smiffy

The needle fittted when I brought it has a round shank .I will order some of the correct needles and see what turns up, On this machine the thread is fed down the centre of the sewing head so is different from other machines also it has a walking foot that feeds the material. This can be moved through 360 degrees so you can sew in any direction without having to turn the material round Still working out how to set it up ,so a bit of learning curve Mike

Photos of the sewing machine I hope to use to make the leather gaiters with . Made in 1904 and still works well ,just need some leather and to get the hang of using it. The other job today was repairing the hand brake shaft , The shaft was keyed 3/8 but the key way in operating arm was only broached 5/16 and a stepped key had been fitted so made a correct sized guide and rebroached the arm to 3/8 . I can only think that this had been like that since new . The old key way was badly worn and the key nearly sheared Mike

I did consider getting the ratchets laser cut but cutting them out did not take long at all and I do try and do everything myself The cupwashers I had made by http://www.cheshireleather.com/contact-us.html They made a very good job of them , turn around time about 7 days . The price was good and very helpful to deal with, even phoning me after I received them to make sure I was happy with them. I have several leather gaiters to make and have brought a singer 29k sowing machine that is suitable for leather ,so a lot of new skills to learn as I have only done metal stitching before Mike

When i originally rebuilt the air springs I fitted modern hydraulic ram seals ,I now have obtained some correct leather seals so another job to do The handbrake ratchets were well past there sell by date so made some new ones . I could not work out a easy way to cut the ratchets , a shaper would have been ideal but that is one machine I dont have . So cut them by hand with a hacksaw

Have made a bit more progress and acquired some suitable headlamps and just tried them for size. Also fitted up one front suspension unit

When I originally found the Crossley all 3 front chassis cross members had rusted away to nothing . I was never happy with the new ones so I made some more. The engine and gear box sit on their own sub-frame that is supported on spherical bronze bearing at each end so any distortion of the main chassis is not transmitted to the flange mounted engine or gear box . The chassis member that supported the front sub frame mount had completely disappeared along with the radiator support member As the chassis rails are tapered the new rails have to be fed in from the rear which is a bit of a pain as the next chassis member is original and riveted in . Fortunately just after the rear of the front spring hangers the chassis is a bit wider and it is just possible to get them in

Some years ago I had a few spares cast these included 2 control quadrants ,front bearing caps and oil filler caps just in case I found another Crossley to restore

That is a very similar box in size, does it have a quadrant gear or a full gear ? On mine it is a full gear , I assume so that the worm can be moved to a fresh section as ware takes place also on mine the depth of engagement of the worm and gear is adjusted by a eccentric bush which is locked in place only by a tab washer . The advance retard and hand throttle quadrant are the same as some of the Crossley cars I have looked at

Thanks for your interest in my restoration . As regards odd mixes of threads the governor springs in the auto advance are held in place by 8-36 unf a real oddball size .The old bolts were well past there sell by date but luckily i had some in stock as its a very difficult size to obtain in the UK The steering gear is of very odd design . The steering box is very light for its application and is of a size I would expect to see on a heavy car not a commercial vehicle Prop shaft is also very basic design

As removed the gear box was in reasonable condition mainly due to being covered in a very thick layer of heavy gear oil that had leaked out of the front and rear seals . I replaced the seals and bearings, fortunately the internals were in good order Originally it had been fitted with a pto compressor for tyres and pumping up the Gruss air springs . This had been removed and a pto had been fitted to drive a piston hydraulic pump for a hydraulic tipping body. This had been fitted in about 1947 when the lorry had been working in a quarry I have both compressor and pto complete with hydraulic pump but the body and ram have long gone The U/J are large about 6 inch od and are bronze caps running on hardened pins ,the centre of the yoke is hollow and according to the maintenance chart should be filled with 1/4 pint of heavy oil every 300 miles . The oil leaking out of the U/Js had gone a long way to protect the inside of the chassis.

Spent this evening sorting out bits of clutch .As this is really a re-restoration of a restoration I started more years ago than I care to remember I dont have many before and after photos. The original clutch drive plate was nearly half rusted away . Fortunately I have a spare ,the friction material was held on with corks pressed through the drive plate . The holes in the drive plate are fitted with brass ferrules . The toggles were badly worn where they had been rubbing on the thrust bearing . I welded the end up using Stubbs 65 welding rods and ground them to shape .

