Halley restoration

Well, that is good news, Dan. How does the gudgeon pin centre to piston top distance compare between the Halley and the Fordson?

trevor

How does the gudgeon pin centre to piston top distance compare between the Halley and the Fordson?r

With side-valves and the compression ratios that they ran in that era it might not matter too much :-)

Well, that is good news, Dan. How does the gudgeon pin centre to piston top distance compare between the Halley and the Fordson?

 

trevor

Don't forget that this is not a Halley engine but a Continental, if he finds a Halley engine he gets to rebuild that too!

Also Dan hasn't got any con rods for the Continental engine, so he will just make some to fit the Fordson pistons and the Continental crank with a length to give the right compression ratio. Simples

David

he will just make some to fit the Fordson pistons and the Continental crank with a length to give the right compression ratio.

Not the right type of con-rod, or big enough, but I suspect that folk enjoying this thread will also enjoy reading this:

http://www.f1-2000.co.uk/index.php?f=conrods

Andy,

I have just read every bit of the website that you linked to. It is absolutely astonishing ! Anyone with an interest in engineering should read this and bow to this guy.

David

Morning all, sorry i haven't put any updates of recent but here they are after a long wait.

The engine is striped down to its bare parts and i'v been getting things bead blasted, I had both cylinders blasted inside and out to remove the rust build up inside the cylinders mostly and the limescale and rust from the water jacket.

In doing this it showed up some cracks, but one in particular as the number one cylinder has a crack running from the foot of the cylinder bolting face then up the bore and arching back towards the foot again and it total is about 2" long.

On top of this i have also found the crankcase has a crack on the left hand side running from the flange for the sump then along the crankcase for a few inches with some other cracks coming off of the main crack, behind the magneto and water pump bracket, this goes well with the crack in the front of the sump and the smashed timing cover so all in all every main casting has a crack in it somewhere.:cry:

9. Looking down on number two cylinder.

I will try and get some pictures of number one cylinder with the crack, for you all to see, plus have also finished adjusting the front brush bar heights as they were to high before.

Dan.

The engine is striped down to its bare parts and i'v been getting things bead blasted, I had both cylinders blasted inside and out to remove the rust build up inside the cylinders mostly and the limescale and rust from the water jacket.

It is possible that limescale and rust have been sealing those cracks since shortly after the engine was made. It might be easier to live with them than to fix them.

Hi all, this project has been to quiet for too long, so have started getting started on the Halley again :yay:

As some of you would have seen the Halley made an apperance at the Great Dorset Steam Fair at which it was well received, and thanks to those who helped to organise that.

So since the last post not much has happened "boo" but it hasn't been stagnant, just before Dorset one of my friends turned up a Halley radiator badge ( the scroll type across the rad core) so I fitted this just before the show.

I also gave her a spruce up with some paint and started working on the rear hooks.

And now I have a cast steering wheel from the Goslings Thornycroft project, thank you guys, so I want to start working on finishing the steering box, so watch this space.

Dan.

ps sorry to keep you all waiting for an update.

Pics, Dan, need pics

Happy new year everyone.

so i started playing with one or two bits to get started back into the project.

so last night i decided to look at the pile of rusty used and abused bits that is my water pump, so cleaned down the outer casting and the impeller and assessed it.

Fist thing to do was to reface the impeller and also made a new drive shaft from stainless steel, as you can see from the first picture the old drive shaft had seen better days.

Next i needed to re machine all the pitted faces of the pumps inside and then skim down the outer bolting flange to take any end float " that was actually quite a lot between the casting inner faces.

so this is what it looked like after some work, like new there was also two new bushes made up for it, a new gasket and also drilled out some broken studs.

Here is the steering wheel supplied by the Gosling's " thanks guys " so next job on this is to broach out the centre "square"

Dan.

Great job.

Thank you Toner.

So i have now finished repairing and re machining the drive flanges for the water pump and magneto.

Sorry the first two pictures are not in order, so the second picture is the state of the drive flange for the pump from the engine drive side, doesn't look to nice and wobbled on the shaft like mad.

So cleaned out the bore then silver soldered a plug into the damaged bore then machined it back out to a nice tolerance fit, i needed to leave the spigot sticking out one end as the casting was not concentric to the bore and couldn't hold it by the shoulder of the casting.

The next row of pictures are the water pump dry assembled to test the fit of everything before the top coat, the only things needed to do now is to machine up some new bolts for it and get a water drain tap for the bottom of the pump.

This is the first full unit to be refurbished on the engine and not the last!

Dan.

After some paint.

Dan.^"^

So spent most of today machining 1/4whit bolts for the waterpump and making the brass drain valve to the same pattern as the primmer cup found in the water jacket.

So today concludes the completion of the first full componant of the engine.

Dan

Looking good.

Amazing work being done on it.

keep at it.

Thankyou, Egnima.

Hi all, so i have started making some more patterns to try and finish the steering box and steering in general.

So i have now made a pattern for the steering arm drive shaft, this is the part that goes inside the steering box and that the steering arm attaches to.

I have also started making the pattern for the steering arm and the throttle and advance and retard leavers, both the steering box parts are going to be cast in steel.

I have also started making the two brackets for the running board.

steering arm 50% finished

Dan

Great stuff, Dan! Looking forward to seeing this one run

Thank you mtskull, so do i

So a new update on progress:

I finished the pattern for the steering quadrant and steering arm and the patterns are now in Sheffield awaiting casting in a grade of steel i cant remember.

I also measured, drew up, and made the patterns for all the throttle parts including the levers and the quadrant that bolts around the steering column.

These patterns are too at the foundry awaiting to be cast but this time in bronze.

Also started making the running board brackets.

And finally started stripping more bits off the engine crank case to prepare it for shotblasting and then to look at welding the cracks up.

Anyway, pictures.

So hopefully the next update will be the return of the patterns and complete with castings.

Ok so i need some help finding out more about the engine im going to fit, ie what carb and mag should it have and secondly does anyone know of any suitable bits for sale for this engine.

Also does anyone have an old flywheel from a period engine that could be used for this one, from memory i need it to be no bigger od than 18", but i will confirm this as well as the width, any help will be really appreciated as i would love to get this engine running this year.

Dan

That's some impressively intricate pattern making Dan, it must be very satisfying when the finished casting finally emerges.

We all love a good restoration thread, keep it coming..:thumbsup:

Thanks, yes, i cant wait to get all the castings back.

Im hoping that i will get the castings in the next week or so.

So today i finished and fitted the running board brackets

Dan.

It is looking great. Good luck with the flywheel and engine.

Ben

Hello all, sorry its been a while since the last update "the prob with doing to much stuff" the progress is slow but steady.

So the throttle handles, quadrant, cracks, bulkhead brackets, fork ends and linkage rods have all been made and fitted to the steering column/ bulkhead and looks awesome :kiss:

Also the casting for the steering quadrant and swing arm were also delivered a few weeks ago, and since then the quadrant has been 70% machined and is a nice fit with no end float, so next thing to do is try and make the pinion to bolt to the quadrant.

I am also in the process of ordering the wood work for the rear floor framework ( the floor joists and cross braces) and hoping to have this done and fitted before the beginning of September?

Pictures to follow, this is just more to let everyone know that i'm still working on the Halley. :cheesy:

It looked pretty finished when I saw it......

Actually this is is the one in Alford Transport Museum seen last month:

And they have a Halley fire engine chassis hanging from the ceiling:

Ah, and I was only wondering yesterday about progress

trevor