Richard Farrant

Surely piston rods and con rods are the same thing? Unless you mean the push rods??

Hi John, The QL was likely to be an officers 'gin palace'. Some of the QL's with Command type bodies soldiered on until the mid-1970's. I remember one coming in Workshops about that time. I don't think there was a similar type body on a RL at that time, apart from mobile workshops. Richard

That sounds like the Haslar smoke generator. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11344424

Hi Dirk, Not surprised that you found nothing on WW2 as this was a 1950’s vehicle. Not sure there were many built.

That's a coincidence, Appledore station is about 2 miles from where I work!

Wow,, amazing, that is a rare vehicle. Is this in Italy?

It has been removed now

Possibly an Egyptian 2-6-0 then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_State_Railways_545_class

Hi Wally, That sounds plausible as most I have seen are wartime vehicles that could well have been through a rebuild or major overhaul in the 1950's, although I know of Champs and Austin K9 that also had them painted under the bonnet. I think Henlys rebuilt Champs at one stage.

Clive, I understood them as postwar era markings and were thought to be receipt numbers at Vehicle Storage Depots. I seem to recollect reading on a website about them once. I have seen them on Champs, Austin K9 etc.

This plate is for a Reliance, according to the contract number, it is British made and would doubt it was anything to do with Reliant. There was a company called Reliance in Yorkshire making factory trucks and highly likely this is them, hence RT Ltd could be Reliance Trucks. Have a look at this link as a family member of the company owners had posted on a website saying they had the firm's history, there is an email address so worth a punt to see if they have any info on wartime production. Definitely not USA built due to the contract number. http://www.ltsv.com/sv2/forum_post_view.php?post=389&offset=0

I would think it likely the reason for carrying the generators was to reduce damage to the electrical equipment. I recollect reading somewhere of the damage sustained towing genny trailers over rough terrain, may have been in a REME report. The ride on the lorry would have been better than bouncing around behind it.

I would say the last photo is a Dodge towing the trailer. The RAF had a lot of them in that theatre. I guess the WOT1 Fordsons were OK towing on the flat but with rod and cable brakes they were not up to towing trailers on terrain like that. I am assuming the WOT1 was not equipped with a vacuum brake system for trailers.

If someone changed the engine, maybe the previous engine suffered from overheating. I would be looking at having the radiator checked by a specialist to see if it is restricted. Putting a hosepipe up it is not a guaranteed test that all the tubes are clear. Also now you are at this point is to flush out the cyl block waterways. There is no reason to fit an electric pump if the original pump is OK. Taking the thermostat out (I think you said it was missing), would allow the water to pass through the system too quickly and not have time to cool properly. I know of people who have done this on engines and ended up putting a restrictor plate in to slow the coolant. These vehicles operated around the world in all climates so there has to be a simple answer to your problem.

Hi James, Those adjustable width pulleys are not that unusual, they are used where both drive and driven pulleys are on fixed points and a separate tensioner pulley cannot be fitted. They work well on the Saracen except when some heavy handed brute has over tightened the locking screws (the lock-wired ones) and distorted the thread in the pulley sheave. cheers Richard

Hi Aussie, Sorry to have been a bit blunt in my last post. Whoever put that electric pump on the Saracen was not curing a problem. There is a possibility that the engine's water pump has had the impellor split (they are pressed on) and the parts could be obstructing the ports in the pump. The water flow in these engines is not like common engines, there are differences. Once the front armour is off, the rad can be removed leaving the fan assembly, and it will be a good exercise to make sure the fan belt adjusting pulleys are free to move, the sheaves are threaded. regards, Richard

Simple solution is to change the pump, they are available as are parts to repair it. Not that bad a job to remove rad and fans.

If the intake manifold gets too hot you will suffer fuel evaporation. The frost on the outside of the carb is something that the Austin 6 cylinder engines suffer from when cold, they do not have a heat flap. The occurrence is not unlike when you remove a tyre valve and the rush of air produces a frost on the valve.

If the flap is removed and engine is run without it, the hot gases can still heat up the inlet manifold, if you look at the flap when in hot running position it shuts off the area of the hot spot. When cold the hot gases are circulated over the flap on to the hot spot.

Simon, Truck, 2 ton, 4x2, Refueller, 350 gal., Albion AM463 with acknowledgement to Bart Vanderveen's Fighting Vehicles Directory !

Hi Bryan, here is what you are looking for;

Hi Bryan, I seem to remember that these particular Landies had road tread tyres and they could have been 6.50-16 and always looked a bit skinny. Looks like your Land Rover is on 7.50-16 and looks much more business like. For its age it looks like you have found a good one.

There were 70 Dodge 'Malcolm Campbell's' according to the Chilwell Census, F18001 to F18070

I think it did, but I also recall reading about one in use in Kent in the reminiscences of a Royal Signals dispatch rider and I think it was used by the regular army. The magazine article was probably from nearly 40 years ago but it stuck in my mind.

I have seen reference to these Dodge armoured vehicles before, so not a 'one off' and they were referred to as "Malcolm Campbells".