My Flying Control Jeep - The Ongoing Story

[Jessie The Jeep]

Bowes Railway/Springwell Village 1940's Weekend - June 26th

Earlier in the week, I was planning to go to the Bowes Railway/Springwell Village 1940's event with the roof down and the Jeep in RAF markings. My RAF gear is thinner for warmer days. As we approached the weekend and the forecast said overcast, with slight showers first thing, I put the summer canvas roof on and decided to use my US Ordnance Depot magnetic markings, wearing my HBT's. I woke up this morning and looked out of the window to find I was inside a rain cloud, with heavy fret blowing sideways across the window. So the green roof came off and my checkered Follow Me roof was fitted, along with the wooden sides and doors! Several HBT layers and my flying jacket were necessary!

[Jessie The Jeep]

While it was nice to be out, it wasn't a pleasant day out, with the heavy fret defying the forecast and remaining all day. Those who did turn out to support the railway and village made the best of it. Of course, this is England in late June, so you have to expect rain!! Some time ago, wifey had signed up on a basket weaving course for the day with a friend, so it was just my daughter and me, braving the weather with one Jeep. In past years, I only lived two miles away from the event and have taken all three vehicles and diorama gear along. Since the house move in February, I'm now about 15 miles away and with wifey busy for the day, one Jeep was all I could manage.

[Jessie The Jeep]

After lunch, we had a wander down to the community centre to see what was going on and spotted a nice old Land Rover outside. If Germany had invaded the UK, seeing their troops marching through our towns would have been strange. Even though they were re-enactors in 2021, it was still strange to see them marching along the main street.

[Jessie The Jeep]

The event was meant to be on until 4pm, but most people had enough 'fun' by 3pm and started packing up. I don't think I've used the wipers that much for years. It's a shame, as previous years have had great weather and a good turnout. Still managed to catch up with some friends I'd not seen for over a year, so not all bad!

I'm not doing both days at Bowes this year, as I'm off to Breighton Aerodrome in Yorkshire tomorrow, for their vintage aircraft club fly-in.

[Jessie The Jeep]

I was meant to take "Jessie" to the Large Model Association R/C air display at Elvington over the weekend just gone, but decided to pull out on Thursday. The forecast was for heavy rain/showers all weekend with some thunder storms. Since it was a two and a half hour drive each way, with manual wipers, I didn't feel it would be safe in the conditions and poor visibility. I think they got away with better weather than forecast, but on the Friday when I would have been travelling, it was hammering it down here, so I think I made the right call. It's still raining this morning!

Hopefully the weather will improve for this coming weekend, when I plan to take "Jessie" and "Faith" the Dodge, to the Fishburn Wings & Wheels show, just a few miles down the road. This will be the first event for the Dodge since September 2019; so almost two years.

The latest word from my builders is they hope to start on the garage modifications around the end of August, so hopefully the Dodge will be indoors before the winter. A separate company will be making the doors and have to wait unil the openings are complete for measurements. They have around an eight week lead time, so it looks like it will be a bit of a car port for a while until the doors can be delivered.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Fishburn Airfield Fly/Drive-In - August 14/15th

Day one is covered in my Dodge thread. Day two was just Jessie, with a brief report below.

Sunday 15th

It was a calm day but almost none stop drizzle, with only a couple of breaks from the rain. Vehicle numbers were halved from the previous day in both classics and military and there was no flying at all due to the low overcast. One or two different vehicles, but overall, a dull damp day.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Coming home from Fishburn, on the second day, shortly after setting off and about a mile down the road, I got a cloud of smoke/steam from under the dash lasting two to three seconds. I immediately pulled over and switched off. I noticed that the indicators had stopped working, so was it electrical? I opened the hood and then found coolant had been sprayed around the inside of the hood. It seemed most likely the coolant was the cause of the steam. The indicator failure was possibly either a coincidence or moisture ingress. The engine had been running ok, so didn't think the cylinder head had failed.

