Life at the orphange

[Terry]

Hi,

a bit slack, nearly 12 months to the day since I last wrote something in here.

After almost 3 months my special taps and die finally arrived from the UK via Air Mail.

These are 5/8" x16tpi in Whitworth Form or sometimes referred to as BSW specials when searching for them and managed to get all four and postage for the same price as buying just one through one of the UK Mini sites so after some months of pretty much giving up on them I am happy to have them now.

What makes them special is they can clean up the thread at each end of the A series crank and the associated bolt. So the day I got them I tested them out on any crank and bolts laying around, even though some of them didn't need it, but still I know the crank in DS is pretty tight when doing up the flywheel bolt so next time it is out of the car I can tidy it up.



Terry

[Terry]

Hi,

I have been thinking about building a trolley for wheeling engines around on so I can clean them outside and then the idea and the requirements kept growing into a trolley to remove the whole front end assembly. Being in lock down I had to improvise with some off cut of metal for the legs, some old BBQ trolley for braces and a pram was demolished for the wheels and handle.




Although the pictures show it is possible to have the engine and sub-frame on the trolley for getting out from under the car, it really is too heavy and not practical for that purpose. The wheels are only plastic, the handle is too short and the engine rocks back and forth a bit. When it came to cleaning the engine the sub frame is in the way and then un doing the engine from the sub frame the trolley gets in the way so it was a bit of a failure in that sense.

However it is a great trolley for dismantling the sub-frame and for rebuilding the bits of the sub-frame at a nice height and can be moved around easily when the weight is on it. The two pieces of really soft packing wood onto of the trolley stop the sub-frame moving around without having to bolt/hold it place. I haven't done a rear sub frame on it yet but I did measure it up with that in mind.

So I still need a trolley for moving engines around for cleaning and maybe working on but happy with my sub-frame trolley.

Terry