Pointers On Driving A 30's Jowett

[george garside]

also check that the points gap hasn't altered all by itself. If the points gap has closed up it can be sufficient to alter timing enough to put one cyl outof action.

george

[AlanBartlett]

Found the culpret, it was a loose ht lead from the coil to the dizzy, it had come apart from its brass washer thing, now have a full 2 cylinders, I also have just made the journey from chard to bridgwater, at my college this morning it took a little over an hour and as far as i can tell nothing has gone wrong yet.

[AlanBartlett]

Found the culpret, it was a loose ht lead from the coil to the dizzy, it had come apart from its brass washer thing, now have a full 2 cylinders, I also have just made the journey from chard to bridgwater, at my college this morning it took a little over an hour and as far as i can tell nothing has gone wrong yet.

[ian Howell]

That was quick! When I first had a Bradford when I was at college, after about 8 months of 'restoration' we finally got it running, but only on one cylinder for about 2 weeks before we realised it shouldn't sound quite like that!

Keep your nuts tight - and make sure there are split pins where they shoud be.

I have a poor photograph of a large engine crankcase that I encountered when I was in the Merchant Navy. The hole in the crankcase, where the con rod went through after a big end bolt came undone, was big enough to climb through!

[AlanBartlett]

And back again, in just over an hour, in total a 60mile round trip, the jowett mottos are true, any road with any load, I thought some hills were going to be such a struggle but no in second and up it went. Its still losing oil

make that 70miles today, went to a local town and back. thats it for the week now, its gunna be a week or checking, greasing, tinkering. Well until sunday, Weston super mare, rally thats a 120mile round trip.

[AlanBartlett]

I found the culprate for the wobble wheel, I think, I had my tyres at too higher pressure and it wasnt getting enough traction. As for weston didnt make it as weather looked bad in chard thought it would be worse up there as for being next to a beach, but sods law sunny and shiny and warm according to a friend up there I was gutted.

[AlanBartlett]

Just a question, is petrol meant to come of the top to the tank?, when I go to fill up if go to fill for a full tank, I fill until the first click of the pump, but it seems to be spilling out from the top of tank? I know i have filled up so much it comes out the filler tube, now that was my fault but as for this one I'm just not sure on the mechanics of the tank?

[Tony Fearn]

Just a question, is petrol meant to come of the top to the tank?,

Seems a bit garbled Alan. Perhaps you mean that petrol is seeping from somewhere at the top of the tank, rather than spilling out of the top of the filler pipe.

I've never filled "Mary Ellen" up relying on the petrol pump's first click as the filler tube is quite long, and the petrol (as far as I know) has to reach the end of the pump handset before it turns off automatically.

The filler tube neck is fitted into the top of the tank in our models through a metal grommet which is soldered to the tank and to the filler tube.

If the solder has deteriorated, or if the filler pipe has been knocked, thereby cracking the soldered joint, when you fill the tank to the top, petrol will weep out of these cracks. You should be able to see if this happens by examining the area around the neck. In severe cases there will be a petrol puddle on the floor after filling the tank to the top.

It's a rather difficult area to seal with filler paste etc. and the only way to do it properly is to remove the tank and re-solder the joints. The best way, without resorting to this, is to use the petrol gauge to fill up, and don't fill the tank to the top. Just keep a spare petrol can or two in the car.

A word of caution - as far as I am aware, it's a specialist job to mend petrol tanks with any sort of heat-based method, as even if empty, the fumes linger for yonks, and the risk of explosion is real.

There may be ways to do it, and perhaps others will advise on this.

Of course it may be that the tank (even though it was originally tinned) has rusted over the years and little holes have appeared in it.

Tony.

[AlanBartlett]

Hi tony

The weak solderpoints of the funnel must be the cause then as it doesnt come out the funnel, just kind of spill over the top of the tank leaving a puddle and a spill as your driving until the levels gone down abit. As for the guage its not working so I'm using a bamboo stick so when i fill up i mark full and then just keep an eye on it. And i also carry a spare gallon just to be on the safe side, but as for economical performace a vast improvement on my old pick up, little over a quarter of a tank for a 60 mile college trip there and back. where as my pick up was about one quarter each way.

[ian Howell]

Alan: -

Soldered repairs of this type are not difficult, BUT you must heed Tony's warning about explosions!

Don't try to do the job with the tank on the car. If things get difficult at least you only have the tank to worry about, and it makes access to all the nooks and crannies a lot easier.

Empty the tank (obviously!) and clear out any solid debris (Rust, dirt, swarf, etc) but NOT with a vacuum cleaner. This might end up as a jet engine running on petrol fumes!

