2014 at the Hammond Barn

[RHClarke]

6oC! Almost all of the snow is gone from the barnyard. There is a good layer of ice, and where the ground is exposed, mud. Lots of mud. So today, we took advantage of the good weather and set about with some tasks. Bob and Grant played around with Bob's CMP truck, which mysteriously decided to shatter a push rod. Bob can fill you in on that item.

Grant also got busy with mass producing metal signs for CMP trailers, while I worked on my M37 fender and did some M37 rim painting. After that fun I worked on one of the prototype's front fenders, which was well and truly rusted. The remainder of the afternoon was spent cutting away thin metal to prep for welding in the future.

Bob fixed his pushrod problem then began work on one of the greatest puzzles in the CMP world: his windshield. I am not sure if it is a cab 11 or cab 12 windshield, but it sure looked complicated. Good old Brit engineering, wot?

As usual, time expired and we headed back to our domestic chores, but it was a nice day at the barn.

Photos:

1- Bob and Grant troubleshooting Bob's Chev;
2 - Dodge rims drying in the warm (relatively) afternoon air;
3 - Barn decorations part 1
4 - Barn decorations part 2 (festive, eh?)

[Bob Carriere]

So much easier to work on the truck inside the barn where it is 60F rather than outside even if the weather is mild.

So I need to drive out the farm tractor/snowblower from the barn and fetch the Cab 11 from the sea container

Engine had not been runned for at least a month so it needed the choke and cranked a few trun before firing up. Now running the engine inside the steel sea container is always a bit loud but this morning the valves were clacking exceptionally loud...... close the choke and drove her out slowly...... still clacking but not as loud once outside the can. Drove to the barn and that cold morning clack just did not go away.

Drove it out of the barn so I could let it idle without posioning ourselves.

The clacking did not go away... played with the throttle but higher revs just made more noise... in front somewhere.

Popped the valve cover and promptly lost one of the original screws in the mud.

Took me a minute to restart the engine and walk around to the driver's side.... there she was.... a loose push rod.... loose hell half the top ring was missing.
Turned the engine off and carefully fished the missing part with tweezers.... must have just happened as the part could have rolled down in the head drain holes right into the pan.

Never seen a push rod fracture like that. Clean break and seemingly a fresh break.

Grant and I scrambled to see what spare parts we had...... found some badly rusted.... found some too short... then in the attic wrapped in plastic was a full set of the proper lenght.

Removed the old one, cleaned the replacement and dropped it in place. Did not want to spend a lot of time readjusting all the valve setting so I eye balled it, fired up the engine and adjusted the play by feel...... with the engine running you can see and feel the push rods spinning between your fingers so I adjusted, by comparaison, until too snug and too loose until she behaved like all the others. Will probably redo all the valves setting in the spring when I can get the engine properly hot.

If interested it was the intake rocker cyl. 2

Somedays you are just lucky enough to break something in your own driveway with all your tools handy.

Cheers

[Bob Carriere]

Notwithstanding the unexpected engine issue it was, as Rob wrote, a fine day.

You have to step back for a few seconds and see Grant working on repairing one of his engine covers, Rob hammering on his fenders and myself fiddling with the windshield of my truck..... the three of us each busy in their own little world.... except for the odd query...... can you guys look at this and tell me if this is right??

Moments like this makes it worth living.

To CMP friends

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Bob

Never seen that happen, seen them bend, or slip off the rocker arm because the nut on the adjuster got loose and the adjuster backed off. All of these made some noise but not as much as I would have expected.

You were sure lucky that all bits were easy to recover. Reread the message and saw that it was an intake, wonder if you loose more power to a closed intake or a closed exhaust?

Would have been an interesting thing to have fail on the road while driving to instantaneous go from 6 cylinders to 5 under load.

Cheers Phil

[RHClarke]

I completed a quick trip to the barn this morning to retire, so to speak. After sparking up Lucifer (if only to keep the old fella comfortable when he arrived), I mounted some new tires on my refurbished M37 rims. Everything went together like a charm - no exploding split rings or wrestling with tight fitting tires. These tires mounted up just as easily as my HUP tires.

Grant and Bob were still fiddling about in the barn when I left, but I am sure that Bob is cleaning up for his "date" about now (3:00PM local). As Bob mentioned above, we enjoy the barn and its atmosphere.

Photo: New tires on M37 rims.

[Gordon Yeo]

Golly Rob, those are really nice looking rims! Did you ever find any good replacement M37 fenders or are you tin bashing the originals?

Gord

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by Gordon Yeo

Golly Rob, those are really nice looking rims! Did you ever find any good replacement M37 fenders or are you tin bashing the originals? Gord

Thanks, Gord. The rims look really great - my supplier is second to none. I am still looking for a replacement fender, but in the mean time I ordered two sets of replacement panels for the headlight indents for both sides. We spent some time on Friday starting the repair to the lower end of the fender. It should be an easy fix. The front indent is a more involved welding job, but if need be, I'll go that route. If you do happen to know where a spare intact pax side M37 fender may be, please let me know. Cheers!