G'day from Western Australia

[Phillip]

Standard "bent wire" crank:

Mains: 1933: 1 1/2" 1934 on: 1 9/16"

Trying to find the other data...I know I have it!

[Oz singer]

Trying to find the other data...I know I have it!

Thank you Phillip
[/quote]

[Oz singer]

Getting away from motors and gear boxes for a moment, fabricating new pins for the suspension, trial fitting, and starting to mockup the location of the reciprocating unit on the frame.

[Oz singer]

One step forward, half one back ! Sometime a full one backward.
Anyway !!
Still ticking boxes, slowly but... Trying to clean all my parts from rust before doing something else. Tired of the red dust in my w/shop, I am glad to have this unit separated from my main garage to do grinding welding and so on.
Anyway !!
Found out, by cleaning the rust, that most of the spring leaves are cracked. Plan B then ! Except that I don't have a plan B at the moment !!
Anywaays !!
On the bright side, a rear main bearing for my C/ balanced crank is on its way from England. Big Thanks to Bill, alias Telco.2
Dismantled the front axle to refurbish it.

AND one question , do you know if those bushes, the ones with a shoulder are in the right place ? To me they should be on the lower side of the spindle to take the weight of the car ???

[Oz singer]

Anyway !! Getting there !

[telco.2]

Hi Thierry,
Do trust the rear main carrier arrives soon! Thanks for the mention Any way..those bushes are definitely the wrong way round. The top-hat section one should be at the bottom to take the weight of the car. Otherwise the stub axles look good...from here!!!
regards
Bill

[Phillip]

I believe I have a new set of kingpins and bushes in stock for a Bantam, if required.

I'm away on vacation at the moment and picking up my Singer engine on the way back, but I will check when I get back...

[Phillip]

Actually found a photo of them!

They are Dufor, which I believe is an Australian brand. Looks like they are missing a locking pin, but otherwise NOS.

Bantam Kingpins and Pushes.jpg (68.29 KiB) Viewed 43059 times

[Oz singer]

Hi Thierry,
Do trust the rear main carrier arrives soon! Thanks for the mention Any way..those bushes are definitely the wrong way round. The top-hat section one should be at the bottom to take the weight of the car. Otherwise the stub axles look good...from here!!!
regards
Bill

Thanks for that. The east coast is under covid confinement at the moment, so I need to be patient !!

[Oz singer]

Hey ! Thanks Phillip,
I certainly need to re sleeve the beam axle as the existing pins are rocking in it ! don't know how to redo it , not much metal around the holes ??
But yes I am interested by the repair kit !!

[Phillip]

No worries...I'll keep them on standby for you.

I had a similar problem with my LM front axle. It had been ruined by fitting some random type of kingpins that certainly weren't Singer. We sleeved the axle eyes and reamed them to take the original Singer bushes and pins. Might be worth a look...hopefully the wear in yours is just the bronze bushes!

[Oz singer]

Hi Phillip,
I still need to re sleeve the axle itself , but I should be able to it myself.

[Phillip]

Good luck!

If you need the new set of pins and bushes just let me know. We can discuss it via a PM if you like.

Whenever you are ready!

[Oz singer]

Well ? I try to have a plan C now !
I am having not much luck finding someone to repair my 35' cracked block, and just having a closer look a the 34' block kept as a spare, revealed some cracks as well !!
Now I am reduced to 1 crank, 1 head and no blocks !
So one question :
Does the 1074cc Prewar and Postwar are the same engines or really close ?
Saying this because it appears that they are more common, here in Oz, than 972cc.

Anyway still chugging on the frame . Should post more pictures!

[mikeyr]

I can't answer the 1074 question, but I understand where you are at. Here in the U.S. the 1074 is as rare as the 972, so when it was discovered that my block, crank and head all had cracks, I was stuck. Since I had several 4AD 1500cc motors, I did briefly consider that for my LM but too big and too heavy. I hunted for a good motor for quite a while. Finally after much whining and complaining, I went with a A-Series motor. I have not finished the project yet, but many people said the A-Series is a good swap, the car will run quite well with that motor, it is nearly same weight so no difference in steering feel. The entire assembly motor/gearbox is actually about 2" shorter so it fits well in the space. It can be installed with no drilling or welding to the original Singer chassis so a easy swap back if you ever find a proper motor. You do have to fabricate motor/gearbox mounts, easy to do and I have the drawings. The only thing you have to cut is the Singer driveshaft, while the entire assembly is shorter, the rear of the gearbox is a little bit further back and of course the wrong type of end. I cut a Sprite driveshaft in order to keep my Singer one untouched.

The only real gotcha in the process that I have not solved yet is instrumentation. I want my car to look as original as possible and of course Singer Speedo/tach wont work with the A-Series. I assume the best way is to get Sprite instruments and re-stencil the face to match Singer as much as possible, realizing the Singer speedo (or is it the tach ? I forget which one) rotates in different direction then Sprite, but with new stencils should be fine. Gearing is different too, so speedo will be off, again I assume this can fixed and I have not looked into it yet.