Tomo.T

The diff casing is now sporting a new set of BSF dentures, the operation went well, although I had to extend the thread on the short ends to match the originals. This has completed stage one of the diff project. The Thorny plates are coming on well, but require careful attention to avoid the paint 'puddling' around the lettering. Stan's experimental engine stand went back under the knife for some modification, to enable the crank case to sit either way up. This was rapidly achieved and the locating holes bored out with a very useful baby mag drill. The crankcase was tried out for a fit and it did. Swiftly followed by the crankshaft, which was dropped in temporarily to test the water. Now there's a fine sight to see ! Thanks to Stan, who gave up his day off to create This progress.

Some progress has occured in the diff casing department. After a thorough clean up with celulose thinners, two coats of 'Glyptal' insulating paint were applied to the inner surfaces. The remaining studs were removed and the threads and sealing face cleaned up prior to a complete denture replacement, once eBay has provided. I also found these signature items lurking in the stores and set to with the rotary whizzer to good effect. The cast iron has once again avoided the rust bug and the machining marks are still visible. They have now joined the queue for paint.

Ah ! Good and useful pic. Thanks. So does the spring simply hook into the mesh screen ?

Thanks Steve, I was not aware of the spring within. Does the odd shaped bracket on the rim support the lid in the open position ? The mystery part no. has been explained by Dave, who tells me the lid came from a DB 2 Thornycroft boat engine. It is basically the same item as fitted to the J type, with a different part no.

Considerable excitement has surrounded the arrival of a parcel from Australia. The contents have been eagerly fettled up and I present them here for your entertainment. As promised, Dave Rossington has produced a superb copy of the Oil Pressure Relief Valve, working from an original drawing. It is shown in position, but not yet screwed home. This is a real work of art and only requires the internal spring to be fully operational. What a fabulous thing it is. Thanks Dave ! Also enclosed is what we think is a genuine oil filler cap. This has a part no. 13418 which doesn't immediately line up with Thornycroft's 'J' number, however it looks correct and has cleaned up nicely. I have seen this same part on slightly later engines and it's possibly one of these. Here is the underside, the central spiggot has a hole for a ring and captive chain. This item has been in a fire at some point and arrived fully annealed which helped me to gently get it back in shape. The third bit of treasure is an original 'Whittle' fan belt which was lurking in the box like an arthritic rattle snake. I treated the leather blocks to some conditioner and worked all the metal links until it slithered properly again. This is the first part of the water pump assembly we have so far managed to gather. Great finds, very much appreciated, original stuff is getting very hard to find now.888

I'm not sure of an official torque poundage, but thinking it might as well do something, I did it up to BSFT ( British Standard Fairly Tight. ) The strap has been relaxing unbridled in the colonies for many years, by the looks of it and is now back in harness for further employment.

The diff bracing strap had suffered substantial erosion at it's extremities and was barely hanging on. Fortunately I had some 5/8 Whit. Pylon bolts from a previous find and with some skilful welding from Stan, the strap was restored to it's former self. The strap itself is an early example, having the riveted collar very near the end. This makes a bit of a performance out of fitting it and later versions have a longer shank (see previous pics.) After a short battle the strap is back in place and tightened up, with a bit of luck it can stay there as well !

These modified rear axle cases began to appear from January 1916.( Auriga ) As 2393 was a 1915 build, It would have started out with the early type, which at some point was changed for the beefed up version. We shall be returning to the original, which is in better nick.

Cleaned up the centre and did some remedial work on the paint. ( OK, I dropped it ! ) The wheel is now ready for a trial fitting which may even happen tomorrow. The alterations to the diff casing have made themselves known, via a photo sent to me recently. Compare these two pictures of an early and a later build, both J type. There was clearly a substantial build up of the lower arms, which was apparently instigated by the Army, after a number of rear axle failures.

The ASC (Army Service Corps ) No. was an early means of registering military kit, including vehicles. The system did not work in practice and there were many duplicate no's issued. The whole system was scrapped in early 1915 and replaced by WD ' bonnet ' No's.

Thanks for the kind words, this was a surprisingly complex team effort. I think it's fair to say we all learned something from it !

We next had to decide on a top coat, something satin, and similar to the original coating would be desirable. I settled on Simoniz 'durable' acrylic which is a new product and certainly gives a nice result. How durable it is remains to be seen, as the steering wheel takes a lot of wear, (or hopefully will one day ! )

Spent the day feckling the steering wheel forks with several helpings of U-Pol and much rubbing down, to simulate the original celulose coating. Results are quite encouraging and the spokes look much better for it. I rushed a coat of etch primer on, to seal the surface and hope to finish the rest of the prep tomorow.

Missing toenails now present and correct, cleaned up, and ready for some filler and etch primer. Shame I was just starting to enjoy that !

