Mike Macartney

Joe, which is the Loctite type number for this? There seem to be a lot of different types. I was thinking of using something on the bronze bushes that fit in the alloy pistons on my project.

Looking at the photos I have taken since my last post I am having trouble remembering what I have done! Normally, the photos act as an aid to my memory, but not this time. I haven't a clue what this shows apart from a bit of metal with a hole down it that fits into the bush? This part I put in a collet the other way around to machine a flange and pin that would fit inside a 13.1mm (33/64") rod to keep the bronze bush in line when it was pressed in. Now I am starting to remember. This must be the 13.1mm pin the size of the gudgeon pin that the other part I am making fits in. This photo may help to explain the flanged part a little bit better. It all becomes a bit clearer now - I think! This mandrel slides onto the flanged part. This photo explains it even better. I am now starting to understand what I did. I made it in two separate parts so that the flanged part would hold the bush in line with the other bush. The part in the first photo is a mandrel I made to fit through the bush. In the end of it, is a hole to fit the pin that is in one end of the flange the other end of the flange has a 3/4" long pin the size of the internal diameter of the bronze bush. The idea being that the mandrel and the flange with the turned ends will hold the bush inline with the other bush when it is pushed in. It worked. Now to drill the oil holes and make the gudgeon pins. I can't believe it has taken me two days to make those two tools! I thinks I will make the other six bushes first and then drill all the oil holes at the same time.

Compared to me, and many of the other restoration posts, you seem to get a lot done everyday! First thing, every morning, I look forward to reading your interesting and informative posts.

Harm, is it 'pin beading' you are looking for? See the link below. Mike https://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/category/115/pin-beading

Thanks guys. I appreciate your comments. Now I realise I should have jotted down various ideas for pulling or pushing the bushes into the pistons before I blindly went ahead and used the first method I thought of. I used the treaded rod idea because I had used that method in the past on bushes and it had worked. Lesson learned! Al, I wish it would, I'm fed up with all this rain and windy weather that you lot on the other side of the pond are sending us! Thank you Roger. After reading your post I used the original Ford gudgeon pin to push the bush in straight and it worked. Mike, I used a slightly smaller bush and pushed it in (see my reply to Roger above). I may well do this with the other pistons. A heat gun maybe enough to expand the gudgeon pin bore enough? The problem is we don't have a freezer anymore since it packed up and our fridge does not have a freezer compartment. The fridge may at least get the bush reasonably cool. By using a slightly smaller diameter bush (0.0005" smaller) and using the original Ford gudgeon pin to push the bush in, it fitted OK. Now, to design a method of pushing, pulling or both pushing and pulling to fit this second bush in. I'll make a spigot on this 'lump' of metal bar the internal diameter of the bronze bush. I am now getting used to using the dial gauge to get the machining lengths correct. This spigot is going to be 3/4" long. I got close on the correct diameter with the machining. The final sizing I did with emery cloth to get a nice sliding fit. It nearly fits. It does now! You will have to wait until tomorrow so see what I do next.

Yes, even when trying to pull it straight with a threaded rod! I think I need more of a chamfer for the lead in? Read on . . . I measured the side of the piston where this part of the tool, for pulling in the bushes fits and I started machining the tool to fit. On one side of the tool more metal had to be removed than the other side. Checking that the counter bore in the tool will accept the bush by using the Ford gudgeon pin to check it. Why I didn't use the bush, I don't know? The tool needs a bit more work to fit snugly into the side of the piston. You can see in the above photo I need to remove some more metal from the tool. Still needs a bit more taken off the bottom of the tool. This shows it a bit more clearly with the threaded rod fitted. I did some more machining and filing until the threaded rod was at right angles to the piston. OK here goes. It became a bit tight and I thought it was me loosing my 'puff' and becoming rather worn out. Then Pete came into the workshop to borrow a trolley jack and I asked him to have a go tightening the nuts. Which he did, until he to found it hard to move the spanners. I then removed the threaded rod to have a look to see what the problem was and found this. . . . Oooop's! I don't think it is as bad a it looks. The slivers of aluminium piston are very thin and came off easily when I pulled the bush back out. I then pushed the drill rod in through the bush to see how far canted over the bush was, by viewing the end of the drill rod on the other side of the piston, the side that did not have a bush fitted. It looks worse than it actually is, I think it is the angle that I took the photo, that makes it look a long way out of true. I retired back to the house to metaphorically lick my wounds! I hope I can save the piston, if not we do have one spare piston between us.

