1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Are you working on a certain project? Renovating an old machine?
Tell us about it here and show us the progress.

Jeremy Rowland
Moderator
Posts: 8667
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2007 8:36 pm
Real name: Jeremy Rowland
Has thanked: 1867 times
Been thanked: 1688 times

Re: 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Post #81 by Jeremy Rowland » Sat Oct 17, 2020 9:09 am

essexpete wrote:It will be a very tidy machine when you are done. (actually like a famous Scottish bridge.........)



Pete, that's what restoring old machines is all about, fix one job then something else breaks, then something you had already fixed once :lol: mind you in its own way I find it very enjoyable and it keeps the mind and body active literally!

Jeremy

User avatar

Topic author
Slooby
Posts: 505
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2020 10:32 pm
Real name: Tim
Has thanked: 191 times
Been thanked: 117 times
Flag: Great Britain

Re: 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Post #82 by Slooby » Sat Oct 17, 2020 11:00 am

Jeremy Rowland wrote:Pete, that's what restoring old machines is all about, fix one job then something else breaks, then something you had already fixed once :lol: mind you in its own way I find it very enjoyable and it keeps the mind and body active literally!
Jeremy


Urgh, tell me about it...

Having removed all the slack in the steering drag link and ram pins after a couple of weeks use I've found that the king-pins and bushes/bearings are now slopping about...it just moves down the line to the next weak point...

I'm really hoping that somepoint soon I'll be able to get all my tools down here and set up my workshop properly so I will have a my Lathe, a press, welding kit and big pillar drill on hand. Then I can repair things properly and not keep buying parts expensive new parts that quickly get knocked out because of wear in their seats/housings, hopefully I can then machine custom bushes to suit what I have left as it were

Found some suitable Headlamp Housing last night and have ordered a pair: Durite 0-422-00 with integral grilles, a bit more spendy than I wanted to go, but I'm bored with faffing
CMN Stuff: MF65, Thwaites Nimline, JCB 3CX
Projects: S11a 88" V8 Hybrid, 2 x S111 109"s, Mk11 Mini, Harrison L5A :doh:
Ish projects: T25 Camper, ST675R
Just added: Alpine S5 & Bridgeport Mk2 :wtf:
Sorely Missed: Impreza, E39 M5

User avatar

Topic author
Slooby
Posts: 505
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2020 10:32 pm
Real name: Tim
Has thanked: 191 times
Been thanked: 117 times
Flag: Great Britain

Re: 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Post #83 by Slooby » Thu Dec 03, 2020 8:34 pm

With lack of daylight, crap weather, being back at work (from home admittedly) full time and having my son at weekends I've not had much time to tinker, let alone use the JCB.

But I've continued to fiddle about with the lights and wiring to get everything working...ish...

When the JCB arrived the headlights had been replaced with a pair of Hella driving lamps that were only wired to come on main-beam, they also seemed to be pointing at the backs of the pallet forks :/ The beacon on the roof didn't work and neither did the number plate lights or interior light, an indicator wasn't working on the offside (right) front and the nearside (left) front side/indicator lamp was wrapped in electrical tape.

Working my way through everything I found corroded connectors on the power supply wires for the interior light and beacon at the connector to the right of the steering column tucked up under the body tub rail. The ends of the wires had broken off the bullets and fallen out of the connector block and lord knows how they hadn't shorted on anything, because typically in getting to them I did short them and blew the fuse! Always disconnect the battery first :doh:

The number plate lights were a bit bashed about and the bullets corroded so I pulled them out gave them a thorough clean up, added some aluminium foil tape to the backs of the glass for refectors, replaced the bulbs for LED's and decided to run a dedicated earth to each rather than relying on fortuitous earthing through rusty bolts on rusty bodywork. In running the dedicated earths I also spliced in some additional power feeds off the halogen worklights to run some additional LED work lamps that I'd picked up off the 'bay of e'; 5 work lamps for 15quid delivered...

