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Another J Type on the way !


Tomo.T

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  • 2 weeks later...

Early last year I attended an auction in Lincolnshire where Messers Cheffins had on offer a miss matched pair of WD acetylene headlamps. One of these was a Miller, which was complete and would complement my previously restored WD Miller sidelamps. Unfortunately for me, Duncan P. had also spotted this desirable lot and we ended up in competition for it. So ferocious was the bidding that no one else got a look in and I ended up with it, after Dunc gave up the unequal struggle. Thanks Mate !  Another empty carcass was obtained from John Marshall and a lucky derelict find in Kent supplied all the bits I needed to make up a pair.

The other lamp was a Powell and Hanmer and has been donated to the Gosling Peerless project. I am well pleased with the freshly painted WD Millers and only need a rear lamp to make up the set.

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Here is the starter for the meat course.

I am now at last in a good position to start poking about with the engine. However my attempts at a little foreplay, have been rebuffed by a stuck cotter pin in the crankshaft end, which is preventing removal of the timing cover. I shall return with the blowlamp today, which will also come in handy for the exhaust manifold nuts no doubt.( The inlet manifold came off quite readily.)

I had the covers off her bottom end (!) and the crankshaft and camshafts are in remarkably good order with mostly clean bare metal throughout. There is much to be said for the Australian climate obviously !

 

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Edited by Tomo.T
Duff pic.
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Well the crankshaft cotter pin resisted my best efforts long enough, so I've cut it off and will have to deal with it's remains another day. 

The good news is, the timing gears are in fabulous order with a functioning governor mechanism, (although the springs have been removed) the dentures appear to be all fine but would benefit from a quick session with the hygienist.

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When I had a bit of an attempt at getting off the manifolds, I was amazed how tight the threads were in the nuts and bolts of the day - a much closer tolerance than today's offerings, on top of the Aussie dust of course. They were also so close to the castings that I was unable to use anything other than an open ended spanner, risking round the nuts. Oxy - acetylene is the answer, though perhaps not near the aluminium inlet manifold. 

Glad it is shaping up well!

Ian

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Hi Ian,

The story goes that Thornycrofts had problems with nuts and bolts coming loose on early models. The tolerance was tightened up on all fastenings to counter this. The exhaust manifold came off today after copious heat was applied to the nuts by Stan ( who also had to use an open ended spanner.) As he says 'If it dont glow it won't go !' The cast iron inlet gave up without a struggle yesterday. Stan also finished off the chassis welding and performed some broken stud extraction by welding nuts to the protruding ends. Nice trick when it works. Tomo.

 

 

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On 4/24/2019 at 8:56 PM, Tomo.T said:

Early last year I attended an auction in Lincolnshire where Messers Cheffins had on offer a miss matched pair of WD acetylene headlamps. One of these was a Miller, which was complete and would complement my previously restored WD Miller sidelamps. Unfortunately for me, Duncan P. had also spotted this desirable lot and we ended up in competition for it. So ferocious was the bidding that no one else got a look in and I ended up with it, after Dunc gave up the unequal struggle. Thanks Mate !  Another empty carcass was obtained from John Marshall and a lucky derelict find in Kent supplied all the bits I needed to make up a pair.

The other lamp was a Powell and Hanmer and has been donated to the Gosling Peerless project. I am well pleased with the freshly painted WD Millers and only need a rear lamp to make up the set.

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20190423_113757.jpg

They were a bargain ! ! still looking for some with WD  stamped on them if anyone sees any, must of had a soft moment  LOL They look lovely Tomo

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Whipped the sump off today and pausing only to spoon out the inevitable sludge, I took it straight to the parts washer to investigate two worrying potential issues;

1. Nasty looking cracks in the casing.

2. Deep and possibly penetrative pits in the outer surface.

There was considerable deep seated staining inside and out which took some shifting. I eventually resorted to a wire brush with solvent rinses which gradually produced the desired result. The 'cracks' fortunately turned out to be merely casting marks and the pitting, although very deep has not yet got through the remarkably thick aluminium casing. Something very corrosive has been at work here and I believe several generations of Aussie chickens may well have been involved !

