Old Bill

Thanks Caddy. We had a great day thanks to all the organisers. Tim has posted some photos here:

http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?44017-IWM-Duxford-Military-Vehicle-Show/page3&highlight=duxford

Steve

Looks a bit like this one which I saw in Hertfordshire many years ago. Sadly, I can't quite remember where other than it was deep in the undergrowth!

I am pleased to know what it was, even though it is of no use to me!

Steve

I quite agree in that it should have a washer. Unfortunately, the split pin hole is drilled too close to allow one to be fitted in and it is the original pivot pin. The pivot pin does have a feather under the head on the other end and that should stop it rotating. It seems strange that the split pin sheared off as there is no axial load on the pivot. Also, once it had sheared, I would have expected to find the centre of the pin still in the hole trapped in the grease but it wasn't there. A strange one but one to keep an eye on I think!

Steve :cool2:

We are planning to take the Dennis, in convoy with a Hallford and an AEC, to the IWM Military Vehicle Show at Duxford next Sunday, 15th June. To get ready, I have today been over to give it a quick check and oiling up ready for the trip.

It started very nicely and ran well on the three mile trip to the petrol station. There, I three quarters filled it with £125- worth of fuel. Ouch! On return, I oiled all round and screwed down the grease caps. When I did the one on the foot brake clevis pin, the pin came out in my hand! Closer inspection revealed that there was no split pin to secure it. Whether it had fallen out or I had simply never fitted one, I don't know but it certainly has one now! It is the top pin in the photo.

If any of you are at Duxford next week, do come and say hello. It is great to be able to put a face to a name.

Steve

I think the axle is a 'Sheldon' from the Sheldon Axle Co of Wilkes-Barr, Pennsylvania.

There is a nice article to be found here:

http://199.253.17.48/downloads/new_6_6_05/penn22.pdf

Not sure about the chassis though!

Steve

Hi John.

Solid tyres are specified by the inside diameter of the band and the width across it. For example, the Subvention scheme specified that approved vehicles will carry 720x120mm tyres on the front and 881x120mm on the rear. American tyres are specified in inches. Not sure about FIat but I would expect them to be metric.

I understand that Dunlop stopped making them in around 1995 which is a pain. We need four 881x120 for the rear of the Thornycroft so if you turn up a stock, then please let us know! If we can't turn up any originals there are a couple of companies who will do them. B H Leake and Clifton Rubber will mould new rubber onto your old bands and then machine them to profile. On the Dennis, we had the same problem and had rears made of Polyurethane by a fork truck tyre manufacturer in Cornwall. These are a bit shiny but do the job very well and were significantly cheaper than rubber. I am also pleased to say that the shine has dulled with use so we may go that route again. Big solid rubber tyres should cost you less than £1000 each.

Solid tyres are a pain!

Steve

Wonderful. A real step forward!

Well done!

Steve :-D

On the first axle, the number 186 is stamped on one side in the King Pin area - and on the other one it is stamped F2 although that could be KF2 or even XF2 and underneath that is "Leeds 6194"

 

Tony

'KF' is likely to be the 'Kirkstall Forge' of Leeds. They made axles for Dennis too!

Steve

I was surprised that it swelled as well but as Sarah the Chemist (as Andy says) spent six years in a Fluorine lab, I bow to her superior knowledge! I can say, however, that whilst smooth as silk when new and for a couple of years dry, once petrol had been introduced to the tank, the tap tightened up to the point where I am concerned that I might break it out of the tank. Hence my current thinking with cork.

I am also surprised at the table that does not recommend cork for contact with ethanol. Guess where I got the cork in the first place! Anyway, I have had another go. The first cork I drilled (high speed and low feed rate) came out 1/16" bigger than the drill which was quite a disappointment so I had another go with a smaller drill. That was OK so, as before, I ground it to size using the Dremel in the toolpost. this appeared to be OK so I trimmed it to length, oiled it all and put it back together ready for a trial.

Brighton is looming so we will have to get the lorry out and try it again very shortly. That will be my opportunity to change the tap but It might be a good idea if I invest in a nice new bucket to catch the fuel!

Steve

A lump of PTFE might be a good (and less original) alternative.

Hi Andy.

