Welcome to Marks Gang Shed
Welcome to my Gang Shed. In Australia track maintenance workers were known as Gangers...the men that made up the track gang. They were by large the poor cousins to the rest of the railway work force. In most cases no fancy office or well equipped workshop. They shared space with their Pumpers, Quads, Trolley's, Trikes, Fairmonts, Gang/Section Cars ( the name varied depending in which State you lived in) in what was universally known as the Gang Shed.
Other than being sent off for an overhaul the Gang Shed was where Australian Motor Cars lived during their working lives. The Gang Shed was also where basic repairs were done, stories swapped by Gangers with technical tips and adventures out on the track.
In the following pages I will be sharing with you some of my extensive knowledge and expertise gained from operating and restoring motor cars these past 15 years. I also want this page filled with input from you. Got a good yarn or some good tech advice about your car let me know and I will post it in these pages and that way we can share our knowledge with everyone.
If you want to make a copy or reprint any information I do ask of you to respect my © and ask me first.
Mark, Nov 2003
I get a number of questions regarding this sealing method used on all magneto engines so I here is a broad rundown about it.
The seal consists of a sleeve carrying three small rings in grooves. It is used to seal the crankcase on the magneto side of the block where as buzz coil models use a modern neoprene seal. It is a left over design from earlier engines and there are two sizes used. 'LM315' for the ROC and 'A571' for the RQD.
The sleeve sits snuggly over the crankshaft and into the side bearing housing. When the engine is running the sleeve rotates with the crankshaft and the rings remain stationary!!
To remove the packing sleeve from the crankshaft I have found you also need to loosen the crankshaft Magneto Gear and carefully drive off the gear which will push the packing sleeve off also. The packing sleeve should be replaced after the bearings, magneto gear and side bearing casings are assembled and just before the flywheels are replaced. Clean and lubricate, then being careful, guide and compress rings into bevelled edge of side bearing casing. (Some resleeved bearing casings don't have this bevel and it is a buggar of a job let me tell you to get the rings in.) I use a piece of pipe that fits over the crankshaft and inside the bearing casing to seat it home. Even, gentle, tapping with flat punch will also work. Dont forget to replace the Packing Presure Spring before you fit the flywheel! Rings must be free in grooves and ends should be .002/3" opening to prevent binding in side bearing bore when being fit. Packing Sleeve must be a snug fit on the cranshaft. Loctite shaft seal if it slips on easily.
If packing leakes when engine is running rings may be broken, or side bearing casing grooved as rings have been sticking with carbon and spinning with crankshaft. I have found the rings sticking and grooving the side bearing housing a major problem of failure. QR got into remaking the housings or sleeving the housings because of this problem. If you can obtain the type of ring that overlaps honing out the grooves also works.
It is normal for a slight leak to be noticed until engine is warm or when engine is turned by hand. For those of you extra talented operators that can reverse a magneto engine by the kill switch you may also notice a leak at this time due to the rapid change in crankcase pressure! Email me for additional info or questions that I will post here.
I have had a number of pistons seized in blocks, one in an ROC my 20 Ton press would not budge till I was told about this neat trick to get things moving. Get an old sparkplug, gut it and braze a grease nipple into where the procelain used to go so now you have an 18mm fit grease nipple. For my Queensland friends take out the Decompression Valve, and fit a 7/16 UNF grease nipple there.
Next tip your engine so the bore is vertical and fill it as much as you can with diesel or another good penetrating product that you know about, scew your sparkplug grease nipple back into the head and leave it in the corner for a month or two.
When your ready fill your grease gun, set your engine on blocks or a stand outside where you dont mind spilling diesel, clip on the gun and start pumping. You may have to give it quite a few pumps till you feel some presure building up. Keep pumping!! You will either hear a crack as the piston lets go or you may just see the flywheels start moving.
If the crankcase side of the piston is still oily I pump the piston down to the exhaust ports when the presure is lost. I then hone and scrape the bore as much as possible and press the piston out which now is an easy job. If the crankcase side is bad news also I only crack the piston seal then press the piston out without forcing the piston into a new rusted area. Success rate 3 out of 3 ROC's freed with bores able to take O/S pistons. Only one piston reusable. One RQD to be tried shortly.
Email me and let me know how you get on.
