GlenAnderson

Hi. I have a second (12v) alternator to fit on my 200tdi engine to charge the auxiliary battery. I've used a second Lucas A127 unit, the same as my "main" alternator. It will sit on top of the timing cover, on the platform where the original Discovery air-coditioning pump would have sat. I think you'd maybe struggle for space to fit the original FFR alternator, but you should easily get a 24v version of the A127 from a lorry breakers - Daf 45 trucks use them IIRC. Are you going fully 24v? If so have you got a 24v starter motor? If Half-and-half, are you going to have three batteries? (one to start, the other two paired for the 24v bits). Just wondered what the reason is for keeping the 24v - just curiosity. In my experience, neither voltage is "better", but there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Once I've got some pictures of mine I'll post them for you. All the best, Glen.

Me too. Although I have to admit, even getting them to restart rolling the exemption from 2013 (40 year rolling) would be better than the current situation with them frozen at pre Jan 1st '73! Glen.

Maybe with other types of magneto - those where the advance/retard mechanism moves the whole assembly... But not in the case of a Lucas MO1. I'm pretty well acquainted with is the Lucas MO1 Mag-Dyno and their design is such that the advance and retard moves the points, whilst the armature's position relative to the crankshaft remains fixed. Optimum spark strength is attained when the points are opened with the armature and magnet at a precise point relative to each other (when the flux density is at it's peak). This is found at maximum advance on a MO1, retarding the ignition alters the relative positions of armature and magnet when the points open and results in a weaker spark. This was a well known weakness of the Mag-Dyno. If you get a good unit then they can be very reliable, but a bad one is not uncommon. As I said above, eventually I gave up rebuilding and replacing ones for my M33 and fitted an electronic replacement - now that was perfect, just a shame it cost me nearly £700! All the best, Glen.

I had no end of hot starting problems with my BSA M33. I had the Mag-Dyno rebuilt several times without any real success. In the end I fitted a solid-state electronic cdi type ignition from BT-H magnetos which sorted it 100% - albeit at a significant cost. If you rule out the carb spacer (and you should be able to get one easily from the likes of Draganfly Motorcycles or Burlen/Amal), then be brave and try starting the engine with the mag fully advanced when the engine's hot and it won't go otherwise. The mag produces it's strongest spark on full advance - just be sure to kick it hard, don't be gentle or it'll likely kick you back hard! All the best, Glen.

I've got two webbing belts, one inherited from my uncle who was an RAMC medic, the other was my dad's - he was a REME driver/mechanic. They were both skinny boys back then, and both belts are set to the same size (too small for porky me to get on these days!). The only way to tell them apart is that dad's one has had the rear buckles taken off. Believe it or not, until I read this thread tonight, I had no idea why! The things you learn... All the best, Glen. PS. The one thing I can remember my old feller telling me about his uniform was that once he got to Italy he begged, borrowed or stole the denim "overall" versions of the battledress as it was much nicer to wear than the serge type. Most of the pictures I have of him from then though he's in a filthy boilersuit!

Years ago, when my younger sister was having driving lessons, I was charged with finding her a suitable "first car". A friend's younger brother was parting with an Austin 1100 for the princely sum of £140 and it seemed like a good idea...I was living and working in south London at the time, and the car was in Greenwich. I had to get it home to mum's in Canterbury, and it seemed like a tidy enough motor to drive down no worries. I set off in bitter February weather to do the 50 odd mile trip. Only a fiver in my pocket and well before the days of mobile phones. I got to about Gravesend on the A2 when I lost all power. I thought I'd run out of petrol, but when I came to a stop the engine was ticking over lovely. Turns out the throttle cable had broke. Well, next to no money and no AA cover. No tools and an empty boot. Sunay night late too, and everywhere was shut in those days at that time of day. Looked like I was in for a bit of a walk... Then I had a brainwave - the car had one of those simple mono cassette players and a single speaker on the back shelf. I pulled the wire out from under the carpet, tied it off to the throttle linkage, passed it over the engine and through the front grille and back towards the drivers window. It wasn't long enough to reach through the window, so I had to hang my arm out by the mirror to pull it. I tied a loop around my finger and set off. Got me all the rest of the way home, but I nearly ended up with frostbite! I had to trundle along at about 45 (not so dangerous back then) and stop every 5 minutes to thaw my hand out!Hindsight being such a wonderful thing, I'd have stopped to look for a longer bit of wire I suppose!Glen.

