|
Post by baz62 on Apr 17, 2011 19:34:07 GMT 12
Ha haaaaa i get to post about Bristols!! (Engines people engines). I called into see Al with my little brass logo and after a bit of discussion about that Al moved onto something else. "Yeah so it would be neat to get her outside Baz. Say, does your car have a towbar?" Baz warily "Ummm yes. Yes it does." Awkward silence descends. Baz "Would you like to hook her up and tow her outside?" Al " Yeah and maybe take her out on the road and see how the trailer performs!" Baz "Okay sure!" Al will post photos of the adventure we had but , in the rain, we managed to get her out on the road and I'm pleased to say the Mondeo and the Bristol survived a judder bar, a three point turn and most importantly, I managed to back her down Al's long drive way and into the garage (although I did manage to drive into a small tree with the car, nearly removing the wing mirror. But the engine? Not a scratch. Heres some pics I took while Al and I locked the prop to the engine and the prop dome to the prop. Sorry for the picture quality as its my cheap mobile! Heres the beast after I backed her back into the really narrow doorway!! Mondeo sits with the clutch cooling off! What Al will see when the engine is running: Instrument panel: Al cleaning the gear teeth on the end of the prop dome before installation: Prop dome installed and locking screw lined up and tightened: And because Larry was catching up on some sleep, Al had to step up and do the lock wiring of the locking screw: I was there for around 3 hours and I loved every minute. Even got a coffee. Thanks for that Al you made my weekend and educated me at the same time. Stay tuned for part 2: Moving the Bristol to a freight yard!!
|
|
|
Post by Radialicious on Apr 18, 2011 0:59:17 GMT 12
Yeah it was a good day Baz. I managed to tick off a few more jobs from my list. That was a biggy getting her out and about and thanks again! I built a 50mm spacer for the tow coupling and that is fitted. It lifts the coupling up to where I wanted it in the first place and should raise the prop end. I'll get some rubber bumpers to fit to the axles and we should be sweet. Progress, No surprises who this is... Checking that I hadn't left anything in the throat of the carb before I pannelled it all up. Just to indicate how big those throttle butterflies are. The matchbox gives them some scale! In service a large and very heavy intake linked the carb to the grill. As it is so heavy and quite high, I decided to take it out to lower the C of G with towing in mind. Bit of detail from deep inside. The big hose on the left is fuel into the carb. What looks like a thin hose coming from a brass fitting is in fact a capilliary tube plumbed to a temperature sensing bulb. The bulb sits downstream of the supercharger and measures the air temp of what she is breathing in. Beyond that is a linkage that is operated by a cam-slot thingy on the end of the throttle layshaft. At Idle, the magnetos are retarded through both the linkage and a centrifugal coupling in the mag itself. Above idle, the coupling begins to advance and the carb looks after the ignition timing through cruise and takeoff settings. The round coupling towards the bottom is the power take off that drives the accessory gearbox mounted on the rear of a firewall. Magneto detail. Nothing too tricky here - contact breaker points operated from a 14 lobe cam, condenser, rotor and some magnets that all combine to produce a fearful spark. I didn't have a test bench for choosing which mags to fit so had to suffer through grabbing the rotor, giving it a twist and seeing which mag gave me the nastiest shock. Those are the kinda days you wish someone like Marty was around... Distributor cap with the 14 electrodes that catch the spark as it jumps from the rotor and send it off to the spark plugs. This was from the right hand mag Baz's Ford Mondeo about to extract the Hercules from the workshop! Out in the daylight for the first time since I moved her to Chch about this time last year Off for her first road test. Some of the geometry was found to be needing some work. On the flat, everything was good but over road humps and in and out of driveways, the low drawbar height caused the rear axle to get pretty close to the engine. This afternoon I raised the coupling by 50mm and that coupled with some rubber limiters under the chassis, she should be sweet. Plus, I need to find some 8-ply tyres as the temporary ones I have fitted have a lot of sidewall flex around sharpish corners. Once she was safely back in the shed, I was able to chop out some other small jobs before calling it a day. There isn't much more to do tomorrow short of getting her ready for the trip to the freight company. From there the next time we see her again will be back in Blenheim as we gear up for Classic Freighters 2011
|
|
|
Post by steveh on Apr 18, 2011 11:36:03 GMT 12
Looking good Al. we'll look forward to seeing to there, you know, the whole flaming lot of us! ;D I hope those patches of primer on the frame are going to get a lick before then. See ya there. Steve.
|
|
|
Post by Radialicious on Apr 19, 2011 0:29:30 GMT 12
Hey Steve, yeah looking forward to what is shaping up to being a cracker weekend. Marty and I have to dust off our ultra low level air display approval for the B-170 and all going well I'll get to run three Bristol Hercules engines over the weekend. Looking forward to seeing all the cuzzies again! With the announcement today that the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre has been 'gifted' an ex-RNZAF Skyhawk, it seems ironic that tomorrow another plastic wrapped piece of history is heading back to Marlborough. This evening when my list of jobs to do was finally exhausted, Mum and I set to wrapping the old girl up before tomorrows trip to the freight company. Again a bit ironic that she herself should be freighted anywhere when she probably had a hand in shifting tens of thousands of tons of freight in her own working lifetime. I'll follow her up to Omaka tomorrow afternoon and we'll go from there
|
|
|
Post by agalbraith on Apr 19, 2011 7:53:13 GMT 12
Well done Al!!!