The engine turned over freely by hand without any signs of water in the cylinders, so I took a chance and started it up again and monitored the temperature. It ran ok and the temperature was normal, despite loosing some coolant. I got home ok, though a little more slowly to be cautious. It took a litre of coolant to top up the radiator again. The following morning, the level hadn't changed. I was going on holiday for a week, so left the Jeep standing. When I got home, the radiator level was still where I left it. If there had been a problem with the head gasket, I would have expected the level to have dropped.

On August 23rd, I decided to do a test to see if the thermostat was opening. I started the Jeep up and using an infra-red thermometer, monitored the cylinder head temperature, radiator top tube from the thermostat, the side and top of the radiator. If the radiator tube stayed cold, the thermostat wasn't opening.



The table shows the cylinder head temperature rising, then the thermostat opening and allowing hot coolant through the top tube into the radiator. The radiator temperature then starts to rise as expected. All the temperatures stabilised, there were no signs of leaks and no pressure release from the radiator cap or overflow pipe. The cylinder head temperature on the hand held monitor also matched the gauge inside the Jeep. Out of interest, I also checked the oil filter housing temperature a few times, just to see what the oil temperature was.

[Jessie The Jeep]

All seemed well with the test with the Jeep behaving as expected. It was put away for a while, as I had a 5 metre steel 'I' beam to bring over from the old house as well as a few other last remaining items. Early evening, I got the Jeep back out and went for an eight and a half mile test drive to get some fuel and to see how it behaved on the road under load. There were a few gentle hills along the route and the speeds were varied. After filling up with fuel, I headed back to what I now call sun set lane, visited a few times with the Jeeps, stopping to check the temperatures with the hand held sensor again. As before, everything was normal.

I took a few photos after the temperature check, then headed home, clocking up 16,666.6 miles on the way. Another temperature check was done once home and all was still as it should be with the radiator level unchanged and no signs of leaks. There appeared to be no signs of coolant contamination in the oil and the engine was running smoothly, again suggesting the head gasket was ok. I planned to do some more tests before Beamish.

August 27th - Indicator Flasher Unit Replacement

As already mentioned the indicators stopped working on the return from the Fishburn trip. This may have been coincidental, from moisture damage from the coolant, because the unit wasn't designed for LED lights or just because it is old. There was nothing obviously wrong when opened up, but a replacement, LED compatible, 24 volt flasher unit was fitted. The old unit used to flash quickly unless the trailer was connected, but the new one gives a steady flash with or without the trailer. It's smaller than the old one and a second cable tie through the first, fastened it up out of the way with the rest of the wiring.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Jeep & Trailer Test Drive - August 27th

With another couple of events still to go, I wanted another Jeep test, this time pulling the loaded trailer. This was done with the action camera mounted on the back of the trailer to give a video with a different perspective.

It was just a few miles locally with a few small hills and some nice country lanes.

As before, no sign of leaks, no cracks in the engine block, no rough running or coolant level dropping. I think on the Fishburn trip, being a cold and damp day, that perhaps the thermostat stuck closed until the heat and pressure built up, then it popped free and the excess pressure blew through the radiator cap valve. Basically, a Jeep Sneeze! I'll keep en eye on everything, but for now, all seems well.

[ruxy]

There are a few different types of Combustion leak test kits (colour change of coolant)  ,  various  ££

[Jessie The Jeep]

A report from the Beamish "Dig for Victory" four day show has been started on my GPW thread as both Jeeps attended. See the link below to go to the report. Each of the four days will be covered with just a small selection of the 500 photos taken!

Edited October 22, 2021 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

December 29th - Dizzy Cap Failure

I planned on taking the Jeep and Dodge out on the 30th, to get some photos of the new Dodge crane. Today, I wanted to run them both to make sure all was well. The Dodge started fine, the Jeep didn't show any signs of firing and when it eventually did, ran rough. I felt there was something wrong on the last day of the Beamish show in September, but got home without problems.

