Old Bill

Hi Barry. No, I have had it for a few years. It was an opportunistic purchase from another old lorry man and sits next to the Bridgeport in Leicester. My original 10 tonne press now lives on the floor in Devon. I find it a lot easier to work standing up than kneeling on the floor these days! It has proved to be a very good tool and much better than hitting things! Steve

As usual, we are doing several things side by side and one of them is the seat box. This is of steel construction with the fuel tank hung inside on straps. Our predecessor with the lorry had replaced the front panel but, as you can see, he made it a bit short so it was packed at one end with a strip of wood. On the left, you can see an original tank bracket which has had the rivet replaced with a long bolt. The bracket is a piece of bent steel. However, on the right you can see the replacement which is a piece of black angle welded in. This is the original front plate which has had it but which makes a good pattern. In the left hand end, you can see the tensioner casting which is riveted to the strap. This one has proven salvageable. Dad started on the new box by getting the steel bent. He then drilled and profiled all of the bits. It was a tedious job and he was glad to see the back of it! He turned up the new pins. An original strap had survived in the heap to make a pattern. Unfortunately, the tensioner casting had been dismantled with a cutting disc which had damaged it beyond repair. I started off by fabricating a replacement. I welded this one. You can tell that I did it by the amount of filler used to get a decent shape! Dad fabricated the tensioning bolts. Fortunately, only two of these are needed. Then we had to bend the eyes in the ends of the straps. I keep a big lump of steel especially for making up jigs like this. The G-clamp was used to provide an end stop for the strip which we pulled around hot. I was very pleased at how consistent we managed to make them. They need to be the same length otherwise the tank would sit with one end down. Dad drilled and riveted them up. Two have eyes in only one end so that the clamping casting can be fitted. We left them off at this stage so that we could get the length right. Then I had to bend them to 7 1/2" radius for which I used the press. This was a bit painstaking and took a while to get them consistent but they were OK in the end. Seat box itself next. Steve 🙂

Did a little more this weekend. The correct 3/8" key steel has finally turned up so I set to and made a pair of keys for the other sprocket. They stood a bit proud but a file soon sorted that. Then of course another tag washer! I hadn't spotted that we would need one so out with the hacksaw and files again. Fortunately only one required. Then the fun bit of trying to tighten the nut. I stuck in the vice as hard as I could and then Dad hung onto one end with a 3/4" drive socket, tommy bar and a piece of scaffolding tube whilst I leaned on the other with our second biggest spanner. Hopefully, it is tight enough but time will tell. Then insert into carrier checking that the gland nuts are in place and slide over the bearing. Secure with screws previously made by Dad. Dad is painting it at the moment after which I will wire the screws. On to the next job! Steve 🙂

Next step was to fit the half-shafts. Firstly, we needed to secure the chain tensioner into place. This is done with a coallar screwed into position using holes in the face to get a purchase. The outside of the collar forms a running surface for the oil seal. We have three retaining collars to choose from. These go behind the bearing and keep the half-shaft in place. They also have a groove for the oil-seal felt. I cut strips of felt and pushed them into place. Once fitted over the collar, the bearing could be mounted. These are double-row self-aligning bearings and, whilst a little tired, will fight another day. They are retained by a nut and locking washer. I had previously spent a couple of evenings filing them out and they were probably only a penny stampings originally! The bent-over tag locates in the keyway in the casting. The nut is just a simple pressing as well. Fortunately for us, the FWD hub-nut spanner fitted it. Bend the tag over and that job is done. Slide the shaft into place, locate in the differential and over the bearing. The original securing screws were very ropy so Dad has made some more. They are cross-drilled so that they can be wired. First one down! On the other side, the sprocket had been removed. First job was to make up some new keys. Dad saw this coming and got some key-steel into stock. However, despite being labelled 3/8", it proved to be 10mm and won't fit! Dad has ordered some more which turned up yesterday. This is labelled 3/8" but is 5/8" this time! Some jobs seem to be unreasonably difficult! Steve 🙂

