Great War truck

What have we got here then? Thanks Tim

That looks great Ian. As for the c/s bolts, oh hang on, look at the time. Got to go! Tim

There was not a Timing Pointer remaining on either of the engines when we got them but we shall require it when we want to set our engine up. We found a picture of one within our photograph collection on another Thorny engine and this coupled with a tiny picture of one in the Parts Book has given us sufficient information to dimension it and sketch one out. A piece of 14 Gauge mild steel found in the Scrap Box provided the material – the Arrow was cut out from this and bent up. The Arrow is actually bolted down under the retaining nuts of the front cylinder block but as this not yet fitted, there has been some guess work on the amount of the bends put in it – these may well have to be adjusted when the Block is finally fitted and bolted down.

Finally, it remained only to secure the shorter arms to the shaft. These were done by first cross-drilling and then reaming using a taper pin reamer in a tap wrench before knocking in the taper pins. All of these components must be assembled in-situ so the pins have been left over-length for the time being. Hopefully, the whole mechanism can be assembled the next time we have a get-together.

Whilst Father has been making up new governor weights, Steve has been working on the the other end of the mechanism. The governor shaft is in the bottom left of the picture, below the inlet camshaft position. As you can see, it is pretty rough and the two zinc arms which connect with the governor sleeve on the camshaft have broken off with only their bases remaining. Steve measured what remained and then, after a look at the photo in the parts book, made up some replacements. These were a simple brazing and filing exercise. The half engine yielded a governor shaft with a corroded but measurable lever on the end. After sketching it up, Steve brazed up a blank from which to make a replacement. Interestingly, the lever is fixed to the shaft using a tapered cotter pin so two intersecting holes were required. Once the first had been drilled, Steve pressed a pin into the hole to support the drill whilst the second was done. This worked well and the blank was roughed out. Some effort with a file to make the arm look like the original forging and that part was done.

Yes, we noticed the abscence of Jack. Didnt feel quite right without him being there. So to make myself feel better i had to take the pee out of complete strangers instead. Not quite so many people dressed up in uniform this year. At least one chap wandering around dressed like a member of the Taliban. He caught some funny looks.

We have a tarpaulin just like that one on the Matador.

A few weeks ago, Steve used his press to remove the bearings from the magneto drive shaft as our puller was not big enough. They eventually came off with a bang and the shaft was pressed through. After a good clean up of the shaft, he has now fitted the replacements, followed by the oil return bushes which are secured with a taper pin. The press really made the job easy and no damage or bruises resulted. The shaft is now bagged up ready to refit once the camshafts are in.

Thanks Ian. Actually, you never know what you might find. Because i have been going to Stoneleigh for 20 years and never once found a piece of GWT the odds must surely be working in my favour. Every year i dont find something must improve the chance of finding something even more special next year so i have to keep going. Anyway, it was good to see you both and it was entertaining to watch small John haggle unsuccesfully over the WOT manual before finally paying the asking price. A grand day out. Tim

No. But i did find a nice bag and met lots of people i know, which was nice.

Good stuff. Pleased to see that they are at Hendon. They will make a nice addition to the collection. Good luck with restoring them. Are you missing any major components which you would like us to keep our eyes open for?

Something that we have not been able to get to for a while was the clutch side of the fly wheel – as the flywheel has been standing on the ground with the crank shaft still attached to it. Now that assembly is back in the crank case, it has given us access to the front of the fly wheel to do some work on it. It was still quite heavily rusted as it has not been touched since we have had it – but a good wire brushing has cleaned it up quite nicely. The original main studs to take the clutch were heavily rusted and bent and replacements for those were made up some time ago during some spare minutes and these can now be fitted. Cleaning up has also revealed the broken off remains of the two 3/8” studs which are there to stabilise the clamps for the clutch springs. These were just a simple peg with a screw driver top and are simple to replace – once the remains of the two old ones were removed! The first two of these pictures show one of the main studs before and after fitting to the flywheel. The third picture shows one of the 3/8” pegs whilst the fourth picture shows the whole item.

Just received "A history of motor vehicle registration in the United Kingdom". I cant wait to start this one. Tim

Yes, i heard you had acquired those. Go on then, post some photos and we can see what you have taken on. Tim

Here is one of them:

The Governor parts are now fitted and are moving and sliding easily. The first two pictures show them at each extent of their range – whilst the third picture shows the reverse side .

and Gary Indiana. Quite amazing. Must check that one on 28DL as i can probably understand the lingo better.

This one looks similar to the set of Skyfall. http://goroda-prizraki.narod.ru/gankadzhima.html

The final job then was to silver solder the weight with its attached web to the pivot cylinder to complete it. And then of course, the completed items had to be offered up to the cam shaft to see if they fit! They proved to be just a little firm and will want some gentle easing in!

Webs were cut from 1/8” steel to go between the arms, and an 1/8” slot was milled in the steel cylinder holding the pivot pin to take and hold the base of the web firmly in its place and to provide further inter-locking. A similar 1/8” slot was milled at the same time at 90 degrees to the other slot to take a similar web to hold and locate the web that will be inserted later between the pivot cylinder and the weight. The first part of the assembly was silver soldered together at this stage – just then leaving the second web and weight to be soldered in later. The bottom web was then cut out and firstly silver soldered to the weight in which a another 1/8” slot had been milled to take it.

We eventually decided that the new Governor would be made out of steel – bronze was considered but steel is readily available and is much cheaper! These four pictures are all quite self-explanatory and show some of the parts of the body being shaped and the method. The parts will be inter-locking as far as possible, just to ensure that silver-soldered joints do not have to take all the strain. The original “Rollers” are used again but this time, they would run in bronze bushes.

In a previous posting, we reported that we would be faced with making a new Governor – of the two that we had, the cleaner of the two was broken in several places whilst the second one was heavily corroded. Initially, we could not decided how the originals were made but eventually we decided that they had been die-cast in zinc and that in no way could they be repaired. A new one was required which would have to be fabricated. The broken parts were recovered and all the necessary dimensions were obtained from these.

It has been snowing for about 12 hours in the Cotswolds and there is about 8" on the ground. It seems to have stopped for a bit, but due to start again later on. I could have gone to work today but drivers are stuck on the hills either side of me so i didnt go out. I knew there was a reason why i didnt buy a 4X4. My definition of panic buying: The wife told me to go out and buy milk and bread. None left! I panicked and bought wine for her, cider for me and ice cream for the kids instead. Problem solved.

Now that the burried Spitfire fairytale is out of the way does anybody know anything about destroyed Shermans and Cromwells in Palestine. i was given a pile of Windscreen back issues and there was an interesting letter in it: "I served in 6th Airborne division and one of the tasks allotted to my unit 1 A/B Sqn RE was the destruction of shermans, Cromwells and AFV's of all types during the evacuation from Palestine in 1948. We tipped the vehicles in to a deep ravine near Athlit, placed cutting charges on turrets and bodies and blew them, then at the end we poured 5,000 gallons of flame thrower liquid, lit the fuse and ran very fast. 612 AFV's altogether". Ken Treggo What chance that anything still remains? Tim

No buried Spitfires in Burma http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21074699 Well that explains that then. Now we can all get back to our normal lives and carry on looking for buried Jeeps. Tim