Back on the road.

[ian Howell]

Most of this post has already appeared elsewhere on the Jowett.org site, but now it is all together and perhaps in its right place.

My Long Four is now back on the road but I still have to fit the fabric cover, re-upholster the seats and replace the head lining. But it goes!

I didn't get to the Basingstoke Rally as I hadn't been able to make any test runs with the car and with no fabric cover, the car is not yet equipped for wet weather, so I didn't want to risk a 200 mile journey!

I did make a local 2m run to check that everything worked and James and my wife made a video of it. See YouTube: -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9f90XKfdjM

Then at the end of May, James and I took the car to the Laughton Cuckoo Fayre about 17m from home. No problems.

James encouraged me to try the 4 x 4 Test Track at the rally site and the result is also on YouTube: -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssIoTEyxnW8

This weekend we are 'booked in' for another local show at Framfield, a 'nice' show I have been to before, not too overvisited by the public but with a good and wide selection of transport .

Getting braver!!

[Tony Fearn]

Thanks Ian for reproducing the posts and consolidating them in the Pre-war section.

Perhaps George will see them now, and comment.

Tony.

[ian Howell]

Framfield went well. The 'Champs' were also there. Over 180 vehicles 'booked in' and a good attendance by the public.

Minor hiccup on the way, when we stopped for no apparent reason on a major roundabout. Restarted second try and no further problems. You work it out!

For George and anyone else who cares to join in: -

Before all this I VERY carefully reset the tappets to 2 thou, but after a short run in the garage they were up to 4 thou on the offside.

Reset AGAIN to 2 thou but then I noticed that the tappets rotate when the engine is running. So I stopped the engine and rotated the tappets and sure enough there was 4 thou at one position and 2 thou at the opposite side.

I suppose I need to remove the tappets and lightly grind the end faces flat?

Also, I now notice that the tappets are thinner on the nearside, about 3/8" diameter against 5/8" on the offside.

I guess that at some time the engine was rebuilt this way, but why the change? Which came first? Does it matter?

Answers on as post(card) please to . . . .

[Forumadmin]

Do not grind the tappets flat. They are supposed to have a slight convex shape so that the push rods and the tappets rotate! At least that is how it should be on a post war. I suspect something is bent.

[Tony Fearn]

...we stopped for no apparent reason on a major roundabout. Restarted second try and no further problems.

Is your petrol supplied by gravity? Do you have a modern filter in-line to remove larger bits of gunge?

KC is right about the tappet heads being slightly convex on the early pre-war vehicles. I suspect they'll be case-hardened as well, so if you're grinding the troughs out, take care.

Did you look at the cam shaft cam profiles whilst building up the engine?

Tony.

[ian Howell]

Tony (et al): -

Yes the petrol supply is by gravity and there is only the strainer at the carburettor, but the fuel lines are clear, there were no bits in the 'bowls' of the nuts at the bottom of the carb when I checked them later, and once restarted - with no adjustment or checks other than to observe the top of the float needle, (which was 'down' i.e. carb bowl full), there were no further problems.

There don't appear to be any 'troughs' in the valve ends of the tappets but of course I can't see the faces against the camshaft. The tappets seem to rotate freely with the engine running.

I have not had the camshaft or the crankshaft out of the engine yet so I don't know about that end of things. As I am having so much fun actually using the car at last after 47 years of ownership, I don't plan to strip the engine unless a serious problem rears its head.

There are very few oil leaks, but no blue smoke, it starts and runs well and apart from the tappet 'problem' is reasonably quiet running.

Funny thing about the tappets being thinner on the nearside though?