Bedford Ben on the prowl

[BlackBedford]

G'day

Just had phone call to warn me that Bedford Ben will be calling in tomorrow morning early.

I don't know which to lock up first, my daughters or my vans.

[restoreid]

Id surgest putting up a roadblock & dont let him near either otherwise heel want to move in

[BlackBedford]

Well, Ben has been and gone and what a story...

He rang on Thursday to say he was on his way slowly as there was a bad noise in the motor which he thought was the harmonic balance.
I borrowed a harmonic balance puller from a mate for Ben to use. I also borrowed a Rodeo ute to tow my car trailer to do a pickup on Friday.
That night a neighbour showed up with a broken laptop that he needed for a birthday party on Saturday night. I fixed and got an invite to the party but by the time I got everything else done it was 1am in the morning.
At 2am Ben and his Dad showed up in the broken CF fully packed with stuff and a FULLY loaded car trailer. We worked until 5pm but it wasn't the harmonic balance or the timing gears. Something else was wrong.
I had an hour of sleep and then left at 6am in the ute and trailer to drive to Baldry to pickup a Volvo hatchback I had just bought on ebay (item # 280884337371). I had it booked in at Parkes for a blue slip so I had to go. I left Ben and his Dad to keep going.
I had a long trip including a dead battery in the tow vehicle that was fixed by borrowing from the Volvo.
I got home at 6pm with 6 large pizzas to find that they had pulled the sump off and found a main bearing had failed. I had a Bedford CFS that I had recently purchased and we decided to use the motor and gearbox out of it as I knew the van had good running gear. Heavy rain was predicted for Saturday and Sunday and I have no shed to work in at the moment so any work would have to be done where the van was. The other concerns were that Bens load was packed with cardboard that would turn to mush and if he didn't get going before the rain set in, he would be stuck here for at least a week. I like Ben, but not that much. I have found that fish and friends go off after 3 days.
It was a long night and we were working in the open. We took the motor, box, and front end out of my van. We wheeled it over to Bens van. Then we took the motor, box and front end out Bens van. We put the good motor and box onto Bens front end and then put it all in his van. We put my front end back under my van. The cloud cover kept building and light rain started about 1am. By dawn we just about had it all back together but it wouldn't start.
We swapped out the dissy, sorted the timing and it fired up. Success!
By 10am we had it running well enough for them to pack up and go. I waited for a phone call but nothing happened so I knew they were heading home.
I went into town, sorted the rego for the Volvo, returned the harmonic balancer puller and the ute (after locking the keys in it at the shopping centre).
I was tired, OK!.
I finally got home at 4pm and fell asleep on the lounge for a couple of hours. Then I went to the party and had a great time until the port I was drinking started to put me to sleep at 3am. I headed home and had about 4 hours sleep before being woken up.
So it has been a busy couple of days with minimal sleep.
Talked to Ben tonight and he got home OK so the story has a happy ending.

Some photos.
Sometime after midnight.




Putting the replacement motor and box onto Bens front end. Note the homemade trolley holding the front end in place.




Daylight and mostly back together.




The work area. Note the mud. In the bottom left corner is the home made frame used to lift the motor in the engine bay. It is very useful when removing the sump or the front end.




Packing up. Note the mud.

[tiwaz_nz]

nice story 
is an engine crane big enough to lift a bedy , to remove the front end ?

[BlackBedford]

is an engine crane big enough to lift a bedy , to remove the front end ?

Ooops forgot about that, yes that one was. We slipped a chain through the front crossbar  and lifted it high enough to clear the carby.

We used stands made out of rims to hold the bedford up. We put an extra wheel under the stand, then a block of wood on top and located them just behind the front doors.

[SkippyThBushKangeroo]

never a dull moment with ben eh lol. i caught up with him in melb, one night to pick up an axle for "ol futile" in upper ferntree gully... for those who know that area ..yes it was a house on the long hill stretch just before upwey... bens van n trailer was up a hilled driveway an i had just enough room to park in next doors proposed drive, it was just on that bend where the traffic fly past at about 80..90km.... the driveway was STEEP... n i mean STEEP... , the old beddy ben was getting, was being lowered down the steep incline with a snap strap round a tree,  with the seller slloooowlllyyy letting it out... trailer had one ramp an one double pipe  for the other ramp... inprovisation  i commented..ben replied .. she,ll be right skip... love it... oh yes the steep drive also had a slight bend in it, was only wide enough just for the beddy ,then about a 10, 12 foot drop to the still very busy at 9 pm burwood hwy, the beddy was heading towards the drop.off so i hopped over to the drivers side,had to put my arm through the spider infested window an turn the wheels so it went back on the driveway ,i was a that point teetering on the edge of the drop onto the very busy burwood hwy, we succeeded an soon had the beddy trailered n tethered, whilst averting what potentially could have been a catasrophe , if the snapstrap .. had snapped  , it was a most enjoyable hour or so funnily enough, with quite a few laughs had, also dont mind a bit of risk now an again...  anything to to with ben is memorable  an makes him, in my mind ,one of the yougest aussie legends i have ever had the pleasure of crossing patha with.... on ya mate       

[ben]

nice story  Shocked Shocked Shocked
is an engine crane big enough to lift a bedy , to remove the front end ?

if you have a gantry its the prefered method because you can lift up and roll out rather than lift up chock, unhitch crane, roll out.

but the front of the van without the engine, tranz and front end would be about 300kgs i recon. so yeh pretty easily.

ben

[ben]

yeh that was bit crazy now we look back ay skip!!! ah well alls well that ends well.. you should meet chris ryan! he's got 5 times the bedfords ive got and 10 times the stories i have:) was good to meet ya skip.. your a bit of a character yourself ya know:) actually dont think ive meet a boring bedford owner yet.. were an interesting bunch lol

ben

[Warren]

We have quite a few stand up comedians - it's just that most of them don't know that they are, and when theyre performing

Ben is always worth a chuckle   

[Poochimama]

 ;DYeah,funniest are the ones that have thr nut hangn out WARREN!!!LOL!