Richard Farrant

Friday morning two Snatch Land Rovers heading London bound on M20 at J9 ....... possibly off to a show, Damyns Hall?

Hi Ron, The parts book states the following; The Contract and where possible, the WD number of the vehicle ...... stamped on a plate secured to nearside chassis member adjacent to spare wheel carrier. The chassis number is normally on this Ministry of Supply plate and quite likely that the number is stamped in the chassis close by. regards, Richard

Hi John, Hope you made out a H&S report to Mr. L, pointing out the Harry F designed a safety feature in that the gear lever was used to start the engine and that shorting out can lead to accidents

Hi Tony, I did not want to contradict you! You did ask for some input when I last saw you as for the Fergie ..... good choice, wonderful machine! cheers Richard

With the pump off, squirt some petrol in the inlet port and hand prime with finger over the inlet side, my guess is the valves are dry and not sealing. I always test a pump for suction and pressure before fitting.

hi Tony, I think you will find the threads used on your trailer are more than likely to be good old BSF. I can see from the photo, that the bolts in the chassis have BS sized hexagons. Far superior thread to UNF too! Looking good too! cheers Richard

Terry, I referred to the hub, not the rims. You will see a rotating eye on the centre of the hub. The 16 inch divided rims can be found on a multitude of British military trucks and trailers from 1940 to 1970's as well as some WW2 Canadian CMP trucks.

The hub looks to be from a 25 pounder field gun.

When I got my WM20, some 33 years ago, a chap in the Vintage Motor Cycle Club was able to match a Census number to my frame number.

I think any Contract number stating 6/VEH is post war, but not sure from when they started

I forgot to ask, can you post up the details off the contract plate please as that could throw some light on this.

That is strange because I do not think there was an EG series. I once had a Airborne trailer that had been owned by Post Office Telephones (painted on the side) and it had similar hinged lid arrangement.

This sounds like one of the diverted Saracens sent to NI, a cancelled export order I think.

Hi Bob, The civilian spec engines as fitted in fire engines, etc were painted grey, but they would not be dry sump. A check of the plate to see what Mark engine it is may give a clue. As for the yellow distributor, no idea. Any idea of past history of this Saracen? Richard

Other AFV engines have been mentioned in this thread by several posters inc Fox . Regarding B Range engines, they can be prone to blowing head gaskets between certain pairs of cylinders and heads often found to be in need of facing before refitting due to bowing, so this would be one reason for changing a unit in the field as surface grinding facilities probably not available. Also they can suffer valve burning. When you change an engine, you generally only indent for one item, but if trying to repair an engine in the field, a number of items would be demanded, only wants one critical part to be n/a and the job stops dead.

Unless they were Jaguar J60 engines, then they were likely to be rooted ! Lost count of the number of them I changed, with massive holes in the block with thrown rods, or broken camshafts and timing gear.

Bob, Another annoying thing is putting text of an article across a background photo, making it difficult to read.

Hi Nic, Here it is, on front of head just close to front engine lift loop. The puller may be necessary, Richard B may be able to help you on this.

Further to my email last night, as the Operation Stack situation on M20 is still going on some sections, I recommend watching the following webpage for up to the minute news direct from the Kent Police Traffic crews who are dealing with it. https://twitter.com/kentpoliceroads Current situation at Thurs 16th 0800, is Junc 8 (Maidstone) to Junc 9 (Ashford North) is closed Eastbound to stack lorries waiting for ferries. This means a diversion of leaving M20 at Junc 8 and using A20 to Ashford, then back on to M20 at Junc 9 to avoid going through Ashford town

Nic, The only thing that does not seem to have been mentioned is that the inlet manifold is heated by coolant until the thermostat opens, if the thermostat was to stick the manifold would be too hot and fuel could start to vapourise which will give you the symptoms that you are getting. Worth investigating. regards, Richard

Living near M20 at Ashford, I know the there are very little problems now, except where you near the Channel Tunnel where it has been building up at times, so advice is if there are reports of tailbacks at the tunnel, leave the M20 at Junc. 10 (Ashford South) and head down to A20, it is actually less miles. Once through Sellindge village you will pass Airport Café on left and exhibitor entrance is not far past that.

Chris, I remember seeing that good one when being shown around Len's property about 18 years ago, still looks like it did then, have a photo somewhere. regards, Richard

I was there on Saturday to mark out but there is not supposed to be any camping until Friday according to the website.

Yes, sometimes several cards come up when records are searched, but I suppose from the MoD perspective past history going back over 10 years would be irrelevant for their purposes and thus destroyed.

Depends where it has seized, could be crank bearings, pistons seized due to lack of oil or just rusty.