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CAR WORKSHOPS UPDATE
Story added 21st January 2012 by
SVAS Vehicle section Update.
Jan 2012.
By ‘Wheelnut’.
With the winter season well under way and the Christmas holidays a distant memory, work is progressing towards the spring and the start of the 2012 season.
Several vehicles are undergoing maintenance and some are having some more extensive work.One of the most important vehicles in the collection is the 1897 Panhard et Levassor. This was the first historic vehicle purchased by Richard Shuttleworth in 1928. It has been in the workshops for a while now, having its wheels fully restored. The work on the wheels has been carried out by SVAS volunteer Stuart Gray and when completed, it will look very smart indeed.
The biggest ongoing restoration project is on another vehicle originally purchased by Richard Shuttleworth, the 1903 De Dietrich. The De Dietrich is both a significant vehicle to the collection but also very significant vehicle historically. There are only thought to be a dozen De Dietrichs left in the World and the Shuttleworth example is one of only two 24hp models, the other being at The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. The restoration team at Old Warden has been in liaison with their counterparts at Beaulieu and both parties have benefitted from the exchange of information.At the present time, the gearbox has been removed and stripped down on the collection machine. Some extensive wear was found in the gearbox journals as well as some damage to the first gear assembly. This will be completely rectified before the gearbox is reassembled, hopefully for another 100 years or so..!
The steering box has also been removed, and again stripped. The bearings inside were again badly worn and again, they are being replaced.
The restoration team are looking towards 2013 for completion, although as ever, this may slip back as the job will be done once—and properly.The other long term restoration project which is the donated Morris Eight makes slow but steady progress. What is really needed is a volunteer who is willing to take on the restoration of the bodywork, which needs extensive work.
If anyone who is a SVAS member and knows about car body restoration and wants to give up some free time to help with the Morris, please contact us at the collection.
Some further work has been carried out to the American Locomobile steam car of 1903. This is in preparation for the car to be taken for a MOT test. The plan being that the car will be entered into the 2012 V.C.C. London-Brighton Emancipation Run in November.Work continues on a selection of the other cars, in preparation for the start of the new season. This includes a radiator repair to the 1912 Morris.
The Shuttleworth Motorcycle collection often seems to come a poor third to the aeroplanes and cars but does contain some extremely significant machines.The 1900 Singer is having some restoration work carried out by Richard Martin and Roger Wilkinson—both of whom are volunteers, and both experienced restorers of motorcycles.
The Singer is the oldest motorcycle in the collection, which has its engine mounted in the back wheel and complete running examples of this type of machine are extremely rare. It is easy to mistake it for a motor wheel type design of more modern times but it is actually a very historically significant design which was built right on the cusp of the time when bicycles and motorcycles were just splitting apart to take diverging design paths of their own.The 1923 Triumph 550 SD has had some ongoing conservation and some restoration carried out by Tim King. This has involved new wheel bearings, some work on the clutch, primary drive, gear selection linkage, and exhaust and carburetors.
The 1904 Aurora has ongoing conservation and restoration work too. New tyres are on order and the exhaust has been repaired, the complete motorcycle has had a thorough clean and it looks much better for it. There was also a new air baffle made for the carburetor by resident tool maker Dave Scott and this as well as looking very good, should make the engine run more efficiently in future.Finally, the 1903 Marot Gardon quadricycle has had further cosmetic work. A new seat frame and cover is on order and Dave Scott is manufacturing a new set of control levers. The lamp brackets are being re-plated and a suitable design of lamp is being investigated.
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MERCURY REBUILD
Story added 19th January 2012 by
Mercury 20 update January 2012
and Hurricane Merlin III problems - yet again!
By S. McManus.
It seems to becoming an annual event for the engine department as just towards the end of the flying season when we are thinking about an uninterrupted spell of restoration work one of our current projects, which for me is the Mercury 20, that something else comes along to upset our best laid plans. In 2009 it was the Kestrel in the Hind with block liner top seal coolant leaks, then at the end of the 2010 flying season the other currently flying Rolls Royce engine in the Hurricane, not to be left out, suffered exactly the same problem, not uncommon with the earlier single piece blocks. This year at the end of the 2011 season it was the Hurricane Merlin again wanting attention. However, more of the Hurricane later as quite a substantial amount of progress has been made on the Mercury in between the more pressing flying aircraft problems.
By the time work restarted on the Mercury the large reduction gear front bearings had been returned from SPL bearings and we could start on rebuilding the reduction gear. Assembly is carried out in distinct stages where clearances and backlashes are set firstly on the planet gears followed by the main drive and driven gears. The replacement carrier for the propeller oil feed rings on the main shaft was fitted with the best piston ring type feeder seals available (well within new limits). Then the whole gear was mounted in a press to simulate propeller forward load and the final backlashes checked. Amazingly it was found that all parts showed virtually no wear being in new fits, clearances and backlashes so we ended up with an excellent reduction gear. This was duly fitted to the engine marking a finish to the front end.
Also returned from SPL with the reduction gear bearings were replacement bearings for the non-serviceable units in the wheel case and accessory drives mounted behind the supercharger. The wheel case itself was a magnesium alloy casting and during the engines many years out of action probably on the Canadian plains moisture had dissolved a small area at the base of the casing. Similar problems were noted in the sump so two of each of these units were sent to specialist welders for repair. Once we had a full compliment of parts the wheel case and accessory drives were rebuilt and fitted to the engine. So in a few months both the front and the rear of the engine were completed. We finally fitted one of the rebuilt sump units and were at last ready for some cylinders.
