Great War truck

The whole lot was passed to Adrian who very kindly welded them together. Whilst discussing the job, Steve commented that hadn’t worked out how to get the old white metal from the bearing and out of the stuffing box. ‘Leave it to me!’ says Adrian and proceeds to melt it out using oxy-acetylene. Steve was very concerned about cracking the iron but it became no more than hand hot due to Adrian’s care in only warming the white metal. You certainly find out who your friends are in this hobby!

So what was fake with the Auburn RSO? Someone just paid a lot of money for that and i am sure they would be interested?

Then Steve cut a plate to hold the two bits together.

Father then took them to the local foundry where the spigot was cast in grey iron. The mould boxes unfortunately, misaligned but it was not serious and there was plenty of metal to cut the casting back. Then came the task of fitting the spigot to the main casting. Firstly, the casting was dressed back to give some reasonable edges with which to mate.

Next came the core box. This was made by laminating MDF and once again cutting in half, making up the lost material with plywood. To aid the removal of the core and give strength to the final casting, fillets were added to the inside of the core box using ‘fillet leathers’ simply glued in. Steve was extremely fortunate in that whilst wandering a disused part of the factory where he worked, he found abandoned in a cupboard, a box of fillet leathers. The works foundry and pattern shop were long gone and it seemed such a shame to waste them! The pattern and core box were then painted using Bondaprime and rubbed back to give a smooth surface. This is really a zinc anti-rust primer but it soaks into the MDF very well, hardening the surface and allowing the second coat to be rubbed back to a very smooth, matt finish.

I totally agree with that. it looks to be a much better venue that the hop farm. I see that photos of Kitten are being used in the web advertising. I didnt recognise her with her clothes on.

After the usual fight, the water pump was dismantled and the inlet casting revealed. As you can see, it proved to be quite a complex shape so Steve sought advice about how to put the pattern together. One of his pals, Adrian, suggested that rather than replace the whole casting, he simply make up the spigot and he (Adrian) would weld it on for him. Well that made the job a lot easier so Steve set about making up the pattern. After making up the plug, he put it through the bandsaw to split it. The material lost due to the cut was replaced by sticking on layers of 1/32” plywood and then dressing to shape.

When we took the engine apart, it was evident that a water inlet to the pump had been broken off. The first task sorting this problem was to identify what it should look like. A complete original can be seen in this photo of the Sandy Bay charabanc engine and the Carleton Colville lorry. Steve also had the great good fortune to be able to visit the owner of an Alldays and Onions tractor into which had been installed a Thornycroft engine and take a couple of close-ups.

Ah yes of course. Royal Carriage Department, i should have made the connection. Thanks Clive. Tim

Thanks Clive The Ordnance Corps became the Royal Ordnance Corps in 1918. So does that suggest a similar change of name from Army Ordnance Depot to Royal Ordnance Depot at the same time. Thanks Tim

Loads of fun things up for disposal on their latest list. 17pdr barrell anybody? Not that we have any chance of course. http://www.iwm.org.uk/sites/default/files/public-document/OrdnanceDisposalList.pdf

"ROD" or "AOD" in 1915?

Oh hang on. After their move to London they were described as: 1914 Manufacturing silversmiths, electroplaters, glass cutters, gilders, oak workers etc So possibly just the box manufacturers? Is the box made of Oak Ian? What does it smell like?

Could JG&S be John Grinsell and Sons "Bronze article manufacturers" from Birmingham. There, that narrows it down a bit. It contained an article made of bronze made in Birmingham

What year did the term "Royal Ordnance Depot" come in as i thought it was "Army Ordnance Depot" with Royal being adopted from 1918. I might be wrong, but someone here will know for sure? Clive, have you got a moment please?

Is that ROD on the bottom. "Railway Operation Department". Tim

Surely the Black Hills of South Dakota re more than 40 miles SW of Chicago?

