Sheringham Model T Ford Day

Sunday saw a visit from members of the Model T Ford Register of Great Britain who cam to Sheringham for the sun, sea, sand & ice cream of which we are justly proud! Many of those elements were provided with the notable exception of the one which keeps us warm & tans our skin.

Some more pictures of the cars are shown on the Model T Ford register facebook page here, and thanks are due to Graham Deans of our favourite pub, The Lobster, for organising the event.

Charlie's Shed - Engine Stand

I bought this engine stand from www.newvu.co.uk, via eBay. NewVu make parts for Harleys and other stainless bike parts, and they sell this through their eBay shop, trading as 'Uniwolves':

It's made of welded sheet and square hollow section, and features an L shaped frame with two wide feet, which can fit anywhere on the frame. The engine is held on two yokes which can be positioned anywhere on the frame. Yokes and feet are clamped in their chosen position with M10 hex head screws.

It's fully adjustable for different engine mount configuration, and goes to a maximum length of 350mm, maximum height of 230mm, and can accommodate a maximum lug width of 135mm .

Each yoke includes two machined screws which pass into the engine mounts, and are reduced and tapered to allow them to fit into smaller engine mount holes. You can screw them in independantly to suit offset mounts:

Here's the screw that fits into the engine mount.

Now, observant readers will have noticed that most of these pictures show a large crankcase from my Ariel Huntmaster.

Now, if you are building a smaller engine with no bottom mounts, such as this MZ125 engine or a Bantam engine, we have this nifty device which connects to the mounts at either end of the engine:

The jaws of this one are much less wide, but provide all the adjustment you will need:

Of course, there is nothing to stop you putting a gearbox in it, though the adjustment slot on the top of many Burman boxes means they are not held as rigidly as an engine:

Looks like a very nice piece of kit. I can't wait to start using it!

New project stirring?

Could these boxes contain Huntmaster parts, sorted out with a view to starting work?

I've taken a few photographs of the frame to get to know it...

Gearbox bottom bolt thread is very stiff...

Is this steering lock lug supposed to look like that?

You will have realized the frame is upside-down.

Commuting

When the opportunity arises, I like to use the Square Four for ordinary day to day trips, like commuting to the office. This is great fun, and usually results in some issue appearing.

I covered about 55 miles today in a trip to Norwich, to collect some new glasses. Nice B-road trip, early start, mid afternoon back. There was a bit of rain in the morning but the Ariel didn't miss abeat - well, not due to that anyway. The return trip was dry, sunny, and much warmer than the morning had been.

Regular readers will have observed that I have had the front brake and its cable off and on a few times, trying to cure it from grabbing. Since I happened to be in the vicinity of Bungay a few weeks ago I dropped in to see the chaps at Draganfly and to pick up some new brake shoe return springs. Pulling it all apart at the weekend showed that the springs were about 3 mm shorter than the old ones - all fitted, end of grabbing problem. I even adjusted the wedge up another notch on the way out today, and no hassle from the front brake all day.

Duff old brake shoe springs

Another thing that is a persistent problem is the tank knee pads. These come loose after a few tens of miles - so I need to find a way of fixing that.

Loose knee grip

Then there is the weep from the rocker boxes - or is it the cylinder head? After a run, there is always fresh oil on the back of the block, which is worse on the nearside; you can see a stain coming from the rocker boxes, and sometimes there is a drop of oil on the rocker shaft nuts.

Offside rocker nuts, complete with drip

Here's the nearside

It looks like it dribbles off the head and onto the barrel...

Now, these engines are reputed to over-oil the top end, and of course this is worse on Morgo-equipped bikes like mine

The oil tank is often wet  on the outside, with a stream emanating from the filler cap - I fancifully wonder if this comes from the offside rocker boxes, but this is so obviously worse around the cap that I can't see that... the thing is, I routed a pipe beyond the rear wheel to allow the tank to breath & nothing comes from that.

I guess the cap just leaks. I have a new tank with a good thread, so I will change that one day. 

Something that has been niggling at the back of my mind is a misfire that appears after a long run on a hot day and gets steadily worse. Excessive carburetter temperature leading to fuel vapourization? On arriving home on a warmish day (23°C - warm for Brits!) after getting a mild misfire, getting worse in town, I found that the carb around the throttle spindle was up at nearly 90°C, and the float chamber near the main jet was around 60°C. That's got to be enough to vapourize some element of the fuel - petrol boils at 95°C (203°F)...

Infra-red thermometer. This has been useful!

I plan to fix this with a tufnol thermal barrier between the carburetter and the head. I'll probably add the proper Bi-Starter knob and the air bell when I have the carb off, and maybe make the new throttle lever spring bracket.

And the other thing? the speedo has packed up again - over-lubricated I think, it just sits at zero. I guess the clutch is slipping...

At rest. Unfortunately it still looks like that in motion...

Here are some fish for tea...

Fresh Mackerel, straight from fishing rod to kitchen!

More on the new tank

As reported a few weeks ago, the replacement tank for the Ariel is coming up for it's turn on the bench. Or is it...

It's back from the blasters now and not unexpectedly it is a bit of a state. The bottom has been removed to blast the inside, and the next few months will see a bit of tin bashing & welding, to put this lot right.

Here are the pictures:

Picture 1 - Offside Rear

Picture 2 - Saddle Nose, Offside

Picture 3 - Saddle Nose, Nearside

Picture 4 - Rear View

Picture 5 - Front Offside

Picture 6 - Front Nearside

Picture 7 - Underneath

Picture 8 - Offside

Picture 9 - tap area

Picture 10 - Brazed Mount

Bantam National Rally

A fine sunny day last saturday saw me and Beattie winging our way down to Marsham, near Aylsham, for the 2015 BSA Bantam Club National Rally, hosted by the Starting Handle Club.

Beattie, amongst many siblings

A C11G

An A10

Another A10

Racing Bantams

Racing Bantams again

Rick & Alan

Rick & Alan had both come up from Devon the day before - they were having a couple of days break before going off, after the rally, to Yorkshire & then on to Berwick before heading back down the west coast for home. This round Britain Run was in aid of Headway, the charity devoted to supporting sufferers from brain injuries. Very pertinent to us all.

You can donate here, on Headway Devon's website.

Congratulations guys, and to your fellow travellers!