Carmichael Redwing FT/6 CrT Land Rover

As Purchased	Currently

Photos

Pre-purchase Photos

I took these pictures with a cheap digital camera when I first went to look at the truck. They aren't the best quality.

Home on the trailer

First pictures at home.

Fire Appliance Apparatus.

Found on ebay over the last year.

Re-assembly and first drive.

It runs - and almost drives.

Mechanical Work.

Working on the brakes and adjusting the gearshift.

Electrical Work.

Fixed a few problems and added in the blue light, siren and spotlight.

2003 Mid-Atlantic ralley

Road trip!

2004 Mid-Atlantic ralley

Road trip!

2005 Various trips and fixing things

Well, trying to fix things...

Work

Initial impressions

When I picked this truck up it was running very badly - which I attributed to bad gas (petrol), carb problems and ignigtion problems. The carb was leaking gas, the gas smelled real bad, the spark plug wires were the old and stiff and were using the old Lodge connections with the screw-in terminals on the distributer cap. And, the distributer cap was cracked. I figured change the fuel, clean up the carb and a good tuneup was in order.

10 February 2002 - carburetor and engine

The carb has been stripped, cleaned in a sonic cleaner and re-assembled with new gaskets. A friend of mine provided patterns for the gaskets as new ones are near impossible to find. Drained the fuel (about seven gallons worth) and cleaned up the fuel pump. Re-attached the carb, put a few gallons of new fuel in the tank and it started right up - and still ran badly. OK, time to change the plugs and wires, I figured. So, new spark plugs and wires went in along with a better (but not new) distributer cap. It still ran rough - on three cylinders. In fact, disconnecting the #3 plug wire had no effect.

11 February 2002 - The compression test

I had to go buy a compression test guage.. The cylinders read - #1: 110lbs, #2: 120 lbs, #3: zero, #4: 110lbs. Zero on #3? Not good. So, off came the valve cover. #3 intake pushrod was not seated correctly - and not moving. #4 intake push rod is bent. Really not good. Pull the rocker arm shaft and the pushrods. #3 and #4 intake tappet slides are toasted. Looks like the head has to come off.

16 March 2002 - Head nonsense

Somewhere in the past couple of weeks I found time to pull the head. There were traces of orange gasket sealer here and there - and the manifold bolts came off easy - so maybe the head has been off in the past few years? Who knows. #3 intake is definately stuck - it did loosen up with a whack from a rubber mallet, but the next day is stuck again. The thermostat housing isn't real happy. Instead of having three bolts to secure it to the head there are three studs - and one is actually just a piece of threaded rod. That threaded rod is bent and was not actually screwed into the head. It looks like the threads in the head are bunged up. Well.. that could be fixed easily enough along with the other machine work the head will need. But, this is a 7:1 head. I'm seriously considering a rebuilt 8:1 head to replace it. Besides a bit more power it is stronger in the thermostat housing area. The forward control conversion moves the gearshift forward - and the mounting for it is on top of the thermostat housing. Decisions, decisions.

18 June 2003 - Re-assembly and first run

I finally got back to working on this. Of course, parts had been sitting around in the barn for the last year, gathering dust and rust and mice nests - so all of that had to be cleared out and cleaned up. Got it all back together and finally started (after getting the firing order reversed) and moved it out of the barn. Now, all the "fun" begins. There is a problem with the clutch, it may need a hydraulic rebuild. One front brake seems to be dragging - at least it sounds like that. I think it's in low range, but doesn't want to go into high range. Pictures here.

9 September 2003 - First Road Trip

The clutch problem turned out to be a bad hydraulic hose to the slave cylinder. I replaced that and rebuilt the slave cylinder. Quintin came over and helped with bleeding the clutch (unlike a regular Series truck, you can't reach the clutch slave and the clutch pedal at the same time). We replaced the left front brake drum - the one that was on the truck had some damage - adjusted the brakes and took it out on the road for a short trip "around the block". Well, its a slow beast, but it runs and drives.

September 2003 - Working out the bugs

Had a few weeks to get the Carmichael ready for the ROAV Mid Atlantic Ralley. Had to work out a few mechanical problems and straighten out the electrical system - as well as wire in the "blues and twos". Got everything done and took a few short trips.

October 3-5, 2003 - ROAV Mid Atlantic Ralley

Major road trip for this truck - Like about 200 miles one way. The fuel pump failed on the way there and it seemed to lose all oil pressure on the way back. I'm certain that was just a faulty oil pressure switch. More information here!

Last update - 8 Aug, 2005