racer2_uk

Evenin everybody, Today was very productive and the Chalmers has come together well, lots of plumbing for the carb heating which I haven't had working before, I fitted the prop shaft but had to drop the torque arm to lower the diff flange a little as the prop shaft wouldn't compress enough to clear the pinion locknut, as soon as I did this everything bolted up, After adding engine, clutch and gearbox oil's, lot's of water in the radiator, attaching the battery and a couple of gallons of petrol it was time to try the engine, after making sure the ignition was on full retard and the fuel was through to the carb I tried the starting handle, on the second pull it fired up and sat at a high idle with very little dripping on the floor ! I made a couple of small adjustment's to the idle speed and the mixture and then backed the car out into the sunshine, After a few minutes warming up I drove up and down the lane to get a feel of how the winter work had changed thing's, the steering is a bit tight, the clutch needs adjusting and I need to check the air/fuel ratio, the main thing is after all the work and new flywheel the engine feels smooth and responsive. I hope the weather will warm up a bit before I venture to far. Andy

Evenin Dwight and everybody, Dwight, I am pleased to know it is not just me with the sleep thing ! I got another good day on the Chalmers, I fitted a lot of the plumbing and improved on a couple of area's including a proper carb warming system and an oil filter, I have to test that the pump is up to the job of overcoming the filter back pressure, currently the pump only scavenges from the sump and via a dash glass returns the oil to the conrod dipping channel's in the sump top, If the filter works I will modify and paint up the mounting plate, Starting to look something like now, Now, about that sleep, Andy

Evenin everybody, I did sleep well ! so after another late start I got to work, The engine and gearbox dropped in easily, the engine mounting bolts were refitted, tightened and split pinned, I had to check the alignment of the pulley's and slightly modify the dynamo position, this did need doing a long time ago ! The air compressor drive gear, coupling, water pump and magneto all went together after having spent a lot of time on them when I reconditioned the water pump, the exhaust downpipe located itself when I lowered the engine in, I was watching the mounting positions then realised it was fitted ! More sleep needed. Andy

Evenin everybody, After a late start I got on quite well today, I re-fitted the pistons and prepared the block base and crankcase top, everything went together as planned, the engine stand I originally made when rebuilding the Napier Lion engine makes working on any engine a pleaseure and allows you to get all round the engine with ease, The gearbox went on with a bit of a fight as lining up a centre bearing, 3 clutch location posts and 8 mounting stud's is almost too much, the engine and gearbox are now ready to drop into the chassis, I am going to sleep well tonight ! Andy

Evenin everybody, A quick update of the progress in the last couple of day's, the camshaft, timing gear's and follower's have gone back, The small brass block on the side of the crankcase is the air pump and non-return valve for the fuel system, the oil pump was also refitted and primed. The engine is starting to look good with the clean alloy and brass. Andy

Evenin everybody, The crank balancer has done his work, thanks Mike Huddart, I collected the balanced crank and flywheel this morning and got straight into preparing it for the press, first off is the flywheel, then pressing the front bearing on the crank, then the rear bearing onto the flywheel and lastly the flywheel back onto the crank, this all went well, thanks Andy Roycroft. I made a set of lifting chains and got the crank assembly lifted up ready for the crankcase to be positioned underneath, With a little gentle persuasion the crank was back home, The whole assembly was now lifted onto the engine stand ready for the long hour's to commence, Andy

Mornin Barry and all, Thank you very much for your kind words, it is appreciated, I really enjoy all aspect's of having the Chalmers, it has common sense engineering and is a hoot to drive, as you can see I am not a polisher but a user and all the work is really to get it back in a condition where I can have the fun with a little less time in the workshop in the future. There seems to have been a club in the not to distant past but due to someone passing it no longer functions, here in the UK there seems to be 4 examples, 3 being 4 cylinder car's and 1 a 6 cylinder, also another 4 cylinder car in Germany. Thanks again Barry. Andy