After the rough start, I cleaned all the contacts on the plug leads, then removed the dizzy cap. When I did, I found the end of the brush flush with the cap and jammed. To get the Jeep to run at all, it must have been arcing from the carbon brush to the rotor arm and soot on the rotor arm seemed to confirm this. I tried to free it with some WD40 and a gentle press, but what was left of the brush fell to pieces, leaving the spring stuck inside.

This "Joe's Motor Pool" part was only fitted in April 2021 and has only done a little over 200 miles since fitting. I've had various other "JMP" parts and haven't had any problems with those.

I pulled the old dizzy cap from the locker and fitted it, after which, the Jeep started up straight away. I found a replacement brush and spring on Ebay, so hope to be able to bring the "JMP" back to life.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

April 6th 2022

I did get the Jeep out for the Dodge photoshoot on December 30th using the old dizzy cap. I also managed to fit a new brush into the "JMP" dizzy cap, back in early January, so it was a pretty cheap fix. Since then, nothing much has happened with the vehicles, bar one trip out in the Dodge before an event next week. Over the first three months of the year, it's been tool cold in the garage to mess around with spanners.

By April, the weather was warming up, so I spent some of this morning doing a little tinkering on the Jeep engine. Old plugs out, new plugs gapped and put in, PCV stripped and cleaned and carb idle adjusted as it was running rich and the old plugs were very sooty. They still look in fairly good condition, so will be cleaned up and kept in a locker as spares.

There's still the starter to strip and overhaul as the starter dog keeps sticking when I hit the starter button and the commutator often gets quite scruffy. I'll do that when it's a bit warmer still and I can work outside with a bit more space. Three vehicles and a trailer in the garage is quite crowded!

[Jessie The Jeep]

So this afternoon, I decided to do a test drive combined with the school run. The Jeep was running nice and smooth in the garage, so a longer run was then next step. This would be the first drive in 2022 and the first since December 30th, when it wasn't quite running right. I pulled it out of the garage for a picture about ten minutes before I needed to go.

My daughter's "Street Cred" will be running high tomorrow! A number of friends and a couple of teachers saw her strapped in the back. All was well during the drive, apart from a little light rain on the way home.

We just got the Jeep back in the garage and it really chucked it down, immediately followed by bright sun ( English weather likes to do that! ), and got a nice rainbow to finish the afternoon.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Plantinum Jubilee Street Party - June 5th

This outing wasn't one originally planned for the Jeep. We'd been invited to a friend's house for a Plantinum Jubilee celebration street party. Our friends had decided on a 1950s theme to tie in with the original coronation. We were intending to go in the normal car, but the street was holding a competition for the best decorations and garden display, so we thought the Jeep would add to the overall effect.

The British forces were still using Jeeps at the time and National Service was in force, so I'd put the RAF markings back on the Jeep and would go in my RAF gear. Wanting to out-do their neighbours, our friends asked if we had any bunting we could bring. "Yes, of course we do, left over from our VE Day celebrations. But why don't we bring our big Union Flag and 15 feet flagpole too?"

So after a chilly 15 mile drive to our friend's house, we set to work with the additional bunting and flagpole. With that done, it was time for the tables and chairs and then checking out the competition elsewhere in the street. Several houses along the street had made an effort to decorate their gardens, but our friends ( with a little help from us ) took joint first place for best decorative effort and display.

[Jessie The Jeep]

I needed to order some aluminium angle for my observatory construction, but while I was on, I ordered some galvanised steel sheet for the garage wall. This was collected yesterday. When I get around to it, it will be hung on the wall and can store many of my magnetic Jeep markings.

When I first got the magnetic plastic, I read that it was better to keep it stored attached to a flat metal surface. I don't know if it looses magnetism if stored loose? Either way, it keeps them flat and out of the way when not needed. It's not big enough for everything, so the other RAF markings are still on Jessie from the Jubilee day.

