Great War truck

This is the makers plate from the Bristol based ship builder Charles Hill and Sons for the frigate HMS Burghead Bay. Laid down on 23 September 1944 she was launched 3 March 1945. Decommissioned in 1958 she was sold to Portugal in 1959 and scrapped in 1971. How the makers plate got back to Cornwall is not known. Perhaps it was removed when it was sold to Portugal? Anyway, what makes this interesting to us is that it was recently acquired by Tony. His Father (my grandfather) was employed by Charles Hill and sons building Bay class frigates at that time so would undoubtedly have worked on this ship. A wonderful memento for us to have.

The next piece to remove was the end bearing and this was simply levered out with a pair of screwdrivers. Finally, the gland locking screw was taken out. This was done using heat and an impact screwdriver which is a most wonderful tool. How did we ever manage without one? A quick clean up with a nylon brush in the pistol drill and the casting is ready for painting which Father will do ready for the grand Christmas final assembly of the engine.

Nothing moved so he tried the pulley. This did move with added hammer blows so he went back to the end bearing, this time with heat. The clamp bent again so he decided to cut the bearing out with the pencil grinder. That got it but it took ages! Then it was back to the pulley. This time it moved a bit but stuck. Any amount of adjustment and tapping would not cause it to move and it took him a long time to remember that the pulley almost certainly had a key and the collar was pushing on the end of it! A quick look confirmed this and he rotated the collar to clear the key with instant success. Fortunately, only the key was damaged but it does go to show what can happen when you don’t think the job right through.

You may remember that when we took the pump apart, the fan bearing carrier, now known as ‘the onion’ was pretty moth eaten around the base and Steve started to make the patterns for a new one. We were then fortunate to pick up another water pump complete with fan and ‘onion’ at the Banfield auction in Kent a few months ago. This pump assembly was in excellent order but, of course, we had already fixed the one we had! We decided to use the original one but transplant the much better ‘onion’ to it. Dismantling commenced with the fan coming off quite easily followed by the fan carrier with a little persuasion. The onion is secured with a ring of nuts and studs and these too came apart although one did shear off. The onion itself was stuck, though but some gentle heat freed it up from its flange. Only the end bearing remained and this just would not give in to heat and gentle persuasion so Steve decided to make up a special puller. He started with an old G-clamp acquired from a stall at a show and modified the end by welding. (His welding still doesn’t get any better!). Then he made up a split collar to go around the shaft to give the clamp something to push against.

Well done. Super stuff.

Many Welbikes get to Mexico?

Great news! So, we can get out s*** together occasionally and save something rather than scrap it.

Steve has been in Devon for a show but also managed to find a little time to work on the lorry. He fitted the breather and timing arrow before grinding in the spark plug plugs. He then secured them using the new caps made by Father some time back, treating them with graphite grease before screwing them home. Finally, he cut new exhaust and inlet manifold gaskets ready for the next time. All more progress.

I am sure you are right. It must be the same person as his advertising indicates that he undertakes commercial vehicle repairs and that is only a few miles away from where it was photographed. Anyway, pleased to see it has been restored.

Does anybody know anything about this Austin twin shaft which was photographed by our friend Adrian up in Lincolnshire. As you can see it has shaft drive, with two shafts running to the rear wheels. Used by the British (mostly Royal Navy), Americans and Russians. Overly complicated and with reliability issues. Still, it looks nice. I know of one owned by a Paul Englemann and have seen photographs of an unrestored chassis. I have also seen an advert at Beaulieu some years ago looking for bits of one. Anybody know the story behind this one? Anybody who says it is currently owned by TG Pine will get a slap.

Back on Page 139, we mentioned that we were pondering over the poor condition of the Brake Drums on the Back Wheels – we have two sets of Back Wheels and in each case, we thought that the original drums on each set were really beyond recovery. Eventually we decided to have fresh ones cast – so that would entail more pattern making. At this stage, our friend Mark H – the skilled woodworker dropped by and joined in on the discussion – and then very kindly offered to do all the “donkey work” for us in making the patterns – an offer which we were very pleased to accept! The bolting flange is about 26” in diameter – Mark’s method of construction entailed laser cutting the bolting flange from MDF – a very precise an easy way of obtaining that and then bending up and laminating the actual Brake Ring from layers of 2mm ply! He has also managed to machine a slight taper on the brake ring after its assembly for the “Draw” – but I am not sure if it will be quite enough. In his thoughtfulness, Mark has also given us another laser-cut ring and a whole lot of the 2mm ply, should we wish to fiddle with the pattern further before its final completion and preparation for the Foundry.

Steve has been doing a bit of turning again, this time by making part of the brake tensioners. The rear brakes are operated by rods from the handbrake lever. The rods have left and right hand threads on the ends so that they can be rotated to adjust their length. Rather than have a locknut on the end to prevent them from unscrewing, they have little weights brazed on which hang down stopping them from rotating. Our original was extremely corroded so Steve has made some new ones. They are just simple turnings from steel and will be silver soldered on in due course. The head was made from a pin for a hydraulic cylinder, the tube from a redundant miniature railway axle and the centre rod from an old display stand. We believe in recycling!

