WW1 Thornycroft restoration

[Kufra Kiwi]

I think those "forks" are more properly called "clevices". :-)

[Great War truck]

Getting towards the end of the line before for the last one. Not a pretty sight!

 

 

 

This is that last one – fortunately we could get in there with an Angle Grinder fitted with a cutting blade to cut the end of the thread of the pin – heated it to red hot in situ – and it just unscrewed!

 

The residual part of the rod was dealt with in the same way again and it just unscrewed. This “fork” looks more than a little tired – and may have to be “retired”!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kit of parts taken off the Driver’s side. Just a couple of parts on the other side to do to complete that job.

 

[Great War truck]

This is the “Steering Tube” – which connects the bottom of the steering column to the front axle. The nut was hard work to get off – but again, the same methods as before were used to remove it. It proved difficult to use a hammer and chisel on the nut in this situation as most of the hammer blows were absorbed by the residue of the front spring!

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the two parts of the Hand Brake assembly situated on the nearside of the lorry – they have now been removed from the chassis but the remains of the old linkage rods are still in them and still have to be taken off. One fork looks good enough to be re-used but the adjusting one with a multitude of holes in it as past it!

 

 

[GeePig]

Oh my, and it looks like you will soon have those wheels off...

[Great War truck]

These are the last two Brake parts just mentioned, after disassembly. You will notice that the one with the “knob” on the shaft has a left hand thread – something to get hold when the shaft has to screwed or unscrewed for adjustments to be made to the effective length. The “knob” is certainly past redemption so a new one of those will have to be made – there is no left hand 1/2” BSF Tap and Die in Axminster and fingers crossed that there is a set in Leicester – otherwise EBay first of all before we talk to a Tap and Die Dealer!

 

 

 

[N.O.S.]

....... This “fork” looks more than a little tired – and may have to be “retired”!

 

 

.....

 

Could you not offer it a little retirement job as a toasting fork? :angel:

[Great War truck]

We could do. But we probably wont. Good idea all the same.

 

“GeePig” says that we must be getting near to taking the wheels off – and that stage is certainly getting closer! But this is a summary of the remaining jobs to be completed before we can do that.

 

The next thing to come off is the compensating shaft and tube for the Hand Brake. This consists of a 1” diameter bar some 45” long which runs across the chassis and is secured in arms below and being parts of the rear spring retainers. It is simply secured by split pins running through the spring casting and the steel bar. On top of this bar is a steel tube, 1 1/4” in diameter with 1/8” walls which can turn on the bar and this measures some 42” in length. Attached to this tube are two arms for the clevis’ – one either side - from the brake shafting. There are Greaser Points on these arms so that grease can be injected between shaft and bar.

 

With ours, the shaft and tube are bent – and apart from the rust problem, there is no way that these two items can be separated – so they will have to be cut out and replaced with new steel. The arms will have to be removed and made fit to attach to the new steel tube.

 

 

 

 

 

The rear chassis cross member is badly corroded in the corners and we have decided to take this right out so that the steel can be “re-enforced” with new bits welded in – if that is appropriate – and also to get rid of all of the rust which is certainly behind it in the corners. Fortunately, it is bolted in and not riveted so it should be easy to get out. We will tackle this after the compensating tube is removed.

 

 

 

 

[Great War truck]

Then must follow the “Track Rod” – or as it is described in the Parts Book – the “Front Axle Cross Tube”.

 

 

 

 

And the last part before we tackle the wheels is the only remaining bit of the engine mounting left in the chassis! A small piece of steel, looking very much the worse for wear – secured by a nut behind it on the chassis frame.

 

 

 

The wheels will not be tackled until the “Heavy Gang”from Leicester and Oxford visit again – probably not until next month!

[Asciidv]

Things will definitely go easier and quicker now that you have canine assistance. Where did he spring from as this is the first photographic evidence of animal help?!:cool2:

 

Barry.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Asciidv

[N.O.S.]

Do you think its a Leyland Terrier?

[Asciidv]

Too small for a Leyland Mastiff.....

[Minesweeper]

This is "Arthur" - he is a cross between a Chinese Lion Dog and some kind of Terrier - and he belongs to my Neighbours. He seems to like my company and spends a lot of time with me. Unfortunately he has not yet learned to pass the appropriate tools when they are required!

[nz2]

We have a similar situation here with our cat. He routinely comes to check on progress of work, sometimes will perch on a suitable spot and watch, or otherwise walk away to return latter.

He has been nick named " The Supervisor".

Doug

[Great War truck]

Today, we decided to have a go at getting the compensating Brake Gear Shaft out. You may recall that this is a Steel Outer Tube, 1 1/4” in Diameter running on a 1” diameter steel shaft.Not only is the whole thing badly rusted, it is bent, so there really is no way of getting those two items apart complete – so they have to be cut.

 

A cut was made inside each of the levers on the sleeve and bar together, and the centre piece of the assembly dropped clear. Heat was then applied to each of the two remaining parts of the sleeves which were carrying the levers, which were still held on the residue of the inner steel bar attached to the chassis and it was eventually possible to start twisting them so that they could be slid off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is difficult to see at this stage but the two levers should be held on the tube with Pinch Bolts. If they are there, then the Pinch Bolts are very corroded and now would seem to form part of the whole assembly. However, it may be that it is brazing that we can see there instead – with no Pinch Bolts and that will have to be investigated. Some kind of repair made during its lifetime?