When I did a Javelin tank many years ago, I washed it out with warm soapy water and left it to dry out before working on it. It still smelled of petrol but I had no problems with fire.

The thing is to avoid naked flames or sparks. A hot soldering iron is not likely to cause problems. You will need a heavy duty soldering iron, probably not an electric one (not enough heat) but a BIG lump of copper on a rod and handle, and heated by a blowlamp of some sort - well away from the tank! You can often find these at car boot sales, new ones are VERY expensive and quite difficult to find. Like Jowetts, old ones never wear out.

If the old solder has simpy cracked with age, you may only need to re-melt it and all will be well, but if there is rust this must be cleaned off to give a shiny surface before even attempting to solder.

Depending on the size of the damage, you could either use cored solder 'wire' which is readily available, or solder 'sticks' of the type that used to be used by plumbers.

For soldering onto new steel surfaces you will need a flux called Bakers Fluid.

No doubt others will offer further / different advice, but remember, it CAN be done!

[george garside]

I agree with everything Ian says but can offer a couple of additional suggestions.
1 after washing out the tank thoroughly with plenty of warm water fill it with water to just below the point you are going to solder so as to absolutely minimise the chance of trapped vapours & explosion.

2. Use 'tinmans' solder & bakers fluid. Tinmans solder is more expensive and has a higher tin content then plumbers solder which is mostly lead. Tinmans gives a stronger joint.

3. If there is a lot of loose rust and other forms of SHoneT in the tank it may be worth considering using one of the specially maade slosh sealants AFTER completing any required repair/soldering work.

george

[Keith Andrews]

Over the yrs I have welded /patched fuel tank and drums.
An mt tank with fumes is far more explosive than a full tank...
It is not the ;iquid fuel that is the issue but the fumes and 02 mix

There are 2 generally accepted methods
1/ fill the tank with a co2 extinquishers (I have seen but never used this method
2/fill the tank with water, this floats the fluid out. With the water just about to the level of the repair/patch area then start to do the repair, but flame the hole area well 1st because you will still get some limited 'popping'

To remove the water afterwards, tip it out, pour in about 1/2 pint meths and shake around well, and drain...repeat 2 more times.

Another note on classic low mileage cars, do not fill right up unless you intened to use most of it up...modern fuels tend to "sour" over time..the more volitile fractions of the fuel evapoate off.
There s no need to drain the tank when storing, just organise that the fuel level is low...when it comes out of storage then add fresh fuel for the day.

There is another way to 'look'at it...in regards to old engines designed for low octane "pool fuels" ...with the more voilitile fractions evaporating off you end up with a fuel that is more like what the engine was designed to run on.

[AlanBartlett]

Found the petrol tank leak. Took up all the floorboards and cleaned them up, and got to the tank. The bit which was leaking was the pipe where the petrol feeds from to the the engine, it was not sealed just held in place by gravity. I also kind of to the sender unit to work, turns out it had just seized up dry in the tank. I know that the guage is faulty and doesnt work. But the sender does, Ive got it wired up to another guage which is working but not reading properly and seems to require a direct current to make the needle go to full. so in other words its calibrated differently to the sender. Ive also found out about the adustable rear seats which i found quite handy.

[Keith Andrews]

Ive got it wired up to another guage which is working but not reading properly and seems to require a direct current to make the needle go to full.

If the sender is a wire coil type, this ia varable restitance 'coil' the resitance requirments in the wire s will vary from one make of gauge to another. I assume that u are using a gauge different to the one for your car??

If your orginal gauge is not working
1/Check u have current to the gauge
2/check you have good earths out of it

3/CAREFULLY dismantle the body, check the wires/ connections inside with a digital omh meter
4/gently check the needle moves freely...often a siezed/ sticking gauge needle can be made to work simply by a fine light spray of crc, let soak for 24 hrs, and use a plastic tube and blow access off then try

[AlanBartlett]

I think the orginial sender, will need to be totally rebuilt as ive noticed some of the coils have come adrift, and wire have come un soldered.

I also have another question to ask, I seem to have a strange, vibrational clunking noise coming from the gearbox, I can feel it when I push the clutch towards the floor, and hear it a little bit when its relased. I thought it was the gearbox mounts not being tight enough, but after tightening all of that. Its still making the noise. Its continueous noise but not constant, i dont really know how to describe it but say if you have a circle and it rotates, and it gets to a few points and clunks and vibrates. Ive had the top cover off the gear box, checked levels and things. But still not sure what I would be looking for.