Swill1952xs

Welcome to the forum Plantters. Be careful what you say on here. The military vehicle world is small and incestuous. You'd be surprised who knows who and who they are related to. I've put me foot in it a few times, been kicked off me soapbox a couple of times but I'm still here. :-D

Just wish you lived a bit nearer me, because you have some nice toys to play with.

I come from a farming background, know a lot more about tractors and civvy trucks than I do about army kit. Two of your toys are on my lottery win shopping list. Firstly the Scammell and secondly I've been lusting after a Muir Hill 161 for years. (No money dreamer :-( ). Why a 161......... well its just that I preferred the twin exhausts and horrendously noisy cab. Driving one of those brought the yob out in me. 171......... a gentlemans tractor. :-D

Just heard some bad news today about how scrap prices affect the future of classic and vintage trucks.

I rang David Crouch this morning in an attempt to find a turbo for our EC12 ERF. While I was on the phone to him, I sked him if he had any of the old WD HD23 N's (Albion) still laying around. He had three or four when I bought my donor Albion from him, but he said he didn't have them any more as they were cut up when the price of scrap rocketed a year or so ago.

I told him I was after a spare wheel carrier for mine. He said they hadn't got any and were having to make them up as they wanted one for a MK 1 Militant. The Militant one is almost identical to the one I wanted.

I suppose theres two ways of looking at this sad situation. On one hand there are only seven HD23 N's (Long wheelbase) on the Albion register so parts are now even more scarce and more valuable which is bad news for people like myself when I'm trying to keep the cost down. On the other hand I have the only known HD 23 S, (Short wheelbase) so I suppose the value of that could now be much higher than it would have been. As they say.... You win some and you lose some.

Still a crying shame. I still haven't heard from the chap in West Sussex with the HD 23N. He was trying to put an AEC 760 into his. What worries me is that he too was a scrap dealer, so I'm wondering if he pulled it all apart, lost interest and scrapped that too. I did try to buy it off of him when he had it for sale, so I hope he's still got it. I would happily buy it from him dismantled, especially as I may soon have a spare engine if I can get the donor engine sorted. Rather than rob it of parts; I'd be happier to get that one back in running order, especially as it was in such good condition.

Life can be so unfair at times. :-(

That little piece of paper has probably doubled the value of your truck. Worth more than its weight in gold.

You can't get better information on a truck than that, can you. :shocked:

Get well soon mate !

Thanks for the concern and good wishes. Sme tonsalls don't ya know. 'Sow we say it down 'ere. :-D

I can't compliment you enough about how well you've restored your truck. It really does look smart. If it took you fifteen years to get it that far; I think my target for getting mine on the road this year is being a bit optimistic. So far the biggest delay has been underestimating the cost of the work I've had done; and finding the money for the next stage.

I restored a 1968 Daimler 420 back in the eighties, and that took me five years to complete. I spent around five grand on that restoration.

Even though I haven't had the money to move on just yet: I have been using the time to sort out my spare engine so all is not lost.

I bet you felt really proud, turning up at your parents house with it. No doubt all those years ago they probably called you mad, and said you will get bored with it and it will sit in the corner rotting away for ever. :-D

Next a question for you.............. On the spare wheel carrier there is a filter housing. My Albion has one the same, but it has been blanked off. Is it a filter for the air compressor, as it's linked to the air filter, or is it an Alcohol evaporator for use in cold weather. It has what looks like a filler plug on the side and obviously draws clean air from the air filter, so I wondered if the filler was a place to put air drying alcohol to stop the brakes freezing. ............. Wacha fink?

Not sure that's too accurate robert, it don't sound like 1000rpm tickover when first started to me, more like 500 ish.........maybe it's my new high speed broadband :-D

I'll go along with that too. I reckon it's running at half the speed the rev counter shows. Most engines of that size don't normally run much over 2000 rpm.

Hi Davie,

nice to see some progress being made. Obviously you didn't spend all the weekend tipping Land Rovers then.

Looks like the winch will keep you busy for an hour or two. Looks a bit neglected doesn't it.

I haven't done anything to mine this weekend, even though it was my weekend off. Haven't been very well an had to rest. How annoying. :-(

Well the new cable fits!! Can't have a non functioning rev counter in a scammell with a diesel engine can we?:cool2: The meadows hand book says it is a new high speed diesel engine.... Not sure if it's suppose it be that high reving!!:shocked: Me thinks it may have a fair turn of speed flat out!!! Mind you with only 130hp i don't think it will see full revs very often. Could always drive in round in 5th all the time...:idea:

Shame the temperature gauge doesn't work........... or are you revving the nuts off a cold engine.

Got a bucket to catch the pistons in..............:-D

Lamancha, which sounds like it's in Spain but, is in the Scottish borders.

Come on man...............pull yourself together..............this wont get your Albion on the road any quicker, will it. :nono:..............:-D

Hello and welcome SIMON on the forum. You will find your happiness there on the subject of vehicles of the 2 wars. Cordially Stephane de France

Blimey (Mild English swear word) or should I say merde, Stephane, your English is getting better already. :-D

Tony, I think I will, I like to see things being used not just sat there like museum pieces.

