racer2_uk
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Posts posted by racer2_uk
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Afternoon everybody,
3 years of Chalmers ownership has gone by very quickly but what a lot of fun it has been, the fun continued at the weekend at the Loton Park hillclimb near Shrewsbury, the Saturday morning downpour soon went and sunshine broke through for the first cars to get going,
we were parked next to some amazing cars in the Edwardian paddock,
To help the event run smoothly we are helped by the local Air Force Cadet's, the squadron gets a donation, the young cadet's get a trip up the hill in competition cars.
lot's of competitor's took advantage of the hot Sunday condition's and many personal best times appeared on the time sheets,
The Chalmers ran beautifully and we broke our class handicap by 4.2 seconds and ended up first handicap winners,
there was one incident late on Sunday when the De Dietrich of Richard Scaldwell tipped over halfway up the hill, he is OK and the car is repairable, best wishes to him and Annie.
The Chalmers has now travelled over 1800 miles and finished 6 competition events with a few more trips out planned before the cold returns and the garage get's busy.
Andy
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Evenin Grease Monkey and all,
The GN with the aero engine is a car I think Mark Walker ( Darracq V8 LSR car ) built, I am sure it is a Cirrus engine.
I am always looking for suitable Chalmers stuff, anything at all for a 1913.
Here in the UK I try and go to the Beaulieu autojumble, although that is where I found the car 3 years ago.
Another good clear day means a trip out on the Chalmers, this time a trip to the Welsh border to visit friends that race Austin 7's, they live right next to the canal !
just down the road was a disused railway station that is now a private house complete with engine !
with now over 1700 miles and 4 hillclimbs this year the car is running very well and I am now quite good at demonstrating the air start, I engage the compressor when the engine is ticking over, then after a short distance of a couple of miles and the air pressure gets over 100psi the engine will start easily, as the engine starts there is puff of oil smoke from the exhaust, this is residual lubricating oil from the air distributor being blown into the combustion chamber along with the air, the air system will hold most of its pressure for a few hours.
Andy
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Good evening,
We took the Chalmers to another local classic car pub meet tonight, lots of completely different cars all cared for by enthusiastic owners,
The car feels very good after 3 days on Prescott hill, it starts well with the handle and now with the air ! it works best over 100psi and is helped if I hand turn the engine over TDC after I switch off, ready for restarting.
Andy
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Evenin everybody,
Prescott hill climb time, the Chalmers got an entry in the Friday and weekend hill climb's,
we arrived on Thursday night,
Friday's Long course competition went well,
the Chalmers best was 81.14, nearly 6 seconds under handicap time,
we returned to the camper after parking the Chalmers ready for the next day and found this parked by us,
the weekend hill climb was on the short course due to the very large entry,
the Edwardian class had 20 plus cars,
The Chalmers did very well over the weekend event, the best was 65.82, over 3 seconds under handicap and nearly 7 better than last year.
the gearbox rebuild, higher ratio crown wheel and pinion, better understanding of the carb and ignition has made a huge difference along with the fact I can trust the new wheels !
Andy
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Evenin,
A really good run out today, I called in at Foxfield Railway and watched a few of the engineers repairing a boiler for a steam engine restoration, there is always something going on,
later on I called in at the biker café and met up with a few mates for a cuppa,
with over 1500 miles now I will give the points a check over and do another oil change ready for Prescott hillclimb in a couple of weeks.
Andy
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Evening everybody,
Oulton Park on Saturday was great so off to Donington Park on Sunday !
This was at a slightly different pace and a little off topic for this thread but here are a few photo's for you,
My Ford Sierra RS500 touring car built and raced in Australia by Dick Johnson in the Group "A" touring car championship,
DJR1 was the first of 6 cars built by Dick, this car was built in 1987, exported to the UK in 1989 and raced in the British Touring Car Championship.
With approximately 500bhp more than the Chalmers it is just as much fun to drive but in a different way !
Andy
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Evening everybody,
Well the sun came out and I set off on the 25 mile journey to Oulton Park racing circuit for the Vintage Sports Car Club race day, there was a great selection of vintage race cars and vintage racers !
I parked next to a friend with his Riley,
I had a walk in and around the pits
There was excellent racing, great cars, wonderful hospitality, the weather was perfect and the drive home was fun and trouble free, now that is a good day !
Jeff, that is one hell of a canoe !
