Last Saturday turned out to be a historic day as Dave & co managed to fire up the Rolls Royce engine on the unique Matisa 68030 for the first time in many years!
Saturday 13th September
Despite the bad weather forecast I decided to get up early and travel to Longhoughton.
Some heavy duty battery cable was wired onto the positive side of the starter motor, with a line going through a BIS (battery isolator switch) to the positive side of the battery – this was instead of the jumper cable I used the other week!
A feed line was taken off the BIS and put through a push switch, with the other side of the switch going to the solenoid terminal on the starter.
The starter button was mounted in such a way that I could operate it while being in a position to operate the control levers of the fuel injection pump.
The fuel feed pipe was disconnected from the unit’s fuel tank and was plumped up to a 25l drum. The unit was spun over a few times and although diesel seemed to be getting through it did not seem to be working very well. On inspection it was found that the fuel lift and priming pump wasn’t working very well. I removed the unit and swapped it with the unit from a spare FIP (fuel injection pump.) Once this was fitted and plumped in correctly there was a much more positive pressure on the priming lever. The system was primed through, pushing the air out of the system. Each pipe and joint was nipped up in turn.
The system was spun over a few times and knocked a few times.
The over fuel rack and stop/run control were both held over and I tried spinning it again and it coughed a few times then fired.
I then wired a switched feed onto the stop/run solenoid to hold it over so I could operate the throttle with my free hand. The engine was spun over again and it fired almost instantly and ran at all throttle positions with a smooth and steady idle – stopping the instant the stop/run solenoid was de-energised.
A feed was then wired into the cab, so that the start and stop controls could be operated from the cab, with the engine set to idle; this worked fine.
So, the next jobs are to wire-in the alternator, and work out the cab throttle control.
I’m sorry I couldn’t get any pictures – but I was working by myself.
And sorry you weren’t there to press the button Ben, but I’m sure it’ll look a bit neater when you visit in October ;)