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Tomo.T

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Tomo.T last won the day on February 28 2021

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  1. Okay, The little tags are useful, however they have a bad side, anybody wishing to use to use these would do well to seal them with varnish or similar. They are right little dirt magnets ! The slightest touch with a grubby finger will leave its mark. The upside to this is that the colour changes to a darker hue and looks much more aged
  2. Hmm ! Good idea, I have seen the No. 1 terminals marked as such, the rest obviously follow round clockwise in firing order. I do have a spare mag but it won't be a speedy change over as it requires a major rebuild having got hot and shat it's insulation in a previous life !
  3. Having at last sorted the tubes,The next logical step, would be to provide the means for sparks to travel through them. I have been hoarding up bits for this eventuality, including A.E.S. 7mm black braided cable and brass connectors, which straight away presented a problem, due to the Thornycroft spark plug towers, and would have shorted out the connectors immediately, if fitted as supplied. A simple solution was to bend up the tabs to clear the towers, which is what I did. The next mission was to source a suitable material for the coloured tags, which identify the individual cables at each end. After a lengthy search, I came up with some coloured cotton braiding, which was ideal and very reasonably priced per metre. It only requires a dab or two of 'superglue' to stick them on and they certainly look the part once in place. Fitting the cables was straight forward enough, but I had to have two goes at it, leaving a little more slack the second time round. The mag terminals are top loading, which causes a close proximity issue between No.3 and the exhaust manifold. Steve Gosling reported trouble with this, so I've tried to route the cables round as much as possible and will fit the extended military heat shield ( oven ! ) which should hopefully forstall the problem. Stan kindly soldered up the terminal ends in situ and made a lovely neat job of it, which means that apart from the cutout cable, the entire electrical system is plugged in and ready for action.
  4. The driver is Royal Army Service Corps from the cap badge, also you can just make out the vehicle No. 19994. The rest of the top line would have read R.A.S.C. Nice pic. Tomo. ( Let me know if you want the signwriting replacing ! )
  5. It turned out I was a tad premature in declaring the HT cable tube 'fit' for further service. Despite the repair, once fitted the tube stubbornly resumed it's previous drunken posture and it was clear that further attention would be required to the wonky bracket. I decided the only solution would be to replace the bracket's arm with a new one which would be fitted to the original ends. I set to, with some trepidation and sawed the ends off. Stan got involved and quickly found a suitable brass offcut, which he taper turned to match the surviving original. The arm was re assembled and neatly silver soldered in situ, also by Stan. The design of this tube is problematic to say the least. The steel tube provides good protection to the HT leads, but is highly conductive. There is no room for an insulating sleeve either. I decided to paint inside and out with acrylic satin black which worked very well on the steering wheel and would hopefully provide some insulation to the tube. First problem was to clean out the rust from inside the tube. This was achieved with a rotary tube brush, a strong wire handle and a determined approach ! The painting brought to light further problems with compatibility. It turns out that Bonda Primer and Acrylic are not the best of mates and a bare metal restart was the only option. I started again with acrylic primer ! Finally a hard earned satisfactory finish was achieved. The brass was cleaned up and the tubes fitted on, straight and level and good, if not better than new.
  6. I have been asked to put up the No. of The Solex Repair Man who refurbished my MOV Rob Foreman, 01303840222.
  7. Yes please Dave, how will you send them ? I could pm. an email or postal address ? Thanks, Tomo.
  8. There has been rather a lot of polished brass just lately, so here is some bronze by way of a change. Mike Lewendon has been busy on the CNC mill producing a carburetor extension flange to suit the chosen Solex MOV 35 The flange originally held the butterfly governor valve, which does not appear on the cast of this production. It also has the side effect of adding 4 inches to the gravity feed fuel system. The choice of carb is one step forward from the original fitting and boasts some notable improvements over the original design, including butterfly throttle, idle mixture adjustment and a choke. It also came in at less than a third of the price of an original. This particular 'carby' came from a Gentleman in the south of France, where it had previously been providing sustenance to a vintage racing Bentley ! Judging by the enormous main jet, this is very likely true. The carb has since undergone a thirst reduction programme and now has standard 'J' type jets from the original spec.
  9. Hi Mike, The front axle was reversed, to allow drawbar steering when the chassis was utilized as a living van, at the end of its working life in North Yorkshire. It was said to have been used to accommodate WW 2, German POW's who were working on agricultural duties in the area. Well spotted !
  10. They are absolutely gorgeous ! Plus, now drilled through and lapped in again for active service.
  11. Sometimes, I get totally immersed in a task and these little fuel cocks are a 'prime' example. They have been beautifully made by Rosso in Australia and sent over to help with the restoration, which is greatly appreciated and a terrific boost to the project. They are now fitted and looking very smart. Another trinket from the jewelry box, the No.4 greaser, was tried for a fitting at the airfield. I had some concerns about the length of the supporting post, but all was well and it looked superb in its new home. The only problem is, I need another one ! Thanks Dave.
  12. The promised package of desirable goodies arrived today, all the way from Australia. 'Rosso' Rossington has been busy again and has produced some stunning items for Madam Thornycroft's jewelry box. First up is a fine set of primer cocks, in the English style. These prominent items sit in a line above the cylinders and were intended to provide a means to prime the engine for starting. In these days of high octane petrol they are no longer necessary and are purely decorative in their current form. I am tempted to drill them through to make them operate though? Also included was a simplified copy of a No. 4 Rotherhams grease cup as fitted to the king pins on J types. I have failed to find an original, despite four years looking. All this one needs is a knurled edge, the Rotherhams lettering and some grease ! Brilliant effort Dave, thank you very much.
  13. The water pump casing patterns (or prize turnips ) are coming on nicely. They were treated to a spin on the mighty Colchester to sand up the outer surfaces. A little filler was applied, followed by several coats of Bonda. This has produced a gradually improving surface with every flatting and if all else fails I shall have a lovely collection of table lamp bases. Next up is to cut the core pattern in half, which will be a delicate process for sure ! I have been warned to expect another package of goodies from 'Rosso' in Australia. I am eager to see what has been achieved despite the lockdown in NSW. I will post pics on arrival.
  14. A visit to Quainton for the Classic car show on bank holiday Monday was a good excuse to meet up with Steve and Tony Gosling, who had kindly brought some patterns for me to borrow. The three Musketeers had driven over in a convoy of WW1 lorries. The Halley of Barry Wetherhead, the Goslings J type and Graham's AEC, all arrived on time and made a fine sight, which I completely failed to capture on camera, (Anyone have pics of this pls.) Steve was deservedly awarded the best of show cup by the judges. I returned to the workshop to examine my borrowed treasure. The first step was obvious and some minor repairs were carried out to the patterns, followed swiftly by a fresh coat of Bonda. So I am on safe ground at the moment, but I fear it's not going to last.
  15. Attention has been focused back on the cylinder head where the locking tabs for the valve cap rings needed tackling. On examination it was difficult to see how these items were expected to work. Mike Lewendon suggested stepping the ends underneath the tabs on the valve cap rings, thus improving the grip. Also a slight straight edge was taken off the otherwise curved tabs. This led to a two day filing and fitting exercise which has now produced the desired result The fixings are temporary and will be replaced with the correct bolts as soon as EBay has provided
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