Richard Farrant

Lesson learnt! You never use a torque wrench to undo something. It nearly always needs more torque to undo. I have had to undo flange nuts on earthmover axles and you have to use a torque multiplier on them.

Here is a photo of a combined one, yours appear to be separate ones,

From what I see they are the ones used for MK/MJ, TK, RL, QL. Not TM as they had different axles.

Bedford hub spanners by looks of it, normally they are double ended.

I am pretty sure these burners were still in use in the 70's and 80's as the REME workshops still had an overhaul programme running during that time, if not later.

From recollection of the Eager Beaver parts book, the power steering unit was under a Coventry Climax NSN, I can see it is a Danfoss, but likely a unit fitted to a Climax forklift in military service. The Eager Beaver was a 'parts bin' vehicle made up of parts from a number of different make vehicles.

This link below shows what could be the production model of the ground power unit, the first two or three adverts alongside a Valiant. https://www.aviationancestry.co.uk/?searchQuery=Houchin&startYear=1909&endYear=1980

The one shown above was less than half the height of the trailer in question so they could get close up to the aircraft, I saw a lot of these as the makers used the loading ramp at our workshop to transport them away. I did notice on the contract plate that it was 'prototype' some likely it was a one off

To narrow this down a bit, I see that the equipment was made by Houchin. Their factory was opposite where I worked at Ashford and knew a lot of people who worked there. Their speciality was ground power and engine starter units for aircraft and these units could be seen at civil and military airports around the world. As they moved to a large purpose built factory at Ashford in the late 50's I would date it in a period roughly 1955-59. The company went through take overs and the factory is no longer there.

There is a better Champ than that for sale in South Australia

Hi Rob, The Mk5 Coles had a 760 engine and a bit more poke than the Militant Mk1, as you say, a lot of weight up top!

It say Vulcan on the description. That was a British make of lorry.

Ha, ha, I know those wretched lights at that junction! Wish I had seen you come through Ashford. I bet it goes a bit faster the the Militant with the Coles bridging crane, they weighed about 25 tons. Richard

Thanks Lex, The original wire wound pistons for the Commer were made by BHB as were those for the c.1950 Matchless. It was a Matchless owner in the Workshops who realised the difference in pistons and the clearance differences!

Hi Ron, I have been rebuilding engines of all shapes and sizes for over 50 years. I think that each make of piston should be considered independently. The manual would refer to using factory supplied pistons. As years go on different manufacturers will be making pistons for replacement. Usually there is a leaflet in the package giving clearance per inch, I know Hepolite and Wellworthy did this. Things can go wrong though and I will give an example, not a motorcycle, but was related to military vehicles. I was working in a MoD Workshop rebuilding engines for vehicles and was given a small batch of Commer engines to build, all done to the manual, block was already bored and prepared. I checked the gap on the rings, put it all together and it went in to the test house. Not long after I was told the engine had tightened up and I had to dismantle it for inspection. It revealed that the pistons had nipped up. On examination it was found that the pistons were not of the make of the original specification and that the originals were, if I remember correctly a 'wire wound' type working on a tighter clearance. Luckily the pistons were not damaged and the block was honed out to the correct clearance and all was well. I am also aware that during the war period there were inconsistencies with the alloys used for pistons and there were problems with expansion. I had my WM20 seize once and on removing the piston (STD bore) I measured it against the REME Inspection Standards and it was larger than plan size, which bore out what I had learnt. Regarding this Triumph piston I would ascertain the manufacturer of it and see what info can be found. regards, Richard

Don’t forget in those days speed limit for over 3 ton vehicles was 20mph, so understandable that abnormal would be lower speed limit.

The wording you can see is Radicon, they were well known for worm drive gear units and part of David Brown gear company. The winch is definitely not from a QL as they used Turner and Wild winches and very unlikely to be original equipment on a Canadian vehicle.

OK, I spotted them on the HCVC forum

Hi all, Just seen these wheels on a Aussie forum, looks like the diff is missing from the axle. Does anyone recognise them? Apparently they are in Brisbane

A lot of the British military vehicles did not have electrical fuel gauges in WW2 period, there were vehicles with mechanical gauges in the tanks but most were supplied with graduated dipsticks, the Bedfords had a pressed metal one about 2 inches wide and marked off in gallons. I believe in the army it was a chargeable offense to run out of fuel, so no excuse that the gauge must have been wrong!

Hi, Forgive me for asking, but you say you cracked the injectors pipes open, but did not mention about bleeding the injection pump. This video might give you some tips, first part the guy is changing the fuel hoses due to "diesel bug" but his bleeding procedure may be useful to you.

Ah, caught out there as I was going by the original bonnet, thank!

That is an original Hercules engine, it runs superbly given its age.

Something else to check is wear on the butterfly spindle and where the spindle fits in the carb body. Excess wear here will cause all sorts of running issues. Replacement carbs are available and may be easier than having the body rebushed.

In my early working days I worked for a Massey Ferguson dealership and we still had a lot of customers using TE20 tractors. I would say that you should do a compression check, noting the pressures and if you have two low ones on adjacent cylinders you have a blown headgasket. Or you might have some tight valve clearances. If it was running last in TVO mode (TED is a VO engine) then valves did suffer.