My Ding a Ling...

Well, having tripped over the new bell several times as it sat in my lounge, I thought that today (after a post end of term lie-in) would be a good day to get the bell onto 326. So a quick hop up the A1 was in order.

Once the short ladder was up the side of the cab, the tool kit came out. Firstly, the two tone horns needed relocating. When the bells were removed and these were fitted by the Home Office, they were mounted inside of the bell hanger on the cab roof so needed moving to the outside to make room for the new lump of brass.

Before - horns inside the bell hanger:

After - now on the outside:

Then it was off with the neat aluminium cover for the bell hanger and leather strap. These were obviously blocked off when the bells were removed to keep the rain out!

Once done and after a bit of faffing, the bell was on - no easy task given the weight of it and carefully operating at the top of a ladder!

Looks much more the part (even if they never had bells on Op Fresco!)... Probably the first time in 25 years that it has been fitted with a bell?

The view from the inside:

Once that was done and the work was admired, it was time to remove the bell again for the winter (given the value!) and to tidy up the tubing. The outside cable ties will be changed to black in due course:

Once that pleasing task was done, I then spent a few minutes placing orange cables ties on much of the fire kit to identify it when it's out. At big shows such as Derby when a lot of kit comes out of many vehicles, it will hopefully make it easier to find my stuff!

The last thing to do was to get the starting handle out to give the engine a few turns to keep it lubricated and to change which valves stay open:

I also brought the hearth kit home to keep it dry over the winter, however, the addition of three large silica bags to absorb any moisture appear to be doing the trick!

After that, it was time for home. A short and simple but pleasing few hours!

Ding dong merrily on high...

Well, after keeping my eyes peeled on eBay and elsewhere for a bell, I have come up trumps!

Green goddesses were built in an era before 'blues and twos', having twin orange flashing lights above the windscreen and a bell mounted on the near side cab roof, operated by the person sat in the cab passenger seat via a leather strap dangling from the bell through a hole in the roof! As the world moved on, bells became less common, until the 1980s when they were finally removed from the green goddess fleet and replaced with flashing blue lights and two tone air horns. However, the bell hangers were left - handy for mounting the horns!

Well, although 326 remains (and will stay) in Op Fresco livery from 2002/2003, I did think that a bell might be a nice touch as a nod to the past. Proper GG bells - with the crown and ER cipher and date stamp - do pop up occasionally, but they are expensive so I wasn't going to pay too much! But I keep my eyes peeled nonetheless.

Cut to last Tuesday when a saved search on eBay ('fire bell') brought up a genuine GG bell. With a starting price of £50 and no bids! I immediately bid and hoped with nearly 5 days to go, it would stay that way. It did, until Saturday afternoon when I was outbid by £2. So, with bidding at £102, I upped mine again, securing the top bid. Time ticked on, so slowly. Minutes then seconds left. Would I be beaten or 'sniped'? I hovered over the bid button, but time ran out and it was mine - £104 plus postage. Result!

Anyway, it arrived today - a proper, pukka GG bell. Heavy, shiny, loud. I just have to swap the air horns to sit outside of the bell hanger, remove the cover from the hole in the roof and get it up the ladder and on!

The bell as it arrived:

The proof it's real - the crown and ER cipher with December 1952 date stamp:

Built to Spill...

Well, I finally today got around to doing a job I'd been meaning to do for a while - replacing the oil in the main gearbox. Although it's fairly new, the smell tells me it's probably EP90. Many older gearboxes - certainly those on Land Rovers - don't like this stuff as the EP (extreme pressure) additives can damage phospher bronze components. I've no idea whether there are any in goddess gearboxes, however, looking at the EFS paperwork, it clearly states that the main and transfer boxes need AG90 (no EP additives) whilst the differentials etc need EP90. So with another bottle of Morris AG90 having arrived, I set about changing the oil after a good run to warm it up.

Now, when I did the transfer box in the summer, it was half the capacity. So, when the drain plug was removed, a tsunami of oil shot out - everywhere. Had I used my large drip pan? Nope. So having wrestled the plug back in, I set about trying to mop up lots of by now cold, sticky EP90. Masses of it! With that done, and as it was getting dark, I dropped the remainder and started the slow process of getting the new oil in - finishing in the dark!

Once I had slid it back in the barn, I then had to grovel for some detergent to try to remove the rather noticable oil slick from the concrete pan. Luckily, they had some 'Gunk' on the shelf so with a quick scrub and a hose down, I could go home.