Always nice to see more Service colour on parade and after all fittings and several severely emaciated nuts and bolts had been removed. It was time to get stuck in wit brush. Although the cast steel had been virtually untouched by Antipodean rust, some of the nuts and bolts had provided a fine dining opportunity . The bolt shown put up a particularly good fight and after all normal channels had been exhausted. It was eventually ousted by a boilermakers air chisel manned by Mike. ( Resistance is futile ! ) Cleaning the inside black goop out revealed evidence of a sealing coat of dark blue grey paint, which once clean enough will be replaced by a coat of Glyptol as per the sump. Further progress on the steering wheel has occured, and after a good clean up I marked out the positions of the dreaded grips. The soldering process was far more fiddley than expected and the little toenails proved extremely skittish once heat was applied and the flux became liquid. The job quickly became a two man effort and I was tasked to hold the little blighters still, with a brazing rod while Stan did the technical soldering bit. This method improved as we went on and we would have finished the task, but for a shortage of three toenails, which will be rectified tomorrow.

Pushed on with the diff housing and made some interesting discoveries too. Firstly the material is not cast iron as originally thought, but cast steel. Some nice markings are visible The part No. is revealing. In the 1919 parts book this No. has been superseded by 58104. 'Auriga' states that 57935 was updated in 1915 but is not clear what was altered. Thornycroft part No's were updated chronologically and 58XXX series began to appear around Jan, 1915 This dates our new casting as earlier. One thing that is obvious is that the replacement axles are of the later type with 10 TPI. threads instead of the earlier 16 TPI. also noted by 'Auriga' By close of play today all parts that need it have a first coat of Bonda.

When the chassis was blasted, I was alerted to the presense of small cracks in the diff housing. There were also signs of previous repair. As a result, I put the rear axle on hold, hoping that something would turn up. Well something did ! Thanks to the generosity of team Gosling (and Blaster Mike,) I am now the custodian of a spare diff/ axle casing and an expedition was recently mounted to recover it from deepest Somerset. This is an early cast iron casing in excellent condition with a bonus of two replacement axles with near zero wear. The clean up continues.

The steering wheel has come on leaps and bounds today. The arrival of the rolled tube coincided with Stan being rained off and I prepped all the parts and made two spiggots from a short boiler tube off cut. Mike milled the necessary slots in the tube and I fitted the the ensemble together.....Which took longer than expected! It was now time for Stan to work his brazing magic on my wobbly collection of parts and suddenly we had a good solid steering wheel. After some further file and sanding work the job is now ready for the grips to be applied (with solder) and then some filler and paint. Thanks due to to Mike, Stan and Pipecraft Innovations Ltd. of Lancing, W. Sussex. who did a nice accurate job of the tube ring.

The half round brass extrusion was easily obtained online. It was tightly wound round a one inch tube before annealing to take out the 'spring' Once the method was established, it was just a case of tedious repetition, until the required amount of grips had been produced. We are now awaiting the arrival of the rolled tube to get stuck in to the steering wheel. Elsewhere, missing plates have been made up for the cylinder covers. One of them is a temporary replacement for the water pump base. (Which in our case, we don't have.) These were cut from 8mm plate which was the closest to the original. They were cleaned up, drilled and Mike Lewendon stepped up to mill out the centres. After a coat or two, they look indistinguishable from the originals. The cylinder blocks are almost ready for final assembly. After another 'final' coat of Service Colour of course. Far away in Australia, Dave Rossington ( finder of the engine ) offered to reproduce a relief valve if I could send him a drawing. Nigel Spender happened to have one to hand, so that was fired off to NSW. and Dave has already made the parts ! Here is a pic of his progress. Thanks Dave. Can't wait to see this little number back in it's proper hole.

Bad luck Toby. That switch must have had a jinx on it I reckon. 🙁

Ruston WWI aircraft engine factory to be demolished - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-lincolnshire-46096263

An Australian mate recently sent me a pic of an unusual find. A Sopwith designed product built by Ruston Proctor Ltd. What could it be ? A little research soon provided a likely suspect. Lady munitionettes with a newly built Sopwith Camel, at Lincoln during WW1. Ruston Proctor built these planes under license at a ( recently demolished ) factory in Lincoln. How did this lable get as far as Australia ? It was probably 'souvenired' from a plane wreck in France and taken home in an AEF back back !

I think the no. is on the top surface of that plate, in the centre.

R.A.F. type refers to their use by the RFC / RAF during WW1. This wasn't exclusive, the army had them too, but the name stuck. The numbers should be stamped on the outside in the centre. I would be wary of stories about the wartime history. Leyland famously bought up large quantities of these lorries from the War Dept. post war and refurbished them. They nearly went broke over it.

Hi Andrew, looks like an R.A.F. type Leyland which has been modified for civilian use after the War. The brush bar and recovery hooks are signs of previous military service. However the cab has been replaced and pneumatic tyres fitted in place of the original solids. There should be a number in the centre of the drilled front chassis plate which would confirm it's age. It is more or less impossible to find out where these vehicles served, but many were refurbished by Leyland after the War, the vast majority of which returned from France. Good luck with your project. Tomo