Allrad-LKW-Gemeinschaft

Well, well…it’s been a while since the last update, as I said before, and I think it is time to picture some of the things that had been going on around the object of my obsession. Some time ago I had ordered steel grit to continue to clean the frame. While I was waiting, just to make time, I took t...

First of all, sorry for the delayed answer. I wish you all a very good and happy new year. @ Slarti: I found my old worterbuch so I can now make an effort to remember and glue ideas to understand German, again. @ Moe: thanks very much for your comments. It is true that a pannel sandwich with a steel...

Wow, guys... Many thanks for your words. I have tried to show the process of overhauling, modifying and building as completely as I could, and tell the story as simply as possible so anyone with minimum english knowledge can understand it. English is not my mother language either. I am the only one ...

Feeling pretty uneasy, I inspected the Merkabah from upside down, covered by a thick layer of dust, grease and grease remover from the engine to the gear box, and I had a new burst of rage and frustration, fundamentally directed towards myself. To make things worst, I found out that the heat resista...

Hello Gemeinschaft: I am a little confused. Looking at the number of visits to the thread this is probably one of the most visited of the website, but one of the less commented so far. Thanks for the encouraging words expressed from time to time by some of you, but sometimes I would like to know mor...

I read about the project of Peter and Margot and their 6x6 MAN wohnmobile, the Mounty, and I asked them if they wanted to share some construction tips with me. Peter answered surprisingly fast and sent me pictures and information, happy to be able to help me. He already knew about the work done to t...

Back in San Felipe, after drinking a freezing but welcome Coca Cola, I bought another polyethylene sleeve because I could not find the bags where I carefully had put the plastic sleeves used before for sandblasting the axles. What was left of the day I spent to get ready the sandblasting chamber (!?...

After finishing with the springs I thought that it was time to get the things right and stop waiting for the best moment to get the gravel for sandblasting the frame. I needed to go on. Remember that I had to sift the thing myself so it was not an easy nor pleasant task. I had to get the bike to the...

My deepest respect and admiration.

Nice little beast you have come with.

Cheers.

Pairoa

When the leaf was ready, I took the original mother-leaves and the two shorter leaves that followed and settled them as the definitive configuration of the springleaf packs for the Merkabah. Remember that I wanted to soften the suspension but to preserve the capacity of handling the lateral stabilit...

Hello everybody: Well, let’s see which have been the advances of this little mad project that seems to have no ending. I had ordered the repair kit for the front sway bar taken from Spare that had to be put on the front axle, and it arrived from Santiago one of those days. As I had ordered it from t...

As usual, my job and the events had left me just a few hours to work on the Merkabah the last weeks, and I was a little discouraged for the advances had been not noticeable. I needed a shot of energy or good news to make me smile, and the Boss helped me, like He always does. The next time I walked i...

After removing the step I removed the upper part of the mudguard and, at the sight of the state of the metal sheets, I remembered that the floor of the cabin on the left side would need a lot of work when the time came because of the rust. For the moment, I only wanted to have better access to the f...

The truck had been recently sold by the firefighting department for a miserable amount of money to a guy who collected all kinds of fire trucks. The men at the shop had fixed some minor details and they were waiting to deliver it soon. Bad news for one of the local 4x4 forum members, who was very in...

With the new drill I finished the last 14 mm. hole remaining and then the frame stretching manoeuvres were over, at last. I just had to prepare the pieces, cleaning and priming, before going on. I took then the big Makita with the big brush and the little grinder with the laminated discs and began t...

Merkabah's tale goes on: I went to Juan Carvajal´s shop, a very experienced turner, and he modified the 14 mm. bit so it could fit in the little Bosch. There were no bigger power drills at the stores of San Felipe. I left by the turner the cardan joints as he said he would try to fix them. There was...

Thanks, Chris. Juan, one of the other McGyver-type workers, helped out too and together we managed to change the old and rusted silentblocks by the new ones. The rust that wrapped the inner spacer ring made it all difficult but in the end we vanquished the evil. Actually, the silentblocks were the f...

Thanks again, Juergen. I really hope it too. Back at the shop I separated the main from the auxiliary rail and I then realized that the steel of the later was one millimetre thinner than the supports of the cross member. It was of no use, at least as donor for the new supports. As the main rail was ...

What was left of the afternoon was pretty interrupted and I could not make many advances. The tail of the frame had to be finished as soon as possible to begin with the preparation of the frame itself in order to assemble the axles. I called maestro Chaleco and agreed to meet the next morning. One l...

When I put the overlaping auxiliary rails they fitted perfectly, as if they had been fabricated thinking on those particular moments and intentions. What was not perfect was the need for replacement of the supports of the crossmember; the holes did not match with the holes of the grafted rails and t...

Hello. Well... yes… I have been busy… Once the piece of the frame from Spare was taken to the shop I began to disassemble it to get the rails. I did not know at that time what would I do with the cross member, but some twinkling idea would surely come up later. However, the disassembling that seemed...

One of these days the broken bell hub cover replacement arrived. I got it for a good price from an importer and scrap dealer. It was the right one even if the codes did not coincide at all. Good. I suddenly realized that I had not ordered the gaskets for the covers, and given the difficulties I had ...

Olli: thanks for your lines. I think that anyone can do whatever he wants... there is always a way. If not... you must invent it! A couple of close ups of the gearbox before resuming the cleaning show in better way the state of its left side and the bottom after the former partial cleaning. Scraping...

I then started working on the rear part of the frame, al last. If you remember there was a lot of rust and dry mud to clean, so for a long time I was busy cleaning the surfaces and the crannies with manual tools in order to work the less with the sand blaster, which would do the final touch. In some...

To finish with the rear axles affaire I went with the brake drums. The first was the one that was soaked in oil from the spill of the second axle and it was very hard to clean, and to move. Of course, in the end Pairoa won and after the usual cleaning cocktail and two washes with grease remover the ...

Back at the shop the next Monday there was a nasty surprise waiting for me. One of the covers of the bell hubs had many cracks that were rendered evident after the washing with kerosene. It must have been hit directly and its internal and external aspects partially fractured in many places and there...

Hello. After a few weeks I am back with this almost never ending story. As someone has to pay for all the expenses of the Merkabah I had to work for real, and time for getting dirty became very scarce. I went back to the designing screen, though, and realized that I made some mistakes that needed to...

The next Monday morning the second retainer of the yoke of the bogie finally arrived from Germany. The rest (almost) of the retainers also arrived and the pile of retainers and o’rings grew and grew waiting for the time to start to assemble the axles and the yokes. That moment seemed so far, though....

I let the brackets soaking for a whole day before attacking them. I then spent many hours until the joints looked like they could maybe have looked once, who knows when. Why to bother with all this restoration stuff? Just ask how much these pieces and the repair kits cost here in Chile and you will ...

Well, I am back here, trying to keep up with my self-imposed task of continuing with the Merkabah’s tales. Once both naked axles were primed there came the less inviting stage of preparing all the braking and traction elements in order to assemble and put the axles back in the frame. Just for a chan...