Great War truck

I think this was mentioned in the forum before, but there was a problem with Thorny back axles breaking during the war and JI Thornycroft was sent out to come up with a measure to strengthen them. Roy can probably add more to this.

Job done!

Once the Tie-bar was aimed in the right direction with the “loose” end just going into its housing, it had to be centred up and tapped or levered into its final resting position so that it was in the centre of the axle.

The tie-bar mentioned on pages 188 and 189 has now been painted and fitted to the Back Axle. It is identical in overall length to the original and this overall length is greater than the distance between the facing ends of the two fixture points on the axle - by design – so it has to be “sprung” in. The tie bar has already been bent into its finished shape but to make the “springing” manageable for one man, a short length of round stock was placed under the centre of the tie bar on top of the centre of the inverted axle and the first end of the tie-bar inserted but right through its final position. The other “floating” end of the tie bar was pressed down by hand until it roughly faced its final fixing point and then tapped with a mallet until it met with the hole where it had to go.

There is a small photo of it in this Months CMV. Does anybody have any more pictures? Thanks Tim

The final two pictures show the completed job and with a trial bolt inserted to test the clearances.

Steve called in briefly at Devon HQ on his way down to Cornwall and was keen to try the Tool that he had previously made to form the flat faces for the Bolt Heads, which hold the Brake Drums to the wheels, by counter-boring. The construction of the tool was described previously on page 183 of this “blog”. The tool was held in an ordinary electric hand drill, running at a slow speed to do the job, and worked perfectly. Perhaps just as importantly with so many of these holes to be counter-bored, the tool retained its cutting edge and showed no signs of being blunted!

Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story!

Compare with the old one! Job done!

With very significant help from David from over the Border, the nuts and bolts were removed one at a time and replaced with the 5/16” snap head rivets which were peened over cold.

A new strip of 2” x 1/4” steel was cut to length for the new strap – the ends of it were inserted into the original end forgings, clamped up and drilled through 5/16” for new 5/16” rivets. Temporary nuts and bolts were used to hold it all together prior to riveting. The Tie-bar has a bend in the middle and this was formed by squeezing in it the vice. It may have to be adjusted but initially, it looks fine.

The old tie bar was first of all sand-blasted so that we could see what we had there and also to make it more pleasant for handling. The five 5/16” iron rivets each end were removed by drilling, filing and hammering to release the forged threaded ends and this was completed quite quickly and easily – a little surprising really where it had spent so many years in the open. We decided that we could use the original ends again.

There are several bits and pieces associated with the Back Axle assembly and a minor one to be dealt with is the Tie Bar underneath it. The original was still in situ on the Salisbury Plain Axle but it was very heavily corroded. The actual steel strap between the forged and threaded ends was originally 2” x 1/4” but that had become paper-thin in places. A lot of the rust on and around it had to be chipped away and then some heat on the securing nuts enabled us to get them off. The actual steel strap was beyond redemption but the ends looked as if they could be used again.

There was a photo of it in W&T taken about 30 years ago being driven in to the basement. I wonder why they couldn't drive it out.

The extra pair of hands from Scotland and the finished job!

The 1/4” holes in the linings need to be counter-bored to about 2/3 of their thickness to accommodate the heads of the rivets and to ensure that the rivet heads remain clear of the brake drums. We do not have a 1/2” counter-bore with a 1/4” pilot so we improvised by locating the hole with a piece of 1/4” steel and then used a 1/2” end mill with a piece of masking tape around it to indicate the depth required and counter-bored that way, ensuring that the pad was not moved between the two operations

Things have been a little slower of late – Steve has been very involved with the construction of his new “Motor House” which is to permanently house the Dennis whilst certain other distractions have slowed up Tony and Tim. Nevertheless, some work has been going on – Tony has been preparing the Brake Pads for final riveting to the shoes but has been waiting until today for the availability of the extra pair of hands to complete the actual riveting! Very fortunately, he was visited by a member of this Forum today, from “over the Border” who wanted to see what was going on here and he was only too pleased to join in to help and to provide the extra pair of hands that were needed. The pads were first of all clamped to the shoes and then drilled through 1/4” from the original rivet holes and then temporarily bolted on at this stage.

Yes, I believe so. In the Telegraph now. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11716177/Second-World-War-tank-and-anti-aircraft-gun-found-hidden-in-basement-of-villa-in-Germany.html No tracks now?

Good guess. It was in Colorado and is still for sale: http://unitedcarexchange.com/Buy-Sell-UsedCar/1917-Fwd-Military%20Truck-82772305298#.VYMPBFK_b6g $19,500 to secure. Comes from a non smoking household apparently.

The Dennis (along with at least 9 other WW1 vehicles) will be appearing at the Shuttleworth collection on Sunday 5th July. Hopefully if everybody arrives the following should be there: AEC Y Type X 2 Hallford Dennis Liberty B Nash Quad Fiat 15 TER LGOC B Type Crossley Tender Albion A10 More information available here: http://www.shuttleworth.org/events/militaryww1/ Should be a good turnout. We will be driving the Dennis down from its current storage which is fairly local. The Dennis will soon be moving further up country soon so it is unlikely to come this far South again for a while.

I have found a reference to the US Army using "Foden Thresh" and "Foden Temesk". Is "Temesk" another form of disinfector or is it something different altogether. Tim

A bit grey today. I will finish loading the Jeep and we will be on our way.

Built as a recruiting station for the US Navy.

Another FWD turns up. Looks like it has an Ordnance repair shop body.

The US Army did use Internationals but not that many. I have seen a photo of one but that was in the USA. Interesting if it is 1917.