RECONDITIONED MOTOR LORRIES.
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The Vast Difference Between Reconditioning and Mere Overhauling is Demonstrated in this Article.
DURING THE RUN of the Commercial Vehicle Show, it occurred to the directors and staff of Leyland Motors, Ltd., to take a number of their. agents and of their direct. customers, together with three or four members of the technical Press, to the Ham works situated, it will be remembered, close to Kings-Con, and formerly in the occupation of the Sopwith Aviation Co., in order to see. what WEiS being done there in the reconditioning of R.A.F. three ton Leyland lorries acquired when the &. Omer dump was bought up.
We had the pleasure of spending a most interesting three hours in andat OU/111 the Ham works, and we saw, for the first time, that there is a vast difference between the mere repair and overhauling oi -a single vehicle and the proper reconditioning of the same vehicle when it is taken as one of a large number, and the work is being carried out by the firm originally responsible for its manufactine and prepared to regard the vehiele, when re-sold, as good propaganda for its own business.
In the ordinary course of business, an ex-service vehicle, purchased by a. Concern with no leanings towards one particular matte, who acquire the vehicle for the purpose of overhauling and re-sale, can only be cleaned, examined, and, if badly worn, parts replaced (provided new parts can be obtained from the manufacturers), and be given a coat of paint before' being offered to a customer. One is almost inclined to say, after. examining a number of vehicles such as we saw at the Ham • works, that this kind of treatment, provided the vehicle had never had any really bad usage, should be nearly good enqugh, but, delving very Much deeper than this
into the question and making a sufficient study of the various scrap parts which, at our request, were shown to us at Ham, it becomes quite obvious that reconditioning, as understood by the Leyland Co., is a totally Ifferent. proposition; in fact, reconditioning as it is being carried out there means practically a vehicle that is as good as new. We would almost • be inclined to go a shade further and to say that wewould hesitate in our choice between a new machine and a reconditioned machine-; the latter has already undergone the stress of work, its parts have been thoroughly, tested and have been proved -goad and sound, and, after' a period of use, every detail has been , thoroughly overhauled and examined, all adjustments have been rectified, and the machine passed out with the company's guarantee of six months.
Certainly before Our visit we had no idea that reconditioning was so thorough a job: Every vehicle is entirely, stripped down, and at the completion of the process the only two components -that continne their life together are the back axle and the frame.
The second strong impression that was made upon us in the course of our round of the works was that, the whole business of reconditioning was a wonderful testimony. to the complete interchangeability of Leyland mechanism.
The vehicles, as they are brought in (rarely under their own power, but invariably towed from the landing ports)-, are first given a works number, and then examined by an inspector, who makes a report on the condition of each machine, and forms a rough estimate of the cost of reconditioning. In
the course of their experience, the administrative staff at Ham can set the cost of reconditioning at from 2350 to £600 per vehicle, depending, of course, upon the amount of replacement that has to be done throughout the chassis, as the amount of work, as will be seen by our further remarks, is roughly the same throughout. The vehicles are parked with bodies removed, and in due course of time the stock of Vehicles on the ground is ealled upon to the extent of about 40 vehicles per week.
The Stripping of Engine and Gearbox.
A vehicle passes first to the cleaning sheds. Here the engine and gearbox are lifted out of the frame, each receivinga works number, and are passed on for a thorough cleansing from oil and dirt, and then on to the dismantling benches. Each compo
nent is then completely stripped down to its individual details. The cylinder castings will be thoroughly examined for defects, fractures, etc., and, if found in good order, the cylinders are, reground to one of two oversizestandards valve. se-atings are trued up, and the cylinder castings then go into stock; the crankshafts are re-ground, new bearings are fitted, new gudgeon pins and bearings are fitted to the connecting rods, the tappets are reconditioned, being made good with new rollers, guides or tappets where necessary, so that every part is a perfect fit, the whole of the parts going into general stock and being drawn upon for
• reconstruction of the engines.
Ie. the same' way the gearbox is dismantled, the gears examined, new 'shafts or gearwheels are provided wherever wear shows itself on the splines, and in every case new bearings are pro-tided; no old bearing is ever used again. This use of new bearings in the gearbox involves a, certain amount of trouble in again getting silence in this unit, because, • of course, the gearwheels arc called upon to work upon a new pitch line, but, until the gearbox is passed as silent,. it is not put through into the finished stores.
