Wiles Junior Cooker

[jack neville]

This allows me to fit a new boiler, oven and tea urn and taps and valves to my cooker and pass on serviceable parts to the second cooker. They will still need repairs but not total rebuild as was going to be required. My engineer friend in the meantime is going to make new stainless steel steam bins. My bins are useable but rusty inside and there was no steam bins with the original cooker. So I stripped the original cooker apart. Another example of why everyone should have a small excavator.

[jack neville]

I was disappointed with the rust to the chassis and boiler firebox. the extent of the rust was not visible before I pulled it apart. There was enough rust to fill a wheel barrow. Surprisingly though all the firebox heatplates were still solid enough to use.

[jack neville]

While I had the chassis suspended I stripped the springs and axle out. The shackle pins and pushes were all in perfect condition. Wheel bearings (Made in Germany) were good and will be reused.

[jack neville]

I am not sure what the wheels are and even if they are they wheels originally fitted to these cookers. File photos are not clear but they are 16" fitted with 6.00 x 16 tyres. File photos show bar tread tyres but I have not seen clear period photos of the rims. When stripped mine revealed a 53 date. I only had the two wheels on the original cooker and the later one had LandCruiser rims but a matching spare to my original.

[jack neville]

Being six stud rules out jeep rims. As we often find when wanting rare spares, a local hardware shop not ten Kms from me has this old gypsy type wagon in the front yard for some reason. I just happened to take a bit more notice of the wheels last time I was there. Two are the same as my original cooker and two are the same as my spare. Can someone identify exactly what the rims are?

[Tony Smith]

I have a WW2 4 wheel Aust Generator trailer that has the same hubs and just slightly different 6 stud wheels (earlier? WW2 Vs 1953?). These were off a 1940 Chev sedan.

The wheel bearings are an unusual design (compared to these days), with the inner bearing being ball bearings in a bronze cage. They are an odd size, and replacement for these or a modern tapered roller design bearings are somewhat pricey.

[jack neville]

Can you post some pictures Tony. I have seen some Chev wheels with six stud but they have a slight indentation where my wheels are smooth across the centre as shown. I will put some better pictures up as the rims are not fitted with tyres yet. Bearings are ball bearings too.

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Tony Smith

I have a WW2 4 wheel Aust Generator trailer that has the same hubs and just slightly different 6 stud wheels (earlier? WW2 Vs 1953?).

Originally Posted by Jack Neville

I have seen some Chev wheels with six stud but they have a slight indentation where my wheels are smooth across the centre

Yes, Jack, my wheels have the indentation. I also have a bit of a mixed bag, with one of the 4 wheels having a much more pronounced dome in the centre.

Have you looked at any post-war Chevs to see if/when they changed to the smooth centre dome style?

[hrpearce]

Originally Posted by jack neville

I am not sure what the wheels are and even if they are they wheels originally fitted to these cookers. File photos are not clear but they are 16" fitted with 6.00 x 16 tyres. File photos show bar tread tyres but I have not seen clear period photos of the rims. When stripped mine revealed a 53 date. I only had the two wheels on the original cooker and the later one had LandCruiser rims but a matching spare to my original.

Looks like the original wheels on the old three speed Nissan patrol we once had. We replaced them with Toyota split rims to make changing tyres easier. Conner shay chisel ploughs of the 50's had similar rims without the hubcap clips, but same stud pattern.