Great War truck

What a super looking truck. Is it a model TH? Although you are missing a bit, you do have a lot of it there. Are you missing any major components? do you know its history? Tim

Thats a shame, but very interesting as well. Where are they kept and in what sort of condition? Thanks Tim

Those are very interesting photographs. When did Portugal dispose of their Napiers? Are there any survivors perhaps? Thanks Tim

Hi Adrian Well i am very pleased you got it. It will go to a good home with the rest of the collection and is at least safe from the scrap man. You may remember i helped you with the body plans for your Liberty four years ago. Sadly, i cant do anything to help you with this latest acquisition. I came across Monty's name in the acknowledgements section of the excellent book "In a strange land" just a few weeks ago and i thought i recognised it. It took me a while to put two and two together though. Have fun in Germany Tim Gosling

Thats very interesting. I did not know that. Did any of these Napiers make their way back to Portugal or were they left behind in France? I would be very interested in seeing what you find. Thanks Tim

The wood on the Lee Enfields does look scorched to me, so it does seem likely that it was caused by a fire although i would expect to see more distortion in the metal. Were Lee Enfields and Brens used in Vietnam - even by the French? With the MG34's there as well it would seem more likely that it was taken in Pakistan than in Vietnam, but happy to be shot down in flames. Tim

With the "Dogs" for the Inlet Valve Caps virtually finished last month but put to one side as the top flange on each of these has to be partially cut back to leave the "Locking Tabs". There are similar "Tabs" on the "Dogs" for the Exhaust Valve Caps and it was our thinking that these could all be machined at the same time. So it was time to turn to making the Exhaust Valve Caps. Like the Inlet ones, they are machined from solid drawn cast iron bar. We decided to machine one right through first of all with the exception of machining the "Tabs" on the top flange - just to prove the machining process - and if that proved to be successful, the other three could then be machined in a batch. The iron was turned down first of all to the overall diameter plus a few "thous" to be finished off later in the process. The flange was then roughly cut in - again leaving a few "thous" to be finished off later. The inside was then machined to the final shape and dimensions, drilled and tapped 5/8" Whit for the locking bolt and nut. There is a drawing of the part following, should the photographs not be clear enough to see the finished shape. The part was then reversed in the lathe so that first of all, it could be machined down to the final depth - in other words, the chucking piece can be machined off at this stage. Final machining to the required shape follows. All done - apart from cutting back the flange to leave the "Tabs". In the final picture, locking bolt and nut are screwed in. Just another three to do - and hopefully will be done quicker as a batch!

Go on Adrian. You know you want to get it really. You will just have to sell something to pay for it. Are you realted to Monty Winget by any chance? Tim

It carried a 3" gun and limber. Easier than towing it? I am not sure. Seems to make it more complicated and heavy. Anyway. US Army only bought 472 of these and only took 15 to France. I would think that it was really quite rare.

Progress just a little slow at the moment because of other diversions! Cleaning of the Crank Case has started, using just rotary wire brushes in a electric hand drill and also paraffin brushed on to get rid of grease and oil. These two pictures are "before and after". Still a long way to go as we have not started on the inside yet. Some of the residual rust on the case is just dust from the wire brushing and it is our usual practice to "wash" items with cellulose thinners before painting to get rid of this and to leave a oil-free surface. Bondaprime - the primer we use is thinned with cellulose thinners. This is the inside of the Timing Case - "before and after" the first clean !

I have seen pictures of these before but not recent ones. Quite rare i would have thought. This one is up for sale.

Very sad. I am sorry to hear that.

Steve, I and a few friends vixited Coventry today and had a good look over the Maudslay. It is going to be a great looking WD lorry when it is finished and they are completing it at a good pace. The steel in the chassis has no real evidence of being out in the weather for protracted period and looked very good. The engine looks odd. Almost spindly: problems with this half shaft though: I have never seen anything quite like that before. The diff has all been rebuilt On round spoked wheels which is unusual: The gearbox case looks lovely As are the gears: With perhaps a couple of exceptions: Lid even had the date of casting in it:

Yes its still there and looks loveley. Steve and i vistied the reserve colelction today and had a very itneresting time: I am sure some one would like to get their hands on these:

With both the whole engine and the "half" engine now mainly dismantled, the next job was to get the old studs out of the crank case that we intend to use. The old studs are either very rotted away or the threads are quite worn so they must be replaced with new ones. We expected this job to be quite difficult and that the old studs would probably break off. However, they had been heavily dosed with "Plus Gas" and all of them just unscrewed with the use of a Stilson. A pleasant surprise! The four long studs go down inside the crank case to hold the splash guards. And now the really unwelcomed and odious job - cleaning the crank case! It is too precious and delicate to have it sand blasted so it is back to rotary wire brushes in the hand drill - with paraffin and a soft brush to get the grease and oil off. This one is more difficult than the Dennis - that one is made of aluminium so that one man could heave it around but the Thorny one is of cast iron and is really a two man job to get it off its stand to turn it up side down. A start has been made on one end but there is a long way to go!

There was a green canvas bag for carrying them, much smaller than the general purpose ammunition bag. I think it would carry about 6 magazines. Hang on i have got one some where. i will try and take a photo for you if you are interested.