Yes, quite right! There is an option in the manual for an extended layshaft with gland and drive gear and a note 'see power hoist supplement' which, unfortunately, we don't have. Of all the bits in our collection, we have the remains of one complete lorry and that spent its life, after the war, working as a tipper on the Somerset levels. It is the engine and gearbox from this lorry that we are using. We met the grandson of the original owner and he tells the story of how his father and Grandfather went to Southampton to purchase the lorry after the war and how they drove it back to Somerset using only the oil side lamps for illumination and they kept blowing out! As they bought it Government Surplus, they must have fitted the pto as a later addition as I can't believe that the Army would have had it. It is a genuine Peerless part which the lorry acquired in its life so we thought it best just to leave it on there as part of the history. Steve 🙂

Well, we have just had a splendid weekend in Devon and have made some very satisfactory progress. Here is the first instalment. Gearbox was all ready to fit so we pulled it out and lifted it onto Dad's lifting trolley. It is fitted by pushing under the chassis and then lifting it up into position However, as predicted, the combination was too high to go underneath. The solution was obvious in the end. Just jack it up and put it on stands! We then took the opportunity to trim and fit the spacer tubes and dig out the bolts previously made by Dad. The fun now was to align the bolt holes. A lot of fiddling and messing and with the help of a bit of rod with a tapered lead machined on it, we succeeded. The rearmost bolts needed some spacers to lower the box into line with the half-shaft outer bearings but this was soon accomplished. Now it was time to connect the gearbox to the engine. Father had previously repaired the propshaft and painted it. The couplings have a felt oil seal fitted. This is contained by a pair of bronze castings wrapped around the shaft and contained by the outer cover. The felt is contained by a spring clip which we were fortunate to have. The bronzes were fitted and then the cover wangled over them to hold them together. This was something of a juggling exercise! Tim and I carefully held all the bits together whilst we juggled the shaft into position. The steel bearing blocks were fitted to the pins and the cover slid over the lot to trap it. Four bolts (UNC this time) secured it with the cover carefully rotated to allow access to the grease plug inside. And the other end with both grease plugs facing the same way! We were then connected from front to back so it was time to add the pedal shaft and clutch pedal, again previously sorted by Dad. We realised that we were missing the two UNS pinch bolts so Dad turned them up Pedal shaft installed and the clutch works! I added a couple of Peerless greasers from stock just to finish it off. We had to try turning the handle and watching it all move. Very satisfying! Steve 🙂

Yes, finding that photo really made me smile. I just need to trip over the car at a rally now and my day will be made! Getting the box in is tricky because of the bracing bars on the sides of the chassis rails. As you suggest, Mike, I am planning to jack and pack the chassis up to give me the headroom. I think I need another four inches which is achievable. Something else I found time to tackle was the clutch spring. I found that I had to reduce the length of the hooks in order to slide the assembly into position so I took your advice and fitted a jubilee clip to secure it. That gave me a lot more confidence! It screwed on with just enough bite on the thread. Then it was a screwdriver under the clips to ping them off and we were done! I am hoping that the lining will bed in quite quickly and allow the cone further into the flywheel. I cut the lining as thin as I dare so I don't know why it protrudes so much. Anyway, we are now in a position to connect the box to the engine. The next visit is going to be an exciting one! Steve 🙂

We have just had a splendid weekend in Devon celebrating parents' diamond wedding anniversary. This is completely off-topic, I know, but bear with me. Father bought a brand new Austin Healey Frog-Eye Sprite in 1961. He and mother did all their courting in it and eventually they took it away on their honeymoon. Whilst my thoughts have been on the subject, I casually googled the licence number and amazingly, it still exists! I was unable to track it down in time for the party but we would love to see it so if any of you ever come across it, I would be very pleased to hear from you! To return to topic, the second half of the weekend was spent working on the gearbox! Tim and I started by fitting the replacement self-aligning bearing. The mainshaft was then ready to fit but it is a heavy lump and almost all I could do to lift it. This was the point at which we remembered that the bearing carrier has a locating hole in it which should face upwards. More heavyweight wrangling needed here to get it onto the top. Then the input shaft was inserted over the new bearing. That was all satisfactory. Next, the layshaft. Everything turns! I squirted quite a lot of oil around but it was all most satisfactory. Then the selector forks. Despite my repairs, there is still a lot of clearance around them. Will have to see how they work out. Dad has made up some new couplings for the selectors. They are left and rh thread. Now finding LH UNS taps and dies really is tricky so they have been made with 7/16" BSF threads as they are the same pitch as the UNS equivalent and only the thread form is slightly different. They still screw over the original selector thread so I am happy with the compromise. They work! The nuts were all pinned and the felt seals were fitted into the carriers before screwing home the glands. The drive coupling was cleaned up and fitted at this stage too. Along with the PTO gear. This gear will never be used by us but it is an original part that was fitted to this box so we have reinstalled it to keep it safe. The box is ready to fit! We are planning the next visit to install the box. That will have its own challenges as it has to be lifted up from underneath but is too tall to slide under the chassis when on the lifting table. Something else to ponder on! Steve 🙂

