Earlier this year (late June/early) I was informed that there was an 8 wheel drive “ATV” type vehicle sitting idle in someones back garden and would I be interested in it (as if I would say no!). I was told it was was sitting on a trailer and both it and the trailer were in need of some work.
It turned out that it was an old ARGO, this one had obviously had a hard life. It was still on its trailer and both were in pretty bad shape, but niether Jim (my dad) or I were brave enough to try towing it behind our cars as it was quite a bit bigger than we had imagined. Tommy, EI2IT, volunteered to tow it with his Jeep. One sunday afternoon in June, Tommy, Jim and I headout out to the site, pumped the tyres on the trailer and headed (slowly) back to Clonmel to my parents house (much to my Mothers delight!).
Unfortunately, I was extremely busy workwise for most of summer, so Jim worked away on it pretty much on his own. The list of things to be done were (not a complete or ordered list):
- Rebuild the engine (it was seized).
- Free the chain drives (rusted).
- Replace the bearings on the drive shafts.
- Free the brakes (and replace perished seals)
- Free the Winch
This is the first picture I got to take of it (July 24th, 2005):
At this stage Jim had it off the trailer, the top off, and had ascertained that the engine and the drives were all seized.
To make a long story short, this is what it looks like today (13th November 2005):
All the pictures I took, at the various stages of work are here.
Hopefully, at some stage early next year, EI7TRG will be mobile somewhere on the side of Slievenamon, after getting in some driving practice, and then parking up and operating a portable station for a few hours.
