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WW1 Thornycroft restoration


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Yes, spinning needs lots of practice and I just haven't done enough. I can get the result I want, eventually, but it would be nice if it was easy!

Something else we have been doing for a while is the transmission brake lever. Now these come in different versions and we have opted for one with a transverse pull like that on the Portsmouth bus. The Carlton Colville lorry has a vertical pull so you can see that the lever has a bend in it to accommodate this. You can also see the ball joints which I have just made.

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We started off with another SG iron casting.

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As the lever rocks, the hole through which the tie bar passes needs to be oval so after drilling, I ran an end mill through it at two angles to generate a slot on one side.

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Hopefully, this will be enough.

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The tie bar is secured and adjusted by a wing nut. To stop it rotating and allow for the movement of the lever, the nut has a curved underside with a matching curve in the casting face. I simply created these features with a half-round file.

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Only the pivot casting remains now to have the bolt holes drilled  and then it can all be put together. Something else for Easter!

Steve    :)

Edited by Old Bill
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Mark has turned up with some mahogany bars for the longitudinal roof strips and a beautiful piece of ash for the footstep.DSCN5419.JPG.be0bde5b41078a2220644579ea8c2a22.JPG

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Dad has continued with the painting and has finished the rope hooks, seen here in undercoat, and has also put the first undercoat on the wings.DSCN5111.JPG.0e547175c56ff43077cfb6d18fd3c86c.JPG

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As always, space is a bit tight!

Sadly, I have been at work but I have just sketched out the footstep and wing brackets so I know what we are going to do there when the opportunity arises. Getting a bit close now!

Steve   :) 

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Steve, great to see you are making the desired progress.

The translucent roof in the first photo caught my eye, in Oz we are used to seeing corrugated profile in polycarbonate products for strength, but that roof is flat.

What is the material?

Would it not have to be quite thick and thus expensive in order to withstand rain, hail and its own weight?

You are very naughty using that drill press without the permission card being signed!

Edited by dgrev
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I don't know what material the roof sheets are. They are extruded as two layers with ribs between and are about 3/4" thick overall. They are a recent installation but the originals did about 30 years before becoming brittle. You couldn't walk on them but they resist our size of hailstones satisfactorily. Dad can tell you more about them.

Steve :)

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Andy.

Ah, I see.

The British polycarbonate equivalent to double glazing. Makes sense given your climate.

Steve. In Oz, the old fibreglass skylight material was lucky to see more than 15 years due to our high UV index. If it wasn't that, the birds pecked holes in it to  steal the fibres to make nests. 30 years is a very good life span for that type of product.

Regards

Doug 

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I have been following both of your build threads for years on this forum. I remember when you got excited when you view count on the Dennis build reached 500,000. With that said, your are FAST approaching 1,000,000 views on the Thornycraft build thread.

Always fascinated with the molds you fabricate and the solutions you come up with trying to replicate original parts.

I have no doubt you will be ready for Brighton!

John G

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Thanks John - that's very kind! I noticed, too that the One Million is fast approaching and can hardly believe that it has all created so much interest. I am expecting Steve here in Axminster later today and we have a significant amount of work planned for the week ahead - we shall know by the end of next week if we are going to be ready for the "Brighton" or not. Everything is planned and hope that nothing unexpected will hold it all up. We will keep everybody interested of our progress - or lack of it this coming week!

Tony

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As Dad has mentioned, we are having a bit of a blitz this week with the first priority to get the engine running. First thing we have done is to evict the poor old Autocar from the shed and sheet it over in the drive to give Dad somewhere to work. There is only so much clambering over stuff one can do so we are trying to make it easier to meet the deadline.

Once the decks had been cleared, I fitted the oil filler, if only to get it safely out of the way.

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Once in position, we had to try it out of course.

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About a gallon and a half later and the float began to indicate, much to our surprise as we expected that it would need engine vibration to move it.

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I wanted to prime the oil system before we run it so I took the plugs out, disconnected the oil pressure line and swung the handle until I ran out of breath. Well, it is six and a half litres even without the plugs! On the second go, we saw some oil come out of the pipe so I reconnected it. The next swing saw the gauge registering. It is coming to life at last!

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The next task was to mount the magneto. During my last week off, I made the magneto coupling so all that was needed was the flexi-disc. This is a piece of leather with four holes in it. Our museum friend, Mark who does our leatherwork, found a complete hide of pump leather in a skip some years ago. He rescued it but didn't know what to do with it. This was very fortuitous for us as most of it has found its way into our lorries! Mark used it to make the propshaft couplings and has also given me a piece for general use. As it is over 1/4" thick, it was ideal for the flexi disc. I marked it out with scriber and dividers and cut it with the Stanley knife.