The Durite Lamps arrived, and I wasn't exactly impressed with the quality, the housing is made from the thinest steel which I sware the powder coat is thicker on, and the lamp guards are purely decorative :evil: I opened them up took the halogen lamp units out of the bezels and offered up the 5" LED headlights, I ended up having to glue some 1mm rubber around the lip of the lamps to get clearance between the polycarbonate lens and the 'guards', I also had to trim the securing clips down a lot to seat the lamps in the bezzels because the lip on the lamp units was so thick.

Image

Connector wise I'd bought some 2 and 3 pin waterproof connectors and I replaced all the connectors on lamps exposed to the weather. On the LED headlamps the headlight element has the conventional dip, main and earth connections plus a connection for a 'halo' sidelamp and a second colour for the 'halo'. I wired the halo to the sidelight and the second colour to the indicator.

Image

I took the front sidelight/indicator units apart, repairing the nearside unit where the tape had been covering a smashed up plastics with some aluminium shaped, bonded and riveted to it to hold it all together. Frustratingly the lamp holder inside that lamp was rather corroded, and fell apart while I was putting it back on the JCB. Just like the number plate lights I lined the inside with aluminium foil tape, replaced the sidelight bulbs with LED's and ran dedicated earths.

Image
Image
Image
Image

I repeated the same process as I did on the sidelight/indicator units on the taillights, except without running the dedicated earths at the moment as I need to work out where I can run them to.

Image
Image
Image
Image

The additional LED worklights have been attached to the mounts halfway up the front and rear pillars and I also fitted the now redundant driving lamps on the underside of those same mounts. At the rear I drilled through the pillar below each mount to feed the power cables up to cab mounted work light.

Image
Image
Image
Image

Because of the extra light I've put higher rated fuses in on the lamp circuits.

All the wiring connections spliced in, properly insulated using adhesive lined heatshrink wherever possible, and lamps mounted I reconnected the battery and...only the headlights and indicators would work, no sidelights, work lights or tail lamps. I discovered in this that the second halo colour on the headlights wasn't amber, it was blue. Bugger. They're now disconnected. Back to the wiring diagram to see if I'd missed something, blown something or got the LED's wired in backwards. This is when I discovered that the headlights are wired direct through the light switch, meanwhile the sidelights, tail lights and worklights all go through a relay...odd...Found the relay, took it out checked it for signs of damage and opened it up to see if the contactors were dirty or burnt. Nothing. Plugged it back in. No difference. Hmmm

A few days later decided to take another look and everything worked fine :wtf:

So all looks good...except a tail light bulb has now blown, the front neraside sidelight holder has fallen apart and the brake lights don't seem to work :doh:
CMN Stuff: MF65, Thwaites Nimline, JCB 3CX
Projects: S11a 88" V8 Hybrid, 2 x S111 109"s, Mk11 Mini, Harrison L5A :doh:
Ish projects: T25 Camper, ST675R
Just added: Alpine S5 & Bridgeport Mk2 :wtf:
Sorely Missed: Impreza, E39 M5


essexpete
Posts: 4059
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:43 am
Real name: essexpete
Has thanked: 849 times
Been thanked: 680 times

Re: 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Post #84 by essexpete » Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:59 pm

Soon be time for the next project.


MrF
Posts: 415
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:35 am
Real name: Phil F
Location: France
Has thanked: 18 times
Been thanked: 108 times
Flag: France

Re: 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Post #85 by MrF » Thu Dec 03, 2020 10:16 pm

gecko.cx wrote:I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hoping the stabilisers can be used an an effective bead breaker. Will need a mirror or second operator to make sure the rim doesn't get damaged.

I have on my 3c3 quite a few times, and it works great if you position the pad so its touching the rim carefully, but since my cab currently has no glass in it, I can look out and make sure as the ram extends down that I'm not about to stamp on the rim itself so I can get away doing it solo.
I thought the front tyres were more awkward to break bead on/change than the rears but once you have the bead broken its just working it with levers and boots.Ive got a 10ft tube clip on tyre inflater and stand round the corner of the machine when I get a new to me tyre to use after being fed safety videos of equipment tyre explosions when first inflating.

