Oh my indeed

I'm sure most have had the great experience of starting a job only to find out it is going to take more time and more money.

One of the axle bearings has spun on the axle itself and cause a bit of damage. The solution is to take the axle to an engineering shop, have the worn areas filled and then put the axle in a lathe. Anyone reading and has a trike and you haven't checked your bearings, do so now!

Wickham 526 is the 'pride of the fleet' so to speak. I'm finding out it's a clapped out piece of *beep*.

There is an up side, once all work is complete the trike will see me out.

Wheels, axles and bearings...oh my!

The trike is home out of storage, lifted up to stand on its rear so the wheels and axles can be removed. All rather simple as it only took a couple of hours to strip the under-carriage. I did try to knock myself out. I didn't leave the axle hub nut on and as I was winding the puller up the hub flew off just missing my head.

I also take back the bit I said about the hubs not being off since 1955. Some ingenious son of a gun cut up an old Fanta can to use as a shim on the tapered axle. I guess sometime in the 70's, early 80's the insulation bush had worn and started to slip on the axle.

It's off to use a 60 tonne press to remove the rear axle hubs. This will be safer and easier. The rear axle on this Wickham is split so they will fit in the press as the front axle is to long for it.

There is a deadline to this repair job. On the 15th and 16th September the Goulburn Crookwell Heritage Railway is having a members running weekend. Anyone reading this is welcome to come and have a look and join if you wish to get involved.

The Wickam on its rear.

The axles. As you can see the split rear axle.

That's better

Now I have the right colour. The flash from the camera makes it lighter and blue-er than it is.

The overhaul is complete and the engine has been re-assembled

I have brought Wickham 526 out of storage and sat it on it's end ready to do the wheel bearings. I have already found out I'm in for some fun trying to remove the wheel hubs. Probably never been off since the trike was made in 1955.

The 1" square sample looked so good

All the parts arrived to re-assemble the Wisconsins. Both engines went back together without any problems, so they are as good as new. Mind you, not an easy thing to do these days. Production stopped on these engines over 20 years ago, new parts are very hard to come by and have many emails saying "discontinued", "No longer available". Lucky I found a supplier in the US for the more common servicing parts, however I still had to rely heavily on trading with other restorers and recycling parts from other engines.



I got to the stage for painting. The old paint was removed and surfaces cleaned. This time around I thought I would choose a custom colour with a higher quality paint other than the $3 spray can I previously used.

Got to the paint shop asked for the enamel paint chart looking for a industrial grey with a touch of blue (blue being my favorite colour). 'Storm Blue' was chosen...disaster followed.

I feel like booking myself in to the optometrist.