Old Bill

Thanks Tomo and thanks Barry. I assumed that the knobs would have been a Phenol-Formaldehyde thermo-set and would have had to get a lot hotter. Only 150° is a bit more reassuring although it is probably not good for the mag itself. Something to keep an eye on.

Andy, what would you do to the timing? I have it set to fire on TDC when fully retarded but could probably advance it a bit more.

Steve  🙂

I have been able to give the pistons some workshop time today to finish them off. First job was to drill angled radial oil holes just below the bottom ring. They were puzzling me a bit until I realised that this wonderful new mill of mine has some interesting features!

Eight radial holes were drilled using the dividing head to index them. All successful!

Last machining job was to drill and tap the holes for the gudgeon pin securing screws. 3/8" x 18 UNS this time. One good thing about these odd threads is that all of my taps and dies are brand new!

I turned up the screws (one per pin) and now only have to fret out some tag washers to lock them in place.

Somethine else we managed to do last weekend was to fit the bump stop springs. Dad has painted them so it was just a case of removing a U-bolt from the front axle and slotting them in.

The U-bolts were replaced where they just trap the springs. This will allow them to rattle which may become annoying in time!

Now back to the engine.

Steve  🙂

We had the great good fortune to be invited to the Shuttleworth Flying Day at Old Warden last weekend and took the lorries.

We had a super time and was our longest run to date with the Thorny. On inspecting it later, we found that the HT leads were beginning to bubble and one of the magneto terminals had melted which is a bit concerning.

The magneto is very close to the exhaust manifold but is exactly the one (Simms SR4) called up in the parts book and, as far as I can make out, has been installed exactly as it was originally. There is nothing I can do to move it further away so I have bent up a piece of aluminium and made a heat shield which I have bolted to the main shield.

I don't like deviating from factory build but see no option here if I am not to suffer a failure on the road. We have not seen any signs of a shield in the old photos but surely they must have suffered the same issue. Very curious.

Steve   🙂

On 7/6/2021 at 11:00 AM, Tomo.T said:

Mike kindly turned up the missing plug

Hi Tomo.

It is all looking very smart now! Did Mike include the plug extension to block the hole in the end of the suction tube and give it some support?

Easy to miss if you don't know!

Steve 🙂

 I have just had a few days in Devon where I have seen what Father has been up to and been able to pick up the lorry once again. You may remember the piston castings we had poured.

Father machined the ends and the bore and then took them to a pal who machined the gudgeon pin holes for us.

He then turned up a dummy gudgeon pin and bored a block to fit it.

After mounting a piece of steel on the face plate and turning a spigot to fit the piston bores, he set up a piston with the dummy gudgeon pin and used a draw-bar to pull it back onto the plate.

This left it firm enough for me to turn it.

Father had previously rescued the rings from the original pistons and we deem these good enough to re-use so I cut the grooves to suit.

The diameter was turned in steps ranging from 4.507 at the crown to 4.515 dia at the skirt. Hopefully this time, we won't have the seizing problems that we had with the Thornycroft!

A quick try in the bore just to prove a point!

Almost complete and require only some radial oil holes just below the bottom rings.

Time to start thinking about the rest of the engine!

Steve 🙂

You are very kind Barry. I have just returned home from Devon where I saw the castings for the first time and have brought them back for machining. I must say that I am very pleased with them. It took Ben, at the Bridport Foundry, a whole day to make the moulds but his efforts were worth it. I have just put the patterns on the shelf ready for the next time someone does a Dennis Subsidy lorry!

Steve  🙂

Radiators are an expensive game! Did you make the patterns Duncan?

Steve 🙂

Well, Dad has had an exciting day. He has been to the foundry to pick up the castings! Here are a few shots for your interest:

Time for a trip down south to pick them up and get the machining in progress. It is time we got the lorry back on the road. I feel a lot of polishing coming on!

Steve 😁

Do you have the engine?

Steve

Tim has just presented me with this 'for Christmas and Birthday' and significantly out of phase with both! It matters not. Quite amazingly, he has found another Radmill gas generator, complete and WD marked! It is just right for the Peerless and will need only a little mechanical attention from me before returning for a paint job.

I understand that this was a phone call out of the blue and pure luck. Nevertheless, I am very pleased indeed!

Steve 😁

After  picking up the lorry again, Dad is making progress with the brake bands. We had positioned the hold-off spring so it has now been drilled through and countersunk on the underside.

Iron rivets have been used and knocked down into the countersink before dressing off.

Once they were cleaned up, the lining could be fitted. It was temporarily blted on to hold it whilst the holes were counterbored and standard copper brake lining rivets used to attach it.

We were fortunate to be given a brake rivet punch which gives the fancy star shape when knocking them over.

A complete band ready for fitting.

Just need to do the other one now!

Steve 

Well, the time has come and I have been to see the lorry for the first time in ten months! (And parents!). I had rather lost track of where we are with it but started off by fitting the other king pin greaser.

One more piece off the bench! Dad has finished painting the track rod so we fitted that finally.

Another piece off the bench and the lorry can sit on its wheels.

Dad has made replacement brake bands but had been unable to position the hold-off springs so we did a temporary assembly to mark them out. Now they can be drilled and riveted and the linings fitted and completed. Good progress so far.

The brake shoe return springs need to be fitted so I got out my new spring compressor and had a go.

First one was OK but the second broke the tool so back to Leicester for repairs.

The job which defeated us last time was getting the wheel off. This is the best wooden wheel we have and we want to replace it with an iron one on our second chassis so that we can use it on the current project one. This time, I have borrowed a hydraulic puller of significant proportions.