That's a big lump of iron to hold a little engine down! Nice pic though. Steve 🙂

Thanks Chaps. Good thoughts both. Springs can fire bits off with some velocity and no warning and I place some value on my 'bits'! Steve

We have done a bit more today although I was a bit slow getting going this morning. It is taking me longer to shake off work these days! Anyway, Dad has put a flat on the fan support rod and finished that off. The hole in the Y casting has a flat to locate with it and stop the fan rotating on a vertical axis. The rod is supported at the base by a casting and I have been making the pattern for that. It is mostly MDF with a bit of oak for the boss. That smelled wonderful whilst I was turning it. Radii created with Isopon and dressed all round with the Dremel. It is now in the paint shop. The two missing support tubes for the gearbox bolts just need the ends trimming to fit the channel. I will do that next time I am down. I did try fitting the clutch but could not get the spring tensioning nut to bite. I have therefore made some clips to hold the spring compressed whilst it is being fitted. I squeezed the spring up in the press and tried them out. They work fine but I have been advised to treat the arrangement the same way I would treat a live hand grenade! Steve 🙂

Dad has been making up the gearbox mounting bolts ready for the grand reassembly. They are actually studs and UNF at that. We are pleased about that as UNF nuts are available! The bolts go right through the channel cross-members from top to bottom so tubes were provided to prevent the channels from crushing. Unfortunately for us, two tubes had gone missing at some time in the life of the lorry resulting in severe corrosion of two of the bolts, hence their replacement. In the mean time, Dad has cleaned up the two remaining tubes ready to fit. I have done as much gearbox as I can from here so my thoughts have turned to the cooling fan. Unfortunately, we don't have one so it has to be made up. These are the bracket mounting holes on the front of the engine. The Bovington armoured car mount is quite different so nothing to copy there although I did measure the fan and drive pulley diameters. The Sandstone lorry has the same bracket mounting holes as ours but the bracket is an obvious later addition. However, the Banfield lorry is exactly the same so that is the one to copy. I even found that we have the Y-casting in the heap so that has been cleaned up and fitted. Just recently, I was given this fan by a great friend who thought it might do. It doesn't look anything like the cast fans we had seen. However, I remembered that the Wheal Martyn example had something similar but with only five blades. Then I found this picture in the collection which has a six bladed fabricated steel fan so we have precedence! The bracket is slightly different so I wonder whether there was a weakness there and the extra steady bracket was put on top later? First job was to get it to bits. Heat and brutality as usual. The drive pulley is mounted on a left hand thread which, very fortunately, I twigged before trying to unscrew it. Bearings might have fought again but I have bought new straight off the shelf., The original spindle was mounted eccentrically to allow for belt adjustment. The fan was a bit undersize and one of the blades was broken. Also, the curve on the blades had been set so that it was a pusher fan and we need a puller so I took them all off and cut out some new ones. Then I had to rivet them back on. I suspect that this fan was French as everything on it is metric. Interestingly, the six rivets on each blade were of three different sizes which was an added headache. I set the blades to curve the other way and it started to look quite nice. I sweated a ring around and it is ready for cleaning and painting. We need a new spindle of course and this was a nice turning job. Then bore and tap a hole through it taking care to keep the tap square to the spindle. Annoyingly, the spindle has and extra flange on one sideso I had to turn that up. Silver soldered and cleaned up ready for some paint. Dad has made up the support rod. I am currently pattern making for the base casting and hope to finish that tomorrow. We will need to think about the drive pulley as that is missing as well. Another pattern needed! Steve 🙂

