handy1882

The link arm ends were built up with weld and ground back flat. Not the neatest job, but they should hold ok. The rest of the parts were all ok and hardly worn, so it was all sandblasted and given a coat of primer, and put back together. I must get some top coat soon or i'll end up with a months worth of painting to do!

Next is the brake/ handbrake linkage which bolts on to the centre chassis cross member and provides a support for the brake rods. The middle two link arms move independantly of the outer two, one set is for foot brakes the other is for hand brake. Not sure which is which yet, but i'm sure all will become clear once i bolt it on to the chassis. Seems quite an elaborate and expensive way of making a brake linkage mount, very well made though. One of the 2 1/2'' diameter bronze bearing balls. Some of the clevis pins and yokes were quite well wasted away. As were the ends of the link arms

Hand brake assembly all sandblasted, primered and back together, just have to get a few taper pins and a couple of nuts to finish it off.

Great job! :thumbsup:

Just been cleaning up the ratchet on the handbrake and found a lot of markings on it. Its only around 4" long and seems unusual to have so many markings on such a small part. Anyone got any idea what the symbols are? I assume the VWT24-7301 is a part number, the symbol with the three letters in the coiled rope looks like it is a V,W and an 8, possibly S or B. I thought it might be VSW to go with the truck model, but that seems a bit specific for such a universal part? The other symbol is very hard to make out.

Thanks for the kind comments everyone! Austin, I did hear that the old Vulcan factory buildings were still there until fairly recently, not sure how correct that is?

Progress has been a bit slow on the Vulcan this month, mainly due to having a huge tidy up of the garage/workshop so that i can actually find things rather than falling over them. Lots of nice new shelving, new bench top to stop nuts, bolts, spanners, axles etc falling through the cracks, and have built a single to three phase converter so that i can finally run my lathe and make some bits and pieces. I have been having a go at the handbrake lever assembly while all this was going on, it had been given a coat of red oxide years ago but was seized solid. It took a lot of heat, WD 40 and careful hammering to get it all apart, especially since most of it was held together with 5/16'' taper pins which had rusted away nearly flush with the castings. These did not respond at all to heat, oil, hammering or harsh language. The only way i managed to get them out in the end was to file them completely flush with the casting on both sides and measure the very faintly visible diameters to find out which way they should come out, then centre punched the smaller diameter and drilled a 1/8'' hole as far as i could down the centre of the pin and counterbored it slighlty 1/4'' dia to fit my pin punch. A few good taps and they were out. They really didn't want this to fall off..... 5/8 nut and splitpin, 1/4'' key and 5/16 taper pin! One of the drilled and counterbored taper pins. Two pins in there somewhere!

Hi All, Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but while the destruction of historic warships was being mentioned, I thought i would bring this one up. Its the gunboat HMS Handy, built in 1882 and broken up in 2008. She served in WW1 named HMS Excellent. Just one of the many historic vessels lost in recent years. Its a real shame as in the 70's she was offered up free to any museum who would take her, with a full hull survey, all her machinery and boiler intact, and a gun from the correct period. No museum would take her and she sat in a scrap yard for 30 years waiting to be broken up.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this progress, great job!

Once the crack was ground out, the chassis was straightened up using some steel channel and lots of g-clamps. Once it was straight it was tacked together, welded and ground off. For a bit more strength i stitched the weld by grinding a slot across the join then filling it up with weld. This was done twice on the side, once on the corner and once on the top, front and back. A quick flick of primer and i don't think looks too bad. Once the bracing plate is riveted back in, i'll weld round it just to brace the joint a little more.

The crack on the nearside chassis rail was where the back axles bolt on underneath a strengthening brace that was riveted in, so i ground the rivet heads off and took the brace out. The chassis rail was bent by around 2" from this point to the back of the chassis, around 4 ft. The crack went nearly 2/3rds of the way through from the top, It doesn't show up too well in the picture. A hole was drilled at the end of the crack to stop it going any further, then the crack was ground out and prepared for welding.

One of the first jobs on the chassis was to remove the middle crossmember so that it would be easier to straighten out the bent side rails. For some reason Vulcan decided to use both rivets and bolts to hold it in. Picture showing the 3/8 BSF countersunk screws on the top and the 3/8 rivets on the bottom. A few minutes with a grinder and a spanner and it was out, then i built up a few thin parts with weld, ground them back and sandblasted then painted and found another chassis number!

A huge thank you to Bob Grundy who was kind enough to let my Dad and myself come and crawl all over his truck to take hundreds of measurements and photos! This has helped so much as i could make a drawing of my missing front crossmember (and a lot of other parts!) this also acts as a front engine mount so it has to be right or the whole drive train will be out of alignment. Another huge thank you to my Dad who made me some shiny new cross members for christmas! Not quite in the correct place, just wedged in to show where they go.