Way back in the mists of time, when I was a kid, I can remember a car journey with my mother driving where she got quite agitated and upset at being tailgated on a fast bit of A-road. I'll always remember my dad's advice...He said "The bloke behind you can only have got there one way - he's caught you up. If you don't want to go faster, just look for somewhere to let him past". When I used to go out with him he always had one eye on the mirror looking out for what was coming up from behind. In a lorry he'd always be aware of a queue building up and would let people past when it got too big. It's something I do as a matter of course as a result. I've always found, when driving something slow, if you let people past when you can you often get an acknowledging wave or toot on the horn as they go by - in contrast to some of my colleagues who'd seem oblivious to the huge queues building behind them who get long angry horn blasts, really desperate overtaking manoeuvres and hand gestures involving one or two raised digits. I think that any steps taken to improve visibility can only be of benefit, but it's also worth pointing out that defensive driving is more than just lighting yourself up like a Christmas tree - you have to be really aware of what's going on around you. A weather-eye on the rear view mirror for someone approaching at high speed might give you a chance to take your own avoiding action - a flash of the hazards or a swerve of your own onto the hard shoulder... On a separate note, a poster above mentioned the relative visibility of different colours of high-viz. On the railway we use orange, with retro-reflective Scotchlite strips. In daylight you can see the orange from over a mile away, where yellow blends in much more. At night it's the Scotchlite you see, way before anything else. All the best, Glen.

Others have pointed out the regulations regarding the use of Amber beacons, but one thing that is worth pointing out regarding their use is that if you are travelling in convoy and the fellow in front has one on, they are pretty frustrating to sit behind! Glen.

Just my tuppence worth... Trailer boards are dirt cheap - a tenner or so if you shop around. As has been pointed out, their triangular reflectors are really only for trailers, but again a trailer supplier should be able to sell you a pair of large round reflectors for very little money. Fit a modern retro-reflective number plate to the board and connect it to your wiring with a hidden 7-pin socket and you're away, probably for less than £30. Much safer than before, and legal. If your electrics are a little marginal charging wise then you could disconnect your original lights whilst the trailer board is connected. Even if you're running 6v you can get suitable bulbs for a modern trailer lamps. Paul Goff (google norbsa) can even supply halogen stop/tail and indicator bulbs in 6v so you can get high brightness from a lower current requirement if you really need to. I had a halogen 35/35 watt 6v headlight bulb in my old BSA and it was one of the best bike headlights I've ever used. Having driven a pre-war Ford 8 as daily wheels for a while, the benefit of better lighting does not just stretch to MVs! Glen.

BSA's have the same kind of arrangement, and the same problems if left to stand for long periods. The BSA has a small sprung-loaded non return valve that can get gummed up or held open by a piece of debris, and then they can wet sump in a matter of hours! Another "problem" with the BSA is that the gearbox main output shaft has only the most basic of sealing. Normally, that's not too bad a thing as the gearbox oil naturally migrates out slowly and lubricates the rear chain - all you have to do is keep an eye on the level in the box and not be too suprised/worried that it drops. The problem comes when you leave the bike canted over on it's field stand overnight - then you can come back in the morning to find the contents of the gearbox in a puddle on the ground! I've no experience of Nortons, but I'd sy that the BSA, if up and running, would be worth in the order of £3000-£3500. Fully road registerd and MoT'd might well add another £1000. I've just sold a 1948 civilian BSA M33 (the same rigid/girders cycleparts as the M20, but an OHV 500cc engine) and whilst it was MoT'd and taxed, it wasn't immaculate and the engine was a year newer than the frame - and that fetched £4300. Good luck with the bikes - I've a parts manual for a WM20 on ebay at the moment, as well as a Haynes Super profile for them if you're interested... All the best, Glen.

I second Adrian's comment - a 4x2 with a twin axle trailer would be fine. If you want the reserve capacity then go for a three axle trailer or a twin-steer tractor (like a Scammell Trunker) to take your gross to 38 tonnes, but the extra complexity, tyre wear, fuel consumption and weight offset the extra payload, and if you're not going to use it it's not worth paying that penalty. These days, most hauliers look to get 10bhp per gross tonne as a minimum, but a four-wheeler pulling a twin-axle trailer at 32 tonnes will make reasonable progress with 180bhp and above. Obviously the more the better in terms of performance, and ideally I'd think you'd want to try and find something with at least 220bhp. Some of the older trucks I drove as a youngster would truly fly as they weren't speed limited, so although they'd die away rapidly on an uphill gradient, you could let them run way over 70 downhill to make up for it (well, you could if you were young and brave/stupid enough!). That said, these days you really can't chance your arm above 60mph. Probably the best working truck of my carrer was an ERF E14 4-wheeler with a 410bhp 14-litre Cummins, Eaton twin-split 12-speed gearbox and Rockwell back axle. That wagon just pulled and pulled. The small cab was a bit cramped for living in, but I really enjoyed driving it and was quite upset to have to see it go. The EC14 that replaced it just didn't have the same character, despite the much nicer cab. Any of the late 60's/70's trucks mentioned should be capable of 50+ and not too sad on the hills, but obviously it depends entirely on power and weight. My preference would be a Scammell Handyman, I've always liked the look of the Michellotti cab design, and one of those with a Rolls engine would make a nice half-show, half-work wagon. Economy would depend entirely on your driving style and load, but if you budget between 4 and 6 mpg laden and working hard, and around 10 empty and driving like a nun you won't be far out. Glen.