Adrian re-set the tool to prevent the bottom edge from fouling the bore and Steve set to and bored the wheel out to 2.870”. As he was hand-feeding the lathe and it was a long overhang for the tool, he was not brave enough to try to remove the last 0.005” and left it at that. As you can see, it almost cleaned the bore out completely with only a tiny patch untouched so they left it at that and lifted the wheel down. That was by far the biggest machine Steve has ever used and it was nerve wracking to say the least. However, success was achieved and we are all very pleased thanks entirely to our good friend Adrian. Thanks Adrian!

Steve is inclined to treat this sort of thing very gingerly with the result that the tool chatters. Adrian said to wind it more quickly but it is very difficult to change the habit of a lifetime! Anyway, after fifteen minutes of machining, success was achieved. Interestingly, the casting has some porosity but this will cause no problems. On measuring, the bore proved to be 2.875”, exactly 2 7/8”, completely by luck! The wheel was taken down and the second one put up following the same routine. Whilst the rim was true, on starting the lathe, it became obvious that they bore was eccentric. Investigation showed this to be about 0.050” off-centre which meant that one side had to have 0.1” removed before the tool would begin to touch the other side. Steve was concerned about the wall thickness of the casting until Adrian saved the day again with an ultrasonic thickness meter. This showed a thickness in excess of 14mm.

Thanks.

It has often been said that we couldn’t do this hobby without our friends and this has been shown once again. When we started preparing the new front wheels that we had obtained from Shildon (page 130) we noticed that the bores had become noticeably bell-mouthed. The bores are the bearing surfaces so if we did nothing about them, then the wheels would wobble. The fix was quite simple in that they just needed skimming out oversize and new bronze bushes making to suit but they are 720mm dia and weigh a good hundredweight each so to find someone with a lathe of this capacity who was prepared to take the job on became quite a challenge. Steve was at the railway one day and mentioned the problem to our good friend Adrian who simply said ‘Come and use mine!’ Steve has just taken him up on this very generous offer and this is the result. This is the lathe, a Schofield and Oldfield of 12 3/8” centre height with a gap bed and a faceplate with bolt-on jaws. It probably dates from the 1950-1960s era but Adrian knows nothing of its history. Steve reversed the jaws and then they rolled the wheel up onto the bed before manhandling it into the jaws and nipping them up. Then they checked it with a DTI and found that it was only 0.1” eccentric at the first try! . By adjusting the jaws, the full needle deflection was reduced to 0.01” Adrian then leaned on the jaws to make sure that the wheel really was secure as throwing the job out on a machine this size could be fatal. Steve set a nice new carbide tipped boring tool in the toolpost and off they went at 83rpm.

Good point. Interesting how the French market maintains many more very good magazines without a problem. Greater interest in MV's in France than in the UK or have forums like this replaced the magazines? I rate Windscreen very highly and that is moving to six publications a year now.

The final MMI came today. A very sad day. I would have though that the market could support two UK MV mags, but I guess not. Next Month MMI and CMV will have merged. I will be interested to see what format the new publication will be in.

Just seen an ammunition body for one of those sell on E Bay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ebaymotors/1918-Nash-Quad-Heil-Ammunition-Truck-Body-WWI-/111471877363?orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p4340.l2557&nma=true&si=6WAhTFpGWYeNYED+80sa+ecH4iM=&forcev4exp=true I see that they fixed it on to a wooden cart chassis. Pity the poor horse that had to tow that. Does not in too bad shape. Nice to see the data plate is still on it.

He takes cheques? That is a very trusting Frenchman. Worth getting a spare rad. They don't turn up very often. I presume it is the same model? How much were the lamps?

Even with this provenance, is it worth this figure? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Willys-JEEP1-5-HP-BROWN-LEATHER-WILLYS-JEEP-/251656229050?forcerrptr=true&hash=item3a97e150ba&item=251656229050&pt=US_Cars_Trucks

I see Jeep blocks for restoration coming up for sale occasionally but they all seem to be without crank shafts. Are they difficult to get or expensive? Anybody know? Thanks

One of the few Peerless trucks in the UK recently came up for sale in the estate of Michael Banfield. It sold for about £46,000 and has a new home in Ireland. It was rebuilt in the 1960’s and they made a new radiator and bonnet for it. Both are a bit of an odd shape giving a strange appearance to the truck. Anyway, it is quite a handsome truck and very shiny. Worth a few photos. Data plate. Very low chassis number, but gives the date as 1915. Rebuild plate from Slough: Peerless plate on the rear chassis member suggesting this is an early chassis: Post war metal rear wheels: Magneto switch. Not the original one I think, it should be a K&N. Funny radiator: Oil gauge (we need one of these) Petrol tap: Front wheels:

Nice photos. More information on their blog here: http://blog.ltmuseum.co.uk/category/battle-bus/

No, but I received them from Rob Langham who was there and I am sure he wont mind me posting them: A shame Thornycroft is spelt with an E: This was the one restored by Stephen Pettifer many ears ago and now in different livery. I understand that the front axle is slightly bent from when he hit something.