THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

Quite right David about accidents and I am no Luddite but modern vehicles remove people further from contact and awareness of the road. I once heard them described as 'Wombs with a view'. Not far from the truth.

[hartley353]

Reading Stanleys memories of motoring stirred my old cogs. My first car was a 1934 Morris 12-4, every week I had to go round with a grease gun, and lubricate all the bushed bearings a Gladstone bag of assorted spanners allowed me to maintain it myself, and mostly it was reliable. When I had to replace the kingpins and bushes I went to the local Volmax superstore in 1967 and they were available over the counter. Recently my modern car went in to the garage for uneven idling after two days they returned it saying they couldn't identify the problem and were not able to repair it. Out of frustration I typed in the problem on Google and back came several cases exactly the same problem. Throttle position sensor broken, I obtained a spare part and changed it in less than 5 minutes. One more Garage I shall never use again.

[Tripps]

" I went to the local Volmax superstore "

I've just given my battery charger - bought from Volmax in Great Ancoats Street Manchester about 50 years ago. Still going strong. Didn't realise at the time that it was a superstore. The improvement in the reliability, and freedom from rust of modern cars is amazing. Exhausts which used to last about a year, and cross ply tyres, good for only about 5k miles. Remember 'undersealing' - even a new car? I doubt anyone aged under 30 would even know what decoke meant, or have heard of track rod ends.

[David Whipp]

I doubt anyone aged under 30 would even know what decoke meant

Is that some sort of drug rehab? (David, 58).

My first motor was a Morris Minor (I still have plenty of parts for it...). What I like about the cars I've bought in recent decades is not needing a winding handle to start them. (Skoda of course...)

[hartley353]

I may have hyped up Volmax ancoats with superstore, but it was a breath of fresh air compared with the local dealership trade counter. We used to go up Manchester centre on a saturday and always went to volmax and came away with some gadget or other. My 12-4 used to attract little crowds, Elliot Ness and his untouchables was very popular on the tv at the time and the morris was remeniscent of the cars of that time.

[Stanley]

David, the old starting handle could come in very useful if you wanted to move a dead car, just put it in a low gear and wind the handle! Anyone remember driving a car with the lever on the steering column for advancing and retarding the ignition? We all got to be experts at adjusting timing and mixtures to get the best out of the engine. I suppose a small computer chip does it these days.....

[hartley353]

The starting handle trick has come in useful a couple of times, but we used to take the spark plugs out first to save working a sweat up. When I had a collection of old motorcycles some had manual advance and retard, and manual valve lifters to aid starting.

[Tripps]

" just put it in a low gear and wind the handle! "

Isn't that what they did in "Ice Cold in Alex"?

[David Whipp]

In more modern times, I've turned the starter motor over to move a broken down car off the carriageway. Not tried it in the desert, though.

[Stanley]

Here's an old war story for you about using the starter motor for things it was never designed for....

I nearly caused a major accident on the railway crossing at Snaith one morning. You’ll have to pay close attention if you’re going to understand this one! I was empty and going over the crossing in third gear. Now this level crossing was anything but level, over the years the height of the tarmac between the lines had risen until it was like a ridge and furrow field, I think this was a deliberate ploy to slow traffic down. As I went over the crossing the vehicle in front stopped suddenly and when I went for the brake and the clutch, the hydraulic pipe to the slave cylinder burst, I lost my clutch and the engine stalled as I had my foot on the air brake. I must have lifted my foot off the brake and the wagon rolled down off the top of one of the ridges of tarmac until the rear wheels ended up in the furrow. Because the wagon was still in gear, this torqued the transmission up and made it impossible to get out of gear. Normally there would have been no problem, I would have shoved the motor into first gear, pressed the starter and away we would have gone but I was stuck in third and the starter couldn’t shift the wagon, it was too high a gear.
At this point I realised that the gates were closing, there was a train coming! I baled out straight away and ran off the crossing. The signal man came to his window and shouted something at me but I shouted back that I couldn’t move the vehicle. He vanished inside the box and seemed to be doing half a dozen things at once. Then I heard this roaring, screeching noise and I saw a train coming round the bend with all it’s wheels locked! There were sparks flying out from the wheels and I watched as it slid right up to the crossing and eventually stopped about 15 feet from the gates. The police arrived and the inquest started. The first thing they did was call a breakdown wagon but the nearest one would be half an hour before it reached us. This cause consternation until I told them I could shift it myself in five minutes if they’d let me get on with it. I got my jack and lifted a back wheel until the torque spun out of the transmission, then I jumped in the cab and popped it into first gear, out again, drop the wheel on to the ground, chuck the jack in the cab and press the starter. Hey presto, with one bound Jack was free! This impressed the Old Bill no end and by the time I’d managed to explain to them what had happened they let me go on my way. Shortly afterwards they tell me that the crossing was smoothed out. Good job too! I drove back without a clutch and back at Marton we simply fitted a new hose to the slave cylinder.
In case you’re wondering, you only need the clutch when you are starting off a stationary vehicle, after that you can change gear easily if you match the engine revs to the speed of the vehicle. The starter motor on a big diesel is a powerful little beast and is quite capable of kicking the engine over with first gear engaged, it’s a bit cruel and you don’t want to be doing it too often but as soon as the engine fires you are away in first gear. A bit of intelligent driving can avoid having to stop on the way home.

