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BenHawkins

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Everything posted by BenHawkins

  1. Yes, the engine looks great now it is placed together. I am really looking forward to getting stuck into the rebuild. I think the "Black Maria" is a 30cwt model and fitted with KT block tyres. The buttoned seat back looks quite comfortable. I have one of those back axles in stock!
  2. I have collected the latest batch of laser cutting. Once I have welded these pieces together I hope to have a functional selector gate. The incorrect gate is shown on the right. I have one original Ernest Shentall apple crate and have copied the text from it and included these stencils in the laser cutting order. The signwriter was here on Thursday and Friday and has made some really good progress. The lining and text is copied from the factory photo. There is still quite a bit more lining to go on; it breaks up the vast expanse of red but lets hope it does not end up looking like a fairground ride! I can't be certain of the history of the lorry between 1914 and when Mick collected it in the 1990s. Ernest Shentall (as Mayor of Chesterfield) was heavily involved with fundraising for the war effort but I suspect that he did not go as far as donating his lorry. It is still strange to think of all the requisitioned lorries being used by the War Office in their original operators livery especially when many were intended to draw attention.
  3. I only have pages that show information on the BT. Hopefully as I do more research more information will turn up that I can post here. The specifications page has plenty of useful information: A page showing types of vehicle built on the BT and AT chassis. And a page showing the tools supplied with Thornycroft vehicles. I decided to start putting the tool kit together but so far only have the 10-in shifter and 7/16-in x 1/2-in Thornycroft spanner.
  4. Here is some more information on the T/4 engine I am missing. 3.1/2" bore, 5.1/2" stroke four cylinder monobloc giving a maximum of about 30hp. Perhaps you have one in your shed getting.
  5. Another 50cwt M2 but for Winchester brewery. A later tipper from Birmingham (probably mid 1920s) Along with those photos came this one, a rail inspection car is listed in the Thornycroft register but I can't confirm this is it. I am confident this one is not a Thornycroft. The shape of the radiator is similar to that of a Karrier but this would be a very early one. Any ideas?
  6. I have recently purchased a few early Thornycroft commercial photos: A 50cwt M2 engine chain drive. 1911 for Dunlop Pneumatic tyre company, nice to see they used solid tyres on their delivery lorries. A set of lighter weight M2 engine chain drive vans (single rear tyres) for Cadbury. Another 50cwt M2, this time for Walsall Co-Op. Probably around 1911, I don't know much about this one but once again it has twin rear tyres. I particularly like the roof rack.
  7. A short notice work trip meant I had to put off the signwriter but I hope he will start shortly. I made a new shaft for the gear selector, moving the neutral position forwards. I removed the covers from the detent plungers to check I was achieving the full motion of the selector rods. This allowed me to measure up for the new selector gate and draw up the parts for laser cutting. Having placed the order I hope they will arrive this week. The fan bracket was not as rigid as I had hoped so I have made this spacer to tie it back to one of the tapped holes on the front cylinder block.
  8. At the end of last month we pushed this project out of the garage so it could swap places with the nearly finished 1914 Dennis. And once it was moved into the workshop it was a good opportunity to loosely fit a few more parts to the engine. The list of tasks on the 1914 Dennis is now quite short so I am looking forward to getting stuck into this one again.
  9. I am still in research mode for this project. Tim has sent me an amazing photo of one of these T4 engine vans, originally purchased by L&NWR but commandeered by the War Office. It confirms the radiator (without Thornycroft cast into the header tank) is correct, and shows enough detail of the missing tubular front cross member that I could remanufacture it. Also arriving this week was a pack of photocopies from the Beaulieu Motoring Research Service: 1. Progressive Number Register. This shows all 40 Thornycroft chassis supplied to Carter Paterson; but in some cases the model and chassis numbers differ from those stated in the transcript that was available on the Hampshire website. 2. July 1916 Catalogue. Giving detailed specification of the AT and BT Model and also dimensions for the different body options. It states the BT was "For a Net Load of 2 Tons in an open lorry body, or 35 CWT in a van body" and "Weight: 37cwt. In full running order full up with fuel , water &c." 3. 1922 BT Instruction Book and Illustrated Parts Book. Although later and fitted with the AB4 engine it seems similar in general construction detail.