One of my favourite passtimes on a sunday was haring round the local multi-storey with my mates... God, the things you forget... I really hope I'm not too draconian with my boy as he grows older - although I think my dad would have had a fit if he'd known half of what I got up to! Glen.

Hi. Converting to 12v is straightforward, but you do need to source nearly everything - wiper motor, gauges and their regulator, bulbs, heater motor, starter motor, 12v alternator or dynamo, horn etc. etc.. Surprisingly enough, the sealed ignition system is 12v already - there is a dropper box on the ignition feed to the coil to give 12v out from the 24v in. The loom is fine with the higher currents as it appeared (on the ones I've converted) to be the same gauge of wire throughout as the standard loom. I understand you're having trouble sourcing the parts for your military 24v alternator, and this is why you're considering the swap? I have to say that generally, a 24v system works more reliably than a 12v one and, given the fact that you've got all the 24v stuff already and none of the 12v bits I'd be looking to fit a 24v version of the Lucas A127 alternator. This is physically the same size as the 12v one you'd likely be fitting, but will marry up with the electrics you already have. If I remember correctly, you can fit a 24v diode pack to a 12v version as that's all the difference is between them. Rebuild kits come up on eBay, but a marine supplier or commercial vehicle breakers would be a good place to look too. Hope this helps, Glen.

Hi Runflat, The original wheels have cast iron centres, profiled to hold the tyre on their inner edge. The outer edge is held by an aluminium casting bolted up from the side. The hub bearings are carried directly in the wheel, and bear on cycle type cones on the axle. I have a pair of new wheels identical to those in your link that I could make fit, but as you correctly surmise, my existing axle diameter and length are way out. I'd need to remove the entire original axle and replace it with a longer, smaller diameter one. I'll try and get some pictures up to make it clearer... Thanks for the input though, I am unwilling to scrap the trolley as it's a useful thing to have about, but equally it's a bit daft to spend too many hours and too much cash on something that could be replaced so easily! All the best, Glen.

Hi. Yes, without success unfortunately. Glen.

Hi all. I thought I'd plumb the wealth of knowledge available on this forum as an Internet search has proven frustrating... I have in the shed an extremely elderly sack-truck I inherited from my father. The tyres on it were well past their best when I was a boy and are now so bad they render the trolley useless. I can bodge some modern wheels on - but the originals are still sound and the work involved is going to be quite time consuming to do properly, involving replacing the axle, and likely irreversible. Call me a sentimental old fool, but it also wouldn't be the same afterwards and I feel I might as well just buy a new barrow as fit so many new bits. They are about 8" dia and 1-1/2" wide, with a centre dia about 7". I have pulled the tyres from a pair of cheap wheels from Screwfix, but they are going to need boring out and profiling to fit and my lathe chuck won't hold them. One possibility is to fabricate some kind of jig on the faceplate, but it's going to be right on the limit of what will actually fit (I have a pre-war Harrison with about 6" throw over the bed). Having just wasted another half-hour or so head-scratching in the shed I had the brainwave of asking here if anyone had any ideas! I can take some detailed measurements and photos if needed... All the best, and thanks in advance for any suggestions, Glen.

Hi gritineye... Would you perchance be the same Bernard who kept a Scammell Explorer at a yard in Ticehurst back in the mid-nineties? If so, I'd just like to say hi - I worked there for a few months in 1996 until I got fed up with rubber paychecks and moved on to something more reliable! All the best, Glen.

