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The 'boss' Lord Nuffield came out to Aust. late 1944 and he toured around for a few months. Here he is seen inspecting a early production Morris CS8 truck that has been disposed out of service and sold to a farmer in N.S.W. By late 1944 the British W.D. 15 cwt trucks held in vehicle parks were declared obsolete and some were offered to civilians for essential use i.e farms and bush fire brigades. The Aust. army had thousands of Canadian CMP and U.S. 4X4 and 6X6 types and the 'odd ball' 4X2 vehicles were beginning to be sold off well before the war had ended. The W.D. trucks were sold through normal civilian trade outlets . Lanes Motors in Melbourne were the Nuffield agency , during mid 1945 they were selling CS8 and PU trucks though their sub agencies throughout Victoria. A elderly chap from Whittlesea who rang me recalled as a 15 year old, his father purchased a CS8 from the local Morris dealership, the truck was put to work and it towed a horse float to Sydney and back twice...... they had trouble registering the truck as it came without a spare wheel.. no problem, they went back to the Morris dealer and another CS8 was stripped down for spares . I was offered the rear axle from this donor as it was still on the farm. The CS8 was traded in for a new Land Rover in 1952.

The battle for Hong Kong. A line up of abandoned Morris-Commercial vehicles, the last in line is a CS8 water truck. https://digital.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/1941hkbattle/en/data.php?show=item&id=UN00018

Not much to report other than I found this interesting pic of a CS8 undergoing a re-spray job. This CS8 GS body has been modified and fitted with what looks like metal body panels. The text describing the pic has the truck described as a PU which it aint. Was this a factory prototype ? Pic was found in this magazine https://morrisregister.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Morris-Monthly-February-2020.pdf

Would be nice if we could travel back in time. This is a 1947 advert from Rockhampton QLD. for new Morris 'Desert Buggy' engines. 100 quid was a small fortune in those days.

A few pics of Dodge WC in use with the RAAF in the Northern Territory Aust. Coomalie airstrip.

Hi This problem could be one of many possible faults. As Ron mentioned: the HT volts will be in the kV range ... somewhere upwards of five thousand Volts reaching to twenty thousand .Multimeters usually don't measure that high a voltage . Keep your hands well clear of the HT ... it can give you a nasty surprise. This might help https://oldcroak.com/testing-101/ More science https://www.gasenginemagazine.com/equipment/tools/how-to-bench-test-magneto-zm0z22djzols/

Just going by photographic evidence: in the SW Pacific Area , the RAAF ( Air Force) were issued with some WC 3/4 Weapons Carriers and some Command Cars.... whereas the army were using mostly CMP trucks and MCP trucks. Seems to be a good number of surviving 3/4 Weapons Carriers here in Australia but some were post-war imports by Surplus dealers..... These are Scenes at Finschhafen P.N.G. with US soldiers. Strafing damage by Japanese aircraft in the Northern Territory Australia advert: Surplus dealer in Sydney .

Hi . The post-war Commer engine ... what a excellent source of parts for the Humber guys - engine parts for vintage British vehicles are scarce enough , but even more so for those of us located outside of the U.K. No such luck with post- war Morris engines as a source of parts....at least the crank main bearings in these Morris OH engines are shells - R.B. kindly sent me a old set. I found a pre-war NOS Morris 6 head gasket at Auto Surplus but there were two types... the early ones ( like I found ) must have caused problems , the later revised gaskets have improved sealing . I have 6 of these engines .. one is out of a pre-war civilian C model truck .. the rest are from my WW2 era CS8 and PU wrecks. I recently got a price for a set of Morris rings from a UK supplier... around $600 Aust... yikes 82mm + .040" is very close to 3.25" Dodge WC size but.... the Morris rings are metric in width (2mm) compression and (2.5) mm oil control plus the ring grooves in the Morris pistons are unusually shallow. The VW beetle rings are dimensionally correct except for being far too deep for the shallow Morris piston grooves , the VW rings would have to be narrowed down somehow. I don't want to deepen the Morris grooves .. very risky as a piston top would break off. I can get a ring set custom made .. a business down in Melbourne . The rings being so narrow, are somewhat fragile and they snap easily . Another oddity with these engines is: the crankshaft was made without counterweights - like a Model T Ford.

The CS8 engine block showing the broken water jacket bolts. Four of the bolts (M6) came out without snapping. The M6 tapped holes are 46 mm centre to centre (x) and 82mm (y). Using the right angle triangle formula I confirmed my measurements are correct. This repair attempt could end in tears but the block is worth saving. The 1937 to 39 Morris 'big six' sedan and some of the CV trucks had the same 82mm bore engine but there are variations in the cyl. head, pistons, water pump , manifolds , carburetor and the water jacket casting .

This is one method that has been effective in repairing broken water jacket bolts.. In this case a Hudson car. The engine block was mounted on a drill press. The Hudson owner has suggested: a mag drill would be another method. . https://metalworkforums.com/f316/t205712-drill-guide-plates-drilling-sheared-bolts?highlight=Hudson

Just about every CS8 I have seen here has suffered with bent or twisted front end chassis rails, must have been a weakness there in the design or people have tried to pull or tow something heavy from the front end "It's a old army truck, it is indestructible" I checked the other engine and the crank bearings are in good shape, this is relief. . I can make a good engine out of the two - hopefully. Another problem is; the little 6mm water jacket cover bolts have broken off, I soaked them for a long time, they are made from plasticine , not steel, the heads snapped off with only a small turn of the spanner. Might have to drill and tap the next size up .

Not much progress. I had a engine block bored but to my dismay, I discovered it has a crack along the edge on top next to a water outlet. Back to square one, I have stripped down another block . A big hold-up is: the babbit alloy big end bearings will need to be redone. I have decided to tackle this myself, the pouring has been done successfully by a few restorers . A learning curve but we all need to learn new skills. Most of the old engine machine shops here have closed down, it is very hard to find somebody with some know how about vintage car engines. The chassis is a little bent here and there, some repairs needed. The CS8 chassis is not highly rigid, it only has two rivetted crossmembers , I would think that when travelling over rough terrain, the chassis will 'walk'a bit - maybe this was a design feature.

Hi Rupert. The ex-West. Aust. Humber is in Melbourne undergoing a long term restoration. I believe a UK immigrant imported the Humber, late 1950s. There are more than one in N.Z. A N.Z. govt. Department imported a few in the 1950s.. think it was from Hong Kong. Matthew Lombard has the remains of one.

A few examples have survived down under. During the later years of the war, there was a plea or demand coming from farmers and primary producers for light utility vehicles for farm use. The Federal govt. approached the UK with a order/request to supply these vehicles. Newspaper reports indicate that, initially 1200 tillies were to be shipped to Australia but it appears the actual number that arrived was far less. In mid 1945, adverts appeared in newspapers across the land announcing the arrival of the tillies, ranging from Tasmania across to Perth West. Aust. A permit was required in order to purchase one of these vehicles. The few tillies that did arrive, ( maybe 200-300 ) were sold to civilian farmers through Standard, Morris and other official dealerships.. These were brand new vehicles, not used. Some of these dealers would have received as few as two or three tillies to sell, one dealer advert has just one Standard available. The most numerous survivors are Standards, with only a very few of the other types still in one piece. I know of only one Morris tilly restored to running condition, a mammoth effort that required parts from two or three wrecks and much fabrication of new panels involving many hours of labour.

Brisbane scenes with K2/Y and a Ford GTB bomb loading truck. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C189286