  10. After chasing down the origin of this document it appears to have been found at Kew so I believe it is OK to share it here (hopefully attached to this message). War Office Disposals, 1919.pdf
  11. I attacked the drop arm with an angle grinder to thin it down and give plenty of clearance between it and the universal joint nuts. I also built up the diameter of the knob at the end with weld by about 1/16" to reduce the play in the jaws. Finally I added a chamfer on either side of the knob to guide it between the jaws as the lever crosses the selector gate. That gave slightly more motion in the selector rods, as did taking some of the clearance out of the spherical bearing on the shaft. I took the gear stick off and used the press to add a slight bend as there was virtually no clearance as the handbrake lever passed the Bakelite knob. Some more clearance for the gear lever was achieved by cutting some of the ash from the frame. With the caps removed from the gearbox detent plungers I was able to see when each gear was fully engaged and recorded the positions. Unfortunately, second gear requires the lever to be in the petrol tank. On the selector gate I was using the neutral position was about 1/2" behind the centre line of the casting and I made the shaft to suit that position. If I make a new shaft to place all the gear positions further forwards it should put everything right but I will run a few tests with a key removed or a new shaft before starting to draw up the new selector gate.
  12. With the hoop in place it was possible to check the timbers that support a canvas sheet in place. It all seemed to look like the factory photo so I have given them a coat of paint.
  13. Thanks Dan. Having booked the signwriter I wanted to fit the angle iron hoop to the back of the lorry. One less job that could scratch the paint. After a trial fitting I trimmed it to length and cut notches for the brackets. The brackets needed slight adjustment with a file before they would slot into place. I was also able to paint the beading on the cab sides.
  14. The grinding noise when selecting reverse turned out to be the heads of the bolts on the universal joint hitting the selector drop arm. This will be an easy fix as it just requires some material removing from the side of the arm. However, on further investigation I was not moving any selector rod far enough for the detent plungers to move into their slots so the gears were not fully in mesh. In the case of reverse, the gears have to move a lot further so they were not coming into contact at all. After a bit of head scratching it became obvious that the gate I am using (it came of the remains of a Dennis turntable ladder using the same gearbox), had a longer drop arm. Looks like I need to make a new gate. I decided to stop there and carry on with fitting and priming the beading on the cab so it will be ready for the sign writer.
  15. We moved the lorries out so they could swap garages and allow enough space around the 1914 Dennis for signwriting and lining. It was difficult to resist the chance to start it and take it for a very small drive. Trimmed.mp4 It was less successful than it looks in the video. There was a mechanical grinding noise when trying to select reverse rather than any actual motion. I hope the smoke was just the copious amount of oil that I applied during assembly but further trials will answer that question.
  16. I did not have any long lengths of 1/8 wire for edging the windscreen. Instead I silver soldered three 1m welding rods together and proceeded as before but this time with a planishing hammer. After closing the sheet metal up onto the wire I applied plenty of paint around the edge in an attempt to fill any gaps and prevent future water ingress. I still need to add a slight bend, drill some mounting holes and paint it.
  17. I have really enjoyed the extra photos. The radiator header tank is a work of art, there may be some of the original recycled fittings but I suspect all the sheet brass is replacement as the original would not have had the radii on the front. The engine would look great in this chassis but unfortunately is not one manufactured by White and Poppe. I tried to purchase this one but the owner would not pass it on; hopefully you will have more luck. It appears narrow enough to fit between the rails; I think it would also require some minor modifications as the rotation is incorrect giving four reverse gears!