The pitting is so bad that even wire brushing could not get into it sufficiently, my plan is to employ soda blasting to clean it up and then fill with JB weld or Devcon to restore the surface. Obviously I need to be very wary of going through but at the same time I need to get rid of the corrosion still in the base of these pits. I am aware of the likely difficulty of welding this material.  HELP ! Here are some pics :

 

 

 

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I would recommend using glass beads as the blast medium - a bit more aggressive than soda and helps to close up any porosity making it easier to keep clean. Glass blasting will help hide the etching effect where the sump has been sitting on damp ground and filling won't be required.

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Thanks for that, some of these pits are 1/4 "deep and not yet through. My concern is blasting actual holes through the sump which would be tragic !  I am encouraged by the performance claims of some of the epoxy repair pastes, Belzona, Devcon, JB weld etc. and this seems to be the way ahead, the prices are shocking......but cheaper than a new casting obviously.

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9 hours ago, Tomo.T said:

Thanks for that, some of these pits are 1/4 "deep and not yet through. My concern is blasting actual holes through the sump which would be tragic !  I am encouraged by the performance claims of some of the epoxy repair pastes, Belzona, Devcon, JB weld etc. and this seems to be the way ahead, the prices are shocking......but cheaper than a new casting obviously.

I used Devcon on the corroded  insides of the two Radiator Tanks on the Dennis - this was after a thorough cleaning but it was a waste of time. It just did not last. Perhaps the inside of a Radiator with varying temperatures did not help. But a well known Old Vehicle Restorer did say to me at the time that it would be a waste of time - and money- trying to repair an Aluminium Radiator like that.

Edited by Minesweeper
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Thanks very much for the replies, Tony, I think radiators are a case apart due to the electrolytic action involved with the hot water. Oil is much kinder in that respect and the interior of the sump is still reasonably fine. 'Oil pans' are mentioned in the things to mend section of the tech blurb, (unlike radiators) so I feel inclined to give it a go. The important thing obviously is to get the surface of the pits clean of corrosion without going through and I will leave the choice of medium to my blaster man Kes. If we end up with holes instead of pits the situation gets more complicated and Stan the welder will be consulted. If all else fails, Citroman's 'Dutch Cap'will be applied ! One way or another we shall prevail.

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On a happier note my new seat arrived today via Steve Davis of HCS. Steve is a cabinet maker and a long suffering friend ! He has created this high quality piece from drawings kindly supplied by Gosling Restoration Inc. Shown here in position and freshly primed.

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One way to repair pinholes that pretty much can't fail is to rivet in aluminium rivets. It's not the neatest or tidiest, but it is easier to reverse than some other ideas. 

 

AC Mig seems like it ought to work, though I seem to recall it's been tried, and failed, on Dennis castings. 

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Well the poor old sump pan has got a bit maggoty, but at least it has kept the internals in good nick. Dropped out the crankshaft today and after wiping oil off the journals I was delighted to see how well they have survived. The white metal bearings are all in good shape and may well be fit for further service. Next mission is to check for wear with a proper engineer, but from visual inspection I am greatly encouraged.

Without the crank in the way it is possible to see another interesting early feature of this engine. There are no anti- splash plates fitted and no fixings for them. I suspect this engine was re-badged war stock, sold off to the colonies in the early 20's. This suits me fine and matches the original engine.

I am of course following closely the Gosling Gospel according to 'J '          ( which I am finding immensely helpful ! ) and I will be removing  the cylinders complete with pistons in order to deal with their extraction separately. By good fortune the pistons are all lowish in the bore, which appears to have suffered light rust only from what I can see. Onward and upward, or downward if you are a piston please.

Edited by Tomo.T
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The next task was to remove the cylinders complete with pistons. The water jacket connector was already terminally damaged on this engine, so when the 5/16 W fastening bolts broke off too, I was left with no option but hack sawing through the remains. Fortunately I have been promised a spare from a 'parts' engine in Yorkshire. Thanks John.

The Regimental engine lift is proving a very useful item and after some experimenting with lifting strops, I found the best method was to pass a thin strap, doubled over, through the upper water cavity as shown. This gave a  nice balanced lift.

The cylinders were deposited onto my work bench and as they laid over ( under perfect hydraulic control, ) a surprisingly large quantity of old sump oil ran out over the bench and the floor ! This had obviously been added by the previous owner to help free the pistons. Thanks Ian. Fortunately the L.A.D. has a an amply stocked rag bin and I was able to clean up the mess before anyone noticed !

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