Busy day today, we’ve been doing nothing but inspections keeping our fleet healthy and on the road. Today’s going to be quite a mechanical post for those interested.

First on the lifts was 21158, to investigate her power steering leak and give her a general check over. For 28 years old the chassis is immaculate, no structural corrosion, however we’ve discovered a few oil leaks which needs addressing. She’s also had a good wash to get as much muck as possible off the paint. The conclusion:

- Oil leaking from bell housing, suspected rear crank seal

- Front of crank case soaked with oil, suspected front crank seal

- Oil cooler gasket leaking oil on NS of engine block

- Sump plate gasket leaking oil at OS of engine

- Gearbox oil cooler coolant hose beginning to split at OS of gearbox

- Power steering pipes chaffed through and leaking at chassis crossmember behind OSR wheel arch

- Small fuel weep at injector no 3

Next up in the air was Dafty, and thankfully quite a short list. No immediate concern, just stuff to monitor and work at changing over the next few months. Plus a nice bath!

- Oil reservoir corroded, beginning to weep oil

- Oil cooler gasket leaking oil on NS of engine block

Finally, it was D-Day for 21104, the first time we’d had a proper look underneath her and thankfully we was impressed. From first glance it looks a mess, but upon closer inspection, most is surface rust and underseal, pealing it back leaves an incredibly strong and rigid chassis, with a good clean and underseal, we have no concerns. It also appears to be pretty oil tight, and the body water tight surprisingly. Here’s the list:

- Entire chassis covered in thick layer of surface rust, but structurally sound. Tap off, drell with angle grinder + needle gun corners, prime, underseal.

- Airbag seats and top plates at rear covered with rust, same as above, clean up and sort out.

- All steering linkage boots split and leaking grease

- All NSR lights not operational

- Headlights dim

- Gear selector registering but gearbox not selecting gear

- Hole in compressor feed pipe flex hose at NS of gearbox

That lead us to the catastrophe of the day, unfortunately parking 21104 back up lead her to redevelop her bypassed gearbox fault, causing her to lose all gears and essentially block the depot up. This is currently under investigation, thankfully, Dafty managed to tow her the 100 foot to her parking position as an emergency measure, with relatively no damage, bar Daftys rear n/s light cluster. Panic avoided!

We’ve also done a bit more work on 20974, we’ve started to rebuild the front n/s wheel arch and fitted her side blind.

We’re getting there one step at a time!