Great War truck

This is the coupling for the Magneto – before and after cleaning. We shall have to make a new leather part of the assembly.

are now all finished and ready to fit!

A change is as good as a rest. Go on, give it a go. It will be great i am sure. Mind you i took the Jeep to an MV show once and i was the only one there and i still had a great time (and no i was not there on the wrong day, everyone else had gone out on a road run). No doubt Rex is aware that the site is smaller, but i am sure he can rent fields from a neigbouring farm. I am curious about the change of name to "War and Peace revived" though. Maybe they cant use the name W&P as that is owned by the Hop farm.

Go drive around Braunton Burrows. Thats sandy enough.

David returned this morning with additional Valve Seat Cutters and stones and had another go at the two poor Exhaust Valve Seats. One in particular was very deeply pitted and he has had to cut as much as an 1/8” lower than the original valve face to establish a new good face.. All successful and we now have eight good faces. However, as he has had to cut so deeply, two of the faces at least are in “wells” so we must ensure that the diameter of the new valves when they are received are not greater than the diameter of the “wells” as obviously they will not be able to seat on the valve faces. Similarly, with the valves likely to be running lower down than before, there is a danger of the undersides of the valve faces if they are tapered – or mushroom shaped, then hitting the tops of the valve guides – so if there is any interference there, the tops of the valve guides will have to be lowered by cutting. This would have to be done in situ as the Guides cannot be removed for that purpose and then re-fitted as accuracy would be lost.

The Cylinder Liners have arrived – now just the new Valves to come!

We have opted to put a 3/8” internal diameter bronze bush in the Roller with the over-large hole in it.

These are the Cam Followers from the other engine – we were optimistic that we could salvage one Roller from one of these – with the right size hole in it! The remaining seven that we are working on from the other engine are all OK. However this was the best Roller from the other set of Cam Followers – you will see that it is corroded in one part and I guess we will have to make one.

A great big stone wall blew over in town. I hope no one is underneath it. Lots of water on the roads. River is up by about 6 feet higher than normal and the fields are all under water. No houses flooded yet although it has been getting very close to a couple of them. Should all be fine by tomorrow (assuming it doesnt rain). Took the Jeep out for a drive/splash about. Great fun. No need to remind me to never sell it.

These three pictures show two of the Exhaust Valve Seats and one Inlet Valve Seat after re-cutting. They are rather dirty in the pictures as they have been smeared with oil to stop rusting. These two pictures show the one Valve Seat which caused a problem. This is an Exhaust Valve Seat and there is extensive corrosion in about a third of the seat which the Cutter could not touch. The first of the two pictures show the Seat after some preliminary work on it, and the second shows it after some further cutting – but with extensive corrosion still apparent in the one segment. The corrosion is deep and Dave will return with Cutting Stones to try again to get under the corrosion. Three more pictures of Valve Seat after re-cutting – again smeared with oil. And to finish – two further pictures of the very poor valve seat which will have to be “stoned”! All in all, a successful day with far more accomplished than what was envisaged when we started, this morning. Dave will be back during the week to finish the job. We heard yesterday that the Cylinder Liners have been completed and will be with us this week. At last, things are starting to move! The Christmas Break is usually a good period of progress for us and a lot is planned for this time and I hope that we can make significant progress.

Our great friend and highly experienced motor engineer, Dave H called as arranged to make a trial cut on the well-corroded Exhaust Valve Seat to see if his Cutter would work on it and to see if Tony’s work on the Valve Guide was accurate enough for its designated purpose. And it was nothing but good news! The Valve Seat was wide enough for the Cutter to work on it very easily and it quickly left a re-cut seat which will only require the new valve to be lapped in later – we do not have the new valves yet – delivery promised for January. The diameter of the valve head must be checked when received as the new seat is in a “well” and we must ensure that the diameter of the well is large enough to take the valve. The first of this sequence of four pictures shows the seat before being re-cut. The second shows the Cutter in position, The third shows Dave (who is 80) eyeing up progress and the fourth showing the re-cut seat with the Cutter Guide still in position. With the quick and easy success in cutting the first seat, we decided to carry on with the remaining seven. The remaining three new Valve Guides previously made were pressed into the Blocks and re-cutting commenced. These two pictures show the first of the Inlet Valve seats – before and after. Corrosion here was not nearly so bad on this one and it proved to be an easy job. These two pictures show another Inlet Valve Seat being cut – with the Cutter in position. I have got plenty more to add tonight. I will just have to upload them in groups.

