• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Is This Your Motor?

HLJ Bournemouth 1/48 to 6/48. Austin 12 or 16 saloon. Same body, choice of engines.
TDA W’ton 1/57 to 3/57 Austin A35 saloon.
Austin Mini.
RNP Worcs CC 3/56 to 5/56 MGA Sports.
 
It might not be a restoration project, could be some toe-rag has pinched the headlamps.

I recall an evening at the Tower ballroom, the punters came out to find the rear windscreens had been nicked from all the minis parked along the roadside.
 
Eric Gibson said:
It might not be a restoration project, could be some toe-rag has pinched the headlamps.

I recall an evening at the Tower ballroom, the punters came out to find the rear windscreens had been nicked from all the minis parked along the roadside.
Click to expand...

For some reason I once owned an Austin MG Maestro 2.0i EFi as it came along cheap. I did not realise that it was much sought-after by joyriders. Somebody put a screwdriver through the lock when I parked outside the Moseley Dance Centre for a latin-samba night. Put a dampener on a great evening. They couldn't crack the immobiliser but ruined the door. This was one of three attempted thefts of the vehicle, all thwarted by the immobiliser. However, I had enough of these experiences and changed to something more sedate.
 
Johnfromstaffs said:
The ohv engine was like 2/3 of a Wolseley Hornet, with that shaft drive for the camshaft. Must have been a --- to decoke.
Click to expand...
Wolseley abandoned its sleeve valve engines and introduced sohc engines in the 1919 Ten and Fifteen models, years before the Wolseley/Morris Minor models.
PA739
 
The ohc Morris Minor used a single overhead camshaft actuating poppet valves which engine was of Wolseley design. The camshaft drive was a vertical shaft with a bevel gear at each end, with the dynamo windings on that shaft. The larger Hornet engine used a six cylinder version of the design. The dynamo suffered from oil leaking into it from the camshaft gears above. I did not mention sleeve valves.

The 1931 £100 2 seater Minor used a side valve version of the same engine, the ohc version being dropped from production during 1932, while the sv cars continued in slightly modified form until 1934, when replaced by the Morris Eight.

The Wolseley Hornet using the six pot engine was introduced in 1930, and progressively modified until 1936, the engine capacity increasing from 1271cc to 1378cc for the last 2 years. We had, in the family, a 1935 Hornet which was fitted with the 1604cc version of the engine from a Fourteen, which I have clear memories of riding in.
 
Last edited:
I had the 100e Anglia with side vale 10 hp engine. Ran it for about 6 months with no 3 piston u/s, thought it was just the rings worn using loads of piston seal until I stripped it down. Found adjusting the valves a real pain.
 
nickcc101 said:
I had the 100e Anglia with side vale 10 hp engine. Ran it for about 6 months with no 3 piston u/s, thought it was just the rings worn using loads of piston seal until I stripped it down. Found adjusting the valves a real pain.
Click to expand...

Did literally hundreds of those on the pre-100E cars, still got the tool in my box for knocking the valve guides out.

In the fifties we used to stock 8 hp and 10 hp Ford factory new engines, £10 for the 8hp £12/10s for the 10hp, took about 3.5 hours to change them
 
Yes, I’ve got one somewhere, along with a puller for doing the voided bushes on later Cortina back suspension. The 8/10hp engine tool looked like half of a hollow mushroom, but when you’d got the valves out you had to be able to work out how much to grind off the valve stem to compensate for what you’d removed grinding the valves in. (If you see what I mean.) Take too much off and it would be too noisy, not enough and you’d soon be grinding the valves in again as they’d burn out.

Whitworth socket set, anyone? IIRC those Fords were AF sizes, but being us we went from Imperial on old Morris Tens to a Citroën Traction Avant, I remember my Dad scratching around for ages for a set of cheap to buy metric sockets. He got a 2nd hand set from someone, I’ve still got it! Britool, no rubbish here! Trouble is that it’s hexagonal drive.

No, weren’t 30s Morrises a mixture of threads and sizes?
 
Last edited:
Johnfromstaffs said:
Yes, I’ve got one somewhere, along with a puller for doing the voided bushes on later Cortina back suspension. The 8/10hp engine tool looked like half of a hollow mushroom, but when you’d got the valves out you had to be able to work out how much to grind off the valve stem to compensate for what you’d removed grinding the valves in. (If you see what I mean.) Take too much off and it would be too noisy, not enough and you’d soon be grinding the valves in again as they’d burn out.

Whitworth socket set, anyone? IIRC those Fords were AF sizes, but being us we went from Imperial on old Morris Tens to a Citroën Traction Avant, I remember my Dad scratching around for ages for a set of cheap to buy metric sockets. He got a 2nd hand set from someone, I’ve still got it! Britool, no rubbish here! Trouble is that it’s hexagonal drive.

No, weren’t 30s Morrises a mixture of threads and sizes?
Click to expand...
I still have my BSW tools that I bought in 1964 and the A/F tools I purchased in 1965 and the Metric set I purchased in 1966.
Fortunately I own a few motorcycles from 1964 to 2017 so the tools still get used.
 
To do the tappet adjustment I had a little ball bearing tool that wrapped around the valve stem and fitted into the guide space.
As for tools I've got them all here, Whit, AF Metric and even some BA and other spurious Japanese sizes.Tried selling them off on Ebay without much luck.
Did sell a genuine Ford rear hub extractor recently.
 