It was PTFE which started me on the cork trail in the first place! Sarah, one of the Jezebel crew, kindly pointed out that PTFE swells in petrol which is why the original tap jammed up. I am hoping still to be able to open it when we go to recover the Dennis from storage prior to the Brighton run.

Steve

Ok, I will make a point of it. The thought of losing 30 gallons of fuel in the road rather frightens me! I also have in stock, an ordinary old fashioned cork cut from a single piece. I think I will try making one up from that whilst I still have the procedure in mind and the tools on the bench.

Steve

Good thinking! I will go and syphon some petrol.

Yesterday, I carried on and finished the tap. First, I turned up two sleeves with a 5/8" BSF thread.

Then I turned the old thread off.

Silver soldered the sleeves.

A good clean up and it is ready to fit (pending cork trials of course!)

Lovely job! These things really finish a project off.

Steve

With Brighton getting close again, I thought it was time I did some work on our own lorry! I have, therefore, been looking at the fuel tap issue once again.

Whilst rummaging in a box of bits, I found this tap which I had forgotten about.

It was obviously designed for a cork sleeve but this is missing so my thoughts turned once again to the challenge of machining cork. I found a cork which I held gently in the three-jaw and drilled through at 3/8" diameter, very gently at high speed. This was successful.

The outside diameter presented more of a challenge.Many years ago, a dear friend had suggested that cork and rubber could be machined using a grinding process. I therefore set my Dremel pencil grinder up in the toolpost of the lathe with a grinding disc and pushed the cork sleeve onto a piece of bar held in the chuck.

With the lathe running at 300 rpm and taking 0.005" cuts, I ground the surface with this result.

It quickly became apparent that some dust extraction might be advisable! I did try heavier cuts but the wheel soon clogged so I stuck with five thou until the body of the tap pushed on.

After removing the sleeve, I cut a couple of notches with the Stanly knife to engage with the drive dogs and then assembled with a drop of oil. A quick poke through with a drill to give the 'open' position and Bingo!

The task for this morning is to put the correct threads on the tap to suit the lorry. One question remains, however. The cork is reconstituted crumb so will it survive without breaking up? I know it is alcohol resistant (!) but what about petrol? No doubt we will find out in due course!

Steve

The Subsidy scheme was introduced to try to provide the military with a group of similar lorries and reduce the need for spares. Unfortunately, the war started before it really got going so there was a very small pool for the government to pull from. Various items were standardised such as wheel bearings, tyre sizes (881x120 on the rear and 720x120 on the front) and control positions.

Interestingly, the Thornycroft has grease lubrication at the hubs but the Dennis specifies oil. 'Oil' is even stamped into the fill plugs in the hub caps. Whilst I think that oil is the better solution, there are no seals of any sort so the oil runs from the hub cap, straight through the bearing and down the inside of the wheel. We are OK at the moment as the bearings are new but once a bit of wear builds up, I can't imagine it staying in the hub for very long!

Steve

Hi Will.

They won't have been tapered bushes here as part of the 1912 Subvention Scheme specified the size of the wheel bearings, amongst other things. They are plain parallel bronze and fully floating with flat thrust washers at the inner end. Dennis used the same system as their 'Subsidy A' was also an approved vehicle. Ours actually runs on Thornycroft bearings at the rear as the ones we had were the best fit! I too am surprised at the amount of wear in the front wheels but have yet to inspect them. We are going to Devon shortly to pull the Dennis out of storage ready for Brighton so I shall take a look then. It may well be that we have to have them skimmed out and make over-sized bushes to suit but fortunately, I know a man who can do that!

The joint in the wheel is a perfect rust trap and I don't know why this new pair have survived so well. There may be a bead there but I should be very surprised if there is. Most companies used spoked wheels but I wonder whether there was a problem in getting these big castings so Thornycroft went for the plate construction. We will never know now, I guess. I understand that the plate wheels were made for Thornycrofts by Taskers at Andover.

Brighton is getting close now so it is time I did some more Dennis.

Steve:-)

Hi Dan.

As Andy says, I would ignore it! Our FWD also has three cracks just like that. They don't leak when parked but are inclined to weep when the engine is running. They are an annoyance but don't stop us running and I think the risk of doing more damage trying to fix them is quite high. Leave it alone and see what happens!

