New member from Norway

[Ole]

Hi guys and girls.

First I want to say thank you for all of the good information and friendly tone in this forum. I have read as much as possible in here to get to know my recently acquired 1969 703APT (I think) Polycab. It has been sitting in a garage with some jeeps for company the last 27 years. The jeeps got some love/use from the owner, but the poor Haffy have been at complete standstill all this time.

I don't have a good gameplan for this poor thing as it was bought in a hurry and I really don't have time and space for it at the moment. But for now the plan is to get it trough the Norwegian version of MOT and enjoy it for a while. If the future bring me more time and space I'll probably keep it, if not it will probably come up for sale again but then hopefully in a slightly more road worthy state.

I will try to attach some pictures of the new "flower" from the day it was brought home.

[heinkeljb]

Doesn’t Look like it wil require a lot of work on the bodywork front -mechanically is another question!

John

[Ole]

You are correct John. Body is pretty good on this one. Mostly light surface rust except for a hole in the bed. Mechanically i expect a lot of gremlins after that many years of storage.

So far it got new fluids, filters and the starter solenoid needed some love to be able to send power to the dynastarter. I opened it up expecting it to be stuck, but everything inside was good. It turned out to be just bad grounding of the solenoid body. After cleaning up the metal surface it is mounted to it started making the happy klicking sound.

Brakes work but seem to be quite sticky. The LH front wheel have some play in it and leaking oil. Need to look into the wheel bearing on that side.

Do you know if it is possible to remove the "preload plate" on inside of the front hub to add shim/spacer ring without removing the hub from the swing axle? I'm away from the Haffy at the moment so not able to quickly check if the plate is possible to get off. From pictures it look very tight. Probably need to remove the hub anyway to put new seals in, but the leak seems to be small so there is the slightest hope tightening up the play in the wheel bearing will eliminate it.

[heinkeljb]

Perfectly possible to take the pre load plate off without removing hub. Probably only with an open end spanner or a ring. Not so likely with a socket.
Oil seal on the outside of the hub probably needs a new inner seal ring and “O”ring under it replacing if you have set the bearing pre load correctly. There are a couple of posts on here detail how to set the Bering preload.

John

[Ole]

Thank you for the information John. I'll have a crack at the wheel bearing when I get home in a few days.

[ogdenenterprise]

Hi Ole,
Welcome to the group, if you are like the rest of us the Haf syndrome will get under your skin.

Dave

[Ole]

Thank you Dave.

I recently read about an exhaust system you bought that did not line up properly. I got the same results with one I bought from Autoquariat. Very strange that this small and super simple exhaust system is so difficult for the producers to get right.

I decided to remove the heat exchanges that was originally on mine after studying the system an reading about Johns experiences with it. It seems to be overly complicated, not easy to get parts for any more and a pain in the rear to work around when fixing other stuff back there.

As heating is a must here in Norway I plan on hooking up a modern Eberspächer/Webasto to the pipe going from the original heating system into the cab.

[ogdenenterprise]

Your comment on the heating system made me smile , I live in Cairns Australia, does anyone know of a air-con system that would fit, its a bit tropical here.

Dave

[Ole]

Dave, what about getting a generator hooked up to the PTO and put a household AC unit in the passenger seat

[heinkeljb]

Just drive a standard car A/C pump direct from the PTO if you are going to go that far....

Most other people just remove the doors!

John

[Ole]

Removing the doors is probably best considering the limited horsepower available.

[Ole]

Had a go at removing the preload plate behind the front wheel bearing. No problem to get to the bolts, but I could not for the life of me get the plate out from behind the lower kingpin. The wheel axle protrudes a little way into a resess in the plate and kept it from getting away. After many attempt of creative wiggeling I had to remove the lower kingpin bolt and the little extra movement I got in the hub then was enough to get it free.

Next time I need to adjust the wheel bearing I think the whole hub will come of. Removing 0.1mm of the preload shim, putting it in place, wiggle in the preload plate and tighten up to find it is still to tight got a little old after a few times. Started adjusting the shim with emery paper, but after a while the angle/angry grinder got some use and everything went a lot quicker.

[heinkeljb]

As you have discovered, the way wheel bearing preload is done is basically “ because we can do it that way” rather than, “what’s the simplest way”?

Just an observation, this might be a good place to close this thread andd start new ones in the relevant sections as it make searching for such information a lot easier.

John

[Ole]

Good point John. I'll try to post my future technical ramblings in the correct place so its more helpfull for others.

[AustHaflinger]

As you have found the the wheel bearing outer rear race (the cone) that the shims act on can be a bit difficult - slow and steady wins the race - if the skims can push the race in you can get it out. Careful leverage (careful not to scratch the bearing surface) will ultimately move it but it is a slow and painful process.

I have to do it soon to replace the wheel bearing oil seal and I am not looking forward to it at all.

Garry

[Ole]

A good day today. Haflinger sailed right thrugh the MOT and now have plates. Finally ready to rumble on the road. And i must say it rumbels a lot in the polycab. Earplugs should be standard equipment on these.

[heinkeljb]

How much time do you expect to be driving your Haflinger off road? If not a lot, then change the tyres for normal road tyres and a lot of the "rumble" will disappear.
You have quite "aggressive" tyres on those rims, more normal mud and snow or winter tyres would be better if you are going to spend most of your time just driving on tarmac roads - The current tyres will be good on dirt tracks, off road.

Glad you have managed to get it through its MOT - always a stressful time waiting for someone else to point out the faults!

John

[Ole]

In my head its going to be 90% offroad and 10% road. In real life its going to be exacly the opposite.

[heinkeljb]

We've all been there! Unless you own a farm or live in a place where there is lots of common land, the only legal places to drive are tarmac road....

John

[AustHaflinger]

Just get a good set of mud and snows - compromise but still work Ok in both environments. My mud and snows work great on the road and pretty good in the snow.