Hopefully, there is no damage to the gearbox as it has been getting noisier. However, there was a good deal of metal residue in the oil as you can see from the picture. I'm hoping I've change it in time!

Window Shopping...

Well, a small crowd of us visited LW Vass this morning to see what they had and what they'd salvaged from the recent closure of Williamsons up in Oldham. They don't usually open on a Saturday but Peter, their fire equipment sales manager, kindly agreed.

We had a good couple of hours mooching through the stores which contain a whole range of equipment and spares ranging from brand new, modern equipment to older ex-AFS green goddess stuff. In the case of the latter they have most normal kit ranging from suction baskets to nozzles to webbing belts and axes to first aid hoze nozzles to brand new featherweight pumps in boxes! They also have a large number of what has been the holy grail in the GG world - ex-AFS ground monitors.

Well worth a visit, although much of this older stuff won't appear on the web so a call or email to Peter is best!

This is this morning's shopping basket - a hydrant key, webbing belts and axe holders, electric gloves, spare seals, blanking cap for the stand pipe, male-to-male and female-to-female couplings, spare hose bandages. Oh, and of course - another ground monitor!

Pop Locker...

I took these shots over the summer but forgot to upload them! Essentially, I took them showing the lockers in their much more complete state with virtually all the kit deficiencies rectified, so the vehicle is almost in the configuration that it was for Op Fresco in 2002/2003.

Locker 5 - the tools locker - now complete with two axes, a shovel, a saw and a pry bar:

Locker 2 - this was pretty much complete when I bought it but a few extra nozzles now:

Lockers 2,3 and 4 - this mainly contain hose including 4 new lengths of Duraline for regular use as this needs no drying unlike canvas hose:

Locker 6 - this now houses the collecting head which is an 'extra' as GGs wouldn't have normally carried these:

Locker 7 - now houses a couple of deck chairs (not original!!) as well as the strainers as these have been displaced from locker 9:

Locker 8 - original except for the nurse valve acquired this summer. These weren't usually carried by GGs but are useful for show purposes when pumping in relay - which is what they were designed to do! The ground monitor is an addition, too - this locker had the storage holes but in the latter days weren't carried. Great for squirting lots of water safely! The hearth kit was a chance find at Witham SV (who sold them off in 2005/2006) - complete, as new and a bargain at £35!

Locker 9 - the gerry cans are still at the back as is the water container. This locker should house the strainers but it currently serves to store the oils and lubricants etc. The correct GG fuel filler funnel is new and was en eBay find.

Forever Autumn

Well, after a significant period of no activity, I finally had the time to get to the barn to run both 326 and 32 (the petrol carrier). I hadn't visited for 7 weeks and 326 hadn't turned a wheel since the end of July!

Anyway, after a few pumps of the accelerator, 326 fired into life and burbled away for a good 20 minutes to blow away the cobwebs and charge the battery.

No real jobs to do other than pop the absorbent battery mat underneath the battery, although that reminds me that the isolator switch still isn't finished! I only started this time last year!!! Hey ho....


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The Bad Oil...

 

I'm sure gear box oil shouldn't be black!

 

 

 Red thing on the right? That'll be the nurse valve. Rare as stuff that is excreted by rocking horses.

After a few weeks of neglect, the on-going servicing tasks continued apace today! Predictably this involved parting with more hard-earned cash and ordering yet more oil from Morris Lubricants. The target this time was the gear box and transfer box which require AG90 rather than the EP 90 used in the differentials and steering box etc, presumably because of phospher-bronze components which don't work well with the extreme pressure (EP) additives. The main gearbox was full with new oil having been serviced last year when the clutch was changed (although it's filled with EP 90 so I will change this soon). The transfer box, however, was a different story!! The oil (EP 90) was black with an awful lot of fine sediment in. So, this was drained and bottled then replaced with new AG 90. This took ages to pour in - trying to use a straight funnel to pour two litres of thick oil into a filler hole which is vertical takes some time and patience! Anyway, another job done....

I then tried to get EP 90 into the steering box using an oil gun but this proved to be troublesome and I suspect I ended up wearing more than went into the nipple! Hey ho, a job to be completed another day!!

I then dropped the newly-acquired nurse valve into the locker. These were used when 6 inch pumping from machine to machine in the AFS days to prevent too much pressure building up in the pump. I borrowed one at Derby Fire Show but as it is useful to have one, I acquired one from a fellow owner yesterday.


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