Something else we tried to do last weekend was to fit the inlet camshaft. Firstly, Steve's new governor bits were installed. . Unfortunately, it rapidly became apparent that the camshaft was not going to go so it was pulled out and the governor bits were inspected. Steve had forgotten that the pivot points on the yoke were below centreline so he had made the actuating arms too long. He was not happy! He has spent today cutting them back and then silver soldering on some new ends. In order to keep them in line, he machined the ends on a piece of bar but did not cut it through until after it had been soldered. This worked well and the shaft is ready for the next try.

Ian Thats incredibly kind of you. Yes please and many thanks. Tim

Ian, what an amazing find. I was pretty sure they were 1950's boxes. it just goes to show how little i know on these things. Quite incredible that they have survived in such good condition. Lucky B****r. Tim

These four pictures show the NZ shaft with the sound “dog” and the rubber ring removed. The NZ shaft is out and has been offered up to the correct carrier – everything now wants a good clean and de-rusting

One of the things that we shall require when the engine is ready to fire up is a Starting Handle! Included with the engine which we obtained from NZ some years ago was a Starting Handle shaft – but no actual handle with it – but looking at that shaft now with its fittings, it is not like the one illustrated in the Thorny J Parts Book that we have! There is a drum about 6 or 7 inches in diameter adjacent to the dog which has a thick rubber coat on it and now thinking about that, could it be for a friction drive for an electric starter? It could be original Thornycroft – but for a later perhaps post-war “J”. We have just discovered today that the top water manifold that came with the whole engine is not in fact for a war-time “J” but appears to be designed for a low-level radiator “J” – which was post war! So do we have an engine from a later Thorny with the low level radiator? Otherwise, the engines are the same, but we are faced now with either cutting that manifold and inserting another section and welding it up – or more pattern making for a completely new part! This starting handle shaft we have had in our possession for many years but the “dog” has completely corroded away. The carrier for it which bolts up under the front stretcher is sound so that can be used again. Fortunately, the shaft in the wrong NZ one mentioned earlier but with a sound “dog” is identical in all measurements except it is just slightly longer overall, so the plan would be to get that out – it is quite corroded in and use that with the carrier from the other one. Then it would just mean making a new handle!

Thanks. It was suggested that it was a Commer, but of an unknown type. I dont think its future looks that promising. Tim

We had a trip to Devon at the weekend and thought we would have a look at the valve timing. As mentioned before, the gears are a matched set from the same engine. However, we didn’t think to check that the keyway in the crank pinion was in the same place as that in the original one, so the camshaft could be way out! Unfortunately, we don’t have a timing chart for the Thorny but the one for the Dennis shows that the exhaust valves should start to lift at 49° before bottom dead centre. To check this, we first fitted Father’s nice new timing pointer. We then identified TDC by clamping a flat strip to the side of the crank and setting the angle using a square. This position was marked on the flywheel with a felt pen. Finally, we placed a clock gauge on top of one of the push rods to see when it began to move. Steve slowly turned the flywheel to see what happened. The valve will begin to lift once the tappet clearance is taken up so this had to be allowed for. The manual states that ‘the tappets are adjustable and great care must be taken to set the correct gap’. However, it doesn’t say what the gap should be! The instruction plate on the end of the tank says that it should be ‘the thickness of a good quality visiting card’ but Captain S Bramley-Moore M.C writes in Motors in a Nutshell. that it should be ‘the thickness of the flap of a gummed manilla envelope’. We assumed a figure of 0.015” as that is the dimension specified for the Dennis. The tappet began to lift and at 0.015”, we stopped and checked the angle. It was 42° before BDC which was a bit later than we had hoped. Captain Bramley Moore states in his book that the average angle of the fifteen makes of lorry he has looked at is 47° so we stopped the flywheel at that position to see how far the push rod had lifted. It was 0.012”. Now we would like some opinions please. This feels a little tight for a tappet clearance so what is the concensus please? Can we run safely with a clearance of 0.012”, set when hot? The timing pinion has 29 teeth so we can only increment the camshafts in a little over 12° steps. Any finer adjustment would require my removing the pinion and cutting a new keyway at a carefully calculated location. At the moment, our feeling is just to try it. Does anyone have any strong views please?

The valves have arrived, from G & S valves of Godalming. They fit beautifully and we are very pleased. One more step forward!