Hi from Scotland

Hi everyone. I am currently stripping apart a 1940 Ruston and Hornsby PT. This PT was supplied to a dealer in Perth on the 7thof November 1940, so it's just had its 79th birthday. It was bought by the farm that I live on and worked away for 10-15 years apparently. The story goes that there was a door banging on a pig shed and the PT was shoved up against it to stop it banging and it stayed there ever since. That is until I rescued it. I got it essentially for free. It was seized absolutely solid but most of the nuts and bolts came off pretty easily.

It took 9 months of pouring diesel and various penetrating oils down the bore until one day I managed to move the piston a fraction. I used the age old technique of a lump of wood on the piston and land Rover tool number one. Once it had moved that tiny bit I managed to get it turning fairly easily. The bore was in really surprisingly excellent condition as were the bearings.

I got stuck on the flywheel. No amount of heat or force could shift it. I also got stuck on the governor arm which I just couldn't figure out how to remove without breaking the brass. At that point other projects kind of took over and it lay in bits in my workshop.

Fast forward a year or so. I recently had some major surgery and am limited as to what I can do. I'm also off work just now and bored, so have resurrected the PT project. A good friend of mine is a member of the SVTEC and has taken the crankshaft and flywheel to get them to part company with a 50 tonne press and I found out from another SVTEC member at their autumn crank up that there was a screw hidden under some gasket that I hadn't noticed. With that undone, the governor pretty much fell out.

I'm stuck on another bit now but I'll save that for the relevant section. I'm not planning on restoring the engine. There is original paint in evidence under all the grime and miss so I'm going to leave it in unrestored but working condition, just getting all the mechanical bits working correctly.

I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions to put to the forum and will post some photos once I've found them on an old phone. But hello for now.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Please post some photos of progress in New Projects/Restorations when you've found your 'phone. Chiefy will be pleased that you are going to leave it "in it's working clothes".

Welcome aboard.

Hello and welcome!