  18. There are so many features that interest me on 3033. I need to do some more research before commenting on all of them; I will limit it to where I am confident of the answer for now. The radiator is a later fitment, probably dating from the twenties. However, even that is quite interesting. The crankshaft axis and chassis width is different on the early fire engines so they appear to have cut the cast trunnion mountings from the cast sides and riveted on the cast iron trunnions (that were originally fitted to a sheet brass radiator). I would certainly think that keeping this radiator would be a good plan; they are much more reliable than the original. Fitting a different engine to these chassis is a bit of a dilemma. Commonly, later engines sat on top of the 3" channel false frame. This placed the crankshaft axis on the plane of the top face of the channel. The engine originally fitted mounted between the channels; the crankshaft axis being (approximately) on the lower face of the channel (3" lower). There may be a lot of work involved with fitting a later Dennis engine; I purchased a narrower marine engine as a last resort for my 1908 Dennis but modifying that would also have been quite a task. That is it for now but I will pull some more information together as soon as I can! Can you post some pictures of the 1911 Gearbox and PTO? They are interesting features as well. It will remind me of what you are missing and where I can help.
  19. Many other tasks got in the way this week; the lorry went in and out of the garage a few times but never under its own power. At least the prop shaft has rotated several times. We adjusted the transmission brake up a little; we can still push it on the flat and it easily stops the lorry on the slope of the yard. It always seems a good idea to get the stopping sorted out before making them go. As the sign writer is booked in, I have been concentrating on getting the remaining beading fitted. Another task is to get the hoop fitted to the back but it needs to swap garages with the 1908 Dennis where there is extra height and enough space for the sign writer to walk all the way around.
  20. Chassis 3033, Engine 4726, Body 3259 is again 120x130 Haes and Eggers but dated 21/3/1911. Most work production order cards survive for fire engines but I will need to visit the archive to dig this one out (I have only photographed a small proportion of the early ones) Engine number 15049 is quite a bit later so appears in the surviving White and Poppe engine book. It is a 90x130, ordered on 13/10/1922 at a cost of £100. It was supplied with a Simms magneto but without carburettor. The end customer is marked as Davies Fehon and recorded as fitted to chassis number 139. This is a strange range of early chassis numbers issued by Dennis for the 25/30cwt. Only chassis numbers 50-150 were used and then there is another series of 25/30cwt (50000 to 50026) before the much more popular 30cwt (50030 on).
  21. Although the rectangular brackets for the ignition timing transverse shaft were functional, they offended me every time I opened the bonnet so I removed them and shaped them using the milling machine and file. Finally I drilled oiling holes with a centre drill. One of the parts I still need to make is a wind screen with a wire edge. I have never done this before so decided to give it a practice. I started by folding up an edge around a piece of steel plate using a hammer. And then continued to form it around the wire with a hammer. I will be using 1/8" diameter rod and 0.9mm steel so I have ordered a 5mm ball end slot drill to make up some forming tools. That's it for this week. Hopefully we will go for a little drive over the next week.
  22. The rear joint needs a leather gaiter to keep the grease in. The front universal joint was bolted up and split pinned.
  23. I reamed the hole out in the other universal joint until I could drive in the pin. Then put the bronze blocks in place and measured the overall length. It worked out a few thousands of an inch too long to fit into the socket so I lapped the blocks down on some silicon carbide paper. Then I was able to wrestle the fairly heavy prop shaft into place.
  24. I decided to buy a new tool to help me reduce the length of the universal joint hub; an expanding mandrel. Using the lathe and chucking on the male tapered portion I drove the sleeve into the hub until the hub was tightly gripped and supported the other end of the mandrel with a revolving centre and faced the hub off to length. And could then try the hub in the jaw to check the fit.
  25. Thanks for all the positive comments about the award. The Transport Trust award scheme has really helped out so I would recommend it to people for next year. I have taken this photo to better illustrate the pulley arrangement. The bronze bearing extends from the timing case quite a long way (to around 1mm from my pulley hub); without knowing this it looks like there is a massive length of unsupported shaft. The pump pulley is still quite a way from the pulley hub (a little over 2"). I have not run the engine since connecting this drive up.
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