169 on the road again

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28 Apr 2014 11:52 #1 by Ralley
Ralley created the topic: 169 on the road again
Hi All,

After months of work 169 was registered a few weeks ago with a GVM of 5700kg and GCM of 8200kg. Other things done were
New rear axle assembly
New gearbox
New clutch and cable
Rebuilt Transfer case with 29 spline input shaft
Front end over haul
Reset carrier bearings in front diff
Rebuilt linkages on transfer and gearbox
Reset valve clearance
Repaired turbo housing
Made an alternator adjuster
New fan hub and modified mount to take different bearing
Recorded the radiator and new hoses
Strengthened tow bar mount
Lengthened the exhaust past rear opening window
Re gassed the aircon
Made new battery mounts
Made new covers for the aircon fans and aircon unit and covered in carpet
Made new rear aircon duct for bus body and fitted new speakers and covered in carpet
Couple of new seat belts
Shampooed all the bus seats
Made a new side panel for the bus body and covered them all in carpet
Put dynamate on all the sides of the bus body
Anderson plug and rewired trailer plug
Fitted compressor and tank for step
Made all new step mechanism
New mud flaps
New cables in the dash for the vents
Tidied up the wiring in the dash
Fitted a flasher unit for the led lights
Fitted a new windscreen washer system
Rewired the bus body lights
Replaced a heap of nutserts
Changed to 19.5" rims
There is was a lot more done that I have forgotten at this point.

I would like to thank Outback Jack for all the work he did on 169 before I bought it.
I would also like to thank all those that gave advice along the way and helped out with some parts.

Since registering 169 I have taken my first group out through central Australia covering about 8000km with about 500km of rough dirt. This was done over 15 days with a group of 8 people and our catering trailer (about 2 to 2.5t) I was very impressed with the OKA compared to our Coaster on anything other than smooth expressway type road the OKA road as well and was just miles ahead on the dirt. The seats are a lot more comfortable and while the aircon was working it was good. It is a little harder to get in and out of but the oldies didn't complain. The fuel range and usage is similar to the Coaster as well. With a few teething problems along the way that I was able to address I was very happy. The one thing that was not up to scratch was the Perkins, with the trailer in tow somedays we were flat-out at less than 80km/h. When your trying to cover big km's that is painful. What was OKA thinking when they put this motor in this size vehicle? I was aware of the power thing but I really thought we may get some use out of it before a cummins went in. So a cummins is now on the drawing board if my boss will ok it.

Rob

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