There are four things preventing us from reassembling the box (apart from time!) and these are the selector forks, the mounting bolts, the bolt spacer tubes to avoid the channel crushing and the gear tooth damage. I have picked up the selector forks. As you may remember, the wear surface of all three forks was pretty rough. I started off by polishing each with a piece of emery on a sanding block. Although this one is pitted, I reckon there is a enough metal left to create a rubbing surface so I have left it alone. One down! The other two were just too bad so I chose to machine out the corrosion and then silver solder some replacement metal into place. The replacement pieces were secured for soldering using 6BA brass screws tapped into the parent metal. Ready for the heat. First edge dressed off with a file. Then clocked in the mill and dressed back. They came out well and I was very pleased. The drive spindles had had it, however with no thread left and a spare cross-hole for a pin drilled as a 'fix'. I turned up some studs as replacements. After sawing off the original, I drilled and tapped the ends in the lathe. The challenge here was to get the threads straight in the ends. Once started in the lathe, I resorted to a tap wrench to finish off. The spigots have slots in the end to allow for adjustment of the actuator rods. The sleeves are screwed to the correct position and then a split pin is put through both to prevent rotation. Actually, I don't think this is a particularly good arrangement as the thread isn't secured and can fret as the selector is pushed back and forth which is probably what caused the initial failure. Possibly some locknuts should be given some consideration. Set up ready to screw into place. Selector rods ready for use! Another job ticked off. Dad is pressing on with the bolts and spacer tubes. More shortly! Steve 🙂

Quite right!

Thanks for your thoughts, Robert. You are right in that some hairline cracks are visible. I did try using a hammer and pin punch on the tooth edges to see if they would break off but they are quite firm still. Going in with a Dremel to tidy them up would be a good move though. I don't think these bearings caused the failure, Andy as they are all quite good. The two on the input shaft had lost their cages but were unworn. Even the failed self aligner was only rattly. All a bit of a puzzle but I am loathe to replace the pinion because of it. It won't ever have to work hard again so I think we should get away with a bit of remdial work. Steve 🙂

Progress has been a bit varied recently and I haven't had a story to tell although there are things in the pipeline. They will surface soon but in the meantime, we have been doing a bit with Dad plugging away at all the rough jobs. With the box inverted, he has persisted with his cleaning up and started to paint the ironwork. This flange was missing a nut, UNS of course. I slotted some that we had previously had made so that was soon sorted. The top face was missing 11 studs. again 3/8" UNS so Dad has made those up. Making studs can be very tedious. Of course, he had to fit them upside down! I went down to Devon with the aim of reassembling the box. Alas, it was not to be but we did do a selection of tidying and preparation jobs. First was to turn the box over again and have another go at cleaning out the last few bits. Dad has been cleaning up the shafts with paraffin. This is the layshaft. Then the mainshaft. It soon became obvious where the chunks of teeth had come from. I don't think they will cause any trouble so I had a poke to make sure there were no loose pieces and we will put it back as it is. The input shaft nose bearng on the RH end is a double row, self aligning ball race. Once the oil was washed out, it became obvious that it was completely shot so we got on line to order a new one. Not the end of the world but it meant that we couldn't put the shaft in that weekend. The lid dropped beautifully over Dad's new studs and I fitted the repaired cover for the first time. At least that will keep the dust out. Something I had been pondering over was the magneto drive coupling. The output on the timing case is simply two dogs like part of an oldham coupling but the only way to adjust its position is to remove the timing cover and increment the gear by a tooth at a time or in steps of 10°. This seems a bit coarse and also very inconvenient so I took an old vernier drive which had been previously machined and turned the back off before drilling two holes for the dogs. It actually worked quite well and I had only to dress the holes out with a file to make them fit. It went straight onto the dog on the right without altering any part of the original installation and we now have a fully adjustable vernier coupling. Next, we took a look at the selector forks. They run in a channel side by side but where they have been on the outside of the box, they are rather corroded. Now I am wondering what to do with them and would value your suggestions. I had thought of cutting the ends off, screw extensions back in and then re-machining them. I could have them built up with braze or weld and machine them back or I could machine them back and braze a piece of steel into the cavity behind. Of course, I could leave them alone altogether and just use them as they are. Does anyone have experience of metal spraying to build the surface back up? There is certainly more than one way of skinning a cat! The other interesting feature is the tubular connector which screws on the end and attaches the push rods. One of the threads is completely shot and needs replacing. 7/16" UNS again but to get the adjustment, one end of the tube is left-handed! I think they may end up BSF as that is the same pitch and I am not having taps and dies made! I have realised that we need to sort out the selectors and fit them to the box before the box goes back in the chassis so these are becoming pressing. Steve 🙂