Each engine—again to revert to this unit—is equipped with a new magneto and a new carburetter. Clutches--and we examined many of them—call for singularly little attention, the withdrawal plate merely having to be faced up ; the fabric on the cone rarely shows any signs of wear.
The Removal of the Coating of Army Mud.
Having seen these two main units on their way to the finished stores, let us return to the chassis, which now consists of frame, springs, axles, and
• steering gear., This is wheeled into a second clean--mg shed, where the cement-like coating of mud is removed from every detail. Various methods. have been trie,d of getting rid of this coating, but the workers have come back finally to chisels and elbow grease. The difference in the appearance of a machine after it has been through this, shed is really remarkable. What previously did not seem worth while pulling away has suddenly acquired a thorough air of respectability.
From this stage the chassie passes into the main workshop (which is one of the finest workshops we have ever been in), and is there completely dismantled. The steering gear is taken away, ana .goes through the same process of dismantling, reconditioning, and renewal of any neeessary parts
(and, as an instance of the neglect to which these machines have been subjected, invariably the woodwark has to be taken off the steering wheel and renewed). The gear-change mechanism is also entirely dismantled, and the worn parts in the gate made quite good.
The attention given to the front axle, stub axles, and steering gear consists in the refacing of the spring pads, the renewal of all bushes and bearings, the careful setting of all steering angles, and the renewal of any part worn in the steering gear.
The springs are remoVed, the leaves retempered, every part in turn going through the viewing room
and being taken into general stock. What le now left is merely a frame with its back axle detached and chocked up -beneath it. The back axle in this position is now cleansed, examined, dismantled, . and overhauled, and, in the course of the examination of quite a number of machines arid of the whole of the stock of scrap, We came to the conclusion that a Leyland back axle is not prone to any kind ef trouble. In nearly every case the teeth of the reduction' gearwheels bear. the tool marks made in the course of manufacture.
' From 'this point reassembling takes place, by• springs, front axle, steering gear, wheels, engine, gearbox, radiator, change-speed 'gear, and brake. levers, propeller shafts and eaada.n shafts being brought together and the machine _being reassembled. Every part, by now, has become the
, equivalent of new, and, on completion, the machine is retested, arid, if passed as silent and satisfactory in every way, is sent on to the paint shop. Every. . detail of the radiator has been gone over, and no defect, however small, is allowed to be passed. The top and bottom tanks a the radiator are buffed,. and at the finish not only is every part as sound and good as new, but it leeks. new. All copper pipes
• throughout the machine are taken out, unionsremoved, .the pipes straightened and reannealed and then shaped, so that there' is no likelihood of petrol pipe fracturing, which would be possible if the Whole of this • trouble were not taken in the reconditioning. • .
The Recovered Respectability of the Reconditioned
With a coat of grey pint throughout, the engine water jackets painted black, and all aluminium work buffed up, anyone would-be excused for the, assumption that the machine in • a finished state was as -good as new.. In order, however, that the Leyland Co. should be able to identify a reconditioned machine, the collision bar on the front of the reconditioned machine is always covered with a tithe of aluminium This has been a little works secret up ter the present, but it is now let out, and anyone can fail a reconditioned Leyland by the polished alumininm cover of the ,collision tube.
It is a curious thing that some of the recon ditioned Leylands running in Liverpool have been doing such extremely good work thatcustomers are commencing to ask for the particular type of Leyland that has a polished aluminium collision bar !
In the course of our peregrinations we pressed to be allowed to examine the scrap store, and-there saw parts such as gearwheels, crown 'bevels,
pinions, etc., which had been rejectedfor some reason or other. Even to a very critical eye, no fault was discernible in the great. majority of parts thus thrown out, but in each case, of course, there was some small defect which the viewers had not been prepared to pass. It occurred to us that this scrap, being sold as it ire -to the scrap metal merchants, constitutes a danger in that it could be bought by people who would be prepared to offer it under the guise of genuine Leyland spare parts, but it appears that every precaution is taken against this happening, the purchasers being under a very heavy bond effectively to prevent this
We came away from the Ham works with a very high opinion of the reconditioned vehicle, when that reconditioning has been done by the manufacturers, who, by means of the reconditioned vehicle, seek to obtain. new customers for later purchases of new vehicles. •