Next bit of progress has been the chassis, when i got the truck there was only the middle crossmember left holding the two side rails together. The rear member was present but the bottom half of it has rotted away and the front member is missing completely. The truck had been very overloaded during its working life and as a result both side rails are slightly bent where the chassis narrows and the nearside rail cracked and bent where the rear axles bolt on, this had been repaired with quite a few welding rods at some point. Chassis upside down. Remains of the rear chassis member.

Bob, Thanks for posting that picture, i'm looking forward to seeing the truck when you've finished her off, looking great! Cant wait to get mine up to that standard.

Paul, You've got some very good ideas there! I've got 5 24" rims altogether, 1 is ok and useable as is, 2 are ok but have had 5 stud hubs welded onto them and will hopefully be ok once they are ground off and 2 are very rotten all over which i was thinking about building up with weld but there will probably be more weld than wheel. Hopefully a nice set will turn up on a farm trailer somewhere, if not i can still use the 3 tonner wheels that i have in the mean time. It will be a little while before i need them yet, but always good to be thinking about how to make the correct 30cwt wheels. Best of luck finding your tyres, is there a good supply of them in the US?

Thank you for that, they may come in very usefull if i decide to make some wheels, or if i find some that i can adapt.

Paul, I was considering making some too, not quite sure how to go about it yet, but have a few ideas if it comes to it. I was thinking about finding some wider ones and cutting them down as you suggested. Longstone tyres seem pretty good for vintage sizes they do have some very nice looking 33x4.5's. Quite a lot for 10 tyres plus tubes,vat etc, i will have to start saving up for them! The 32x6's seem a bit rarer, but apparently Ford AA's use that size and some people have fitted 650x20's as a replacement size, not sure if thats correct but they are a bit easier to find. They do some nice 40x8's but i see what you mean about a lottery win! :wow: http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/ It would be great if you could keep your eye out for me, i'll do the same with your wheels. I just measured the front hubs which are are 8 x 5/8 studs on a 10 3/4 PCD approx. I'll put some pictures of the good wheels i have when i dig them out of the shed. How is the Mack coming along? It looks great in the pictures on your site, lovely truck!

Paul, I think the Vulcan would originally have had a set of 10 24 inch wheels for 33x4.5 tyres as in the photo of the prototype above, it would be great to get a full set as these trucks look great with twin wheels on the back axles, unfortunately i've only got 3 off this type that are useable. I do have around 6 or 7 of the later type 20 inch wheels for 32x6 tyres the same as the later VSWs pictured above. If it comes to it what i may do is use two 24 inch wheels for the front axle and put single 20 inch wheels on the back axles untill i can locate a full set.

Paul, Thank you very much for your comments! I dont have an awful lot of useable tinwork, so i'm sure i'll be in touch, thank you for your kind offer, it's very much appreciated.

Tom, I think that is a slightly later semi forward control Vulcan VSW built in the 30's. Very nice truck! Quite unusual as the front wings have hinges at the back and can be swung out of the way for easy engine access. This is one of the first Vulcan VSW's possibly the prototype built for the trials.

Hi Tom, Thanks for that, i'll have a look at some of the other greasers when i drag them out of storage. The brake linkages all have those style fittings but i can't remember if they had a lower hexagon or not. A picture of all the painted parts of the front axle ready for some nice green paint when i get some. Just need to make a few bits and pieces, one of the hub caps is missing, a towing shackle, front spring pins and fix the track rod.

Thanks fayjo56! Redherring, yes there seems to be quite a collection of different greasers on there. I think the original ones would have been the Tecalemit brass hexagon ones. There seem to be more of those still attached than any other type. They are available over here but can be a little pricey, they do look nice on older vehicles though. Anyone got a good supplier for these?

The front springs were next, they didn't look too healthy but i thought i'd give them a clean up and see what happened. Both springs have leaves which are tapered and spade ended which had rotted right through on the ends, i sandblasted all the leaves and welded any broken ones back together so that i can use them to assemble the axle on to the chassis and use them for patterns when i get some new ones made. The rear shackles and pins were in fairly good order and can be reused as can the front dumb irons although the front spring pins are a bit beaten up, one of them has been replaced with a bolt at some point. It looks like the nearside towing shackle that fits on the dumb iron has been broken during its working life and a replacement has been made from some angle iron. Nearside spring. One of the leaves with rust holes. Rear shackle. Nearside dumb iron with not very nice replacment towing shackle. Offside dumb iron, top leaf, spring pin and correct type towing shackle. Looks ok from a distance but i wouldn't like to go down the road on it!