Thread: Clearing sale today.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I think you touch on one of the main reasons for not having excellent engine designs - the often bizarre taxation regimes.

John

Nothing wrong with a knocker in the right application which was as a 4 x 2 eight ton body truck, not as a prime mover pulling bogie trailers or a body truck pulling a dog trailer. They were only 145 horse power which was quite sprightly for an eight tonner of the period. We had eight of them at one time and I can tell you it was a long slow haul Brisbane-Sydney-Brisbane with a semi-trailer and seventeen tons of freight. Also a slow business with four decks of sheep on the body and a dog trailer perticularly pulling into a head wind.

They were relatively long lived by the standards of the time and fairly easy to service. Quick starters which many diesels of the 50's and 60's were not. They ran with a degree of supercharge unlike Detroit Diesels where the blower only scavenges and any boost required is provided by a turbocharger. With knockers when you had lost performance and were blowing black smoke it was usually time for a blower overhaul.

G'day Brian Hjelm

Yes, the old Knocker wasn't that bad, the Pommie road rego (tax) rules were on rated horse power wasn't it, and the Knocker was 18hp developing 145/150 Bhp from memory, like the Landrover 2.25 petrol which was only a 7:1 compression which gave a net brake horse power of 77bhp @4250rpm but with a torque of 124 pound/foot at 2500rpm (you know that I could not find a reference of the rated HP) the original Morris Mini Minor of 1959 was rated as a 10hp car and taxed as such, while here in Qld in the 60's rego was calculated by BHP over weight, as my first Ford S/V V8 Customline sedan was 32.5 HP and 30 cwt (hundredwight=1 1/2 ton) and that motor was 103 BHP

cheers

Originally Posted by UncleHo

G'day Brian Hjelm

Yes, the old Knocker wasn't that bad, the Pommie road rego (tax) rules were on rated horse power wasn't it, and the Knocker was 18hp developing 145/150 Bhp from memory, like the Landrover 2.25 petrol which was only a 7:1 compression which gave a net brake horse power of 77bhp @4250rpm but with a torque of 124 pound/foot at 2500rpm (you know that I could not find a reference of the rated HP) the original Morris Mini Minor of 1959 was rated as a 10hp car and taxed as such, while here in Qld in the 60's rego was calculated by BHP over weight, as my first Ford S/V V8 Customline sedan was 32.5 HP and 30 cwt (hundredwight=1 1/2 ton) and that motor was 103 BHP

cheers

Landrover 2.25 rating is 20.3HP.

The formula is the bore (inches) squared by the number of cylinders divided by 2.5.

A look at this formula tells you why the British favoured long stroke engines.

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

The formula is the bore (inches) squared by the number of cylinders divided by 2.5.

John

You just beat me to it, John.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

..........We had eight of them at one time and I can tell you it was a long slow haul Brisbane-Sydney-Brisbane with a semi-trailer and seventeen tons of freight. .....

Yes - many is the time I have followed one up (or down) the Moonbi range; no passing lanes in those days! (I was working in Qld but my family lived in Sydney)

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Yes - many is the time I have followed one up (or down) the Moonbi range; no passing lanes in those days! (I was working in Qld but my family lived in Sydney)

John

Yes, the First and Second Moonbi's were a real climb then, unlike the high speed freeway that is in place today. Did you ever come across the fellow that had a garage in Bendemeer who had a couple of WWII 6x6's. He would pull stalled trucks up and over the Moonbis for a fee. If you were a bit heavy (not me, honest) or underpowered you could 'phone ahead and book a tow over the ranges. Cunninghams Gap, Bolivia Hill, Black Mountain and Devil's Elbow, the Moonbi's, the Liverpool Range at Murrurundi. All steep, narrow, and twisty then. And then into the Putty Road when it still had unsealed sections. Still, the New England was a far superior road and easier drive than the Pacific. I still prefer it.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Yes, the First and Second Moonbi's were a real climb then, unlike the high speed freeway that is in place today. Did you ever come across the fellow that had a garage in Bendemeer who had a couple of WWII 6x6's. He would pull stalled trucks up and over the Moonbis for a fee. If you were a bit heavy (not me, honest) or underpowered you could 'phone ahead and book a tow over the ranges. Cunninghams Gap, Bolivia Hill, the Moonbi's, the Liverpool Range at Murrurundi. All steep, narrow, and twisty then. And then into the Putty Road when it still had unsealed sections. Still, the New England was a far superior road and easier drive than the Pacific. I still prefer it.

I came across him alright - he replaced a rear wheel bearing (semifloating) on the Series 1 while I waited on one trip from Brisbane to Sydney. Had the knowledge, skills, tools and parts. Took less than an hour - but I can't remember how much he charged. Try that today!

Like you I still prefer the New England.

My earliest recollection of the Moonbi range was when I was about 12, we went on a holiday from Sydney to visit relatives at Glen Elgin, between Glen Innes and Grafton. We travelled in convoy from Newcastle with an uncle and his family. At the time my father had a 9hp Swift, and my uncle had a 9hp Rover. The Swift made it up Moonbi well ahead, thanks to a four speed box, not three like the Rover, so we waited for them at the top. I can still picture the Rover coming into sight, with a plume of steam from the radiator, and my uncle leaning out the side to see, the windscreen being obscured by a mixture of condensation and dust.

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I came across him alright - he replaced a rear wheel bearing (semifloating) on the Series 1 while I waited on one trip from Brisbane to Sydney. Had the knowledge, skills, tools and parts. Took less than an hour - but I can't remember how much he charged. Try that today!
John

There were quite a few real good mechanical tradesmen around then. Blokes who learned and honed their skillls in the hard times of the thirities when many people could not afford proper repairs, then through the rationing and shortages of the war and post-war periods. They learned to patch up, recycle, improvise, and make from scratch. The Bode brothers in Winton and The McDonalds father and son at Warwick had awesome reputations for getting you going with a minimum of parts and fuss, as did the Searles & O'Connors in Longreach. Fred McDonald was reputed to be able to fix anything with fencing wire and a railway sleeper, both borrowed. Most were originally fitters and turners and called themselves motor engineers. Bodes and McDonalds could do their own castings, heat treatment and blacksmithing as well as machining and full engine reconditioning in premises that looked like neglected farm sheds.