First job was to shift the 'stuff' from under the chassis.

Then drag it out.

The object of our attention.

Dad had made a steel ring to screw onto the hub-cap threads in order to give us something to pull against.

Assemble the puller

And off we go.

I wound it to the limit of my strength but with no effect. We took it off, heated the hub and had another go but still no effect, even after leaving it for an hour. We gave up and put it away. Disappointing as we so desperately want to get it on its wheels. Further thought required.

On my way back home, we picked up the pistons which have had the gudgeon holes bored through. Now they can be mounted for machining so another task for father.

We also visited the wheelwright to see what he can do for us in repairing the wheels we have and we visited the foundry to deliver the Dennis radiator patterns.

Some good progress and some disappointment but we are up and running again!

Steve 

Greetings S & F!

The direction is set to suit the vehicle at hand. Ours are all clockwise except the Dennis which is anti-clockwise. The magneto can be reversed by moving the cam in the contact breaker and the correct holes should already be there. When you get it rebuilt, ask the man to reverse the rotation for you.

Even if your mag works, I would highly recommend getting it looked at as a poor mag can spoil your day in no short order, especially first time you try to start your rebuilt engine!

Good luck!

Steve  🙂

Hi Andy.

Yes, I have really enjoyed reading it. Thank you for taking the trouble. Once at a show, nobody knows the efforts you have made to save original bits and get it all 'just right' and it is great that you have documented it. I am now looking forward to seeing it out and about!

Steve  😀🙂

I am anticipating that we will have to make the new core ourselves. The tubes were cut and the gills for the Thornycroft stamped out for us by Vintage Wings and Radiators in Oldham for a very fair price. However, they have since sold out that side of the business and the current owners have hiked the price by a factor of three which I find difficult to swallow. I think I will have to have a chat with Ben and see if we can come to an arrangement about making tooling and punching them out ourselves. Watch this space!

Steve

Hi Toby.

Very pleased to see you here and making good progress. We seem to have a bit of a Thornycroft corner going!

Steve

Thanks for sharing all of this Andy. It is so nice to see the whole story. Not doing anything of our own is driving me mad!

Steve  👍

Thanks for your comments Chaps. Slow progress!

Al, the man to follow for pattern making is Terry Harper (Tharper on here). His work is stunning and a joy to look at. Everything he does is just beautiful whereas the best that can be said for mine is 'functional'!

Steve

Well, it has been a while since I posted anything. This lock-down is a bit of a nuisance but we carry on.

I have continued with the radiator bottom tank pattern. Next task was to partially drill a hole through the water outlet flanges. This will give a boss in the sand on which the main central core can sit and leave a hole in the tank.

A bit of tidying up with some filler.

Time to glue it up!

More filler and wax fillets.

On to the core boxes. The first was quite simple and produces a cylinder of sand to hollow out the bosses at the ends. I started off by dowelling two pieces of beech together and then drilling through.

I used a boring bar to bring them to size.

The main core is a rectangular lump with radiused ends. I couldn't put any draft in this one so I made the sides removable to get it out.

The bottom section has the corner radii to follow the line of the tank. This time, I made a special tool to help install the leather fillet material and it worked quite well.

A bit of filler in the corners where I didn't do a very good job with the leather.

Now the tricky ones. I agonised over these corners for months but eventually came up with this solution. The square section drops into the core print on the end of the main plug. To get the tricky return flange, there are two pieces glued in and a removable sliding piece to pull out. I do hope the moulder can sort it out!

Filler again for the fillets.

Left and right hand of course.

Painting at last! The usual two coats of Bondaprime, polished with wire wool to get a good surface.

Finished at last! I am glad to see the back of these. They have gone on too long and I would much rather be cutting metal!

Thinking ahead, these castings are just too big for my dinky mill, no matter how I look at it so I have bought a Bridgeport type turret mill. The trouble is that it needs to reside in the space behind the lorry. However, the lorry is immobilised due to a lack of radiator! To get it out of the way, I lashed up a bucket and a couple of bits of hose just to let me start it and run for a few minutes.

It worked OK but boiled up pretty quickly!

Success! Mill installed and awaiting arrival of the castings.

A trip to the foundry beckons when we are let out again. I'll keep you posted how I get on!

Steve 

Dad is struggling and he lives next to it. I haven't seen the thing for seven months! Oh well. This forum keeps the interest going. Many thanks to all of our friends!

In the mean time, there is just a little more progress. On top of the front springs is a bump-stop spring. Unfortunately, we are one short and need a replacement. It is a cussing awkward thing with a spiral coil at the top and a square one at the bottom, all bent from 7/16" wire. Beyond my capabilities so I contected the Tested Spring Company and they have made up the replacement.

I sent them a drawing and the original and they turned this around in ten days.

I am very impressed with their service and would heartily recommend them!

Another small step.

Steve 🙂

So pleased to see the photos, Andy. It is this level of detail that nobody realises or understands at shows and recording it here is fantastic. I do love to see it!

Steve  🙂

Another piece of the jigsaw!

Thanks for that Neil.

Steve  👍

Thanks Ruxy. Thanks Andy.

Steve

PS Happy New Year everyone!

Thanks for the link Barry. It is all out there if you know where to look and they look very promising. We haven't decided what we are going to do with our radiator for the time being but this has been a great opportunity to pick everyones brains!

Steve  😁

What a brilliant video clip, Richard! If you have the kit, making tubes like that is far faster than threading loose gills onto tubes. I guess there must be a lead-screw on the far side of the machine to set the pitch. More food for thought there!

Steve  😀