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The centre hole was taken out with a wad-punch but I don't have a 5/16" wad punch here and wondered what to do about the stud holes.

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In the end, I used a wood bit run quite fast and that worked out OK>

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The coupling was assembled and the magneto bolted up from underneath. All was well so I moved onto the advance levers.

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I had made the levers during my week off so I just needed to cut a shaft to length and pin them on. I have put taper pins through the shaft but looking at the pictures now, what I should have done is put a much larger pin through the block but offset to catch the shaft at the edge of the hole. Oh well. I expect that this will be OK and I shall know for next time.

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The other end was pinned in the same way.

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And then final assembly with the location tube pinned between the arms of the casting to stop it moving axially.

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Throttle linkage and HT leads tomorrow!

Steve     :)

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8 hours ago, Old Bill said:

As Dad has mentioned, we are having a bit of a blitz this week with the first priority to get the engine running. First thing we have done is to evict the poor old Autocar from the shed and sheet it over in the drive to give Dad somewhere to work. There is only so much clambering over stuff one can do so we are trying to make it easier to meet the deadline.

Once the decks had been cleared, I fitted the oil filler, if only to get it safely out of the way.

DSCN5439.JPG.b017470335aad87b71d8515e38f2d76a.JPG

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Once in position, we had to try it out of course.

DSCN5444.thumb.JPG.444542c36cd025f48d0a3d123deecc61.JPG

About a gallon and a half later and the float began to indicate, much to our surprise as we expected that it would need engine vibration to move it.

DSCN5445.JPG.10f3390ed8e95bec74575fddfe6e9f60.JPG

I wanted to prime the oil system before we run it so I took the plugs out, disconnected the oil pressure line and swung the handle until I ran out of breath. Well, it is six and a half litres even without the plugs! On the second go, we saw some oil come out of the pipe so I reconnected it. The next swing saw the gauge registering. It is coming to life at last!

DSCN5448.JPG.1217cddb42e06d414c661d20d53c1661.JPG

The next task was to mount the magneto. During my last week off, I made the magneto coupling so all that was needed was the flexi-disc. This is a piece of leather with four holes in it. Our museum friend, Mark who does our leatherwork, found a complete hide of pump leather in a skip some years ago. He rescued it but didn't know what to do with it. This was very fortuitous for us as most of it has found its way into our lorries! Mark used it to make the propshaft couplings and has also given me a piece for general use. As it is over 1/4" thick, it was ideal for the flexi disc. I marked it out with scriber and dividers and cut it with the Stanley knife.

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The centre hole was taken out with a wad-punch but I don't have a 5/16" wad punch here and wondered what to do about the stud holes.

DSCN5451.JPG.cfbde9dea6be9c27bd3ca7a3423bde47.JPG

In the end, I used a wood bit run quite fast and that worked out OK>

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The coupling was assembled and the magneto bolted up from underneath. All was well so I moved onto the advance levers.

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I had made the levers during my week off so I just needed to cut a shaft to length and pin them on. I have put taper pins through the shaft but looking at the pictures now, what I should have done is put a much larger pin through the block but offset to catch the shaft at the edge of the hole. Oh well. I expect that this will be OK and I shall know for next time.

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The other end was pinned in the same way.

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And then final assembly with the location tube pinned between the arms of the casting to stop it moving axially.

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Throttle linkage and HT leads tomorrow!

Steve     :)

Nearly there then Steve... 

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Thanks Tomo. I'll remember that!

We have had a nice day., all bright and still and not cold. I have been pressing on with the hand controls and linkage. First part was to cut the throttle shaft and advance tube to length.

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Once the tube was to length, I soft soldered the advance lever to one end and the operating lever to the other.

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The throttle shaft runs up the inside but the tube rattled far too much so I turned up a couple of brass bushes and pressed them in.

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Trial installation with the levers at the bottom.

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The actuating collar at the bottom was pinned on and a suitable spring placed between the two collars to keep the actuating levers in contact with the quadrant.

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Then the hand throttle linkage was made up along with the advance linkage.

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I still need to connect the pedal and add a return spring. It was all surprisingly time consuming. In the mean time, Father has put two more coats of paint on the wings and Tim has been filling stauffers, a very messy job.