Andy
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Good morning Jeff and all,
Thanks for your interest and kind words, the Chalmers runs a 12v system these days, it makes things easy to look after and the lights are useable.
I am sure your canoe would be very welcome and greeted with great interest as an 8 meter canoe sounds very unusual in the UK but you will have to keep your speed down to 4 mph !
Good weather is the key to allowing me to go further afield and at the moment we seem to have good summer conditions so I am out again today.
Andy
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Evening Chalmers enthusiast's,
The rain subsided and off we went on the Chalmers to a local show we have visited before to meet up with friend's with their old tractor's, truck's and cars,
after many hours chatting and looking at lot's of interesting vehicles we set off to another show at a Victorian water pumping station, we were quite late but had time for tea and cakes before they ended the show,
with 1300 miles now travelled this year the car feels strong and as usual if the weather holds out we should be heading to Oulton Park for the Vintage Sports Car Club race day next Saturday, fingers crossed !
Andy
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Hi,
A very sunny day today gave me the chance to check out the exhaust valve fix, after the longest single trip I have made on the Chalmers of well over 100 miles the engine seems to be running extremely well again.
I called at a local canal junction where some of the longest canal barges are able to turn round,
just down the road from the junction the road goes under the canal in a great tunnel,
after visiting a few friends on the way home I called in at the local bikers night café meet,
weather permitting a run out to a vintage show is on the cards for Sunday, fingers crossed.
Andy
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Evening everybody,
A great weekend at Shelsley Walsh vintage hillclimb that had wonderful car's, excellent competition, stunning sunshine and torrential rain !
I managed 2 practice runs and one competition run before the weather ended the proceedings, all the run's were slower than last year and the car didn't feel just right but started and ran.
Today I did a compression test and found No.3 cylinder well down, I removed the plug and valve cap on No.3 and manually opened the valve with a long bar, the valve was stiff to move.
I then removed the collet and spring to find a dried up valve stem, the valve was cleaned up and given a light roughing up, lubed and re-fitted, just in case I also did the same to the other's which weren't as bad but heading in the same direction.
After everything was refitted the car started easily and settled to a good idle, a quick run down the road soon showed me what a difference this made to the engines pick-up and higher rpm running, I think I was quite lucky not to have any serious problems !
With over 1100 miles travelled this year I think I will have to keep an eye on this especially if the engine get's hot.
I have now got a set of modern seals to fit in the compressor that will hopefully work better than the vintage leather items and that will allow me to use the air starter system again.
Andy
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more Cholmondeley Pageant of Power,
a very fast Morgan,
a not so fast Chalmers,
the Hardy 3, J A P V-twin on methanol and supercharged,
a lovely Triumph,
a beautiful Brough racer,
Andy
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Evenin everybody,
We had a great "nearly dry" Cholmondeley (Chumley) Pageant of Power weekend, an amazing display of cars and bikes from the Chalmers to F1 cars with a few vintage aero engined cars for good measure.
The Chalmers was the oldest car of the weekend and looked well,
with great company,
we did about 10 runs, nearly all dry !
I will add a few more photo's later, oh, and we were the slowest !
Andy
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Afternoon,
Sorry for not adding much in the way of updates on the Chalmers, I have been out driving most of the time instead !
I have now covered over 700 miles this year and having a great time,
Recently I drove the Chalmers to an evening pub meet which gave me the opportunity to use the car properly at night, the lights were quite good,
and there was a very nice Bentley at the pub,
on one of my trips out I found this old railway carriage being used as a shed,
parked outside an old post office,
a visit to a local motorcycle rally,
I hope to get over to a steam rally at the weekend, I will update the Chalmers travels shortly.
Andy
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Evening everybody,
After a very wet start, Curborough sprint turned out to be a great day, the Chalmers ran faultlessly but I didn't manage to beat my last years time.
Along with the Chalmers there were some great cars out to play,
A 1903 Mercedes 60hp and 1905 Darracq V8
A 1909 DeDietrich 12 litre,
under the skin of the Hardy 3 special with it's supercharged J A P v-twin,
I am looking forward to Shelsley Walsh hillclimb.
