Alex's Clark restoration 2016

[welbike]

Just to make a start here, some pictures of the Clark I bought 12 years ago, and was running on and off, but no hydraulics whatsoever!
So bought more wrecks and acquired parts over the years, and finally started work on a lot of things!

This will be mostly a picture thing!





This Clark, CA-143878 Date: 2/8/1943 Engine # 572635 USA # 963949 was found in France, and probably used by the British in the South of France landing, with "Operation Dragoon"

Last year, I needed to remove a treestump, and started it up again, worked well!!



But found out later the startermotor nose cone had broken off!!

More later today!

Alex

[welbike]

This is another Clark I bought in California, just to get more parts!



This red one was sold on again, and is now semi restored in the United Kingdom.

Then there was this orange one, got that from a museum in Holland, who got it from the UK, no further history known.



It was in a really bad state!! and only used for parts, but had a dozerblade, so happy with it, as it did not cost much.

Then there was this yellow Clarkair, all in parts, that I bought in Georgia, and Oz kindly transported to TX for me, and I needed only some big lumps from that one, including the dozer blade, that I used for my own restoration.



More later.

[welbike]

So, that is the start out of the way, I restored the ballast boxes about 6 years ago, I used the ones from the red Clark, as they were best.





They were later powder coated, seemed like a good idea at the time, not so sure now....

Also the Hydraulic rams were overhauled, and I don't know what parts they used, I had it done by a friend of a friend, time will tell if they're OK.
The the supports for the rams were restored, the tracks had worn through half of the metal!! so a lot of welding and grinding was done there.

Also around that time NOS gasket set and a generator was aquired, and a NOS Zenith carb, more about those later. Also new ignition parts were acquired from the US.

Lex

[welbike]

Then, in 2014 when the last parts from GA were shipped to Holland, I thought I had enough parts to make one good one, and another reasonably complete to sell, so I sold one to some friends in the UK, who promptly assembled it, and had it running (with a lot of defects), and was roughly painted over, but still a good result!



With perfect hindsight I should not have sold it that quick, as my own machine had more problems that could have been rectified easily with the parts from the sold off project! oh well!!

Anyway, this year I started on the dozerblade, cut out the rusted sections, and welded in new material, still needs a final sandblast, and painting, but will be OK now.









So far so good!

[welbike]

Then beginning of November 2016, we loaded it on a friends truck (Thanks Xandre!!!), and transported it to another friend, Dennis, who runs a sandblasting and painting firm, to properly restore this one, as all was working OK technically I did not expect many problems, famous last words!!



After unloading, I took more and more parts off, till not much was left!



Then the sprockets, were on very tight!



But in the end got them off, no problems there!

[welbike]

Then most was steamcleaned, a lot of dirt had accumulated everywhere, as the oilseals were not that good anymore, and then sandblasted:



Primered:



And painted o.d.:



Frame rails added:



Then all oilseals replaced, with modern ones, with double lips, no pictures of that, and not very exiting, but very necceserry!



Lockwire on the bolts!

[welbike]

More parts were done, so far so good:







There is some welding required on the roller support rails, this thing had a working life!

[welbike]

Now on to the engine, when I had it running previously I noticed the head was cracked, so an NOS one was sourced, and is on it's way, the rest was cleaned inside and out, bores were found OK, so just removed the sump, and cleaned everything by hand, and rotating steel wire brushes.






Degreasing and cleaning


Ready for paint!


Sump, flywheelhousing and valve covers added.


Some primer.


And the top coat, grey, as no o.d. was found on the engine, and it is a 1943 model, I did not make it o.d.


Front engine support.


And the other side.

[welbike]

So, now my nice gasket set will be used, almost a shame to open it!



But I did! there are two head gaskets, one for a smaller bore motor!



Sump gasket had disintergrated, but would have used a newly cut one anyway, same as for the felts, I replaced them with modern oilseals.

[welbike]

Ok, then the carburettor, as said before I found a NOS Zenith, very cheap, but wrong modelnumber, top Original, bottom NOS one;



So I decided to use the original body, and all the NOS parts I could swap over, the holes for the butterfly axle were machined, and a new shaft turned to suit. Below the result;









It ran fine on the old one, but should run even better now!