Started to replace the 3/8” diam shafts in the Cam Followers today – one of the originals is still sound leaving seven to replace. The first three completed successfully – but then found that the centre hole in the next Roller was well over 3/8” Diam at something like 13/32”. No sign of wear in it and it looks as if a Roller with a larger hole has been fitted at some time to the originally designed 3/8” fitting. This must be replaced as it would leave much too much play if it was re-fitted to a 3/8” shaft with that amount of slop. We do still have the eight Cam Followers from the other engine and provided that we can find a suitable one from those, we will substitute the Roller.

We heard a rumour of an early Autocar in Bristol. Have you seen that one?

It is all a bit strange. i tried to list a WW2 US Camouflage manual and got a very snotty message saying that the sale of this prohibited some US Gvt regulation. How daft is that.

Our friend Dave H is calling on Saturday with his Valve Seat Cutting Gear to have a look at one of the Valve Faces to see if it can be satisfactorily re-cut using the Valve Guides previously made and mentioned above. With some time to spare today, we picked up the Cam Followers again which have now been mainly cleaned but have revealed that the Rollers rattle on their shafts through wear – so the shafts will have to be replaced. A mushroom head on the old shafts were filed off – the shafts ares 3/8” in diameter and they were partially drilled through 7/32 to form a seat for a bit of 3/16” silver steel which would be used to squeeze the old shafts out using the vice. The final picture shows the wear on one shaft very clearly and seven of the eight are like this. The shafts seem to be made of just mild steel.

Ah I see. Very cryptic. I read that several times and couldnt make the connection. I thought you might be having a go at me but couldnt work out how or why. You will have to take up writing questions for BBC2 quizzes.

As the Valve Seats are in such a poor and very corroded state, Tony visited our old friend and mentor, Dave H to seek his advice about re-cutting them. The new Valve Guides had already been machined and Tony took these with him. Dave was not happy with the method of Tony’s manufacture of the Valve Guides and suggested that the 3/8” reamed bore and the outer diameter were unlikely to be concentric. Subsequently checking this on a mandrel did show that they were about 5 “thou”s out. Tony’s initial re-action was to say that they would be scrapped and that he would make fresh ones. However, Dave suggested that one of the Valve Guides should be fixed in a Block and a trial light cut of the valve seat be taken to see how it looked and to see if it was going to be passable. If it did look OK, then they could be re-cut properly and fully. Dave has Valve Cutters and would help with these. So Tony returned home and arranged to insert one of the Valve Guides into a Block. The Guides are necessarily a tight fit in the Blocks and a Draw Bar was made up so that they could be pulled into the Block, in a controlled manner. The first two pictures show the Draw Bar made with the third and fourth ones showing the operation. This mainly went according to plan although the Valve Guide did tighten up towards the end of its travel and had to be gently encouraged as well with a Hammer. These three pictures show the Guide in its final position and also shows again, the very poor state of the Valve Seat.

I came back with three second hand books for £3 each and having sold some stuff i had £91 more than i started with. I had a good day meeting some old friends. More of a social event than a shopping trip. There was some interesting militaria stuff but nothing that made me want to dip my hand in my wallet. I am always curious about the guys who come over from France, Belgium and Holland with tons of genuine and replica US WW2 stuff all at insane prices. I cant imagine that they take any less back than they bring over. Surely, the reenactors will only buy so many Thompson magazine pouches for example yet there seemed to be thousands of originals and replicas there. Now what was the law about supply and demand, doesnt seem to be working...........

What great news. it is really exciting when you find bits like that. Wait another year and you will find the complete filter.

It says BOX.NO. ROF. W33. Does that give a bit more of a clue? As you will have guessed the canvas straps were a later addition. Thanks TIM

Can anybody id this crate please: And if anybody says chisels i will ignore you.

Fabulous looking wheels. How old is your wheelwright? Yes, i can see your concern.

Yes, well done. Nice to hear that it has been saved.

Thanks for that. I would have missed it otherwise. Really good quality remastered film. Loved the Peerless and Locomobiles. Tim

It looks like a Dart to me as well.