Great War truck

Just what i thought. Now that the drive shaft is complete and painted, Steve decided to try fitting up the clutch linkage. First challenge was to find all the bits as they had been done so long ago. Father has already tried to make a second shaft as he had forgotten that he made a replacement some years ago! The parts were loosely assembled and, as expected, the levers were out of line. The pinch bolts were slackened off and the levers were knocked along. After some judicious filing everything fitted and the same was done for the pedal link. Finally, the spring was cut and the whole lot put together. After a couple of good kicks, the clutch let go and it all functions. The pedal is, however, extremely heavy with a very short stroke which doesn't bode well for ease of driving. Time will tell. The last job of the day was to connect the transmission brake rod (top of last pic) so we now have two functioning pedals.

Thats interesting and no offence taken. I love these little snippets of information. Do you think the same regulations would have applied for lorries built to the subsidy scheme specifications but directly for the WD as opposed to the owner operators? For those repaired at the MT parks at Rouen (or wherever) i can not imagine that they would have been too worried about colours, but to just get the lorry back into action. I will look through my photos now to see if i can identify a discernable difference in colours. Tim

Come on Roy, we need to know! Anyway, the exhaust is now all together:

crikey, that looks interesting. The rad certainly looks Peugeotish, but it has a number of differences. Very interesting, i will have to do some more research. Cel - you are the expert, what do you think. Tim

The matter of spring lubrication appears to have attracted some disagreement. I can find no reference to the need to do it in the FWD manual, drivers orders or the very comprehensive ASC tome that i have. I will keep looking through the paperwork that i have but i really dont think it was done on these early military trucks. Light blue touch paper and retire.......................... Tim

The exhaust pipe being fitted: The final bits of machining to the Exhaust system completed today - and it all now awaits final assembly. The "elbow" fits onto the front of the silencer - and the exhaust pipe has to be connected to it. There was not enough metal in the "elbow" to take the outside diameter of the pipe so a hollow plug has been machined up which fit into the pipe and into the elbow. It has not been pushed right into the pipe as it would be difficult to get it out at this stage. The three items will be either riveted or screwed together. The Exhaust should be on the lorry and completed before the week is over.

This Liberty b truck resides in Canada and the owner is thinking of selling it. He says the engine is good, but the tires need replacement. If nothing else it is great to see an unrestored but running WW1 truck.

Thanks for your positive comments. It is great to be able to show the whole restoration process rather than just tuck the photos away in an album. As we go along we are all learning a great deal and many thanks for all of your comments and suggestions. A little while back, we realised that there was a potential foul condition between the front axle and the front edge of the sump, should the lorry hit a severe bump at speed. This could wreck the sump so we felt that we really had to do something about it. The solution was to move the axle forward on its springs by 3/4" to clear the sump by a nominal 1/2". This makes the king pins lean back slightly more and requires the drag link to be extended but we felt that the increased self-centring effect would be OK. First step was to mark a line on the spring to show where we wanted the axle to sit. Then we undid the clamping bolts and tried to spread the leaves like a pack of cards by thumping the ends of each. This was unsuccessful as we soon remembered that the leaves are interlocked by having a dimple pressed into each. The only way around this was to cut a new dimple in the top leaf using a Dremel pencil grinder and also in the spring seat. Once these were done, the springs were reassembled and bolted up against the marked lines. The result has been successful and we now have our clearance. It remains only to touch up the paint which has, unfortunately, taken a bit of a battering.

Copper pipe silver-soldered to the nipples and final assembly installed.

These pictures show tha nuts and nipples made up - together with the one original bronze part and the other one made up to suit the ball joint. Threads were either 3/8" BSP or 7/8" BSF. Each assembly screwed for a trial fit into their eventual homes before the pipe was attached.

The big ball joint on the prop shaft is lubricated "remotely" from an Oil Filler located on the outside of the off-side shassis member and is connected to the ball joint by a pipe. We were fortunate that an oil filler remained on one of several chassis' that we acquired, but we were puzzled when we first looked at it and before we were very far into the restoration as the "filler" had a spacer inserted between itself and the chassis to effectively lower it - and a corresponding extension was fitted to the filler hole to return it to what appeared to be the original intended height. It was only when we came to fit the brake rods that it was apparent why this had been done as the brake rod wanted to run through the exact intended position of the filler without the spacer there! Part of the original bronze union remained in the filler casting, and we were therefore obliged to make a corresponding mounting to fit into the ball joint, together with nuts and nipples for both ends of the pipe that would join them.

Wonderful story. No stopping you now! So, this Napier. Was this sold in Ireland or is it one of the few this side of the Irish Sea?

With everyone in Devon over the weekend, it was chance to start catching up with one or two outstanding jobs. Regular followers of this restoration may remember that after we fitted the Universal Coupling, a disparity was apparent in the height of the engine and the gearbox. The first photo (first fitting) shows a "slope" between those two - where ideally, they should be in line. Raising blocks, 1/4" thick had to be inserted under the engine feet to bring the two items into line and the other two photos show how this was corrected.

I think Republics were also made under licence in Sweden following the end of the war. I know nothing else about that other one, but think it quite likely that it is a civilian one in military disguise. Another Republic was advertised for sale on E Bay a while back in US Air Service scheme. Anyway, here are the ones that this thread started off about: They appear to be very restorable.

You may remember this GMC with a diesel Nissan engine. It came from up North and i was wondering whether anybody recognises it as possibly the one owned by "angry Mitch" (remember him?).

Runflat also found this. Getting close now. http://cgi.ebay.nl/DAAG-RATINGEN-DUSSELDORF-LKW-REICHSPOST-SARRASANI-/160420207836

Looks nice. Which one is that?

Definitely a DAAG and not a DAAF. No more photos at the moment. Almost certainly the same one that was in the Automobile. Will keep you updated if anything else comes to the fore. Tim

Hi Mark Sorry i missed you. I was hanging out with two beautiful girls all weekend which curtailed my opportunity to talk to friends. Actually, the girls were my daughters and i had them both as my wife was working. They seemed to survive the camping experience though and really enjoyed it all. I am trying to break them in to the whole military vehicle collecting hobby. Seems to be going well so far. A good weekend, but a little bit too warm for me. Tim

i cant answer your question, but great box though.

Get you into trouble Alan? Perish the thought. It probably is the same truck, and it is almost cetainly a DAAG and not a DAAF. You say that the chassis has the remains of seperate drive shafts to each rear wheel. I can not see that, although it does look like it has locations for Jackshafts so i would think that it was chain drive. is the basis for your argument that it is not military because it appears to fit the description of the 1925 coach?

Well this is a Republic: Only 200 3 1/2 ton Republics were purchased by the US Army during WW1 and none of those went overseas. Republic also built Liberty trucks - 967 by the wars end.

I was told DAAF but DAAG seems more likely. Might have been slip of the fingers on the keyboard there. The chassis needs a new home or it might get chopped. Not sure if this was the one mentioned in Automobile. It could well have been. Do you have a scan of it?

Steve was down in Devon over the weekend to take the Autocar into Honiton in support of "Honiton Armed Forces Day". He took the opportunity whilst he was down to finally fit the Water Pump to the engine.