Evenin everybody, More flywheel and crankshaft work done, I refitted the clutch location post's and went around to the agricultural engineer's to press the flywheel back on the crank, their press has a wide bed to take the flywheel with the crank hanging below, The new flywheel fitted perfectly and the locking nut and spring loaded detent pin went together easily, on Monday I will drop off the assembly at the balancer's. Andy

Evenin all, I have spent some time on the propshaft, I stripped it down and found 1 dry joint with a bit of wear, I turned up a couple of new bush's and it is ready to go, Now the big news ! The flywheel is done and is here ! I have to refit the clutch location's and clutch stops and then I will get it pressed on the crank and they will go away for balancing, then the work start's ! Andy

Evenin everybody, As the supplies and various bits and pieces I needed for the radiator repair arrived I was able to make a brass strengthening plate to cover the small crack, give support and a flat face for the outlet elbow, it all went together well and will hopefully be a good repair, I am pleased with the result's of the soldering, many thanks to Chris Williams (Napier Bentley) for the crash course in soldering and the loan of tools. I have made a fuel tank drain plug because when the area was prepared and the old solder removed I realised that a brass disc had been soldered onto the outlet boss instead of having a plug fitted ! this one is an aluminium plug, it works well but I might make a brass one. Andy

Afternoon everybody, I had a crash course in soldering last week and have started on a couple of repair's on the fuel tank and radiator, there were a couple of damp patch's around the drain point and the end's of the tank seam, The radiator outlet had a very slight leak which turned out to be a tiny crack in the brass, to make a good repair I have got to get the area level as the area was pushed in somehow, I have made up a frame to position the brass face ready to solder a new strengthening piece in place, I have just finished a small repair on the cooling fan mounting, the shaft is located with 2 flat's, these had worn over the year's and didn't lock in properly, this is now fixed. Hopefully a flywheel update will be here soon ! Andy

Afternoon everybody, I must apologise for the lack of updates, the delay with the flywheel has been annoying to say the least but I can tell you it has now been machined and has only the keyway to be cut and then I will have it ready for it to go to the crank balancer ! In the meantime have a look at this lap from last year's Cholmondeley Pageant of Power, the Chalmers didn't get the fastest lap ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8EZvS9gvUI Andy

Evenin everybody, I collected the springs, turned a couple of new bush's and with a bit of elbow grease they were fitted, I am particularly pleased with the front spring hanger's, they have turned out very well but took a lot of machining from laser cut blank's, I have also refitted the rear axle torque arm, when the previous owner changed parts of the car the torque arm was one of thing's he modified, I have refitted the front location point allowing it to work properly and look a bit better than it was, I also un-seized the main pivot pin, the top pivot had it's seal missing and so water and time did the usual, All the spring pivot's have been greased and split pinned, the axle mount's went straight on and are now moving freely with no play or binding, later this week I am going to visit my local crank balancing guy to find out what can be done and if his machine can take the weight of one of these old crank and flywheel lumps. Andy

Evenin everybody, I have been doing loads of thing's to the Chalmers but haven't seemed to have got anywhere ! I have fully machined and fitted the new front spring shackles and pins, the springs should be ready to collect from being height adjusted for the rear's and the fronts equalled up, I have cleaned up the rear axle mounting to the springs, I also machined a slot to hold the bolt head when tightening, New rear spring bolts are ready to fit along with the spacer plate's to give more clearance between the brake tube and the spring's, Amongst many little jobs like making up some brass fitting's on a new fuel pipe to allow different carb's to be fitted, making new spring hangar bushes and painting bits and pieces, I managed to make up a new sump gasket, I managed to get hold of another Splitdorf model X magneto last week, although various shipper's, carriers and distribution companies had the opportunity of a game of football with it along the way, It is a shame a couple of useable part's are broken but I got a perfect distributor spinner, point's and arm assy, brass cover and most of the rotating part's, even getting the carbon's was good. I hope to get the spring's this week and then the flywheel, should be a bit more going on soon. Andy