The second one was approached in the same manner but after tightening the bolts as far as he dared, Steve resorted to a bit of heat to encourage the piston to let go. This was applied very gingerly as the risk of cracking the casting is very high and would be catastrophic. He raised the temperature to a point where it was too hot to keep your hand on it and then gave the bolts another half a turn. Fortunately, the piston let go at this point and he was away. On removal, the piston looked fine but the bore could do with some attention. A good crust of rust had formed over the crown it looks pretty poorly beyond that point. Something to consider another day. Number three had been on top dead centre when the engine stopped so it had to be dragged the whole length of the bore. Dad polished the area below the piston with emery and Steve tried jacking again. Much to his surprise, it let go very easily although it had still be be jacked the whole way. Number four was just the same so success has been achieved and we are very pleased. The day was rounded off by an inspection of the valve guides. The inlet side are all fine but theexhaust side are well worn. Steve therefore knocked them out with a drift and Dad will turn up some replacements in due course. Steve returns to Leicester tomorrow but all objectives for the week have been achieved and we are very pleased. Now all we have to do is clean the bits, make replacements and put it all back together!

It is the last day of Steve's holiday today so he and Dad were keen to finish the engine strip-down. The last remaining job was to extract the pistons from the cylinders and this has been causing us all some trepidation. However, there is only one way to get it done and that is to go and do it! Here is the jig that they made yesterday. It is a simple 1 1/2" diameter bar tapped through at 3/4" Whitworth for two set screws. The centre collar is the same size as the journals and sits inside the big end to prevent it from going oval when the jacking force is applied. The bar was fitted into the big end of the first rod and then blocked up with timber underneath to jack the screws against. The pressure was applied by slowly winding the bolts until there was a bang and the piston let go. Progressive jacking and packing saw it slowly extracted. The piston doesn't look too bad and a good clean will help. Even the scraper ring came loose so we were very pleased. The bore could do wth a bit of a polish, however.

Steve and Dad spent the morning removing the valves. Not too hard but they were well stuck and only moved after persistent gentle use of the hammer and a drift. Once freed up, a large valve spring compressor took the pressure off the cross pin in the end of each valve allowing them to be knocked through. None are good enough to re-use. One of the valve guides could be seen to have moved at some time in the past so Dad made up a drift and Steve knocked it out. It proved to be shorter than the others and exhibits a very strange repair. This will have to be replaced. The others remain to be closely inspected but we expect to have to replace the lot. Next job was to remove the water connection between the blocks. The bolt heads had almost rusted away so Steve took them off with the angle grinder and the casting followed. The shanks of the bolts remain and will have to be drilled out. The afternoon was spent making a puller to fit the big ends. Tomorrow will be the moment of truth when they try to extract the pistons!

These arrived today. Thanks Glen, they will be put to good use. Tim

A little more progress on the Thorny today. Steve and Dad removed the splash guards which prevent the oil from going up the bores. They are a bit ragged but should live to fight another day. Yesterday, the camshafts could not be removed and this was a bit of a puzzle. They laid the securing bolts side by side and it was instantly obvious that the bolts removed from this crank case were shorter than those taken from the complete engine. The remains of the bolts were left in the bottom of the hole preventing the shaft from moving so Steve proceeded to drill them out. This was successful and the shafts were safely removed. These cams and gears are first rate so they will be returned to the engine in due course. The last few bits were removed from the case and that is now ready for cleaning and stud repair. Finally, Steve had a go at one of the valves. He squeezed up the spring using a pin-punch. The collet was rusted to the valve stem so it stayed down whilst the pin was removed. Then more hammer and blowlamp treatment freed it up and the valve was knocked out. Unfortunately but perhaps not surprisingly, the valve stem is very worn and will require replacement. More valves tomorrow and then it will be time to extract the pistons!

That looks fabulous. Well done. Tim

Steve and Dad have been stripping the half-engine down today. This has gone quite well with the removal of the extra pulley fitted at some time followed by the timing cover. This revealed the gears which are much better than those on the full engine except for the magneto drive gear which has a tooth broken off. The sump was then dropped and the big ends released to allow the pistons to be lifted out. The main bearing caps were removed and the crank dropped using the chain block. The crank looks good but the flywheel is heavily pitted on the clutch face so we plan to use the other one instead. Finally, an attempt was made to remove the camshafts but although the locking bolts were unscrewed they refused to move. The only result of hitting the end of the shafts with a hammer and block of aluminium was that the governor weights fractured with the shock. Closer inspection revealed that the bearing locking bolts had both sheared near their lower ends leaving the stubs behind to lock the shafts. Steve plans to try drilling them out tomorrow.

Steve and Dad have spent the day stripping the Thorny engine. They tried to lift a block off but the big end jammed between the crankshaft and the crank case so they decided to drop the crank instead. The did this by taking the weight behind the flywheel with the chain block and then removing the bearing caps before lowering the crank to the ground. This was successful although there was a moment of puzzlement when the end hung up in the camshaft gears and would not drop. Fortunately, one camshaft could be encouraged to rotate enough to release it. After that, the blocks lifted off very easily and these too were laid on the ground. Unfortunately, the bores have proven rustier than we hoped so getting the pistons out is not going to be easy. Once the blocks were off, they could remove the cam followers and tappets. These are quite heavily corroded and will need some work to bring them back. Next move was to withdraw the camshafts. After removing the bearing locking bolts, these knocked through quite easily although they did manage to break the governor operating yoke. This was unfortunate but it was so corroded that it would have had to have been replaced anyway. The main cam gears don't look too bad but several of the cams are very pitted which is not good news. Work on the full engine stopped at this point and they started on the half-engine. The cam followers and what can be seen of the cams look much better on this engine so we will probably use these instead. They plan to carry on stripping it down tomorrow.