 

 

 

[Great War truck]

The steel bar was held to the chassis through extended arms on the two opposite Spring Supports with a split pin to keep the bar in place. The first of the two split pins has been removed and the first stub bar has been taken out with no real problem. The other will follow tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

[Great War truck]

After a final struggle in a constricted space, the final parts of the Compensating Brake Gear were removed from the chassis so that the chassis is now completely clear of it. It was then time to look at the two levers fixed to the Brake Tube to see how they were attached. The Parts Book indicated that they were attached by Pinch Bolts – but if they were there, they were so corroded as to become invisible in the rust.

 

These two pictures show the expected position of the Pinch Bolt – before and after being cleaned up with a file. The threaded hole is for a Greaser. But there was no sign of a Pinch Bolt ever being there – nor a hole where one would have been situated.

 

 

 

 

From the pictures taken yesterday, it did appear that there was a line of brazing around the joint of the arm on the shaft. Some work with a file revealed a brassy colour in that position which became further evidence of brazing.

 

The short remaining part of the tube was sawn off the arm and further work with the file revealed a complete ring of brazing.

 

Now we have a problem to solve to recover the arm. The remaining part of the tube within the casting could be bored out – not an easy job because of the difficulty in holding it – but if we do that, how are we going to attach that arm to the new tube? Braze it again?

 

And the other puzzle – it does appear from the Parts Book that the arm were originally attached to the tube by a Pinch Bolt – but could this have proved unsatisfactory in service with the lever eventually twisting on the tube – so brazing was introduced to stop that. But was that a Factory introduction – or by the owners in service?

 

The other choice that we are faced with is that we make completely new arms – they could easily be fabricated – but we always like to use original parts as far as possible.

 

 

 

 

[Great War truck]

The objective today was to finish dismantling the rear cross stretcher – which also meant taking off the rear hooks as they share some of the same retaining nuts and bolts and the rear part of the “X” shaped cross stays situated in front of the rear stretcher, also held in place with the same fixings. Four of the nuts and bolts were taken out yesterday where they had already been loosened and came undone comparatively easily. We would normally have hoped not to have removed these parts at all but there were very obvious signs of heavy rust in the corners and they had to come out so that we could see just how bad it was.

 

 

 

The nuts were again very tight on the bolts and normally, we would put some heat on them to loosen them, but they were too near the wall and the storage jars to entertain doing that, so it was just a case of “heave-ho” and Plus-Gas. The bolts were very tight in their holes and after the nuts had been removed, they needed to be hammered out.

 

 

 

 

The condition of the corners of the rear frame stretcher was as we anticipated – very wasted and they will require some of the old metal cut out with new welded in.

 

 

 

[Great War truck]

Similarly, the end of the “X” stretcher are also in poor condition and whether we will ignore this, cut out the wasted part or replace the whole part is yet to be decided.

 

 

 

 

Fortunately, the ends of the longitudinal parts of the chassis frame are in good condition – as are the Hooks. The small rectangular piece of steel visible on the lower part of the frame channel in this picture is the remains of the original Tail Light Bracket and has to be removed.

 

Next job, we will move to the front of the chassis and have a go at the Track Rod. After that, loosen all the remaining nuts and await the arrival of the “Heavy Gang” from Leicester and Oxford to get the axles, wheels and springs off!

 

 

[Roy Larkin]

 

The rear chassis cross member is badly corroded in the corners and we have decided to take this right out so that the steel can be “re-enforced” with new bits welded in – if that is appropriate –

 

 

 

The ASC workshops in France regularly reinforced chassis by welding in strengthening pieces, either as small sections or when the steel was available, the entire length of the chassis, or crossmember was plated. Steel was obtained from Base Depots when available or more usually sourced locally with the size dependent on what was available rather than the job it was required for. If, as was often the case, no new steel was available, then anything that could be made to fit from the several acres of damaged 'spares box' awaiting workshop time was used. It would therefore be entirely appropriate to reinforce with anything that fits and does the job. OK, I accept that 'looking nice' is more important for the rally field than the ASC needs but basically any repair/strengthening could be considered 'correct'. Often chassis were strengthened as a matter of course, especially with cars, to prevent what came to be regarded as the inevitable cracking and breaking.

[Minesweeper]

Most interesting, Roy - and thank you! Tony

[Great War truck]

Today, the Track Rod – or as Thornycroft describe it – “The Cross Tube connecting axle arms” had to come off. The usual fight with rusty nuts and bolts and again, heat and this time, a cutter blade in the angle grinder on the nuts did the trick.

 

 

 

 

Not unexpectedly, the ball joints are quite heavily rusted – but they are not deeply pitted as we have seen other ball joints, and perhaps they will polish up and be fit to use again............... We shall see.

 

I think that we may have another Track Rod somewhere which may be in better condition. It must be looked out!

 

Next job now is just to loosen all the nuts on the shackle pins and on the springs, ready for the “team” when we are all together. to get the last big bits off.

 

 

 

 

[Great War truck]

The job tackled today was the removal of the nuts on the King Pins. There was the usual problem of rust to deal with – especially around the locking split pins – but dealt with as usual with heat, Plus gas and persistence. The bottom parts of the two Thrust Bearings are firmly stuck and those will be dealt with tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

[David Herbert]

Is there supposed to be a cover over the top of the King pin to keep the grease in and the mud out ?

 

David

[Minesweeper]

Yes, they did have covers but not surprisingly, they were missing from the chassis when we obtained it. Something else to be made as I think it most unlikely that we will ever find originals! Tony

[.303fan]

Simply amazing, and i am surpriced that there are still spares out there.

Keep up the good work