Hi JFranklin and all, Thanks for your kind words JFranklin, its a lot of fun and bloody annoying, I have got a bit more done, I have made up a bigger diameter fuel line from the fuel cut-off valve forward to a point were I can make up a final section to link up to other carbs in the future, I have stripped and regreased the steering column and adjusted the bearings, You can see an earlier repair on the control quadrants, the road springs have been removed and delivered to the spring specialists where the rears will get more lift and the fronts will be made equal height ! while the springs are off I am making and repairing some spring hangar pins and have some laser cut shackles being cut ready for machining, Andy

Evenin everybody, Apologies for the lack of updates on the Chalmers, festivities, birthday's and general life has just got in the way, I have spent a lot of time on the water pump and pump drive, I rebuilt the pump, I then checked out the alignment of the pump shaft from the drive to the magneto shaft with a turned alignment shaft, I found that the pump location diameter was different than the mounting location by 20 thou, the pump had been clamped previously by the small grease seal pad, this has now been shimmed and the pump shaft is now aligned. I have also made a new drive coupling that will allow a tiny amount of misalignment and still give me timing adjustment. Hopefully I will get back to normal and get a bit more done. Thanks for watching. Andy

Evenin everybody, The cracked flywheel is away to be copied, it will be in steel and should be ready at the end of January, the replacement crank bearing's have arrived, The water pump occasionally let out a drip so I had decided to strip and rebuild it, it came apart easily and the magneto drive side bush was a little worn, it pressed out and I was able to clean up the pump castings, A new bush, seals, taper pin and a gasket and it will be ready to pump again. On a slightly different note I have been able to find a brand new "KLG type F15" spark plug for my Napier Lion aero engine, I never thought I would find a spark plug that rare and old still in its box ! Andy

Evenin folks, I took the crank and flywheel assembly over to the big press, firstly we put the flywheel on the press with the crank hanging below, we used a dial indicator positioned on the centre boss to check for deflection when under load, as soon as the press ram touched the crank end the dial moved, when the lever was pumped a little the dial really moved round, something was wrong, we then made up some steel blocks to locate the load right on the back of the bearing rather than the flywheel, this time the ram pushed down and the indicator hardly moved and the crank steadily came out, when we looked at the rear of the flywheel we could see the reason for the deflection, there was a crack running around the centre boss ! this looked very old and was dirty and oily, definitely nothing recent and maybe something to do with the vibration. The rear bearing carrier came off without any trouble and the axial play in the single row self aligning bearing was evident, the front single row standard type bearing also came off easily with a lot less play than the rear, the rear carrier has a very nice multi plate oil seal arrangement next to the bearing, it is amazing to see how much play there is in the bearing's after feeling very little when the engine was fully assembled. The crank looks good, I will now mount it on centre's and check to see if it is bent in any way, The double keyway's are a very nice touch, I will now draw up the flywheel and get a new one machined from steel which will be a lot stronger. Andy

Evenin, Another week has gone by and more Chalmers engine parts are on the shelf, I made up a small puller and removed the starting handle dog and cam drive gear, I modified an old 2 leg puller to fit the flywheel, I then loaded up the puller, I wound it a little more and waited, then waited a bit more, The flywheel didn't move at all, I decided to leave the puller on while working on cleaning up the crankcase and removing the black paint, After a couple of day's the flywheel was still in place, I didn't really want to heat it so another way had to be found, I removed the puller legs from the holes in the flywheel, I rotated the flywheel until I found the bearing carrier retaining bolt's, these were removed and I made up a simple puller to pull the whole flywheel and crank assembly from the crankcase, this worked so easily, The 2 crank bearing's sit in steel carrier's, the front carrier was able to move slightly to take up expansion, the rear was fixed by the retaining bolts I removed previously, now I can turn the bearing's by hand it is obvious they have to be replaced, I don't think they are original but are still very old and they are metric ! was this to take out wear with re-machining the carrier's or was this normal in the 1910's ? I now have the crank and flywheel assembly ready to take over to a friend's workshop that has a larger press than mine., I found the number 4 exhaust lifter had a small problem, the lifter is made in 2 pieces, the top adjuster block and the lower hollow cam follower, they are fixed together with a dowel pin, on this lifter the pin had become worn and had allowed a small amount of play "up and down", I have some steel rod of the same diameter and will make and fit another pin. Andy