Hi Al. Thanks for your comments. This is the first casting and a tester. Now that the pattern is proven, I am getting some more for several friends who want them. The silly thing is that I don't actually need one myself! Oh well. The pattern can go in the box with the others ready for the next time. I have made, or friends have made for me, 35 patterns for this lorry so it is quite a resource for anyone doing another. The next pattern is for the Peerless and is a lot simpler! Cheers! Steve

Well, now is the moment of truth! these are the cores produced from the core boxes. They really are nice. And here is the casting! The core was made by gluing the two halves together before putting it into the mould. Even the removable piece came out OK. And the one the other end! I am very pleased with the result as this was quite a difficult one for me. Many thanks to Adrian for all of his help! Back to the Peerless now. Steve 🙂

Well, I have been back on the gearbox input shaft so here is a progress report. I have obtained a very generous bronze blank, so big, in fact, that it wouldn't go in the lathe and I had to fret out a disc using a sawing wire. It took a while! Next move was to set the casting up in the four-jaw and turn off the old thread. That all went nicely. Then I set the blank up and trepanned out the centre. That is a useful piece of bronze so I was not going to turn it into swarf! I turned a rebate to fit the remains of the casting. And then silver soldered it together. I suddenly remembered that I had this. Dad picked it up for me but it has had very little use and is immaculate. I use it rarely but when you want one, you want one! It was rather remiss of me but I didn't snap the turning process. I had measured it up and reckoned that it was 5 1/4" dia x 16 tpi. thread to cut. I did that with a single point and then cleaned it up with a chaser. However, the casting wouldn't fit! On much closer measurement, I realised that it is 5 7/32" dia x 16tpi. so once I had cut a bit further, all was well. Peerless thread standards are a story in their own right! On removal, I was very pleased with the result. The metal colour is interesting. The ring was definitely bronze but looks more like brass. Fortunately for me it turned more like brass so the job wasn't too hard. As you can see, the new bearing is thicker than the original. Fortunately the bearings are spaced apart by a sleeve so I shortened that by the same amount. First bearing in and the oil shield dropped onto the shaft. It took a lot of wangling to get it all together but eventually, they were aligned. They were a lovely smooth fit but just a bit more than I could push. I don't like hitting bearings so the whole assembly went in the press which soon made short work of it. Very little force required, just a steady even push until it was home. Now to secure the bearings on the shaft. The change in length of the spacer meant that I could use a different tab on the lock washer which was fortunate as the regular one broke off in my fingers. The bronze cover sets the end float. I have no figures for what that should be so I simply did it up tight and then backed it off a bit before drilling for the locking screw. That was tapped 1/4" x 27 UNS to try to remain consistent with the rest of the box. Hopefully, it won't be my problem again! All together and ready to fit. The gland is not yet packed as Dad has the stocks of felt but that can be done in due course. Reassembly planned for the next visit! Steve 🙂

Yes, this one has certainly been a challenge and I wouldn't have got this far without Adrian. There are two things which would have resulted in such an awkward shape, I think. One is that 100 years ago, making things out of wood was very common and there were a lot of highly skilled people about. Casting was the standard process for making shaped parts and there was a foundry on every corner. They would also have had some really nice timber of exotic species available to them which would make things easier. The second thing is that, in my experience, not a lot of thought is given by the draughtsman for the pattern maker and moulder. One of my colleagues was drawing up a casting at work and whilst looking over his shoulder, I suggested that if he taper it the other way it would make it far simpler to get out of the sand to which his reponse was 'I expect they'll sort it out'. He had no interest or consideration for their problems. I have seen this in the radiator castings too. The Peerless bottom tank is a simple draw using one pattern and one core box, all nicely thought through. The Dennis tank has a plug and six core boxes, two of which are to simply provide an aesthetic feature. I bet the pattern maker cursed when he saw that drawing. I certainly did when I realised what I was going to have to do! There is one more pattern on the horizon for the Peerless fan bracket but that should be a simple one, fortunately! Steve 🙂