I have the bkt hd 3 ribs on the front of mine and they seem ok though I haven't put any road miles on them I have picked some heavy machinery up in the front bucket and have a couple of years on them now.

I'm sort of the same place as the op, in that I have a lathe/mill etc, and for years I had to try and keep things going without them as they were in storage after moving here, only now Ive completed the workshop and they're finally under power and usable, but the actual building where the jcb can be worked on still has a dirt floor because of covid restrictions and deciding to take the year to sort some issues out while things were off limits.

User avatar

Topic author
Slooby
Posts: 505
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2020 10:32 pm
Real name: Tim
Has thanked: 191 times
Been thanked: 117 times
Flag: Great Britain

Re: 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Post #86 by Slooby » Fri Dec 04, 2020 1:01 am

essexpete wrote:Soon be time for the next project.


Yup, and there's a long list of those that need moving down from my old place down here to Kent as my sig suggests ;)

The biggest job is going to be creating workshop space down here to set up all my equipment and store the parts and tools...I have a lot to re-house!
CMN Stuff: MF65, Thwaites Nimline, JCB 3CX
Projects: S11a 88" V8 Hybrid, 2 x S111 109"s, Mk11 Mini, Harrison L5A :doh:
Ish projects: T25 Camper, ST675R
Just added: Alpine S5 & Bridgeport Mk2 :wtf:
Sorely Missed: Impreza, E39 M5


MrF
Posts: 415
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:35 am
Real name: Phil F
Location: France
Has thanked: 18 times
Been thanked: 108 times
Flag: France

Re: 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Post #87 by MrF » Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:52 am

Noticed your sig, as a aside, is your L5a the 2.25" screwed nose or l00 fitment?

User avatar

Topic author
Slooby
Posts: 505
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2020 10:32 pm
Real name: Tim
Has thanked: 191 times
Been thanked: 117 times
Flag: Great Britain

Re: 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Post #88 by Slooby » Fri Dec 04, 2020 12:13 pm

MrF wrote:Noticed your sig, as a aside, is your L5a the 2.25" screwed nose or l00 fitment?


Umm, no idea I'm afraid. It was a bit of an impulse purchase about 10 years ago for its scrap value (£300) got moved into my tandem length single garage at my then home and promptly buried in stuff! I do have 9 (!) different chucks for it including a T slot and magnetic faceplates, a lot of tooling, a mandrel to hold cylinder liners (it came from the estate of a local chap who was the person to build your pre-60's trials bike engine) and a home made tool post grinder. It was bought as a non-runner 2 speed 3ph motor condition unknown, and life has got in the way of getting it serviceable again...

I'll dig out some pics...
CMN Stuff: MF65, Thwaites Nimline, JCB 3CX
Projects: S11a 88" V8 Hybrid, 2 x S111 109"s, Mk11 Mini, Harrison L5A :doh:
Ish projects: T25 Camper, ST675R
Just added: Alpine S5 & Bridgeport Mk2 :wtf:
Sorely Missed: Impreza, E39 M5


MrF
Posts: 415
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:35 am
Real name: Phil F
Location: France
Has thanked: 18 times
Been thanked: 108 times
Flag: France

Re: 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Post #89 by MrF » Fri Dec 04, 2020 3:27 pm

