1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

[Slooby]

Cheers Dylan!

Just uploaded a video of it being offloaded from the trailer by the delivery driver last week:

https://youtu.be/X91XLLWtjy8

[Slooby]

Managed to get the first coat of JCB Yellow onto the cab tub today, brushing it on isn't going to give the greatest finish, but the main point of the exercise is to make it more rust-proof than pretty.

Just as I finished that a heavy box arrived from Vicary Plant, it contained:

12 Bucket Bushes
20 BSP Thread Grease Nipples
A gearbox output shaft oil seal
Kingpost cap
A pair of wiper blades
A set of 4 pins (2 types) and 4 bushes (also 2 types) for the steering drag link and ram ends
A new UJ for the front loader operator lever
A second-hand Rear Boom Lock with new pins and their cotter pins
A second-hand Front Loader Safety Arm

In between the painting, and replacing an inner tube on my nephew's Pit Bike followed by setting up its carb a bit better I managed to fit the Boom Lock, upside-down will have to make a drift to knock the cotter pins out and refit it the right way up.



Then I moved on to the steering pin and bush replacement; as my machine is older the Ian's (Gecko.cx) project 7 it doesn't have dowty seals to fit, just the bushes to press out and press in, I didn't have to machine up a press tool but resorted to the trusty method of sockets and threadstock to draw the old bushes out and press the new ones in. First one I decided to tackle was the rod end of the steering ram. It came out surprisingly easily...which should have been a warning...the pin was pretty worn and the bush looked in a shocking state, with the spiral grease grooves nearly entirely warn away, signs of it being crushed and cracks starting to appear:




I started to assemble my 'press tool' and offered up the new bush which promptly fell straight through the rod end well that wasn't expected. I quickly checked I was offering up the correct bush from the two types supplied and the other is far longer so clearly not for the ram. So I either have been supplied the wrong size (or incorrectly machined) bush for the ram, or my ram end is in a bad way. The thing is the hole in the ram end looks to be symmetrical so it has either worn true or I have something else going on like a different ram fitted A call to Vicary in the morning is due, unless anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on how I might be able to resolve this that doesn't involve a lathe and some brass/steel?

[diggerjones]

The steering on mine is shocking. Not a machine you want to take on the road at speed

[diggerjones]

[diggerjones]

Has it got quick hitch on the front

[Slooby]

Has it got quick hitch on the front

Yup; JCB Q-Fit, but the quick release dry-break couplings for the hydraulics have been taken off. I found one male and female pair in the cab while I was removing the mats, no sign of the other pair

[Slooby]

The steering on mine is shocking. Not a machine you want to take on the road at speed

I noticed the slop in all the linkages while I was looking at the front axle and its own slop about the pivot. Thought it was going to be a relatively simple job to fit new pins and bushes, but the machine, bless it, has had other ideas

[gecko.cx]

The steering on mine is shocking. Not a machine you want to take on the road at speed

Mine was exactly like that until I replaced the tie rod bushes - having both front wheels pointing in the same direction works wonders.

[Slooby]

In today's lesson I learnt several things...

1) After 2 coats Tractol 329 JCB Yellow doesn't really hide the grey of Tractol 927:





2) In the cold light of day looking more closely at the Steering Ram bush hole end showed that it wasn't round and was heavily worn, plus someone had had a go at building it up with weld and reaming it out before:



3) This means that I'm either going to need to get another less worn Ram (seeing as the shaft is pitted too this might not be a bad thing) or machine it out and sleeve it. So, for the time being, I'm going to build it back up with chemical metal, fit the less worn bush I removed from the drag link (which had been fitted with the shorter one designed for the ram) and refit the old pin, reservice the new ones for whatever route I chose to go down later on.

4) That Agrimax's interpretation of my machines serial number (see my other thread) that suggested that it was a US spec machine maybe bang on the money. The 1/8th BSPT grease nipples that Vicary stock for the Black Cab 3CX and supplied were too small to replace the ones on my machine, however mine were too small to be 1/4 BSPT. Measuring them up and comparing the thread pitches showed them to be about 1mm larger in diameter and the pitch of thread just a little off. Quick search on the web later and I figured it out; my 3CX is fitted with 1/8th NPT grease nipples ie US sizes (the thread pitch is 27tpi on NPT as opposed to 25tpi on BSPT). I called Vicary to see if they had ever heard of NPT grease nipples being fitted, and the chap I spoke to said he hadn't but then in the background I heard 'I have' and a 'me too', which led to a conversation about JCB doing a few random things to get machines out the door. So chances are that if my machine was originally going to be a US spec machine but got sold in the UK to fullfil a big order (It looks like it first belonged to May Gurney Construction) then it stands to reason that JCB may have fitted some off the shelf US spec consumables like grease nipples. However co-incidentally the two buckets that I bought entirely separately from here in Kent, and not Norfolk/Suffolk where this machine lived most of its life, also have 1/8 NPT grease nipples.

[Slooby]

I've been pondering on my Steering Ram End bush issue and have realised that you can buy 25mm ID x 32mm OD x 30mm long Oilite bushes for about £6 each. If I can open up the bush seat to 32mm (which would make it round again) that could solve the problem of the oval hole and filling it with a single bush. With the Bush inserted I could then drill through the grease nipple hole to provide lubrication once more and if I carry on to drill through the bush and the wall on the opposing side I could then tap that hole and fit a locking bolt.

My only problem now of course would be finding a way to drill the bush seat out to 32mm. I'm not sure that a 3 leg hone, of the type you can use to recover a worn slave or master cylinder, would be up to the job on making a hardened steel Ram end with an oval hole round again. I had hoped to do the job in situ rather than go through the rigamarole of removing the Ram and taking it to a machine shop :/