I have now completed the last bits. Inside the casting are two bosses which could not be added to my wooden core as they would have prevented us from lifting it out or, indeed, the sand core when the time comes. At the bearing end, there is a grease hole to the bearing. This is drilled down the middle of an internal boss. At the other end is a boss through which screws a long bolt to prevent the gland nut from turning. The only way these can be done is with some loose pieces which are lifted out before the main core is removed. The top of the mould needs to be left flat so that the sand can be strickled off so the loose piece must sit in a rebate. Good old Bridgeport! The resin cut quite nicely. Then a piece of wood cut to fit. The end was curved to form half of the boss and a pin was fitted to secure it in place. I took the same approach at the other end. This time, the lift-out piece was bigger so I glued some extra on the end before pinning it into position and then dressing it to shape with the Dremel and glass paper. The two loose pieces from the boxes held back to back to demonstrate the shape of the boss. All done! They are now on their way to the foundry for the moment of truth! Steve 🙂

For a bit of light relief, I have made the catch for the gearbox cover. We have one complete cover and the the lid without catch for this one. I could have robbed the other box but chose to make up the replacement now to save having to do it for the next one. The catch works by pushing it down through a slot in the flange on the gearbox lid and turning it a bit before releasing when the spring holds it firm. A nice little fabrication. And the same for the cross-bar. A quick rummage in the mixed springs box and ready for some paint. In the mean time, Dad has been pushing on with the horrible cleaning job of the box itself. The time has come to turn it over so that he can get to the bottom. Fortunately, it fits the engine stand perfectly at a nice working height. Looking a lot better! You may remember that we fitted the engine and clutch not so long ago and I was concerned that the clutch centre was so proud that we couldn't fit the spring. Dad had fitted new leather but, by the way of these things, the thickness was a bit variable and it had pushed upwards around the screws so I determined that it would have to be machined to true it up and thin it down a bit. The challenge was how to do it as machining leather is not something I have tried! I found that the gap bed of the Colchester left just enough room but with no holes in the casting, I couldn't bolt it to the face plate. I therefore made a spigot for the headstock and pulled it up with a draw bolt. I didn't expect it to have to produce any torque, just to turn the assembly truly. This worked quite well so I set about mounting the angle grinder in the toolpost which was set over at 10°. It was a bit of a lash-up but firm enough. I did give it a good tug before proceeding! With the lathe on bottom speed and a grade 60 sanding disc in the grinder I traversed the toolpost. It worked well although the dust was a bit grim! I made a number of 20 thou cuts until I was just about to kiss the highest rivet and stopped there. When I tried it in the flywheel, it certainly got a grip but did not go in as far as I had hoped. However, I daren't take any more off as the leather is now quite thin in places. The spring will have to be compressed to solid height to allow me to fit it and that is going to be an interesting exercise in itself. I am hoping that the first use will bed the leather in and allow me to fit the tensioning nut properly. Getting it into gear for the first time may be a challenge but we shall see! Steve 🙂

We have had a chat about this one and suspect you may be right as the air would get beneath the whole area and unstick it in a much more gentle fashion. One to try for next time! Thanks! Steve🙂

Hi Barry. I bow to Adrian's judgement on this one. It certainly took some shifting to get it moving! The first few hefty wallops had no effect and I suspect that screws would have pulled out of the MDF. I haven't tried plaster of paris for pattern making but suspect that it might have broken up if given this treatment. That is something else to keep up my sleeve. Steve 🙂

My good friend Adrian has very kindly sorted out the resin part of the job for me. The objective was to use my wooden replica of the core I want to produce to create a mould from which sand versions can be made. First job was to paint the wooden bits with a releasing agent. Then level up the core box on the bench top. And mix up the resin and hardener by weight on the scales. Pour into the gap all round and let it harden off. Once hardened off, the battens were removed. Excess resin was sanded off until the face was flat. Then a holewas drilled through the resin until the core could be reached. The hole allowed the core to be drifted out. And there we have it. A resin lined core box. I will have to repair the areas around the holes but that is nothing. A couple of removable pieces to add and then we will be ready to pour. Thanks, Adrian! Steve🙂