08/09/2026
Almost a year since the last update on the overhaul of our Fowler 4240017, so here goes.
Battery isolator installed, and installation of new heavy cables to the starter has been completed.
The starter motor was pulled for a visual inspection and has been deemed to be serviceable.
The cooling system has been filled with water to check for leaks, and a few small repairs were made.
The dregs of fluid have been drained from the torque converter, It didn’t smell very much like diesel!
Temporary air was applied to the clutch actuator to check the clutch operation, the air piss-ed out of every or***ce and the clutch piston rod was wobbling around like a jelly. The actuator was removed and stripped for inspection, an oilite guide bush was made and fitted to the lower guide and some very aggressive scores were honed out of the air cylinder. New imperial piston and rod seals were sourced from Swan seals.
With the actuator re-fitted, the clutch could not be adjusted so that it went over centre, and we gave up after a lot of fiddling about. The clutch arm is in the wrong position on the keyed shaft and it needs to be re-shaped in order to get the right geometry and reduce the play in the throw out bearing. TBC
To get access to the clutch, some of the remaining steel air pipes were removed including the one that crosses the engine compartment, with the safety valves on, they were all found to have severe internal corrosion and will require replacing.
The copper throttle cable assembly is too short for this engine, and an attempt was made to re-route it out of harm’s way in the engine bay. It was removed straightened, modified, lubricated, re-bent and re-fitted, and then we found that there was too much internal friction and the throttle was never going to spring return. The old cable has now been abandoned and we will find a marine cable of the correct length to run to the Rolls Royce rocker linkage on the side of the C6SFL engine block, albeit the rocker is missing on our engine and the mounting casting is damaged.
The 55A CAV dynamo was removed for inspection and all of the carbon dust and gunge was cleaned out, and as it never had a terminal cover, an new one has been machined up out of hard plastic, which worked very well.
The fuel injection pump cover was removed for inspection and the fuel rack appears to move freely, TBC on flushing all of the solids out of the supply pipework.
The radiator fan was removed to allow all of the v-belt pulleys to be cleaned up and re-painted, before fitting new V-belts. The fan spacer mounting studs to the water pump hub all had stripped threads, so these have been replaced.
While at this end, an attempt was made to re-connect the tacho cable, but it is 2’ 6” too short, and we suspect that the loco has never had a working tacho since the C6SFL engine was installed. We will have to have a new cable made for our nice mechanical tacho.
All of the fuel hoses on the engine and torque converter are rotten, and they are in the process of being replaced with hydraulic hoses with BSP ends, which have required a load of UNF to BSP adaptors to be fitted.
At the same time, a new Delphi 296 torque converter filter and engine pre-filter has been fitted under the fuel tank.
The inline filter and restrictor that controls the torque converter pressure, has been removed and cleaned, and the filter was found to be a bit mucky!
The 3 x l**e oil filter bowls have been cleaned out and the 3 x fuel filters will be next. The engine dry sump has been drained of some very black oil after the two sump plugs were fought out of the aluminium casting. The 1-1/4” UNS plug bushing on the reservoir side is toast, and a new one is being made.
On the bottom end of the loco, the long handbrake rod has been removed and straightened, and all of the pins in the brake compensating linkage have been cleaned and lubricated. The brake cross shaft at the front was found to be almost seized and required a crowbar to move, due to years without lubrication. We weren’t particular keen on pulling it apart, so we decided to try pumping some l**e oil through the grease ni***es, which are fitted at the top of the bearing castings, which is not where you would really want them to be. Anyway after a lot of oil pumping and exercising, the shaft freed off and now moves by hand! A very nice man donated a new 90mm spanner, which is just the right size for the brake adjuster nuts.
And then disaster struck, whilst having another inspection of the John Fowler final drive innards, it was found that the input bevelled pinion was loose on its splined shaft and could be rocked from side to side, with a finger tight castellated retaining collar. The Self Changing Gears final drive’s have a one piece pinion / input shaft, which is clearly of a much higher integrity than the Fowler version.
TBc on removing the input shaft assembly from the main final drive casting, for inspection, fingers crossed that the splines shaft and bevelled gear are repairable.