It seems we’re a model generation apart. The old 30s designed engines, used until 1959 on the sit up and beg Popular, had no tappet adjustment, you used the mushroom thing to knock out the split valve guide for valve removal. Guessing that your special tool was for the 100E type engines.

Nobody seems to do much mechanicking these days, my last diesel Golf, before I retired, had done about 110k miles in 4 years and apart from services and two new brake discs, hadn’t been touched. The average kid these days, if my grandson is any example, can play tunes on a computer but doesn’t know which end of a hammer to hit with.
 
No John I'm talking about the pre 100E engines, the tool was hinged so it wrapped around the valve stem and pushed up in place of the knocked out guides so that you could measure and grind the base to the right gap.

I restored one of those Pops to running order not very long ago for neighbour, it wouldn't run and the modern mechanics couldn't fix it.

I straight away saw that it had the wrong distributer fitted, a Delco thing that was designed to turn the wrong way, found a new genuine Ford one and it was fine...……...…...after a bit more fettling.

I'll look out a photo later.
 
Johnfromstaffs said:
Yes, I’ve got one somewhere, along with a puller for doing the voided bushes on later Cortina back suspension. The 8/10hp engine tool looked like half of a hollow mushroom, but when you’d got the valves out you had to be able to work out how much to grind off the valve stem to compensate for what you’d removed grinding the valves in. (If you see what I mean.) Take too much off and it would be too noisy, not enough and you’d soon be grinding the valves in again as they’d burn out.

Whitworth socket set, anyone? IIRC those Fords were AF sizes, but being us we went from Imperial on old Morris Tens to a Citroën Traction Avant, I remember my Dad scratching around for ages for a set of cheap to buy metric sockets. He got a 2nd hand set from someone, I’ve still got it! Britool, no rubbish here! Trouble is that it’s hexagonal drive.

No, weren’t 30s Morrises a mixture of threads and sizes?
Click to expand...
My first socket set was Britool hexaganol, felt very inferior as all the other apprentices and mechanics were 1/2” drive. One of the directors where i first started work in 1960 bought my first set of tools from Brown Brothers, great chap no wonder he was knighted.
 
Eric Gibson said:
To do the tappet adjustment I had a little ball bearing tool that wrapped around the valve stem and fitted into the guide space.
As for tools I've got them all here, Whit, AF Metric and even some BA and other spurious Japanese sizes.Tried selling them off on Ebay without much luck.
Did sell a genuine Ford rear hub extractor recently.
Click to expand...
I’ve got a T chest full of BSF/whit ring and open enders. When i worked for Shell Mex & BP they issued all the mechanics with a full set of metric tools mainly because they introduced the Rolls 220 engine in to the fleet.
 
Vacuum driven off the inlet manifold. When you accelerated the wiper stopped, when you took your foot off the gas it went like the clappers. There was an accessory tank you could get to store the vacuum, (that’s a bit daft, storing nothing, but you know what I mean) to even out the operation. Even so, if you were climbing a bank in the rain you didn’t get much screen wipe.

I take your point about young mechanics and old cars, but when I look under the bonnet of my two year old car I can check the oil and water, top up the washers and that's me done!
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the pic of 1932 Morris Minor johnfromstaffs. Yes that was the one. Only one problem with the car, because wooden framework if you went round a corner too fast the front passenger door flew open. My brother nearly disappeared on one occasion.
 
Did anyone have a Jowett Bradford Van? Fine little vehicle unless you wanted to go uphill with a tank that was less than half full. If so the only way was in reverse.

Bob
 
Last edited:
nickcc101 said:
I’ve got a T chest full of BSF/whit ring and open enders. When i worked for Shell Mex & BP they issued all the mechanics with a full set of metric tools mainly because they introduced the Rolls 220 engine in to the fleet.
Click to expand...

Don't throw them away. I volunteer for a Heritage Railway restoring 1950/60's carriages. Virtually everything is either Whitworth or BA, with door hinge mounts being 1/4" BSF. And before you ask, we have enough for our own needs. Although, a couple of years ago, a Restoration Team (for a Loco) did put out an appeal for large Whitworth spanners. I can't remember which one.

We are currently working on a Derby built vehicle. At the time someone commented that the Derby built vehicles were to a higher standard. Being sceptical, I didn't take much notice until, what I fully expected to be 3/8" Whitworth studs, as per all the other vehicles that I had worked on, was, in fact, 3/8" BSF. Whilst we hold a stock of 3/8" Whitworth nuts. Our stock of 3/8" BSF nuts is zero.

A number of times a year, I purchase from Ebay specific Dies, whether that be Die nuts, or BSP dies (or taps). I'm currently looking for a 5/16" Whitworth Die Nut, and, although such seem to be readily available, due to Lockdown, we have no income, and therefore, a zero Budget even for such a small value item.
 
Bob Johnson said:
I still have my BSW tools that I bought in 1964 and the A/F tools I purchased in 1965 and the Metric set I purchased in 1966.
Fortunately I own a few motorcycles from 1964 to 2017 so the tools still get used.
Click to expand...
What motor car did father hire to take us all to Margate in the '60s & which year? Little bro.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top