Steve

Hi KAGA.

The answer is that you talk to people and join a forum like this! Please will you start a thread to tell us about your FWD as we are all keen to see it. We (Great War Truck aka 'Tim', Father and I) have such a beast which we did fifteen years ago and have taken lots of photos through the rebuild process. I also have a photocopy of the original US Army manual which is truly outstanding and can copy that for you as well. Let us know what you are up to and what you need and we will do our best to help out.

Which part of the world are you in?

Good luck with it!

Steve

The Museum has now confirmed that the Maudslay has been entered for the London to Brighton run this May. It is now all hands to the pumps!

The hood bow hinges were drilled for screws and filed to remove the sharp edges. A polish with the flap wheel finished them off.

Then the special pivot bolts were fabricated using silver solder.

And the complete set of parts were laid out for a photo. They were mounted on the seat box yesterday to confirm the heights and the hood bows will be fitted to them this week, ready for the canvas man to make the hood. This is the last major part outside of the direct control of the Team so the sooner the bows are away, the better.

The steering wheel continues. As you can see, it is too big for my mill to be able to face the boss so a mate in Taunton very kindly allowed me to use his. The wheel is now with one of the TEam for polishing before sending to the powder coater.

The bonnet has broken hinges and only one handle so I have made up some new ones. This is the pattern:

First, I made a plasticard template and filed out four blanks.

The arms were than dished by tapping them into a curved groove cut into the top of a piece of MDF.

The main shape was dished by beating on a leather sand bag with a bossing mallet.

The edges were tapped over a stake before polishing.

Two replacement bonnet hinges were fabricated using my favourite silver solder.

The engine is now in as you can see from this terrible picture. Quite a lot of work is still needed to connect it to the rest of the vehicle, however!

The body mounting brackets arrived this week as well. They have been made by a local fabricator and have come out rather well, needing only a little tidying up and filling around the welds.

Still a lot to do but I will keep you posted!

Steve :-)

Hi there!

Yes, progress has been a bit slow recently. This having to earn a living really gets in the way! For the last twenty years or so, I have managed around 360 hours per year working on my various projects ( I have a chart in my workshop; sad git!). Last year, it dropped off to only 220 for a variety of reasons and this has slowed things down. I am also giving a few hours to the Maudslay project at the moment to get the thing ready for the Brighton run this year. That is going to be another last minute dash but we should do it, even if not complete in every detail. I will post a few pics of that later too.

How many hours do you chaps devote to your projects?

More later!

Steve

Interesting collection. Not quite enough of the lorry to identify. I wonder how many more collections like this there still are around the country?

Steve

I would agree with Richards postulation that it is American. That primer is identical to those in our American built Autocars.

I am pleased to learn of 'Park Drop Forgings' though. Something else to look out for!

Steve :-D

I have been doing a bit of blacksmithing today, by bending the steel parts of the hood bow frame. These are simple flat strips but have the ends curved upwards and a joggle to dodge the vertical parts of the frame when the wooden bows are the same width. I am a very inexperienced blacksmith so the quality of work is nothing special and will require a lot of cleaning up to hide the hammer marks but they should do the job.

The process starts with the lighting of my home-made firepot. This is fed by the fan from my dust extractor.

Then knock the curve over the beak:

Flatten it out.

Bend the first part of the joggle one way.

And turn it over to bend it back.

Repeat for the opposite hand and there are two hood bow irons.

No time at all to bend but a lot of hours still needed to clean up and finish!

Steve :-)

I'm in Dubai.....

Hi Will.

Many thanks for your kind comments. It is wonderful for us to be able to share our pastime with so many friends we have never met. We have had so much advice and encouragement and it is most gratifying to think we can encourage someone else in their project. I am convinced that anyone can do this sort of thing, though. You just have to want to do it!

Good luck with the three wheeler!

Steve :-)

I don't have much to say apart from how much I enjoy and apreciate your rebuild and the associated thread. Thank you for making all this available.

 

Thanks again, reegards, Matthew

Thanks Matt. I'm glad you haven't got bored with it yet! Perhaps we will meet on Brighton seafront again next year. We are hoping for nine Great War vehicles this time so it should be worth seeing!

Steve. :-)