Metal ( like many things ) is expensive these days, so 1.5 x 1 metres was a good compromise on storage verses price. If I need all the vehicles out without these markings, I can always stick some on the back as a temporary measure. With that in mind, I may try to mount it on hooks on the wall, so it can be lifted down to use both sides. My RAF roundels are looking quite faded now after four years and could do with the blue repainted in a darker shade.

[Jessie The Jeep]

The first post at the top of this page is the Bowes Railway 2021 event. Here we are a year later having just attended the 2022 show.

Bowes Railway - June 26th

Bowes railway was a two day event, but I only attended on Sunday due to being at a fly-in at Breighton Aerodrome on Saturday. We decided to take both the Dodge and the M201 for our first two vehicle display of the year. It was a bright morning, but quite breezy and it turned out cooler than we expected. This seems to be a theme for events this year.  It was the third outing for the M201 and the fifth for the Dodge. I figured after a year on axle stands in 2020/21, "Faith the Dodge" deserved more of the limelight in 2022, especially with the new look.

The "Jessie the Jeep" has generally been devoid of "Follow Me" markings since moving as the follow me light box on the roof bows, won't fit through the standard garage door height. Since the first builders we booked last year, never showed to modify the garage door openings, we haven't got around to looking for another company yet.

[Jessie The Jeep]

There were fourteen military vehicles in attendance, plus a couple of classic cars elsewhere in the village.

Jeeps made up the majority of vehicles, but there were also two Kubelwagons, a BSA bike, a half ton Dodge and my WC51.

[Jessie The Jeep]

There were also several dioramas and displays of weapons and equipment, each telling a small part of the World War 2 story from different perspectives.

[Jessie The Jeep]

During the day, there were firing demonstrations and at 2pm, a battle amongst the rail yard as in previous years. Despite the bright day, the strong wind pulled the temperature down, though it didn't stop a good number of public attending the event.

Additional pictures can be found here - https://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2022/bowes.htm

[Jessie The Jeep]

Breighton Aerodrome "Lancaster G - George" Day - July 16th

Due to the rising fuel prices, I towed the Jeep down to Breighton on Friday afternoon, rather than a three hour drive there. It was an hour faster and much cheaper to tow! It took a while to set up camp in the strong wind as the tent wasn't playing nice. The ground was so dry, the poles wouldn't grip the grass and were blown out several times by the tent acting like a large sail.

I got there in the end and then went to explore the remains of the old airfield where I could. Most of the wartime airfield has been turned into an industrial estate. This picture is at the East end of the main runway, looking North West across the end of the main runway. 

[Jessie The Jeep]

The next picture is on the East end of the main runway, looking West South West, back along the main runway. All three runways survive, though heavily built on by the industries that are there.

The picture below is on the country lane on the West side of the airfield. The gap in the hedge is almost in line with the end of the runway, but allows a view back towards the surviving T2 hangar.

[Jessie The Jeep]

I gave one of the guys at the airfield a go driving the Jeep and in return, I got to drive his Lotus. To finish the Friday evening, I waited until the sun was low in the sky and took my Jeep onto the airfield for a photoshoot with the dH89a Dragon Rapide.

[Jessie The Jeep]

The following day was hot before 08:00hrs. The event took place over the UK's hottest heatwave, though the peak temperatures occured after the event. Military and classic vehicles started arriving early, as did fly-in visitors.

[Jessie The Jeep]

There's around one hundred classic aircraft based at Breighton, many of which were brought outside or flew during the day. Most of the Real Aeroplane Company aircraft flew at least once during the day, including the recently restored Bucker Jungmeister seen in the first picture below. This was the first time I'd seen this aircraft fly. 

As the day went on, parking spaces started to run out and judging by the number of normal cars there, turnout must have been around two thousand members of the public. Historic Aero Engines were there with three of their aircraft engines.