[Stanley]

The late Roger Perry's pic of Stanley rebuilding his Ferrari Dino engine from the crankshaft up in 1984. The workshop manual was in Italian and didn't cover the special distributor on his engine as it was a higher HP rating. Roger got very depressed but I told him it was all right, I could time it like a steam engine. He thought I was joking but it worked a treat and he was able to go the Silverstone to play with his fellow Lancia Stratos owners. Two of his mates in London had the same problem so I told them what I'd done and it worked for them as well. Those were the days when you could time a Ferrari engine using the same methods James Watt used on his first steam engines, get the energy input in the right place! Simples! Try doing ot today on a computerised engine......

[Stanley]

The Lancia Stratos sat waiting for the engine.

[Stanley]

Getting there......

[Stanley]

Roger's Lancia Stratos parked in Brook Street in 1980. One of the most exciting cars ever built. Look up their rallying record. (LINK)

[David Whipp]

I first became acquainted with Stanley when he lived on King Street in the '80s. Can't remember one of these being parked outside though.

[hartley353]

The pictures of the Dino brought back happy memories, I bought one of these from Hills garage for £924 in 1974. the iconic Italian supercars were very cheap because of their problems with rust, they didn't like being out of the sunshine.Wish I still had it now. A lot of welding filler and paint got it looking half right then a guy at Cadwell park left a note under my wiper with an offer of £1500, and I moved on.

[Stanley]

Roger didn't use the Stratos as his main car. He spent most of his time driving in London. He had a Fiat 500 but it had I think it was a larger Haflinger engine in it. Small, easy to park and incredible acceleration. He had great fun at traffic lights with yuppies in expensive sports cars bought with their bonuses.

[hartley353]

When I finally got the Dino roadworthy, the engine was very lumpy on carburation. I had always prided myself on my skill with carburettors, but this was beating me. A chance conversation resulted in my introduction to a trained Ferrari mechanic, he offered to look at it. To my surprise he turned up without any tools and only a smallpiece of rubber hose in his pocket. With this pipe and a loan of a screwdriver and some small spanners within a hour the engine was purring and would tickover without fear of stalling. With a mug of tea and some biscuits he regaled us with stories for an hour afterwards, an Italian Immigrant who had come to this country to work for Gallassi brothers on italian sports cars, where he met an english girl married and stayed on.

[Stanley]

In the days when wagons had petrol engines I was always impressed by the fact that the enormous six cylinder GM engine in the later Bedfords had one tiny Zenith carburettor but the exhaust pipe was always a lovely chestnut colour inside. Perfect carburation....

[hartley353]

Big bore long stroke engines I love them, the inlet valve stays open for ages enabling it to draw breath through a small bore. Modern over square engines with their love of revs the inlet valve has hardly opened before it is closing and needs a large bore carburettor for the engine to breathe.

[Stanley]

I have a question.... Whatever happened to line dancing?

[Sue]

It's alive and well Stanley. We do some at my dance exercise class, led by someone who attends a class regularly.

[Stanley]

In a programme last night about Sherpa culture they showed a traditional dance and it was exactly the same as line dancing....

[hartley353]

What happened to the slosh. when I left the environs of rural life for the city, I never witnessed it again.

[Sue]

My dance exercise class does the slosh as well.