Return of the Rainmaker
I suppose all this started whilst enjoying the delights of 'Open Top' riding last summer in Cornwall on First Group's Heritage (!) fleet of Bristol VRTs (well someone has to admire VRTs….). Why not get the Rain Maker (aka BMMO D9 open top 3016HA, or even 903KHA in another life!) back into service with a Class V Test, it having been the mid-1990s since it last saw active service.
Without much persuasion Paul Gray agreed to letting me put it back on the road providing there were not too many problems. As usual, and based on the D10 capers last year, I should have known better! The usual trail of failed power steering ram (and its hoses), leaking brake master cylinder, fuel system full of dirt, etc., were becoming second nature again, together with a leaking rear axle pinion oil seal! A sense of déjà vu with a year ago? Bleeding of the rear brakes - I should be a master of this by now - led to some colourful language from the deeper parts of the pit. Visitors would have been amused to see a 'bleeding' bottle and sundry tubes attached to a lower deck window in an attempt to get all the air out of the system; helpful suggestions from one wag who thought it was an open top Routemaster of turning the bus upside down were politely rejected!
It is also strange how rewiring of the rear power doors is always necessary after the bus has been laid up for several years; there must be a phantom night visitor at Wythall who moves wires around once we've gone to sleep…
Of more concern was a 'cooked' alternator simply because spares for 6-diode alternators are becoming somewhat difficult to find but I am glad to report that originality could be maintained and the electro-mechanical regulator (another great CAV idea, not!) did not need repairing or upgrading to 'fully electronic' as per other alternator equipped BMMOs on the Wythall site. A healthy flow of amps in the right places is now ensured. Once the odd upper deck seat frame had been welded and the vehicle steam cleaned and silver painted by Kevin Hill (who resembled a Black & White Minstrel afterwards) it was submitted for a successful Class V Test in early October. And yes, it rained on the way back from the testing station…
By contrast, James Munro had asked whether S23 UHA981H - the better behaved of the two at the moment, but that's another story - could also be Class V tested for the 'Wumpty Twenty' Open Day. I think it has something to do with its colour scheme? In record time and yet another master cylinder change, brake pump belt renewal and a few other minor jobs it too was submitted for a successful Class V Test on the same day as the Rain Maker.
Meanwhile the scribe is finding ways of keeping coolant on the inside, rather than the outside, of the engine of D9 871KHA. With the changing of many hoses and gaskets plain water can now be safely left in there (using childcare terminology, it is 'dry through the night'); the next challenge is antifreeze.
Jeremy Price
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
Tel : 01564 826471 e-mail us
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