I am fortunate to have an original parts book and workshop manual for my crossley . Some of the engine studs are listed as bsw - bsf mainly the ones above 3/8 but the 5/16 and 1/4 are called motor studs and are unc-unf also in the simms auto advance unit there are flat springs held in place with 8/36 nf screws The wheel studs are 3/4 bsf in hub and 18 mm by 2mm pitch the other end . All a bit odd no idea why they used different thread systems . The first photo is new studs in the sump the other photo is of a spring eye ,does any other vehicle use this type of eye? The springs were made by Woodheads.

I would be very interested in any parts that you have . Do you still have the AEC Mike

Forgot the pictures

Some pictures of a unrestored Gruss unit attached to front spring and one stripped down . They idea was that the ride height could be set using a gearbox mounted compressor connected via a tyre valve in the top of the air spring . The original brass valve in the top of the unit was missing so i made replacements . The original seals were leather cup seals ,I replaced these with hydraulic ram seals . Mike

Very interesting thanks for the information ,I wounder why they where specified for the IGL 3 . The only other vehicle that I have seen the fitted on was a W& G ambulance . I will post some photos of them when I get time as I have one in pieces at the moment. Mike

Thanks for posting the photo ,interestingly it would not appear to be fitted with Gruss air springs . Every other photo of a IGL 3 that I have seen has been fitted with them. Mike

Never really thought about concentration rates ,the stronger the mix the quicker it works and when it stop working just add some more and when the mix looks realy gunky throw it away and start again . I would start with 10 kg in 45 gallons of water . No need to neutralise just rinse off with clean water and its safe to put down the drain when you have finished with it . Its also good for pickling after soft soldering or silver soldering Mike

I dont know what other people do about cleaning parts that are rusty but to save the cost of sending bits to be sand blasting I mix up citric acid and water , submerge the part in it for a minimum of 24 hours . The results are very good . I buy 25 kg bags of citric acid from flea bay Photos dont really do it justice but they are before and after

Made 40 studs this afternoon ,with a bit of setting up I make the studs in 2 operations . First operation to feed the bar through to a pre determined length thread using the coventry die head then part off . Next screw into a stud box which needs to be no more than a short piece of hex or square threaded through and split along it length this holds the threaded end so the other end can be threaded. Once set up studs take about 1 .5 minuets to make

The bottom part of the sump had one small corroded area and I always try to repair rather than replace so built it up with weld . Dont know the composition of the aluminium but it is much heavier than modern material and not the best to weld but gave it a try . Not the end of the world if I had to make a new one but hopefully the repair will be ok Mike

Yes I do as much as possible at home .When I first started restoring there where jobbing foundries still around but they have nearly all gone so I set up a home foundry . I use a large ex school furnace that i have converted to diesel firing and can also run it on waste engine oil . I can get it hot enough to do cast iron but that is very hard on the furnace lining and life of the crucibles is short . Most of my knowledge has come from books such as Terry Aspins book The back yard foundry and foundry work for the amateur . both books are readily available in the workshop practice series . I also have learnt a lot from youtube , myfordboy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNC9gjgYrzLfyMQmp31DnjA is very good. If you want to learn about cast iron watch luckygen1001 I get my consumables from Vaughans https://www.anvils.co.uk/ . I also have a small forge and heat treatment furnace I use the gas oven in the kitchen for tempering heat treated parts , fortunately my better half is very understanding. A friend has a company making parts for the areospace industry and he gives me plenty of aluminium off cuts for the melting pot. Brass is a bit more difficult to obtain but I try to buy what I call red brass as used in quality water valves etc at scraps yard Mike

No cnc I just use a rotary table and a dividing head and use form cutters and finish by hand as the outside dimensions only need to match the cast front piece . If it had been any more complicated i would have made a pattern and cast it but not worth getting the furnace going for one small item

Photos of engine The last photo shows where the broken con rod was

It would have been the result of many frosts over the years and water would freeze from the top down so each frost would push thee piston down a bit more and every time it thawed a bit more water would seep in . It definitely did not happen when the engine was running as the conrod was between two webs in the crankcase and if that had happened with the engine running it would have damaged the webs but they are unmarked