Jim.

Er .................... can ya video it please.......... bought some speakers for me old 'puter today, and I can hear things at last. Been watching and listening to Scammell videos most of the afternoon. :-D

Laughton. Anyone else going? We hope to get over on Friday evening, and stay til Sunday evening. Plenty of beers in the fridge cos it's going to be HOT! (Well mild and dry will do) Or tea, coffee and biscuit if the weather's normal.

 

Jules

Fair possibility..............

Well I'm no expert on ageing military vehicles, but have been a mechanic for forty years, so here goes.

If you put water in the cooling system and it blows coolant out almost immediately on revving it; then it's most likely that you are losing compression into the cooling system.

Does your engine have a thermostat. It may not be opening enough to allow sufficient water flow to the radiator when under load or at higher revs?

When the engine is cold; can you see coolant circulating through the radiator. If it doesn't circulate when it reaches working temperature it could be that the radiator core is blocked as a result of using a "Sealer" in the system.

I would imagine airlocks are unlikely as many of the old engines relied on the "Thermo syphon" system to circulate coolant. These systems rarely have a water pump but have a tall radiator standing well above the engine. If it has a water pump in the cooling system; it isn't unheard of for the water pump impeller to either corrode to the point that it wont circulate the water, or in some cases; it can come off the water pump shaft.

1- Best find out if it has a thermostat first.

2- Check to see if the coolant is blowing out when the engine is cold. (Head Gasket or cracked casting)

3-Check the radiator isn't blocked. (Put a garden hose in the bottom hose of the rad and back flush it)

4- Make sure there are no restrictions in any of the hoses and no possibility of airlocks.

5- If it has a water pump, make sure it is circulating the water.

Best of luck..... I hope this has been of some help.

As regards your juddery clutch......... that is most probably rust, but check your engine mountings aren't separated or badly softened with age or oil contamination.

Jus' tryin' ta be 'elpful.........As we say down 'ere :-D

Dorman engines were also used post WW1 to replace the worn out ones in ex army trucks. We have this one to go into the Peerless. it came out of an old WW2 British ammunition dump and was used to pump water in the sprinkler system.

 

 

It is in very nice condition.

 

Tim (too)

I assume that is a four cylinder engine. What horsepower would that have been. It would look great fully restored.

i have found that the minute that you pass you relivent test they seem to introduce some new legislation or refresher course that you must attend in order to do your job ,:argh: and it allways costs something, they must need the money:argh::argh:so you dont just loose your pay but you have got to pay for the privalage.

I couldn't agree with that more. Apart from being a transport manager I drive and repair tankers for a living. While I enjoy my work; I'm becoming increasingly depressed about the way this country is heading. There are more and more regulations being introduced that are taking the enjoyment out of an otherwise pleasant and often interesting job.

Quite sensibly I have to have a medical every five years to renew my license. I will soon have to take a driving test every five years consisting of a 35 hour course, and four hours of written and practical examination; just to continue to earn a living. When we are working we have to comply with the European Drivers hours regulations and we are one of the few industries that is also controlled by the European Working Time Directive. A bit like swinging in a tree trying to stop a crocodile biting your arse, and having a snake coming down the tree to get you.

While we are working we have V.O.S.A. watching us, the police, trading standards, Customs and Excise, HSE, Environmental Health, The Environment Agency, ADR regulations, drivers hours, speed cameras, weight restrictions to comply with (Local), road tolls, increasingly bad roads to drive on, hedges and trees that are growing further and further into the roads which means that on some of the main roads we drive on; we now have to slow down to pass oncoming trucks. The latest is being approached by "Traffic Wardens" while waiting with a tanker to get on to our forecourts to carry out a delivery; and being told, "You can't park there" Explaining that you are waiting to do a delivery brings the same reply.

We seem to be losing the right to protest about the ever increasing legislation we are being bogged down with. Fuel blockades are now controlled by anti terrorist laws. No doubt if our farmers did what the French do they would fall under the same laws.

While I understand the need to control safety of the general public, I can't help thinking that most of these rules are, as a result of the confusion they can cause, easily broken, easily detected and carry large fines. It's human nature to make minor mistakes, and there's always a vulture circling overhead waiting to pick the flesh from your bones.

New legislation to protect is a good idea, but it always relies on human nature to inadvertantly break the rules, is enforced by Gestapo like tactics and ALWAYS carries a large fine. I can't help feeling that legislation is introduced after a careful study of the income it's likely to create.

I hope this post isn't too political and likely to be deleted. If it is then I give up. :-( Call me a whinging ar*ehole if you like, but if you are honest then no doubt you will agree with my comments. :-(:-(

Great stuff mate,Dorman was a popular engine in fishing boats years ago,We took one out of a 50ft Admaralty MFV,and fitted a Gardner 8.Sadly the boats not moved for the last ten years,the boat was one of the Shetland buses used to ferry agents to Norway.i did my day skipper course on it.The boat owners drive me mad.This boat had a fortune spent on it,did three training courses then The Grand Turk took over

and that was it.Have pics if any one interested sadly none of engine though.