Evenin, another good day in the workshop, I removed the rod's, piston's, cam follower's and camshaft, the crank journal's look good, just polished, the white metal is also good, only one small mark on one, with the cam drive gear's removed the crank is now free to rotate without anything in contact with it, it has a rumble on the rear bearing with a slight amount of lift, I don't know if they are original but will be replaced, more to do. Andy

Evenin Dwight, Thanks for your interest in the Chalmers, the seat height and steering wheel position feels great, I have made the position a good fit for me at about 5'9", like you when I had a blank canvas I set things to my liking, I sat on boxes of different heights with the steering in various positions until I felt it was the most comfortable. I would like to see how your car is coming along, Andy

Evenin all, I was able to do a lot more to the Chalmers engine today, all the ancillaries were stripped off along with the gearbox, everything came off without any trouble, I had a close look at the crankshaft nut at the flywheel, there is a locking pin that engages in machined slots in the flange of the nut, this pin has a smaller diameter that locks the nut, a larger diameter stops the pin from coming through, then I realised that the pin was spring loaded into position and it still worked perfectly after 102 years ! next job was to remove the block, the burn on the piston crowns was good, everything was free and clean, then I noticed an odd wear pattern around the gudgeon pin circlips, each piston on both sides had wear around the aluminium bore especially in the up and down directions, I then noticed that all the gudgeon pin location bolts were missing their split pins, these were used as a safety device by Chalmers to stop the bolts coming undone and the pin floating into the bore, four new split pins were fitted when the pistons were replaced must have fractured and moved around and steadily worn the aluminium until they were so small the material was washed away, this is the first problem I have found and after a lot of inspection of the pistons and bores I think I have got away with it ! The conrod bearings are free and without play, the crank bearings feel good with no noticeable play, The bores are damage free, just a visible mark in the gudgeon pin area along with the honing hatch pattern, the flash in this photo makes the valve and head look silver, it actually has a good burn. More work to be done. Andy

Evenin, I got a lot done on the Chalmers today, Everything came apart easily and as usual I found a couple of extra job's, the radiator outlet has a slight leak, there seems to be a bit too much endfloat on the gearbox output shaft and a brass screw has snapped in the floorboards. The engine and gearbox came out together using chainblocks and went onto the engine stand I made for the Napier Lion aero engine. I know need to clean as much of the dirt and oil off before stripping the engine down. Andy

Hi folks, The winter weather has arrived and the last run around on the Chalmers has happened for 2015, a great 2200 miles of enjoyment. Last week I took a trip to Cosford Air Museum, they had their conservation centre open and a couple of engines that had spent over 70 years under the sea were on show, a BMW radial, and a Napier Sabre, Now is the time to start getting a few jobs done on the Chalmers, I have started to strip the car down to get to the rear axle torque arm which seems to be seized in the diff casing, it should pivot slightly. I want to drop the gearbox, take the engine out, strip it and get the crankshaft balanced, along with everything else you usually find along the way ! So much for the first afternoon. Andy

Evening everybody, I am sorry the update has taken so long, the Chalmers has now covered over 2100 miles this year with only a few minor repair's. On a recent drive out in Cheshire I stopped at Crewe Hall, A week ago we drove about 10 miles away to a place near Nantwich and waited for our chance to see the Avro Vulcan make one of its final flights, Today was my regular trip out to the Klondyke steam party at Draycott in the Clay, another great turnout of steam engines, tractors and classic cars, This tractor came from the RAF, it was used in WW2 to rescue large bomber's that had crash landed or overshot the runway's and had got stuck in the mud, I parked the Chalmers near a wonderful model T truck, Hopefully the weather will let me go out for a few more run's before the winter arrives. Andy