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Foot throttle, wiring and timing tomorrow and then it is the moment of truth!

Steve.   :)

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Started reading this thread in a moment of idleness, back in January.  WW1 trucks aren't really my thing, and I just thought it was something to read on a wet day.  But it sucks you in, and becomes very addictive.

I've learnt so much new stuff, and been reminded of all the things I'd forgotten from metalwork class in school.  Milling, turning , casting, forging absolutely fascinating.  Still haven't quite got my head around the pattern making for castings, I'll have to read some of that again, and I'd never heard of metal spinning until I saw it here

I have to join the rest of the forum in taking my hat off to you guys, the standards of work and attention to detail is above and beyond most of us.  And you are still maintaining those standards even though time is getting tight for your self imposed deadline of the London to Brighton this year..  True restoration work, makes me feel I'm just bodging up the old Tanker.

I've been rushing to read up the last few pages and catch up to the grand start up today.  Very best of luck with it, the whole world is waiting to hear it burst into life.

 

 

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Very many thanks for all of your good wishes. We have had an interesting  if not wholly successful day but are all going to sleep very well tonight!

First job was to time the magneto. The coupling is interesting in that there is a thread cut around the shaft so that as you turn the pinch bolt, it revolves around it giving infinite adjustment. I set the contacts to open on top dead centre when fully retarded.

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Then it was time to make up the leads. Feeding them through was an interesting exercise.

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I had some terminals in stock but cannot decide how they should really be attached. I soldered them in the end using the propane torch.

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Once wangled through, I connected them up using my meter to identify which is which. They should be colour coded in a specific order but that will be a job for another day, when I remember to bring my coloured tape down.

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Last job was to fit a return spring on the throttle. Interestingly, I have not seen sign of any return spring on any official photographs and every preserved vehicle is different in layout.

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Tim got on the hose and  filled the cooling system for the first time.

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This showed a few leaks, particularly under the hose clips and through the studs on the exhaust manifold.

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The hose clips were tightened or duplicated and more or less solved themselves. The leaking studs we have left to their own devices as I suspect that they will seal themselves up in time.

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Then it was the moment of truth. Two gallons in the tank and we swung and swung to no effect. The only time it fired was when Ari here put his finger over the priming cock to check compression and it fired giving him a quite noticeable burn!

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We messed around for ages, priming the pots and checking the timing but to no avail. In the end, we put a rod through the priming cock to check the valve timing against the piston positions and came to the conclusion that I had fitted the exhaust camshaft 180° out of position. We checked this several times always reaching the same conclusion so there was only one thing to do and that was to pull the camshaft. Fortunately, the shaft only had to move forwards enough to disengage the gear so we stripped the front end down and had a look. The marks on the two gears tied up but one whole crankshaft revolution out of position. How annoying! We have moved the shaft up, rotated it through 180° and put it back at which point we packed it in for the day.

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At least we have found the problem and are well on the way to resolving it. Tomorrow, I shall put the covers  back and reassemble the front of the engine and we can have another go.

We have had a lot of visitors today, providing extra labour to swing the thing and Tim has been able to be here as well. He has gone back now so I am hoping that it will start tomorrow without too much effort as desk driving is not the best training for this game!

Will keep you posted.

Steve     :)

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Steve, does this mean you are going AWOL from Dennis Eagle or was it always your plan to have extra time off? As one of the previous posts said, you have the whole world waiting with baited breath to hear it run for the first time. Tim should have set a live streaming on Facebook so we could have watched it as it happened.

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What a disappointment! We were looking forward to a video of it running. You are fortunate in one thing - every time I have to dismantle anything I always seem to destroy the gasket involved, which just makes for more work. 

Being 9 hours ahead of you, I shall check with great anticipation tomorrow morning.

Ian

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23 hours ago, Zero-Five-Two said:

Started reading this thread in a moment of idleness, back in January.  WW1 trucks aren't really my thing, and I just thought it was something to read on a wet day.  But it sucks you in, and becomes very addictive.

We are very pleased that you have got something out of it. We only do it for fun after all!

Gosh, I ache this morning. Just going out to put it back together and have another go. The question now is will I be able to swing it now that it has the proper compression? I had better go and find out. More later!

Steve   :)

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Well, it works!

We have had some fun and games this morning but eventually, it went and I have some film files to post once I have worked out how to do them.. Idles nicely but dies when I try to open the throttle so I will need some advice about Solex carbs.

More later!

Steve   ;)

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