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Airborne compressor trailer


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I've started to clean up the main engine radiator and have definitely established that the original paint was green and at a later date a coat of duck egg blue/eau-de-nil was carefully applied (presumably after the war) but I do wonder why go to the effort? The radiator header and bottom tanks are brass. I am going to paint the radiator matrix matt black and the rest will be green but I think that this will be the same with the engine...under the neat grey paint with red attachments will be green.

I also made up a trailer lead storage plug from the original tandem tow connector that I replaced. The holes were there on the chassis so it seemed that they needed using! However I forgot that the reinforcing plates that were put on when we repaired the chassis were directly behind these holes. Three drill bits later the holes were finished and the storage plug fitted.2015-10-06 12.47.20.jpg

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Has anybody any idea where to get a fan belt 1330mm x 19mm width and 13mm depth? These are the dimensions of the tatty belt on the Austin 10 engine. It is not a normal Austin 10 belt as it has to go around the crank pulley, water pump pulley and governor pulley on top of the engine. Alderton Austin have sent me a 1270 mm length one but seemed surprised by the length of my existing one.

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Anthony,

 

You should be able to find something similar online.

V-belt standard sizes: B Section - 17mm x 11mm or C Section - 22mm x 14mm

 

So you are saying your belt is between these, as I doubt its grown over last 70 yrs I'm guessing it is a C-section and 1330mm long. Thats makes it a C-50

 

Could try this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/C50-22x1270-Li-V-Belt-/140980778279?hash=item20d31bf527

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Another bit of fiddling around trying to re-assemble the radiator. I am sure that it was designed by Heath Robinson. It consists of the radiator that also acts as an oil cooler. The fan is belt driven from the nearby engine via a riveted belt as the belt cannot be removed from the frame holding the fan. The fan frame has a shroud bolted to it and a protective grill is bolted to the shroud. This fan frame also acts as a support frame for the radiator so that the radiator sits in the frame supported by leather pads at each corner. The whole assembly is then bolted to the trailer chassis by two large bolts.

Therefore in order to repair a radiator the whole assembly must be removed and twelve small bolts undone which is difficult as you can only get to one end....follow me? To cap it all, the fan assembly must be fitted first, followed by the radiator and then the shroud followed by the grill and finally the whole is clamped together by the top frame.

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To think that a jeep radiator can be removed by undoing two bolts!!

Yet again I apologize for fuzzy photos - whether it is the light or me shaking I will leave to the experts

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The next step in the saga....I took the fuel gauge out of the tank and well and truly cleaned it and re-assembled it. The tank is now in situ and I then cleaned the radiator inlet and outlet pipes. It is surprising what a brass wire wheel and Brasso can do.

Then there was no excuse but to fiddle with the engine. I found that two bolts holding the governor to a bracket on the cylinder head also acted as the belt adjuster, so I loosened them and then used a gear puller to remove the pulley so that I could remove the bolts.

With the governor on the workbench I undid three screws that appeared to hold the two major parts of the governor together. Pulling the two halves apart exposed an very clean set of workings bathed in oil along with a sealed 'something. I hastily re-assembled the two halves and then removed the plastic cover on the end of the governor which exposed a large spring. Cleaning the manufacturers plate gave the details that the engine is governed to 1526 rpm.

I have now decided to leave it for today as it is obviously completely different to the governor on John's Murex welding trailer and I hope that someone out there (Richard?) can come up with some info. The lever that is attached to a shaft from the governor and to the throttle linkage appears to have a stop bolt that may be part of a second regulating system in that the stop bolt is at the end of a cylinder from which a pipe is attached to the pilot valve of the compressor. I think that I am getting out of my depth!!2015-10-18 15.50.37.jpg

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I finally plucked up courage to dismantle the engine governor. It appears to be a post-war unit in that the barrel was painted grey with a natural metal or anodised end which contains the governing spring and is protected by the rubberised plastic cone shaped cover. The barrel contains a pair of brass 'wing' and a ball race in an oil bath with the main shaft passing through them into the anodised end that contains a heavy spring and throttle operating shaft. It seems over complicated compared to John's governor on his welding trailer that is essentially doing the same job.

