Jowett Kestrel Rebuild & Restoration

[julian]

A while ago I removed the inlet manifold and applied sealer as there was a slight weeping of coolant on both cylinders. Having refilled the radiator it was time to start the car again after standing idle over winter. I also took the opportunity to fit another Zenith 30HZ carburetter supplied by John Box - the original unit worked OK, but was prone to flooding and I never really got to the bottom of the problem. Anyway after priming and cleaning the contacts the engine fired up and is running well, with no leaks!

On the subject of carburetters - any thoughts on the best jet size for the 30HZ. My original unit had 90 main and 90 comp.; the unit from John is fitted with 105 main and 90 comp.

So I was then able to back the car out of the garage and take a few photos. Still plenty to do but moving in the right direction!!

[julian]

Another update - this time on the bonnet latch mechanism which was completely missing from the car when I received it. Fortunately the bakelite handles did come with the bonnet.

Thanks to Tony for removing his mechanism and allowing me to make templates of the parts. Here are the new parts after lots of cutting filing and bending:

And after further bending and drilling, the assembled mechanism, which amazingly works very well!!

[julian]

I've been working through a list of jobs that need to be completed before being able to put the car on the road. This includes things like installing the windows. After a struggle splitting the windscreen apart and installing new seals I've managed to re-fit the laminated windscreen. See before and after, below

The rear door windows were salvageable, but I had to have 2 front door glasses made to a template in 4mm toughened glass. The rear and front passenger windows are now in place, but I am having trouble locating a lifting channel for the drivers door. The winder on the drivers side differs to the other 3 as it operates on a single turn of the handle ( presumable for speed to assist with hand signals). The picture below shows the spring loaded brass pegs that I assume engage with a channel and slide along as the window is raised & lowered. I ordered a channel from Paul Beck Vintage Supplies, but unfortunately this is the wrong shape & size for the pegs

I know its a long shot, but does anyone have such a channel (any condition) or failing that a photo of the channel showing the profile. Any help & advice as always would be very much appreciated.

[julian]

After much discussion and searching for parts Tony Fearn came to the rescue and literally knocked together a channel that would slide along the brass "wheels" I then managed to fold a channel for the glass and a friend welded the two parts together:-

Fitting it all together with the glass and winder mechanism was a bit tricky & in the end I removed the door and laid it down to minimise the risk of dropping the glass. Photo shows the completed assembly:

..and the passenger door for comparison:

The movement of the driver's window isn't perfect, but this is more to do with the wear and tear of the winder mechanism than the channel, so further work to improve this will be needed.

[julian]

One of the other main tasks to get the car on the road was re-wire the temporary ignition and charging circuits and to to wire up the lights, horn & wiper. I used coloured wires, rather than black with coloured sleeves, but kept to the colour codes indicated on the wiring diagram where possible.

I used a mixture of pvc tape, cloth tape and expandable sleeving for the long run from the front to the back of the car. Pictures show some of the details

Behind the instrument panel:

Headlamp & side lamp junction box:

Horn & dip switch junction box. I added a 12V and 0V supply here for easy access for updates like indictors/ power socket etc.

[julian]

More pictures of the wiring showing the brake light switch, long run of cables to the rear & the fuel gauge tank unit.

[julian]

Having tested all the electrical items and confirmed operation all the panels removed to access the wiring were replaced and rear seats installed. The final job was to install the running boards and after a lot of cutting and sanding and cutting and gluing these were ready to screw in place.

So this made the car ready for a test drive and after insuring and taxing the car went on its inaugural test drive on 12 July 2017 some 2 years & 8 months after it arrived at my garage. The first trip was to the next village of Kettlewell, which still has a traditional country garage, to fill up with petrol followed by a more adventurous drive up Kidstones hill to a dizzy height of 1500 feet!

A couple of longer trips have shown up a quite sever vibration at speed, which looks like the Layrub couplings, so the plan is to replace these before travelling to the ex-employees re-union on 12th August 2017.

Pictures of the "finished" car below. Still lots of work needed on the interior!!

[Keith Clements]

Great, now enjoy.......

[Tony Fearn]

Wonderful!!
See you at the Ex-employees meeting on Saturday.
Tony.

[Tony Fearn]

See you at the Ex-employees meeting on Saturday.

And we did see Julian's Kestrel at the BIM, although I hadn't taken my camera this time, so hopefully Julian might add a photo to this thread.
He didn't have time to tell Mary that he'd arrived safely as he was inundated with Jowetteers asking about this pre-war Jowett that no one had seen before!!
So well done to Julian for managing to get the Kestrel to Bradford from Buckden, where it resides at the 'Tanglewood Tearooms - (look it up on Google - BD23 5JA).
I can verify that Mary's cakes are delightful, and the scenery is out of this world, so if you're nearby on a Saturday or a Sunday, do stop and say hello, you won't be disappointed.
It's just the drive for our sort of cars.
Tony.

[julian]

A somewhat belated thank you to Tony for his kind comments & recommending our Tearoom. I must also formally thank Tony for his help in the week before the trip to Bradford for his sterling efforts in helping me fit new Layrub couplings to the car and setting up the brakes. It was fairly clear that the brakes would need some further work and I'll detail this in the next post.

Below are a couple of pictures of yours truly at Morrison’s car park and at the Industrial museum.

A very memorable day

Morrisons Car Park 12 August 2017

Industrial Museum 12 August 2017

[julian]

Having returned from the Jowett re-union where Tony demonstrated how the brakes should be on his car, it became apparent I needed to investigate the brake performance on thy Kestrel.

I put the car up on 4 axle stands & it was soon clear that the front off-side brake was not being applied as firmly as to the other wheels. It didn't take long to find the cause of the problem: The operating cam at the bottom of the king pin was hard up against the casting. The nearside on the other hand had a good 3/8" of clearance.

Having removed wheels, drums and operating arm at the top of the back plate, the king-pin brake rods were extracted. The off-side rod was around 6.25" long, whereas the near-side was around 6.5" and was clearly home made. Presumably the previous owner had had problems but only attended to one side! I expect with new brake linings and no ware on the various levers, that the standard rods are OK. During the restoration I didn't replace the front linings as they had plenty of material left, but maybe I should have! I decided though to continue with the longer rods solution and turned a new rod from 5/16" bar. Picture below shows the original rods and the new one on the right

I also reshaped the ends of the other rod to match before refitting and checking clearances. Photo below shows off-side with new longer rod:

I then went round and set up the brakes with the front starting to “bite” slightly before the rear and took the car for a test run. What a difference!!