I should know better at my age

[David Kemp]

I have fitted the new kingpins & found the thrust bearing is not the same size as the original one.
I did not check before installing & reaming.
This means the original dust cap will not fit.
Rather than removing & machining I have replaced the metal cap with a modified rubber boot off a Mini.

Does anyone know of other cars that use the same spring bushes as a Bradford? Or for that matter the shock link as mine is shot.

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The eagle eyed will notice that the track rod is not standard. I have fitted common rod ends and shortened a hot rod track rod. The originals were unusable

[David Kemp]

I have been asked for more detail on the track rod I have used.
It is 38 inchs long hollow tube that came with one side having 11/16 right hand thread & the other side being 11/16
Left hand thread. 11/16 is a common size thread for Ford & General motors cars. My understanding is that these rods are used for i beam axles of Fords from about 1932 to 1948.
The track rod ends I used are of general motors type.
I chose this as the pitman arm I am using is GM so I wanted as many ends as possible the same. I can also buy replacement ends easily as the local Holdens use the same end.

[StevenGray]

David
Looking at your photographs of the the dust cover it looks as if it probably fits another type of axle assy.
The top of your cover looks like it is dished as if it has been mis fitted.
The Jowett fitment (picture) should have a separate trust washer and dust cover. Both the dust cover and the thrust washer have a hole drilled for a pin to locate in a slot in the bottom face of the axle. In your photographs it looks as if the rubber boot is fitted directly between the spherical face of the lower bush and the thrust face of the axle, if that is the case then it is very quickly going to fail as it will be taking the full thrust load of the bearing.
With the correct parts there wouldn't be enough room to get a rubber cover in.

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[David Kemp]

I decided to check the slop in the timing chain & could adjust it out by hand about 1/2 inch.
The book says until you feel resistance, is this by hand or a spanner? I could adjust further by a spanner which changed the engine tone.
So i backed it off till I could turn by hand again.
What is the correct level of resistance?

[Jeremy]

By hand is the correct measure - it shouldn't stress the engine so that it changes its tone, this is an indication of pressure on the bearings etc.

On the earlier engines you did this by moving the dynamo - so again a similar move it by hand method rather than any lever or extreme pressure.

[David Kemp]

As my distributor was too far gone, I have fitted an aftermarket electronic distributor instead. Replacement unworn shafts are not easily found.
To suit the Bradford, I have ground off two of the points on the reluctor.
The rest of the conversion was straight forward though my son Jack recurved the distributor to Bradford specs using his distributor test machine.

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[David Kemp]

Recurved distributor vs Jowett specifications.

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[Keith Clements]

Why did you chose to run retarded rather than put the curve in the median band between the max and min?

[David Kemp]

I had limited springs so got it as close as I could.
I am trying to find a spring assortment pack to experiment more.

[David Kemp]

I removed the fuel tank to give it a clean out. Thought I would check out why the fuel gauge did not work.
I was a bit shocked to find the sender had no guts it was just the shell! It even had a hole directly vented out the tank!
If ever filled up, fuel would have poured out.
Tank is full of debris a good clean out is needed.

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[David Kemp]

Does anyone know the part number for the sender?
Does it fit any other car?

[Forumadmin]

The body, float and coil may be common to other cars but the arm will probably require fabricating to fit. I will have a look and see if there is a pat number. Did you look in Mike Allfrey's Tech Specs?
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[David Kemp]

Cleaning tank by rotating on a mixer.

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[Keith Clements]

Better to have a more random motion and use up some calories

[David Kemp]

I have bought a VDO universal sender & gauge to match.
As the Bradford has a five hole AC sender I expected it to fit,
Sadly no.Bradford is different .So I drilled a hole in the AC housing & bolted in the VDO innerds.
Result is I now have a working gauge.
For anyone looking in the future , the Bradford seems to share it's sender with a Lanchester Leda & possibly Daimler.

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