There is also a secondary governor that appears to be operated by air pressure controlled by the compressor. I have now freed this and it is simply a pressure operated shaft and seal that will move the throttle lever independently of the engine governor. I assume therefore that the engine governor keeps the engine at the constant rpm and it can be over ridden by the compressor to reduce the engine revs when the air tank is up to pressure. I somehow don't think that I will try this!2015-10-21 11.30.33.jpg

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Onwards and slowly upwards. The governor is now back together and the engine has been attacked. The water pump came off with no difficulty and has now been cleaned up ready for it's repaint. Interestingly there was no trace of green, only light grey which adds to the supposition that many of the parts were reconditioned during it's service life. The pulley is red on the outer face but natural metal on the inner. I also turned the engine on it's side and removed the sump and petrol pump. The lower engine appears fine but the petrol pump is seized and has been left on the bench for another day - obviously the engine has not been run for some time!. the final act of the day was to beg Mr. Corden to bring his mega sockets to enable me to remove the crankshaft pulley as the starting handle nut holding it on is bigger than anything I have and could only be worked on with a socket.2015-10-25 17.30.15.jpg

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Its coming along nicely.

Good luck and have fun.

 

I am trying to but all this dismantling engines and compressors is new territory for me.

Further fiddling with the engine provided a bit of a mystery in that although the engine had been painted grey overall with red bits and pieces, the engine block has a bright green as a base coat and the sump has a bright blue as it's base whilst the base colour of the valve cover and some pulleys is army green - goodness knows what the story behind them is.

The petrol pump is cleaned and reassembled after a heart stopping moment when I dropped one of the non-return valve hairsprings on the floor - luckily after about ten minutes of prayers and swears I found it.2015-10-28 12.57.58.jpg

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The petrol pump is cleaned and reassembled after a heart stopping moment when I dropped one of the non-return valve hairsprings on the floor - luckily after about ten minutes of prayers and swears I found it.

 

Lucky you have such a well ordered tidy workshop......;)

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I have now taken the engine to pieces - leaving all the workings such as pistons, crank. etc untouched as all seems very clean. The oil in the sump was black but smooth with no foreign bodies in it so I just took the oil pump filter off and cleaned it. Again all nuts and bolts undid with no problem but I had a bit of a struggle with the distributor that was very tight in its sleeve. I drilled a couple of indents on the distributor casing and engine block to mark the position for reassembly and hopefully not disturbing the timing. The old paint came off reasonably OK. I am leaving the cylinder head on until I have finished the block so that paint particles do not get near the piston and valve bores and seats. That will come off and be cleaned up away from the engine. Interestingly there appear to be two engine numbers stamped..32018 on a flat over the timing chain and 3578 on a flat in the middle of the block just under the head in the centre on the distributor side.

Does anyone know what they refer to? It would be nice to find the build date of the engine.

Next to clean the distributor and hopefully get it and my spare tested to make sure the magneto is all OK.2015-11-03 15.42.17.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

The distributor/magneto has just been overhauled by my friend Derek who stripped it and combined the best bits of it and my spare that came with the trailer. Interestingly the spare has a different length shaft. I now have an all singing/all dancing distributor/magneto that appears to be as good as the day it was manufactured. I also have a spare that still works that I will sell on.

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In the meantime I am still stripping and painting the engine and accessories.

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I knew it was going too smoothly. I put the timing chain cover back on and slid on the inner pulley and with great difficulty bolted the outer one on. I then noticed that something was moving around behind the inner pulley when I turned the engine over. Off comes the outer and then the inner pulleys to expose the fact that the timing cover oil seal case had come adrift from the timing chain cover. It must have originally been brazed or soldered. Luckily I was taking the cylinder head to be skimmed (a good piece of advice from Richard F. as 6 thou was removed) and the guy told me about a small sheet metal engineering workshop nearby and for a tenner they spot welded the items back together.

I replaced the oil seal which appeared to have swollen a little as it was a very tight fit replacing the inner pulley but now all is together. Richard also gave me some advice on cylinder head torque settings as in the Austin 10 manual it just says tighten down the head nuts in the quoted sequence - no mention of torque. In the end however I did just that as my torque wrench did not appear to go down as low as 35ft lbs. so I just tightened them in sequence until stiff. They will have to be retightened anyway if we actually get the engine running.

The next stage is clean up the plate and flywheel for fitting as well as reassembling the water pump and then take the engine off the stand and position it so that the other end with the flywheel and pulley for the compressor belts can be fitted.2015-11-20 20.22.55.jpg

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In the end however I did just that as my torque wrench did not appear to go down as low as 35ft lbs. so I just tightened them in sequence until stiff. They will have to be retightened anyway if we actually get the engine running.

.

Would you like to borrow a suitable torque wrench?

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