Andy
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Hi Dwight and all,
I am getting the final bits and pieces done ready for Sunday's Curborough sprint event, I have now done over 300 miles this year and had a lot of fun, today I wired up a digital air/fuel ratio meter with a Lambda sensor in the exhaust downpipe and went out on a test run, I stopped a couple of times and made some minor carb adjustments but the meter gave just the readings I had hoped for, best mixture ratio through all throttle openings, see below a short clip of the meter on the car while I made mixture adjustments on the steering wheel and with short throttle openings,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUC_U3U3Oc8
looking forward to the weekend.
Andy
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Hello again everybody,
The weather has been very good over the last few days and this has given me the opportunity to get a few more miles on the Chalmers, I have now done over 200 miles and everything is coming together, I changed the clutch oil to a slightly thinner grade and the clutch has become drag free with easy to engage gears.
Today I had a great run out to a favourite canalside pub, the Shroppie Fly at Audlem, then this evening a run to a local bikers night at the Raven café near Whitchurch.
I have a slight fuel leak on the carb that I hope to sort out and then I will get the car ready for Curborough sprint next weekend.
Andy
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Evening everyone,
I have done nearly 100 miles in the last couple of days, fairly trouble free, a couple of minor oil leaks and a carb fuel leak, I need to get the clutch to disengage a bit better but that seems to be it, the cars is a lot happier at speed with the slightly higher crown wheel and pinion and I have now started the engine several times with the air system, see the short clip below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byiTdRxFCjo
Hopefully the weather will stay dry and allow me to do a few more miles.
Andy
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Today the front wheels went back on,
The left wheel needed a sleeve machined up to take the bearing as the hub had worn, I had pre-machined the bore before the wheels went away for new spokes, the sleeve and bearing pressed in and looks well. The front wheels went on and it was time for a quick test drive,
I need to spend some time setting up the replacement carb, on the road it is running a bit weak but nothing a few adjustments won't sort out, the engine idles
well, click on the engine pic below.
Hopefully the weather with let me do a few miles to get things running right.
Andy
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Good evening everybody,
I have picked up the newly painted wheels and have started preparing them for refitting,
The rear wheels went on easily,
Hopefully the fronts will go on just as easily.
Andy
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Morning Max,
There seems to be various different ignition setups on early Chalmers, it seems that they originally had only one set of spark plugs but people removed the air starter valves and fitted a second set of plugs in their place, these were driven by either a twin output magneto or battery and coil via a distributor driven from the air starter distributor drive as the photo below,
The wheels are Kelsey, type 210 is stamped on the felloe.
How is the big country ? I have been lucky enough to visit a few times and very lucky enough to have raced at Bathurst on 2 occasions.
Andy
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Hi Barry,
yes, that is Alain, his work is really good, he makes all sorts of things in wood, from "boneshaker" bicycles to gun carriages.
Andy
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Evening everybody,
Just back from a great trip through France to collect my re-spoked Chalmers wheels,
The wonderful work was by Alain Montpied, the "Artisan Charron" a 4th generation wheelwright based near Clermont-Ferrand, as well as automobile wheels Alain has made numerous wooden constructed pieces from water turbines to gun carriages. www.wheelwright.fr
On the return trip we called in to see the automobile restoration work done by Jean-Luc Bonnefoy and later dropped into the LeMans museum.
While the rims are stripped I have found stamped into the steel "Kelsey Wheel Co Inc Detroit Mich type 210 32x4" the wheels are now being prepared for fitting and hopefully the weather will give me a chance to try out the winter's modifications.
Andy
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Evenin everybody,
After fitting seals to the air start valves I found the system was still not able to turn over the engine well enough for it to start, there was a question of the "air start timing" being out as well as another leak, this was found to be from the dash push valve, so it was removed from the car, stripped down, modified to carry a seal on the rocker end of valve stem "T" and refitted.
I removed the top cover off the air start distributor and set the number 1 cylinder to TDC, the air port to number 1 was ready to open, this seemed to be the right timing as far as I could tell, I refitted the cover.
The main parts of the Chalmers air start system from a photocopy of an owners manual,
I charged the air tank from the workshop compressor for a test, I primed the carb, switched on the ignition and pushed the start valve, the engine turned with ease and after a couple of rotations fired up and I took my foot off the start valve, it works !
The Chalmers air starter system diagram from the photocopied manual,
The wheels will be ready in a couple of weeks and then hopefully a bit of warmer weather for some test mileage.
Andy
1913 36 model 17 in the UK
in Chalmers
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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