Any good? Well, the quoted capacity is 4 watts. Now, watts is volts x amps, so 4w divided by 24v gives a current output of 0.16667 amps. Just about enough to power one of the instrument light bulbs. I can't really think of any use for it at all. It certainly won't provide any worthwhile charging for a pair of hefty automotive batteries. Being as the vehicle described in the initial question was garaged in a townhouse I'd imagine any solar type charger was likely to be impractical. Unless you had a south facing garage door and mounted a panel nearly the same size as the door itself onto it. At the moment "alternative" methods of battery charging are generally cost-prohibitive if you have ready access to the mains. By the time you've bought a high output solar array and then the control gear to regulate it, you'd have paid for a good pair of 12v battery conditioners and the power required to run them for decades. If you're out in the wilds then things are different and the cost/benefit equation is skewed the other way. Maplins do a (nominal) 60w solar array for £199, one of them for each battery would give a useful 3.4 amp charge... If you were going off grid then they'd keep the batteries topped up with enough spare to run a phone charger and a few luxuries like a laptop and maybe a small cooler, but not much else. But a £400 outlay is pretty steep when you consider that you could get a pair of very clever 12v mains chargers for under £100 (or not so clever ones for under £20) then run them for pennies a day - like I said above, put them on a timer, they only need to be on for 1-4 hours a day. All the best, Glen.

You can charge them simultaneously as two individual 12v batteries using a pair of Opti-Mate style conditioners. This is arguably better than charging them as a pair at 24v. Whatever charging option you go for, I'd plug it into a timer socket so it was only live during the hours you're going to be up and about, rather than when you're asleep upstairs. All the best, Glen.

You have a point there! I'd probably have raged impotently and incoherently from somewhere inside the dust cloud! All joking apart, I imagine being present at the time would have been a seriously unpleasant experience - particluarly if you'd had young family membes with you. I've no doubt that some of the "spectators" would have cheerfully throttled him if they'd been able to! Still, as has been mentioned above, he has faced the authorities and been penalised as they have seen fit. End of. Glen.

I'm glad I wasn't there. If I had, I think I'd have been likely to take matters into my own hands and probably would have got myself arrested... Glen.

Lovely looking trailer - I think the proportions of those are just about "right", especially behind a Land-Rover. I don't doubt the price reflects the time/cost/effort in getting it to that condition. My one criticism would be that, having taken the time necessary to get the whole thing looking so nice, it's totally spoilt for me by the fact he's not taken the small step of lining up the slotted screws on his data plates... :shocked: A trivial detail I know, but my old apprentice instructors would have ripped me to pieces for such "sloppiness". I'm currently chewing over plans to build myself a small trailer for camping etc and must get up close to one of these one day to run a tape measure over it to get the sizes down. I just have to decide whether to build it "light" and unbraked, or "sturdy" and braked. Makes a fair difference to costs one way or the other! All the best, Glen. PS, so as not to hijack the thread completely, I always thought the Newbury site was ideal for this type of autojumble. IMHO the "Old Sodbury" crowd really missed a trick when they decided to pull out from here and piggyback onto other shows instead.

I've used palletline on several occasions and have always found them both good value and efficient. Last time was about 2007; a 2.25 litre diesel Land-Rover engine and all ancillaries, strapped and wrapped on a euro-pallet. Canterbury to Doncaster was £55 plus vat. At the time you couldn't have driven half of the round trip for that in diesel, let alone when you add in the "cost" of a day of your time. If you live somewhere (or the engine needs picking up from somewhere) where it will be difficult for a large lorry to access make sure to tell them. Usually you'll find it does the journey in three stages: Collection and delivery to hub on one lorry, trunk from hub to destination hub on another, then final delivery on a third. The last thing you (or the delivering driver) needs is for it to arrive at a housing estate on a 40ft artic! Also, make sure they know to collect/deliver with a tail-lift if you don't have a handy forklift at each end! All the best, Glen.

Just split each joint upstream of the pump in turn, either working the pump priming lever or turning the engine over, until you get diesel at each joint. Once it's up to the pump, crack each injector in turn until you get fuel there too. Once you've done 3 or 4 of the injectors it will probably start. If you try the airline method mentioned above make sure you have the pressure of the airline wound right down. You won't need more than about 10 psi, preferably about half that. My dad used to have a diesel cap for his lorry that had an airline coupling fitted to it, and a hose and regulator that connected to the lorry's airtanks. Having seen him give himself a bath in diesel I can definitely say it gets really messy if you put too much pressure in! Glen.

I was involved in painting a lot of stuff that went to the former Yugoslavia in the early ninties. It was a very, very "quick and dirty" job. The lights, windscreens, mirrors and glass were all wiped with an oily rag to stop the new paint sticking - no proper masking - and the paint was whatever white could be sourced quickly and cheaply (usually household emulsion) thinned down with petrol and applied in two quick coats. Everything got painted, even the canvas. The results were suprisingly effective and hardwearing, although the ones painted with emulsion did tend to yellow a bit over time. I helped respray one of these vehicles (a 101" radio truck) back to "standard" some years later and the white was an absolute swine to get off. All the best, Glen.