Have a look at the back of the chucks, if it has a straight screw fitting its either the later 2.25" nose, or the 1.5" of the earlier one (I'm going on memory of the earlier exact size here but its quite a lot smaller).
I converted my L5A to the rarer L00 taper nose because I use the reverse when single pointing threads and other stuff. I kept the 3 phase motors and just reverse with a dewhurst type reversing switch to swap two of the phases around. I did have a vfd on it to allow soft reverse but I had a issue with cogging and induced drive vibrations so just went back to a simple motor spinning the bits thing. The spindle swap was a big job and needed some machine work to make work but I haven't regretted doing it though its taken me some time to get hold of/machine L00 backplates.
I still have some backing plates and a collet chuck with imperial crawford collets kicking around for the 2.25 nose but sounds like your well sorted for chucks etc. I'll follow my good intent to one day make a L00->2.25" adapter, though I have a burnerd multisize collet chuck in L00 now.
I converted my leadscrew to the norton box as well (which involved shortening the leadscrew itself, but not rocket science) and I haven't regretted that either though my leadscrew ratio calcs offered so many possibilities with the gearsets I had about that I have a spreadsheet to get correct ratios.
Another thing I will mention though is I bought my first L5 (small nose on mandrel) as a callow engineering obsessed youth many years ago and it came with a free toolpost grinder and all sorts of sharpening jigs for lawnmowers, and the bed was totally shagged out and ruined by wear near to the chuck caused by the grinding dust the previous owner had done on it. I still have the remnants of that machine kicking about in various places but it was too far gone to rescue. I bored out the last of my 1.5" base/face plates from it to mount stuff on the 4th axis spindle on my cnc mill the other day.

I got my surface grinder for its value in scrap like that, and I'm slowly getting it into the order I want it over time. Once you have it home, you can improve it, those are the rules right?

Lol at the series landies too, I have a 101FC and a 90, must be habitual in old machinery circles :D

User avatar

Topic author
Slooby
Posts: 505
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2020 10:32 pm
Real name: Tim
Has thanked: 191 times
Been thanked: 117 times
Flag: Great Britain

Re: 1987 JCB 3CX Sitemaster 2WD

Post #90 by Slooby » Fri Dec 04, 2020 7:45 pm

Cheers Phil

It's weird I can't find the pics of my mate (who I can blame for all of my Land Rovers and big machinery) and I collecting it and offloading it at my house. We went in his Series III.1.12L 109" (for full Land Rover aficionados decode that lot :lol: ) 'Bill' towing one(!) of his Rapier trailers with the intention of using the kneeling gear to lower it down to make loading and unloading with an engine crane easier. Annoyingly the kneeling gear didn't want to play so we had to resort to some rather dodgy tilting of the whole trailer, using Bill as an anchor, to get the lathe on! My engine crane now has a slight bend at full extension that wasn't there before :oops: Getting it off at the other end was easier because my drive slopes down to a level patch in front of the garage door so we could make use of that slope rather than tilting the trailer.

I've got a selection of collets for the lathe too as I recall, and the tool post has been converted to a Colchester type quick change. I can't recall if it's standard L5A, but there's a rotating end stop attachment so you can set up for repeat jobs. It's a curious beast. Thankfully it's former owner and his machinist buddy (the neighbour of my mate with the 109 who put me onto it) were fastidious about keeping the bed and slideways oiled and clean so there is minimal wear for a machine of its age.

I think the Land Rover thing is because they are easy to maintain take a ton of abuse and just keep on going. I would have added cheap too, but prices have gone mad for them lately, but at least the parts aren't mad money still! I read elsewhere on here that your 101 took a tumble and you came a cropper too, by the sounds of it you're on the mend, is it salvageable?

109 mate is kicking himself for not buying a 101 a few years ago, the prices now of them are really out there, he briefly satiated his forward control, fitted with a one true engine, thirst with a GAZ 66 (that we christened Zavod Bimblebox) which is a whole story of amusement in its own from spending a couple of weekends getting it running from the street in Leicester where it had sat immobile for 8 years, to us making a schoolboy error in not fully registering something the former owner said that led to this situation on our drive back:

Image

For an idea of Scale, Bill vs Zavod

Image
CMN Stuff: MF65, Thwaites Nimline, JCB 3CX
Projects: S11a 88" V8 Hybrid, 2 x S111 109"s, Mk11 Mini, Harrison L5A :doh:
Ish projects: T25 Camper, ST675R
Just added: Alpine S5 & Bridgeport Mk2 :wtf:
Sorely Missed: Impreza, E39 M5


Return to “Projects”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests