racer2_uk

I need a Chalmers brass radiator from 1912 / 1913, working condition would be the best but will consider all options. Andy

Evening everybody, With the help of Grimy and other experts I have now had not only a second ID of Pierce-Arrow but it has been narrowed down to a 5 ton truck of late 1916 to early 1917 manufacture, this was from a restorer of 3 of these trucks and using the stamped in number to give the build date. Thank you all for your knowledge and sharing it. Andy

Evening Grimy and all, Well done Grimy ! I new someone on here would know, thank you all for your interest and idea's but Grimy has done it. Grimy, my gearbox is very similar to your spare, maybe I have a 38 or 66 version or a different year, did Pierce-Arrow manufacture there own gearbox's or did they buy them in ? I really appreciate the help from this forum, now I have to decide what to do with it as it was with a large collection of parts I recently acquired. Andy

Morning everybody, Can any of the experts out there ID this early transmission, it is very big and I suspect it maybe an early truck unit, it is about 2 feet by 18 inches, it has a gear change mechanism that comes in from the top turret probably from a side gear lever, it has it's mounting underneath, 2 flat mounts at one end and hollow brass bushed mount at the other end. There looks to be some sort of PTO coming from one end, the top cover is accessed by wing nuts, there are no marking other than the 2 numbers stamped in. Any information would be greatfully accepted. Andy

Good morning everybody, Thanks to everybody for your interest and idea's for a chassis for my HS V8, the reason I am looking for a car with an engine problem or no engine is that I want a car with a title to make registration easier over here, also I want to hillclimb the car and a truck chassis is not allowed in the hillclimb "car" clubs. Thanks again for all you help and idea's. Andy

Evenin Bob and everbody else that has shown interest in the engine rebuilds, Bob, thanks for thinking about the chassis you found, I am looking for a complete car that has had an engine failure or the engine is missing, anything 1910-1918 will be considered. Thanks again to everyone that has taken an interest. Andy

Good evening everybody, Thank you very much for you kind words, it is appreciated, to 1937hd45, I have to admit that not all the photo's are of my workshop, the crank grinder is in my local engineer's, I don't have the equipment for crank grinding, reboring and white metalling, the other shop is my friend Steve's balancing shop, he is known as "wobbly Steve" and is the best balancer I have found, he does F1 stuff ! This engine has been a challenge at times due to the extent of the problems due to age and condition, I have rebuilt many engines with problems but this was hard work. Some of the other engines I have rebuilt are, Alvis Leonides radial, 1924 Napier Lion, 1914 Daimler double sleeve valve, 1913 Chalmers 36, Spare 1913 Chalmers 36, my current rebuild of an unknown European air cooled 4 cylinder from around 1905-1910, Thanks again for your interest. Andy

Evenin 58L-Y8 and all, Thank you for all the positive messages, I am amazed that you all appreciate what I have done with this old HS V8, it took a lot of work but I am so happy with the result. Here are a few more photo's of the rebuild. As I asked earlier, if you know of a brass car with a failed engine please let me know. Andy Andy

Good morning everybody, I have just found this thread and was amazed to see the photo of the Herschell Spillman V8 that was for sale on PreWar car, I bought that engine ! it was in Australia before I shipped it to the UK a couple of years ago, I also bought another from Norway, both were in poor condition but the Norway engine was a lot worse but gave me a lot of parts, the engine from Australia seems to be a 1916 version, the Norway engine a little later, the core plugs and crank bearing width's are the main difference's. There were a huge amount of engineering problems to overcome, from frost cracking in one of the combustion chambers and oil pump to rusting through one of the cylinders along with the normal seized in pistons, worn out skew gears and worn out white-metalling. I fitted a K-W Ignition WW1 aero magneto driven from the rear of the fan drive and a handed pair of Rayfield carbs and exhausts of my own design. The engine is now finished and running and waiting for something to drop it in, has anybody got a 1910-1918 car with a failed engine ? anything considered. Andy

Evenin everybody, The world seems to be opening up a little, the weather is warming up and it is time to get out again, I have been out and about on the Chalmers and have now done 500 miles on the new engine, it is going well, I have had a couple of small leaks on the radiator and water pump but other than that it has just used petrol ! My first trip was down to my favourite spot by the canal in Audlem, I have carried on rebuilding the little engine from France, it is starting to look very good, I am working out how to fit a magneto and what sort of carb I need, Recently I was able to buy a cylinder set of Napier Lion valves and guides, I made up a display stand to show a Lion piston and the valves just how they would be in the engine, The first sprint of the year was at Curborough and we had 9 Edwardian racers entered, all 4 had American V8 aero engines, 3 OX-5's and a Sturtevant, it was a great day but I was 0.3 seconds slower than 3 years ago, I put it down to being a bit rusty ! Lat weekend we drove to our first vintage rally of the year, a great selection of cars, trucks, tractors and motorcycles, I am looking forward to more miles out on the chalmers. Andy

Afternoon everbody, Well this apology will have to be the biggest yet, I am very sorry for the 9 month's I have not kept you all updated with the Chalmers ! We have all been going through such a strange time but that has meant workshop time. I found an unknown engine in France, do any of you guys have any idea what this engine is ? It is a metric engine, splash lubrication, exhaust over inlet, it has a clutch in engine oil which was castor oil, there is a place for a starting handle and an incredible adjustable timing and lift camshaft which can be adjusted while running, Our local steam pumping station is now back in steam and running after many years, it is a great place to meet up for tea and cake, This is a great video I found on youtube, thanks to the camera man. In the summer I drove over to the Audlem transport festival, there was just about every type of car you could imagine, A few month's ago I managed to find something I thought would be impossible, I now have a genuine factory tool kit for my Napier Lion aero engine, it is mostly complete and I already have a few of the spanners that are missing. Now back to the Chalmers, after travelling over 25,000 miles I decided to swap the engine for the spare that I bought from Michigan and rebuilt a few years ago, It was a lot of work to look just the same ! But it did sound well on stubs, I made these to check the mixture and see the flames. After having a knee injury in August I am trying catch up on projects and hopefully have another year hillclimbing and touring. Thanks for your patience, I hope to see you on the road. Andy

Hi Barry and all, I have seen the Barney Pollard story before, quite a collector pioneer. We had the first Vintage Sports Car Club pub meet of 2021 yesterday, we had a lovely lunch, good beer and great cars in a covid safe way, we had a lovely Humber special, Iain's racing Morgan, 2 wonderful Riley special's and the Chalmers, Hopefully as we start to open up again we can have more day's like that. Andy

Evenin Alastair and all, Well this has been a long stretch between updates, apologies up and above the usual, I haven't got that much to tell you guy's other than the covid hasn't got me yet ! During UK lockdown I have been busy and rebuilt a couple of engines, more recently I have done a bit of work on the Chalmers, the gearbox input bearing was making a small amount of noise, I think several years living in the kerosene and engine oil clutch mix finished it off so I changed it for a sealed unit, I also made up a small oil separator tank for the fuel tank pressure system, it would occasionally get engine oil in the small pipework and cause the pressure gauge to read very high. I then gave the old girl a good clean, Hopefully we will be able to get out and do a bit of touring this year, oh dear, have I said that to early ? lets see what happens. All the best to you and please stay safe. Andy

Hi Alastair, thumbs up-ers and all, As usual I have to apologise for my lateness of updates, sorry again ! Alastair, when things are nearer to normal and you have made the trip to visit family, please get in touch and call round to see the Chalmers, I am not that far from Manchester. We have been doing the right thing and keeping ourselves to ourselves and that will hopefully help in the reduction of virus transmission, the few times we have been out it has been at some sort of distance, on a particularly hot night we had a great night run and passed Blithfield reservoir, another hot day we ended up at Hetty's tea rooms which is situated at Froghall next to some preserved 19th century lime kilns which the Caldon canal was built to serve, the lunch was very good, I have been finishing some extra parts for my spare Chalmers engine, I have made a water jacket cover plate as I want to try a twin carb conversion, I hope to use a pair of early Dodge carbs, I have also been working on another project and recently cleaned out the oilways on a crank, this tells us that if you have the chance on a rebuild you must clean the oilways thoroughly, I also had to make a set of shell-backs to white metal, and today we had a great run out to Grindley Brook near Whitchurch, the wonderful Lockside cafe served a wonderful lunch while watching the narrow boats going up and down the Llangollen branch of the Shropshire Union canal, The Chalmers has been driving well, and I am just about to fit a new pair of rear tyres before they get to be slicks ! I will keep you updated as we wind our way through these socially distanced times. Andy

Hi Alastair and all, I had been looking for a brass / Edwardian era car for a while, they don't come along that often and when I saw it at Beaulieu autojumble in 2012, it was the last car at the far end of the fields, I had to have it, it had potential, I didn't go out looking for a Chalmers, it really found me, there are 3 1913 4 cylinder and a 1912/16 6 cylinder I know of in the UK, there is also a 4 cylinder in Germany. My brother Gareth won the Ace Vehicles "North West Sports and Saloons" back in 2000, he was in his Ford Escort Cosworth in class D, he also won the Ford Saloons and the Formula Saloons in it, he went on to drive in the Time Attack championship in various Mitsubishi Evo's with 700-1200 bhp. I have been lucky enough to visit New Zealand twice, driving top to bottom was the classic trip we did, meeting lovely people, and seeing spectacular sights along the way, very envious. Let us know how you go on with the Chalmers, if you have any questions about the cars quirk's just ask, we should be able to help. Andy