When our attentions switched back to the cylinders they turned out as to be quite a marathon. Though, in the last report I said we had nine serviceable cylinders some were near the top of the maximum wear limits. Though, you can use these well worn cylinders on a zero time rebuild as max worn limits allow a full engine life to be run, we also had some potentially better cylinders within new clearances, but with limited light corrosion in the steel barrels. It was desirable that we should use the best cylinders available so we purchased some diamond stones for our stroke honer. The diamond stones were needed because, although standard stones were suitable for glaze breaking the Mercury’s nitride hardened cylinders, they would take for ever to clear out the significant thickness of material needed to clear corrosion. We cleaned up four cylinders with the diamond stones and found that although we had removed a few thousandths of an inch and the corrosion, they were still better giving lower bore dimensions than the well worn units.
Next came the valves and we had from the Lysander engine top overhaul of a few years ago a set of new exhaust valves as we had bought two sets. There is, as with the Merlin, a mismatch of the seat and valve face angles (0.5 degrees) to allow for angular movement as the cylinder reaches running temperature. We, therefore, lapped the exhaust seats with and old valve re-faced (regularly) to the correct seat angle rather than the correct valve face angle. This does not apply to the inlet valves which are lapped with the valve to be used. The inlet valves were not new, but we had plenty of serviceable valves which were subjected to a light reface in the valve service machine bought for us by the SVAS some years ago and then lapped to their respective seats. Some valve seats required more than just lapping and on these they were first re-faced with a seat facing grinder before final lapping. All valves were checked for seat fit with engineers blue.
The cylinders were then thoroughly cleaned and painted and the valves finally fitted. The used valve springs were tested for compression against load and thoroughly inspected before fitting. Two inlet elbows were fitted to each cylinder with in house manufactured gaskets. The cylinders were then fitted to the engine with new base O rings. Finally the inlet trunks were connected to the outlets from the supercharger again with new O rings. So by about the end of the 2011 season we had fitted all nine cylinders and had an engine looking like a real Mercury at last.
Attention has now turned to the rocker gear. Firstly each set of previously overhauled push rods and rocker gear has to be set up to provide the correct “angle of attack” for the rocker assembly. This is the way Bristol radial engines cope with the effect of cylinder expansion on valve clearances. Typically other manufacturers of big radial engines use large valve clearances which close as the cylinder reaches temperature, but with the inherent wear problems when cold. Bristol use a rod attached to the crankcase at the base and the front of the rocker head at the top. This pivots the whole rocker head on two bearings as the cylinder expands maintaining valve clearances as set to the correct clearances whether hot or cold. The initial setting of the rocker head is, however, critical and time consuming. So far 6 cylinders have been completed and once all nine are done the assemblies will be removed one at a time and the push rod cover tubes installed along with the felt oilers and rocker covers. The ignition harness, oil pump and fuel pumps are also being worked on as time permits to complete the engine later this year, with luck, and assuming we do not get too many interruptions like Merlin IIIs.
The Merlin III currently powering the Hurricane was fitted last winter after the old engines problems. It has run well all season with pilots agreeing that it was much smoother and apparently more powerful than the original engine requiring lower boost settings for a given display routine. The old engine was tired! However, (there’s always a “however” isn’t there) after the last but one display Toby noticed an increase in oil under the engine during pre-flight checks and investigations showed a leak round the supercharger to wheel case joint. Further investigations showed a small number of broken studs on this joint. Though the casings had probably only opened up by a few thousandths of an inch, hot oil does not need much of a gap to get out. The problem we now faced was that to access these studs we needed the engine out.
Therefore, after the end of the season out came the engine again and off came the supercharger unit. All the mounting studs were replaced as there was a suspicion that they may have been over tightened in the past as there was slight stretching on other unbroken studs when viewed with magnification and there was also slight corrosion on two of the broken studs where they had broken. Stock studs from another casing were used after inspection and crack testing.
The supercharger has now been replaced and the engine is being refitted. Then perhaps after runs we can get back to the Mercury rebuild! With thanks for their continuing help to Toby, Barney, Jim, Phil and Adam.
Scale Model Exhibition
Story added 13th January 2012 by
Modifications to the Restaurant at Shuttleworth
Story added 10th January 2012 by
conservatory is being erected adjoining the restaurant, which will be a vast improvement
Wanted for Security
Story added 9th October 2011 by
THE SVAS URGENTLY REQUIRES SECURITY VOLUNTEERS
Spitfire Update 2011
Story added 4th July 2011 by Fred
Ian and Roger Kingsley are preparing the skins on the port wing for fitting (top and bottom) and making packers and dimpling
Mercury 20 and Hurricane update
Story added 24th November 2010 by Fred
Looking back to my last update on the Mercury 20 I note that about this time of year I was saying that I had been significantly interrupted
Camel Progress
Story added 14th October 2010 by Fred
Since the last report, frames to accommodate both the lower and upper wings have been constructed. Following this, the lower wings were married to the
SPITFIRE UPDATE MAY 2010
Story added 25th May 2010 by Fred
As many of you will have seen the fuselage has been moved, to build the wing jig in this main workshop
Tony Haig-Thomas's Book
Story added 2nd October 2008 by Fred
This book is an personal into the insight RAF service life
New merchandise
Story added 12th October 2007 by Damien
The new SVAS merchandise has proved to be quite successful and we have now added three new designs to those available - these are the de Havilland DH.88 Comet racer, the Bristol M1C and the Hawker Hind. An SVAS mug is also now available...