Most axle bends occur between the wheel bearing and the wheel hub when your Motor Car leaves the rails by itself or gets stuck in a flange way when your turning it and an excess of force is then applied to this area. Axle bends other than in this area may be beyond this repair method. Now before you go ripping your axle out of the car because one of the wheels is running out I would check some things first. Wheels centers can also bend after a derail so I would change the wheel with a known good one just in case. Badly worn bearings/casings or worn front differential sleeve can cause wheel run out also so check these as well. Once your satisfied it is bent and your ready for the challenge..rip it out. The axle now has to be sanded clean and shiny with all burrs/nicks/tiny ridges filed smooth. Once this is done place the straight edge against the side of the axle where you suspect the bend is and gently rotate the axle (and the following may take some time) until you find the highest point of the bend above the straight edge. Check and recheck this several times till your satisfied. Mark the top center of the axle at this point.
Set and center the rollers in the pipe bender so the axle sits well...if the bend is close to the taper make sure the rollers are not on the axle thread. The axle has to be placed in the bender with the chalk mark dead central and facing down to the centre of the lift jack of the bender. As different brands of pipe benders have different jacks it now becomes a bit of trial and error. I pump my bender till I feel some force on the axle then give it one more pump but no more. I then remove it from the bender and recheck it against the straight edge. It may need an extra pump if it hasn't moved or just a bit more as its close but not quite there. You may also find that the highest point has moved to a slightly different position so check and recheck everytime. The axle steel I have been told has a tendency to go back to near its original shape as the bend is straightened and that may explain why this method has worked so well for me. Once you are satisfied that the bend is within specs..do not expect to get the axle 100% straight with this method and as Fairmont allows 1/16" run out you should be able to get within this range. You may want to check the rest of the axle but don't try and fix something thats not broken or you may end up with a dogs hind leg. To test the axle I leave the bearing housings in place on the car and slide the axle back through them. The front axle will require assembly of the differential. I then place the hub with wheel attached onto the axle just tapping it on lightly so it is seated on the taper. I then spin the wheels and see how it goes. Good luck and your feedback is welcome.
Magneto Ignition Spark Plug Gap is 1/64" or 15/16 thou "I personally set to 18 thou max but no more than this as any extra will strain the magneto coil and could cause the high tension coil to internal short/go open circuit" The Point Gap on the Magneto is set at 19 - 21 thou. The timing is fixed with Magneto Ignition but you can advance the timing slightly for better higher rev performance by increasing the gap up to 25 thou or conversely retard it by decreasing the gap down to 15 thou if you do mostly low speed running.
Spark Plug Gap for Buzz coil models is 1/32" or 32 thou +/- 1. Again no more than this or your high tension coil will be under strain.
Timer Point Gap is 20 - 30 thou "big range and closer to 20 thou will give you slightly more advance and better performance as the coil fires when the points close...note this is opposite to magneto ignition where the spark is generated when the points open"
Point gap and tension on Buzz Coils has to be adjusted to give around a .85 to .95 amp current flow. This figure should try and be obtained for the Bosch, 'T' Model Ford, Delco and Pontiac buzz coil models found in Australia. The Bosch and Delco point gap is around the 20 +- thou and the others with vibrating points are adjusted according to this adjustment data sheet on the NARCOA web site.
The buzz coil should fire for a minimum of 30 to 35 degs of the flywheel - this equates to 5" to 5-1/2" on the ROC engine and 5-1/2" to 6" on the RQD engine flywheel rims.
The Champion D16 is in common use, performs well and is easily sourced in Australia (let me know if you need some as I have a source). Champion K8 - Bosch M 10 A0, M12B/M45T1, M95T5 - NGK A6, AB6 are also suitable 18MM plugs and they will give satisfactory performance. I note 'SAR' used the Bosch M12B/M45T1 extensively and 'QR' used the Bosch M 10 A0. Remember to set your new plug with the correct gap..don't just screw it in straight out of the packet. Magneto Fairmonts will suffer more from plug problems than their Buzz Coil mates due to the weaker spark generated and rich mix of the fuel. The type of oil mix you are using, amount of idling time and condition of magneto will determine the amount of trouble you may encounter. I always carry two spare plugs with my magneto cars and change the plug straight away if I experience any problems.Ringsealed Packing Sleeve Crankcase Seal
This one inpart comes from the Fairmont manual plus my own experience.Thanks to Peter in Queesland for the manual.
Unseizing a Stuck Piston
This one comes from Robert in SA..Thanks Robert.
The Laymans Guide to Straighten a Bent Axle
Tools Required
Lets Begin
Spark Gaps, Point Gaps and Spark Plugs
Magneto Models
Buzz Coil Models
Spark Plugs
Gang Shed Projects
All projects transfered to the Fitters shop
'Techo Pot pourri'
Short snippets of technical information about your Fairmont Motor Car Link
Copyright © TFHL/Mark Swaby 2003 - All rights reserved
Updated 9th Dec 2003