I Googled the engine type number and came up with several fitted to generators. A bit further on there was an installation of two of them in a car ferry. From memory it was 196 feet long, about 40' wide and could carry sixty cars. I would have thought that a ship of that size would have had bigger engines than that though. Just goes to show how little I know about anything really.

Thats from Bernard mate:-D

I've corrected my post. Spent most of the day with my head in a massive diesel tank.............. must have addled my brain.........dooh :red:

Interesting post philb. Small world isn't it. I didn't think there would be a lot of interest in this, but I'm really pleased you appreciate this topic.

The blue one produces 600 KVA which becomes 480KW when multiplied by the power factor. As a rough rule of thumb it takes just under 2hp to generate 1kw, so the engine power is in the region of 940bhp running at 1500rpm to give 50cycles/sec.:coffee:

 

Coincidentally I was offered a job at Auto Diesels as a sales engineer back in 1972.

Sounds like they missed out then. Thanks for the reply. I assumed the blue engine would be somewhat more powerful as it was intercooled. I would have liked to have heard it running, but the electrics are being disabled and there isn't anyone tecnical enough on site to operate them.

I was surprised the buff coloured engine was "Only" 600hp. I would have thought it would have been at least 700.

Come on lads........ I only took French for two years 1964 and 1965; an I could understand roughly what he does for a living etc, how he came to be on this forum etc.

I often feel ashamed that I don't really have a second language, especially French. I gave it up as I lost interest after a clash of personalities with the French teacher. We clashed after an exam when I was told that the expression, "Il pleut chats et chiens" was not in any way acceptable as an exam answer................ I thought it was pretty clever. :-D

A visit to Holland in the eighties made me feel ashamed too. They all seem to speak English so well. I'd love to be able to speak Dutch fluently as they were such lovely people to visit. Also used to hear it on Radio Luxembourg many moons ago.

Happy memories.

Nothing whatsoever to do with Military vehicles, but just because I love interesting engines.

I went to a the old Lloyds TSB offices at Durrington today to pump out what was supposed to be 9,000 gallons of gas oil from a disused storage tank. When we got there we found out the gauge had stuck and the tank was virtually empty so all we got was 3,900 litres.

While we were there I found out they had some pretty impressive generators tucked away in another building. Armed with a camera today; I decided that a photo session would be a good idea.

The following photos don't really convey how big they are, but each generator weighs about 6.5 tonnes. Height to the top of the radiator is about eight feet.

The blue engine is turbo'd and intercooled. the buff coloured one is just turbo'd and believed to produce about 600hp at 1500rpm. The oil and water are constantly heated as they start automatically when required.

The hours on the buff one is 1522 and the blue one has done 3200 hrs. lovely bits of kit.

These are due to be removed soon. Not sure why though as the building is being partially demolished for a refurbish?

A knocky old lorry just to please Swill...............

 

Cheers Bernard, very kind of you. :thumbsup:

I don't have any speakers on my 'puter at the moment......... spose I'll have to get some now, just to savour the sounds.....:-D

That's a new angle on house moving. Why bother with all that packing.......

move the whole lot.

I would imagine HSE would have kittens if they saw anyone moving a house in the way they used to, especially sitting on top with no safety harness lifting wires over the top. Probably as a safety measure, power lines were lifted with the aid of a broom, rather than bare hands. :-D

In those days; falling off was probably a punishable offence and the employers would probably have said "Serves you right for not doing what you are paid to do" I wonder if they ever left anyone swinging on a wire and had to reverse up to collect them. :-D

Just noticed in the picture...... it's still got a Gardner engine in it. If it's working well and does the job, why change it.

You must have a cheap source of wire brushes!

 

I quite like the blue for the engine and transmission. Gives a nice clean look to everything and easy to spot oil leaks. May have to give my engine the once over with the spray gun again when I'm done.

I was wondering that too as they are bleedin' expensive things to buy. Not only that, Jim's poor old dad must end up looking like a pin cushion after all that brushing. I've had 4-1/2" wire brush bristles go right through my overalls and T shirt and get stuck in my skin. ............Ooooh.................fu.........bug

.........an' ouch........ :shocked: :shocked: :rofl:

I think this change of policy may be related to this story...

 

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_24/b4038041.htm

 

Chris

Fair enough......... but it hardly relates to the sort of things normally seen on E Bay in this country.

It's the governments responsibility to make sure current technology isn't offered for sale on public auction sites. Even so; it's easy for anyone to check on people buying large quantities of military equipment.

We've seen on here, aircraft scrap yards and storage yards for military planes. Some of them are broken for spares and exported to countries that could possibly use them to get aircraft airworthy and use them to harm us or our armies. Parts and aircraft shouldn't be sold to countries that could eventually use them against us.

I feel sorry for people who collect weapons as an interest, but I don't feel comfortable about the possibility that they could end up in the wrong hands. It's like the amnesties we've had in this country for arms and knives. The honest and innocent handed their prized posessions over to the police. Those who are likely to commit crime with them no doubt still have them.

I still think it wrong that we may not be able to buy vehicles and parts from E Bay......... a very public auction. :angry