Still not sure what I am quite going to do for the outer part of the tool for pulling in the bronze bushes into the piston, I have sketched out some ideas, but it seems that I am now making it up as I go along! I started off with this bit of stainless hexagon scrap and drilled it out to a clearance hole for the threaded studding, that I am going to use to pull the bush into the gudgeon pin hole in the piston. I then counter bored it to a depth of a 1/4" and then bored it out to an internal clearance bore of the diameter of the bronze bush. Will it fit? Well that's a bonus! I have got to pack up now, as I am being collected at 12.30pm to go for a Sunday lunchtime beer by my pal Robert, it's a hard life being retired!

This link did not work??? Yes, that is what I am working on but with some extra bits to pull it in square. I have done that on the bushes I have made so far. I started to make a steel bush that was to go inside the bush from the flange end with a clearance hole down the centre for the threaded rod. By this time I was getting tired from the lathe work on the bushes in the morning. I was parting the extra material off the bush and this happened! The parting tool jammed and it broke the collet. I did in fact carry on and made another one. This time in brass, only because I had a suitable bit of scrap brass available. This 'extra bush' that fits inside the gudgeon pin bush should help to spread the load and keep the threaded rod in the centre of the hole. At least I finished the day on a high. As you can see from the outer side view of the piston that I posted before, this end needs more thought, especially as the bronze bush protrudes out of the hole to give the gudgeon pin a bit more 'bearing surface'. I will go and have a play in the workshop this morning and see what I can scheme.

Hello Al, I had thought about aluminium. As I had used bronze before in my 1927 Humber 350cc when I replaced the piston with a modern Ford piston I decided to do the same here. I attach the spreadsheet with all the weights of the engine parts. You will see that the Ford piston is roughly 2/3rds the weight of the original cast iron piston. Mike WEIGHTS OF ENGINE PARTS Parts Weighed Kg ounces Complete Flywheel Assembly 21.800 768.97 Old Rear Flywheel (bare) 9.628 339.62 Old Front Flywheel (bare) 9.884 348.65 The one old main shaft I have 0.482 17.00 The old worn (small) big end 0.044 1.55 Locking clamp, bolt & washer (1-off) 0.026 0.92 Locking clamp, bolt & washer (2-off) 0.052 1.83 Two drilled out flywheel rivets 0.006 0.21 Old big end nut (1-off) 0.040 1.41 Old big end nut (2-off) 0.080 2.82 Original No.2 Piston with rings & pin 0.660 23.28 No.2 Piston Pin 0.066 2.33 Original No.1 Piston with rings & pin 0.704 24.83 No.1 Piston Pin 0.066 2.33 BMW Piston without Pin 0.526 18.55 BMW Piston Pin 0.132 4.66 Circlips? ? ? Total BMW Piston Weight 0.658 23.21 Ford Piston without Pin 0.338 11.92 Ford Piston Pin 0.106 3.74 Total Ford Piston Weight 0.442 15.59 New Big End Nut 0.044 1.55 Complete Conrod Assembly 1.252 44.16 Conrod Large End (average) 0.813 28.68 Conrod Small End (average) 0.433 15.27 Rear End Flywheel Complete 9.996 352.60 Front End Flywheel Complete (with Big End Pin) 10.460 368.97 Total of the two flywheel parts above 20.456 721.56 The Total above plus the conrod & nut 21.708 765.73 Flywheel Assembly (difference in bits and together) 0.092 3.25

I did buy a set of 4. I thought about machining a larger one down, but as it is brand new, and I have not used it yet, I decided against the idea. Thanks for the idea of the aluminium arbor. After reading your post I was wondering about temporally gluing a bush onto an arbor, as I remember reading that 'old timers' used to use shellac. From looking on the internet; it looks as if it is possible to use super glue, then after machining, use heat or acetone to part the bits. I have just given superglue a try and it works. I made an aluminium spigot to slide the the bronze bush onto. I was going to make the expanding arbor that Joe suggested but then I thought when I had machined it to the correct diameter "I'll just try Superglue". Superglued the bronze bush onto the aluminium and machined the circlip groove. The bush did not move at all on the aluminium. Heated the bronze bush with a hot air gun and used a screw driver between the bush and the 5c collet and in less than 30 seconds the bronze bush came off. Checked that the circlip fitted the groove. Then checked that the bushes still fitted the drill rod. Time to make the tool for pressing them into the piston from the inside. I need to sketch out some ideas as I need to spread the load on the outside of the piston as it not a regular shape.

