My 2nd project - Wolseley WD2.

After having so much pleasure from doing my Coborn project I have aquired a 2nd project.
I do part time holiday relief driving for a local car parts firm, one of our customers is a real 'old time garage' (run by an old Welsh guy), the type of place that mends things rather than replacing them. We got chatting about old engines and I mentioned the Coborn...his eyes lit up and he wanted all the details, I told him about it and in passing said I fancied a Wolseley originally but the Coborn came up and I went for it. He gestured me over to a dark corner of the garage and said .... "one like that ?" - under a pile of hoses and other dusty stuff was a reddish finned hopper sticking out the top. I said "errr, yes I suppose so" and the deal was done, he said "how about £30 ?", this included the trolley with a nice set of small cast iron wheels. I just had to say yes. It's a WD2, all complete but in need of some TLC. I contacted my mate with the van again and he agreed to pick it up as long as there were no ants nests this time  . The engine arrived home today and after cursory check over all is looking good for my second project.

New toy on driveway.

New toy meets the Coborn.

Looks like a great engine amazing what people have at the dark corners of garages !

The rebuild is coming along slowly owing to work and and other stuff. All looks good with the bearings so the the crank etc has been alone and just a full back to metal strip, refurb and repaint is the plan for now.
However, the main problem has been with magneto (Wico A)..... no matter what I did it just would not work as it should, the trip seemed to be stuck and just would not play the game. After a complete strip down it seems the trip mech was a mix of anti clock and clockwise rotation parts and along with a coil that only has one wire coming from it I thought it best to source another mag. I found one on ebay and got it for the £35 starting price, the seller had put it in 'lawnmower parts' for some reason and mentioned the trip mech need attention, hence I was the only bidder. The mag is a wico A576BZ and after some searching seems to be from a JAP engine. The end plate was loose owing to having no fixing screws fitted, it has smaller bolt holes and the trip stop is in the wrong place, but I thought I'd have a go at making one mag from the two... just for the hell of it. The end plate and trip mech was all swapped over and fitted together (with screws this time), when I went to turn it over to check if it tripped.... it did and gave me one hell of a shock at the same time, as I was holding it with my hand on the HT terminal. I hadn't even checked the points or anything as I just wanted to get the mech working first before trying anything sparkwise, it now give a great spark and all the points end will be set up and cleaned in due course. I've set it up on the engine and all is good with timing and it trips nicely at TDC and all being well should enable the engine to run.... I'm now a happy bunny again. 
Original unit stripped out.
New mag before cleaning and strip.
End plates showing hole sizes and location. Wolseley on left.
Trip hanger. Anticlock on left, Clockwise on right.

nice little engines , i would get another one again if got offed one for £30 ... alot cheaper than my engines i been buying latley  

you are missing the water drain pipe .

matt

Drain pipe is easy to get it's the bung on the end that is hard to find.

Nice engine, has your hand recovered from the "Spark"?

Villiers wrote:Drain pipe is easy to get it's the bung on the end that is hard to find.

Nice engine, has your hand recovered from the "Spark"?

1/2 " pipe i do believe ... is it Rob ?

you see them with a adapter with a drain tap on the end instead of a brass cap .

matt

That's it Matt, you can get the length required pre threaded from BES, and also an reducing socket to fit 3/8 or 1/4 taps or even a cap, but the cap would be wrong.

Ah... the drain pipe. The engine came without a drain, but it did have a welded up hole where it should have been, luckily it was welded on the old pipe and not the block itself. A bit of drilling, some taps with a punch, a lot of cursing and the thread was again visible. The core plug was another 'slight' problem as it had rusted away, Mr 'previous owner' had fitted a new one before.... over the old one! I located a 1 1/4" core plug and along with some blue hylomar, a hammer and a drift all looks good on the waterfront again.
As for the drain I have made a new one from a 1/2" bsp (male) - 15mm connector, some copper pipe and a rad drain cock all being well this should do the deed fine.
The new drain pipe, not authentic... but functional.
Not looking good....
New plug and old one...
Getting ready for new plug.
Core plug fitted and 1st coat of paint.

Villiers wrote:That's it Matt, you can get the length required pre threaded from BES, and also an reducing socket to fit 3/8 or 1/4 taps or even a cap, but the cap would be wrong.

I use BES quite a bit there delivery is spot on ... and i know one thing ... il never need newspaper again to light the fire with the catalogues  they send me  

matt

ps , i can see a run ! 

So do I, there range of iron fittings is very handy!

Back to the engine, it looks like a tank fitting on the end of that pipe, is it? If it is then you will need to cut the flange off, looks good so far anyway ol' mucker.

