel on the grinder. Just got to drill two holes in the loading bed support strut & bolt it all up ... oh and still got to buy a Facet posi-flow electric fuel pump to mount up next to the fuel tank for that nice clean engine bay look free from mechanical fuel pump & all the fuel pipe dragging round the front of the engine that will distract from the BMD Iron cross Serpentine pulley kit that will be fitted very soon

Some good work bud your getting there SLOWLY

Oh and forgot to mention that I chased up Rich Thomas (Turbo Thomas zorsts) and hopefully, fingers crossed, he will have finished my spanking stainless tuck away exhaust system with in the next two weeks!

dubberatlast wrote:

Some good work bud your getting there SLOWLY

Well it started off as a simple slamming job ... but then I acquired the 1776, then the 36 Dells, and the the new zorst ... and thought bugger it I might as well get the metal work sorted while it's off the road, and the doors hung right .... and before I knew it carl, it's basically been a full resto, minus the paint job that will have to wait till after the season's over as it's cost me a not so small fortune in parts, but it'll be worth the wait when she's rolling again buddy

Its coming on nicely bud when is it coming out bud we got camping and drinking to start soon

Tell me about it!

Fair Do's Rik, it's coming along well matey. Looks like you are doing everything properly. It's going to look when you have done Buddy.

Cheers Scoops

Babylon Split Rick wrote:

swingnut wrote:

Take pride in even the sh1tiest jobs.

Blimey ..... evening Addy, didn't expect to see you on our forum buddy .... At least i know you're reading my blogs!

I'm always watching... listening... writing things down to be used as evidence in a court of law....

No, not really. I just subcribed to your thread so I can keep up to date

Babylon Split Rick wrote:

You guys still going to pop over from Swansea for the CTTP next month?

Yes, it looks like we're on for that so far!

.... doing such a top class job, it'll pay dividends in the long run mate,

swingnut wrote:

I'm always watching... listening... writing things down to be used as evidence in a court of law....

$HIT NOW I'M FU(KED!

Oh and look in the welcome section of the forum fella ....

vwbeetlebum wrote:

.... doing such a top class job, it'll pay dividends in the long run mate,

Cheers Oli ..... can't really help it bud, I'm a Virgo so it's in-built to try my best at everything I do in life to the best of my ability .... but others call it Anal

Babylon Split Rick wrote:

vwbeetlebum wrote:

.... doing such a top class job, it'll pay dividends in the long run mate,

can't really help it bud, I'm a Virgo so it's in-built to try my best at everything I do in life to the best of my ability .... but others call it Anal

So.....your an ANAL VIRGIN!!!!!

Good for you

Seriously mate.....bus is comin on a treat

All looking very good mate

Babylon Split Rick wrote:

vwbeetlebum wrote:

.... doing such a top class job, it'll pay dividends in the long run mate,

Cheers Oli ..... can't really help it bud, I'm a Virgo so it's in-built to try my best at everything I do in life to the best of my ability .... but others call it Anal

I;m an aries, so I'm hot headed and always in a rush to finish things......