Thanks again for your help Joe. I'll kook up pipe plug and see what I can find.

Just looked up 'internal grooving tool'. A bit similar to the HSS one I used.

This is the tool I attempted to use to cut the circlip groove. I think the 'arm' of the tool is too springy and it did not cut properly. I'll try using this one on the groove that I am going to cut under the oil hole in the piston. It should help lubrication. I faced off this end and reduced the thickness of the flange to 1/16". Centre drilled and drilled through at 12.5mm. This photo is out of focus but the tool did cut a groove for the oil. I reamed the bush. The drill rod I am going to use for the gudgeon pins fitted the bush OK. I tried the circlip in the oil groove and it seemed to fit. Now, how am I going to machine a circlip groove in this end? It is possible that I can fit the bush in a collet and machine the groove from the other end if I am careful with my measurement's. I bush nearly done - only another 7 bushes to make. At my present rate of progress that will take nearly two weeks?!? I'm sure I will get better with more practise.

I hope you didn't get too wet on the outside with our constant rain at the present time! What's it taste like? At least the name is better than the Old Engine oil beer that I posted about a while back. The encouragement from you helps a lot. Thank you. Any tips on cutting circlip grooves?

The answer is definitely NO. None of us can understand WHY anybody would want to be the President or Prime Minister of a country. Maybe, we just went to the wrong schools! When we arrived at the pub yesterday evening, there were only two other people in the bar, I suppose it is just after New Year and Christmas. I am pretty sure that not everybody in the village has given up drink for the New Year! As we left the pup at about 9pm the pub started to fill up with the Roadrunners for their monthly meeting, it's a local motorcycle club, whose members are mostly getting on towards our age. Today was another stressful morning in the workshop, on the lathe, hopefully it will get less stressful the more machining work I do. Unfortunately, some of the photos I took did not come out well. It must have been nerves! I'll try and do better tomorrow. I tried to work out how I could machine down the length of the smaller radius of the bush to 0.750" long. I had painted the bronze with marking out blue yesterday so I set my odd leg callipers to 3/4" and rotated the spindle to mark the bar. I then moved the lathe tool to the scribed line and set the magnetic backed dial gauge, I had recently purchased, to zero. I then took a 0.010" cut and set the cross slide dial to zero. It is the first time I have used a dial gauge for this purpose before and I was surprised how easy it was to stop just before the zero mark came up on the dial gauge. I kept removing metal and checking the diameter when I was getting near to the 0.812 + 0.001 or 0.002 that I was trying to achieve. Worried that I was going to take too much metal off, I checked the diameter with the micrometer a lot more times than I really needed to. Nerves and lack of experience I suppose. I decide to drill a 1/2" hole a short distance into the end of the bronze, from this end, after first using a centre drill. I wanted to cut the groove for the internal circlip at this end of the bush, before I parted off the bronze and fit it in another size collet, to face and drill the other of the bush. The tool did cut a groove, but it was not deep enough. I think the problem was that I did not allow for the flexing of the slender lathe tool when I pulled the tool in for 0.040". When I tried the circlip in the groove I thought it was OK, but after I had parted the bush from the bar I found out that groove for the circlip was not deep enough. By then, it was too late to try and deepen it. We learn from our mistakes! Before I parted the bush I did make a chamfer on the end with a fine file. Maybe I should have used a lathe tool? At least I got the bush diameter correct. It measured 0.8135". The gudgeon pin hole in the piston is 0. 812". I measured the length of the bush part, that fits in the piston, with a Vernier caliper. I wanted 0.75", it measured 0.695" - Oooop's, I packed up for the day to 'lick my wounds' and have a think where I went wrong, and scheme some ideas how I can become more accurate. Ready for my second attempt tomorrow.