Well, a bit more has happened since my last post. The valves have been ground in, 2nd coat of paint, new gaskets made and a few other bits such as blackening all bolts the match her shiny new paint job. I followed the advice given about the flywheel fitting (from matt86 and Villiers) and all went well, I have fitted a temp jubilee clip just in case my efforts were a bit weak it decides to come loose. I fitted the tank, made a new fuel pipe and thought 'what the heck, shall I try a start'? After putting fuel in, I swung it over and it started on the 2nd attempt, after forgetting what position was 'on' for the choke. The compression felt a bit low at first but has now risen after a run, poss owing to a sticky ring. The only other problem is a loud(ish) rhythmic knock/piston slap noise when running, but I'll let it have another run over the weekend and get nice and hot then hopefully any more stickiness in the rings will disappear and cure it and then she'll settle down nicely. It runs quite smoothly without any smoke, so fingers crossed she's a 'good un'!



Steve

Looks good does that.

Looking great!

That was a quick restoration . looking good .

matt

Funny enough the Ruston PT ive finished painting is making the same noise, will a long run sort it then?

TomCat wrote: The only other problem is a loud(ish) rhythmic knock/piston slap noise when running, but I'll let it have another run over the weekend and get nice and hot then hopefully any more stickiness in the rings will disappear and cure it and then she'll settle down nicely. It runs quite smoothly without any smoke, so fingers crossed she's a 'good un'!

Steve

Abes wrote:Funny enough the Ruston PT ive finished painting is making the same noise, will a long run sort it then?

TomCat wrote: The only other problem is a loud(ish) rhythmic knock/piston slap noise when running, but I'll let it have another run over the weekend and get nice and hot then hopefully any more stickiness in the rings will disappear and cure it and then she'll settle down nicely. It runs quite smoothly without any smoke, so fingers crossed she's a 'good un'!

Steve

do you get a bit of a squeek from piston area ?

could be rings need to be replaced .

matt

No squeeking noise just a rhythmic knock/slap noise

matt86 wrote:

Abes wrote:Funny enough the Ruston PT ive finished painting is making the same noise, will a long run sort it then?

TomCat wrote: The only other problem is a loud(ish) rhythmic knock/piston slap noise when running, but I'll let it have another run over the weekend and get nice and hot then hopefully any more stickiness in the rings will disappear and cure it and then she'll settle down nicely. It runs quite smoothly without any smoke, so fingers crossed she's a 'good un'!

Steve

do you get a bit of a squeek from piston area ?

could be rings need to be replaced .

matt

Abes wrote:No squeeking noise just a rhythmic knock/slap noise

matt86 wrote:

Abes wrote:Funny enough the Ruston PT ive finished painting is making the same noise, will a long run sort it then?

TomCat wrote: The only other problem is a loud(ish) rhythmic knock/piston slap noise when running, but I'll let it have another run over the weekend and get nice and hot then hopefully any more stickiness in the rings will disappear and cure it and then she'll settle down nicely. It runs quite smoothly without any smoke, so fingers crossed she's a 'good un'!

Steve

do you get a bit of a squeek from piston area ?

could be rings need to be replaced .

matt

could do with seeing a video of it running to be honest to see what you mean .

mayy

No squeak here either.... just the normal running sound combined with the aforementioned knock/slap. I've tried using a long screwdriver as a stethoscope type thingy, but can't locate the main source of the sound. There is a very slight ridge at the top of the bore, but not what I'd call big enough to warrant a re bore or new rings. There is also a slight 'hissing' noise from the bore when turned over slowly by hand (on the flywheel) with the main crankcase cover off. The knock doesn't sound too bad, just enough to be noticeable over the general engine noises, ie tappets and exhaust etc. I'll give it a run over the weekend a bit further down the garden and away from any walls that are beside my driveway area that tend to echo a bit and see what she sounds like in the open. Its probably been standing a long time since its last run so it may just be sticky rings. Plan B may well involve a squirt of redex or similar down the bore and see what happens then.

Steve

i would not worry about the slight leaking from the bore most my engines are like that . Its not likethey are high compression engines or work hard for a living .

matt

I think I've cracked it....  I gave it a run today and got it nice and warm but the the noise was still there, I then removed the plug to relieve all compression and turned it over slowly on the flywheel and then a 'slap' or more like a 'clack' came from the mag area. Hmmmm - OK ... off with the mag for further investigation..... when I turned it by hand a slap/donk/clack noise appeared together with a heavy magnetic type pull at one point nowhere near the impulse trip setting. After further investigation and a full mag strip I found the 2 screws holding the magnet onto the shaft had came loose and were causing the rotor to move slightly and hit the laminations under magnetic force. It's not easy to explain but it was the root of the noise. I used the rotor and shaft from my sacrificial magneto to replace of the iffy one and all is good now..... no more slap/knock and a smoother/quieter sounding engine. I did try to re use the original rotor but the countersunk holes and screws had worn oval and caused more binding on reassembly so I went for the spare rotor.