Francis Birtles Pioneer Trip

How come the best ideas come to you in bed at 0200?

Trying to figure out getting the tail shaft universal flange off the overdrive. Bolts won't go far enough forward to release the shaft because they hit the overdrive case. Only way is to unbolt the whole overdrive and push it forward 30mm to give clearance.

How simple - just cut the damn bolts off with an angle grinder and  spent $6 for four new ones and put them in from the back after slipping a couple of spare belts through the gap.

Lang
 

well done Lang - you recognised the monkey trap and by letting go/sacrificing the nuts you were free to solve the problem.

I can even keep the nuts if I undo them before I start cutting!

This should please the advisory committee.

 


 
 

Smart move.

Just because it worked in an industrial environment didn't say it wold work on the road

I'm sure they will se you to the end of the journey with them all still tied up underneath.

Just so you know, I'm really Jealous of your adventure.

Should be good to go

Paul

Looks good Lang
the weakest part could B the alloy pully @ the tail shaft to drive the Alt
Not that will cause any problems
cya

Swishy

I dont think the alloy pulley will be a problem. They are becoming more common on cars albeit with serpentine belts now.

There is commercial machinery with hundreds of thousands of hours with alloy belt pulleys. The tail shaft comes off the overdrive and the pulley is on the fixed position side of the universal not the moving shaft side.

Lang

I will repeat some of a previous post to get it all in one place.

We just had a nice visit to the Sunshine Coast. Bruce Barton invited us to bring the Bean up to see his original Vauxhall Hurlingham.

The Vauxhall has been in his family for 60 years and is the only known original Birtles car apart from the Sundowner in the museum. It is unrestored and driven several times a week. It is a powerful beauty with its 6 cylinders and roaring exhaust. The Bean had no trouble keeping up when we went for a drive to lunch.

In the newspaper clip of Birtles returning from the Gulf in the Vauxhall you can see it has the standard Hurlingham factory high door line. Birtles declared it too restricted and Holdens cut it away to his design and reversed the doors which you can see in his wedding photos and as it exists today. A nice bit of Australian history still on the road.

 

 

 

Bruce Barton beside the Vauxhall. It still has the Cockatoo mascot in front of the windscreen but the radiator mascot and hubcaps were stolen while it was parked. Bruce's father repainted the car light blue (because he liked it in the 60's). It is a nice job and the uneven colour is the camera not bad paint. The original colour appears to be cream or light green.
 


A nice comparison of British styling between early 20's and early 30's.

 



 

Great looking cars Lang..they certainly had style back then.
Hard to imagine doing what they did (and what you are planning to do) when these days you need a V8 landcruiser and an off road camper with every conceivable option to go anywhere...
Cheers
Rich