You're not going to beleive this but...
 

It's Keefy here, staying at Max's, and we had a go at starting the FGT. We filled it with water (which slowly drained out from perished hoses) checked the oil, put a flexible hose from the fuel pump into a small can of fuel, gave it a bit of a tow to circulate the oil, then with Robert Farmer's electrical hotwiring, Max's tractor giving a little push, and Ashley Wilson's encouragement, and to our collective amazement, it started in about a quarter turn of the wheels and ran almost faultlessly, with the 60 year old HT wiring giving the occasional crackle and pop from the stub of an exhaust it even idled smoothly.
Fortunately I had my video camera set up to record the attempt, and even stills will follow soon just to prove it.
And I now know the meaning of Jon's s%^t eating grin, because I had one too. Max even started it with the crank to prove it worked.
Just as well the shower was cold this morning.

FGT comes to life.
 

Well done Keith, Max, Robert & Ashley.
Good to hear you have got the old girl going. One step closer to getting it back on the road. It's amazing that old engines can sit for ten years & then with 1/2 an hours work they fire up. Who has a story like Keiths?
Euan.

Re: You're not going to beleive this but...
 

"I love the sound of a Flathead in the morning"

:cheers:
Hanno

Re: You're not going to beleive this but...
 

ONYA, MATE!

Say hi to Max for us, alright? We'll be in touch!

Keefy's calling back
 

Keith reckons he will call on his way back to Melbourne to start the old ford again and take her for a good test drive pending on brakes. Your right hanno nothing like the sound of a flat head waking up after all those years resting. Good thing our hot water system was turned off when Keith went to have his shower, after that he was able to focus on his real job.

Geoff we have had some rain things have greened up we are all well and when Aaron comes in I'll get hime to post some photos of how green it is (Ican't do that yet).

Max

Re: Re: You're not going to beleive this but...
 

Ah, quite so; hugely improved by the Ballard/Notton fan mod that sees that bit of inefficient bent tin and ear splitting roar maker, replaced by a hugely efficient and near silent LR 110 viscous unit all hidden within the rad shroud on a self-made drive spigot.

For the first time in some 61 years we can actually hear the engine.

R.

I love the sound of a Flathead in the morning
 

Yes, but not when it fills the cab with the smell of Napalm!!!!

Keefy has graced me with his presence on this balmy spring evening (Sorry, Max, tried to call) and told me all about starting the gun tractor. Seems S. E. Grins are contagious. Pics to follow of Four Grinners in a FGT cab from Keith.

Re: I love the sound of a Flathead in the morning
 

It was actually flathead in the evening.

BTW, Flathead is something we catch here. There is no known cure either.:confused:

Re: I love the sound of a Flathead in the morning
 

10 points to Mr. Smith for knowing his classics!

Re: Re: Re: You're not going to beleive this but...
 

So when are the engineering drawings for this going to be made available :)
Or is Ballard going to turn a batch to sell through this site?

H.

Re: self-made drive spigot
 

I doubt Ballard will start production, of quite some difficulty is finding a 4" billet of steel to start with and then as this is mostly turned away to form the large, flanged spigot; it falls to the Sigs Clerk to attend the lathe for hours making and clearing pre-tempered clock springs as the majority of the lump is reduced to some 22mm diameter from the original 101.6mm.

There was a rudimentary drawing, however; I wonder if we still have it.

R.

Re: Re: self-made drive spigot
 

Allrighty then, we'll have to work from that.

Thanks,
H.

Re: Re: Re: self-made drive spigot
 

Well, Ballard does have a dimensioned drawing rather than my sketch, which I see you still have, as an easy description rather than a thousand words.

Still, some/most of it was empirical by trial fit, eg:

The front face of the disc to the shoulder ~ 1/2" to allow reasonable clearance of the viscous unit mounting bolt heads to the pulley bolt heads.

The larger diameter of the shaft was made the same as the viscous bush outer diameter, whatever that was.

We used a 3/4" BSF nut (because we had one) with self made castellations and turned the shoulder to match the viscous bush.

The thread was made to be just 1/2 a turn too much and sawn off to show two threads through the nut.

The shaft was machined until a moderate press fit in the viscous bush.

The split pin hole was marked and drilled after the nut tightened.

New and longer 1/4" UNC bolts were hand tweaked for exact length in the pulley bosses to utilise the maximum thread area.

A real selective, one-off, assembly really.

R.

Yass adventures
 

http://www.oldcmp.net/Images/kgw/FGT_9/max_1.jpg

Vrrroooom! Max's grin sums it up. That's Ashley Wilson with the torch and Robert Farmer on ignition duty, both of them Chev fans and owners who were amazed at how easily she started.