Bush Mechanics

You'd almost leave it there as a talking point at rallies.
Last year, I was in a 1929 Packard Eight for the Bay to Birdwood. A welch plug had also popped out of the cylinder head causing the same problem of over heating. The plug must have bounced on the ground then landed on top of the rear right hand side leaf spring where I spotted it. Gave it a gentle tap back in, filled her up with water and we were off and running again.

Halfway the 50's my father drove a old Peugeot 202 with a broken back spring which was closed up by screwing the shackles extra tight. Passing a railroad crossing the shackle moved and the spring gave way resulting in a backwheel that disappeared into the wing. He only had a hammer and a flat breadknife on board. The blade which he hammered into place with force. Very slowly he drove home and there he drilled two holes on both sides of the breakage and bolted the piece of steel knife tight to the roadspring and drove it for a few years and even sold the car with this repair still in place...aahh those were the days :-)

I think someone should add the comment that it is vital to ensure, before filling up with cold water, that the engine has not become seriously overheated.This is not always easy to tell-the combustion chamber of the head & valve area of the cylinder block (side valve engine here) will be a great deal hotter than the outside of the head,which may not feel too bad when you touch it.
If you get it wrong you are likely to crack head or block (or both).In extreme cases,even boiling water added to the engine will turn to steam!Sadly,not everybody today understands this.If a lot of water has been lost,best to wait for an hour at least-even if it makes you late!

Here's a link to that accident:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19600927&id=IYVVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GbADAAAAIBAJ&pg=4383,4729526:

In the 50's my father had an outside catering business, one of his many doomed ventures, on the way back from a grass-track meeting at Lydden Hill (where subsequently in 1960 many spectators were injured by a car jumping over some old banger, the driver was knocked out and ploughed at full speed into the crowd, sat behind a rope suspended from oil drums, eerily similar to the accident in Mexico recently). A big-end went on our ancient Austin "Three-Way Loader" truck, so my older brother removed the sump in Maidstone market, removed the offending rod, put a jubilee clip round the big end with a rubber patch out of a puncture outfit to seal the oil holes, and we continued back to London on 3 cylinders. Quite a well-known dodge 'in period"!

The chain is there as a safety measure. The owner is worried that the fan mount way give way and collide with the radiator core.

The way I remember the "big end" anecdote is from "Alf Francis, racing mechanic" who related the same repair in the same locale but it was on a V8 Ford, not a 'T'

We once found an old engine France they had wedged a Franc coin in the hole. Cheap repair...

That's the way to do it. Great.

A hacksaw blade....! Aways carry a Swiss Army knife!

The chain in the top left corner of picture 4 shows that the Essex had at least one roadside repair before. Or was it a well thought-out attempt to keep the V-belt stretched.

Another solution would be to open a fine bottle of wine, drink a few glasses and finally use the cork as a bung.

Well done by your father.

Regards,
Maurice

Whats up with the chain in the 4th photo?

Two stories appeared in the Automobile Magazine a number of years - both of which have stuck in my mind. One was of Mike Worthington Williams in his faithful Austin 20 "Arthur". A blown cylinder head gasket was repaired with a piece of wood wound up tightly with some wire or twine, obviously successfully enough to get him home. But more memorable was the story about a Ford Model T which run a big end (as they're apt to do) whilst crossing the Alps. The driver removed his leather belt and lined the rod and cup with a section of leather, tightened it up and continued on his way. Could be true?
Personally I once poured half a bottle of 12 year old Glenlivit into the float chamber of a 1935 17hp Armstrong Siddeley before I could get the danmed thing to start. It was my only means of transport and I was running late for a funeral. The minister arriving late and smelling of whisky was not good!

This is so typical of the inventiveness of Australians, seen so well in Jap POW camps in WW2, I am just surprised that baler twine didn't manage to be used as well.

awesome!