I was thinking there for a while you might not make it. Fantastic job indeed.
Are you going up with Mud? He rang me a couple of days ago to check when I was coming up and said he was going on Tuesday.
Look forward to seeing you up there.
Will they have wheeled a Skyhawk over for the weekend for us to see at Omaka??
Cheers Anthony
|
|
|
Post by baz62 on Apr 19, 2011 16:09:00 GMT 12
It was fun this morning towing Al's Bristol through the dark streets of Sockburn and Hornby!! Al had revised his "bicycle light" plan for the prop and bought a ready made set up you can see taped to the prop. I managed to get a speed of 30Kph and third gear while towing the beast and although getting her started was definitely a workout for th clutch in the Mondeo it was easy to drive and to stop. I probably could have gone faster but I wanted a good safety margin in case something untoward happened. We even saw a cop, which was easy on me as he was over taking me but Al saw him first and a few "oh dears" were muttered in case he wanted to check us out and see we had no WOF or COF or C of A or even a number plate. I think the tail light setup must have made him think we must have been legit! ;D Looking forward to the end result and i am finishing off a second Bristol Logo for Al's instrument panel tonight so it will look the business! See you all up there, we arrive Thursday so will most likely track down Al and the engine for the official logo handover. Then tea and biscuits. Heh heh heh.
|
|
|
Post by ianmcgoo22 on Apr 21, 2011 14:27:42 GMT 12
Hello everybody,
My name is Ian and I'm from Montreal, Canada. I discovered this thread by accident about six months ago and I've been following it ever since. Finally I joined the forum tonight, just to wish Al and the gang the best of luck this weekend. I hope to see a video of the engine running in a few days!
Al, you've done a great job, both on the Bristol and your own engine. (I'm glad you had a bit of help from Canada earlier, too!) Happy Easter, best wishes, and Good Luck making some noise with that beast this weekend! Ian
|
|
|
Post by Officer Crabtree on Apr 21, 2011 14:37:58 GMT 12
Welcome to the forum Ian, I am lucky enough to be going to the air show and I can say you are not the only one waiting eagerly.
|
|
|
Post by flyjoe180 on Apr 21, 2011 15:40:10 GMT 12
Sorry not this time, I'm in AKL now and couldn't get time off over Easter. Looking forward to seeing all the pics though!
|
|
|
Post by Bruce on Apr 21, 2011 17:42:39 GMT 12
I hope Al checked that Larry wasn't having a sleep in the carburettor before he packed it off....
|
|
|
Post by Officer Crabtree on Apr 21, 2011 18:24:53 GMT 12
I am helping with Ghost Sqn (as usual) to restore the freighter at Founders Heritage Park. I'm not sure what the goal is though, probably just to make it look better.
|
|
|
Post by flyjoe180 on Apr 21, 2011 18:24:56 GMT 12
The all new 41 Litre Ford Mondeo
|
|
|
Post by lumpy on Apr 21, 2011 18:36:31 GMT 12
The all new 41 Litre Ford Mondeo Maybe Al has given up on the pencil sharpener idea ? Perhaps hes gonna use the engine to mince Baz's car ? ;D
|
|
|
Post by steveh on Apr 21, 2011 21:58:31 GMT 12
Nah, just anyone tail gating. ;D Steve.
|
|
|
Post by ErrolC on Apr 23, 2011 19:09:38 GMT 12
She has finally run! We have video! Woot!
|
|
|
Post by luke6745 on Apr 23, 2011 19:21:27 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by ErrolC on Apr 23, 2011 20:03:48 GMT 12
She has finally run! We have video! Woot! Show us!!!! I find just enough signal to give you a text update, and now you want me to copy a video file to a computer, upload VIDEO, and give you a link? While a bit sozzled? Not happening!
|
|
|
Post by lumpy on Apr 23, 2011 21:01:29 GMT 12
I find just enough signal to give you a text update, and now you want me to copy a video file to a computer, upload VIDEO, and give you a link? While a bit sozzled? Not happening! Tell Dave or Baz to do it then !
|
|
|
Post by baz62 on Apr 25, 2011 20:16:47 GMT 12
Patience my little forum buddies, video will appear!
|
|
|
Post by baz62 on Apr 25, 2011 21:18:43 GMT 12
And here it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
|