Great War truck

The completed Mounting - now put to one side to await the completion of the other parts before final assembly. Tony is now addressing the final big casting - the main body of the pump. The casting is not very "clean" around the centre and he is trying to get as much of that muck as possible off it before machining it to try to save the tools. The gaps or spaces around the middle are quite small so this is not an easy exercise. He has cleaned up the outside "seam" on the casting left by the two parts of the pattern by "draw-filing" it.

The final holes have now been drilled in the Mounting - a 3/16" lubrication hole to join up with the machined slot inside the bore and tapped 1/4" BSF on the bottom for a threaded plug. Steve is making the screwed plug as he has a slitting saw attachment on his lathe and will be able to cut a clean screw-driver slot in the plug. The other hole is 1/2" and is simply a drain hole.

OK. The visibility argument related to keeping an eye on the ditch beside the road as opposed to oncoming traffic. A few more years and everything would be left hand drive. When did FWD go over to left hand drive?

Thats really interesting and would make sense. I guess that it was about at that time the US Army were looking to move over from RHD to LHD. I am not sure how much of an issue that was though as i have seen many photos of US Army Peerless, Pierce Arrow and locomobile (Riker) trucks which were still RHD even at the end of the war. The clutch was a Heleshaw. I wonder why they didnt like that? A bit too complicated and hard to change i suspect and quite different from their other trucks. The request for a different engine i find strange. Wisconsin were a well known and reliable brand and could meet the demand for the massive British orders that were coming in at that time. I am curious as to what they would have preferred. The cab over engine design results in an overly warm driver (great in Winter Wisconsin) and fuel evaporation (hence most photos of Model B's have their side covers removed), but does provide for a longer body. Moving that means a whole new design of truck, something that Walter Olen would have been reluctant to do at that stage. I would think that FWD didnt really need the order from the US Army as they could manufacture just for Britain alone and be unable to keep up with the demand. Therfore they had no inclination to agree to their requests. it certainly didnt seem to do the business any harm. fascinating stuff. Tim

And it's all coming together. Just three more castings to do!

he then offered the mounting up to the engine after the four fixing holes had been drilled - thankfully a perfect fit. Back to the Drill to put in the Lubrication hole from the engine to eventually join up with the groove inside the bore - final hole to be drilled - tomorrow - and then plugged.

Tony has had a busy day again. Cut the Oil Groove inside first of all - this is mainly 1/8" deep but there is a slight taper on the depth. To avoid chatter marks, he turned the lathe by hand taking no more than one thou cuts on each revolution. A long job! Before taking the casting out of the jig, he tried the casting with jig still attached to it in the hole in the engine for the drive. It was a very snug fit and he put the whole assembly back in the lathe and took off another thou with a bit of emery cloth. Result - perfect fit Then a case of finally marking out and drilling the holes for the fixings to the engine. (Fingers crossed at this stage that he has got them right............)

Sorry Brian cant help much. Seen a radio body on a Nash Quad, but that is about it.

Ok. No problem. Thats good enough for me.

Which catalog have you got? You say that FWD dug their heels in and refused to make changes to the FWD to standardise it. Can you elaborate on that more? What changes did they decline to make? Tim

i didnt know there were any there. Where did you hear this? You never know, Steve might find one yet. it would be a tragedy to know that one does still exist but having been on the ocaen floor for so long it would be beyond viable rescue.

John Payne? Was that the Model A?

Well that interesting article refers to the Militor and its deficencies, and then talks about and has photographs of the Coleman which is an equally interesting and unusual truck. Thanks for posting that link. I am not aware of any surviving Militors and would bet all of Jacks new hair that there are none left which is a great shame. However, it never ceases to amaze me how regularly interesting trucks turn up in barns and sheds across the globe. So, i look forward to being proved wrong. Tim

Thats really cool. Are they still in Ottos old workshop? I know their Model b gets an airing once a year. Is it the same with the other gems in the collection? Tim

Once the hole through has been drilled big enough to take the boring bar, then the hole is bored out to the finished diameter to take the Drive Shaft. The second picture shows the drive shaft in the hole - it turns beautifully in the bronze with no shake. The final picture shows the finished job with the circumferential lines scribed on the casting marking out the position of the securing bolts. One final job to de done on this setting before the casting can be taken from the lathe and that is to cut the internal Oil Groove.

Saw a very nice looking Kuble this afternoon on the A44 heading into Chipping Norton (Oxon).

Hi Jim Always pleased to have another person with an early truck interest to talk to and compare notes. Do you have any WW1 vehicles to play with in Ohio? Tim

Just North east of Swindon.

The National Trust have agreed to hold an open day at Coleshill on Sunday 4 July running from 10.00 to 5.00. Coleshill was the HQ of the Auxiliary Units the British Resistance Organisation. The Open Day will focus on the role of Coleshill during WW2 and there will be a range of displays, talks and walks during the day. The NT would like to have a number of BRITISH WW2 vehicles on display on the day and would welcome some MVT participation. This will be the first time they’ve done this so it’s a bit ‘toe jn the water’ for them. The Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team (CART) will be helping out by doing the Talks and Walks and some static displays of Aux Unit equipment and documentation. The intention is also to have some re-enactments simulating an Aux Unit attack on an enemy position. It is not intended for this to be a big event but if any of you would like to bring their British vehicles to this fairly local event and have a look at Coleshill site they’d be most welcome. More information can be found at: http://www.coleshillhouse.com/ Please let me know if you are interested. Thanks Tim

Tony has got on with Pump Mounting - all quite straight forward this time and the casting is good. He had previously turned the small end true - but over-size so that he could hold that in the chuck whilst working on the other end. Was able to support it with the revolving centre by counter-sinking the casting inside. With this set-up was able to machine both inside and outside faces at the end and also machine the "boss" to final dimensions. Here we have the completed "big" end of the casting The next job was to drill the three holes in the flange which will eventually be used to secure it to the Pump Body. They will eventually be opened up for 3/8" bolts. These were marked out by scribing a 4" diametric circle whilst the casting was still in the lathe - the three holes are 120 degrees apart and their positions were simply marked out with a divider. These are to be used initially to hold the casting in a jig for the other end of it to be worked on. It is essential that the casting be held truly in the lathe for the smaller end to be worked on - otherwise the holes for the shaft and mounting will not line up. Just holding it in the chuck would not be good enough as it would be difficult to get it turn totally accurately. So he found an old 3/8" thick steel disc in the Scrap Box - it already had a big hole in the middle and gripped this firmly in the 3-jaw chuck. The first job was to face it off to ensure that the face was square with the lathe. The hole in the centre of it was then opened up to 3" diameter to exactly match the newly turned boss on the big end of the casting. The casting was then pushed into this - the three holes from the casting were marked off on the jig - the casting was removed and the three holes were then drilled in the jig - whilst the jig was still in the chuck. The casting was then firmly secured to the jig with 1/4" nuts and bolts. It will be possible to support the end to be worked on with a centre in the tail stock whilst being initially worked on for outside diameter and whilst the face of the small bolting flange is taken down to final dimensions.

The machining of the water pump parts is going to be interesting and will keep Tony and Steve entertained for a long time. Tony started off with machining the hole for the gland nut spanner in the the water pump: He also put some green on the torque tube:

I keep intending to take the Jeep out in the snow, but am always a little scared of crashing into something. Quite hilly here in the Cotswolds and perhaps more scared of someone crashing in to me.

OHHH. That is awful! Tim

Okay. here is another one:

A bit more progress today: