Tomo.T

Mike has progressed the steering box bracket which needs bushing to match it's partner. (The original part was cracked and I found a better replacement.) Unfortunately the inner surface was found to be 'out of round' and the whole steering box had to be spun to clean this up. The new bracket was then bored out ready for a bush to be fitted. A spare bit of old pb has been donated by Stan which should clean up nicely for the required bush and that is the next job. Pics by Stan.

Front line engineering is held up atm. We are in the queue for liners and also valves, which is a tad frustrating to say the least. However, there are many supporting tasks to keep us busy and the project board is overflowing with likely candidates. The crank and camshafts have undergone a thorough clean up and this has revealed the timing No's 1 and 6 on the camshaft gear rims, which corresponds to the matching numbers on the crankshaft gear. Given the good condition of the camshaft lobes and all the gears, I am thinking the complete set was probably replaced at the time of the rebuild. Lucky me. The mag drive shaft was stripped out with Stan's help and will need the worn centre bush sleeving ( Mike Lewenden is on the case.) Also ball bearings will be replaced. Once again the ball races are standard imperial sizes and still produced. Simply Bearings are good rapid suppliers of mid range bearings. The steering box items arrived the next day ! Mike is also tasked with bushing the steering box bracket which was a non matching part. I will catch up with more pics after Dorset, when we will be looking to trial fitting the crank and cams.

Stan's pic shows one of the blocked oil ways with cap screw removed. There is clearly a bad build up of carbon deposits lurking within. Stewart's detergent fed steam lance soon dealt with the problem and all the internal oil ways are now pristine and clear. The drag link or fore and aft steering tube, freshly sprung and packed with grease, is ready to replace, apart from a proper spring clip and a 1/4 bsp 1" Rotheram grease pot. It looks like I am going to need quite a few of these. If anyone has some available please shout.

There was a fair bit of solid black carbon and some sludge also. The pics don't really do it justice. A visit to Stewart's high pressure jet wash is planned for tomorrow. Better out than in I think.

Whilst Stan had the torch out it seemed appropriate to address the oil way capping screws on the crankshaft, which had previously indicated their reluctance to move, when threatened with a small shiny spanner. Once again heat did the trick and all four cap screws were quickly removed, to reveal........... badly blocked oil passages. Carbon had built up in abundance I am so pleased we checked. I will add some pics but hopefully Stan has some better ones.

Found a useful part languishing on the spare frame, which was missing on the project chassis. One starting handle socket. Unfortunately the 'Ozrust' had taken an unsually firm hold and the blighter refused to budge, despite a month off, relaxing in a deisel bath . After a bit of light straining it became obvious that heavier artillery would be necessary and Stan produced the world's biggest tap wrench and lit up the oxycetylene. Resistance quickly crumbled under this ferocious assault and amidst plumes of smoke from vaporizing penetrant, the socket slowly began to turn again. Would have made a good picture but unfortunately our hands were full. Here is a reconstruction of the method of attack. You'll have to imagine the smoke.

Hello Ian, Good to hear you are progressing well with the' Inter. Down Under'. You should start a thread for it and publicise the museum ! The postman has today brought two new drag link springs from Tested Springs at Tividale. They have produced exact copies of the original, even searching out 1/4" imperial stock to make them from. Nice job.

Steering box reporting for duty. Slight panic when.the action appeared to get stiff after the bolts were tightened but this was traced to the end cap having been nipped up too tight and the problem disappeared when the endfloat was restored. I have filled the voids with lithium grease, should oil be added to this?

Turns out the MJ 1 1/4" bearings for the steering box are still a standard size and readily available, together with their 3 part thrust bearing buddies. As these bearings will have a fairly leisurely existence with only occasional low speed work, ( in luxurious grease filled surroundings, ) It was suggested that top of the range items would not be necessary. Mid range products were therefore chosen for the task and a light pressing saw them taking their positions for a trial fitting, at half the cost of their branded cousins.

And the winner is...... Tested Springs. What a good old fashioned firm. They also do leaf springs to old patterns. Lee Springs do not produce square section. Thanks for input. Tomo

The fore and aft steering tube put up another good fight and needed some heat applied before finally surrendering the goods. Even then there was a sting in the tail as the last man in came out broken in two from an old fracture. The rest of the team are good to go after a thorough clean up and are resting in a box awaiting their new team mate The new man is proving a little hard to find as he doesn't fit into modern stock die spring sizes, either European or Japanese. Can anyone recommend a one off die spring maker who would undertake this work please?

Shameless plug for Stan.

A little light polishing with very fine 2000 grade paper soon produced a surprisingly good finish on the crank journals. Note the crank position indicator No's 1 & 4 shown here Slight wear is visible but we are hoping to re engage this crankshaft for further service, subject to an accurate measuring session.

Thanks, but I fear we will grind to a halt on this one, without a diff and gearbox.

I've got to admit, the crankcase inside proved to be a pig of a job. I had several goes at it with various solvents, but eventually had to resort to proper chemical assistance in the form of Stewart the Blaster Man with all the armoury of the Truck Wash at his disposal. The carbon and oil at last began to shift, but the nice clean surface began to rust immediately. We had to move fast to get the crankcase back and dried off while we still had one ! I decided to get some Bonda Prime on the job straight after another clean up and blow dry and just went for it, gasket surfaces and all. This was most satisfying and marks the start of the reassembly of the engine.

Steering box worm surrenders after a good fight. Just got it rocking and slowly increased the action with regular flushes. The white metal insert is still in good order with no appreciable wear or damage.

Not uncommon at the time.

The crankcase first had a good scrape followed by a rotary wire brushing. Pics by Stan. This revealed a couple of interesting things, firstly original machining marks, still there under a light coating of rust. Not often seen in English restorations ! sSecondly we think this may be the mark of the engine builder in Australia. It is made up of letter ' I ' stamps, formed into a 'W'. Whoever he was, he made a good job and much of his work will run again, 70 odd years down the line. Having got the outside sharpened up, it was time to get stuck in to the black hole within. Note, it would have been better to start here. This was proper minging !

It now only remained to strip out the camshafts and the dismantling was done. Almost immediately I hit a familiar problem which Steve also encountered on the Gosling Thorny. The end of the exhaust camshaft bearing locating bolt had broken off. This meant that the camshaft was still captive in the crankcase until this peg could be removed. It didn't take long to load up the crankcase and seek help at Stan's. Steve's solution to the problem was to drill out the offending widget and Stan quickly produced a cored out bolt to act as a drilling guide. Attempts to drill ours failed however and hardness of the metal was thought to be responsible. After a good night's sleep we approached the problem again and Stan decided the widget was actually spinning in its hole. No wonder it wouldn't drill ! A magnet on a stick was produced and that should have been it sorted, but no, the little sod had just enough of a thread on it to prevent it's extraction. Eventually Stan hit on the brilliant idea of raising the peg as far as possible with the magnet, whilst simultaneously tapping out the camshaft. This worked a treat and all the parts were removed from the crankcase. Stan you're a star. Don't miss the next thrilling instalment 'Cleaning the crankcase'.

One reason I was so keen to get a correct style fire extinguisher is that one of them was involved in my chosen vehicles history. From 60 Coy war diaries; 25 January 1916. Lorry WD No. 5529 caught fire due to petrol splashing onto a hurricane lamp whilst filling. Damage was restricted to seat steering wheel and tilt. The driver Cpl. Gow was able to extinguish the blaze with his 'Pyrene' and the vehicle was repaired in the Unit Workshop at an estimated cost of £8. Cpl. Gow was reprimanded. It must be remembered that electric torches were an expensive rarity at the time so filling a petrol tank by the light of a hurricane lamp was presumably accepted practice. Cpl Gow managed to survive any minor burns or poison gas inhalation and successfully avoided further mention in the war diaries.

I saw that article too, but thought Phosgene a bit unlikely. Whatever the gas was, it was eventually linked to several fatalities and the Carbon Tet. extinguishers were banned, but not until the 1940's

These extinguishers were filled with Carbon Tetrachloride and were widely used for many years. They acted by denying oxygen and thus extinguished small fires very successfully. Unfortunately it was discovered that this chemical when heated ( like in a fire ) produced poisonous Chlorine gas to the detriment of the operator !

Dropped into the paint shop today, prepped the surfaces and brought the steering box halves into service colour. Whilst I had the brush out I gave a final coat to an early fire extinguisher bracket which was a previous ebay find. I couldn't wait to get the thing home and see if my 1918 London badged Pyrene extinguisher fitted ok. I have been searching for one of these for years and was very pleased and surprised to find one recently for sale on this very forum. A perfect match. All these Pyrene extinguishers were made in America, but those supplied to the ASC for use in MT vehicles were channelled through a distribution centre at Great Queens St. in London. They were badged up accordingly and are now very hard to find.

Then off to Stan's today to prepare pistons for grinding to standard 'A' clearance sizes. They were decarbonized, roughly cleaned up and checked for cracks etc. Mike Lewenden is IC Grinding and says he is looking forward to the challenge. Photos by Stan, very sore thumbs by me.

Next up for attention were the cam followers which having been winkled out of the crankcase were dismantled and thoroughly cleaned. I was delighted to find what little rust was present responded to a manual seeing to and the result was very pleasing. All followers are free and fit for further service. A day well spent.